It's hard to look at Samson as a real hero because of his severe character flaws. From the beginning, he battled temptation to walk away from the path that the Lord was leading him on, and he gave up the very thing that set him apart from others for his future life of serving the Lord: being a Nazirite. Samson displayed great strength when he killed the ... [Continue Reading]
From the Start (Judges 12-13)
The beginning of Samson’s life was nothing short of miraculous. Zorah and Manoah were unable to conceive until an angel of the Lord came to visit Manoah and to bring her news that she would bear a child. The boy Samson was destined for greatness: his life was full of promise. The problem, as we’ll soon see is that, though he was destined for greatness, ... [Continue Reading]
You Can Run, but You Can’t Hide (Judges 9)
The story of Abimelech is really a story of a person being found out in his sins. Life experience teaches us that we can't keep our sins hidden forever, and though we may get away with them in the short term, there will be consequences in the long term. Abimelech thought he was sitting pretty in his position as leader of Israel, but his sins found him ... [Continue Reading]
Against All Odds (Judges 7-8)
The thing I love about the story of Gideon is the length to which God went to prove to Gideon that his army had nothing to do with the defeat of the Midianites. To the contrary, God wanted to show Gideon that He was the victor in the battle and that, in Gideon’s weakness, God’s strength is made perfect. The victory was proof that God’s hand was on the nation ... [Continue Reading]
A List of Excuses (Judges 5-6)
When Gideon was called by God, his first response was to make a list of excuses. "I'm the weakest in my clan." "My clan is the weakest clan." He went on an on about how he wasn't capable of doing what the Lord asked him to do. The ironic part of this is that God didn't really care what Gideon's strengths were ... [Continue Reading]
Finding Your Strengths (Judges 3-4)
The story of Ehud is one of my favorite stories of the Old Testament - probably because Ehud is left-handed just as I am. In a world of right-handed people, we find ourselves having a disability. The great thing about Ehud, though, is that he didn't see his situation as a disability: he saw it as an opportunity. The king was not afraid of ... [Continue Reading]
The Path Only Goes One Way (Judges 1-2)
From my experience working in the church and just with people in general, there is often an intellectual disconnect between a person's actions and the consequences of those actions. We often think that we're the exception to the rule and that the consequences of our choices will somehow be eluded by us. We fail to realize that life is connected and ... [Continue Reading]
The Faith of Your Family (Joshua 23-24)
Joshua ends his life by sharing an important piece of wisdom with the Israelites: he says, "as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Joshua didn't say that only he would serve the Lord - he explicitly said that his entire house would serve Him. It's at this point that we are tempted to ask the question, "how could he make such a ... [Continue Reading]
Though None Goes With Me… (Joshua 11, 14:6-15, 15)
I think one of the reasons Caleb is a great character of the Bible is that he was able to stand up for what was right regardless of the opinions of other people. When he and Joshua stood before Moses with the other spies into the Promised Land, only those two were willing to see things through the perspective of God's eyes. As a result, only those two ... [Continue Reading]
Partial Obedience is Disobedience (Joshua 9-10)
There's a temptation to believe that partial obedience is still obedience. Unfortunately, that's not really the case. In the situation with the Israelites traveling into the Promised Land, they didn't fully obey God's instructions to destroy the indwelling peoples because of a foolish mistake. God didn't tell them to make covenants ... [Continue Reading]
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