#Bible study lessons on Moses and the wilderness

[gastonjerry]

Moses and the Wilderness: Lessons for Our Journey

Moses and the Wilderness Have you ever felt lost and alone, like you’re wandering through a wilderness with no direction? You’re not alone. Moses, the great leader of the Israelites, experienced a similar journey. In this Bible study lesson, we’ll explore Moses’ leadership and trust in God during difficult times, and discover valuable lessons for our own journey. Trusting God in Difficult…

[alwaysrememberjesus]

Desert Places

The Lord . . . has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness. — Deuteronomy 2:7

When I was a young believer, I thought “mountaintop” experiences were where I would meet Jesus. But those highs rarely lasted or led to growth. Author Lina AbuJamra says it’s in the desert places where we meet God and grow. In her Bible study Through the Desert, she writes, “God’s aim is to use the desert places in our lives to make us stronger.” She continues, “God’s goodness is meant to be received in the midst of your pain, not proven by the absence of pain.”

It’s in the hard places of sorrow, loss, and pain that God helps us to grow in our faith and become closer to Him. As Lina learned, “The desert is not an oversight in God’s plan but an integral part of [our] growth process.”

God led many Old Testament patriarchs to the desert. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all had wilderness experiences. It was in the desert that God prepared Moses’ heart and called him to lead His people out of slavery (Exodus 3:1-2, 9-10). And it was in the desert that God “watched over [the Israelites’] journey” for forty years with His help and guidance (Deuteronomy 2:7).

God was with Moses and the Israelites each step of their way through the desert, and He’s with you and me in ours. In the desert, we learn to rely on God. There He meets us—and there we grow.

Valuable lessons can come from some of the strangest places. For ancient Israel, one of those places was the uninhabited zone known as the wilderness (Deuteronomy 2:1-7). The value that comes from trekking through such unwelcomed territory is described in chapter 8: “Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart . . . . He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna . . . to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (vv. 2-3).

True safety isn’t determined by our location (lions’ den, fiery furnace, valley of the shadow of death, passing through fire or water). It comes with trust in the One who goes with us regardless of where we are.

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Devotional Hours Within the Bible

by James Russell Miller

The Giving of Manna (Exodus 16, Numbers 11)

The people of Israel had now entered upon their forty years of discipline. Daring this period they were to be made into a nation. This wider purpose should be kept in mind in all our studies of the incidents of the wandering in the wilderness. The people were to be trained to trust God and to obey Him.

The first experience recorded was at MARAH. There, in great thirst, after three days of desert journey, they came upon springs to which they eagerly rushed, only to find the water bitter, unfit to drink. A tree growing close by was cut down and cast into the waters, at once sweetening them. Thus a lesson in trust was taught God was leading them and He would not fail to provide for their needs.

Often in life, God’s children come to bitter springs. What promised to be experiences of refreshing, prove to be disappointing. Human lives have many sorrows. But always close by the bitter spring grows the tree which will sweeten it. Many interpret the tree of Marah to mean the cross of Christ. The gospel has comfort for all in any trouble. Dr. Fairbairn speaks of the words of Christ as a handful of spices cast into the world’s bitter streams and sweetening them.

After leaving Marah, the people journeyed to ELIM, where they found an oasis with twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees. Life is not all disappointment and bitterness. Troubles pass away. Joy comes after sorrow.

Moving farther into the inhospitable wilderness, the people soon found themselves needing bread. They had already forgotten the lesson of Marah the kindness of God in providing for their needs and began to murmur! Again God’s answer to their ungrateful complaining was love a new mercy. “I will rain bread from heaven for you.”

“In the morning there was a layer of dew all around the camp. When the layer of dew evaporated, there on the desert surface were fine flakes, as fine as frost on the ground. When the Israelites saw it, they asked one another, ‘What is it?’ because they didn’t know what it was. Moses told them, ‘It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat.’” Exodus 16:13-15

MANNA was a substance which fell with the dew. For forty years, manna was rained about the camps of the Hebrews, until they reached Canaan and had the natural products of the fields for food. It fell in small grains, like white frost flakes; and in taste like thin flour-cakes with honey. It was gathered every morning, except on the Sabbath, and in place of this a double portion fell on Friday morning. If kept over-night, it became corrupt except on the Sabbath. Manna was the principal part of the food of the people all the forty years. As a perpetual memorial of this miracle, a golden pot of it was laid up in the ark.

God always has some way to provide for the needs of His people. He is not limited to ordinary means. He never works needless miracles. He did not send manna while the people were in Goshen, because there was no need for it then. But here in the wilderness, where food could not be gotten in any ordinary way, He supplied it supernaturally .

“Yes,” someone says, “ that was the age of miracles but we cannot expect God to provide for us in these days as He did then for Israel.” The answer is that God’s love is just as watchful and as faithful now as it was in the days of miracles. We may always with perfect confidence depend on our Father to provide for us in some way when we are following His guidance. Indeed, it is God who feeds us every day just as really as it was God who gave the people the manna each morning. We do not call it a miracle when our daily morning meal is spread for us yet it is no less God who gives it to us than if a separate miracle were wrought each morning to feed us.

‘Give us this day our dally bread.’ Back of the loaf is the snowy flour, And back of the flour the mill; And back of the mill is the wheat, and the shower , And the sun, and the Father’s will.

Something was given to the people to do even when the bread was supplied supernaturally. “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day.” Exodus 16:4

They were not to lay up in store but were taught to live simply by the day. When night came, they did not have a supply of food left over for the next day but were entirely dependent upon God’s new supply to come in the morning.

In this method of providing, God was teaching all future generations a lesson. When the Master gave the disciples the Lord’s Prayer, He put this same thought of life into it, for He taught us to say: “Give us this day our daily bread.”

This is a most valuable lesson for every Christian to learn. We should make a little fence of trust around each day, and never allow any care or any anxiety to break in. God does not provide in advance for our needs. We cannot get grace today for tomorrow’s duties; and if we try to bear tomorrow’s cares and burdens today we shall break down in the attempt.

TIME comes to us, not in years, not even in weeks but in little days. We have nothing to do with ‘life in the aggregate’ that great bulk of duties, anxieties, struggles, trials and needs, which belong to a year or even to a month. We really have nothing to do even with tomorrow.

Our sole business is with the one little day now passing, and the one day’s burdens will never crush us; we can easily carry them until the sun goes down. We can always get along for one short day and that is really, all we ever have.

The Divine purpose in all this experience comes out here, “In this way I will test them, to see whether or not they will follow My instructions.” God is always testing us. Trials test us whether or not we will submit with humility and obedience to the experiences that are sore and painful. Life’s needs test us whether we will trust God in the time of extremity or not.

None the less, do the gifts and favors of God test us. They test our gratitude. Joy tests us as well as sorrow. Some people forget God, when all things go well and they have only prosperity. Do we remember God always as the Giver of each new blessing? Are we grateful to Him for all that we receive? These favors also test our faith. Do we still lean on Him while we have plenty? Ofttimes one who turns to God when help is needed fails to look to Him when the hand is full. The Divine mercies also test our obedience. Do we obey God as carefully and follow Him as closely and trustingly, when our tables are full as when the pressure of poverty or need drives us to Him? Every day is a probation for us.

In the midst of this great mercy of manna, God taught the people to remember the Sabbath. On the sixth day they were to gather and prepare twice as much food as on other days. The reason was that on the Sabbath no work was allowed. No manna fell on that day. There are several interesting things to notice here. While on other days, any manna stored up would rot; the extra day’s portion gathered on the sixth day remained fresh and pure for use on the Sabbath. Still further, on the morning of the Sabbath, no manna fell as on other days. Thus God taught the sacredness of His own day .

He teaches us also here that in order to keep the day as it ought to be kept, we should prepare for it the day before. The people were to gather the Sabbath’s portion on the sixth day. There would seem to be in this provision and preparation in advance, a suggestion of the way we may best observe our Christian Sabbath. Some of us remember certain old-fashioned times in the country, when on Saturday evening careful preparations were made for the Sabbath, so that there would be no needless work done on the Lord’s Day. Wood was cut and carried in, all the implements of worldly labor were put away, boots and shoes were cleaned and blackened, coffee was ground and food cooked, so far as possible in a word, everything was done that could be done beforehand to insure the most restful Sabbath possible. This old-fashioned custom is a good one to keep in vogue always. Very much of Sabbath enjoyment and profit, will always depend upon the measure of preparation we make for it in advance.

The Lord spoke of this manna miracle as an exhibition of His glory. “At evening, then you shall know that the Lord has brought you out from the land of Egypt; and in the morning, then you shall see the glory of the Lord!” The supply of food was an exhibition of God’s glory. We may see the same glory in every evening’s and morning’s blessings, which a thoughtful Providence brings to us. We think only of the unusual, or the supernatural, as manifesting the glory of God. We forget that this Divine glory is shown just as really and as wonderfully in every day’s new blessings. The miracle of God’s daily Providence is infinitely more stupendous, than the feeding of a prophet for a few months from an inexhaustible handful of meal; the feeding of five thousand in Galilee with a few loaves and fishes; or even the feeding of a nation with manna for forty years. If the single special miracle shows glory, what does the great continuous miracle of each day’s common blessings, year after year, and century after century, show?

Let us learn to see the glory of God in every piece of bread which comes to our table, in every drop of water which glistens on a leaf in the morning sun, in every blade of grass and bursting bud and blooming flower in field or garden.

One special lesson that God wished the people to learn was trust. So He rebuked their complainings and murmurings when they found fault, and became afraid when they had hardships to meet. “The Lord hears your murmurings which you murmur against Him!” Exodus 16:8. This is startling! Does God really hear every discontented word we speak? Does He hear when we grumble about the weather, about the hard winter, about the late spring, about the dry summer, about the wet harvest? Does He hear when we fret and murmur about the drought, about the high winds, about the storms? Does He hear when we complain about our circumstances, about the hardness of our lot, about our losses and disappointments?

If we could get into our hearts and keep there continually, the consciousness that every word we speak is heard in heaven, and falls upon God’s ears before it falls upon any other ear would we murmur as we now do? We are always on our guard when we think anyone we love and honor is within hearing, and speak only proper words then. Are we as careful what we say in the hearing of our Father? We are careful, too, never to speak words which would give pain to the hearts of those we love dearly. Are we as careful not to say anything that will give pain to Christ?

There are many interesting points of analogy, between the manna and Christ.

The manna is called “bread from heaven.” “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever!” John 6:51

The manna was indispensable without it the people would have perished. Without Christ our souls must perish.

The manna was a free gift from God there was nothing to pay for it. Christ is God’s gift, coming to us without money and without price.

Yet the manna had to be gathered by the people, Christ must be received and appropriated by personal faith. “Take, eat,” runs the formula of the holy communion. The bread is offered to us but we must take it and we must eat it. So must we take Christ when He is offered to us.

The manna came in great abundance, enough for all. Just so, there is such abundance in Christ that He can supply all the needs of my soul, and of every soul who will feed upon Him. No one ever came hungry to Him and found no bread.

Manna had to be gathered each day, a supply for that one day. We must feed upon Christ daily. We cannot lay up supplies of grace for any future. We cannot feed tomorrow, on today’s bread.

The manna had to be gathered early, before the heat of the sun melted it. We should seek the blessings of Christ’s grace in life’s early morning before the hot suns of care and trial beat upon us.

[yupitsi]

1 July 2023 || Happy Sabbath!

"Look and Live"

As homeschooling parents, we have been studying the Bible alongside learning about essential character qualities. This intent study has been a blessing to a lot this Sabbath day as Clark was asked to be today's speaker and deliver the Lord's message.

This week, our focus is on Numbers chapters 20 and 21 and the character quality of Perseverance. God supplied the Israelites with food and water all this time, and yet they still complained. When the water ceased, they grumbled. They had not learned to persevere in trusting God. They always seem to forget God's leading in the past. They complain instead of persevering in prayer.

God still provided water even when Moses smote the rock twice with the rod instead of speaking to it. Even when Moses failed to persevere in patience, God still supplied the need.

To continue on, we praise the Lord for the valuable lesson on Numbers 21:4-9. This was about the bronze serpent that God asked Moses to make after a lot of Israelites died after being bitten by fiery serpents God sent when they complained....again. Everyone who is bitten is expected to live when they look at this bronze serpent. God had a special lesson to teach Israel. The pole represents Christ and the serpent represents the sins of the world that Christ bore for us.

Now, I love the promise found in John 3:14-15 that says "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up;

so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life."

As we come to the close of this earth's history we must "Look and Live." God promised in Genesis 3:15 that Jesus would bruise the serpent's head. Let us persevere until the very end! 🙏🙏🙏

And as the song goes...

Ako'y nagtitiwala sa Panginoon

Laging nagtitiwala buong panahon

Ulap man ay magdilim, sa atin ngayon

Ako'y nagtitiwala sa Panginoon.

Siya'y Kaibigan, di nagkukulang

Maaasahan, magpakailanman

Ulap man ay magdilim, sa atin ngayon

Ako'y nagtitiwala sa Panginoon.

[leonbloder]

Leaving Egypt Behind

When I was a kid, growing up in Christian schools where we read and studied the Bible a lot, I was often puzzled by the stories of the Israelites from the Old Testament book of Exodus.

What puzzled me was how often these people, who had been freed from 400 years of generational slavery in Egypt, would complain to their leader Moses repeatedly about how they wanted to go back there.

They would say, "Did you bring us out here into the wilderness to die?  We'd be better off in Egypt. At least we had something to eat there!"

It never made sense to me when I was young.  Why would people who had been set free from servitude want to go back to it?  What would make someone choose slavery over freedom, even if the freedom they achieved proved to have difficulties.  

Over time, I've come to understand those stories differently.  I've also lived a bit since then and have my own experiences to call upon as I find meaning in the text.

And I've found some good guides that help me interpret those stories with an eye to their universality.  One of those guides is Estelle Frankel, whose book The Wisdom of Not-Knowing contains this bit of wisdom:

Though in actuality they were oppressed and enslaved by the Egyptians, the Israelites looked back on their time in Egypt with nostalgia because they could not bear the uncertainty they faced as a free people. Freedom is, ultimately, uncertain and unpredictable. One of the first lessons we all must learn in order to be free is how to “bear” uncertainty and trust in the unknown.

The truth within those stories is that most of us struggle against the uncertainty of freedom from our attachments, memories, regrets, addictions, compulsions, mistakes, and everything else that keeps us from being truly free.  

We might long for freedom, but often on the brink of it, we pull back, longing for Egypt, because the unknown wilderness before us seems to be foreboding and impassible.  

In those moments, we need to learn that the God who desired our freedom will make a way in the wilderness.  This God will part rivers and seas if need be as long as we are willing to keep walking.  

When we are willing to "bear the uncertainty and trust in the unknown," we not only find our way forward, we can discover who we really are and what joys that freedom can bring if only we'll let the memory of Egypt go.

May we have the strength and the hope to keep moving toward freedom.  And may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us now and always. Amen.

[freebiblestudies]

Back To Basics Lesson 24: What Jesus Is Doing Right Now

Jesus died on the cross for the sins of humanity over 2,000 years ago. He promised He would come back one day for His people. Why hasn’t Jesus returned yet? What has He been doing all this time after the cross? Let’s find out in today’s lesson.

Let’s read together Psalm 77:13 and Exodus 25:8-9.

God commanded Moses and the Israelites to build an earthly sanctuary. It was not merely some tent in the wilderness, it was patterned after the heavenly sanctuary. God’s entire plan of salvation for humanity is symbolized in the sanctuary and its services.

Let’s read together Exodus 27:1-8; Leviticus 1:1-17; John 1:29; Ephesians 5:2; and 1 Peter 1:19.

The sacrifice at the altar of burnt offering symbolized Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. While the cross is essential to the salvation of humanity, it is not the end of the story. If it were, then there would be no need for a sanctuary. There would just be a courtyard with the altar of sacrifice in the middle.

(Please review the Bible study series on the sanctuary for more detailed information.)

Let’s read together Leviticus 16:1-34.

The Day of Atonement was a solemn annual event for the people of Israel. Throughout the year, sinners confessed and repented of their sins as they made animal sacrifices. The sins of the people were symbolically transferred to the sanctuary through the blood of these sacrifices. On the Day of Atonement, the sanctuary was cleansed of all these sins.

Two goats were utilized for this purpose. The first goat, known as the Lord’s goat, was sacrificed and its blood was used to cleanse the sanctuary (verses 8-9, 15-19). While the high priest did this work, the people were to make a final confession of their sins (verses 29-34).

The second goat, known as the scapegoat, symbolically bore the sins from the sanctuary. It was led away from the people and the sanctuary to die in the wilderness (verses 10, 20-22).

Let’s read together Isaiah 59:2; John 1:29, John 3:16; Hebrews 9:11-28; and Hebrews 10:10.

Our sins separate us from God. The sacrifice of the Lord’s goat pointed towards Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice for humanity on the cross. We can choose to die in our sins separated from God or we can choose salvation in Jesus Christ.

Let’s read together John 1:29; Matthew 27:50-51; Mark 15:37-38; and Hebrews 10:19-22.

When Jesus died on the cross, there was no longer any need for animal sacrifices. The sacrificial system of the earthly sanctuary had been done away. Jesus’ blood is all we need to cleanse us of our sins.

Let’s read together Daniel 7:9-14; Acts 1:4-11; and Hebrews 1:3

After the cross, Jesus was glorified by God the Father and given an eternal kingdom.

Let’s read together Romans 6:23; 1 John 2:1; Hebrews 2:16-17; 4:14-16; 7:25; and 8:1-5.

After the cross, Jesus became our High Priest and went into the sanctuary to minister on our behalf. Unlike human priests, Jesus is perfect, having overcome all sin. Nevertheless, Jesus can still sympathize with us in all our pain, trials of life, and struggles with temptation. Even now, Jesus intercedes on our behalf, applying His precious blood to cover our sins when we pray to Him.

If Christ’s sacrifice at the cross is enough, then what is He doing now in the heavenly sanctuary? Why hasn’t He come back for us already?

Let’s read together Exodus 25:8-9; Ecclesiastes 12:14; and 1 John 1:9.

Jesus cleansed us of our confessed sins and now He has a responsibility to get rid of sin. Remember, the earthly sanctuary was patterned after the heavenly sanctuary. Therefore, the heavenly sanctuary needs to be cleansed. This began in 1844.

Let’s read together Numbers 14:34; Ezekiel 4:6; Daniel 8:14; Daniel 9:25; 1 Peter 4:17; and Revelation 10:9-11.

A group of Bible believers in the 1800s studied the time prophecies of Daniel chapters 8 and 9. They determined the beginning of the prophecy began in 457 BC when King Artaxerxes gave the Jews permission to return and rebuild Jerusalem. They also determined one prophetic day equals one literal year. Therefore, they concluded the 2,300 days prophecy in Daniel 8 began in 457 BC and would end in 1844. They believed Jesus’ second coming would occur in September or October of 1844 based on the reckoning of the Jewish calendar.

Let’s read together Revelation 10:9-11.

These believers were bitterly disappointed when Jesus did not return in the fall of 1844. While they got the dates of the prophecy correct, they got the event wrong. The cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary began in 1844.

So, what does this mean?

Let’s read together Job 16:19; Daniel 7:9-10; Isaiah 64:6; Zechariah 3:1-4; 1 Peter 4:17; 1 John 2:1; Revelation 3:5; 12:10; and 20:12.

While the heavenly sanctuary is being cleansed, an investigative judgment began simulataneously in 1844. All of humanity will be individually judged and Satan stands as our accuser. Our own righteousness alone is not enough to save us. However, Jesus is our advocate and judge. If we accept Him as our Lord and Savior, our sins are blotted out with His precious blood. We will be deemed righteous in God’s eyes. We do not have to fear judgment with Jesus on our side!

So, what happens next?

Let’s read together Revelation 22:11-12 and 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17.

We do not know when the investigative judgment will end, but when it does and the heavenly sanctuary has been cleansed, Jesus will come back to earth for His people. Jesus’ second coming will happen! He will finally return for us!

Friend, can you see what Jesus is doing right now? He is advocating for us during this investigative judgment and the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary. Accept Jesus and trust in him. He will return again.

[silenthillfarm]

Why Are the Ozark Mountains a Safe Haven for Christian Preppers

I began reading books and articles by the good Atheist authors Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, and diving into Bible study, unearthing the contradictions, atrocities, and utter weirdness of the Bible. How could I even have even thought to bring my children abreast of what I now considered evil, sadistic, and filled with self-loathing? i started challenging the absurdity of "In God We Trust", "One Nation, under God", and even the small League pledge, which begins, "I believe God." How can a rustic founded on religious freedom have God plastered everywhere, including the County Courthouse?  Ozark Mountains a Safe Haven for Christian Preppers

Some of the special roles they play therefore include but aren't limited to the following:

1. Pastoral support: it's significant to note that in Christ's time, women played the roles of supporters (ministers) who were always around to provide special cares for the wants of the pastor (Christ) and his Apostles. Among these women were Mary Magdalene , Mary the mother of James; Joanna, etc. Women still lookout of the pastors today. Some play this role as deaconesses. 2. Marriage counselors: One other role they play is that of a marriage counselor. The bible says the older women should teach the younger ones the thanks to obey their husbands. Matured women who are versed within the word of God perform the duties of marriage counselors and help the younger ones to line their marriages so as , and help prevent marital conflicts and divorce. 3. Care of the widows: They also help to need care of the widows, needy and orphans. Dorcas was an honest example of women who performed this excellent role. 4. Pastors: Some denominations allow their women to perform the duties of a pastor. they're allowed to evangelise on the pulpit and also perform other duties associated with the position of the pastor. 5. Sunday school teachers: They also teach within the Sunday schools so on assist the new female converts and thus the young singles (spinsters) to grow. They teach the new converts the doctrine of the church, scriptures and other things they deem necessary for his or her spiritual growth and well-being. 6. Choir leaders: they're going to also play the role of choir leaders. This was the role that was performed by Miriam, Moses' sister during their journey through the wilderness. numerous of them are still doing well performing this duty today.

Other roles they perform include: ushering, intercessory prayers, child rearing, etc. they need to tend their right place and their due respect because Christianity cannot be complete without them being there to play their special roles. "Atheist" are often a unclean word. once you tell someone you're an Atheist, their faces tend to twist and contort, as if someone nearby has heaves . this is often often usually followed by an "I feel pitying you" look of near pain. When said person meets your two children soon thereafter, the planning turns to shock. But I'm used to it. I even are an Atheist for nearly four years, and it happened completely accidentally . As a life-long Catholic, I considered myself to be alright read, and a minor authority on religious doctrine . I remember researching something about the Gospels and seeing a YouTube video called "Zeitgeist". In it, the narrator draws several unique comparisons between Jesus and thus the traditional gods of past civilizations. Being a devout Christian, I blew it off as nonsense.

But my curiosity got the upper of me, and thus the more I researched the prospect, the more doubt began to seep in. It got to the aim that i could not deny it anymore. The God of the Old Testament was a murderous, bloodthirsty madman. Most of the stories and lessons of the Torah were mere reproductions passed to the nomadic Jews by other societies, and adapted as their own. Jesus was little question a wise Rabbi, but merely an individual who met his end at the hand of the Romans. i wont to be both heartbroken and relieved.

It's funny how "Finding Jesus" is analogous to "Un-finding Jesus". You experience how of euphoria, and wish to shout it from the mountaintops. Had I been one man, this is often ready to are an easy one to interrupt to my family. In fact, I could have just kept my mouth shut, and no-one would are the wiser. But i wont to be one father, raising his children to be Catholic. We visited Church every Sunday with my now deceased mother. i wont to be following the program. Or, as I see it now, i wont to be following the herd. Did i actually want to risk breaking the hearts of my father, mother (who had cancer at the time), and thus the rest of my family?

Did i might wish to affect the questions concerning the children?

They would never receive the sacraments of Confession, Communion, and Conformation. If they were to urge married, they could not be allowed to marry within the Church. Would I be able to raise "civilized" children during a society that preaches the importance of God during a developing mind? One thing was certain. i could not be a hypocrite and "fake it" just to please society. Nor could I fall victim to all or any or any of the propaganda concerning the "need" for God within the lifetime of a toddler . One major relief came once I broke it to my parents. They were naturally upset, but respected my wishes. i wont to be never cajoled into returning , receiving surprise visits from a priest, or shunned from the family. Read More..

[dailyaudiobible]

02/16/2021 DAB Transcript

Leviticus 1:1-3:17, Mark 1:29-2:12, Psalms 35:17-28, Proverbs 9:13-18

Today is the 16th day of February welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian and it's great to be here with you today as we continue the journey that we began, what, six weeks ago? And now we are…well…we’re out of sight of land. We’re in this together. We’re gonna sail all the way across this year and into all the different territory that the Bible takes us into. And today is one of those days where we’re kind of transitioning, kinda and kinda not. I mean we’re kind of picking up where we left off, but we are switching into a new book.

Introduction to the book of Leviticus:

We will begin the book of Leviticus today which is the third book of the Torah are the Pentateuch and certainly was indeed written to the children of Israel. Just recounting what we covered in Exodus. Obviously, the plagues and the freedom from slavery in all of the drama that that entailed and then into the wilderness, which is where the Lord instructed His people to go. He didn't take them by the main route, the easy, the direct route into the land that they were promised. He took them out into the thick of the desert and that is not purposeless, neither is the wilderness in our own lives. And that's one of the themes that we should be picking up on. The wilderness actually matters. In this case the wilderness matters because God is taking His people into a situation where they have no hope other than to utterly depend upon Him for survival. The irony is, that is the reality of life it's just that we turn to so many distractions and try to become our own sovereign and prepare for all of our own eventualities and become strong in our own sight only to find out how quickly that can all just disappear. So, the children of Israel, they've only ever been slaves. This is a lesson that they need to learn, and they are learning it. We spent a lot of time around Mount Sinai, the mountain of God where Moses very, very clearly becomes the leader and the prophet of God in their sight. Also, where God comes and…and intends to speak directly with His people. That was His intention, but the people were freaked out and asked Moses to do all the talking, which is where we find ourselves. And then God begins to give out the ordinances and the statutes beginning to weave together the tapestry that will become the early Hebrew people, the culture of the early Jewish people. So, as we flip the page and begin the book of Leviticus we’ve been out of Egypt and out of slavery for about a year and God is establishing a covenantal relationship with these people. And, so, we’re going to be spending some time understanding the ordinances and customs and rituals and laws that govern this newly formed people. And one of the things that we’ll notice, if we’re paying attention, is that there are themes to what's going on here. Like, I think of my own country. Like, I live in the United States. I was born here. I'm a citizen of this country. I don't know all of the nuances of the governing law of all the nations of the world, although they’re very diverse, but here we have laws and whether we agree with them or don't agree with them they structure, they weave together the culture that we live in, the boundaries of how we conduct ourselves toward one another in just about every conceivable scenario. And for us this is supposed to, this is supposed to all be working toward one goal which is to fulfill the…the dream of our Constitution. “we the people, in order to form a more perfect union.” So, conceivably the laws that govern the land are aimed at that goal. In the Scriptures as God is weaving together the laws and customs and rituals, the things that govern the conduct toward the people toward each other and toward God, we see that the covenant or the agreement being established is to set these people apart so that they would understand holiness, which is being set apart to God, being set apart to God so that we are available to do God's work and represent His intentions upon the earth. And holiness is a huge thing. God tells them, “I’m holy therefore you’re gonna be holy.” Or maybe to use more modern vernacular, “if…if we’re gonna be in communion…if we’re gonna commune together, if we’re gonna be in covenant together, if we’re gonna be in fellowship and enjoy each other's presence than it will happen through holiness.” Now, as we get deeper and deeper into the Leviticus, we’re gonna find a lot of sacrifice in this book because there's a lot of sacrifice in this book. And if we approach the work that we’re moving through, the book of Leviticus, or for that matter, the Torah that we’re moving through, if we understand that this was inspired thousands of years ago and if we try to read it thousands of years in the future through the lens of how we understand the world today with the technology that we have and the advancements that have come in the last several thousand years then we won't be able to relate to the people as a culture. It won't look anything like our own, and it will look like a culture that we don't want to be a part of, right? It’ll seem barbaric, antiquated and irrelevant. We’re reading back into a time when the world was largely tribal and we are reading about tribes, the…the 12 tribes of Israel. We’re looking back into this time and God is weaving something together that they completely understand although this is a giant leap forward in governance for the way the people are to conduct themselves toward one another. In fact, it set off things in motion that allowed over the millennia us to get to where we are. And we’re not…nobody's got a perfect society. No matter what country you live in none of us have a perfect society because we’re…we’re cultures built of a broken people, but the things dramatically began to move forward with this example being set here in the book of Leviticus. And I get it. Nobody goes to the library…I say this most every year…nobody usually goes to the library to check out law books unless you’re studying to be an attorney or unless you are a lawyer. Like unless the law is your thing, like reading…reading covenantal language, which is what agreements are. Like reading the laws because although it would be good if we understood…like it would be good if we did this in our cultures and understood the laws of our land and understood why they were created and what they're supposed to accomplish, but I admittedly it's not riveting. You’re not so engaged with it that it’s just such a page turner. It's the law. We’re reading the laws that are being laid down to establish a people who are supposed to continually in every way remind…be reminded that they are set apart to God. So, we’ll read plenty of sacrifices and go, “like I’ve never seen an animal sacrifice in my life, and I don't ever want to see an animal sacrifice in my life. It sounds like a horrible thing to witness.” This is just part of the normal world at this time. And as I've suggested many times during our journey so far, we have to look behind the story. We have to look behind what is the motive for these laws. What's happening here? And what we begin to realize is that if the law is obeyed then the people have built in governing mechanism that reminds them in every way in everything that they do of their identity and who God is and where they are going together with God. And, so, let's remember all of that as we begin the next leg of the journey, the book of Leviticus. We’re reading from the Common English Bible this week and we’ll read the first three chapters of Leviticus today.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and certainly from the book of Proverbs, we ask Holy Spirit, help us to see the folly before we enter into it, before it destroys us. Help us to see it and keep going on our way not moving…diverting to the left of the right. Help us to have wisdom and discernment. We need it. We can't navigate without Your counsel, without wisdom's advice. And, so, we ask again for it. We also thank You for the new territory that we've entered into these last couple of days, into the…the gospel of Mark and into the book of Leviticus. And we ask Holy Spirit, come. Even as we've discussed these books over the last couple of days understanding the context, understanding the lay of the land. Now that we have that we ask that You help us to enter into it appropriately, properly, understanding the context and being able to look behind it all and see how You are shaping the heart of mankind, how You are drawing us in everything that we do to remind us of who we are and who You are and that we are in covenant together. We…we confess we’re distracted. We forget all kinds of things all the time and now we are seeing that this has been going on a long time. It’s not a new phenomenon, that You are weaving into the tapestry of this new culture reminders in everything that we do. Show us how to build different reminders into our own lives, different practices into our own lives that continually register with us, who we are and who You are and that we are in covenant together, that we are going somewhere together. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

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Community Prayer and Praise:

Hello, my Daily Audio Bible brothers and sisters. Just wanted to say hello and let you know that I am in the prayer wall. I'm praying for people. And if you ever need my prayers I am there. Leave your comments, leave your prayers, leave your requests and…and we will be praying. Brian I wanna say happy birthday to you. I wanna say may the Lord bless you; may the Lord protect you, and may the Lord give you the desires of your heart. Thank you so much for feeding us spiritually. And I just wanted to congratulate you on your birthday and to let you know that I am always listening to the Daily Audio Bible. I listen to the psalms; I listen to the proverbs. I listen to the chronologically and I am very blessed by Jill. And I listen to the kids, which is Ezekiel and I love it. And I also listen to the one in Espanola. So, thank you, thank you Brian for blessing us and may the Lord bless you immensely. Have a great day. This is spiritdove1@yahoo.com Angel from California.

Hey, my wonderful DAB fam this is Kingdom Seeker Daniel. This call is for a gentleman who called whose call was aired on the 23rd community prayer and encouragement. You didn't leave your name brother but you so grabbed me. You…matter fact you took me back and it wasn't a real pleasant experience to have to go back there. So, shame on you. But no, seriously. Brother, I remember when. We're talking about probably between 12 and 10 and 12 years back when our adult children, two of our adult children were living with us and long story short it was the ride of my life, I felt like, and it was not a fun experience. And the Lord had to take me to a place where I had to die to Daniel. And, so, first of all I salute you my brother that you're calling to…to admit that you're not in a good place. I so remember. Oh…oh man…I remember. And, so, I just want you to know I'm standing in the gap with you and believing that God is working on you because that's where it all begins. We…we are the priests of the home and if we're not in the right place as you admitted to then nobody basically is going to be right. So, Father strengthen Your son and help him in his very trying time that he’s dealing with his son through marriage where his son is not in the right place and he's not spiritually where he needs to be. I pray that You would help this man to get to where he needs to be so that then the family will follow suit in Jesus’ name. Amen. Praying for you brother.

This is Laquita from Veneda Oklahoma. I want to pray for my sister in California that's having trouble with her housing. She called in on February the 12th. Father I just lift up my sister. I pray that You give her favor, that You give her wisdom. Father I pray Father Lord that You would send the right people her way Lord to help her and Lord that her house would be repaired Father in Jesus’ name. Father that You would just give her the desires of her heart, that You would send forth or a friend who will show her love and compassion Father Lord and let her know that You're always with her period. You said that You'd never leave or forsake us Father God. And Lord just surround her with Your love, Your mercy, Your grace, Your peace. Help her financially Father Lord. Bless her children and Father just lead her down the path that You've called her to in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hello good morning I'm calling from…from snowy cold Canada this morning and I'm just reflecting on Brian's reading of Matthew 27 versus 32 to 66 this morning and I just wrote down some reflections and I just wanted to share that with you all today. So, we, in this reading Jesus is at the hardest moment of the cross and He cries out, my God my God why have You abandoned Me. If Jesus can cry out these words, I am certain that we who are so much weaker can also struggle that moment when we feel abandoned by God, that moment of complete heartache, that moment of tremendous fear, that moment of utter aloneness. Yet we see that Jesus after saying these words died and it was only through His death that He experienced true freedom, that He understood God's plan, that He was risen to a new way of living. So, Father we two journey in the same way. We reach that moment of feeling abandoned but we must choose. We can harden our hearts and turn completely from You or we can choose to die to ourselves and surrender to Your plans. Help us Father in our darkest moment to be willing to die to ourselves to surrender to You. In You, Father is the hope of new life. Help us. Help me Father to fall into Your arms. Just pray that today for all of us. May you be encouraged.

Good afternoon everybody. Good afternoon. This is God’s Smile. I'm Peter and we're going to have a little sing aren't we Pete. Are we ready? [singing starts] We bring sacrifice of praise into the hearts of the Lord. We bring sacrifice of praise and into the House of the Lord. And we offer up to you the sacrifices thanksgiving and we offer you up to you the sacrifices of joy [singing stops]. Father God we thank You when we come into Your presence where aware at times that it is a sacrifice to pray to You. But Lord we gladly offer this up to You and we lift our voices in praise. And what we have learned lord is when we turn to You away from what's hurting our hearts and our minds and our bodies Lord, that as we turn to You in praise we are lifted, we are lifted in spirit and all that…all that would try to hold us back Father loses its grip in the light of You. So, we thank You Lord and we thank You for the joy that You pour over us when we offer up our praise to You. In the House of the Lord, in the body of Christ. Isn't good Pete? Amen. It is. Do you want to say something? We're running out of time. Again, we're running out of time. We're running out of time. Time is ticking away Helen. Say bye bye Helen. Bye bye Helen. Bye bye Peter. Kiss kiss.

Blessings on all you Daily Audio Bible readers and listeners. It's so good to be a part of a group at the campfire. I’m Matt from Michigan and just asking blessings on you all and happy Valentine's Day.

Good morning and happy Valentine's Day DAB family. Of course, by the time you hear this it won't be Valentine's Day, but my sentiments are still the same. This is Mommy's Little Rock from Arkansas and I just wanted to lift up those of us who, like myself, are feeling alone today on a day that's usually spent loving a…a loved one or a spouse and all of the balloons and of course the candy which I'm eaten today regardless. And I just want you to know that even though today is historically spent with someone in a relationship or what have you, I want you to know that love is still there and I'm praying for all of those that feel alone. If you're single and you're wondering when the Lord is gonna send you someone, I'm with you on that too. Today is usually a day when my mom who passed away in December, so I'm still mourning and grieving or not being here, but she would normally send some type of flower arrangement or a card to me on Valentine's Day and she would always sign it, “your secret admirer” as if…as if I didn't know who sent it. So, I'm just…I'm thinking about that today and I'm also thinking about you all and praying for you all and I just want you to know that even though you feel alone you're not alone. The DAB family has you in our prayers and that God has you, He's with you when you're feeling this way. He knows when the time will be for Him to send you someone special. And I want you to hold on to that and know that He has you in His heart and in His hand. So, stay encouraged. I love you. Bye.

[ahopkins1965]

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Home Verse Of The Day Joshua 3:8

◄ What Does Joshua 3:8 Mean? ►

"You shall, moreover, command the priests who are carrying the ark of the covenant, saying, 'When you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.'"

Joshua 3:8(NASB)

Picture courtesy of Wikimedia

Verse Thoughts

Joshua and Caleb were the only two who escaped Egyptian slavery and passed through the Red Sea... who would finally cross the River Jordan, into the promised land. 40 years had passed, since that eventful day, when the lambs were slain in Egypt, the angel of death passed over, and the people were redeemed. Moses had reminded a new generation of Israelites, of the covenant God made with His people, and their duty towards the Lord. Finally, just before his death, Moses passed the baton of leadership to Joshua, just as God had commanded.

"Be strong, and of a good courage", Joshua was told, by the Lord "be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou goest." The 40-year-long wilderness trek had come to an end, and Joshua had prepared the people for the task ahead. They were ready to enter the Land of Canaan and claim the territory promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, many years before. They had to trust all that God had told them - "the Lord thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou goest."

A new generation of Israelites had arrived at the edge of the Jordan, where they encamped for 3 days. God reminded Joshua that every place, where the sole of his foot would tread, would be given into the hands of His people - just as He promised Moses.  Joshua was then given some very specific instructions for the priests, who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant on their shoulders. "When you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, you are to tell them to stand still in the Jordan."  The priests were also to believe, that the Lord thy God was with, whithersoever they went.

Just as the Red Sea barred the Israelites' flight from Egypt, so the fast-flowing waters of the Jordan River were impassable, without a mighty miracle of God. The Bible tells us that this was the harvest season, which meant that the river was swollen, and the waters overflowed the banks. God had brought His people to the brink of the Jordan, at a time when it was impossible for them to cross. This was to be a test of faith. This was a demonstration of God's power. This was to be a time for them to grow in their faith. The people were also to believe, "the Lord thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou goest."

From the birth of the nation of Israel, and throughout the dispensation of Law, the Lord wanted to teach His people to trust Him, and obey His Word. He wanted His chosen nation to obey His covenant and believe all He had said. He wanted them to trust in Him with all their heart and not rely on their own understanding, ingenuity, or human wisdom. He wanted them to know, "the Lord their God was with thee, whithersoever they went."

No matter what difficulties they faced; no matter what giants barred their way; no matter what problems loomed over them; no matter what circumstances they had to face... God was teaching His people to trust Him implicitly, and depend on Him entirely so that their faith in Him would grow and flourish, as they witnessed God dealing with difficulties, giants, problems, and the many, onerous circumstances they faced.

God was teaching His people to walk by faith and not by sight. The raging waters would have swept the people to certain death, but God wanted Israel to trust that He would prevent the overflowing waters from overtaking them.  For 40 years they had learned that the Lord was with them in the fire and in the cloud, and now their faith was to be tested once again. Now they were to believe, "the Lord thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou goest," - even though the Jordan.

During their wilderness journey, they learned that the Ark of the Covenant represented the presence of God, and so the Lord told Joshua to command the priests, who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant, to step into the raging waters, and stand still in the midst of the Jordan,  with the Ark on their shoulders, while the entire multitude crossed on dry land. God proved His faithfulness to His people on that day, for they all crossed on dry land.

The Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and like Israel, we are also to walk by faith and not by sight. Like Israel we are to live by faith and to trust the Lord with all our heart, no matter what difficulties we may have to face, no matter what giants bar our way, no matter what problems loom above us, no matter what circumstances overtake us... we are to step out in faith and remember that "the Lord our God is with us, whithersoever we goest."

Too often we want God to act so we can believe in His deliverance, but God wants us to demonstrate faith before He acts, in order to increase our faith - so that we may grow in the faith. We often say 'Deliver me, and I will trust You, Lord', but our Father replies, 'Trust Me, My child, and I will deliver you', for He has promised, to be with us, wherever we go.

Many times the Lord used Israel, as an example to the Church, of faith in action, as well as faltering faith. Through Israel, we learn of the danger of doubting God's Word and falling away. Some of the things Israel did are warnings to the Church not to fall into the same snare, while others are godly examples, for us to emulate.  May we remember the encouraging words given to Joshua, the priests, and the people of Israel that, "the Lord our God is with us, whithersoever we go."

My Prayer

Heavenly Father, that You that You are the same yesterday, today and forever. Thank You for the many lessons we can learn from Israel, when they crossed the River Jordan into the promised land. Thank You that you have promised to be with me wherever I go. Thank You that no matter what difficulties or dangers I have to face, You will be with me, to lead, to guide, to protect, and to comfort. Help me to trust You in all things and not allow life's circumstances to cause me to doubt Your precious promises - which are all 'YES' and 'AMEN' in Christ Jesus my Lord, AMEN.

Picture courtesy of Wikimedia

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The Holiness of GOD: Importance of Holiness P1 by R.C. Sproul connect.ligonier.org/library/holiness-of-god/86484/about/

R.C. presents the terrifying biblical picture of GOD’s awesome holiness and why it is so foundational to GOD-centered, GOD-honoring theology & Christian living.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

     When Isaiah encountered our most holy GOD, he      became terrified & cried out, "Woe is me!"

     Isaiah's experience of the holiness of GOD is not      unlike our own.

     GOD's holiness both fascinates & terrifies us.

     It reveals to us who we are, & that can either      drive us away in fear or cause us to cry out      for mercy.

     In The Holiness of GOD, Dr. Sproul illustrates      the majesty of GOD's holiness through a biblical      & historical study of what people experience

     when they encounter the Holy One & find      ultimate refuge in the righteousness of CHRIST.

Introduction: The Importance of Holiness

     Holiness is at the core of GOD's being.

     When Isaiah saw a vision of GOD, the seraphim around      the throne called out, "Holy, holy, holy," proclaiming this      all-important attribute of GOD's character.

     In this lesson, Dr. Sproul explores the essential importance      of holiness as a quality uniquely attributable to GOD.

Learning Goals

When you have finished this lesson, you should be able to:

     1] Understand the historical context surrounding          Isaiah's prophetic call

     2] Explain what is significant about the seraphim           in Isaiah's vision

     3] Recognize the uniqueness of God's holiness

Key Ideas

     ● Isaiah received his call to the office of prophet through          a vision of GOD in the full splendor of HIS holiness.

     ● The seraphim in Isaiah's vision are creatures with          3 pairs of wings, each serving a particular function          that allows them to minister in GOD's immediate presence.

     ● Holiness is the only attribute of GOD raised to the          superlative degree through the threefold repetition          "holy, holy, holy."

Q1] What is Isaiah's first response in his encounter with      the thrice-holy LORD?

     In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the LORD sitting      upon a throne, high & lifted up; & the train of HIS robe      filled the temple. Above HIM stood the seraphim.

     Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, &      with two he covered his feet, & with two he flew.

     And one called to another and said:      "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole      earth is full of HIS glory!"

     And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice      of HIM who called, & the house was filled with smoke.

     And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man      of unclean lips, & I dwell in the midst of a people of      unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the KING,      the LORD of hosts!" [Isaiah 6:1-5]

Sermon Transcripts:

      Our FATHER & our GOD, when we approach       this subject of YOUR Holy character, we know       that we are embarking on an impossible task,       that even this moment we are standing upon       holy ground, ground that were it not for YOUR       abiding mercy & grace would open up beneath       our feet & swallow us into the pit.

      And so tonight we ask, nay we beg YOU for a       double measure of YOUR grace & mercy       upon us as we seek to understand these things       that are so important to our understanding of YOU.

      And we invoke the presence of the SPIRIT of Truth,       who is at the same time the HOLY SPIRIT, that       HE may assist us in this endeavour.

      For we ask these things in the       Name of CHRIST, amen.

1.] DEATH OF A PUBLIC FIGURE

      I was a senior seminary at Pittsburg Theological       Seminary, & it was a fall afternoon, & I remember       vividly that I was studying by myself in the library.

      And I had a stack of books in front of me, & as you       know, a library in a theological seminary is a place       that is quiet as a morgue.

      No one is ever allowed to talk or chatter.

      It's a hushed silence.

      When suddenly my attention was distracted by this       murmuring that started running spontaneously       through the stacks & through the open tables in       the library, & people began to disrupt the whole       atmosphere of the place, & people were leaving       their seats & their desks & rushing out into the       corridors of the seminary;

      & I didn't know what was going on until some lady       --somebody said something out loud that was       unmistakable, & they said this [2:19]:

            "Someone has shot the President." 

      You can imagine an announcement like that & what       it would do to people's normal daily routine.

      I rushed outside & like every other American I glued       myself to the radio, & I listened to the       moment-to-moment bulletins as President Kennedy       was fighting for his life momentarily.

      Then of course the announcement came through that       he died. And for the next day, indeed the next weeks       & the next month, the people of the United States of       America were preoccupied with this tragic moment in       our history of the sudden death of a popular president.

      And then later a book came out that was entitled       "Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye" & it called attention to       the fact that his presidential term was indeed brief;

      but anytime, ladies & gentlemen, that the chief       executive/the leader/the king/the prime minister of a       nation passes away it is a time of solemn, serious       trauma for the nation. [3:35]

      Well that was true in Israel as well as in the United States.

1.1] APPOINTMENT WITH GOD

      For the 8th century a king came to the throne in       Jerusalem & began to reign at 16 years of age, &       he reigned in Jerusalem for over 50 years.

      Imagine it, over half of a century.

      And he wasn't the most famous king in Jewish       history or the most important king of Jewish history,

      but he would certainly rank in the top 5.

      His name was Uzziah, & what Uzziah accomplished       in his reign was to bring the last significant spiritual       reform to the people of the land, & when he died.

      And he died, incidentally, in disgrace because he       was sort of a Shakespearean tragic hero--who violated       his own principles of ethics & spirituality in the last       year of his life. [4:27]

      But when he died, it sort of signaled a turning point,       a watershed moment in Jewish history where from       that day on the spiritual life & vibrancy of the Jewish       nation went into a serious decline--from which it       never recovered. [4:47]

      I think it's significant in the providence of GOD that       4 years after Uzziah died, the city of Rome was       founded & a cultural change took place that would       shape the whole future destiny of history. [5:06]

            But in the midst of that struggle of that nation,             a man was called of GOD to the sacred             vocation of being a prophet.

      And some would call him the       greatest prophet in OT history.

      A man who was not only a religious person, but       he also was a statesman in his own right, as he       spoke to several kings in the course of his ministry.

      He was the prophet who said that,

            someday in the future a virgin would             conceive & bring forth a child, &             HIS Name would be called Immanuel.

      It was the prophet who said that in the future, the       servant of the LORD would come & bear the sins       of HIS people.

            His name of course was Isaiah,             & the record of his             call to the role of the prophet             is found in Isaiah 6:1-5,

      & I'd like to read the 1st part of that record for you now.

      Now I want you to notice in this brief passage that       I've read here that Isaiah locates this experience       that he has in the year that King Uzziah dies.

            And we don't know for sure whether what             Isaiah beheld was an ecstatic vision that             took place in the Temple in Jerusalem; or             in fact what Isaiah saw was a glimpse into             the inner sanctum of Heaven itself. [7:34]

      I prefer the latter interpretation.

      I'm persuaded for technical reasons I won't get into here,       is that what happened was that GOD opened the curtain.

      HE removed the veil from Heaven itself,

       And as John, centuries later on the Isle of Patmos       would get a glimpse of the interior of heaven.

      Isaiah the prophet saw the LORD enthroned in       Heaven itself. Now if you see in your BIBLE,

      you'll see that it says here,

            "In the year that King Uzziah died,             I saw the LORD seated on a throne             high & exalted, & the train of HIS             robe filled the Temple."

1.2] ALL CAPS LORD

      If you look at your BIBLE, you see the word "LORD"       & I'm sure it's spelled capital L, little o, little r, little d.

      Is that true in your BIBLES there?

      If you go down a couple of verses to where the song       of the seraphim, where it says: "Holy, holy, holy is the       LORD Almighty."

      Do you see that? [8:34]

            Do you see that same word "lord" is spelled             all caps L-O-R-D? [8:41]

      How many of you notice that in your text? [8:43]

      Okay, it's a very common thing we find in English       translations of the BIBLE, & it's not a result of a       typographical error, but rather the translators are       trying to signal to us that something is going on       here, that is a bit unusual--that even though the       English word "lord" is here in the text, the fact that       they are printed differently indicates that there are       two distinctly different Hebrew words behind       the text. [9:12] ***

      Anytime you see capital L-O-R-D, you can be fairly       confident that the Hebrew term that is being       translated is the name YHWH [9:24],

            the name that GOD revealed to Moses             in the Midianite wilderness--when             HE said, "I AM who I AM" [Exodus 3:14]

      That's the sacred Name of GOD, the       Holy Name of GOD, YHWH.

      Earlier when we see this word "lord" -- L-o-r-d, it       translates now a different word, which is the Hebrew       term Adonai, & that is probably the most exalted title       that the OT used for GOD.

      HE's given many titles in the OT.

      This is the supreme title that is given to HIM.

      We think for example, in Psalm 8 where we read:

            "Oh LORD, our Lord, how excellent is             THY Name in all the earth." [10:20]

      There it's what? "Oh YHWH, our Adonai       how majestic is YOUR Name in all the earth."

      And again in Psalm 110 we read this:

            "The LORD said to my Lord,             'Sit down at MY right hand'"

      -- a fantastic statement to be found in the OT where       David now describes YHWH talking to someone else       & ascribing to that 3rd person the title Adonai. [10:50]

      The title that had always been reserved for GOD HIMSELF.

      It's no accident [10:54], ladies & gentlemen, that the       most quoted & alluded to OT verse in the NT is       Psalm 110, where Paul tells us that JESUS is       given the Name that is above every name,

            the title LORD, Adonai, the             name originally belongs to             GOD & to GOD alone. [11:23] ****

      Now the meaning of the term, "Adonai" simply is this       'the sovereign one.'

      So do you see what's happened? The king is dead.

      There is this time of uncertainty & mourning in the land       & the Jewish people, & Isaiah comes in the name of       his people, & he looks & beholds into the interior       parts of Heaven itself, & he sees not Uzziah, not       Hezekiah, not David. [11:54]

            He sees Adonai, the supreme sovereign,             enthroned in Heaven.

      I'm convinced personally that what he is seeing       here is a preincarnate glimpse of the       enthronement of CHRIST HIMSELF       in HIS full majesty. [12:07]

2.] CULTURAL CONTEXT

          He said, "I saw the LORD seated on the throne,           high & exalted. The train of HIS robe filled the Temple."

      Oh, I love that phrase, "The train of HIS robe filled       the Temple." [12:28] You know in ancient days, the       clothing of monarchs was a measure of their status.

      An international  protocol would respond to the       various levels of the magnificence of their clothes.

      If a king wore ermine, that was incredible.       If he wore sable, that was even better.

      Mink was sort of a 2nd or 3rd grade level, & those that       came with canvas robes, they had to sit in the back of       the summit meetings of the kings. [13:02]

      I remember seeing one of the first international television       broadcasts that was taking place in America.

      It was a viewing of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, &       the commentators went on & on about the pomp & the       circumstance that only the British can bring to such a       celebration, & the magnificence of her gown.

      As she came to approach the throne in Westminister, &       before she went to Buckingham Palace; they had several       pages who had to lift the train of her gown as she made       her entrance into the Abbey because that gown trailed       for several feet behind her as she processed.

      But do you hear what Isaiah is saying here, is that       when he saw this vision of the heavenly King, he       saw a King whose splendorous garments billowed       out over the sides of the throne, & so went on to       furrow back along the sides of the Temple, around       the back entrance-way & spilled out & completely       filled the entire building. [14:16]

3.] CREATIVE ECONOMY

      And what he is seeing here is a visual experience of majesty       that is focused in the magnificence on the garment.

      Then he said over the throne & above YHWH & Adonai,       the LORD, were the seraphim each with 6-wings.

      This is the only reference in SCRIPTURE to these creatures       who were called seraphim [14:56]

      Some have tried to identify them exactly with the cherubim,       but I think since the BIBLE distinguishes, we need to       distinguish them [15:04]

      We know very little about them, except that they are part       of the Heavenly host, those beings that were especially       created by GOD to serve HIM day & night in HIS       immediate presence.

      And if we read the description that Isaiah gives them, it       seems as though they appear in almost bizarre fashion       for we are told that they had 6-wings.

      Now let me just stop here for a second,       & make a comment.

            When GOD creates creatures, HE does             it with a certain creative economy.

      HE doesn't waste material.

      HE has an amazing, extraordinary ability to create       whatever HE makes in such a way that it is adaptable       & suitable for its environment.

      GOD makes fish with gills & with fins because their       natural habitat is in the water. HE makes birds with       wings & feathers because their environment is in       the air. And so when HE creates angelic beings,

           whose specific task & function in creation is to            minister to HIM in HIS immediate presence, HE            constructs them in such a way as to make them            fit for their environment. [16:30]

      And hence we are told they are given 2 extra sets       of wings: "with two they covered their face."

      Think of it--these angelic beings ministered daily in       the immediate unveiled presence of Almighty GOD,

           whose glory is so refulgent,            so piercing that even the angels            have to shield themselves from            looking directly at HIS FACE.

      Remember the story in the book of Exodus when       Moses, representing the people of GOD, was       summoned by YHWH to Sinai to receive the       law of GOD.

      And you remember Moses went up there into the clouds       & was sort of swallowed up on that mountain [17:32]

      And the people waited for days & after days, & they       were apprehensive & stricken with anxiety as they       wondered what had happened to their leader. [17:43]

      Had he been swallowed up by the wrath of GOD on       that mountain like Korah & his people had in       the rebellion? Would he return alive?

      What would the message of GOD be if he did       come back? [17:55] And so they waited in fear &       trembling for Moses' return.

      And while Moses was on the mountain, he spoke       with GOD. Do you remember the conversation?

      If I can improvise a little bit, it went something like this:

            Moses said to GOD, "GOD I have seen some             magnificent things in my lifetime.

            YOU've shown me the burning bush.

            I've seen the plagues by which YOU devastated             the Egyptians. I saw YOU part the sea & bring             a whole nation of people through on dry land.

            I've seen YOU provide supernatural miraculous             provisions from Heaven for us hungry people.

            But now let me have the biggest honour. [18:36]

            GOD, please let me see YOUR FACE."

      GOD said, "Moses, you know better than that.

            You know it's MY WORD             that no man shall see ME & live.

            You can't see MY FACE, Moses.

            Here's what I'll do. I'll carve out a little niche in             the rock over here, & I'll put you in the cleft of the             rock, & then I will cover you, & I will pass by, &             I will let you see MY backward parts"

            --the Hebrew reads the hindquarters of YHWH

            --"But MY FACE shall not be seen." [19:21]

      And so GOD put HIS servant in the cleft of the rock,       & HE allowed HIS glory to pass by.

      Ladies & gentlemen, for a split second Moses got       a backward glance of the refracted glory of GOD.

      And what happened?

      When he came down from the mountain, & the       people saw this figure approaching in the distance.

      They became all excited for the return of their leader,       & they rushed forward to greet Moses.

            And suddenly they shrunk back in horror             & fell on their faces, & they began to plead             with Moses saying,

            "Moses, Moses cover your face!" [20:10]

      They couldn't bear to look at him. Why?

      Because Moses' face was shining with such radiance       & such intensity that it was blinding the people, &       what the people were seeing, ladies & gentlemen

      --think of it, was merely a reflection on a human       being's face from a backward instantaneous glance       of the glory of GOD [20:43]

            The angels themselves must             cover their eyes in HIS Presence;

3.1] SIGNIFICANCE OF FEET

      And with two wings, we are told they cover their feet.

      Now the BIBLE doesn't explain to us why it was       necessary for the seraphim to cover their feet.

      I can only guess, & I will venture a guess at this point,       & that is that the feet for angels as well as for men,       is the symbol in the BIBLE of creatureliness.

      We are told that we are of the earth, earthy, that       our feet are of clay. [21:24]

      When Moses met GOD in the Midianite desert &       wilderness, what was the first thing GOD said to him?

            "Moses, Moses take off thy shoes             from off thy feet for the ground             whereon thous standest is holy ground.

      HE asked him to bare his feet [21:42], the sign of his       creatureliness, the sign of his submission before       the HOLY ONE.

      And so even in Heaven, the angels cover       the sign of their creatureliness [22:08]

3.2] ATTRIBUTE OF GOD

      But as fascinated as I may be, ladies & gentlemen,       with the anatomy of the seraphim.

      These are really minor considerations       with the text here [22:20]

      What is really important about this text as far as       I'm concerned, is not the structure of the angels.

      It's the message of the angels.

      Listen to what the BIBLE tells us [22:53]:

            "That with two they were flying, they             were calling to one another saying,             'Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty.             The whole earth is full of HIS glory.'

3.3] WRITING TECHNIQUE

      There's something very Jewish about this text: [24:57]

            to make emphasis English writers use             various markers to signify importance             of a particular text:

            underline/italicize/exclamation points.

      Well the Jews did the same thing [25:45]

      They did all of that--underline, boldface, italicize--but       they had another technique to call attention to       something of particular importance, & it was the       simple technique of verbal repetition [26:04]

      I think for example, of the apostle Paul when he's       writing to the Galatians & warning them of the       dangers of departing from the GOSPEL that       they had received.

            And he said, "I say unto you that if anybody             who preaches unto you any other GOSPEL             than that which you have received, even if             it's an angel from Heaven, let him be             anathema--let him be damned." [26:32]

      That's a strong statement that comes from the       pen of the apostle Paul, but he doesn't stop       there [26:42] He immediately goes on to say,

            "Again, I say to you if anyone preaches             unto you any other GOSPEL than that             which you have received, let him be             anathema."

      JESUS was fond of using this device of repetition       to make HIS points. [27:03] Now remember JESUS       was a rabbi, that meant that HE was a theologian.

      HE had a school & HE had students called disciples,       or learners, who enrolled in HIS school. [27:13]

      And HE was a peripatetic rabbi; that meant that       HE walked around, & as HE walked the disciples       followed HIM. [27:19]

            When JESUS said, "Follow ME,"             HE meant literally, "Walk around behind ME."

      And the way they would do it would be this way:

      The teacher would give HIS recitation.

      HE would lecture as HE walked down the road to       Emmaus, or wherever, & the disciples would follow       along behind HIM & commit to memory the things       that the rabbi taught them. [27:40]

      Now ladies & gentlemen, every teaching that ever       came from the lips of JESUS CHRIST was important,       but even our LORD took time to call attention to the       thing that HE regarded as being super important,

            & whenever HE would come to a point like             that HE wanted to make sure HIS disciples             never missed, HE would preface HIS             teaching by saying two words [28:08]

            HE would say, "Truly, truly I say unto you..."             or the older translation, "Verily, verily.." [28:19]

      Actually what HE said was,

            "Amen, amen I say unto you.."

      You recognize that word.

      It comes directly into English, & we say

            "All the people said..<what?>" Amen. [28:31]

      But we say Amen after the teacher teaches or after the       preacher preaches.

            It means, "it is true, we believe it."             & so on. [28:39]

            JESUS didn't wait for HIS disciples             to confirm the truthfulness of what             HE was saying [28:43]

      HE started HIS sermon by saying, "Amen, amen."

      That's like the captain of a ship getting on the intercom       & saying, "Now hear this: This is the captain speaking."

            When JESUS repeated that word,             saying it twice, HE was             underscoring its importance. [29:05]

4.] SCRIPTURAL EMPHASIS

    Ladies & gentlemen, there is only one attribute of GOD     that is ever raised to the 3rd degree of repetition in     SCRIPTURE. [29:27]

    There is only one characteristic of Almighty GOD that     is communicated in the superlative degree from the     mouths of angels.

    Where the BIBLE doesn't simply say that GOD is holy,     or even that HE's holy, holy. [29:47]

    But that HE is holy, holy, holy. [29:58]

        The BIBLE doesn't say GOD is mercy (3x),         or love, love, love or justice, justice, justice,         or wrath (3x), but that HE is holy, holy, holy.

    This is a dimension of GOD that consumes HIS     very essence. And when it is manifest to Isaiah,     we read that at the sound of the voices the     seraphim shook the doorposts, the thresholds of     the Temple itself began to tremble.

    Do you hear that?

    Inanimate/lifeless/unintelligible parts of creation     in the presence of the manifestation of the     holiness of GOD

    had the good sense to be moved. [30:56]

        How can we made in HIS image,         be indifferent or apathetic         to HIS majesty? [31:11]

Purpose:

    GOD alone is holy & what I want to do in this series is     try to describe what that means & what the reaction     of Isaiah & other people historically is when the holy     appear. [31:31]

Let's pray:

     FATHER we rejoice that something & someone      in this unholy universe is not only somewhat but      altogether holy, holy, holy.

     Impart to our hearts the joy of the seraphim      for that truth. Amen.

Our mission, passion, & purpose: Help people grow in the knowledge of GOD & HIS Holiness.

PRAYER: Commit what you have learned from                  GOD's WORD in this lesson to prayer.

     ● Praise GOD that HE is holy, holy, holy.      ● Confess how often you approach GOD without         a proper respect for HIS holy character.      ● Thank GOD for HIS promise to sanctify you through          the HOLY SPIRIT so that you might approach HIM          as you ought.      ● Ask the HOLY SPIRIT to impress on you the majesty         of GOD's holiness through this study.

QUESTIONS:

Why do English translations of the OT often render the word Lord as LORD?

How is the meaning of the phrase "the train of HIS robe filled the temple" drawn out by an understanding of Isaiah’s cultural context?

Why were the seraphim in Isaiah’s vision created with multiple pairs of wings?

What is significant about the seraphim’s threefold repetition "holy, holy, holy"?

[radiojamming]

Uhm I love that irving/hartnell is a thing???? Uhhhh, now I can't think of a prompt. Ohhhh maybe irving offering comfort after hartnell's brother's death?

can i also rec u a similar and incredible fic which as of right now is the only irvhart/hartving/irvnell (we gotta settle on a name, lads) fic on the archive? i can’t compete but by god, we’re going to take this out of rarepair hell and into regular hell!!

- - -

Lieutenant Irving has his Bible open on the table—the edges are foxed, pages bent and marked with age and a devotional love, the spine soft from use. His fingers slide down the margins, the two even columns full of holy scripture, trained eyes watching for what he seeks. Twice, his fingers dance on a word, tap on either side of it as though testing the sacred water, before absolving themselves and skipping away. Thrice, he turns the thin pages, a quick flicker of thumb and forefinger.

“Here,” he says, tapping a column and looking to Tom. His eyes are bright in the lantern light, like he’s illuminated from within. “It’s Deuteronomy.”

“The rule book,” Tom says quietly. 

“Sorry?”

He clears his throat, shifting uncomfortably in his chair. It’s too stiff-backed, forcing him to sit upright and rigid. In the stifled silence of Terror’s library, he feels like a schoolboy made to repeat his elocution lessons. “My... My father, when he was alive. He used to call Deuteronomy ‘the rule book’. S’how he would remember it.”

Irving offers a smile. It’s a slow, cautious thing, but it’s the sort of kindly smile that comes with a head tilt and the soft assurance that, oh, yes, he knows what Tom’s been through. 

“He was right,” Irving replies. “Even the word ‘Deuteronomy’. Do you know what it means?”

Tom shakes his head.

“It means ‘the second law’ in Greek. Deuteros nomos.”

“You know Greek?” Tom asks, eyebrows raising.

“Some from school, some from personal study,” Irving replies, his forefinger still balanced on the passage. “Your father— Was he an educated man?”

“No. He, um,” Tom ducks his head down, fidgeting with his fingers in his lap. “Never went to school. Learned to read from church lessons. He worked in and out of dockyards his whole life.”

He hears Irving make a soft noise, somewhere deep in his throat. Perhaps he’s sheepish, seeing Tom in his coat with hand-sewn repairs, hearing the long drawl of a seaside town in his voice. Even his name, Hartnell, isn’t the sort of name common in the gentry. The best he can offer is an uncle in Plymouth who happens to be good with numbers. For a man like Irving, with his good posture, immaculate presentation, and honed intelligence, Tom must not seem like much at all, let alone the son of a learned man. 

“I see,” Irving says. Then, Tom hears the book slide on the table. “Well, this passage, I feel, can apply quite well. Would you like me to read it to you or—”

“I can read, Lieutenant,” Tom retorts, and immediately regrets it. He sees something hawkish in Irving’s eyes, sharp-edged and defensive. Right, this is what he got in trouble for last time. “My apologies. I meant... I only intended to say that—”

“No need. I did not intend to belittle the extent of your education, Mister Hartnell,” Irving replies. The edge is softened with each word. When Tom glances at him again, his smile has come back, and he turns the Bible to push toward him. “Please, if you’d like.”

Tom gingerly pulls it closer to him, until the tiny printed letters become clear. “Ah, which passage?”

“Thirty-one. Start with...” He pauses, thinking. “Six, to eight.”

Clearing his throat, Tom reads, slow and concise. “’Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. And Moses called unto Joshua, and said unto him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of a good courage: for thou must go with this people unto the land which the Lord hath sworn unto their fathers to give them; and thou shalt cause them to inherit it.’”

His eyes go to the eighth verse, and something seizes in his throat, choking the words from him.

Across from him, Irving stirs. “Mister Hartnell? Is something the matter?”

Again, Tom shakes his head. He speaks again, trying to force the words through the blockage in his throat. “’A-and the Lord, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.’” He bites his bottom lip and turns his face away, knowing that his cheeks are turning red. “That— Sir John read that at John’s...”

Irving nods, gently bringing the book to his side of the table. “I remember. I thought it may be comforting to revisit it. It’s a powerful testament to the Word of God in that it could comfort the Israelites in their isolation; lost in the desert as they were, with their faith undoubtedly shaken by their ordeals and losses.”

Tom knows what it means. He knows the story, repeated so often in church services both at home and on a ship. Forty years in the desert, wandering, waiting, hoping that Providence would see them through to the other side, to what was promised. 

Something wrenches so painfully in his heart that he finds it difficult to draw breath.

Irving continues, his eyes focused on the pages before him, hands reverently framing the book. “’He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; He led him about, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye.’” When he looks up at Tom, there is something so familiar in his face, and for the life of him, Tom cannot name what it is. “God has not abandoned you, Mister Hartnell,” Irving says softly. “Not here, not now. You are as beloved as any child of God would be, and no shadow placed over your shoulders will make you invisible to Him.”

[jewishshadowhunters]

Judaism 101: Torah

The word “Torah” is tricky to define, because it can mean different things in different contexts. In its most limited sense, “Torah” refers to the Five Books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. But the word “torah” can also be used to refer to the entire Jewish bible (the body of scripture known to non-Jews as the Old Testament and to Jews as the Tanakh or Written Torah).

In its broadest sense, “Torah” can refer to the whole body of Jewish law and teachings. 

Below we talk about the Tanakh (written Torah), Talmud (Oral Torah), and other important texts. 

Written Torah/Tanakh

To Jews, there is no “Old testament”. The books that Christians call the New Testament are not part of Jewish scripture. The so-called Old Testament is known to us as Written Torah or the Tanakh.

Below is a list of the books of Written Torah, in the order in which they appear in Jewish translations, with the Hebrew name of the book, a translation of the Hebrew name (in the case the translation is different from the English name) and English name of the book.

The Hebrew names are derived from the first few words of the book. The text of each book is more or less the same in Jewish translations as what you see in Christian bibles, although there are occasional, slight differences in the numbering of the verses, and other more significant in the translations.

TORAH (The Law):

Bereishith (In the beginning...) (Genesis)

Shemoth (The names...) (Exodus)

Vayiqra (And He called...) (Leviticus)

Bamidbar (In the wilderness...) (Numbers)

Devarim (The words...) (Deuteronomy)

NEVI’IM (The Prophets)

Yehoshua (Joshua)

Shoftim (Judges)

Shmuel (I &II Samuel)

Melakhim (I & II Kings)

Yeshayah (Isaiah)

Yirmyah (Jeremiah)

Yechezqel (Ezekiel)

The Twelve (treated as one book):

Hoshea (Hosea)

Yoel (Joel)

Amos

Ovadyah (Obadiah)

Yonah (Jonah)

Mikhah (Micah)

Nachum

Chavaqquq (Habbakkuk)

Tzefanyah (Zephaniah)

Chaggai

Zekharyah (Zechariah)

Malakhi

KETHUVIM (The Writings):

Tehillim (Psalms)

Mishlei (Proverbs)

Iyov (Job)

Shir Ha-Shirim (Song of Songs)

Ruth

Eikhah (Lamentations)

Qoheleth (the author's name) (Ecclesiastes)

Esther

Daniel

Ezra & Nechemyah (Nehemiah) (treated as one book)

Divrei Ha-Yamim (The words of the days) (Chronicles)

“Tanakh”, the term used to refer to the Written Torah is an acrostic of Torah, Nevi’im and Ketuvim.

The Torah Scrolls

The scriptures that we use in services are written on parchment scrolls. Always handwritten, they are in attractive Hebrew calligraphy with “crowns” (crows-foot-like marks coming up from the upper points) on many of the letters.

This style of writing is called STA”M (abbreviation for “Sifrei Torah, Tefillin, and Mezuzot”, which is where you will see that style of writing).

You are not supposed to touch the parchment on these scrolls. Some say it is because they are too holy, some say because the parchment, made from animal skins, is a source of ritual defilement, some say because your fingers’ sweat has acid that will damage parchment over time.

Instead, you follow the text with a pointer, called a Yad. “Yad” means “hand” in Hebrew, and the pointer usually is in the shape of hand with a pointing index finger.

The scrolls are kept covered with fabric, and often ornamented with silver crowns on the handles of the scrolls and a silver breastplate on the front.

They are kept in a cabinet in the synagogue called an “ark” (as in the Ark of the Covenant,not Noah’s ark. The words are different and unrelated in Hebrew. Noah’s ark is called teyvat (ship), while the synagogue ark is either an acrostic of “aron kodesh” or holy cabinet or coming from the latin “arca”.)

The Torah scrolls that we read in synagogue are unpointed text, with no vowels or musical notes, so the ability to read a passage is a valuable skill, and usually requires substantial advance preparation.

Chumash

Jewish scriptures are sometimes bound in a form that corresponds to the division into weekly readings (called parshiyot in Hebrew). Scriptures bound in this way are generally referred to as a chumash. This word came from the Hebrew word for five, and refers to the five books of the Torah. Sometimes, a chumash refers to a collection of the five books. But often, a chumash contains the entirety of the first five books, divided up in weekly parshiyot, with the haftarah portion inserted after each week’s parshah.

Oral Torah/Talmud

In addition to the Written Torah, we have an “Oral Torah”, a tradition explaining what the scriptures mean and how to interpret and apply the Laws. Orthodox Jews believe that G-d taught the Talmud to Moses, and that he in turn taught it to others. Talmud was maintained in oral form only until about the 2nd Century CE, when it was compiled and written down in a document called the Mishnah?

Over the following centuries, additional commentaries elaborating the Mishnah were written down in Jerusalem and Babylon. These additions are known as the Gemara. Mishnah and Gemara together form the Talmud, complete in the 5th century CE.

There are as a result two Talmuds. The Jerusalem Talmud, and the Babylonian Talmud, known to be the more comprehensive one, and the one most people refer to when saying “The Talmud.”

Additional commentaries on the talmud have been made by noted Jewish scholars such as Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchakià) and Rambam (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, better known to the secular world as Maimonides.)

Adin Steinsaltz recently completed a new edition of the Talmud, with his own commentary instead of the Mishnah, Gemara and Rashi commentaries.

The Talmud is not easy to read. It’s like someone else’s class notes for a college lecture you never attended. There are often gaps in the reasoning where it is assumed the reader known what they are talking about, and concepts can often be expressed in a short-hand fashion. Biblical verses supporting a teaching are often referenced by only a couple of words. The Talmud preserves a variety of views on every issue, and does not always clearly identify which view is the accepted one.

The Mishnah itself is divided into six sections called sedarim (orders, English). Each seder contains one or more divisions called masekhtot (tractates, English). There are 63 masekhtot in the Mishnah. Approximately half of these have been addressed in the Talmud.

Though those divisions seem to indicate subject matter, we note that Mishnah and Talmud engage in a lot of free-associations. As a result, widely different subjects can be discussed in the same seder or masekhtah.

Zera'im (Seeds), dealing with agricultural laws

Berakhot

Peah

Demai

Kilayim

Shebiit

Terumot

Maaserot

Maaser Sheni

Challah

Orlah

Bikkurim

Mo'ed (Festival), dealing with Shabbat and festivals

Shabbat

Erubin

Pesachim

Sheqalim

Yoma

Sukkah

Besah

Rosh Hashanah

Taanit

Megillah

Moed Qatan

Hagigah

Nashim (Women), dealing with marriage, divorce and contracts

Yebamot

Ketubot

Nedarim

Nazir

Sotah

Gittin

Qiddushin

Nezikin (Damages), dealing with tort laws and other financial laws

Baba Qamma

Baba Mesia

Baba Batra

Sanhedrin

Makkot

Shabuot

Eduyyot

Avodah Zarah

Avot (also known as Pirkei Avot, Ethics of the Fathers)

Horayot

Kodashim (Holy Things), dealing with sacrifices and the Temple

Zevachim

Menachot

Chullin

Bekhorot

Arakhin

Temurah

Keritot

Meilah

Tamid

Middot

Qinnim

Toharot (Purities), dealing with laws of ritual purity and impurity

Kelim

Ohalot

Negaim

Parah

Tohorot

Miqvaot

Niddah

Makhshirin

Zabim

Tebul-Yom

Yadayim

Uqsin

In recent times, many observant Jews have taken up the practice of studying a page of Talmud every day. This practice, referred to as daf yomi (page of the day), was started at the First International Congress of the Agudath Yisrael World Movement in August, 1923. Rav Meir Shapiro, the rav of Lublin, Poland, proposed uniting people worldwide through the daily study of a page of Talmud. Daf Yomi started its 12th cycle on March 2, 2005. The 13th cycle was started in 2013, and has yet to finish.

Other Writings

In addition to these works, we have midrashim, stories expanding on the incidents in the Bible to derive principles or Jewish law; or teaching moral lessons.

There is also a vast body of responsa, answers to specific questions of Jewish law. Beginning in the middle ages, when local rabbis were faced with difficult issues of Jewish law, they often wrote to the most respected rabbis in the world to get answers to these questions. The local rabbi would present the situation, often including detailed references to the Talmudic passages he had reviews, his own interpretations and the world-respected rabbi would provide a reasoned argument in favor of his answer. Over time, these responsa were collected into printed volumes. This tradition continues to the present day, with responsa dealing with issues relating to modern technologies. We have responsa on the permissibility of cosmetic surgery, the kashering of dishwashers, and artificial insemination. We are currently in the process of computerizing the thousands of volumes of responsa.

As you can see, the body of Jewish tradition is very vast.

In the Middle Ages, for quick answers, there were several attempts to create definite codes of Jewish law. The best-known are Rambam’s Mishneh Torah and Joseph Caro’s Shulchan Arukh. These works were very controversial in their own time, because they did not identify the sources, whether Talmudic or Torah, for these opinions, and generally ignored conflicting voices. There was a concern that such works would discourage Jews from studying the Torah and the Talmud. Today, these sources are well-respected, and the Shulchan Arukh is often treated as primary source.

We asl have a mystical tradition, own as Kabbalah. The primary written work in Kabbalistic tradition is the Zohar. Traditionally, rabbis discouraged teaching this material to anyone under the age of 40, because it is too likely to be misinterpreted by anyone without sufficient grounding in the basics.

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  Through the Bible with Les Feldick LESSON 2 * PART 4 * BOOK 50 Hebrews 7:20 – 8:10 - Part 2   Let’s begin where we left off in the last lesson, and that would be Hebrews chapter 8, and verse 3. But again, I don’t like to just jump in like that, so let’s go back a verse or two. We might as well go back to verse 1. Hebrews 8:1-2 "Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; 2. A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man." I told you in the last program you could take a two-way approach on verse 2. He could be speaking of the body of us as believers, who is the temple of the Holy Spirit. And Christ is the very Core and the makeup of that. But it could also be talking to, a reference to, the Old Testament tabernacle or temple, which was set in those two rooms the sanctuary and the Holy of Holies. And which was pitched according to the pattern in Heaven. And we’ll look at that again further in this chapter. Now verse 3. Hebrews 8:3 "For every high priest (whether it was of the Aaronic or whether it’s this high priest, Melchisedec) is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer." He has to have a reason for fulfilling His priesthood. Now verse 4. Hebrews 8:4 "For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law:" He couldn’t do that. See that? He couldn’t operate in His priesthood if He had to do as Israel’s priests did because it just wouldn’t fit. He could not offer animal sacrifices. He could not fulfill the priesthood in the temple because His work was so totally, totally above and beyond the animal sacrifices of Judaism. Now verse 5. Hebrews 8:5a "(these priests of Israel, Judaism) Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle:…"The tabernacle at Mt. Sinai, in the wilderness. In other words, God is making sure that Moses builds that tabernacle according to the floor plan of the original, which is in Heaven. We looked at it in the last moments of our last program and we’re going to look at it again in a moment. Now finishing verse 5. Hebrews 8:5b "for, See, (take note) saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount." As Moses is about to build that tabernacle at Mt. Sinai, in the wilderness, the Lord spoke and said, "See, (take note) that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount." Now let’s go back again for just a quick review of where we were in the last program, but a different verse. Let’s go to Exodus chapter 25 and verse 40. In the last program we looked at verses 8 and 9, but now we’re going to look at the last verse. And this just shows the importance of it. Moses could not take this lightly. He couldn’t just throw up a tent and build and altar and start killing animals. It all had to be according to God’s divine purposes. And those of you who have studied the tabernacle with me remember that everything, with nothing excepted, was all a picture of this work of the Cross. Every instrument in the sanctuary. Every bolt of cloth, every piece of gold and silver, it all spoke of the coming of the work of the Cross. So this is why God was so adamant that Moses did everything in a particular way. Now verse 40, and God is giving Moses instructions: Exodus 25:40 "Look, (make sure) that thou make them (that is all the things that are going into this tabernacle) after their pattern, (in other words, he couldn’t just make-shift it. It had to) be exactly as God had given him the pattern) which was shewed thee in the mount." (when he was up there in Mt. Sinai.) Alright now then, come to the last chapter of Exodus, chapter 40, and we’ll look at verse 33. And again the language is such that it just sends you flying to the finished work of the Cross.

Now in all these intervening chapters, they’ve been crafting the materials that went into this tabernacle. The gold, the linen, the animal’s hair, the altar of incense and the brazen altar made of brass, all these things were crafted by craftsmen that God had raised up out of the Israelites. Now Exodus 40:33: Exodus 40:33-34 "He (Moses) reared up the court round about the tabernacle (in other words, the outer fence that went clear around the perimeter) and the altar, and set up the hanging of the court gate. (in other words that was the last thing that was finished) So Moses finished the work. 34. Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle." In other words, God put His stamp of approval upon everything that the Israelites had now made with their craftsmanship and they erected it and set it up. And in verse 35 we find the presence of God was so awesome. Exodus 40:35 "And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle." Well, anyway all of that was set in motion to give us a preview of what Christ would accomplish in His work of the Cross. Alright, let’s come back to Hebrews once again finishing verse 5. Hebrews 8:5b "…for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount." Everything exactly as God had instructed. Now verse 6, here we come again, what’s the word?) But, (the flipside. Yes, Moses and all the craftsmen of Israel worked almost a year formulating all the things that went into that earthly tabernacle there out in the foot of Mt. Sinai.) Hebrews 8:6a "But now (on this side) he hath obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a (what?) better…" You see the constant comparison of that which was good, the Mosaic system, the Mosaic Law. It was good up to a point but it could not be perfect. But now, now on this side we have that which is perfect because Christ Himself established it and finished it. Hebrews 8:6 But now he hath obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises." My, aren’t we fortunate? I try to impress on people that you and I, as believers in this Age of Grace, as members of the Body of Christ, have it so far above the promises made to Israel. Now we know God’s going to do wondrous things yet with Israel someday, but the promises that He has given to us as believers, as members of the Body of Christ are beyond comprehension. You and I can’t begin to get a glimpse of the glory that’s going to be revealed to us because all this is so much better than what God promised Israel. Now verse 7. Right off the bat I just see something that just thrills me: Hebrews 8:7a "For if that first covenant had been faultless,…" You know what I’m going to ring the bell on? Was it faultless? No, it was full of fault. My, it was weak; it was beggarly. That first covenant of Law wasn’t faultless, but if it had been; had it been faultless: Hebrews 8:7b "then should no place have been sought for the second." That stands to reason doesn’t it? What’s our expression? "If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it." If you’ve got something that’s perfect, leave it alone. You know, I wrote to a carmaker one time. I had an automobile that I thought was as close to perfect as humans could make it. And they dropped that one from their line of cars. In fact it’s the one I’ve been driving, with over 230 thousand miles on it. That was as perfect a car as automobiles could be made and then that’s the one they dropped from their line. And I wrote to the company, I don’t suppose it got any further than the ‘round file’ but I told them, "For the first time in the history of your company you made an automobile that is almost perfect, and then you drop it." I said, "Typical American business." But nevertheless, see, when something is perfect you don’t have to ask for anything more.

But the Law and temple worship wasn’t perfect. It was full of faults and so consequently there had to be room for a second covenant. Now let’s go into verse 8, then I’m going to stop and digress. Hebrews 8:8-9 "For finding fault with them, (Who did? God did. God found fault with His own system of Law) he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah: 9. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; (which was the covenant of Law) because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord." Now just stop and rehearse for a minute. As soon as Israel came through the Red Sea and they congregate down there at the base of Mt. Sinai, God calls Moses up in to the mountain and gives him the Ten Commandments (and I’m going to even skip over the horrors of what took place when he came down and he broke the first set). But later on he gets the second set, set in stone and Israel comes under the Law. They’ve got that beautiful little tent out in the wilderness, they now have a priesthood, hey, they’re ready to go. They’ve got everything going for them. The Shekinah Glory is right up there above the Tabernacle. Can you imagine it, can you picture it? The presence of God is right there above them, a cloud by day to give them shade in that desert heat. It was a pillar of fire by night to protect them from any predators. Boy, they had it made. And so God leads them up to Kadesh-barnea. And what happens. Oh, they floundered and they failed in what? Unbelief! Remember when we were back there in chapter 3 of Hebrews, I made mention of the fact that there’s probably no other concept of Scripture that is repeated so often as how disgusted God was with Israel when they would not go in and take the Promised Land. All because of their unbelief. Well, what was part of the problem? The system of Law. It was not perfect. Had they had the indwelling Holy Spirit, had they had that relationship with their God that we have, I don’t think they would have fallen in unbelief. But they didn’t. All they had was the weak system of Law. Alright, let’s go back and look at a few of them. Now we had one here a few programs back and we’ll look at it again, too. But as you go back there, stop at Galatians. Now these are the Scriptural concepts of the system of Law, and what Israel was so proud of, but oh, it was weak. Galatians 4:8-9. Now again, what was the problem with the Galatian believers? Well, they were Gentiles, but they were being coaxed to go back under certain aspects of the Jewish Law. The Judaizers from Jerusalem were not content that these Gentiles could be saved by faith alone, but they had to keep the Law. They had to keep temple worship, they had to practice circumcision and all the rest. And so Paul writes this little letter of Galatians, just almost beside himself how these Galatians come out of such a glorious position in grace and even be tempted to go back under the Law; and here’s why: Galatians 4:8 "Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, (they were pagans remember) ye did service unto them who by nature are no gods." What’s he saying? You were worshipping dead idols: wood and stone and silver and gold. They were dead, they couldn’t do anything for you. And these Galatians had come out of that. Now verse 9. Galatians 4:9a "But now, (again, after they had come out of paganism, out of idol worship, they’d stepped into the Grace of God and Paul’s Gospel) after that ye have known God, (the true God) or rather (he says) are known of God,…" I just pointed out to someone again last night. One of the ramifications of our faith today is that God knows us as if we’re the only person on earth. Do you feel that way? That’s how God feels about you, the believer. It’s just as if you were the only one! And we have this confidence that when we pray, we’re not just coming up with multitudes of millions of prayers.

My, I wouldn’t even bother to pray if I thought that’s what it was. But we don’t, we come up as an individual. When Christ died, He would have died that death if YOU would have been the only person living. Now that’s what we call a personal salvation. So now this is what Paul is saying: Galatians 4:9b "…how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?" How could you, when you came out of paganism and not only did you know God but God knew you. What a difference. What were the weak and beggarly elements? The Law. That’s all it was good for. It was weak and beggarly. It couldn’t give men power to live a good life. All it could do was condemn them, as we saw in the first program this afternoon. Alright, let’s just turn the page while we’re in Galatians and go to chapter 5 verse 1. And Paul is still on the same premise. Don’t go back under the Law. Don’t embrace any kind of legalism. Galatians 5:1 "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ (through His finished work, remember) hath made us free, be not entangled again with the (what?) yoke of bondage." Now we covered that a few weeks ago here on the program. What does a yoke always make you think of? To me, a yoke of oxen. Why? Because around their neck they had that piece of wood that was their burden, with which they pulled. And that’s the whole concept. The Law was just like a yoke around an oxen’s neck. It burdened them. Alright now, even Peter uses the same language, and I think we can go all the way up to Acts 15, when Peter finally, after I think, a long day of confrontation, disputation, comes to Paul’s defense. Now this is at the Jerusalem counsel when Paul has finally confronted the leaders of Jerusalem not to try and put his Gentile believers under the Law. And so Peter finally gets his own eyes opened and what does he tell us? Acts 15:9-10a "He put no difference between us (Jews) and them (Gentiles) purifying their (Gentiles) hearts by faith. (now here it comes, from the lips of Peter) 10. Now therefore, why tempt (or test) God, to put a (what?) yoke upon the neck of the disciples,…" (these Gentile believers)   Well, what kind of a yoke is Peter referring to? The oxen. Same thing. Why put your believers under a yoke like oxen pulling a plow, that’s what the Law did. Now the word disciples in that verse, I don’t like to use, because too many people will immediately think of the Twelve. No, we’re talking about Gentile believers. And so he says: Acts 15:10b "…which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?" What’s Peter admitting? The Law never helped them. The Law was not a successful thing for the Nation of Israel. They were constantly under the yoke of it and it had no power to help them. And so he says, "don’t put a yoke upon the neck of those Gentile believers, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear." Now let’s go back to Galatians chapter 4, because there’s another verse back there that I think we should look at. All in this concept that the Law can do nothing except put us in bondage. Let’s just start with verse 1 because I want you to see how that all through, especially since Paul’s revelations have come on the scene, how that we see this constant reference to the Law as something that was less than perfect. Galatians 4:1-3 "Now I say, That the heir, (the child) as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; 2. But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. 3. Even so (he’s just using this as an example) we, when we were children, we were in (what?) bondage under the elements of the world:" That was the Law. And so you see, this constant reference through Scripture that to live under a legalistic system is not freedom, it’s not liberty; but rather it’s bondage. And that’s why Paul comes out then and says, "you’re not under the Law; you’re under grace." And oh, what a difference! Let’s come back to Hebrews once again, to verse 8.

Since the Law was full of faults. Since it was a system of bondage. Since there was no liberty in it. Hebrews 8:8a "For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold the days come…." Now that was prophecy, that was foretold in the Old Testament that this thing of the Law was a stopgap only leading up to the coming of Israel’s Messiah and the Savior of the world. And so his promise was: Hebrews 8:8b "…Behold the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:" Now whenever you see God saying "I will"whether it’s back in Abrahamic Covenant or any other time, what is it? It’s a promise of something future that’s coming. And so here He’s promising the Nation of Israel that the day is coming when they will come out from under this covenant of Law. And they will go into a new covenant that God is going to make with the House of Israel and the House of Judah. Hebrews 8:9a "Not according to the covenant that He made with the fathers…" Speaking again of Moses and Aaron and the Tabernacle and so forth in the wilderness. And then verse 10. Hebrews 8:10 "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord.; I will put my laws in their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:" Now let’s go all the way back to where we had the promise of that new covenant. And that’s in Jeremiah chapter 31 and, by the way, we in this Age of Grace are getting the overflow of the promise of this covenant, but we are not actually under the covenant. That’s waiting for the Kingdom Age when God will set up His Kingdom here on the earth, and believing Israel will become the top-dog of the nations and they will enjoy this covenant. Jeremiah 31:31 "Behold, the days come, (here’s the prophecy) I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah." Now this is the covenant in verse 34. Jeremiah 31:34 "And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." When will that happen? When Christ sets up His 1000 year earthy kingdom, that I feel is coming soon.

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SAMSON AND HIS FAITH

PREFACE TO 2003 EDITION

When people refer to Samson, we often hear Delilah mentioned in the same breath, much like how Bathsheba is often associated with David. Nevertheless, many people are aware that the biblical record of David is not limited to his affair with Bathsheba, and that in the final analysis, he was "a man after [God's] own heart" (1 Samuel 13:14). But the same is not true concerning Samson. In many people's thinking, Samson is inseparably connected to Delilah, and they seem to think that the entirety of his life as recorded in Scripture has to do with his moral weaknesses and sexual lusts. Thus they say that he is the classic case of one who has "charisma without character."

However, that is an incomplete and inaccurate portrayal of his life. The Scripture's own commentary on Samson is that he was a man of faith, one of whom "the world was not worthy" (Hebrews 11:38). Given this biblical perspective, if you read the biblical record about Samson with the presupposition that his life had consisted of only his moral failures and ultimate downfall, then you are bound to miss his significance.

In this book, we will begin not with the usual distorted view, but with the Scripture's own perspective toward Samson – that is, no matter what flaws he had, he had "gained approval" (Hebrews 11:2, NASB) from God through faith. Therefore, instead of reading sins and lusts into all the passages about Samson, we will read them with the intention of learning from his faith. When we read his life's story with this scriptural presupposition, the biblical record concerning him will be better understood, and what the story of his life has to teach us will be more apparent.

1. SAMSON'S FAITH

We will not begin from Judges 13, where the biblical narrative about Samson's life actually starts. Rather, since most people read his story with false presuppositions in mind, we will first correct them by examining the Bible's own commentary on the life of Samson. Having done that, we will be able to study him from the correct perspective.

Hebrews 11:1-2, 6, 32-38 says:

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for….

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him….

And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated – the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

According to verses 1-2, the men and women listed in Hebrews 11 – including Samson – were commended for their faith, that they had "gained approval" (NASB) from God by their faith.

God does not grant his approval to things for which many people think they should get credit. God does not approve or disapprove of us because of our race, gender, or social standing, nor does he accept us because of our good works. He cares about whether or not we have faith, granted by his sovereign grace. Jesus asks in Luke 18:8, "When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" Is there true faith in your heart, or is there only unbelief and rebellion?

Then, Hebrews 11:6 says, "without faith it is impossible to please God." Those who approach God must believe that he exists, and that he "rewards those who earnestly seek him." The people listed in Hebrews 11 were imperfect. The list includes great men like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses. These were not weak believers, but they were people who had committed sins.

Moses sinned by disobeying God in the wilderness. As God says to him in Deuteronomy 32:49-52,

Go up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo in Moab, across from Jericho, and view Canaan, the land I am giving the Israelites as their own possession. There on the mountain that you have climbed you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people. This is because both of you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites. Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.

David also sinned. He first committed adultery with Bathsheba. When she became pregnant, David murdered her husband. God sent the prophet Nathan to confront David, saying, "Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites" (2 Samuel 12:9).

So these were imperfect people, but they are included here in Hebrews 11. This is because they did not please God by their good works, but by their faith. God was satisfied with them because of their faith, but even this faith came to them by the sovereign will of God, and did not originate from their own decisions, so that there was no room for boasting. As Psalm 130:3-4 says, "If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared." God gave them the gift of faith, and sovereignly forgave them of their sins.

After citing a number of examples on how various characters were justified before God by faith, verse 38 says that "the world was not worthy of them." In all its rebellion and wickedness, the world is unworthy of those who have faith in God. Many people claim to be Christians, but most of them do not regard "disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt" (Hebrews 11:26). Thus their faith is false, and they are in fact non-Christians, and will suffer endless torment in hell. If you really have the faith that God sovereignly gives to his chosen ones, then you will manifest the signs of faith like these people listed in Hebrews 11.

Some people may be surprised to find Samson listed along with the great fathers of the faith such as Abraham and Moses. They may protest, "What about Delilah?" Well, what about her? The story of Samson is not about Delilah. Those who think that his story is mainly about his immorality and lack of self-control are sorely misinformed. Here in Hebrews 11, he is commended for his faith.

Thus when we study the life of Samson, we should not focus all our attention on Delilah, nor should we look for indications of sexual lust where there is none. Rather, we should try to find his faith. What made him so great? What did God cause Samson to believe so strongly that Samson was able to delight the heart of God? We will truly understand the story of Samson as told in the Bible when we look into the nature of his faith.

The story of Samson is not only about his relationship with Delilah. Samson faces two similar situations in Judges 16:4-20, where Delilah appears, and in Judges 14:12-18. In each instance, information is coerced out of Samson through psychological manipulation by a woman – that is, through crying, nagging, and words such as, "You don't really love me." Although sexual issues may have had something to do with it, the direct cause for Samson's downfall was not his sexual lust, but his vulnerability to manipulation by women.

Contrary to the Bible's own perspective in Hebrews 11, not many books and commentaries portray Samson in a positive light. Although his life may warn us about sexual sins, it has more to teach us than that. Most professing Christians nowadays lack Samson's faith, partly because most who claim to be Christians are not true Christians. One of our main concerns should be to discover and imitate his faith.

Make no mistake about it – Samson had his weaknesses, and they ultimately cost him his life. The point is that his problems were not what most people think they were, and that overall, the Scripture acknowledges him as a person of faith.

2. HIS HISTORY

The Book of Judges records a recurring cycle of sin and idolatry in Israel's history. Whenever a godly leader died, the people would plunge themselves far into idolatrous worship. God would then allow them to be conquered by their enemies. After some time, when they began to groan in repentance, God would send them a deliverer to release them from bondage. But the people refused to learn their lesson, and they returned to sin and idolatry after the deliverer died. Thus the whole cycle would begin again. The story of Samson begins at the outset of such a cycle: "Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, so the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years" (Judges 13:1).

In this chapter, instead of going straight into the story of Samson, we will first study this recurring pattern, since this will give us some background about the circumstances surrounding his birth and his work. In addition, Christians can learn some valuable lessons from this destructive cycle in which the Israelites remained.

So, we will deal with Judges 13 later. For now, we will turn to Judges 2 to see how these sinful cycles started. The Bible says in Judges 2:7-9:

The people served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the LORD had done for Israel. Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of a hundred and ten. And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

Joshua was a close follower of Moses, and he became the leader of Israel after the death of his mentor. Joshua led the people well. Verse 7 says, "The people served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the LORD had done for Israel."

Many miracles happened when Moses led Israel. The nation witnessed the Ten Plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud, and other spectacular wonders. God also demonstrated his power when Joshua led Israel. During one battle, in response to Joshua's words, God's power was so evident such that even "the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day" (Joshua 10:13). The fall of Jericho is another example of the great victories that God granted to Israel under Joshua's leadership.

The Scripture says that while Joshua and the elders of his generation were alive, the people of Israel served God. But "after that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel" (Judges 2:10). The implication is that the previous generation had failed to teach this new generation about God's mercy and power in their deliverance from Egypt and their conquest of Canaan. However, when God gave his laws to Israel and worked wonders among them, he intended for the record of his words and works to be taught to future generations so that they may also learn to fear and worship him.

When God instituted the Passover, he said,

Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, "What does this ceremony mean to you?" then tell them, "It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians." (Exodus 12:24-27)

If the previous generation had faithfully observed the Passover and explained it to the next generation, how was it that the latter "knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel"? The previous generation must have failed to perform their duty.

After parting the river of Jordan to let the people of Israel cross over to Canaan, God commanded them to construct a monument of stones:

…to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, "What do these stones mean?" tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever. (Joshua 4:6-7)

To illustrate the point further, Deuteronomy 6:4-9, 20-25 reads as follows:

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates….

In the future, when your son asks you, "What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the LORD our God has commanded you?" tell him: "We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Before our eyes the LORD sent miraculous signs and wonders – great and terrible – upon Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household. But he brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land that he promised on oath to our forefathers. The LORD commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the LORD our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. And if we are careful to obey all this law before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness."

God was very explicit when he commanded the people of Israel to obey his laws, and to teach them to future generations. Therefore, the answer to why the next generation "knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel" must rest in that the generation led by Joshua failed to teach their children about God's works and to train them to obey God's laws.

Today's "Christian" parents are not doing any better – they do not teach their children to worship and obey God, to study and affirm Christian doctrines, and to reject and refute all non-Christian beliefs and religions.

Some parents say, "Let the children decide what they want to believe, or what religions they wish to adopt." Now, they tell their children to refuse gifts and rides from strangers, to avoid touching a hot stove, and to stay away from sharp objects. They tell them to look when crossing the streets, to study hard at school, and to choose their friends with care. But when it comes to the most important matter in life they suddenly "let them decide," and avoid giving them strict and thorough admonitions about the truth. Why not "let them decide" on whether or not they will attend school? Why not "let them decide" on whether or not they will use drugs? Why not "let them decide" on whether or not they will steal and murder?

When it comes to religion, these parents let their children select from hundreds of options. They claim to be Christians, so they supposedly believe that there is only one way that leads to life, and that all the non-Christian beliefs and religions inevitably lead all of their adherents to endless conscious torment in hell. But still, these parents think that they should let their children decide by not teaching them biblical doctrines and not raising them according to biblical principles. We expect non-Christian parents to be like this, but even some parents who claim to be Christians believe the same way. Then, they have the audacity to say that they love their children!

If you follow any form of this unbiblical "let them decide" approach, then you have nothing but hate for your children. You have committed a great sin against God, and you are a very wicked person. Scripture commands you to teach your children the Christian faith as truth, and to teach your children that all non-Christian beliefs and religions are false. If you refuse to do this, it may be that you are not a Christian yourself, and that your destiny is endless conscious torment in hell.

Although only God can sovereignly grant faith to those whom he has chosen, it is your duty to teach your children the Christian faith, and to teach them that it is the only true faith. If you are truly convinced that your God is the only true God, that Jesus Christ is the only savior, and that the Bible is the only divine verbal revelation, then should you not at least "train a child in the way he should go" (Proverbs 22:6)? No loving and devout parent would do otherwise.

If you have been neglecting this important and sacred duty, as most parents do, then you must immediately repent of your great wickedness and begin to obey the Bible in your parenting. Tell your children about Christianity, and explain to them why it is the only true and rational system of belief.[1] Take them to church, read them the Bible, and train them in theology and apologetics. The Scripture commands you to constantly be teaching your children the laws of God: "Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates" (Deuteronomy 6:7-9).

In addition, tell your children about the other systems of thoughts that they will encounter at school and from friends, and explain to them why their non-Christian beliefs are all false and wicked. Demonstrate to them how all non-Christian thoughts and religions can be conclusively refuted. Training in theology and apologetics is the most important part of your parenting.

Similar to many people who claim to be Christians in our time, Joshua's generation neglected the spiritual development of their children, and an entire generation grew up that did not know the ways and the works of God: "Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals. They forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They provoked the LORD to anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths" (Judges 2:11-13).

This new generation began to follow the "various gods of the peoples around them." They were not taught by their parents to serve the God who brought them out of Egypt, so they were instead influenced by those who were around them, and eventually began to serve their gods. Likewise, if you do not teach and influence your children, other people probably will. There are many people who are eager to tell your children what to do and what to believe.

Because of Israel's unfaithfulness, "In his anger against Israel the LORD handed them over to raiders who plundered them. He sold them to their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the LORD was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress" (Judges 2:14-15).

This is how each cycle of sin and idolatry occurred. When a strong leader was presiding over the affairs of Israel, the people would serve God. But when the leader died and the people had failed to instruct their children about the things of God, the next generation would grow up without knowledge of the ways and the works of God. Instead, they were influenced to serve false gods by the nations surrounding them. As a result, they "provoked the Lord to anger," and God would hand them over to their enemies.

We see an analogous pattern in our society. "Christian" parents are failing to instill biblical ideas and habits into their children, and as a result, these children are being influenced by unbelievers to adopt unbiblical ideas and habits. Many of these children end up becoming detestable idolaters, worshiping celebrities, money, and false gods, instead of worshipping Jesus Christ. Then comes judgment and captivity, and they become slaves to sin, being entangled in a web of filth and wickedness.

In his sovereign grace and mercy, God did not leave the people of Israel in their pitiful condition: "Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders" (Judges 2:16). Likewise, God has been raising up ministers who are knowledgeable of the Scripture and bold in their speech. They are as deliverers who would lead the people of God out of spiritual blindness and captivity, and back into the true worship of God. Those who listen and respond because of God's sovereign work in their minds will escape this destructive cycle of sin. But many people will refuse to listen, and they will continue in that destructive cycle. Their lives will continue to be meaningless, and their minds full of darkness.

These deliverers whom God sent to Israel were called "judges," and they managed to obtain relief for the people of Israel from their enemies. But after that, the people would return to idolatry again:

They did not listen to their judges, for they played the harlot after other gods and bowed themselves down to them. They turned aside quickly from the way in which their fathers had walked in obeying the commandments of the Lord; they did not do as their fathers. When the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge and delivered them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed and afflicted them. But it came about when the judge died, that they would turn back and act more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them and bow down to them; they did not abandon their practices or their stubborn ways. (Judges 2:17-19)

God was merciful to the people, and sent them strong leaders to rescue them out of captivity and destruction. However, their hearts were never sincerely devoted to God, so that "it came about when the judge died, that they would turn back and act more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them and bow down to them." This happened generation after generation – when a strong leader passed from the scene, the people would return to idolatry.

Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and said, "Because this nation has violated the covenant that I laid down for their forefathers and has not listened to me, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the LORD and walk in it as their forefathers did." The LORD had allowed those nations to remain; he did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua. (Judges 2:20-23)

Although God had shown them mercy, the people of Israel continued to sin against God, and so God determined not to completely destroy their enemies. The surrounding nations would become a bothersome reminder to them, and under God's sovereign control they will persecute the people of Israel whenever they fail to rightly worship and obey God. Thus the people of Israel were never able to fully overcome their adversaries in battle. When their apostasy had become great, God even allowed them to be captured by their enemies.

Now, all the words of Scripture were written for our instruction. As Paul explains, "These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come" (1 Corinthians 10:11). The life of Samson contains lessons for us to learn how to rightly worship and obey God, and this is the purpose of the present study.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [1] See Vincent Cheung, Systematic Theology, Ultimate Questions, and Presuppositional Confrontations.

3. HIS DESTINY

Coming now to Judges 13:1, where the record of Samson's life begins, we read, "Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, so the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years." Samson's story begins during another cycle of Israel's apostasy and captivity. God would then raise him up to deliver the people.

Judges 13 continues:

A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was sterile and remained childless. The angel of the LORD appeared to her and said, "You are sterile and childless, but you are going to conceive and have a son. Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean, because you will conceive and give birth to a son. No razor may be used on his head, because the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines."

Then the woman went to her husband and told him, "A man of God came to me. He looked like an angel of God, very awesome. I didn't ask him where he came from, and he didn't tell me his name. But he said to me, 'You will conceive and give birth to a son. Now then, drink no wine or other fermented drink and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite of God from birth until the day of his death.'" (v. 2-7)

Samson was to be a Nazirite. As the Holman Bible Dictionary explains:

[A Nazirite is] a member of a class of individuals especially devoted to God. The Hebrew term means consecration, devotion, and separation. Two traditional forms of the Nazirite are found. One was based on a vow by the individual for a specific period; the other was a lifelong devotion following the revelatory experience of a parent which announced the impending birth of a child. The Nazirite's outward signs – the growth of hair, abstention from wine and other alcoholic products, the avoidance of contact with the dead – are illustrative of devotion to God.[2]

Because Samson was to be a Nazirite, his mother was commanded not to drink any wine or to eat any unclean thing. Samson himself was also required to observe the conditions imposed upon the Nazirite, including not cutting his hair.[3] As he explains to Delilah later, he was "a Nazirite set apart to God since birth" (Judges 16:17).

Samson had a destiny, and "the angel of the Lord" came to tell his mother of God's plan for him. His calling was unique – he was called to a specific task at a specific point in history, and God gave him certain unique abilities to fulfill his task. His strength was supernatural – it was available to him through the Holy Spirit, and not because of any unusual strength inherent in his body. To fulfill God's plan in the way that God had foreordained for it to be done, Samson required the superhuman strength demonstrated in his ministry, which implies that God had called him to a humanly impossible task, and it was only by God's supernatural power that Samson was able to fulfill what God had called him to do.

Since the sovereign God predetermines all things, he has a plan for each of his elect. Although his command for all believers to attain knowledge and holiness applies to every Christian, he indeed assigns different tasks to different Christians, and gives them the corresponding resources by which they must complete their tasks.

Parents must have this in mind, so that they may prepare their children to worship and obey God, and to fulfill the specific tasks that God has for them as outlined in Scripture and arranged by divine providence. To do this, parents must be highly knowledgeable in the word of God. The Bible says that it is by renewing our minds that we will be "able to test and approve what God's will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will" (Romans 12:2). When we desire to know God's will for our lives and for our children we must not look first to extra-biblical sources – visions, dreams, prophecies, or impressions. Rather, we must look to the Scripture.

The Bible continues:

Then Manoah prayed to the LORD: "O Lord, I beg you, let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born." God heard Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman while she was out in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her. The woman hurried to tell her husband, "He's here! The man who appeared to me the other day!" Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he said, "Are you the one who talked to my wife?" "I am," he said. So Manoah asked him, "When your words are fulfilled, what is to be the rule for the boy's life and work?" The angel of the LORD answered, "Your wife must do all that I have told her. She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, nor drink any wine or other fermented drink nor eat anything unclean. She must do everything I have commanded her." (Judges 13:8-14)

Manoah prayed and asked God to show him how to bring up Samson, that is, to let him know what was to be "the rule for the boy's life and work." Many parents, even those who claim to be Christians, do not take the time to read the Bible and pray to God for instructions on how to raise their children. They often raise their children as the unbelievers do, and often even teach them the unbelievers' values and priorities. Are these parents real Christians in the first place?

Of course, the negligence of the parents does not imply that their children will fail to come to Christ or to fulfill God's plan, "for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable" (Romans 11:29). By God's sovereign grace, his purposes for the elect will stand and succeed. Nevertheless, God commands parents to bring up their children to worship and obey God.

Then, Judges 13:15-22 continues:

Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "We would like you to stay until we prepare a young goat for you." The angel of the LORD replied, "Even though you detain me, I will not eat any of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the LORD." (Manoah did not realize that it was the angel of the LORD.) Then Manoah inquired of the angel of the LORD, "What is your name, so that we may honor you when your word comes true?" He replied, "Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding."

Then Manoah took a young goat, together with the grain offering, and sacrificed it on a rock to the LORD. And the LORD did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched: As the flame blazed up from the altar toward heaven, the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame. Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell with their faces to the ground. When the angel of the LORD did not show himself again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it was the angel of the LORD. "We are doomed to die!" he said to his wife. "We have seen God!"

The angel may have been the pre-incarnate Son of God. More than a few scholars agree that "the angel of the Lord" refers to the person of Jesus Christ before he took on human form. In addition, this "angel" seemed to have accepted worship, having "ascended in the flame" of the sacrifice. Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary explains as follows:

A mysterious messenger of God, sometimes described as the Lord Himself (Gen. 16:10-13; Ex. 3:2-6; 23:20; Judg. 6:11-8), but at other times as one sent by God. The Lord used this messenger to appear to human beings who otherwise would not be able to see Him and live (Ex. 33:20). The Angel of the Lord performed actions associated with God, such as revelation, deliverance, and destruction; but he can be spoken of as distinct from God (2 Sam. 24:16; Zech. 1:12). This special relationship is a mystery similar to that between Jesus and God in the New Testament.[4]

People believed that if a person ever saw God, he would die. Thus in verse 22, Manoah exclaimed, "We are doomed to die! We have seen God!" But his wife reasoned, "If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and grain offering from our hands, nor shown us all these things or now told us this" (v. 23).

Manoah's wife soon "gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew and the Lord blessed him" (v. 24). God performed a miracle in Samson's mother, causing her barren womb to conceive and enabled her to give birth (Judges 13:2-3).

Soon after, "the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him while he was in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol" (v. 25), showing the reader that the Spirit of God would sovereignly demonstrate his power in Samson's life and work. It was the Holy Spirit who enabled Samson to do what God had called him to do. Later, Samson would betray the anointing by violating the conditions imposed upon him by God, and the power of his ministry left him – until he was restored.

When God calls you to perform a certain task, he also empowers you by his Holy Spirit. Any degree of success that we attain comes only because of God's sovereign foreordination and the Spirit's empowerment. God sees to it that no one may boast in his presence. Our dependence should not rest on human credentials and resources such as academic degrees, financial support, or strategic relationships.

No one can accomplish what God has called him to do without the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Even those who produced the furniture of the Old Covenant tabernacle were especially anointed by God's Spirit:

Then the LORD said to Moses, "See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts – to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship. Moreover, I have appointed Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, to help him. Also I have given skill to all the craftsmen to make everything I have commanded you." (Exodus 31:1-6)

God has called us to "take captive every thought" (2 Corinthians 10:5). As Paul writes, "Who is equal to such a task?" (2 Corinthians 2:16), but then he adds, "but our competence comes from God" (3:5). Thus although we are powerless in ourselves (John 15:5), by the power of the Holy Spirit mere human beings like us can preach and write words that God will use as the means by which he will sovereignly enlighten and transform others.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [2] Holman Bible Dictionary; Nashville, Tennessee: Holman Bible Publishers, 1991; p. 1011. [3] See Numbers 6:1-22 for the detailed instructions God gave to Moses about the Nazirite. Whereas one usually volunteered to be a Nazirite, God sovereignly imposed the vow upon Samson before he was born. [4] Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary; Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1986; "Angel of the Lord."

4. HIS STRENGTH

By Judges 14, Samson had grown to an age suitable for marriage, and he told his parents that he would like to marry a Philistine woman:

Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman. When he returned, he said to his father and mother, "I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife." His father and mother replied, "Isn't there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?" But Samson said to his father, "Get her for me. She's the right one for me." (His parents did not know that this was from the LORD, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were ruling over Israel.) (Judges 14:1-4)

This passage reflects God's absolute and exhaustive sovereignty – his total control over people and circumstances.

Israel was under the control of the Philistines, and God had chosen and enabled Samson to attack the Philistines and to deliver the Israelites. As the angel said, he would "begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines" (Judges 13:5). When Samson wanted to marry a Philistine woman, his parents were surprised and dismayed. But verse 4 says, "His parents did not know that this was from the Lord, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines."

God had constructed in Samson a destructive weapon against Israel's enemy, and this was his way of deploying it. Samson's desire to marry a Philistine woman was from God. He was sovereign not only deciding the purpose of Samson's life, but also in how he was to accomplish this purpose. By choosing a Philistine woman to be his wife, there would arise an occasion, or opportunity, to "confront the Philistines." The marriage would create an opportunity and a reason for Samson to fight against Israel's enemies.

Nevertheless, since it was against God's preceptive will to marry an unbeliever, it was a sin for Samson to marry this Philistine woman. God was sovereign over Samson, and could cause him to perform righteousness or wickedness according to his own divine will. "Free will" is such a popular and desirable concept for many Christians that they are blind to the Bible's absolute rejection of free will. Rather, Scripture teaches that God controls everything, including all human decisions.

In this case, God's decretive will caused Samson to commit this sin of marrying an unbeliever, having decided that Samson would accomplish the divine purpose in such a manner. Nevertheless, it was still a sin, and Samson was still responsible for his action, since responsibility is based on whether God holds someone accountable, and not on whether the person was able to do otherwise.

One commentator writes, "While Samson's desire was sinful, God sovereignly used it for his own purposes to bring judgment on the Philistines. Although God's providence incorporates evil and moral ambiguities, it does not justify wrongdoing."[5] God's decree for a person to sin does not justify his sin because God himself will count or judge that sin as wicked. However, this does not mean that God is unjust, since it is God himself who decides what is just and what is unjust, and he says that he is always just. Therefore, it is just for God to judge a person for his sins, even though this person committed those sins only because God had decreed that he would do so.

Of course, as a parent you should never allow your child to do anything that is against God's preceptive will – that is, his commands as revealed by Scripture. In this case, Samson's parents resisted, but eventually capitulated to his demand. Children may often demand something that goes against God's precepts, and it is up to the parents to insist on obedience to Scripture.

But sometimes the reverse may be true. The child may find himself having to insist on obeying God contrary to the wishes and demands of his parents. This may be especially true when one is called by God to the ministry. Today's parents, even those who claim to be Christians, are often disappointed when God chooses their child to be a preacher. As Jesus states, "No prophet is accepted in his hometown" (Luke 4:24). This demonstrates how far their minds have wandered from God.

Rather than being disappointed or even horrified, parents ought to be most thankful to God that he has chosen their child to be a minister – to hold the highest office available to a man. A lack of gratitude toward God for calling the child is not only tragic for the parent and child relationship, but it is sinful and wicked, seeing that they despise the gift and calling of God. They would prefer that their child become a slave to money rather than a slave to Jesus Christ. They may claim to be Christians, but it is likely that their faith is not genuine and that they have never been regenerated in the first place.

Those who are called to the ministry must not be too eager for the approval of relatives and friends, lest they compromise God's commission toward them. Jesus had predicted that his coming would destroy many human relationships: "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn 'a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law – a man's enemies will be the members of his own household'" (Matthew 10:34-36).

But Jesus also promised to reward those who would remain loyal to him and prefer him in all things regardless of family opposition: "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life" (Matthew 19:29). He also warns, "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matthew 10:37-39).

Some people claim that true religion would never divide relatives or friends, and if your faith damages your relationship with relatives and friends, then your faith must be false or distorted. However, Scripture teaches that true faith will often divide relatives and friends, probably depending on whether they share your faith. Of course, if accurately affirming the Christian faith divides you from your relatives and friends who do not share this faith, and if you are not bringing this division about by any unbiblical aggravation, then such division is their fault and not yours. Since Christianity is the only true religion, they ought to be affirming the same things that you now affirm.

The family of Jesus had not always understood or supported him. For example, we read the following in Luke 2:42-50:

When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom. After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you." "Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" But they did not understand what he was saying to them.

Other passages imply that his family did not endorse his work. Matthew 12:46-50 is one example:

While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. Someone told him, "Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you." He replied to him, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?" Pointing to his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."

Matthew Henry writes as follows:

Christ was interrupted in his preaching by his mother and his brethren…perhaps it was only designed to oblige him to break off…His mother and brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him, when they should have been standing within, desiring to hear him…Frequently those who are nearest to the means of knowledge and grace, are most negligent. Familiarity and easiness of access breed some degree of contempt…They not only would not hear him themselves, but they interrupted others that heard him gladly. The devil was a sworn enemy to our Saviour's preaching. He had sought to baffle his discourse by the unreasonable cavils of the scribes and Pharisees, and when he could not gain his point that way, he endeavoured to break it off by the unseasonable visits of relations…We often meet with hindrances and obstructions in our work, by our friends that are about us, and are taken off by civil respects from our spiritual concerns.[6]

John 7:3-5 makes explicit the resistance of Jesus' brothers toward his ministry: "Jesus' brothers said to him, 'You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the miracles you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.' For even his own brothers did not believe in him." Some of Jesus' brothers believed on him later, but at first they did not.

Your commitment toward Christ must be such that there would not be any struggle or anguish to put him first if your loyalty to him conflicts with your loyalty to family and friends. Jesus said, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26). If you cannot do this, you are not even a Christian, and you are still unconverted.

Then, the Bible continues in Judges 14:5-6:

Samson went down to Timnah together with his father and mother. As they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him. The Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done.

Back in Judges 13:25, we came across the words, "the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him," but the verse does not tell us what the Spirit would do through him. Thus the above passage shows for the first time what special gift God gave to Samson, and in what special way the Spirit would manifest through him. "There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:4) – the Spirit illuminated Joseph about dreams, caused Samuel to prophesy, and enabled David to rule as king. By the same Spirit, God gave to Samson the gift of supernatural strength.

God called Samson to deliver Israel from the Philistines, but he did not give Samson a gift of military leadership. Indeed, Samson had no army and he did not need one. God could have given Samson the wisdom and ability of a military leader, as he did to Joshua and Gideon, who led the people of Israel to fight against their enemies, at times against tremendous odds, and were victorious by the power of God. But God had given Samson the strength of an entire army.

After killing the lion, Samson "told neither his father nor his mother what he had done" (Judges 14:6). Most people would tell everyone they know if they were to accomplish such a feat of strength, but Samson did not tell his parents. It appears that Samson did not think that killing a lion with his bare hands was some great feat to boast about. This was not because he was especially humble, but probably because something like this was not too unusual or surprising to him. When we see his reactions to his future feats of strength, we will see that this inference is probably correct.

Judges 14:7-9 continues to say:

Then he went down and talked with the woman, and he liked her. Some time later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to look at the lion's carcass. In it was a swarm of bees and some honey, which he scooped out with his hands and ate as he went along. When he rejoined his parents, he gave them some, and they too ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion's carcass.

Samson went to the Philistine woman and talked with her. As he was returning to her after a time to marry her, he remembered the lion's carcass and so went to look. There he found a swarm of bees and some honey.

No sooner had we witnessed the divine gift in Samson do we see him betraying it. Samson was a Nazirite and was not supposed to touch the dead: "Throughout the period of his separation to the LORD he must not go near a dead body. Even if his own father or mother or brother or sister dies, he must not make himself ceremonially unclean on account of them, because the symbol of his separation to God is on his head" (Numbers 6:6-7). But Samson touched the lion carcass and even ate from its corpse.

The fact that Samson was able to tear a lion apart with his bare hands, and that he did not think it was a big deal, implies that he had great faith in God's power. However, this passage shows that he did not take his Nazirite vow seriously enough. Although he appeared to have faith in the Lord, his faith was severely marred because he lacked the fear of the Lord. One who does not fear the Lord can do some foolish things. Since "the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom" (Psalm 111:10), all who do not fear him have not even started to become wise. This lack of godly fear ultimately led to Samson's downfall. His greatest problem was not Delilah.

Jesus said, "I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him" (Luke 12:4-5). Fearing God was what Samson failed to do. Perhaps his view of God was distorted so that he had some confidence in God's power but failed to recognize God's holiness, and the seriousness of his Nazirite commitment. He demonstrated no fear that he might have done something to offend God. This attitude would prove to be fatal, but not before God changed him and accomplished his sovereign decree through him.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [5] Spirit of the Reformation Study Bible; Zondervan, 2003; p. 369. See also Vincent Cheung, Systematic Theology. [6] Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible; Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1991; p. 1676.

5. HIS WEAKNESS

One of Samson's character flaws was that he lacked the fear of God, and this was the ultimate cause of his downfall. This chapter brings us to another of his character flaws that turned out to be the immediate cause of his downfall.

We will begin by reading from Judges 14:10-14:

Now his father went down to see the woman. And Samson made a feast there, as was customary for bridegrooms. When he appeared, he was given thirty companions. "Let me tell you a riddle," Samson said to them. "If you can give me the answer within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes. If you can't tell me the answer, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes." "Tell us your riddle," they said. "Let's hear it." He replied, "Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet." For three days they could not give the answer.

The passage refers to Samson's wedding. We noted earlier that although Samson sinned by marrying a Philistine woman, God had sovereignly decreed Samson to commit such a sin so that Samson would gain the opportunity and reason to attack the Philistines.

Verses 10 and 11 say, "And Samson made a feast there, as was customary for bridegrooms. When he appeared, he was given thirty companions." According to the custom of that time, Samson gave a wedding feast, and while the bridegroom had "companions," the bride had "virgins" with her.

During the feast, Samson challenged the Philistines to solve a riddle within seven days. Orientals were fond of riddles as a form of entertainment, especially on such occasions. Here the loser was to give the winner "thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes." The "linen garments" were worn next to the body, often by people of rank and wealth, and the "clothes" refers to outer woolen clothing. Since these were expensive items, there was much at stake.

The Philistines still had not come up with the answer by the third day, and so they threatened Samson's wife:

For three days they could not give the answer. On the fourth day, they said to Samson's wife, "Coax your husband into explaining the riddle for us, or we will burn you and your father's household to death. Did you invite us here to rob us?" Then Samson's wife threw herself on him, sobbing, "You hate me! You don't really love me. You've given my people a riddle, but you haven't told me the answer." "I haven't even explained it to my father or mother," he replied, "so why should I explain it to you?" She cried the whole seven days of the feast. So on the seventh day he finally told her, because she continued to press him. She in turn explained the riddle to her people. Before sunset on the seventh day the men of the town said to him, "What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?" Samson said to them, "If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle." (Judges 14:14-18)

The riddle was really about the lion Samson killed and the honey he later found in its carcass (Judges 14:5-9). No one really knew the answer to it except Samson – he had not even told his parents what happened on the road to Timnah, and when his wife asked him for the answer, he said, "I haven't even explained it to my father and mother, so why should I explain it to you?" It was important for the Philistines to solve the riddle, because both money and pride were at stake. They were not about to be outwitted by an Israelite! So in verse 15, they threatened Samson's wife to get the answer from her husband.

Thus Samson's wife pressed her husband for the answer to the riddle and would not relent: Then Samson's wife threw herself on him, sobbing, "You hate me! You don't really love me. You've given my people a riddle, but you haven't told me the answer." "I haven't even explained it to my father or mother," he replied, "so why should I explain it to you?" She cried the whole seven days of the feast. So on the seventh day he finally told her, because she continued to press him. She in turn explained the riddle to her people. (Judges 14:16-17)

This brings us to Samson's other major weakness. We are not referring to sexual lust, since even if one can show that lust was one of his problems, it was never the immediate cause of his downfall. Rather, we are referring to his vulnerability to manipulative women.

Every unregenerate person has the inclination to manipulate others for selfish purposes. This evil tendency comes naturally to all non-Christians and should not surprise us. It is only by God's sovereign work of regeneration and sanctification in us that it may be changed. It does not matter if you claim to be a Christian, or if your lips call Jesus as "Lord" – if your basic motivation is self-preservation, then you are not a Christian, and you have never been a Christian. You may call him "Lord," but you do not believe it, and you have never meant it:

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple….In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26-27, 33)

In this case, we are referring to psychological manipulation coming from a woman. She "cried the whole seven days of the feast" (v. 17), and said to Samson such things as, "You hate me! You don't really love me. You've given my people a riddle, but you haven't told me the answer" (v. 16). This kind of manipulation is demonic. Christian women should never try to manipulate men like this, and Christian men should become immune to such manipulation, but rather disallow it altogether.

Of course, although psychological manipulation is sinful, not every type of control is wrong. God places people in positions of authority to exercise legitimate control over others according to his purposes. For example, he has instituted positions of authority in the family, the government, and the church:

Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. (Ephesians 5:22-24)

Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. (Romans 13:1)

Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you. (Hebrews 13:17)

Although human beings often abuse what God has ordained, this does not negate the fact that he has placed certain people in positions of authority.

Samson's wife was trying to get the answer out of Samson by psychological pressure and manipulation. His specific weakness in this instance was not sexual, but it was his failure to endure or confront manipulation by a woman. It is true that his illegitimate desire for and sinful marriage to this woman placed him in this situation, but he finally gave her the answer to the riddle not because of any sexual urges he had, but it was only because he could no longer endure her constant nagging: "So on the seventh day he finally told her, because she continued to press him" (v. 17).

It seems popular to think that Samson got himself into all his problems because of his allegedly insatiable sexual appetite. However, his weakness in this case was plainly not sexual but psychological. He could not be firm with his wife and tell her to be silent. He could not maintain a decision he had made against a woman's prolonged nagging. Later, Samson would compromise his Nazirite vow for the same reason.

Do you try to get your way with your husband by nagging him? Stop it! It is an evil thing to do, especially if you are badgering him to do something against his biblical agenda for the family, or a biblically permissible decision that he has already made. If you are in the habit of badgering your husband or arguing with him, then you are an annoying and wicked woman:

A foolish son is his father's ruin, and a quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping. (Proverbs 19:13)

Better to live in a desert than with a quarrelsome and ill-tempered wife. (Proverbs 21:9)

Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife. (Proverbs 25:24)

A quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping on a rainy day; restraining her is like restraining the wind or grasping oil with the hand. (Proverbs 27:15-16)

Even before Samson surrendered to his wife's manipulation, she had already betrayed her husband by submitting to external threats. Although a woman may badger her husband about various things, one common theme is that the woman may want her husband to conform or measure up to some worldly and non-Christian standard. A wicked woman may become dissatisfied and ashamed when God calls her husband to do something that is not respectable or important according to the world. Instead of placing her trust in God and her husband's spiritual gifts she may attempt to influence him so that he may conform to the worldly standard of what is respectable or important. Instead of taking Samson's side and trusting in him, Samson's wife surrendered to the Philistines' demand so that she manipulated and betrayed her husband. But what she compromised to keep, she later lost anyway.

If your husband has been called to the ministry, you must not allow the values and standards of this world to control your thinking, so that you become of your husband's calling. The world may despise ministers of the gospel, and think that they are unimportant and irrelevant, if not altogether harmful to society. There is no greater calling for a human being than the calling to oversee the flock of God. Instead of pressuring your husband to conform to worldly standard, you should instead defend his calling and encourage him to pursue it with diligence and passion. Do not allow yourself to be the biggest hindrance in his determination to obey God.

On the other hand, if your husband has been called to a profession that even the world deems respectable, do not consider yourself fortunate, but rather be humbled by the fact that God has chosen to withhold the most honorable profession from your husband, and that he has not entrusted him with the most sacred task available to man. Likewise, the husband must never succumb to pressure from relatives and friends to compromise his calling. Jesus said, "No one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life" (Luke 18:29-30).

Samson had lost the challenge, and therefore he owed the Philistines "thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes." Judges 14:18-20 tells us how he managed to pay the debt:

Before sunset on the seventh day the men of the town said to him, "What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?" Samson said to them, "If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle." Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power. He went down to Ashkelon, struck down thirty of their men, stripped them of their belongings and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle. Burning with anger, he went up to his father's house. And Samson's wife was given to the friend who had attended him at his wedding.

The Philistines did not play fair, since they threatened Samson's wife to get the answer to the riddle. Now, God "was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines" (Judges 14:4), and perhaps in revenge for the way the Philistines solved his riddle, Samson went about thirty miles away from where he was, through the territory of the Philistines to a place called Ashkelon. There, Samson "struck down thirty of their men stripped them of their belongings and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle." "The Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power" to pay the Philistines by robbing some of their own people!

God had called Samson to be a killing machine against the Philistines. As we examine his life, we will see that he slaughtered the Philistines over what appeared to be personal issues. In reality, God was arranging situations in which he would unleash Samson to bring judgment and destruction against the Philistines.

6. HIS VICTORIES

Samson had lost the challenge of the riddle, and after paying his debt to the Philistines (by robbing other Philistines), Judges 14:19 says, "Burning with anger, he went up to his father's house."

After some time, Samson desired to be reconciled with his wife, and so he went to her:

Later on, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. He said, "I'm going to my wife's room." But her father would not let him go in. "I was so sure you thoroughly hated her," he said, "that I gave her to your friend. Isn't her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead." Samson said to them, "This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them." So he went out and caught three hundred foxes and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails, lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves. (Judges 15:1-5)

Samson was "burning with anger" at how the Philistines were able to solve the riddle and how his wife had betrayed him by giving them the answer. When his anger subsided and he wanted to be reconciled with her, and so he "took a young goat and went to visit his wife." But when he arrived, "her father would not let him go in," but explained, "I was so sure you thoroughly hated her that I gave her to your friend."

The father thought that Samson must have "thoroughly hated her" because of her betrayal. The word translated "hated" here may have been a technical word when used in the context of marriage, and implies the intention to divorce:

If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the LORD. Do not bring sin upon the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance. (Deuteronomy 24:1-4)

The word translated "dislikes" here in verse 3 by the NIV is the same word translated "hated" in Judges 15:2, and it is correctly translated as such in the KJV. Thus the word "hated" in Judges 15:2 may suggest the idea of divorce, so that Samson's father-in-law may have meant, "I thought you must have divorced her (or wanted to divorce her) after what she did to you."

Samson responded, "This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them" (v. 3), and he exacted his revenge by burning down the Philistines' crops. The attack was again the result of a personal issue between Samson and the Philistines, but God was fulfilling his plans through all of this. God had apparently decided to have Samson fulfill his calling in this manner. He created Samson to be a killing machine, and he unleashed Samson against the Philistines by generating personal conflicts between them. Recall that the sinful marriage itself was initiated by God to create "an occasion to confront the Philistines" (Judges 14:4).

God is sovereign to do whatever he wants, and to use whatever means he wants to do it. He arranged Samson's circumstances and his reactions so that even the personal details of his life served to fulfill God's plans. Likewise, God arranges our circumstances and our thoughts so that even the personal details of our lives serve to fulfill his plans. However, God is often pleased to have us fulfill his plans through our conscious involvement, but nevertheless a consciousness that is directed by God himself: "The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases" (Proverbs 21:1).

Samson burned down the Philistines' crops by tying three hundred foxes together by their tails, fastened torches to them, and "let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines." This caused much damage. When the Philistines discovered that it was Samson who attacked them, and that he did it because his wife was given to another, they "went up and burned her and her father to death" (v. 6).

The Philistines had threatened Samson's wife that they would burn her to death if she had not manipulated the answer to the riddle out of her husband. Instead of being faithful and trusting to her husband, the woman betrayed Samson. But eventually she lost what she compromised to keep, so that she and her father were burned to death. If she had sided with her husband, he could have easily protected her against the Philistines.

Christians should never compromise biblical precepts to save themselves, and what you compromise to protect, you are likely to lose anyway. Jesus said, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it" (Matthew 16:24-25).

If you desire to have approval of God, but you are desperately seeking approval from your relatives, friends, and unbelievers, then it is likely that you will lose both. If you compromise to gain the approval of unbelievers, then your life no longer pleases God, because "Anyone who choose to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God" (James 4:4).

At the same time, as a Christian, you will also fail to gain the world's respect, since "If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you" (John 15:19). The world will never truly love a Christian, and one who compromises God's approval to gain worldly approval will soon lose both. As long as he remains this way, he will live in misery. Jesus said, "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other" (Matthew 6:24), and Paul reasoned, "No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs – he wants to please his commanding officer" (2 Timothy 2:4).

God's power is more than sufficient to protect us from the world's intimidation, so that we have no reason and no need to compromise. Some people compromise the message of the gospel to attract sinners, or to make themselves more acceptable to the world. But if we do that, do we still get to keep what we are seeking to preserve? No, we would have lost it already. We must come to the place where we can sincerely say with Paul, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes" (Romans 1:16).

We do this not through an irrational commitment or "a leap of faith"; rather, by rigorous theological studies and by the assurance of the Spirit, we will realize that the Christian faith is the only true system of belief, and that it is not only rationally superior to all others, but that it is in fact the only possible religion and worldview. In an age when moral and intellectual cowardice and indecision are being disguised as "tolerance," even some who claim to be Christians abandon the uniqueness of our matchless gospel, as if God will be displeased with us for having too much confidence in the infallibility of Scripture and the atonement of Christ! Scripture makes it clear that those who affirm or preach another gospel are not Christians at all, and they will suffer endless conscious torment in hell.

Soon after Samson attacked the Philistines for the second time, he was again provoked against them. When Samson found out what the Philistines did to his wife and father-in- law, he said, "Since you've acted like this, I won't stop until I get my revenge on you." Therefore, "He attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam" (Judges 15:8). This was the third attack against the Philistines.

The Bible then quickly leads us to Samson's fourth attack against the Philistines:

The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi. The men of Judah asked, "Why have you come to fight us?" "We have come to take Samson prisoner," they answered, "to do to him as he did to us."

Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, "Don't you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done to us?" He answered, "I merely did to them what they did to me." They said to him, "We've come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines." Samson said, "Swear to me that you won't kill me yourselves." "Agreed," they answered. "We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you."

So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock. As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men. Then Samson said, "With a donkey's jawbone I have made donkeys of them. With a donkey's jawbone I have killed a thousand men." When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called Ramath Lehi. (Judges 15:9-17)

After he "slaughtered many" Philistines, Samson "stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam." The Philistines went up to Judah and demanded that Samson be handed over to them. So the men of Judah came to Samson and said, "Don't you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done to us?" In other words, they were saying, "What have you gotten us into? Don't you realize that the Philistines had conquered us, and our nation is currently under their rule? Why do you seek trouble with them?" And they told Samson that they were going to tie him up and surrender him to the Philistines.

Most crowds will yield to the greatest pressure without consideration of God's glory or his precepts. These men of Judah could have trusted in God's power in Samson's life, and recommended a full-scale insurrection, which would have also proved that they were cured from the sin and unbelief that resulted in their subjugation under the Philistines in the first place.

Samson was God's chosen deliverer for Israel. Thus to a great measure, their faith in his ability reflected their attitude toward God. If so, what can we infer from the fact that they abandoned Samson? They could have said, "Samson, we recognize that God has given you supernatural strength, and that he has called you to deliver Israel from the Philistines. We are grateful for God's provision and we have faith in his power, and therefore we also have confidence in you. Now, why don't we take this opportunity to declare war against the Philistine and be rid of them? Let us take this nation back for the glory of God!"

That is what they should have said, but instead, they complained against God's chosen one and said, "What have you gotten us into? Don't you realize that the Philistines are our rulers? We have come to surrender you to them so that they will leave us alone." They have decided to surrender to their enemies the man of God – their only chance for deliverance at that time.

Christian leaders should take a lesson from this. Most people cannot be trusted under pressure. This is true even concerning those who claim to be Christians. Of course, those who would betray God's chosen leaders are probably false converts in the first place. In any case, you would like to think that those who claim to be Christians would remain faithful to God and to you, but most of them are not nearly as committed as they present themselves to be. Most crowds are fickle and easily intimidated by pressure. In fact, most professing Christians are not willing even to sacrifice part of their income for God's kingdom, let alone for you. But is it really that bad? Well, the truth is that you might be like this also. You may make bold claims about your commitment and resolve, but when the pressure comes, you are probably one of those who turn and run.

When Jesus was about to be arrested, he said to his disciples, "This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written: 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered'" (Matthew 26:31). But Peter protested, "Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will" (v. 33). Then, Jesus predicted, "This very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times," and it happened just like he said. The other disciples also misjudged their own commitment to Christ: "But Peter declared, 'Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.' And all the other disciples said the same" (v. 35). But later, "all the disciples deserted him and fled" (Matthew 26:56).

Since what appears to be faith can be false, and since it is possible to misjudge our commitment, a faith that has been tested is priceless. As Job said, "When he has tested me, I will come forth as gold" (Job 23:10), and Peter wrote, "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed" (1 Peter 1:6-7). True faith is rare, but false converts abound. Even Jesus did not place his trust on his disciples, especially untested ones: "Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. He did not need man's testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man" (John 2:23- 25).

Christian leaders who base their confidence in the number and the loyalty of their supporters are deceived. They do not really have the support that they think they have. Those who place their trust in the crowds may be disappointed when the group faces pressure, or when the organization suffers persecution. Of course, it is possible that some people will remain faithful. The point is that not all who say that they will remain faithful will in fact remain faithful. Ultimately, one can only trust in God, since only he is pure in intention and unlimited in ability: "This is what the LORD says: 'Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD'" (Jeremiah 17:5).

This is not to say that no professing Christian will remain faithful to God and to Christian leaders under pressure, but it remains that not all professing Christians are genuine Christians, and as people who have never undergone spiritual regeneration and sanctification by the Spirit, they can be extremely fickle. On the other hand, a mind regenerated by the Spirit and renewed by the Scripture is also one that is being transformed into the likeness of Christ, enabling one to be bold to stand for the truth in the midst of pressure and intimidation. Scripture teaches that you should never overestimate yourself, and that it is right to test yourself and examine your commitment. Employ the means that God has granted you to grow in faith, so that when tests and trials come, you will be ready for them.

Samson was aware of the people's weakness, but he had enough confidence in God's power working through him that he did not require their assistance. He only asked that they would not try to kill him themselves, but just hand him over to the Philistines:

They said to him, "We've come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines." Samson said, "Swear to me that you won't kill me yourselves." "Agreed," they answered. "We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you." So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock. (Judges 15:12- 13)

There has been much emphasis on "team work" in recent years, and this emphasis has influenced the thinking of many Christians, generating much hostility against the so-called "lone ranger" mentality. However, it really depends on the quality of the team, so that a greater number of people does not always translate into greater success. The effectiveness of any team has much to do with the competence and character of the team members, so that one "Samson" is better than an army of fools.

Now, it is true that God generally desires Christians to work together, and that each person has something meaningful to contribute: "As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I don't need you!' And the head cannot say to the feet, 'I don't need you!' On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable" (1 Corinthians 12:20-22).

Nevertheless, it is unbiblical to say that one person is always insufficient. An insistence on "team work" without exception comes more from secular social and business theory than from valid biblical exegesis, and shows little confidence in God's sovereignty and the Spirit's power. David said, "You, O LORD, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light. With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall" (Psalm 18:28-29). In another place, he wrote:

O LORD, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! Many are saying of me, "God will not deliver him." But you are a shield around me, O LORD; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head. To the LORD I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill. I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me. I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side. Arise, O LORD! Deliver me, O my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked. From the LORD comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people. (Psalm 3:1-8)

Although Jeremiah experienced much inner turmoil during his ministry, God had called him to face the rebellious nation alone, and God enabled him to fulfill his mission: "When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear your name, O LORD God Almighty. I never sat in the company of revelers, never made merry with them; I sat alone because your hand was on me and you had filled me with indignation" (Jeremiah 15:16-17).

We should reject every secular theory that undermines the believer's individual potential in Christ, so that we may imitate the faith of Paul, who wrote:

At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen. (2 Timothy 4:16-18)

Although everyone left him, it was sufficient that God alone stood by him and strengthened him. He believed that God would deliver him "from every evil attack," and would bring him "safely to his heavenly kingdom."

Can we say with the apostle Paul, "I can do everything through him who gives me strength" (Philippians 4:13)? Or, do we say, "We can do all things only through team ministry?" It is better to have a small team made up of spiritual giants rather than to have a large group of spiritual cowards who are psychologically dependent on one another, and where no one individual is truly strong. Otherwise, one is probably better off working by himself.

Samson was depending on God's power, and anything else could not have saved him. Many preachers say that this was precisely his problem – Samson trusted in God and not in people! They say that Samson would have been better off if he had worked with other people. But God himself called Samson to work alone. Besides, those people whom he was supposed to work with were the very ones who had surrendered him to the Philistines. Some falsely infer from Samson's story that if you work alone and trust only in God, then you are going to fail because you are not working with other people. Rather, a more proper inference would be that if you work with people, then you better trust in God to protect you from those people. The point is not that "team ministry" is wrong, since some variations of the concept are biblical, but the point here is that many people make false inferences from the life of Samson to support their ideas on "team ministry."

Samson's willingness to face an army of Philistines by himself reflected his faith in the power of God, although his attitude toward God was far from perfect, as we will see below. Nevertheless, to the extent that he did trust in God's power, we must imitate his faith, and learn to trust in God's power at work in our ministries: "We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me" (Colossians 1:28-29).

Then, as the men of Judah handed Samson over to the Philistines, the power of God came upon Samson:

As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men. (Judges 15:14-15)

Samson killed a thousand Philistines by himself, but earlier, three thousand men from Judah went to Samson just to surrender him to their enemies (Judges 15:11). It is better to have the cooperation of one "Samson," than three thousand "men of Judah" who would betray the man of God at the first sign of trouble.

After Samson "struck down a thousand men," he said, "With a donkey's jawbone I have made donkeys of them. With a donkey's jawbone I have killed a thousand men." In Hebrew, this is a rhymed couplet with a play on words. The NIV has translated it perhaps as fittingly as possible: "With a donkey's jawbone I have made donkeys of them"! Samson's confidence was such that he could make light of situations even like this one.

But then we see what may be another example of his lack of godly fear.

When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called Ramath Lehi. Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the LORD, "You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?" Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called En Hakkore, and it is still there in Lehi. (Judges 15:17-19)

He prayed, "You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?" Although he had great confidence in God's power, he failed to address God with reverence. This made him spiritually careless and foolish. He took for granted God's deliverance, so that rather than giving thanks, he demanded God to meet another need. But Paul told us to pray "with thanksgiving" (Philippians 4:6).

7. HIS DOWNFALL

The premise of this book admits that Samson had problems with his character, but the problems that directly led him into trouble were not sexual, but spiritual and psychological. As a Nazirite, although he was supposed to exhibit a high level of devotion to God and to follow certain specific rules, Samson never lived an especially godly life. For example, besides marrying an unbeliever, he had violated his Nazirite vow by touching a lion's carcass and eating from it. Scripture seems to show him as one who had confidence in God's power, but who had very little godly fear.

At the beginning of Judges 16, we do see Samson going to a prostitute:

One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her. The people of Gaza were told, "Samson is here!" So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They made no move during the night, saying, "At dawn we'll kill him." But Samson lay there only until the middle of the night. Then he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron. (v. 1-3)

Base on this passage, you should not think that Samson's main problem was sexual after all, since although most people who go to prostitutes may do so to satisfy their sexual lusts, that is often not the sole reason they go. Many sexually promiscuous men are that way because they have spiritual and psychological issues besides sexual ones, such as loneliness and depression.

We have no reason to assume that all the women Samson had been with were only to satisfy him sexually instead of psychologically also. For example, Samson wanted to marry the Philistine woman at Timnah because "he liked her" (Judges 14:7), so that his interests were not only sexual, but he was fond of the woman as a person. Further, if his interests were indeed only of the flesh, then why did he tolerate all the psychological pressure from the woman? Surely, there were attractive women elsewhere.

Even his relationship with Delilah was not only sexual, since the Bible says that he "fell in love" (Judges 16:4) with her. The popular portrayal of this relationship as one of intense seduction and uncontrollable lust cannot be substantiated by the actual biblical account. Lust was likely a factor, but to make it the exclusive factor in that relationship, or even to use it as the main factor to explain the whole of Samson's life, would be an irresponsible distortion of the biblical text.

We must also remember what Samson had been through. He married the woman he loved, but she betrayed him even before the wedding feast was over. When his anger subsided and went to seek reconciliation, he discovered that she had been given away to someone else. Then, after seeking revenge on the Philistines, they burned her and her family to death. After exacting revenge on them again, his own countrymen surrendered him to the Philistines. His parents did not understand him, his wife betrayed him, his own countrymen failed him, and the entire nation of the Philistines was after him.

Men of lesser character may have already killed themselves by this point, let alone going to a prostitute for comfort. This is not to excuse Samson's sins, but to show that many popular presentations of his life tend to be unfair and inaccurate because they do not take into account all the information about him. Of course it was sinful for Samson to have gone to a prostitute, but I am inclined to believe that he was seeking company besides sexual gratification.

When the people of Gaza found out that Samson was there, they "surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate," and planned to kill him. However, Samson "got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts…and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron." If the "hill that faces Hebron" (NIV) means the top of a hill from which one could see Hebron, then the distance between the gate of Gaza to that location was about one mile. However, if the phrase means a hill that was within Hebron (NASB: "the mountain which is opposite Hebron"), then the distance over which Samson had carried the gate becomes twenty to thirty-four miles. Either way, it was a long distance to have carried an entire city gate. This reminds us of the physical strength that God gave to Samson.

It is not until now that Delilah appeared:

Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, "See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver." (Judges 16:4-5)

Delilah is first mentioned here in the Bible. We have already gone through Judges 13, 14, and 15, but not until now do we see Delilah mentioned, and we have already arrived at the final chapter in the Bible on Samson's life. As asserted earlier, Samson's story is not mainly, let alone wholly, about his relationship with Delilah.

Rather than saying that Samson's relationship with Delilah was wholly based on sexual lust, verse 4 says that he "fell in love" with her. Of course he fell in love with the wrong woman, but he fell in love nonetheless. Thus I reject the notion that Samson's sexual problem, assuming that he had one, could satisfactorily explain his behavior. Rather, we must take into account his spiritual and psychological problems, such as his lack of devotion to his Nazirite commitment (and therefore to God), his loneliness, and all that he had experienced. It seems that Samson was a passionate person, but he could not keep his feelings under control. He was intensely emotional over the people and events in his life. Rather than encouraging strong emotions, the Bible teaches self-control.

The Philistines said to Delilah, "See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver" (v. 5). Samson was about to be betrayed again by another woman he loved, but this time it was not even for self- preservation, but for money.

Delilah wasted no time, but asked Samson outright, "Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued" (v. 6). If you were Samson, would you not be alarmed? Then, Samson lied to Delilah: "If anyone ties me with seven fresh thongs that have not been dried, I'll become as weak as any other man" (v. 7). The Bible continues in verses 8-12:

Then the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh thongs that had not been dried, and she tied him with them. With men hidden in the room, she called to him, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" But he snapped the thongs as easily as a piece of string snaps when it comes close to a flame. So the secret of his strength was not discovered. Then Delilah said to Samson, "You have made a fool of me; you lied to me. Come now, tell me how you can be tied." He said, "If anyone ties me securely with new ropes that have never been used, I'll become as weak as any other man." So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them. Then, with men hidden in the room, she called to him, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" But he snapped the ropes off his arms as if they were threads.

If you were Samson, and someone asked you how he may subdue you, and then proceed to do precisely what you told him, what would you think? It would be clear that the person was trying to harm you. You would have either retaliated or left the relationship. It is unlikely that Samson did not sense the danger at all, or did not know something of Delilah's intentions, but he remained in the relationship, and kept playing with her by lying about the secret of his strength.

Delilah tried again, and said, "Until now, you have been making a fool of me and lying to me. Tell me how you can be tied." She was beginning to use manipulative tactics, but Samson did not surrender right away:

He replied, "If you weave the seven braids of my head into the fabric [on the loom] and tighten it with the pin, I'll become as weak as any other man." So while he was sleeping, Delilah took the seven braids of his head, wove them into the fabric and tightened it with the pin. Again she called to him, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" He awoke from his sleep and pulled up the pin and the loom, with the fabric. (v. 13-14)

Then, Delilah escalated her effort, and applied even greater psychological pressure: "Then she said to him, 'How can you say, 'I love you,' when you won't confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven't told me the secret of your great strength'" (v. 15). Compare this to what Samson's wife said earlier: "You hate me! You don't really love me. You've given my people a riddle, but you haven't told me the answer" (Judges 14:16).

Delilah used the same strategy, but she was probably even more skillful. She said things like, "Until now, you have been making a fool of me and lying to me. Tell me how you can be tied," and "How can you say, 'I love you,' when you won't confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven't told me the secret of your great strength."

Samson could have handled it if she had only said these things several times, but he could not withstand relentless nagging: "With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was tired to death" (v. 16)! Before this, Samson played with her by giving her false answers. He did not confront her about her manipulation, nor did he leave the relationship. By failing to firmly deal with Delilah's manipulation, Samson finally became "tired to death" of her "nagging," which she continued "day after day."

At last, he told her the secret of his strength: "'No razor has ever been used on my head,' he said, 'because I have been a Nazirite set apart to God since birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man'" (v. 17). The consequences were devastating:

When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, "Come back once more; he has told me everything." So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands. Having put him to sleep on her lap, she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him. And his strength left him. Then she called, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" He awoke from his sleep and thought, "I'll go out as before and shake myself free." But he did not know that the LORD had left him. Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding in the prison. (v. 18-21)

Samson sealed his fate by allowing Delilah to take away all signs of his Nazirite commitment to God. Likewise, the devil is "looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). He will use manipulation, intimidation, deception, and all kinds of distractions in the attempt to have you break your covenant commitment to God. Satan himself deceived Eve, and then used her to tempt Adam, who sinned even though he was not deceived (1 Timothy 2:14). One who does not yield to one type of pressure may yield to another kind. Adam, who was not deceived by the devil, sinned because of Eve. And Samson, who was not in the least afraid of the Philistines, fell because of manipulation from a woman.

Samson's behavior was indeed strange. It was unlikely that he was oblivious to Delilah's intention; otherwise, why did he not tell her the truth about his strength the first time? After the first or second time, he must have known that Delilah's plan was to discover his secret, exploit it, and then hand him over to the Philistines. Knowing this, he could have left Delilah at any time, but he chose to remain.

Again, I am not convinced that his sexual lust could adequately explain this behavior, since his sexual lust could have been satisfied by another woman, In addition, the Bible tells us that he had fallen in love with Delilah. Thus his decision to stay with her should probably be attributed more to psychological factors rather than sexual ones.

Christians must not become overconfident simply because they are strong in certain areas. We must prevent ourselves from stumbling in any way. But ultimately, it will be God who keeps his elect "blameless" to the end (see 1 Corinthians 1:8, 1 Thessalonians 3:13, 5:23). Although we must "work out [our] salvation with fear and trembling," it is "God who works in [us] to will and to act according to his good purpose" (Philippians 2:12-13), so that no one may boast in his presence. The enemy is after our spiritual commitment, and he will entice us to abandon or compromise our relationship with God. Although many are deceived into sin, others walk into trouble with their eyes wide open. Let us not be like Esau, "who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son" (Hebrews 12:16).

8. SAMSON'S COMEBACK

God exercises exhaustive control over all things, including all human thoughts and decisions. By his providence, the Philistines did not kill Samson, but they "seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding in the prison" (Judges 16:21). Although he had slaughtered more than a thousand Philistines and destroyed their crops, they did not execute Samson once they had captured him. Perhaps they thought they would make him an example, or maybe after all that Samson had done to them, they wished to humiliate and torture him for a while first. Having "gouged out his eyes" and bound him "with bronze shackles," maybe they thought he was no longer a threat. But God's providence was at work – taking Samson into the important city of Gaza, with or without his eyes, was like taking in a ticking time bomb. Although he was blinded, Samson was God's Trojan horse to the Philistines.

The Philistines "gouged out his eyes," which seemed to be a tragic event, but it was probably the best thing that had ever happened to Samson. He was a passionate, energetic, and outgoing person, but no one understood him. His commitment to God was weak, and he was seeking to satisfy himself by looking for love in all the wrong places. Losing his sight and freedom forced him, perhaps for the first time in his life, to turn inward – to reflect on his life and his commitment to God. Jesus said:

If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell. (Mark 9:43-47)

Paul wrote, "But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world" (1 Corinthians 11:31-32). By God's sovereign grace, if Samson had repented, then he probably would not have suffered as he did. But as it turned out, he needed divine discipline, so that he would "not be condemned with the world. God works out all things for the good of his elect: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28).

God's purposes and plans can never be thwarted by man's disobedience, since man cannot even disobey his precepts without his active decree. Whether blind or seeing, bound or free, God placed Samson where he was supposed to be – right in the middle of the Philistines. God did this to destroy the Philistines, and to save Samson's soul at the same time. Now that Samson could not look outward, and now that he had no strength or freedom, he had to look inward, to examine himself, and to commune with God. We have no indication of him ever having done that. And this is the beginning of his turning back to God.

Many people are so busy today that they blaze forward in their careers without stopping to give priority to prayer, study, and meditation. Their minds are constantly thinking on earthly things and selfish ambitions. Some of them assume that because they are Christians, God will automatically bless them. But if they are not devoted to God, they may not be Christians at all. Some tend to think that material concerns are more urgent, and spiritual matters should be reserved for times when they are "free" – perhaps during vacations, church retreats, or when they retire.

But it is foolish to favor the earthly at the expense of the heavenly: "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?" (Mark 8:36). There is a misleading saying, that one can be "so heavenly minded that he is no earthly good." If this refers to one who seems to be so focused on his spiritual life that he fails to obey God's commandments regarding his relationship with other human beings, then he is not even spiritual in the first place (James 1:27), or at least he has a spiritual defect in this area even though he may be doing well in others. On the other hand, there is no limit to how "spiritual" a person can or should be. Often, this misleading statement is used by those who wish to defend their carnal lifestyle and attitude, and therefore deride those who are genuinely more spiritual. Only if you are spiritual will you be of any earthly good.

Christians must daily take time for prayer and study, shutting out all distractions. Once when Jesus was teaching his disciples, Martha, who had "opened her home to him," "was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made," while her sister Mary "sat at the Lord's feet" and was "listening to what he said." When Martha complained about Mary, Jesus answered that Mary had "chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her" (Luke 10:38-42). Spending time alone in prayer and study is more important than all the outward things that we so often busy ourselves with, including ministry work.

"But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved" (Judges 16:22). God was not going to leave Samson in that prison forever. The power of the Spirit began to return to him. The Bible continues:

Now the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate, saying, "Our god has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands." When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying, "Our god has delivered our enemy into our hands, the one who laid waste our land and multiplied our slain." While they were in high spirits, they shouted, "Bring out Samson to entertain us." So they called Samson out of the prison, and he performed for them. When they stood him among the pillars, Samson said to the servant who held his hand, "Put me where I can feel the pillars that support the temple, so that I may lean against them." Now the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform. (v. 23-27)

Samson's failure brought reproach to the God of Israel, since the Philistines interpreted their capture of Samson as the victory of their pagan god, Dagon. Similarly, when Christians fail to properly represent Jesus Christ – when they fail to stand strong in doctrine and character, they bring reproach to his name. Contrary to many people's opinion, your religion is not a purely personal affair – your beliefs and actions will affect other people. At the least, the quality of your faith will affect your family, and if you are a pastor, it will affect your congregation.

Jesus said, You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men" (Matthew 5:13). As Christians, we are the salt of the earth – although sin causes decay, we are the ones who prevent total corruption from taking place. However, "if the salt loses its saltiness," then "it is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men." If the salt loses its flavor, it is no longer acting as a preservative. Being good for nothing, it is thrown out into the streets, to be stepped on by people who walk by.

Without true Christians, society would erode. Without the true church, which is "the pillar and foundation of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15), what is left of human morality and decency would crumble, purpose and dignity would disappear, godly fear would be not existent in society, and the earth would become the devil's paradise. Only Christians can prevent this from occurring, and whether or not they know it, all non-Christians are doing everything they can to stop us (Matthew 12:30).

However, when professing Christians lose their distinctiveness, or their Christian "flavor," then they become "no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men." When professing Christians compromise their spiritual commitment and lose their flavor, they become overwhelmed by the world, even though the Bible says that they are the ones who should overcome the world because of their faith: "For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God" (1 John 5:4-5). Of course, in many cases, it is likely that these people have never been truly converted in the first place.

Having compromised his spiritual commitment, Samson lost his sight and his freedom to the Philistines. And they mocked him, saying, "Bring out Samson to entertain us," "So they called Samson out of the prison, and he performed for them" (v. 25). Samson was a spiritual hero – he was called by God to be a man of God, a great deliverer, but because of his negligence and his sins, the Philistines captured him, gouged out his eyes, and made him an object of ridicule and amusement.

Then, we come to the amazing conclusion of Samson's life:

Then Samson prayed to the LORD, "O Sovereign LORD, remember me. O God, please strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes." Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines!" Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived. Then his brothers and his father's whole family went down to get him. They brought him back and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had led Israel twenty years. (Judges 16:28-31)

After all Samson had done and been through, and when the situation looked so final, he still had faith to believe that God would work through him. What power must have been at work in Samson by God's sovereign grace, for him to have this kind of comeback faith! This kind of faith is rare even in professing Christians, who have the whole of Scripture to convince them of God's mercy. It is no wonder that although Samson is often negatively portrayed by people, God would instead honor him by placing his name alongside Abraham, Noah, Moses, David, and the other faithful men and women in Hebrews 11. The world is not worthy of one who understands and believes in God's sovereign grace.

If you look at Samson's life only in the context of his relationship with Delilah, you will not understand his greatness. But if you see him from the perspective of Hebrews 11 – as a man of faith – you will come to understand why God approved of him. God had mercy on Samson by granting him faith in God's sovereign grace despite Samson's flaws and failures.

The Bible says, "God's gifts and his call are irrevocable" (Romans 11:29). His promises toward the elect will always remain. On the other hand, he has promised nothing but damnation for the reprobates. This is not to say that one who has faith in God's goodness may go on sinning, since true faith believes in Scripture, which permits no such thing. As John explains, "No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God" (1 John 3:9). Christians are not encouraged to follow Samson in his sin, but they are rather encouraged to follow his faith in God's kindness. It is faith in God's mercy, not our good works, that enables the kingdom of God to advance. It is by faith that we will overcome the world (1 John 5:4-5). And even this faith comes only from God's sovereign decree, so that no one may boast.

In addition, it seems that Samson had finally learned to fear God, as evidenced in his prayer: "Then Samson prayed to the LORD, 'O Sovereign LORD, remember me. O God, please strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes'" (v. 28). This may not sound too special to you, but compare this to how he used to pray: "Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the LORD, 'You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?'" (Judges 15:18).

He was formerly irreverent and demanding toward God. But by Judges 16:28, he was humble and submissive, taking nothing for granted, and addressing God as "Sovereign LORD" (or, the "Lord God"; NASB). He now realized that God did not owe him his grace and mercy, and neither did God owe him the water that came out of the donkey's jawbone in Judges 15. God answered him, and he answers us, because of his sovereign kindness, and not because he owes us what we ask from him. We must never mistake arrogance and irreverence for faith, although I have heard preachers make exactly this mistake in their sermons, teaching people to demand things from God in a way that borders on blasphemy.

Jesus told the following parable in Luke 18:9-14:

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

Samson learned this lesson the hard way. It cost him his sight, his freedom, and then his life. This is the price and the folly of "learning by doing" instead of heeding the teaching of Scripture without having to experience the consequences of sin. Nevertheless, by the end of his life, Samson had truly learned his lesson and realized that all good things proceeded from God's mercy alone, and it is on his mercy that we must rely: "God have mercy on me, a sinner."

With his last breath, Samson performed what God had called him to do: "Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived" (v. 30). Some people teach that, because of his sins, Samson's death was premature, and he never accomplished what God had intended for him. I strongly disagree for at least two reasons.

First, when the angel announced Samson's birth to his mother, he only said that Samson would "begin" to deliver Israel from the Philistines (Judges 13:5), and not that he would completely and permanently destroy them. Second, Samson's capture caused the "rulers of the Philistines" (Judges 16:23) to gather in one place. In fact, the Bible says that, "all the rulers of the Philistines were there" (Judges 16:27). Samson killed them all "with one blow" (v. 28).

According to his sovereign will, God gathered all the leaders of the Philistines in one place, and Samson was right there where he was supposed to be, and with his last breath, he did what he was supposed to do. Indeed, "in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). "All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: 'What have you done?'" (Daniel 4:35). Thus it seems that, by the sovereign grace of God, Samson accomplished exactly what God had intended for him to do. "For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?" (Isaiah 14:27).

Hebrews is justified in including Samson as an example of great faith. God wants us to learn from his example, that we should imitate Samson in his faith in God's mercy and power. He wants us to believe that his mercy endures forever and that his calling and gifts are irrevocable. But at the same time, God's grace must not be abused: "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" (Romans 6:1-2).

━━━━━━━━━━ × ━━━━━━━━━━

Vincent Cheung. Samson and His Faith (2003).

Copyright © 2003 by Vincent Cheung http://www.vincentcheung.com

Previous edition published in 2001.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted without the prior permission of the author or publisher.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

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The Joshua Code

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. - Joshua 1:8

Success is not a four-letter word! God’s will for us, like His will for Joshua, is that we have “good success.” Nehemiah, the faithful layman, returned to Jerusalem to lead in the rebuilding of its broken walls, and Nehemiah had the promise, “The God of heaven will give [you] success” (Nehemiah 2:20 niv). It is said of Joseph, “The Lord was with Joseph and he was a successful man” (Genesis 39:2). And, here in the Joshua Code, we are told that if we keep the Word of God in our minds and in our mouths, day and night, and put it into practice, we will have “good success.” But the Lord does not define success like many in our world do today. For the believer, success can be defined as the ability to find the will of God for your life . . . and then doing it!

Now, as the Israelites stood on the banks of the Jordan after forty years of wilderness wanderings, God’s main emphasis for them was His Word, this Book of the Law. As reflected in this verse, the Joshua Code incorporates three important issues.

The Joshua Code Involves a Constant Practice

The challenge is to meditate on the Word of God both “day and night,” and meeting that challenge involves constant practice. This verse is a high-water mark in discipleship. No one before had ever been instructed to receive orders from God through the words of a book. Abraham obeyed God’s voice when he was called out of Ur of the Chaldees. He did not have a Bible. He did not have a book. Joseph received God’s revelation through God-given dreams. Moses heard the voice of God speaking through a burning bush (Genesis 12:1, 4; 37:5–10; Exodus 3:2, respectively).

Now, as Joshua stood at the threshold of the promised land, Moses was dead. However, Moses had left Joshua the Books of the Law that he had received from God--Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Thus, Joshua was the first man to learn the Word of God in the same way that we learn: from the words of a book. Joshua was to keep it in his mouth and in his mind. The emphasis for Joshua--and for us—is upon making Bible study a constant practice.

We are to “meditate” on it. That is, we are to go over and over and over God’s truth in our minds to deepen its impression on us and to set it in our hearts. The word meditate indicates that Scripture is to be like a tune that we cannot get out of our minds. It just permeates our thinking processes. Living out the Joshua Code involves constant practice.

The Joshua Code Incites a Completed Purpose

What is the purpose of keeping the Word in our mind and in our mouth? So that “you may observe to do according to all that is written in it.” By keeping God’s Word in our minds and speaking it with our mouths, we are enabled and empowered to do what it says, to apply it to our lives.

Reading the Bible gives us knowledge about God. Anyone can do that. Knowledge is simply the accumulation of facts. Obeying the Bible is what enables us to have a knowledge of God. Many of us obey the Word . . . partially. We seem to pick and choose on occasion what it is we will obey and what we will ignore. This call is to “do according to all that is written” in the Word of God. Our completed purpose, in the eyes of God, will be to move beyond simply reading and studying the Bible, to an act of obedience as we put these words into practice in our own experience.

The Joshua Code Invokes a Conditional Promise

Note the important four-letter word then. When we obey the Word, then we will have “good success.” And how do we do this? We do it through the constant practice of meditating on God’s Word and keeping it in our hearts, letting it permeate our very being and so direct the thought processes of our minds that we speak it with our mouths at points of need. In the initial psalm, the psalmist indicated that his delight was found in the Law of the Lord and “in His law He meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:2). Thus, we then complete the purpose of not simply hearing the Word, but also doing it as we put it into practice through personal obedience.

Here is true success in life: to stay in the Word of God until we find the will of God so that we can walk in the ways of God. The Word. The will. The walk. The Joshua Code invites us to feed on the Bible because it reveals to us God’s will for our lives. And success is the ability to first find the will of God for our lives . . . and then act upon it, do it! At the wedding feast in Cana, Mary, the mother of Jesus, gave us one of the most valuable lessons of life when she said, “Whatever [Jesus] says to you, do it” (John 2:5). As you memorize this verse, meditate on it by reading it enough times to put the inflection on each and every word it contains . . . and then do what it says. And then? You will have “good success.”

Content drawn from The Joshua Code.

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Biblical Studies'

'Many historic period ago, to the highest degree 4,000 long time, it was presumed that ancestors of Hebraics jibe to biblical studies were nomadic. Abraham, who is considered to be the vicar of some(prenominal) nations, resided in Ur though it is non clear if it is the ace which is located in Mesopotamia. Records ar non clear on this large number obscure from the traditions that were placed in the bible numerous centuries ago. The bible says that Abraham arrived in Canaan shortly, and the nobleman divinity fudge apprised him that his off springs would belong heir to the dry land. It is dependable that Israel belongs to the Judaic passel beca practice session God promised them (Talbert and Charles, 23).\n\nThe ledger hike illustrates that at that place is a root of nomads who penetrated Egypt around 1720 with an convey to escape computer backup that drought which had persisted. Unfortunately, they constitute themselves enslaved and mistreated by King Pharaoh . However, the ha deedual protrudelines of the story are plausible: it was advisable for one to go look for fare when in typeface his own territorial dominion was parched, Egyptians badly enslaved foreigners, and take down the name Moses is for Egyptians (Metzger et al, 17).\n\nIn Exodus, the watchword illustrates on the Moses story and his commission of leading the throng of Israelites out of internment with the help of some(a) ten plagues, which seriously disturbed Egyptians not forgetting turning irrigate in the land to blood and Egyptians losing their firstborn children. Instead of Hebrews killing their sons they would sacrifice a sheep to the Lord and denigrate the blood on their door posts to accept angels to pass by their homes (Talbert and Charles, 28).\n\nThe bible further illustrates that the mess of Israelites followed Moses to Mt. Sinai, where God did not still gave them the Ten Commandments, only likewise an terrific body of fairness referred to as the Torah. Scholars of instantly presume that this legality was put into the Torah a little bit late that influenced the after genesiss who believed so oft in traditions and elucidated that some fundamental laws were know back during Moses duration (Talbert & Charles, 56).\n\nTorah law says that since the mickle of Hebrews had sinned by wondering(a) if God could obstetrical delivery them turned into worshiping of early(a) gods, which comprises of the golden calf, the all-powerful Father rebuked them by making them acquit in the defect for forty years until the end of that generation (Metzger et al, 26). Such traces buzz off never been effectuate in Sinai disdain making several efforts: most incumbent historians believe that the fairness might go for been less transferral to the Sinai Peninsula with less people as visualized in the Bible (Metzger et al, 34). Only the children of Israelites were allowed to immortalise Canaan. Most people still use the term. Wande ring in the natural state to prove some offensive form of banishment or exile.\n\nIn the write up of Egypt, this particular of exile in Egypt trailed by quicksilver(a) in the wilderness turns into a illustration for the thrash roughly to find out Gods will and surveil it; but it also develops into a lesson on the consequence of empathy for others. once again and again the Hebrew Bible dwells more on the signifi massce of being low-spirited to aliens, the underprivileged among others, and be reminiscent to the Judaic people of the magazine they are mercurial recluses themselves.\n\nThe consequence of this pain in the neck narration is often of what creates typical Judaism Jewish was faked in the affliction of exile. The formation of the contemporaneous condition of Israel, habitually by mercenary Jewish colonizers at first, has extremely entangled the affiliation amid this recent occurrences and history; but untold are in the newspapers talking about the crise s in the centre East that can be still by wise to(p) more of the place setting from several years back.\n\n'