Author: SFJ Bible

Judges 17

Micah and the Levite

17:1 There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Micah. 2 And he said to his mother, “The 1,100 pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse, and also spoke it in my ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it.” And his mother said, “Blessed be my son by the LORD.” 3 And he restored the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother. And his mother said, “I dedicate the silver to the LORD from my hand for my son, to make a carved image and a metal image. Now therefore I will restore it to you.” 4 So when he restored the money to his mother, his mother took 200 pieces of silver and gave it to the silversmith, who made it into a carved image and a metal image. And it was in the house of Micah. 5 And the man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and household gods, and ordained¹ one of his sons, who became his priest. 6 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

7 Now there was a young man of Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there. 8 And the man departed from the town of Bethlehem in Judah to sojourn where he could find a place. And as he journeyed, he came to the hill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah. 9 And Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?” And he said to him, “I am a Levite of Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to sojourn where I may find a place.” 10 And Micah said to him, “Stay with me, and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year and a suit of clothes and your living.” And the Levite went in. 11 And the Levite was content to dwell with the man, and the young man became to him like one of his sons. 12 And Micah ordained the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah. 13 Then Micah said, “Now I know that the LORD will prosper me, because I have a Levite as priest.”

Footnotes

[1] 17:5 Hebrew filled the hand of; also verse 12

(ESV)

Judges 16

Samson and Delilah

16:1 Samson went to Gaza, and there he saw a prostitute, and he went in to her. 2 The Gazites were told, “Samson has come here.” And they surrounded the place and set an ambush for him all night at the gate of the city. They kept quiet all night, saying, “Let us wait till the light of the morning; then we will kill him.” 3 But Samson lay till midnight, and at midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts, and pulled them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that is in front of Hebron.

4 After this he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. 5 And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Seduce him, and see where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to humble him. And we will each give you 1,100 pieces of silver.” 6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and how you might be bound, that one could subdue you.”

7 Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.” 8 Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she bound him with them. 9 Now she had men lying in ambush in an inner chamber. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the bowstrings, as a thread of flax snaps when it touches the fire. So the secret of his strength was not known.

10 Then Delilah said to Samson, “Behold, you have mocked me and told me lies. Please tell me how you might be bound.” 11 And he said to her, “If they bind me with new ropes that have not been used, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.” 12 So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And the men lying in ambush were in an inner chamber. But he snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread.

13 Then Delilah said to Samson, “Until now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me how you might be bound.” And he said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web and fasten it tight with the pin, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.” 14 So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web.¹ And she made them tight with the pin and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he awoke from his sleep and pulled away the pin, the loom, and the web.

15 And she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and you have not told me where your great strength lies.” 16 And when she pressed him hard with her words day after day, and urged him, his soul was vexed to death. 17 And he told her all his heart, and said to her, “A razor has never come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man.”

18 When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up again, for he has told me all his heart.” Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands. 19 She made him sleep on her knees. And she called a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him. 20 And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had left him. 21 And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles. And he ground at the mill in the prison. 22 But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.

The Death of Samson

23 Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to rejoice, and they said, “Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hand.” 24 And when the people saw him, they praised their god. For they said, “Our god has given our enemy into our hand, the ravager of our country, who has killed many of us.”² 25 And when their hearts were merry, they said, “Call Samson, that he may entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he entertained them. They made him stand between the pillars. 26 And Samson said to the young man who held him by the hand, “Let me feel the pillars on which the house rests, that I may lean against them.” 27 Now the house was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philistines were there, and on the roof there were about 3,000 men and women, who looked on while Samson entertained.

28 Then Samson called to the LORD and said, “O Lord GOD, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.” 29 And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other. 30 And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” Then he bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life. 31 Then his brothers and all his family came down and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had judged Israel twenty years.

Footnotes

[1] 16:14 Compare Septuagint; Hebrew lacks and fasten it tight . . . into the web

[2] 16:24 Or who has multiplied our slain

(ESV)

Judges 15

Samson Defeats the Philistines

15:1 After some days, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife with a young goat. And he said, “I will go in to my wife in the chamber.” But her father would not allow him to go in. 2 And her father said, “I really thought that you utterly hated her, so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her instead.” 3 And Samson said to them, “This time I shall be innocent in regard to the Philistines, when I do them harm.” 4 So Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took torches. And he turned them tail to tail and put a torch between each pair of tails. 5 And when he had set fire to the torches, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines and set fire to the stacked grain and the standing grain, as well as the olive orchards. 6 Then the Philistines said, “Who has done this?” And they said, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion.” And the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire. 7 And Samson said to them, “If this is what you do, I swear I will be avenged on you, and after that I will quit.” 8 And he struck them hip and thigh with a great blow, and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

9 Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and made a raid on Lehi. 10 And the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” They said, “We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he did to us.” 11 Then 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?” And he said to them, “As they did to me, so have I done to them.” 12 And they said to him, “We have come down to bind you, that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines.” And Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not attack me yourselves.” 13 They said to him, “No; we will only bind you and give you into their hands. We will surely not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.

14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands. 15 And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put out his hand and took it, and with it he struck 1,000 men. 16 And Samson said,

  “With the jawbone of a donkey,
    heaps upon heaps,
  with the jawbone of a donkey
    have I struck down a thousand men.”

17 As soon as he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone out of his hand. And that place was called Ramath-lehi.¹

18 And he was very thirsty, and he called upon the LORD and said, “You have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” 19 And God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came out from it. And when he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore the name of it was called En-hakkore;² it is at Lehi to this day. 20 And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.

Footnotes

[1] 15:17 Ramath-lehi means the hill of the jawbone

[2] 15:19 En-hakkore means the spring of him who called

(ESV)

Going Deeper

Judges 10-14 (4.14.18)

As Israel continues to struggle with denying God and choosing sin instead of obedience, God is forced to bring punishment to them, as per the terms of the covenant He made with them. Read Judges 10:10-14 again and hear the Lord’s response to them:

Judges 10:10-14 And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, saying, “We have sinned against you, because we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals.” And the Lord said to the people of Israel, “Did I not save you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites and from the Philistines? The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you, and you cried out to me, and I saved you out of their hand. Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will save you no more. Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress.”

Wow. What a sobering thing to hear God say. While God is completely justified to hold a sinful and rebellious people accountable for their treason and disobedience, we all too often read God’s judgment as being too hard. Why is it that we want to make God soft when it comes to his judgment of sin and lawlessness? I think it is our flesh and its proneness to make little of God’s holiness and righteous justice and to make too little of our guilt and deserved wrath.

To clarify, God is completely within the terms of the covenant He made with Israel. Let’s take a moment to review the Old Covenant God made with physical Israel.

The word covenant can commonly be used in social, marriage, and theological contexts.

A divine covenant is initiated by God. In this, we need to see that God is the sovereign One. God has decreed what covenants He would initiate and enter into. This happens by His eternal will. When God enters a covenant, it was not a good idea of someone else. Rather, it was His decree to do so, and the terms are set by Him. So for the covenants that God has made with man, it was God who initiated them, for wise and excellent purposes, and He sets the terms.

A divine covenant may include obligations, rewards, and/or punishments from God.

Some covenants require specific obligations be met by another party in order for the covenant rewards to be experienced. Some covenants include rewards for one party or another based solely on grace to them. And some covenants include various punishments for the breaking the terms of the covenant.

That is what we see here. God tells Israel they will be held accountable for not keeping their part of the covenant.

The sobering part of this is that it can’t help but feel like our lives at times. Even as Christians, we still fight the temptation to sin and often give into the sin for which our flesh longs. The good news is that we have a better covenant in Christ–a new divine covenant between God and His elect, called the church. This New Covenant has replaced the terms of the Old Covenant that God had made with Israel. While many Jews who were under the Old Covenant have been given saving faith in Jesus and thereby entered into the New Covenant in Christ, many Jews have not. This is a sad reality when we see Jews reject the Messiah and therefore stand condemned. This is an important clarity that many modern-day Christians get wrong. Jesus was clear saying, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

We must rightly understand that God has not provided another way for people to be saved outside of Christ. This includes the Jews. Any Jew who denies Christ as Lord and Savior is not saved according to Christ and the fullness of God’s word. We must understand that the Old Covenant pointed the true believers of God to the New Covenant and ultimately to the Christ. Any of God’s people who were under the Old Covenant who would be ultimately saved from their sin to reign with God forever put their faith in the future-coming Messiah, Jesus Christ. No one comes to the Father unless through Christ.

Now, this all leads to good news for those of us who truly have placed our faith and lives under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Not only are we saved by His blood from our sin, but we are secure in this salvation and cannot be separated from God once saved.  Paul says it most famously in Romans 8:37-40: “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The Scriptures tell us again and again that the blood of Jesus is enough to cover all our sin. This means that nothing we can do can separate us from God’s saving us in Christ. The Scriptures are clear that those whom the Father has chosen, He will have; and all those He has saved, He will not lose.

Jesus speaks again of our security in His protection and power. For example, we see this in John 10:

John 10:27-29. “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.”

Our security is in God’s infallible commitment to fulfill the conditions of our eternal standing with Him.

By grace, He caused us to be born again by creating our faith; and, by grace, He protects us on the way to heaven by preserving our faith.

Jesus has and will guard His chosen and redeemed ones to the end.

This is the good news I want us all to understand in light of reading Judges 10 this week. Yes, the conditions of the Old Covenant were that if the people did not obey, God would punish them.

But the conditions of the New Covenant are that all that God truly saves through the perfect blood of Jesus are eternally secure in the power and promise of God and cannot be snatched, lost, or removed from His perfect choice and atonement in Christ on their behalf.

Surely, you are thinking about those who seemed to be saved and then walked away from God. What about them? Well quickly, the Scriptures are clear time and time again that there are many who will look to be of Christ and even give much of their lives for the name of Christ but so prove to not be of Christ, in that they do not endure but walk away; thereby, they prove they were never truly saved.

A few quick examples:

1. Judas who looked like he was among the brethren but was not. In proving not to be truly for God and saved by God, he did not persevere to the end.

John 6:70-71 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.

Jesus ordained from eternity past that 11 would be saved and endure, and one would be reject and betray Him.

Judas proved to be a false disciple—really, the most famous false disciple.

John 17:12 “… I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.”

Jesus is speaking here of Judas, whom God foreordained to walk with Christ but to never be of Christ; he would prove to be an enemy of Christ.

2. John 6:66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.

This describes the many disciples who, for a while followed Jesus, but eventually walked away. They proved not to truly have given their lives to Jesus; they were only interested in what He offered them, and in the end, they proved their god was their belly or something else in creation that they longed for more.

Understand that this is not special or unusual; it happens all the time. People come and go from the church all the time. They try religion, they try Christianity, and in the end prove to not believe. They prove they are false followers of Jesus. They don’t endure. You must see that this is normal. It is sad but true. In the end, they only had superficial faith.

Understand this: proximity to the gospel doesn’t mean you are saved by the gospel.

It is true and lasting fruit that proves true salvation. Will the saved sin and fall? Yes, but they will repent and return. They will grow and mature. These are the signs of the truly saved.

I pray that you are full of joy today if you have truly given your life to Jesus as Lord, because this means you are secure in Christ in the terms of the New Covenant that He has secured for you in His blood. The eternal commitment and power of God will ensure you remain His forever.

This is the beautiful doctrine known as Perseverance of the Saints.

God will not change His mind and reject them later. We did nothing to gain His love or acceptance. We can do nothing to lose it. We are forever His–forever secure in His power!

When the storms rage in your life, do you stand in this assurance?

Jesus said in John 6:39, “… I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.”

We cannot be lost. Every one of His sheep is precious in His sight.

Not only are we precious, but we will stand with Him in victory. He will raise us up on the last day.

John 6:40 “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Eternal life… Not eternal death and destruction.

This is truly good news. Now go and walk in these assurances and spread this gospel to all whom God puts in your path.  And if you are guilty of sin, repent and honor God with your life, and know that He has you forever!

By His grace and for His glory,

-Shepherd

Soldiers for Jesus MC

Judges 14

Samson’s Marriage

14:1 Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines. 2 Then he came up and told his father and mother, “I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now get her for me as my wife.” 3 But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.”

4 His father and mother did not know that it was from the LORD, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. At that time the Philistines ruled over Israel.

5 Then Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah, and they came to the vineyards of Timnah. And behold, a young lion came toward him roaring. 6 Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done. 7 Then he went down and talked with the woman, and she was right in Samson’s eyes.

8 After some days he returned to take her. And he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey. 9 He scraped it out into his hands and went on, eating as he went. And he came to his father and mother and gave some to them, and they ate. But he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the carcass of the lion.

10 His father went down to the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, for so the young men used to do. 11 As soon as the people saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him. 12 And Samson said to them, “Let me now put a riddle to you. If you can tell me what it is, within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes, 13 but if you cannot tell me what it is, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes.” And they said to him, “Put your riddle, that we may hear it.” 14 And he said to them,

  “Out of the eater came something to eat.
  Out of the strong came something sweet.”

And in three days they could not solve the riddle.

15 On the fourth¹ day they said to Samson’s wife, “Entice your husband to tell us what the riddle is, lest we burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us here to impoverish us?” 16 And Samson’s wife wept over him and said, “You only hate me; you do not love me. You have put a riddle to my people, and you have not told me what it is.” And he said to her, “Behold, I have not told my father nor my mother, and shall I tell you?” 17 She wept before him the seven days that their feast lasted, and on the seventh day he told her, because she pressed him hard. Then she told the riddle to her people. 18 And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down,

  “What is sweeter than honey?
  What is stronger than a lion?”

And he said to them,

  “If you had not plowed with my heifer,
  you would not have found out my riddle.”

19 And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon and struck down thirty men of the town and took their spoil and gave the garments to those who had told the riddle. In hot anger he went back to his father’s house. 20 And Samson’s wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man.

Footnotes

[1] 14:15 Septuagint, Syriac; Hebrew seventh

(ESV)