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The Book of Judges Like You_ve Never Seen It Before · truthunedited

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  Speaker 1: When Joshua closed his eyes for the last time, Israel
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  Speaker 1: stood on the brink of a new era. The generation
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  Speaker 1: that had witnessed the wonders of the Exodus and the
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  Speaker 1: conquest of the Promised Land was passing away. Now the
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  Speaker 1: people faced a different challenge, living in the land God
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  Speaker 1: had given them, surrounded by pagan nations that did not
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  Speaker 1: know Jehovah. The Book of Judges tells this fascinating story
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  Speaker 1: of highs and lows, how Israel struggled to maintain its
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  Speaker 1: identity amid external pressures and internal temptations. It's a narrative
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  Speaker 1: that unfolds in cycles. The people drift away from God,
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  Speaker 1: suffer the consequences, cry out for help, and are rescued
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  Speaker 1: by exceptional leaders, the Judges. These weren't kings or governors
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  Speaker 1: in the traditional sense, but deliverers sent by God during
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  Speaker 1: critical times. Let's dive into these stories that reveal not
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  Speaker 1: only the complexity of human nature, but also the unwavering
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  Speaker 1: faith fulness of God. In the first chapter of Judges,
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  Speaker 1: we find the people of Israel at a defining moment,
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  Speaker 1: with Joshua gone, who would lead them now? At the
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  Speaker 1: start of Judges one they sought divine guidance. After the
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  Speaker 1: death of Joshua, the Israelites asked the Lord, who of
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  Speaker 1: us is to go up first to fight against the Canaanites.
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  Speaker 1: The answer came clearly in the next verse. The Lord answered,
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  Speaker 1: Judah shall go up. I have given the land into
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  Speaker 1: their hands, and so began a new phase of conquest,
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  Speaker 1: with the tribe of Judah taking the lead. Following divine instruction,
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  Speaker 1: Judah invited their brothers from the tribe of Simeon to
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  Speaker 1: join the battle, promising to return the favor. Later. In
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  Speaker 1: verse four of Judges one, we read when Judah attacked,
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  Speaker 1: the Lord gave the Canaanites and Perizites into their hands,
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  Speaker 1: and they struck down ten thousand men at Bezek. During
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  Speaker 1: that battle, they encountered King a Donni Bezek, a cruel
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  Speaker 1: man who had mutilated seventy kings. What happened to him
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  Speaker 1: reveals how divine justice worked in those days. Judges one
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  Speaker 1: six to seven tells us a Donnibazek fled, but they
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  Speaker 1: chased him and caught him and cut off his thumbs
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  Speaker 1: and big toes. Then a Donnibazek said, seventy kings with
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  Speaker 1: their thumbs and big toes cut off have picked up
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  Speaker 1: scraps under my table. Now God has paid me back
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  Speaker 1: for what I did to them. The conquest continued with
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  Speaker 1: a series of notable victories. In Judges one eight, the
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  Speaker 1: men of Judah attacked Jerusalem also and took it. They
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  Speaker 1: put the city to the sword and set it on fire.
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  Speaker 1: After that they went on to fight the Canaanites living
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  Speaker 1: in the hill country the Negev and the western foothills.
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  Speaker 1: One particularly memorable moment involved Caleb and his daughter Axa.
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  Speaker 1: In Judges one twelve thirteen, we see and Caleb said,
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  Speaker 1: I will give my daughter Axa in marriage to the
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  Speaker 1: man who attacks and captures Kiriathsifa Othniel's, son of Kna's,
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  Speaker 1: Caleb's younger brother, took it. So Caleb gave his daughter
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  Speaker 1: Axa to him in marriage. Aksa proved to be intelligent
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  Speaker 1: and practical. As she was heading to her new home,
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  Speaker 1: she convinced her husband to ask her father for a field.
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  Speaker 1: But she didn't stop there. She asked for something even
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  Speaker 1: more valuable than dry land. In Judges one point fifteen,
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  Speaker 1: she replied, do me a special favor. Since you have
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  Speaker 1: given me land in the Negev, give me also springs
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  Speaker 1: of water. Then Caleb gave her the upper and lower springs.
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  Speaker 1: Up to this point things seemed to be going well,
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  Speaker 1: but soon the cracks began to show. Starting in verse
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  Speaker 1: twenty one of Judges one, a list of failures begins
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  Speaker 1: to unfold. The Benjamites, however, did not drive out the
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  Speaker 1: Jebusites who were living in Jerusalem. This same pattern repeats
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  Speaker 1: across other tribes. With each verse a new shortcoming is revealed.
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  Speaker 1: Manassa didn't drive out the inhabitants of several towns. Ephraim
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  Speaker 1: failed to expel the Canaanites from Gizer, Zebulun let Canaanites
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  Speaker 1: stay in their territory, Asher Naftali Dan all failed to
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  Speaker 1: fully clear out their allotted lands. Instead of driving out
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  Speaker 1: the pagan peoples as God had commanded, the Israelites began
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  Speaker 1: making compromises. Judges one twenty eight puts it bluntly. When
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  Speaker 1: Israel became strong, they pressed the Canaanites into forced labor,
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  Speaker 1: but never drove them out completely. This decision to coexist
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  Speaker 1: with the people of the land rather than remove them,
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  Speaker 1: would become the root of many future problems. The consequences
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  Speaker 1: of their disobedience didn't take long to surface. In chapter
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  Speaker 1: two of Judges, we see a divine messenger delivering a
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  Speaker 1: stern message to the people. Judges two one to two says,
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  Speaker 1: the Angel of the Lord went up for from Gilgal
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  Speaker 1: to Bochim and said, I brought you up out of
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  Speaker 1: Egypt and led you into the land I swore to
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  Speaker 1: give to your ancestors. I said, I will never break
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  Speaker 1: my covenant with you, and you shall not make a
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  Speaker 1: covenant with the people of this land, but you shall
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  Speaker 1: break down their altars. Yet you have disobeyed me. Why
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  Speaker 1: have you done this? This was a pivotal moment in
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  Speaker 1: Israel's story. God reminded his people of the covenant they
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  Speaker 1: had made. He had fulfilled his part, delivering them from
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  Speaker 1: Egypt and giving them the Promised land, but they had
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  Speaker 1: failed theirs. They didn't completely expel the pagan nations or
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  Speaker 1: destroy their idolatrous altars. The message continued with a severe
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  Speaker 1: warning in Judges two pin three. Now, therefore, I tell
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  Speaker 1: you that I will not drive them out before you.
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  Speaker 1: They will become traps for you, and their gods will
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  Speaker 1: become snares to you. This news shook the people to
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  Speaker 1: their core. Judges too, fought a records. When the Angel
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  Speaker 1: of the Lord had spoken these things to all the Israelites,
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  Speaker 1: the people wept aloud, and they called that place Bochim.
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  Speaker 1: There they offered sacrifices to the Lord. Bokim means those
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  Speaker 1: who weep, a name reflecting the people's emotional response to
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  Speaker 1: the consequences of their choices. They wept and offered sacrifices,
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  Speaker 1: showing remorse. But the damage had already been done. God's
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  Speaker 1: decision was final. The nations they had spared would remain
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  Speaker 1: in the land, a constant test for Israel. This event
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  Speaker 1: at Bochim marks a turning point in the narrative. The
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  Speaker 1: Israelites had broken the Covenant, and now they would live
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  Speaker 1: with the consequences. The peoples they had spared out of
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  Speaker 1: convenience would become a source of ongoing temptation and trouble.
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  Speaker 1: The Angel's message at Bochim wasn't just a judgment. It
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  Speaker 1: was a warning about what lay ahead. The gods of
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  Speaker 1: those nations would become a snare pulling the Israelites away
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  Speaker 1: from the One True God. The pagan nations would be
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  Speaker 1: like thorns, bringing pain and hardship upon Israel. This encounter
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  Speaker 1: at Bockhim serves as a powerful reminder our choices have consequences.
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  Speaker 1: When we ignore God's commands for the sake of ease
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  Speaker 1: or comfort, we often set ourselves up for greater troubles
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  Speaker 1: down the line. God's mercy was still present. He hadn't
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  Speaker 1: abandoned his people, but his discipline was there too. Some
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  Speaker 1: consequences of disobedience cannot be undone, even with genuine repentance.
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  Speaker 1: The Biblical text pauses the narrative to tell us about
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  Speaker 1: the final days of Joshua and what happened afterward. In
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  Speaker 1: Judges two point six seven, we read, after Joshua had
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  Speaker 1: dismissed the Israelites, they went to take possession of the land,
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  Speaker 1: each to their own inheritance. The people served the Lord
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  Speaker 1: throughout the lifetime of Joshua, and of the elders who
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  Speaker 1: outlived him and who had seen all the great things
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  Speaker 1: the Lord had done for Israel. Joshua, Moses's successor, had
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  Speaker 1: led the people in the initial conquest of the promised land.
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  Speaker 1: He was an example of faithfulness and courage. Judges two
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  Speaker 1: eight to nine tells us Joshua, son of Nun, the
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  Speaker 1: servant of the Lord died at the age of one
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  Speaker 1: hundred and ten, and they buried him in the land
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  Speaker 1: of his inheritance at Timnath, heres in the hill country
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  Speaker 1: of Ephraim, north of Mount Garsh. With Joshua's death, a
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  Speaker 1: significant chapter in Israel's history came to a close. He
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  Speaker 1: was the last great leader who had personally witnessed the
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  Speaker 1: miracles of the Exodus. As long as he lived and
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  Speaker 1: as long as the elders who had seen God's mighty
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  Speaker 1: works remained, the people stayed faithful. These leaders were a
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  Speaker 1: living memory of divine power and faithfulness. But then something
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  Speaker 1: tragic happened, as shown in Judges two ten. After that
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  Speaker 1: whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation
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  Speaker 1: grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he
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  Speaker 1: had done for Israel. This simple sentence conveys a massive tragedy.
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  Speaker 1: In just one generation, the living knowledge of God and
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  Speaker 1: his mighty acts was lost. The children and grandchildren of
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  Speaker 1: those who had walked through the Red Sea on dry
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  Speaker 1: ground had no personal experience with Yahweh. To them, the
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  Speaker 1: stories of the Exodus, the manner in the desert, and
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  Speaker 1: the fall of Jericho's walls were just that stories not
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  Speaker 1: lived realities. This loss of spiritual memory had immediate consequences.
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  Speaker 1: Without a living knowledge of God, the new generation easily
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  Speaker 1: turned to other gods. Judges two eleven thirteen shows US teen.
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  Speaker 1: Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the
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  Speaker 1: Lord and served the Bales. They forsook the Lord, the
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  Speaker 1: god of their anaes sestors, who had brought them out
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  Speaker 1: of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the
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  Speaker 1: peoples around them. They aroused the Lord's anger because they
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  Speaker 1: forsook him and served Bail and the Ashtreths. Instead of
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  Speaker 1: worshiping the God who had delivered their parents from slavery,
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  Speaker 1: they turned to the gods of the Canaanites. Bale was
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  Speaker 1: considered the god of rain and fertility, and Ashterereth or Asherer,
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  Speaker 1: was a fertility goddess. In an agricultural land like Canaan,
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  Speaker 1: where rainfall was vital for survival, the temptation to worship
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  Speaker 1: these gods was strong. The tragedy wasn't just that one
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  Speaker 1: generation forgot the Lord, but that they filled that void
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  Speaker 1: with false gods. Human nature seems to abhor a spiritual
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  Speaker 1: vacuum when the knowledge of the true God is lost,
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  Speaker 1: idols quickly take his place. This situation highlights the vital
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  Speaker 1: importance of passing on faith to future generations. It's not
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  Speaker 1: enough for parents to know God. They must ensure that
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  Speaker 1: their children come to know Him personally as well. From
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  Speaker 1: this point in the Book of Judges, we see the
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  Speaker 1: beginning of a recurring pattern that will define the rest
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  Speaker 1: of the book. It's a cycle that begins with the
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  Speaker 1: people's sin, leads to oppression by enemies, continues with a
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  Speaker 1: cry to God, and ends with divine deliverance through a judge.
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  Speaker 1: Judges two fourteen fifteen shows the first part of this cycle,
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  Speaker 1: sin leading to servitude. In his anger against Israel, the
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  Speaker 1: Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them.
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  Speaker 1: He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around,
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  Speaker 1: whom they were no longer able to resist. Whenever Israel
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  Speaker 1: went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was
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  Speaker 1: against them, to defeat them, just as he had sworn
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  Speaker 1: to them. They were in great distress. The language here
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  Speaker 1: is strong. God gave them over and sold them to
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  Speaker 1: their enemies. This doesn't mean he abandoned them, but rather
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  Speaker 1: that he withdrew his special protection allowing them to suffer
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  Speaker 1: the natural consequences of their choices. When they rejected the
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  Speaker 1: Lord as their god, they lost the Lord as their protector.
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  Speaker 1: But the cycle doesn't end in oppression. The God of
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  Speaker 1: Israel is a merciful god. Judges two sixteen tells us.
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  Speaker 1: Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out
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  Speaker 1: of the hands of these raiders. Here we see the
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  Speaker 1: rise of the judges, who give the book its name.
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  Speaker 1: These leaders were not primarily legal authorities, but rather deliverers
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  Speaker 1: raised up by God to rescue the people when they
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  Speaker 1: cried out for help. However, even with these deliverers, the
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  Speaker 1: people kept returning to sin. Judges two seventeen says. Yet
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  Speaker 1: they would not listen to their judges, but prostituted themselves
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  Speaker 1: to other gods and worshiped them. They quickly turned from
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  Speaker 1: the ways of their ancestors, who had been obedient to
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  Speaker 1: the Lord's commands. The phrase prostituted themselves is significant in
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  Speaker 1: the Bible. The relationship between God and Israel is often
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  Speaker 1: likened to a marriage. Worshiping other gods was like committing
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  Speaker 1: spiritual adultery, betraying their covenant with Yahweh. In Judges two
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  Speaker 1: eighteen to nineteen, we see the full cycle. Whenever the
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  Speaker 1: Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with
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  Speaker 1: the judge and saved them out of the hands of
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  Speaker 1: their enemies as long as the judge lived, for the
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  Speaker 1: Lord relented because of their groaning under those who were
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  Speaker 1: pressed and afflicted them. But when the judge died, the
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  Speaker 1: people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of
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  Speaker 1: their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them,
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  Speaker 1: they refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.
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  Speaker 1: This pattern sin, servitude, supplication, salvation repeats over and over
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  Speaker 1: throughout the Book of Judges. Each cycle seems to worsen,
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  Speaker 1: with the people falling into even deeper sin after each deliverance.
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  Speaker 1: It's a downward spiral that reflects humanity's tendency to quickly
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  Speaker 1: forget hard learned lessons. The final verses of the chapter
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  Speaker 1: Judges two twenty twenty three reveal God's decision to use
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  Speaker 1: the remaining nations in Canaan as a test for Israel. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: the Lord was very angry with Israel and said, because
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  Speaker 1: this nation has violated the covenant I ordained for their ancestors.
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  Speaker 1: And has not listened to me. I will no longer
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  Speaker 1: drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left
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  Speaker 1: when he died. I will use them to test Israel
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  Speaker 1: and see whether they will keep the way of the
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  Speaker 1: Lord and walk in it as their ancestors did. We
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  Speaker 1: now come to the third chapter of Judges, where we
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  Speaker 1: are introduced to Othniel, the first of the judges, whom
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  Speaker 1: God raised up to deliver Israel. But before telling his
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  Speaker 1: the text explains why God left some nations in the land.
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  Speaker 1: In Judges three one to two, we read, these are
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  Speaker 1: the nations the Lord left to test all those Israelites
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  Speaker 1: who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan.
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  Speaker 1: He did this only to teach warfare to the descendants
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  Speaker 1: of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience.
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  Speaker 1: Here we find a practical reason for these nations being
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  Speaker 1: left behind to train the new generations of Israelites in
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  Speaker 1: the art of war. A nation surrounded by enemies had
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  Speaker 1: to know how to defend itself. Without that experience, they
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  Speaker 1: would be left vulnerable to attacks. Judges three three specifies
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  Speaker 1: which nations these were. The five rulers of the Philistines,
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  Speaker 1: all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites, living in
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  Speaker 1: the Lebanon Mountains from Mount bal Herman to Lebohammath. These
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  Speaker 1: nations would serve a divine purpose, as explained in Judges
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  Speaker 1: three four. They were left to test the Israelites to
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  Speaker 1: see whether they would obey the Lord's commands, which he
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  Speaker 1: had given their ancestors through Moses. Unfortunately, instead of resisting
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  Speaker 1: pagan influence, the Israelites embraced it. Judges three five to
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  Speaker 1: six tells us the Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizites, Hivites,
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  Speaker 1: and Jebusites. They took their daughters in marriage and gave
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  Speaker 1: their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.
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  Speaker 1: This is exactly the kind of behavior God had forbidden.
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  Speaker 1: Intermarriage with pagan peoples inevitably led to the worship of
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  Speaker 1: their gods, as it did here. The result was predictable.
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  Speaker 1: Judges three seven to eight reports the Israelites did evil
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  Speaker 1: in the eyes of the Lord. They forgot the Lord
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  Speaker 1: their god and served the Bales and the Asheras the
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  Speaker 1: anger of the Lord burned against Israel, that he sold
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  Speaker 1: them into the hands of Kushan Rishathaim, king of Aram Naharaim,
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  Speaker 1: to whom the Israelites were subject for eight years. Aram
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  Speaker 1: Naharaim refers to the region between the Tigris and Euphrates
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  Speaker 1: rivers in modern day Iraq. Kushan Rishathaim, whose name means
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  Speaker 1: Kushan of double wickedness, was a powerful king who extended
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  Speaker 1: his rule into Canaan, subjugating the Israelites for eight long years.
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  Speaker 1: The people suffered under this foreign oppression. Finally they did
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  Speaker 1: what they should have done. From the start, they cried
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  Speaker 1: out to God for help. Judges threet nine tells us
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  Speaker 1: about God's response. But when they cried out to the Lord,
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  Speaker 1: he raised up for them a deliverer, Othnil, son of Kennaz,
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  Speaker 1: Caleb's younger brother, who saved them. Othnil wasn't a stranger.
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  Speaker 1: He had already been mentioned in chapter one as the
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  Speaker 1: man who conquered Kiriathsifa and won the hand of Axe
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  Speaker 1: Caleb's daughter. He was from the tribe of Judah, the
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  Speaker 1: nephew of the Great Caleb, one of the two spies
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  Speaker 1: who had brought back a positive report of the land
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  Speaker 1: forty years earlier. In Judges three ten, we see how
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  Speaker 1: God empowered him for the task. The spirit of the
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  Speaker 1: Lord came on him so that he became Israel's judge
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  Speaker 1: and went to war. The Lord gave kushan Rishathim, king
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  Speaker 1: of Aram, into the hands of Othniel, who overpowered him.
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  Speaker 1: This is the first mention in the Book of Judges
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  Speaker 1: of someone being empowered by the spirit of the Lord,
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  Speaker 1: a theme that will appear again with later Judges. The
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  Speaker 1: victory didn't come through human strength or skill, but through
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  Speaker 1: the power of God's spirit. The result was Israel's deliverance,
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  Speaker 1: as shown in Judges three eleven. So the land had
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  Speaker 1: peace for forty years until Othniel, son of Kenas died.
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  Speaker 1: This forty year period of peace was one of the
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  Speaker 1: longest during the era of the Judges. Under Othnil's leadership,
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  Speaker 1: the people apparently remained faithful to God, but as we'll see,
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  Speaker 1: once he died, the cycle began all over again. After
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  Speaker 1: Othnil's death, the familiar pattern repeated itself. In Judges three twelve,
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  Speaker 1: we read again the Israelites did evil in the eyes
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  Speaker 1: of the Lord, and because they did this evil, the
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  Speaker 1: Lord gave Eglon, king of Moab, power over Israel. Moab
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  Speaker 1: was a nation east of the Dead Sea, descended from Lot,
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  Speaker 1: Abraham's nephew. Though related to the Israelites, the Moabites were
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  Speaker 1: often their enemies. On this occasion, Eglon formed a coalition,
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  Speaker 1: as we see in Judges three thirteen, getting the Ammonites
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  Speaker 1: and Demalakites to join him. Eglon came and attacked Israel,
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  Speaker 1: and they took possession of the City of Palms. The
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  Speaker 1: City of Palms refers to Jericho, the first city Israel
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  Speaker 1: had conquered upon entering the Promised Land. Its fall to
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  Speaker 1: Eglon symbolized a reversal of Joshua's earlier victories. The Moabite
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  Speaker 1: oppression lasted longer than the Mesopotamian one ursas the Israelites
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  Speaker 1: were subject to Eglon, King of Moab, for eighteen years
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  Speaker 1: Judges three fourteen. For nearly two decades they lived under
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  Speaker 1: foreign rule. As before, the people eventually cried out to
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  Speaker 1: the Lord for help, and as before, God responded by
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  Speaker 1: raising a deliverer. In Judges three fifteen, again the Israelites
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  Speaker 1: cried out to the Lord, and he gave them a deliverer, Ehud,
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  Speaker 1: a left handed man, the son of Gera, the Benjamite.
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  Speaker 1: The Israelites sent him with tribute to Egglund, King of Moab.
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  Speaker 1: Ehud was from the tribe of Benjamin, which ironically means
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  Speaker 1: son of my right hand. Curiously, he was left handed,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: which set him apart. This seemingly minor detail would prove crucial.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: Ehoud's plan to free Israel involved a political assassination. Judges
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: three sixteen says now Ehoud had made a double edged
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: sword about a cubit long, which he strapped to his
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: right thigh under his clothing. The strategy was clever as
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: a left handed man, Ehoud strapped the sword to his
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: right thigh, an unexpected place for guards to check. Normally,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: a right handed man would carry his weapon on the
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: left side for easier access. Ehoud was sent as an
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: official envoy to deliver tribute to Eglon. Judges three seventeen
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: eighteen recounts he presented the tribute to Eggland, King of Moab,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: who was a very fat man. After Ehud had presented
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: the tribute, he sent on their way those who had
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: carried it. But after leaving the palace, Ehud returned with
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: a secret message. Judges three, nineteen twenty explains, but on
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: reaching the stone images near Gilgal, he himself went back
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: to Eglon and said, your majesty, I have a secret
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: message for you. The king said to his attendants leave us,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: and they all left. Ehoud then approached him while he
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: was sitting alone in the upper room of his palace,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: and said, I have a message from God for you,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: as the king rose from his seat. The timing was perfect.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: Eglon was alone, having dismissed his guards to receive a
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: secret message. He had no idea that the message from
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: God would come in the form of a sword. Judges three,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: twenty one, twenty two describes what happened next. Ehud reached
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: and plunged it into the king's belly. Even the bare
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: handle sank in after the blade and his bowels discharged,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: closed in over it. The graphic description explains why the
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: text emphasized that Eglon was a very fat man, is
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: a obesity contributed to his death. The fat closed over
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: the blade, preventing external bleeding that might have alerted the guards.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: Ehud then made his escape, as detailed in Judges three
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: twenty three twenty six. Then Ihoud went out to the porch,
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: shut the doors of the upper room behind him and
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: locked them. After he had gone, the servants came and
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: found the doors of the upper room locked. They said
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: he must be relieving himself in the inner room of
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: the palace. They waited to the point of embarrassment, but
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: when he did not open the doors, they took a
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: key and unlocked them. There they saw their lord fallen
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: to the floor dead. While they waited, Ehud escaped, passed
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: by the Idols, and fled to Sayah. The delay in
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: discovering the body gave Ihud enough time to get away
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: and organize an attack. In Judges three twenty seven, it
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: says when he arrived in the hill country of Ephraim,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: he blew a trumpet, and the Israelites went down with
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: him from the hills, with Ehud leading them. With the
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: Moabite leader dead, Ehud led an assault on the occupying forces.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: Judges three twenty eight to twenty nine recounts, follow me,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: he ordered, for the Lord has given Moab, your enemy
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: into your hands. So they followed him and took possession
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: of the fords of the Jordan that led to Moab.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: They allowed no one to cross over. At that time,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all vigorous and strong.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: Not one escaped. The outcome was another long period of peace,
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: as shown in Judges three thirty That day Moab was
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: made subject to Israel, and the land had peace for
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: eighty years. The story of Ehoud shows how God can
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: use unique traits, such as being left handed utend to
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: accomplish his purposes. What might seem like a disadvantage or
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: quirk became part of the divine plan to deliver his people.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: After this detailed account of Ehud, the Biblical text briefly
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: mentions another judge. In a single verse Judges three thirty one,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: we are introduced to Shamgar. After Ihud came Shamgar, son
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: ox gode. He too saved Israel. This short account stands
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: in stark contrast to the more elaborate narratives of other judges.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: Yet even in this brief verse there are fascinating details. First,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: Shamgar fought against the Philistines, a people who would later
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: become Israel's main enemy during the time of Samuel and David.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: Originating from the Aegean region, possibly Brete, The Philistines had
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: settled along the southwestern coast of Canaan, forming a confederation
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: of five city states Gaza, ashdod Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekro.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: They were technologically advanced, especially in metalwork, and militarily formidable.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: Teach named Shamgar, son of Anath is intriguing. Anneth was
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: the name of a Canaanite goddess of war. Some scholars
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: suggest this might imply Shamgar had non Israelite origins or
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: came from a family that formerly worshiped Canaanite gods. What
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: stands out most is the weapon Shamgar used, an ox gode.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: This wasn't a weapon of war, but an agricultural tool
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: used by farmers to prod oxen while plowing. It was
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: a long stick with a sharp metal point on one
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: end and a small shovel on the other for cleaning
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: the plow. In untrained hands, an ox gode would be
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: a poor weapon, but Shamgar, likely a farmer well versed
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: in using it, turned it into a deadly instrument. The
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: story tells us he killed six hundred Philistines with this
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: improvised tool, The fact that he used a farming implement
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: instead of a conventional weapon might reflect the broader situation
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: in Israel at the time. The Philistines were known for
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: restricting Israel's access to iron technology, preventing them from manufacturing weapons.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: In Verse Samuel thirteen, nineteen twenty two a later period,
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: we read not a blacksmith could be found in the
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: whole land of Israel, because the Philistines had said otherwise,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: the Hebrews will make swords or spears. This policy of
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: technological control may have already existed in Shamgar's time, forcing
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: him to improvise with what was available. The number of
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: enemies slain, six hundred is extraordinary for a man armed
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: only with a farm tool. This suggests that Shamgar's victory,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: like those of other judges, was not merely human effort,
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: but a demonstration of God's power working through him. The
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: final phrase, he too saved Israel, indicates that Shamgar's impact
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: was significant, despite the brevity of the account. Perhaps he
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: delivered only a part of Israel, since the Philistines were
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: mainly located in the southwest, or maybe his victory was
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: so decisive that it secured a period of Peace. In
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: chapters four and five of Judges, we find one of
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: the most fascinating stories in the book, the Saga of
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: Deborah and Barak against Cicera, the commander of the Canaanite army.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: This narrative introduces us to the only female among the
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: major judges and one of Israel's most admirable leaders. As usual,
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: the story begins with the people falling back into sin.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: Judges four one two tells us after Ehud died, the
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: Israelites once again did evil in the eyes of the Lord,
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: so the Lord sold them into the hands of Jabin,
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: King of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: his army was Sisera who lived in hiroshith Hagoyum. Hazar
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: was a major city in northern Canaan, and Jabin the
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: Wise was likely a dynastic title similar to Pharaoh in Egypt.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: The Book of Joshua mentions that a king named Jabin
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: of Hazor had been defeated earlier Joshua eleven, but apparently
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: the city had regained its power. This time. The oppression
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: was severe. Judges for three states. Jabin had nine hundred
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: iron chariots and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: They cried to the Lord for help. The iron chariots
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: represented the advanced military technology of the time, something the
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: Israelites did not possess. This technological superiority allowed Jabin to
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: harshly oppress the people for two decades. When the people
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: finally cried out, God had already prepared a deliverer. In
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: Judges four four five, we are introduced to her. Now Deborah,
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, was leading Israel at
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: that time. She held court under the Palm of Deborah
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim,
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: and the Israelites came to her to have their disputes decided.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: Deborah was already an established leader before the war against Jabin.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: As a prophetess, she received and conveyed messages from God.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: As a judge, she resolved disputes among the people. The
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: fact that she had a designated place where people sought
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: her council under the Palm of Deborah shows that her
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: authority was widely recognized. Following divine direction, Deborah summoned Barak
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: to lead Israel's army. Judges four six seven says she
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: sent for Barak, son of Abinoam, from Kadesh in Naftali,
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: and said to him, the Lord, the God of Israel,
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: commands you go. Take with you ten thousand men of
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: Naftali and Zebulun, and lead them up to Mount Tabor.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: I will lead Cicyah, the commander of Jabin's army, with
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: his chariots and his troops, to the Kishon river, and
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: give him into your hands. Barak's response reveals both faith
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: and hesitation. Judges four eight says Barak said to her,
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: if you go with me, I will go. But if
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: you don't go with me, I won't go. Barak was
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: willing to face Sissyrah's formidable army, but he wanted Deborah,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: the representative of God, by his side. Perhaps he needed
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: continual reassurance that God would be with him, or maybe
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: he recognized Deborah's wisdom and spiritual leadership. Deborah's reply in
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: Judges four nine is prophetic. Certainly, I will go with you,
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: said Deborah. But because of the course you are taking,
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: the honor will not be yours. For the Lord will
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman. So Deborah
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: went with Barak to Kadesh. This prophecy would be fulfilled
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: in a surprising way, but not in the way Barak
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: might have imagined. The woman to receive the honor would
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: not be Deborah, but another Preparations for battle began. Judges
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: four to ten says. There Barak summoned Zebulun and Naftali,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: and ten thousand men went up under his command. Deborah
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: also went up with him. Meanwhile, in Judges four eleven
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: were given a seemingly minor detail that will prove crucial. Now.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: Heber the Kannite had left the other Khanites, the descendants
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: of Hobbab, Moses' brother in law, and pitched his tent
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: by the great Tree in Zananim, near Kadesh. The battle
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: was imminent. Cesera was informed of Barak's movements and mobilized
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: his forces. Judges four twelve thirteen says when they told
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: Sisera that Barak's son of Abinoum, had gone up to
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: Mount Tabor, Ciesera summoned from Hirosheth Hagoyim to the Kishon River,
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: all his men and his nine hundred chariots fitted with iron.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: The decisive moment arrived. Judges four fourteen says. Then Deborah
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: said to Barak, go, this is the day the Lord
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: has given Cisa into your hands. Has not the Lord
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: gone ahead of you? So Barak went down Mount Tabor
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: with ten thousand men following Ihim. The strategy to position
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: the troops on Mount Tabor was brilliant. Iron chariots, the
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: enemy's main advantage, were effective on flat ground but useless
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: on steep slopes. By descending the mountain at the right moment,
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: the Israelite forces gained the element of surprise and used
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: gravity to their advantage. The result was an overwhelming victory,
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: as described in Judges four fifteen to sixteen. At Barak's advance,
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: the Lord routed sis They earn all his chariots and
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: army by the sword, and Sisera got down from his
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: chariot and fled on foot. Barak pursued the chariots and
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: army as far as Hirosheth Hagoyim, and all Caeesarah's troops
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: fell by the sword. Not a man was left. The
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: phrase the Lord routed Sisera indicates divine intervention. Deborah's song
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: chapter five suggests a torrential rain turned the battlefield into
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: a muddy quagmire. Neutralizing the advantage of the iron chariots. Meanwhile,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: Sisera fled on foot. Judges four seventeen says Sisera meanwhile
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: fled on foot to the tent of Jile, the wife
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: of Heber the Khanat, because there was an alliance between Jabin,
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: king of Hazor, and the family of Heber the Kehanat.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: Here we see the importance of that earlier minor detail
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: about Heber. Cisera sought refuge in Jail's tent, assuming safety
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: due to the alliance between her family and King Jabin.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: Jaiel welcomed Cisa with apparent hospitality while concealing her true intentions.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: Judges four eighteen to twenty recounts Jael went out to
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: meet Cissya and said to him, come, my lord, come
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: right in. Don't be afraid. So he entered her tent
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: and she covered him with a blanket. I'm thirsty, he said,
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: Please give me some water. She opened a skin of milk,
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: gave him a drink, and covered him up. Stand in
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: the doorway of the tent. He told her, if some
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: one comes by and asks you, is any one in there,
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: say no. Exhausted from battle and comforted by the milk,
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: Cisya fell into a deep sleep. It was his final vulnerability.
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: Judge's four twenty one says, but Jaielle Haber's wife picked
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: to him. While he lay fast asleep. Exhausted, she drove
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: When Barak arrived in pursuit, Cisra was already dead. Judges
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: four twenty two states. Just then Barak came by in
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: pursuit of Cicerra, and Jail went out to meet him. Come.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: She said, I will show you the man you're looking for.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: So he went in with her, and there lay Cicera
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: with the tent peg through his temple dead. Thus Debrah's
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: prophecy was fulfilled. The Lord will deliver Cicera into the
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: hands of a woman. It wasn't Deborah herself, nor a warrior,
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: but Jael, a seemingly ordinary woman who received the honor
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: of defeating the enemy commander. The chapter ends with the
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: summary of the battle's outcome in Judges four twenty three
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: twenty four. That day God subdued Jabin, king of Canaan,
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: before the Israelites and the hand of the Israelites pressed
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: harder and harder against Jabin, King of Canaan, until they
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: destroyed him. Chapter five contains the Song of Deborah, one
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: of the oldest poems in the Bible, celebrating the victory.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: It's a poetic text rich with vivid imagery and historical
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: detail that complements the prose narrative of Chapter four. The
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: song opens with praise to God and Israel's leaders in
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: Judges five two three, when the princes in Israel take
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: the lead, when the people willingly offer themselves praise the Lord.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: Hear this, you kings, listen, you rulers, ay even I
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: will sing to the Lord. I will praise the Lord,
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: the God of Israel. In Song, Deborah and Barak are
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: remembered as God's instruments in this deliverance. Not all tribes
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: took part in the battle. Some are praised for their involvement,
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: while others are criticized for their absence. The forces of nature, stars, rivers,
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: and rain are depicted as fighting alongside Israel. The death
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: of Cicera is portrayed per poetically, and jail is exalted
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: in Judges five twenty four to twenty seven. Most blessed
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: of women, be Jail, the wife of Heber, the Kenite,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: most blessed of tent dwelling women. He asked for water,
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: and she gave him milk in a bowl fit for nobles.
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: She brought him curdled milk. Her hand reached for the
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: tent peg, her right hand for the workman's hammer. She
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: struck Cicera. She crushed his head. She shattered and pierced
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: his temple. At her feet he sank. He fell there
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: he lay at her feet, he sank. He fell where
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: he sank. There he fell dead. The poem ends with
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: a powerful prayer in Judges five thirty one. So may
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: all your enemies perish, Lord, but may all who love
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: you be like the sun when it rises in its strength.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: And the land had peace for forty years. This story
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: shows how God can use anyone, whether a prophetess like Deborah,
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: a hesitant general like Barahak, or a non Israelite woman
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: like Jael, to fulfill his purposes and deliver his people.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: Once again, the Israelites did what was evil in the
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: Lord's sight. The peace that lasted forty years after Deborah
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: and Barrack's victory had come to an end. At the
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: beginning of Judges six, we read the Lord gave them
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: into the hands of the Midianites for seven years. The
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: Midianites were distant relatives of the Israelites, descendants of Abraham
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: through his second wife Katura, but at this point in
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: history they had become cruel oppressers. They didn't come to
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: occupy the land, but to plunder it. Whenever the Israelites
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: planted their crops, the Midianites swarmed in like a cloud
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: of locusts. Judges six three four describes how they attacked
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: Whenever the Israelites planted their crops. The Midianites, a Malakites,
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: and other Eastern peoples invaded the country, hamped on the land,
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza, and
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep,
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: nor cattle, nor donkeys. It was a full scale assault
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: on Israel's economy and survival. This wasn't a permanent occupation,
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: but seasonal raids that left the people with no food
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: and no hope. The invaders came in massive numbers, bringing
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: their live stock and tents. Judges six five tells us
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: they came up with their live stock and their tents
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: or their camels. They invaded the land to ravage it.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: The result was extreme misery for Israel. Judges six six
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: says Midians so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: to the Lord for help. When the people finally cried out,
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: God first sent a prophet to remind them why they
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: were suffering. In Judges six seven to ten, this unnamed
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: messenger recounted the story of their deliverance from Egypt and
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: how godard had driven out the nations before them. He
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: ended with a direct accusation. I said to you, I
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: am the Lord your God. Do not worship the gods
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: of the Amorites in whose land you live, But you
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: have not listened to me. This was the pattern we've
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: seen throughout Judges. The people forget God, suffer under their enemies,
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: cry out for help, and God sends a deliverer. Now
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: a new deliverer was about to emerge, an unlikely man
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: named Gideon. In a small town called Ophra, a young
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: man was secretly threshing wheat in a wine press, a
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: place meant for crushing grapes, not for processing grain. He
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: was hiding out of vere of the Midianites. His name
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: was Gideon, son of Joash, from the tribe of Manasseh.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: Suddenly something extraordinary happened. Judges six eleven to twelve says
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: the Angel of the Lord came and sat down under
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash, the abbey's right,
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: where his son Gideon was freshing wheat in a wine
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: press to keep it from the Midianites. When the Angel
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, the Lord
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: is with you, mighty warrior. That greeting must have shocked Gideon.
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: He certainly didn't see himself as a warrior, let alone
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: a mighty one. He was hiding afraid of the Midianites.
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: His response reveals his frustration and doubt. Pardon me, my lord,
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: Gideon replied, but if the Lord is with us, why
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: has all this happened to us? Where are all his
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said,
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: into the hand of midian The angel's response in Judges
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: six fourteen. Is powerful. The Lord turned to him and said,
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: go in the strength you have and save Israel out
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you? But Gideon
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: was still unsure. He saw himself as the leader important
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: member of the weakest clan. Pardon me, my Lord, Gideon replied,
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: but how can I save Israel. My clan is the
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: The Lord assured him, I will be with you, and
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: you will strike down all the Midian knights, leaving none alive.
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: Even so, doubt lingered in Gideon's heart. He asked for
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: a sign to confirm that he was truly speaking to
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: a divine messenger. He prepared an offering a young goat
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: and unleavened bread, and brought it to the Angel, who
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: told him to place the food on a rock and
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: pour the broth over it. Then the angel touched the
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: offering with the tip of his staff, and fire flared
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: from the rock and consumed everything. The angel disappeared. Gideon
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: then realized who he had been speaking to in Judges
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: six twenty two. He exclaimed, alas Sovereign Lord, I have
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: seen the Angel of the Lord face to face. There
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: was a common belief that seeing God directly meant certain death,
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: but the Lord comforted him peace, do not be afraid.
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: You are not going to die. In response to this
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: extraordinary encounter, Gideon built an altar and called it the
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: Lord is Peace. But the true test of his new
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: found faith came immediately afterward. That same night, the Lord
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: gave Gideon a frightening command. Take your father's bull, the
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: second bull, seven years old. Tear down your father's altar
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: to bail and cut down the usher a pole beside it.
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: Then build a proper altar to the Lord, your God,
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: on the top of this height, using the wood of
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: the ashera pole that you cut down, offer the second
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: bull as a burnt offering. This was a dangerous mission.
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: Bahal was the main god of the Canaanites, considered the
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: god of rain and fertility. During times of drought like
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: the one they were facing, many Israelites had turned to bile,
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: hoping he would bring rain. A sharer was a fertility
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: goddess often represented by wooden poles. Gideon obeyed, but fear
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: still lingered in his heart. Judges six twenty seven tells
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: us so Gideon took ten of his servants and did
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: as the lord told him, but because he was afraid
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: of his family and the townspeople, he did it at
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: night rather than in the daytime. The next morning, the
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: townspeople discovered what had happened. Furious, they went to Josh's
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: house and demanded that he hand over his son. Bring
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: out your son. He must die because he has broken
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: down Bale's altar and cut down the ascherapol beside it.
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: Joe Ash's response took everyone by surprise. Instead of surrendering
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: his son, he defended him. Are you going to plead
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: Bile's cause? Are you trying to save him? Whoever fights
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: for him shall be put to death by mourning. If
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: Bile really is a god, he can defend himself when
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: someone breaks down his altar. It was a simple yet
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: powerful argument. If Bile was truly a god, why would
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: he need humans to protect him? Why hadn't he punished
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: Gideon himself. From that day on, Gideon was given a
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: new name, Jerubbaal, meaning let Ball contend with him, because,
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: as his father said, let Bal contend with him, for
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: he broke down Ball's altar. It wasn't long before the Midianites, Amalekites,
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: and other Eastern peoples gathered once more for another invasion.
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: They crossed the Jordan River and camped in the valley
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: of Jezreel, one of the most fertile areas in Israel.
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: At this critical moment, something extraordinary happened to Gideon. Judges
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: six thirty four tells us. Then the spirit of the
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, summoning
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: the Abby's rites to follow him. The same spirit that
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: had empowered earlier Judges now came upon this fearful young man,
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: transforming him into the leader Israel needed. Gideon sent messengers
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: throughout the region, calling on the tribes of Manassah, Asher, Zebulun,
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: and Naftali. Surprisingly, they responded, and men from all those
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: tribes rallied to him. Even with an army forming around
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: him and the spirit of God upon him, Gideon still
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: wrestled with doubt. He asked God for another sign of confirmation.
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: In Judges six thirty six thirty seven, he prayed, if
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised, Look,
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: if there is dew only on the fleece and all
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: the ground is dry, then I will know that you
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: will save Israel by my hand. As you said. The
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: next morning, that's exactly what happened. Gideon got up early,
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: squeezed the fleece, and filled a bowl with water from
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: the dew that had fallen on it, while the ground
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: around it remained dry. Still, Gideon asked for one more sign,
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: this time reversing the test in Judges six thirty nine.
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: He said, to God, do not be angry with me.
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: Let me make just one more request. Allow me one
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: more test with the fleece. This time, make the fleece dry,
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: and let the ground be covered with dew. Once again,
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: God granted Gideon's request. The next morning, the fleece was
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: dry while the ground around it was soaked with dew.
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: These signs, especially the one where the fleece stayed dry
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: while the surrounding ground was wet, were deeply meaningful. In
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: the Bible, dew often symbolizes divine blessing. In the first test,
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: only the fleece, perhaps representing Gideon or Israel, received the blessing.
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: In the second, the blessing extended to the entire surrounding area,
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: suggesting that Israel's victory would bring blessings to the whole region.
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: More importantly, these signs confirmed to Gideon that God was
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: truly with him and that victory was certain. The fearful
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: young man hiding in the wine press was becoming a
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: bold leader, ready to face the enemy. Gideon's army grew rapidly.
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: Thirty two thousand men responded to his call, an impressive number,
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: especially considering the fear the Midian knights inspired. But the
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: Lord had other plans. Judges seven point two reveals God's thinking.
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: The Lord said to Gideon, you have too many men.
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: boast against me, saying my own strength has saved me.
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: God wanted it to be crystal clear that the victory
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: would come from him, not from Israel's military power, so
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: he told Gideon to reduce the size of the army. First,
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: he was to announce any one who trembles with fear
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: may turn back and leave Mount Gilead. The result was staggering.
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: Twenty two thousand men left and only ten thousand remained.
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: Two thirds of the army openly admitted their fear and
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: went home. But even ten thousand was too many, according
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: to the Lord, so he proposed another test. In Judges
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: seven four to five we read. But the Lord said
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: to Gideon, there are still too many men. Take them
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: down to the water, and I will thin them out
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: for you there. If I say this, one shall go
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: with you, he shall go. But if I say this
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: one shall not go with you, he shall not go.
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: So Gideon took the men down to the water. There
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: the Lord told him separate those who lapped the water
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: with their tongues as a dog laps, from those who
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: kneel down to drink. The test was simple but revealing.
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: Those who knelt to drink put themselves in a vulnerable position.
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: If the enemy attacked, they wouldn't be ready. But those
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: who scooped the water to them their mouths with their
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: hands stayed alert, watching their surroundings, ready for danger. The
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: result was striking. Three hundred men drank from cupped hands,
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: knees to drink. The Lord said to Gideon, with the
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: three hundred men that lapped, I will save you and
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: go home. Now, Gideon had only one percent of his
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: original army, from thirty two thousand down to three hundred.
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: From a human perspective, it seemed like madness to face
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: the Midianites with such a small group. Judges seven twelve
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: tells us that the Midianites, Amalekites, and other Eastern peoples
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: had settled in the valley thick as locusts. Their camels
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore.
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: The contrast couldn't have been more dramatic, three hundred Israelites
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: against an enemy too numerous to count. But God had
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: a plan, and Gideon was now ready to follow it,
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: no matter how impossible it seemed. That night, the Lord
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: spoke to Gideon again, Get up, go down to the camp,
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: for I have given it into your hands. But if
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: with your servant purer and listen to what they are saying.
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: After that you will have the courage to attack the camp.
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: This invitation acknowledged Gideon's humanity. God knew he was still
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: afraid and offered him a way to strengthen his faith.
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: So Gideon and his servant went down to the edge
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: of the enemy camp. What they saw must have been intimidating.
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: A sea of tents, camels, and armed warriors. Judges seven
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: twelve describes the scene. The Midianites, Amalekites, and all the
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: other Eastern peoples had settled in the thick as locusts.
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: Their camels could no more be counted than the sand
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: on the sea shore. As they approached the camp, they
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: overheard two men talking. One of them was sharing a dream.
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: I had a dream, he said, A round loaf of
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: a tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed.
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: The other man responded with an immediate interpretation, this can
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: be nothing other than the sword of Gideon, son of Joash.
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: The Israelite God has given the Midianites and the whole
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: camp into his hands. When Gideon heard this, he worshiped God.
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: His fear turned into faith. He returned to the Israelite
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: camp and shouted, get up, the Lord has given the
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: Midianite camp into your hands. Then Gideon divided the three
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: hundred men into three companies. He gave each man a
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: trumpet and an empty jar with a torch inside. His
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: in st structions were clear and unusual. Watch me follow
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp,
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: do as I do. When I and all who are
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: with me blow our trumpets, then you blow yours around
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: the whole camp, and shout for the Lord and for Gideon.
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: It was a surprising strategy, one that didn't involve swords, spears,
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: or bows, the typical weapons of the time. Instead, it
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: relied solely on sound and light. In the middle of
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: the night, Gideon and the hundred men with him reached
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: the edge of the camp at the beginning of the
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: middle watch, just after the guards had been changed. They
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: blew their trumpets and smashed the jars in their hands.
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: All three companies blew their trumpets and broke their jars.
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: Holding the torches in there left hands and the trumpets
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: in their right, they shouted a sword for the Lord
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: and for Gideon. The effect was immediate and devastating. Judges
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: seven twenty one twenty two tells us. While each man
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran,
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: crying out as they fled. When the three hundred trumpets sounded,
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: the Lord caused the men throughout the camp to turn
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: on each other with their swords. Chaos erupted. Startled awake
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the night, surrounded by trumpets and
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: blazing torches, the Midianites believed they were under attack by
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: a vast army. In their panic, they turned on one another.
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: The Midianite army fled as far as beth Shitter, towards
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: Zarira and to the border of abel Mehola near to Bath.
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: Then Gideon sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim,
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: saying come down against the Midianites and seized the waters
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: of the Jordan ahead of them as far as beth Barah.
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: All the men of Ephraim were called out, and they
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: took the waters. As far as beth Barah and the Jordan.
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: They captured two Midianite leaders, Oreb and zeb. They killed
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: Oreb at the Rock of Orb and Zib at the
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: wine press of Zeb. They pursued the Midianites and brought
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: the heads of Oreb and Zeib to Gideon across the Jordan.
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: The initial battle was a stunning victory, but the war
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: wasn't over. The Midianite kings Zeba and Zalmunna were still
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: on the run with about fifteen thousand men. The last
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: of the Eastern army one hundred and twenty thousand soldiers
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: had already fallen in the first attack. Before going after
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: the kings, Gideon had to handle internal conflict. The men
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: of Ephraim were upset they hadn't been called at the
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: start of the battle. In Judges eight or one, they
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: confronted him, why have you treated us like this? Why
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: didn't you call us when you went to fight Midian
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: and they argued fiercely with him. Gideon's response was diplomatic
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: and wise. Rather than point out that they hadn't answered
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: the earlier call, he praised their contribution. What have I
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: accomplished compared to you? Aren't the gleanings of Ephraim better
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: than the full harvest of a Beeza? God gave a
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: Reb and Zib, the Midianite leaders into your hands. What
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: was I able to do compared to you? This answer
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: calmed them. Gideon showed he valued Israel's unity over personal pride.
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: He honored Ephraim's role and downplayed his own. It was
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: the mark of a true leader. With the conflict resolved,
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: Gideon and his three hundred men continued the pursuit. They
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: were exhausted, but still chasing the Midianite kings. When they
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: reached Sukkoth, they asked for help. Please give my men
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: some bread. They are worn out and I'm still pursuing
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: Zeba and Zalmuna, the kings of midian The leaders of
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: Succoth gave a disappointing answer. Do you already have Zeba
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: and Zalmuna in your hands? Why should we give bread
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: to your troops. Gideon promised to return and punish the town.
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: The same thing happened in Penial, the next city along
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: the way. No one offered support. Eventually, Gideon caught up
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: with Zeba and Zalmuna in Kharkoor. They had about fifteen
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: thousand men what remained of the Eastern army. Gideon attacked
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: and captured the two kings, throwing their entire force into retreat.
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: On the way back, Gideon kept his word and punished
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: the towns that refused to help. In Succoth, he captured
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: a young man and had him list the names of
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: the cities officials seventy seven men. Then he said to
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: the leaders, here are Zeber and Zalmunna. About whom you
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: taunted me, saying, do you already have them in your hands?
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: Why should we give bread to your exhausted men? And
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: he punished the leaders of the city in Pennil. He
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: tore down the city's tower and killed the men who
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: had refused aid. Then he turned his attention to the
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: captured kings. Judges eight eighteen nineteen recounts his conversation. Then
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: he asked Zeba and Zalmuna, what kind of men did
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: you kill at Tabor? They answered, men like you. Each
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: one looked like a son of a king. Gideon replied,
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: those were my brothers, the sons of my own mother,
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: as surely as the Lord lives. If you had spared
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: their lives, I would not kill you. This revelation changed everything.
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: The Midian Eyed Kings had killed Gideon's brothers, turning this
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: from a national conflict into a personal vendetta. In line
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: with the laws of the time that required the nearest
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: relative to avenge the shedding of innocent blood, Gideon ordered
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: his eldest son, Jeha, to execute the kings, but the
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: boy hesitated out of fear. He was still just a youth,
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: so the kings urged Gideon to do it himself. Come
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: do it yourself. As is the strength of a man,
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: so is his deed. Gideon killed Zeba and Zalmuna and
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: took the cre shaped ornaments that hung on their camels necks.
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: After this great victory over the Midianites, the people of
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: Israel wanted to make Gideon their king. Judges eight twenty
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: two says, rule over us, you, your son, and your grandson,
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: because you have saved us out of the hand of
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: midian It was a tempting offer. Gideon had demonstrated strong leadership,
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: had earned the people's respect, and now was being offered
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: a dynasty, not just a personal reign, but a line
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: of rulers from his descendants. But Gideon's answer was clear
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: and resolute. I will not rule over you, nor will
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: my son rule over you. The Lord will rule over you.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: This response revealed that Gideon understood Israel's unique identity. Unlike
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: neighboring nations, Israel was not meant to have a human king.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: Its constitution, the Law of Moses, established a theocracy. God
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: was the king with human judges. Applying his law to
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: install a human king would be a rejection of divine sovereignty,
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: as Samuel would later explain to the people. However, despite
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: this noble refusal, Gideon made a request that would have
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: serious consequences. He said, I have one request that each
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: of you give me an ear ring from your share
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: of the plunder. The enemies had worn gold ear rings,
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: as was customary among the Ishmaelites. The people agreed readily,
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: we will give them. They spread out a cloak, and
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: each man threw in a gold ear ring from his
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: share of the plunder. The total weight of the gold
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: came to one thousand and seven hundred shekels, about twenty kilograms,
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: not including the ornaments, pendants, and purple garments worn by
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: the kings of Midian, or the chains from their camel's necks.
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: With all that gold, Gideon made an efod, a ceremonial
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: priestly garment, and placed it in Ophra, his hometown. What
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: may have seemed like a harmless or even pious act,
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: had a devastating result. Judges eight twenty seven tells us
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: all Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: became a snare to Gideon and his family. It striking
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: that Gideon, who began his career by tearing down an
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: altar to Bail ended up creating an object that became
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: an idol to Israel. That was never his intention, but
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: that was the outcome. The ephod, perhaps meant to honor God,
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: ultimately replaced genuine worship at the tabernacle in Shiloh. Following
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: this victory, the land had peace for forty years during
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: Gideon's lifetime. The Midianites never rose again, and Israel lived
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: in safety. Gideon returned home to live out the rest
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: of his days. He had many wives and seventy sons.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: He also had a son by his concubine in Shesham,
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: whom he named Abimelech. Gideon, son of Joash, died at
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: a good old age and was buried in the tomb
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: of his father Joash. In Ophrah of the Abeis Writes
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: Judges eight thirty three to thirty five, offers a sad
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: summary of what happened after his death. No sooner had
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the bales.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: They set up Bail Baith as their god, and did
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: not remember the Lord, their God, who had rescued them
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: from the hands of all their enemies on every side.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: They also failed to show any loyalty to the family
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: of Jerobal, that is, Gideon, in spite of all the
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: good things he had done for them. After Gideon's death,
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: the cycle of apostasy continued, but this time the threat
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: came from within. Abimelech, the son of Gideon and his
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: concubine from Shechem, saw an opportunity for power. He lacked
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: his father's character and respect for God's rule over Israel.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: In Judges nine one to two, we read abimelechs son
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: of Jerebal, went to his mother's brothers in Shechem and
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: said to them and to all his mother's clan, ask
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: all the citizens of Shechem, which is better for you
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: to have all seventy of Jubal's sons rule over you
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: or just one man? Remember I am your own flesh
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: and blood. Abimelech leveraged his half Sheshemite heritage to gain
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: the support of the city's citizens. He also exploited the
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: natural division between the Canaanite population of Shechem and Gideon's
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: Israelite descendants. He framed the situation as a false choice
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: be ruled by seventy men or by just one himself.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: His mother's brothers repeated his words to all the citizens
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: of Shechem, and they were inclined to follow Abimelech, saying
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: he is our brother. They gave him seventy silver shekels
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: from the temple of Balberith, which he used to hire
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: some reckless scoundrels who followed him. Abimelek's first act was
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: to eliminate his rivals. He went to his father's home
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: in Ophra and on a single stone killed his seventy brothers,
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: the sons of Jerubal. Only Jotham, the youngest son, escaped
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: by hiding. After this brutal act, Abimelech was proclaimed king
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: by the leaders of Shechem. Judges nine six tells us.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: Then all the citizens of Shechem and beth Millow gathered
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: beside the Great Tree at the Pillar in Shechem to
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: crown Abimelech king. This marked a critical turning point in
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: Israel's history. For the first time an Israelite was declared king,
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: directly contradicting Gideon's earlier declaration that the Lord will rule
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: over you. When Jotham, the sole surviving brother, heard about it,
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: he climbed to the top of Mount Garrisim and shouted
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: to the people, listen to me, citizens of Jecham, so
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: that God may listen to you. Then he told a
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: powerful parable about trees looking for a king. In the story,
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: the trees wanted to anoint one of them as king.
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: First they invited the olive tree, then the fig tree,
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: then the vine. Each one refused, choosing instead to keep
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: producing its valuable fruit. Finally, they offered the kingship to
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: the thornbush, which accepted, but with a threatening condition. If
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: you really want to anoint me as king over you,
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: come and take shelter in my shade. If not, fire
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: will come out from the thornbush and consume even the
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: cedars of Lebanon. The message of the fable was clear.
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: The useful trees, the olive, the fig, the vine represented
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: worthy leaders who preferred to serve in productive ways. The thornbush,
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: useless and dangerous, represented Abimelech, and the threat of fire
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: from the thornbush was a prophecy. The alliance between Shechem
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: and a Bimelech would end in destruction. Jotham ended his
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: speech with a direct challenge, if you have acted in
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: good faith and with honor in making Abimelech, King, if
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: you have treated Jerobal and his family well and repaid
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: him for what he did, then rejoice in a Bimelech,
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: and let him also rejoice in you. But if you
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: have not, let fire come out from Abimelech and consume
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: the citizens of Shechem and beth Miloh. And let fire
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: come out from the citizens of Shechem and beth Milloh,
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: and consume a Bimelech. After that, Jotham fled to Beer
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: and settled there far away from his brother a Bimelech.
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: For three years, a Bimelech ruled over Israel, but then
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: God sent an evil spirit between him and the citizens
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: of Shechem, who began to act treacherously against him. God
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: was bringing justice upon a Bimelech for the violence he
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: had done to the seventy sons of Jerubal. The city
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: of Shechem began to rebel. Men hid in the hills
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: to ambush and rob travelers, and some one reported this
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: to Abimelech. A man named Ghal, son of Ebed, moved
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: to Sachem with his relatives and won the trust of
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: the citizens During the harvest festival in the temple of
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: their God. As they ate and drank. They began cursing Abimelech.
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: Ghl said, who is a Bimelech and who is Shechem
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: that we should serve him? Isn't he Jerubal's son? And
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: isn't Zebel his officer served the descendants of hamor Shechem's ancestor.
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: Why should we serve Abimelech. These words reached Zebel, the
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: city's governor, who became furious. He secretly sent messengers to Abimelech. Ghal,
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: son of Ebed and his brothers have come to Shechem
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: and are stirring up the city against you. Come by
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: night with your men and hide in the fields. At sunrise,
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: launch your attack on the city. When Ghahl and his
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: men come out to fight, do with them as you
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: see fit. Abimelech followed the plan. When Ghal saw men
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: coming down from the hills, he said to Zebel, Look,
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: people are coming down from the hilltops. But Zebel replied,
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: you're just seeing shadows on the hills. They only look
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: like men. Ghahl insisted, no, Look, people are coming down
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: from the center of the land, and another group is
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: coming along the road by the Diviner's oak. Then Zebel said,
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: where is your big talk? Now you said who is Abimelech,
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: that we should serve him? These are the men you
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: were mocking. Go out now and fight them. Ghahl led
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: the people of Shechem into battle against Abimelech, but they
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: were defeated and fled. Many men from Shechem were wound,
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: did and fell along the road as far as the
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: city gate. The next day, when the people of Shechem
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: went out into the fields, someone informed a Bimelech. He
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: took his men, divided them into three companies, and hid
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: in the fields. When he saw the people coming out
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: of the city, he and his men rose up and
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: attacked them. Abimelech and his group took their position at
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: the city gate, while the other two companies attacked those
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: in the fields and killed them. Abimelech fought against the
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: city all day. He captured it, killed its people, destroyed it,
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: and scattered salt over it, a symbolic act of cursing.
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: When the leaders in the tower of Shechem heard what happened,
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: they took refuge in the stronghold of the temple of Elberith.
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: When Abimelech learned that they were all gathered there, he
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: went to Mount Zalmon with his men He took an axe,
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: cut some branches and placed them on his shoulders. Then
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: he said to his men, quick, do what you've seen
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: me do. So everyone cut branches and followed a bimelech.
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: They piled the branches against the stronghold and set it
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: on fire. All the people in the tower of Shechem died.
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: About a thousand men and women. Jotham's prophecy was coming true.
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: Fire was coming out of the thorn bush and consuming
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: the men of Shechem. But the second part of the prophecy,
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: fire from Shechem consuming a bimelech, was still to come.
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: A bimelech went to Thebes, laid siege to it, and
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: captured it. However, there was a strong tower in the
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: city center. All the men and women of the city
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: fled there, locked themselves inside, and went up to the rooftop.
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: A bimelech approached the tower to burn it down, but
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: a woman dropped an upper millstone on his head and
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: crushed his skull. He quickly called his armor bearer and said,
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: draw your sword and kill me, so they can't say
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: a woman killed me. So the servant ran him through
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: and he died. When the Israelites saw that Abimelek was dead,
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: they all went home. In this way, God repaid Abimelech
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: for the evil he had done to his father by
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: murdering his seventy brothers, and God also brought down on
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: the heads of the people of Sheshem the evil they
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: had committed. Thus Jotham's son of Jerobel's curse was fulfilled.
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: After Abimelek's death, Tolah, son of Puah, grandson of Dodo,
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: from the tribe of Issachar, rose to deliver Israel. He
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: lived in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim, and
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: led Israel for twenty three years. Then he died and
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: was buried in Shamir. After him came Jair of Gilad,
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: who led Israel for twenty two years. He had thirty
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: sons who rode thirty donkeys and controlled thirty towns in Gilead,
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: which to this day are called Jayir's villages. When Jaya died,
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: he was buried in Kaimun. Thus ended the bloody episode
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: of Abimelech, the first man to be called king in Israel,
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: a title he gained through betrayal and murder and lost
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: the same way. The story of Abimelech is a warning
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: about the dangers of unchecked ambition and the devastating consequences
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: of violence. It is also a reminder that divine justice,
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: though sometimes slow, is certain. As the narrator says in
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: Judges nine fifty six fifty seven, God repaid the wickedness
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: that Abimelech had done to his father by killing his
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: seventy brothers. God also made the people of Shechem pay
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: for all their wickedness. The curse of Jotham's son of
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: Jerrebal came true. After Abimelek's bloody story, Israel experienced a
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: time of peace under the leadership of two judges, about
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: whom we know very little. The Book of Judges first
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: tells us about Tolah, a man from the tribe of Issachar.
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: In Judges Tis ten one two, we read after Abimelech, Tolah,
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: son of Pua, the son of Dodo, rose to save Israel.
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: He was a man of Isakar who lived in Shamir,
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: in the hill country of Ephraim. He led Israel twenty
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: three years. Then he died and was buried in Shamir.
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: The contrast is striking after Abimelek, who murdered seventy of
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: his brothers to seize power and ruled with violence for
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: three years. Comes Tolah, who leads for over two decades.
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: The text doesn't mention any wars or notable deeds. There
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: are no defeated enemies or recorded miracles. It simply says
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: he saved Israel and ruled for twenty three years. Sometimes
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: the greatest leaders are those who bring peace and stability,
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: even if there are no dramatic stories to tell. Interestingly,
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: to was from the tribe of Isaka, but lived in
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: Iphrimite territory. This suggests that despite the tribal conflicts we've
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: seen before, it was still possible for an Israelite to
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: live outside his tribal allotment. After Tola another judge, Arose
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: Judges ten three to five introduces us to JayR. He
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: was followed by Jayir of Gilead, who led Israel twenty
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: two years. He had thirty sons who rode thirty donkeys
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: and controlled thirty towns in Gilead, which to this day
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: are called Havoth JayR. When Jaya died, he was buried
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: in Kamen. Jaya came from Gilead, a region east of
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: the Jordan River. The fact that he had thirty sons,
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: each riding his own donkey and governing his own town
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: indicates that Jaya was a wealthy and influential man. Riding
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: donkeys back then was a sign of high status, usually
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: reserved for nobility. The Havoth Jair literally villages of Jair
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: show that his legacy endured. Even the author of Judges
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: notes the name was still in use at the time
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: of writing. Together, Tolah and Jaiir led Israel for forty
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: five years of relative peace, no major battles, no dramatic
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: personal trials, just steady leadership that allowed the people to prosper.
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: But that calm didn't last. As we'll see, the cycle
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: of apostasy and oppression was about to begin again. The
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: peace Israel enjoyed under Tolah and Jair quickly gave way
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: to chaos. The people forgot the lessons of the past
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: and returned to idolatry. Judges ten six reveals the scale
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: of the problem again. The Israelites did evil in the
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: eyes of the Lord. They served the Bales and the
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: kay Ashtaraths, and the gods of Aram saidon Moab, the
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: Ammonites and the Philistines because the Israelites forsook the Lord
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: and no longer served him. This wasn't a casual slip
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: into idle worship. This time Israel fully embraced the gods
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: of all their neighboring nations, outright rejecting Yahweh. The list
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: is staggering gods from Aram in the north, Sidon on
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: the Phoenician coast, Moab and Amon to the east, and
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: the Philistines to the west. It's like they were collecting
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: idols from every direction. God's response was swift and severe.
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: Verse seven continues, he became angry with them. He sold
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites.
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: The punishment came at the room hands of the very
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: nations whose gods they had chosen to worship. It was
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: as if God were saying, you prefer their gods, then
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: live under their rule. The oppression was brutal, as described
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: in Judges ten eight. That year they shattered and crushed
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: the Israelites. For eighteen years, they oppressed all the Israelites
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: on the east side of the Jordan, in Gilead, the
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: land of the Amorites. This wasn't just a series of raids.
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: It was sustained, grinding oppression that lasted eighteen years. The
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: tribes east of the Jordan, Reuben, Gad and half of Manasse,
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: suffered first, but it didn't stop there. The Ammonites also
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah, Benjamin and Ephraim.
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: Israel was in great distress. In their desperation, the people
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: finally turned back to God. Judges ten ten records their confession.
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord, we have
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: sinned against you, forsaking our God and serving the bales.
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: But this time God didn't respond with immediate deliverance. Instead,
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: he reminded them of all the times he had already
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: rescued them, and how they kept returning to idols. In
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: Verses eleven to fourteen, the Lord says, when the Egyptians,
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, the Sidonians, the Amalekites,
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: and the Mayorites oppressed you, and you cried to me
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: for help, did I not save you from their hands?
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: But you have forsaken me and served other gods, so
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: I will no longer save you. Go and cry out
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: to the gods you have chosen let them save you
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: when you are in trouble. It was a direct challenge.
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: God was saying, if you trust those gods so much,
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: ask them for help. Of course, those idols were powerless.
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: The people recognized their failure and showed deeper repentance. In
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: Judges ten fifteen to sixteen. They respond. But the Israelites
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: said to the Lord, we have sinned. Do with us
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: whatever you think best, but please rescue us now. Then
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: they got rid of the foreign gods among themmen served
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: the Lord, and he could bear Israel's misery no longer.
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: Note the shift. First they confess their sin, then they
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 1: accept whatever punishment God deems, and finally they take real
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: action by removing the idols. This genuine repentance moved God's heart.
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: He could no longer endure their suffering. The stage was
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: set for another confrontation with their oppressors. The Ammonites gathered
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: and camped in Gilead, while the Israelites assembled at Mispah.
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: The leaders of Gilead were anxious. The leaders of Gilead
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: said to each other, whoever will take the lead in
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: attacking the Ammonites will be head over all who live
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: in Gilead. They needed a brave leader to rise and
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: confront the Ammonites, and God was already preparing that man,
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: someone they had once rejected, but who would now be
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: key to Israel's deliverance. Jefffa's life began with rejection. Judges
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: Chapter eleven opens with a blunt account of his background.
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: Jeffna the Gileadite was a mighty warrior. His father was Gilead.
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: His mother was a prostitute. Gilead's wife also bore him sons,
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: and when they were grown up, they drove jephther away.
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: You are not going to get any inheritance in our family,
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: they said, because you are the son of another woman,
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: born from a forbidden relationship. Jefhthera had no say in
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: the circumstances of his birth, yet his half brothers judged
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: him for it, stripping him of his rightful inheritance. It
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: was a double rejection, first by society for being the
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: son of a prostitute, and then by his own family,
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: who cast him out. Faced with rejection, jephther fled from
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: his brothers and settled in the land of tob There,
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: away from the social structures that had excluded him. He
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: became the leader of a group of adventurers. Judges eleven
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: three says, so Jefha fled from his brothers and settled
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: in the land of Tob, where a group of worthless
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: men gathered around him and followed him. Some translations render
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: worthless men as empty men or men of no worth,
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: suggesting that jeff Theer attracted others who were marginalized by society. Together,
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: they likely lived by raiding caravans or working as mercenaries.
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: It wasn't a respectable life, but jeff Thea honed his
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: skills in warfare and earned a reputation as a capable fighter.
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: Years passed. Then, when the Ammonites attacked Israel, the very
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: elders who had allowed his banishment remembered the valiant warrior
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: they had rejected. In their desperation, they went to Tob
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: to find the man they had once despised. Judges eleven
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: four towards six recounts. Some time later, when the Ammonites
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: made were on Israel, the elders of Gilead went to
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: get Jefhtha from the land of Tob. Come, they said,
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: be our commander, so we can fight the Ammonites. Jefther's
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: reply showed he hadn't forgotten the rejection. Didn't you hate
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: me and drive me from my father's house? Why do
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: you come to me now when you're in trouble? The
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: question is heavy with pain. He's essentially saying, did you
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: want me when I was family? No? Did you want
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: me when I lived peacefully in your land? No? Now
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: that you're desperate, you remember me. The elders of Gilead
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 1: acknowledged their dire situation and made a tempting offer. Nevertheless,
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: they said, we are turning to you. Now, come with
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: us to fight the Ammonites, and you will be head
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: over all of us who live in Gilead. This wasn't
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: just a temporary position as a military commander. They were
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: offering Jefther permanent leadership as the ruler of all Gilead.
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: For a man who had been denied even his family's inheritance,
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: it was an extraordinary turn round. Jeff Thea didn't accept
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: right away. He wanted assurances. Suppose you take me back
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: to fight the Ammonites and the Lord gives them to me,
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: will I really be your head? The elders gave him
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 1: a solemn oath. The Lord is our witness, we will
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: certainly do as you say. By invoking the name of God.
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: They turned their promise into a sacred covenant. With that assurance,
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: jef Thea agreed. Judges eleven eleven tells us. So Jephtha
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: him head and commander over them, and he repeated all
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: his words before the Lord in Mispah. The phrase before
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: the Lord suggests a formal ceremony lightly held at the
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 1: sanctuary in Misper, where the agreement was ratified in God's presence.
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 1: The rejected man had now become the leader, ready to
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: face the Ammonites. Before heading into battle, jeff Thea tried
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: to resolve the conflict diplomatically, a sign of wisdom and
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: self control. Instead of rushing into war to prove himself,
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: he first sought to understand the cause of the inflict.
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: Judges eleven twelve shows his initiative. Then Jephtha sent messengers
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: to the Ammonite king with the question what do you
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 1: have against us that you have attacked our land? It
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 1: was a direct question, what's the problem, Why are you
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: attacking us? The reply revealed a long standing territorial dispute.
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: In Judges eleven thirteen. The King of the Ammonites responded,
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: when Israel came up out of Egypt, they took away
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: my land from the Arnon to the Jabbuk, all the
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: way to the Jordan. Now give it back peacefully. The
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 1: Amonites were laying claim to land that Israel had conquered
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: roughly three hundred years earlier during the Exodus. They argued
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: that this territory from the Arnun to the Jabbuk the
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: region of Gilead was rightfully udairs and demanded its return.
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: Jeftha didn't accept that version of history. He sent new
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 1: messengers with a detailed response, displaying deep knowledge of Israel's past.
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: His answer, which spans sixteen verses Judges eleven fourteen twenty nine,
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: is a brilliant legal defense of Israel's right to the land. First,
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: he corrected the record Israel did not take the land
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: of Moab or the land of the Ammonites. He explained
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: that when Israel left Egypt, they journeyed through the wilderness
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: to the Red Sea and then to Kadesh. From there,
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: they asked the King of Edom for permission to pass
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: through his land, but were denied. The same happened with
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: the King of Moab, so Jeftha continued. Israel skirted around
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: the lands of Edom and Moab, passed along the eastern
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: border of Moab, and camped on the other side of
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 1: the Arnan. They did not enter the territory of Moab,
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: for the Arnon was its boundary. Then Israel sent messengers
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 1: to Sihon, king of the Amorites, asking for permission to
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: pass through his land to their destination. But Sihon didn't
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: trust Israel and mobilized his army to attack them at Jahaz.
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 1: The outcome, as Jephtha recounted, was that the Lord, the
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 1: God of Israel gave Sihon and all his men into
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 1: Israel's hands, and they defeated them. Israel took over all
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: the land of the Amorites who lived in that territory.
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: This was the key point in Jephtha's argument the disputed
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: land never belonged to the Ammonites. It had been Amorite
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: land when Israel conquered it. In Judges eleven twenty three
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: twenty four he added a theological dimension. It was the Lord,
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: the God of Israel, who drove out the Amorites before
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: his people, Israel, are you now to take it? Over.
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 1: Will you not take what your God Kimosh gives you. Likewise,
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: whatever the Lord, our God has given us, we will possess.
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 1: It was an argument the Ammonite king could understand in
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: the ancient Middle Eastern worldview, when a god gave victory
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: to his people, the conquered land rightfully became theirs. If
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 1: your God gives you land, Jeffna argued, you accept it.
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 1: Our God gave us this land, and we're keeping it.
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 1: Jeffa also appealed to historical precedent. For three hundred years,
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: Israel occupied heshbun a Rower, the surrounding settlements, and all
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: the towns along the Arnon River. Why didn't you try
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 1: to reclaim them during that time? It was a solid argument.
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: If these lands really belonged to Ammon, why had they
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: waited three centuries to claim them. It was like saying,
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: the time to contest this is long gone. Jeffna concluded
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: his message by placing the responsibility for any bloodshed squarely
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 1: on the Ammonite king. I have not wronged you, but
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: you are doing me wrong by waging war against me.
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 1: Let the law bard the judge decide to day between
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: the Israelites and the Ammonites. This reference to God as
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: judge wasn't just religious language. It was a declaration of
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: trust that the outcome of the battle would reflect divine
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: judgment about who was truly in the right. Unfortunately, Judges
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: eleven twenty eight tells us that the King of Vammon, however,
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: paid no attention to the message Jephtha sent him. Diplomacy
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: had failed. The matter would now be settled on the battlefield.
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: With negotiations broken down, Jephtha prepared for war, but before
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: he marched out, he did something that would tragically alter
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: his life. Judges eleven twenty nine thirty one recounts, then
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephtha. He crossed Gilead,
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: and Manasseh passed through Mispah of Gilead and advanced against
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: the Ammonites. And Jephtha made a vow to the Lord,
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: if you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 1: out of the door of my house to meet me
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 1: when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 1: the Lord's and I will offer it as a burnt offering.
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: This vow reveals both Jephtha's faith and his recklessness. On
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: one hand, he recognized that only God could give victory.
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: On the other he made a rash promise without considering
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: the consequences. Vows were taken very seriously in Israelite culture.
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: Once made, they had to be fulfilled. Numbers thirty point
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 1: two says, when a man makes a vow to the
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: Lord or takes an oath to bind himself by a pledge,
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: he must not break his word, but must do everything
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: he said with the vow maid Jephtha went into battle,
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: and the result was a sweeping victory. Then Jephtha went
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: over to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: into his hands. He devastated twenty towns from a Roer
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: to the vicinity of Minnith as far as Abel Cheramim,
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 1: Thus Israel's subdued ammon The victory was total, just as
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 1: Jeftha had hoped. But when he returned home to Mispah,
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: his triumph turned to tragedy. Judges eleven thirty four says,
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: when Jeffna returned to his home in Mispah, who should
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 1: come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: the sound of tambourines. She was an only child. Except
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 1: for her, he had neither son nor daughter. The text
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: captures Jephtha's devastation when he saw her. He tore his
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: clothes and cried, oh no, my daughter, you have brought
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: me down, and I am devastated. I have made a
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 1: vow to the Lord that I cannot break. Just imagine
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: the scene a father returning home victorious, expecting to be
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 1: greeted with honor, only to have his worst nightmare come true.
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: The one who came out to meet him wasn't a
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 1: servant or an animal, but his own daughter, his only child.
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 1: His joy turned instantly to anguish. Jeffa's daughter's response reveals
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 1: extraordinary character. Rather than complain about her fate, she accepted
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: her father's vow. My father, she said, you have given
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 1: your word to the Lord. Do to me just as
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: you promised, now that the Lord has avenged you of
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: your enemies, the ammonites. Her one request reflected both her
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: youth and the sorrow of never experiencing marriage and motherhood,
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: highly valued in that culture. But grant me this one thing,
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 1: she said, Give me two months to roam the hills
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 1: and weep with my friends, because I will never marry.
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: Jefther agreed. You may go, he said, and he let
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 1: her go for two months. She and her friends went
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 1: into the hills and wept because she would never marry.
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 1: After the two months, she returned to her father, and
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: he did to her as he had vowed. The text
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 1: doesn't explicitly say what happened to her. Some scholars argue
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: that she was dedicated to life long sirervis at the tabernacle,
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 1: remaining a virgin forever. Others believe she was literally sacrificed.
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: The following verse leans toward the latter interpretation, as it
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: says and she never married. From this comes the Israelite
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 1: tradition that each year the young women of Israel go
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephtha
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: the Gileadite. That word commemorate can also be translated as mourn,
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: suggesting the community annually remembered and grieved her sacrifice. Either way,
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 1: Jeftha's daughter's life as she knew it ended because of
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 1: her father's impulsive vow. Jeptha's victory over the Ammonites should
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 1: have been a moment of unity for Israel. Instead, it
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 1: sparked further division. The tribe of Ephraim, which had not
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 1: participated in the battle. Took offense at being left out.
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 1: Their reaction was extreme and threatening. Injudges twelve one, we
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: read the men of Ephraim called out their forces, crossed
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 1: over to Zaphon and said to Jefthera, why did you
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 1: go to fight the Ammonites without calling us to go
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 1: with you. We're going to burn your house down over
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: your head. It was an unfair accusation and a serious threat.
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: Jeffa replied by setting the record straight. I and my
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 1: people were engaged in a great struggle with the Ammonites,
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 1: and although I called you, didn't save me out of
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 1: their hands. When I saw that you wouldn't help, I
• 1:34:32
  Speaker 1: took my life in my hands and crossed over to
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 1: fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave me the victory.
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 1: Why have you come up to day to fight me?
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 1: Jefther's response made it clear that he had in fact
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 1: called on the Affraimites, but they had refused. Now, after
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: the victory, they wanted to claim honor they hadn't earned.
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 1: This wasn't the first time Ephraim had acted this way.
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 1: They had done something similar to Gideon Judges eight one.
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 1: But while Gideon responded diplomatically, Jefhther a man hardened by
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 1: conflict from his youth wasn't willing to back down. The
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: situation quickly escalated into a civil war. Judges twelve and
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 1: four records Then Jephtha assembled all the men of Gilead
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 1: and fought against Ephram. The Gileadites struck them down because
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 1: the Ephramites had said, e Gileadites are renegades from Ephram
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: and Manasse. The Ephramites accusation was particularly offensive. They were
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 1: calling the Gileadites renegades, people with no true tribal identity.
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: For men who placed great value on their tribal heritage,
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 1: this was a serious insult. The Gileadites seized the fords
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: of the Jordan River to block the Ephramites from escaping
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 1: back home. Then they came up with an ingenious test
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 1: to identify the fugitives. Judges twelve five six tells us
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 1: the Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephram,
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 1: and whenever a fugitive from Ephram said let me cross,
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 1: the men of Giliad would ask him, are you an Ephramite? Who?
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: If he replied no, they would say, all right, say Shibeleeth.
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 1: If he said Sibilith. Because he could not pronounce the
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 1: word correctly, they seized him and killed him at the
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: fords of the Jordan. At that time, forty two thousand
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 1: Ivraemites were killed. Shibeleth means stream or ear of grain.
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 1: The difference in pronunciation was subtle, just the initial consonant,
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 1: but it revealed a speaker's regional origin. The Ephramite said sibileth,
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 1: lacking the esh sound. It was much like people from
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: different regions pronouncing certain words differently. This tiny linguistic difference
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 1: became a death sentence for thousands. The result was devastating.
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 1: Forty two thousand and Ephramites died. It was a terrible
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 1: loss for Israel, a nation meant to be united against
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 1: external enemies, not fighting among themselves. After this bloody conflict,
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 1: Jeffthera led Israel for six years. Then as Judges twelve
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: seven says, Jefftha the Gileadite led Israel six years. Then
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 1: Jefftha the Gileadite died and was buried in a town
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 1: in Gilead. The brief mention of his death without the
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 1: honorific details often given to other judges, may reflect the
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 1: mixed nature of his legacy. He delivered Israel from the Ammonites,
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 1: but also led a civil war against fellow Israelites and
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 1: sacrificed his only daughter because of a reckless vow. Jephtha,
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 1: the rejected son who became a deliverer, left behind a
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 1: legacy of victory marred by tragedy and division. After Jefftha's death,
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: three judges led Israel in succession. We know little about them,
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: only brief details that offer a small glimpse into their lives.
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: They are known as minor judges, not because they were
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 1: less important, but because the Biblical text devotes less space
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 1: to their stories. The first of them was Ibzan Judges
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 1: twelve eight to ten reads after him, Ibsan of Um
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 1: Bethlehem led Israel. He had thirty sons and thirty daughters.
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 1: He gave his daughters in marriage outside his clan and
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 1: brought in thirty young women from outside for his sons.
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 1: Ibzan led Israel for seven years, then he died and
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 1: was buried in Bethlehem. Ibsan appears to have been a
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 1: man of considerable wealth and influence. Having sixty children was
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: extremely unusual and suggests that he had multiple wives, something permitted,
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 1: though not ideal in Israelite culture at the time. The
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 1: text highly how he arranged marriages for all his children,
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 1: bringing in thirty women for his sons and sending his
• 1:39:07
  Speaker 1: daughters to marry into other clans. This extensive web of
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 1: marriages likely served political and social purposes, forging alliances across
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 1: families and regions. In an era without formal government structures,
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 1: family ties were crucial for peace and stability. Interestingly, Ibzan
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: was from Bethlehem, the same town where King David and
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: eventually Jesus would be born. At the time, though Bethlehem
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 1: was still a small village, not the renowned city it
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: would later become. After seven years of leadership, Ibzan died
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 1: and was succeeded by Elon. Judges twelve eleven to twelve
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 1: tells us only after him Elon, the Zebulunite led Israel
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 1: ten years. Then Elon died and was buried in Ajalon,
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: in the land of Zebulun. We know only his true
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 1: vibe Zebulun, and that he led for a decade. The
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 1: text mentions no wars or major events, suggesting a relatively
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 1: peaceful period. Sometimes the absence of crisis is itself a
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 1: mark of good leadership. The third of these judges was Abdon.
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 1: Judges twelve thirteen to fifteen gives us a bit more detail.
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 1: After him, Abdon, son of Hillel from Pirathon, led Israel.
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 1: He had forty sons and thirty grandsons who rode seventy donkeys.
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 1: He led Israel eight years. Then Abdon's son of Hillel,
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: died and was buried at Pirathon in Ephraim, in the
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 1: hill country of the Amalekites. Like Ibzan, Abdon appears to
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 1: have been a man of great wealth and a large family.
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 1: The note about seventy donkeys is significant. Riding donkeys was
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 1: a symbol of nobility and leadership at the time. This
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 1: wasn't just a casual detail. It indicated his family's status
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 1: and influence. Abden's hometown, Pirathon, was located in Ephramite territory,
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: but the text adds an intriguing note that it was
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 1: in the hill country of the Amalekites. This might suggest
• 1:41:15
  Speaker 1: it was once inhabited by Amalekites, or that some presents
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 1: still remained there. These three judges, Ibzan, Elon and Abdon,
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 1: led Israel for a combined total of twenty five years.
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 1: The text records no wars or crises during their time,
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: implying a relatively calm era. After the intense drama of
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 1: Jephtha's rule. The people lightly appreciated this peaceful interlude. It's
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 1: interesting to contrast these minor judges with figures like Gideon
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 1: and Jephtha. While the latter emerged in times of crisis
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 1: and became known for great battles, the minor judges appear
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 1: to have governed during more stable periods, perhaps consolidating the
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 1: victories of their predecessors. It's a reminder that leadership takes
• 1:42:03
  Speaker 1: different forms at different times, sometimes dramatic and bold, other
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 1: times quiet and administrative. But peace would not last forever.
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 1: Soon Israel would once again face one of its most
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 1: persistent enemies, the Philistines, and for that threat, God was
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 1: preparing a deliverer, unlike any who had come before. The
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 1: story of Samson begins with a family struggle a childless couple.
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 1: In Judges thirteen two, we read a man named Manoah
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 1: from the tribe of Dan lived in Zorah. His wife
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 1: was unable to become pregnant, and they had no children.
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 1: In ancient Israel, infertility was seen as a deep affliction.
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 1: Children were considered a divine blessing, and the lack of
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 1: them was often viewed as a sign of disfavor. This
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 1: couple had carried that pain for many years, but something
• 1:42:58
  Speaker 1: extraordinary about to happen. Judges thirteen three to five tells
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 1: us the Angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah's wife
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: and said, even though you have been unable to have children,
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 1: you will soon become pregnant and give birth to a son.
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: So be careful. You must not drink wine or any
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 1: other alcoholic drink, nor eat any forbidden food. You will
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 1: become pregnant and give birth to a son, and his
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 1: hair must never be cut, for he will be dedicated
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 1: to God as a Nazarite. From birth he will begin
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 1: to rescue Israel from the Philistines. This was a remarkable promise.
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 1: Not only would the woman have a child, but the
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: child would be special from birth, a Nazarite, someone set
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 1: apart for God by a special vow. Normally, the Nazirite
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 1: vow was temporary, but Samson was to be a Nazirite
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: for life. The Nazirite vow had three primary restrictions, abstaining
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 1: from fermented drinks, never cutting one's hair, and avoiding contact
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: with the dead. These rules symbolized total dedication to God.
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 1: The prophecy that this child would begin to rescue Israel
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 1: hints that his mission would not be completed in his lifetime.
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: The woman, whose name is never given in the text,
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 1: told her husband about the encounter. A man of God
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 1: came to me. He looked like an angel of God,
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 1: very awesome. I didn't ask where he was from, and
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: he didn't tell me his name, but he said to me,
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 1: you will become pregnant and give birth to a son.
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 1: Don't drink wine or any other alcoholic drink, and don't
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 1: eat anything forbidden, for your son will be dedicated to
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 1: God as a Nazirite from the day of his birth
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 1: until the day of his death. Monoah, wanting to confirm
• 1:44:53
  Speaker 1: the message, prayed to God, asking for the man of
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 1: God to return and provide more instructions. God heard his prayer,
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 1: and the angel again appeared to the woman while she
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 1: was alone in the field. She ran to get her husband,
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: and Manoah followed her to where the angel was. When
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 1: Manoah asked how they should raise the boy, the angel
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 1: simply repeated the original instructions to the mother she must
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 1: avoid wine, fermented drinks, and unclean food. Nothing was said
• 1:45:26
  Speaker 1: about how to raise the boy, only about the mother's
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 1: behavior during pregnancy. Not realizing he was speaking with an angel,
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 1: Manoah offered hospitality. We would like you to stay with us.
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: Let us prepare a young goat for you. The angel's
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 1: response was curious. Even if you detain me, I will
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 1: not eat your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering,
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 1: offer it to the Lord. Manoah then asked for the
• 1:45:52
  Speaker 1: visitor's name, and the angel replied, why do you ask
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 1: my name? It is beyond understanding. This mysterious response should
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: have been a clue that their guest was no ordinary man.
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 1: The couple prepared a young goat and a grain offering
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 1: on a rock. What happened next confirmed the supernatural nature
• 1:46:13
  Speaker 1: of their visitor. Judges thirteen, nineteen twenty recounts, then Manoah
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 1: took a young goat and a grain offering and offered
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 1: it on a rock to the Lord, and the Lord
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 1: did an amazing thing as the flame blazed up from
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 1: the altar toward heaven. The Angel of the Lord ascended
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 1: in the flame. When Manoah and his wife saw this,
• 1:46:36
  Speaker 1: they fell with their faces to the ground. Finally realizing
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 1: who they had spoken to. Manoah was terrified, we are
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 1: doomed to die. We have seen God. There was a
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 1: common belief that seeing God face to face meant certain death.
• 1:46:52
  Speaker 1: But his wife, showing remarkable insight, reassured him. If the
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 1: Lord had meant to kill us, he wouldn't have accepted
• 1:46:59
  Speaker 1: our burnt offering and grain offering. He wouldn't have appeared
• 1:47:02
  Speaker 1: to us or told us what he did. Manoah's wife
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 1: demonstrated wisdom and faith. She understood that the acceptance of
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 1: the offering and the promise of a child were signs
• 1:47:12
  Speaker 1: of divine favor, not judgment. Throughout the narrative, she shows
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 1: a more intuitive and steady faith than her husband, as promised.
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 1: The woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson.
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 1: Judges thirteen, twenty four, twenty five says when her son
• 1:47:30
  Speaker 1: was born, she named him Samson, and the Lord blessed him.
• 1:47:34
  Speaker 1: As he grew up, and the spirit of the Lord
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 1: began to stir him while he lived in Mahandan, which
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 1: is located between the towns of Zorah and Eshtaal. This
• 1:47:45
  Speaker 1: stirring by the spirit of the Lord suggests that even
• 1:47:48
  Speaker 1: in his youth, Samson already felt a divine urge toward
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 1: his mission against the Philistines. Samson's story truly begins in
• 1:47:57
  Speaker 1: Judges fourteen, when, now a grown man, he goes down
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 1: to Timna and sees a Philistine woman. He returns home
• 1:48:06
  Speaker 1: and tells his parents, I saw a woman in Timna,
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 1: one of the Philistines. Get her for me as my wife.
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 1: His parents were shocked. They asked, isn't there an acceptable
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 1: woman among your relatives or among our people? Must you
• 1:48:22
  Speaker 1: go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife. This
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 1: was a reasonable concern israel Lights were forbidden from marrying
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 1: the pagan peoples of Canaan to avoid being led into idolatry.
• 1:48:34
  Speaker 1: But Samson insisted, get her for me. She's the one
• 1:48:39
  Speaker 1: I want. Then comes a surprising twist in Judges fourteen four.
• 1:48:44
  Speaker 1: His parents did not realize that this was the Lord's doing,
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 1: who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines, for
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 1: at that time they were ruling over Israel. This is
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 1: an intriguing note. Samson's attraction to the Philistine woman, while
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 1: against God's law, was somehow part of God's broader plan
• 1:49:05
  Speaker 1: to create conflict with the Philistines. It wasn't that God
• 1:49:10
  Speaker 1: approved of intermarriage or caused Samson's disobedience, but he was
• 1:49:15
  Speaker 1: using even Samson's flawed choices to advance his greater purpose.
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 1: While Samson and his parents were on their way to Tymna,
• 1:49:23
  Speaker 1: a young lion suddenly attacked him. Judges fourteen six says
• 1:49:28
  Speaker 1: the spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him, and
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 1: he tore the lion apart with his bare hands, as
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 1: easily as if it were a young goat. But he
• 1:49:37
  Speaker 1: didn't tell his father or mother what he had done.
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 1: This was the first sign of Samson's supernatural strength, a
• 1:49:44
  Speaker 1: gift God would use to deliver Israel. Interestingly, Samson kept
• 1:49:49
  Speaker 1: the event to himself, an early hint of his fondness
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 1: for secrecy and riddles. Some time later, when Samson returned
• 1:49:57
  Speaker 1: to Timna to marry the woman, he turned off the
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 1: path to look at the lion's carcass. Inside it, he
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 1: and found a swarm of bees and some honey. He
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 1: scooped out some of the honey ate it and gave
• 1:50:09
  Speaker 1: some to his parents without telling them where it had
• 1:50:12
  Speaker 1: come from. During the wedding feast, Samson proposed a riddle
• 1:50:17
  Speaker 1: to the thirty young Philistine men who were with him.
• 1:50:21
  Speaker 1: Out of the eater came something to eat. Out of
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 1: the strong came something sweet. If they could solve the
• 1:50:28
  Speaker 1: riddle within seven days, he would give them thirty linen
• 1:50:31
  Speaker 1: garments and thirty sets of clothes. If they couldn't, they
• 1:50:35
  Speaker 1: would have to give him the same. The Philistines couldn't
• 1:50:39
  Speaker 1: figure it out, and by the fourth day they threatened
• 1:50:42
  Speaker 1: Samson's wife, coax your husband into telling us the answer,
• 1:50:46
  Speaker 1: or will burn you and your father's house to the ground.
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 1: Under pressure, the woman pleaded with Samson until he finally
• 1:50:53
  Speaker 1: told her. She immediately passed the answer to the Philistines.
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 1: On the seventh day, just before the day deadline, the
• 1:51:01
  Speaker 1: men said to Samson, what is sweeter than honey? What
• 1:51:05
  Speaker 1: is stronger than a lion? Realizing he had been betrayed,
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 1: Samson said, if you hadn't plowed with my heifer, you
• 1:51:13
  Speaker 1: wouldn't have solved my riddle. Furious but empowered by the
• 1:51:16
  Speaker 1: spirit of the Lord, Samson went down to the city
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 1: of Ashkealon. Struck down thirty men, took their clothes and
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 1: gave them to the ones who had answered the riddle.
• 1:51:26
  Speaker 1: Then he returned to his father's house, abandoning his wife,
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 1: who was given to the man who had served as
• 1:51:32
  Speaker 1: his best man. Later, during the wheat harvest, Samson went
• 1:51:36
  Speaker 1: to visit his wife, bringing a young goat, but her
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 1: father wouldn't let him in. I was so sure you
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 1: hated her, he said that I gave her to your
• 1:51:46
  Speaker 1: best man. Her younger sister is even more beautiful. Take
• 1:51:50
  Speaker 1: her instead. Samson replied, this time I have a right
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 1: to get even with the Philistines. I will really harm them.
• 1:51:58
  Speaker 1: So he caught three hundred foxes, tied them together in
• 1:52:02
  Speaker 1: pairs by the tails, attached a torch to each pair,
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 1: lit the torches, and released them into the Philistine's grain fields.
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 1: The fire destroyed not only the harvested grain and the
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 1: standing wheat, but also the vineyards and olive groves. When
• 1:52:19
  Speaker 1: the Philistines learned that Samson had done this because his
• 1:52:22
  Speaker 1: father in law had given his wife to another man,
• 1:52:25
  Speaker 1: they retaliated by burning the woman and her father to death.
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 1: Samson responded, since you acted like this, I won't stop
• 1:52:34
  Speaker 1: until I get my revenge on you, and he attacked
• 1:52:37
  Speaker 1: them ferociously slaughtering many. Afterward, Samson went to live in
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 1: a cave in the rock of Etam. The Philistines came
• 1:52:46
  Speaker 1: and invaded Judah looking for him. When the men of
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 1: Judah asked why they were under attack, the Philistines said,
• 1:52:54
  Speaker 1: we've come to capture Samson and do to him what
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 1: he did to us. Three thousand men from Judah. We
• 1:53:00
  Speaker 1: went down to the cave and said to Samson, don't
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 1: you realize the Philistines rule over us. What have you
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 1: done to us? Samson replied, I only did to them
• 1:53:10
  Speaker 1: what they did to me. They said, we've come to
• 1:53:14
  Speaker 1: tie you up and hand you over to them. Samson
• 1:53:17
  Speaker 1: agreed as long as they promised not to kill him themselves.
• 1:53:21
  Speaker 1: So they bound him with two new ropes and led
• 1:53:24
  Speaker 1: him up from the rock. When they reached lehigh, the
• 1:53:27
  Speaker 1: Philistines came shouting toward him. Then the spirit of the
• 1:53:31
  Speaker 1: Lord came powerfully upon him. The ropes on his arms
• 1:53:35
  Speaker 1: became like charred flax and fell off his hands. Finding
• 1:53:39
  Speaker 1: a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and
• 1:53:42
  Speaker 1: struck down a thousand men. After the victory, Samson composed
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 1: a short poem with a donkey's jawbone. I made them
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 1: a heap. With a donkey's jawbone, I killed a thousand men.
• 1:53:56
  Speaker 1: Then he threw away the jawbone and called the place
• 1:53:59
  Speaker 1: Ramath lay He jawbone hill. Exhausted and extremely thirsty, Samson
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 1: cried out to the Lord, You've given your servant this
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 1: great victory. Now will I die of thirst and fall
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 1: into the hands of the uncircumcised. God opened up a
• 1:54:17
  Speaker 1: spring in Lihi, and Samson drank. His strength returned, and
• 1:54:21
  Speaker 1: he revived. So he named the spring and Hakora Kala's Spring,
• 1:54:26
  Speaker 1: which was still there at the time the book was written.
• 1:54:29
  Speaker 1: The chapter ends with this note. Samson led Israel for
• 1:54:33
  Speaker 1: twenty years in the days of the Philistines. The story
• 1:54:37
  Speaker 1: continues with Samson going to Gaza, one of the Philistine's
• 1:54:42
  Speaker 1: major cities. Judges sixteen opens with an episode that highlights
• 1:54:47
  Speaker 1: both his strength and his weakness. One day, Samson went
• 1:54:52
  Speaker 1: to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute and spent the
• 1:54:55
  Speaker 1: night with her. Words spread quickly among the people of
• 1:54:58
  Speaker 1: Gaza Samson. Here here we already see a troubling pattern.
• 1:55:04
  Speaker 1: Samson was called to deliver Israel from the Philistines. Yet
• 1:55:08
  Speaker 1: instead of attacking them, he visited their cities and got
• 1:55:11
  Speaker 1: involved with their women. He wasn't resisting the enemy, he
• 1:55:15
  Speaker 1: was cozying up to them. The men of the city
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 1: surrounded the place and waited at dawn to kill him,
• 1:55:23
  Speaker 1: but Samson got up in the middle of the night.
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 1: Since the city gates were locked, he did something incredible.
• 1:55:29
  Speaker 1: He grabbed the doors of the city gate, along with
• 1:55:32
  Speaker 1: the two posts and the cross bar, lifted them onto
• 1:55:35
  Speaker 1: his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the
• 1:55:38
  Speaker 1: hill facing Hebron. Imagine the scene a man tearing down
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 1: the massive wooden and metal gates of a fortified city,
• 1:55:47
  Speaker 1: hoisting them onto his shoulders, and hiking up a hill
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 1: with them. It was a mind blowing display of power,
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 1: sure to intimidate the Philistines, but Samson seemed more interested
• 1:55:58
  Speaker 1: in showing off his strength than using it for the
• 1:56:01
  Speaker 1: freedom of his people. Some time later, Samson fell in
• 1:56:05
  Speaker 1: love with a woman named Delilah who lived in the
• 1:56:08
  Speaker 1: valley of Sorek. When the Philistine rulers heard about this,
• 1:56:12
  Speaker 1: they saw a golden opportunity. In Judges sixteen five, they
• 1:56:16
  Speaker 1: came to Delilah with a proposal seduce him and find
• 1:56:20
  Speaker 1: out the secret of his great strength and how we
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 1: can overpower him, so we may tie him up and
• 1:56:25
  Speaker 1: subdue him. Each of us will give you eleven hundred
• 1:56:29
  Speaker 1: pieces of silver. It was a fortune over five thousand
• 1:56:33
  Speaker 1: pieces of silver in total. The temptation was too great.
• 1:56:37
  Speaker 1: Delilah began pressing Samson relentlessly. Tell me, please, what is
• 1:56:42
  Speaker 1: the source of your great strength and how you can
• 1:56:45
  Speaker 1: be bound and subdued. Samson replied with a lie. If
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 1: someone ties me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not
• 1:56:53
  Speaker 1: been dried, I'll become as weak as any other man.
• 1:56:57
  Speaker 1: The Philistine leaders brought the bowstrings to Delia and she
• 1:57:00
  Speaker 1: tied Samson up while he was sleeping. Then she shouted, Samson,
• 1:57:04
  Speaker 1: the Philistines are attacking you. But he snapped the bowstrings
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 1: as easily as a strand of yarn snaps when it
• 1:57:11
  Speaker 1: touches fire. Delilah realized she had been deceived and complained,
• 1:57:15
  Speaker 1: you've made a fool of me and told me lies.
• 1:57:17
  Speaker 1: Now tell me how you can be bound. Samson lied again.
• 1:57:21
  Speaker 1: If I'm tightly bound with new ropes that have never
• 1:57:24
  Speaker 1: been used, I'll become as weak as any other man.
• 1:57:28
  Speaker 1: So Delilah took new ropes, tied him up, and again
• 1:57:30
  Speaker 1: shouted Samson, the Philistines are attacking you. But he snapped
• 1:57:35
  Speaker 1: the ropes off his arms as if they were mere threads.
• 1:57:38
  Speaker 1: Delilah wasn't done yet. You've been mocking me and lying
• 1:57:42
  Speaker 1: to me all this time. Tell me how you can
• 1:57:45
  Speaker 1: be bound, he answered. If you weave the seven braids
• 1:57:49
  Speaker 1: of my hair into the fabric on a loom and
• 1:57:52
  Speaker 1: fasten it with a pin, I'll become as weak as
• 1:57:54
  Speaker 1: any other man. While he was sleeping, Delilah wove the
• 1:57:58
  Speaker 1: seven braids of his hair into the loom, fastened it
• 1:58:01
  Speaker 1: with the pin, and shouted, Samson, the Philistines are attacking you.
• 1:58:06
  Speaker 1: But once again he awoke and pulled out the pin
• 1:58:09
  Speaker 1: and the loom. Frustrated, Delilah began to press Samson daily.
• 1:58:14
  Speaker 1: How can you say you love me if you don't
• 1:58:16
  Speaker 1: trust me. This is the third time you've made a
• 1:58:19
  Speaker 1: fool of me and haven't told me the secret of
• 1:58:22
  Speaker 1: your great strength Judges sixteen sixteen says. With such nagging,
• 1:58:28
  Speaker 1: she prodded him day after day until he was sick
• 1:58:32
  Speaker 1: to death of it. Finally, Samson gave in and told
• 1:58:36
  Speaker 1: her everything. No razor has ever touched my head, because
• 1:58:39
  Speaker 1: I have been a Nazarite dedicated to God from my birth.
• 1:58:44
  Speaker 1: If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me,
• 1:58:47
  Speaker 1: and I would become as weak as any other man.
• 1:58:51
  Speaker 1: Delilah knew he had told her the truth. This time
• 1:58:54
  Speaker 1: she sent for the Philistine leaders. Come back once more.
• 1:58:58
  Speaker 1: He has told me everything. So the rulers returned, bringing
• 1:59:02
  Speaker 1: the silver they had promised. Judges sixteen nineteen describes the
• 1:59:07
  Speaker 1: moment of betrayal. After putting him to sleep on her lap,
• 1:59:11
  Speaker 1: she called for someone to shave off the seven braids
• 1:59:14
  Speaker 1: of his hair, and so began to subdue him, and
• 1:59:18
  Speaker 1: his strength left him. When Delilah shouted, Samson, the Philistines
• 1:59:23
  Speaker 1: are attacking you. He woke up, thinking I'll go out
• 1:59:27
  Speaker 1: as before and shake myself free, But he didn't realize
• 1:59:30
  Speaker 1: that the Lord had left him. The Philistines seized him,
• 1:59:34
  Speaker 1: gouged out his eyes, and took him down to Gaza.
• 1:59:38
  Speaker 1: They bound him with bronze shackles and set him to
• 1:59:40
  Speaker 1: grinding grain in prison. It was a dramatic fall for
• 1:59:44
  Speaker 1: a man who had once carried away the gates of
• 1:59:47
  Speaker 1: that very city. Yet even in this dark moment, there
• 1:59:51
  Speaker 1: is a spark of hope. Judges sixteen twenty two tells us,
• 1:59:56
  Speaker 1: But the hair on his head began to grow again
• 1:59:59
  Speaker 1: after it had been shaved amidst the darkness, imprisonment, and humiliation.
• 2:00:06
  Speaker 1: Something was happening, something the Philistines didn't notice. Samson's hair,
• 2:00:11
  Speaker 1: the symbol of his consecration to God, was growing back,
• 2:00:15
  Speaker 1: and with it perhaps came one last chance to fulfill
• 2:00:18
  Speaker 1: his calling. The Philistines were celebrating a great victory. They
• 2:00:23
  Speaker 1: had captured Samson, the man who had terrorized them for years.
• 2:00:28
  Speaker 1: Now he was blind, chained, and humiliated, forced to grind
• 2:00:32
  Speaker 1: grain like an animal. It was time to praise their God.
• 2:00:36
  Speaker 1: Judges sixteen twenty three to twenty four says. Now the
• 2:00:40
  Speaker 1: rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice
• 2:00:43
  Speaker 1: to Dagen, their God, and to celebrate, saying, our God
• 2:00:47
  Speaker 1: has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands. When the
• 2:00:53
  Speaker 1: people saw him, they praised their God, saying, our God
• 2:00:56
  Speaker 1: has delivered our enemy into our hands, the one who
• 2:01:00
  Speaker 1: they'd waste our land and multiplied our dead. Dagon was
• 2:01:04
  Speaker 1: the chief deity of the Philistines, depicted as half man,
• 2:01:08
  Speaker 1: half fish, considered a god of fertility. He embodied the
• 2:01:12
  Speaker 1: agricultural cycle. The festival in his honor was one of
• 2:01:16
  Speaker 1: the most important religious events of the Philistine calendar. The
• 2:01:20
  Speaker 1: celebration intensified, the atmosphere grew wild. After they had drunk
• 2:01:26
  Speaker 1: a lot, they shouted, bring out Samson to entertain us.
• 2:01:30
  Speaker 1: So they brought Samson from the prison, and he performed
• 2:01:33
  Speaker 1: for them. When they stood him among the pillars, the
• 2:01:36
  Speaker 1: scene is utterly humiliating. The mighty Judge of Israel was
• 2:01:41
  Speaker 1: now a laughing stock, paraded like a fool before his
• 2:01:45
  Speaker 1: enemies at a pagan festival. But Samson had a plan.
• 2:01:49
  Speaker 1: The Temple of Dagon was a massive structure, capable of
• 2:01:53
  Speaker 1: holding thousands. Its central hall was supported by pillars, and
• 2:01:58
  Speaker 1: the flat rooftop was pas with spectators. In Judges sixteen
• 2:02:02
  Speaker 1: twenty six, Samson makes a request. Samson said to the
• 2:02:07
  Speaker 1: servant who held his hand, put me where I can
• 2:02:10
  Speaker 1: feel the pillars that support the temple, so that I
• 2:02:13
  Speaker 1: may lean against them. The place was packed. The temple
• 2:02:18
  Speaker 1: was full of men and women. All the rulers of
• 2:02:21
  Speaker 1: the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about
• 2:02:24
  Speaker 1: three thousand men and women watching Samson perform. Then Samson prayed.
• 2:02:30
  Speaker 1: After months of blindness, pain and humiliation, perhaps he finally
• 2:02:34
  Speaker 1: understood his true purpose. Judges sixteen twenty eight records his cry,
• 2:02:39
  Speaker 1: Sovereign Lord, remember me, Please, God strengthen me just once more,
• 2:02:44
  Speaker 1: and let me, with one blow, get revenge on the
• 2:02:46
  Speaker 1: Philistines for my two eyes. Notice, Samson doesn't ask to live.
• 2:02:52
  Speaker 1: He knows he will die in what he's about to do,
• 2:02:55
  Speaker 1: but he wants his death to have meaning, to fulfill
• 2:02:58
  Speaker 1: the calling he was born for law to deliver Israel
• 2:03:01
  Speaker 1: from the Philistines. Finding the two central pillars, Samson positioned himself.
• 2:03:08
  Speaker 1: Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which
• 2:03:11
  Speaker 1: the temple stood, bracing himself against them, his right hand
• 2:03:14
  Speaker 1: on one and his left hand on the other. Samson said,
• 2:03:18
  Speaker 1: let me die with the Philistines. With one final superhuman effort,
• 2:03:23
  Speaker 1: he pushed. Then he pushed with all his might, and
• 2:03:27
  Speaker 1: down came the temple, on the rulers and all the
• 2:03:30
  Speaker 1: people in it. Thus he killed many more when he
• 2:03:33
  Speaker 1: died than while he lived. Samson's death became his greatest victory.
• 2:03:38
  Speaker 1: That day, the top Philistine leaders perished severely, weakening their
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 1: hold over Israel. His family came to retrieve his body.
• 2:03:47
  Speaker 1: His brothers and his father's whole family went down to
• 2:03:51
  Speaker 1: get him. They brought him back and buried him between
• 2:03:54
  Speaker 1: Zorah and Estoul in the tomb of Manoah, his father.
• 2:03:58
  Speaker 1: He had led Israel well for twenty years. Thus ended
• 2:04:03
  Speaker 1: the life of Israel's most contradictory judge, a man of
• 2:04:08
  Speaker 1: evident weaknesses, whose extraordinary physical strength stood in stark contrast
• 2:04:14
  Speaker 1: to his inability to control his own desires. Yet even
• 2:04:18
  Speaker 1: in death, he fulfilled his calling by delivering Israel from
• 2:04:23
  Speaker 1: its oppressors. Judges. Chapter seventeen reveals how religion in Israel
• 2:04:29
  Speaker 1: had become deeply corrupted. We're no longer following the exploits
• 2:04:33
  Speaker 1: of mighty deliverers, but rather peering into the private lives
• 2:04:37
  Speaker 1: of ordinary people who had strayed from the path God
• 2:04:41
  Speaker 1: had set. The chapter opens with a man named Micah
• 2:04:45
  Speaker 1: confessing to a theft. Now, a man named Micah from
• 2:04:49
  Speaker 1: the hill country of Ephraim said to his mother, the
• 2:04:52
  Speaker 1: eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you,
• 2:04:56
  Speaker 1: and about which I heard you utter a curse. I
• 2:04:59
  Speaker 1: have that silver with me. I took it his mother's
• 2:05:03
  Speaker 1: reaction is startling. Instead of rebuking her son for stealing,
• 2:05:07
  Speaker 1: she blesses him. Then his mother said, the Lord bless you,
• 2:05:11
  Speaker 1: my son. When Micah returned the eleven hundred silver shekels,
• 2:05:16
  Speaker 1: she made a declaration, I solemnly consecrate my silver to
• 2:05:20
  Speaker 1: the Lord for my son's benefit to make an image
• 2:05:23
  Speaker 1: overlaid with silver. I will give it back to you.
• 2:05:27
  Speaker 1: This is a clear sign of how distorted worship had
• 2:05:30
  Speaker 1: become in Israel. She believed she was honoring the Lord
• 2:05:34
  Speaker 1: by commissioning an idol, something explicitly forbidden in the Ten Commandments.
• 2:05:40
  Speaker 1: She gave two hundred shekels back to her son, who
• 2:05:44
  Speaker 1: then took them to a silversmith to have an image
• 2:05:46
  Speaker 1: and idol made. In Judges seventeen five to six, we
• 2:05:50
  Speaker 1: read more about Micah. Now, this man Micah had a shrine,
• 2:05:55
  Speaker 1: and he made an epod and some household gods, and
• 2:05:59
  Speaker 1: installed one of his sons as his priest. In those days,
• 2:06:03
  Speaker 1: Israel had no king. Everyone did as they saw fit.
• 2:06:07
  Speaker 1: That last line is key to understanding the entire era
• 2:06:11
  Speaker 1: of the Judges. Without centralized leadership to enforce God's law,
• 2:06:15
  Speaker 1: every one interpreted religion their own way. Micah had essentially
• 2:06:20
  Speaker 1: invented his own personal version of worship, with a private shrine, household, gods,
• 2:06:26
  Speaker 1: and even his son acting as priest, though only members
• 2:06:30
  Speaker 1: of the tribe of Levi were authorized to serve as priests.
• 2:06:34
  Speaker 1: One day, a young Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, traveling
• 2:06:38
  Speaker 1: in search of a place to settle, arrived at Micah's
• 2:06:41
  Speaker 1: house in Judges seventeen nine ten we rid about their meeting.
• 2:06:46
  Speaker 1: Micah asked him, where are you from. I'm a Levite
• 2:06:49
  Speaker 1: from Bethlehem in Judah, he said, and I'm looking for
• 2:06:52
  Speaker 1: a place to stay. Then Micah said to him, live
• 2:06:55
  Speaker 1: with me and be my father and priest, and I'll
• 2:06:58
  Speaker 1: give you ten shekels of silver a year, your clothes
• 2:07:01
  Speaker 1: and your food. The offer was tempting, and the Levite
• 2:07:05
  Speaker 1: agreed to stay. He became like one of Micah's own sons.
• 2:07:10
  Speaker 1: Micah then consecrated the Levite, who became his personal priest
• 2:07:14
  Speaker 1: and lived in his house. With this, Micah believed he
• 2:07:18
  Speaker 1: had secured divine favor. Now I know that the Lord
• 2:07:22
  Speaker 1: will be good to me since this Levite has become
• 2:07:25
  Speaker 1: my priest. He assumed that having an official Levite legitimized
• 2:07:31
  Speaker 1: his household worship, even though it mixed genuine worship with idolatry. Meanwhile,
• 2:07:37
  Speaker 1: the tribe of dan was struggling to settle in the
• 2:07:40
  Speaker 1: land allotted to them. Judges eighteen one tells us in
• 2:07:44
  Speaker 1: those days, Israel had no king, and in those days
• 2:07:49
  Speaker 1: the tribe of the Danites was seeking a place of
• 2:07:51
  Speaker 1: their own where they might settle. Because they had not
• 2:07:55
  Speaker 1: yet come into an inheritance among the tribes of Israel.
• 2:07:58
  Speaker 1: The Danites were unable to fully dislodge the original inhabitants,
• 2:08:03
  Speaker 1: especially the Amorites, who restricted them to the hill country.
• 2:08:07
  Speaker 1: So they decided to look for new territory, sending out
• 2:08:11
  Speaker 1: five brave men as spies. On their journey, these men
• 2:08:16
  Speaker 1: passed by Micah's house and recognized the Levite's voice. They
• 2:08:20
  Speaker 1: stopped to speak with him and asked, what are you
• 2:08:22
  Speaker 1: doing in this place? What brings you here? The Levite
• 2:08:26
  Speaker 1: explained his arrangement with Micah. Micah has hired me, and
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 1: I am his priest. Then the spies asked for divine guidance,
• 2:08:35
  Speaker 1: Please inquire of God to learn whether our journey will
• 2:08:38
  Speaker 1: be successful. The Levite gave them a favorable answer. Go
• 2:08:42
  Speaker 1: in peace. Your journey has the Lord's approval. The five
• 2:08:46
  Speaker 1: men then traveled to Lash, a city far to the north,
• 2:08:50
  Speaker 1: isolated from other Israelite tribes. They saw that the people
• 2:08:54
  Speaker 1: there lived in peace and security like the Sidonians, care free, unsuspect, acting,
• 2:09:00
  Speaker 1: and unaligned with any other group. The land was spacious, fertile,
• 2:09:05
  Speaker 1: and lacking nothing. The spies returned with their report. Let's
• 2:09:10
  Speaker 1: attack in them. We've seen that the land is very good.
• 2:09:14
  Speaker 1: Why wait, don't hesitate to go there and take it over.
• 2:09:17
  Speaker 1: When you arrive, you'll find an unsuspecting people and a
• 2:09:21
  Speaker 1: spacious land that God has put into your hands, a
• 2:09:24
  Speaker 1: land that lacks nothing. So six hundred armed men from
• 2:09:27
  Speaker 1: the tribe of Dan set out to conquer Leish. On
• 2:09:31
  Speaker 1: their way, they again passed by Micah's house. The five
• 2:09:35
  Speaker 1: spies told the others about the religious objects they had
• 2:09:38
  Speaker 1: seen there. You know that one of these houses has
• 2:09:41
  Speaker 1: an ephod, some household gods, a carved image, and a
• 2:09:45
  Speaker 1: caste idle. Now you know what to do. The Danites
• 2:09:49
  Speaker 1: decided to steal micas religious items. In Judges eighteen eighteen nineteen,
• 2:09:55
  Speaker 1: we read what happened when they confronted the Levite. When
• 2:09:59
  Speaker 1: the men went into Micah's house and took the carved image,
• 2:10:02
  Speaker 1: the Ephod, the household gods, and the caste idol, the
• 2:10:06
  Speaker 1: priest said to them, what are you doing? They answered him,
• 2:10:10
  Speaker 1: be quiet, don't say a word, Come with us and
• 2:10:13
  Speaker 1: be our father and priest. Isn't it better that you
• 2:10:16
  Speaker 1: serve a tribe and clan in Israel as priest rather
• 2:10:20
  Speaker 1: than just one man's household. The Levite liked the proposal.
• 2:10:26
  Speaker 1: Judges eighteen twenty says the priest was very pleased. He
• 2:10:31
  Speaker 1: took the ephod, the household gods, and the carved image
• 2:10:36
  Speaker 1: and went along with the people. When Micah and his
• 2:10:39
  Speaker 1: neighbors realized what had happened, they pursued the Dnits and
• 2:10:43
  Speaker 1: caught up with them. What's the matter with you that
• 2:10:45
  Speaker 1: you called out your men to fight, they asked. Micah replied,
• 2:10:49
  Speaker 1: you took the gods I made and my priest and
• 2:10:52
  Speaker 1: went away. What do I have left? How can you
• 2:10:55
  Speaker 1: even ask? What's the matter with you? The Danites risp
• 2:11:00
  Speaker 1: once was a direct threat. Don't argue with us, or
• 2:11:03
  Speaker 1: some of the men may get angry and attack you,
• 2:11:05
  Speaker 1: and you and your family will lose your lives. Faced
• 2:11:09
  Speaker 1: with this threat, Mikah, realizing they were far too strong
• 2:11:12
  Speaker 1: for him, turned back and returned home. The Danites continued
• 2:11:18
  Speaker 1: their journey with the stolen priest and idols. When they
• 2:11:21
  Speaker 1: arrived at Leish, they attacked the peaceful and unsuspecting people.
• 2:11:26
  Speaker 1: They struck them down with the sword and burned the city.
• 2:11:29
  Speaker 1: There was no one to rescue them because Layish was
• 2:11:33
  Speaker 1: far from Sidon and had no alliance with anyone. After
• 2:11:37
  Speaker 1: destroying the city, the da Nights rebuilt it and settled there,
• 2:11:41
  Speaker 1: renaming it dan in honor of their ancestor. They set
• 2:11:44
  Speaker 1: up the stolen idols and appointed the Levite and his
• 2:11:47
  Speaker 1: descendants as priests for the tribe until the time of
• 2:11:51
  Speaker 1: the exile, when the Ark of God was still in Shiloh.
• 2:11:56
  Speaker 1: This episode reveals not only the growing idolatry in Israel,
• 2:12:00
  Speaker 1: but also how law and justice had deteriorated an entire tribe,
• 2:12:05
  Speaker 1: stole idols and a priest from a private citizen, threatened
• 2:12:09
  Speaker 1: him with death when he protested, and then massacred a
• 2:12:12
  Speaker 1: peaceful city to establish their new territory. All of this
• 2:12:16
  Speaker 1: was done with the blessing of a Levite priest someone
• 2:12:20
  Speaker 1: who should have known and taught God's law. Judges chapter
• 2:12:24
  Speaker 1: nineteen recounts one of the darkest episodes in the Bible,
• 2:12:28
  Speaker 1: showing how deeply morality had declined in Israel. The story
• 2:12:32
  Speaker 1: begins in those days when there was no king in Israel.
• 2:12:36
  Speaker 1: A Levite living in a remote area in the hill
• 2:12:39
  Speaker 1: country of Ephraim took a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.
• 2:12:44
  Speaker 1: This Levite, unlike the one from the previous story, is
• 2:12:48
  Speaker 1: not portrayed as an idolater. He lived in a remote
• 2:12:52
  Speaker 1: region of Ephraim and had a concubine, a secondary wife
• 2:12:56
  Speaker 1: with fewer legal rights from Bethlehem. However, their relationship was
• 2:13:01
  Speaker 1: not going well. She was unfaithful to him and left,
• 2:13:04
  Speaker 1: returning to her father's house in Bethlehem Judah. After four months,
• 2:13:09
  Speaker 1: her husband went to persuade her to return. He took
• 2:13:13
  Speaker 1: his servant and two donkeys. The young woman's father was
• 2:13:20
  Speaker 1: glad to receive the levite and urged him to stay
• 2:13:23
  Speaker 1: a few days. The hospitality stretched out longer than expected,
• 2:13:28
  Speaker 1: and the Levite ended up staying five days. Finally, on
• 2:13:32
  Speaker 1: the fifth day, in the afternoon, he departed with his concubine.
• 2:13:36
  Speaker 1: And servant, despite his father in law's attempts to make
• 2:13:39
  Speaker 1: him stay another night since it was already late, they
• 2:13:44
  Speaker 1: only made it as far as Jibus, the former name
• 2:13:47
  Speaker 1: of Jerusalem by sunset. The servants suggested they stay in
• 2:13:51
  Speaker 1: the city of the Jebusites, but the Levite refused, we
• 2:13:55
  Speaker 1: will not stay in a foreign city whose people are
• 2:13:58
  Speaker 1: not Israelites. We will go on to Gibeea or Rama.
• 2:14:03
  Speaker 1: The irony of this decision would soon become clear. The
• 2:14:08
  Speaker 1: Levi chose not to stay in a foreign city, assuming
• 2:14:12
  Speaker 1: they would receive better hospitality in an Israelite town. The
• 2:14:15
  Speaker 1: reality would prove to be very different. They arrived in Gibeea,
• 2:14:20
  Speaker 1: a city of the tribe of Benjamin, after the sun
• 2:14:23
  Speaker 1: had set. They sat in the city square, but no
• 2:14:26
  Speaker 1: one offered them lodging for the night. Hospitality was a
• 2:14:31
  Speaker 1: core value in the ancient Near East, and this lack
• 2:14:35
  Speaker 1: of welcome already signaled that something was wrong in Gibea. Eventually,
• 2:14:40
  Speaker 1: an old man, also from the hill country of Ephraim
• 2:14:43
  Speaker 1: but living in Gibea, was returning from his work in
• 2:14:46
  Speaker 1: the fields and saw them in the square. He asked,
• 2:14:49
  Speaker 1: where are you going? Where do you come from? The
• 2:14:52
  Speaker 1: levite explained their situation and assured him that they had
• 2:14:56
  Speaker 1: everything they needed straw and fodder for the donkeys, and
• 2:15:00
  Speaker 1: bread and wine for himself, his concubine, and the servant.
• 2:15:04
  Speaker 1: All they lacked was a place to sleep. The old
• 2:15:08
  Speaker 1: man insisted peace be with you. Let me supply all
• 2:15:11
  Speaker 1: your needs, but don't spend the night in the square.
• 2:15:15
  Speaker 1: He took them into his house, fed the donkeys, and
• 2:15:18
  Speaker 1: after they had washed their feet, they ate and drank.
• 2:15:21
  Speaker 1: While they were enjoying themselves, wicked men from the city
• 2:15:25
  Speaker 1: surrounded the house. In Judges nineteen twenty two, we read
• 2:15:30
  Speaker 1: while they were enjoying themselves, some of the wicked men
• 2:15:33
  Speaker 1: of the city surrounded the house, pounding on the door.
• 2:15:37
  Speaker 1: They shouted to the old man who owned the house,
• 2:15:40
  Speaker 1: bring out the man who came to your house so
• 2:15:42
  Speaker 1: we can have sex with him. The scene is disturbingly
• 2:15:46
  Speaker 1: similar to what happened with the angels who visited Lot
• 2:15:50
  Speaker 1: in Sodom Genesis nineteen. The men of the city wanted
• 2:15:54
  Speaker 1: to sexually assault the guest, showing utter contempt for God's
• 2:15:58
  Speaker 1: law and the basic norms of hospitality. The old man
• 2:16:02
  Speaker 1: tried to protect his guest. No my friends, don't be
• 2:16:06
  Speaker 1: so vile. Since this man is my guest, don't do
• 2:16:10
  Speaker 1: this outrageous thing. Look, here are my virgin daughter and
• 2:16:14
  Speaker 1: his concubine. I will bring them out to you now,
• 2:16:17
  Speaker 1: and you can abuse them and do whatever you wish,
• 2:16:20
  Speaker 1: But don't do such a disgraceful thing to this man.
• 2:16:23
  Speaker 1: This shocking offer reveals not only the low value placed
• 2:16:27
  Speaker 1: on women in that society, but also how sacred the
• 2:16:31
  Speaker 1: duty to protect a guest was considered. Yet the men
• 2:16:35
  Speaker 1: refuse to listen. What happened next is truly horrific. Judges
• 2:16:41
  Speaker 1: nineteen twenty five reports, But the men would not listen
• 2:16:45
  Speaker 1: to him, So the man took his concubine and sent
• 2:16:48
  Speaker 1: her outside to them, and they raped her and abused
• 2:16:51
  Speaker 1: her throughout the night. At dawn they let her go.
• 2:16:56
  Speaker 1: At daybreak, the woman collapsed at the entrance of the
• 2:16:59
  Speaker 1: house where her master was staying and lay there until daylight.
• 2:17:05
  Speaker 1: When the levite got up in the morning and opened
• 2:17:08
  Speaker 1: the door to set out on his journey, he saw
• 2:17:11
  Speaker 1: his concubine lying at the door with her hands on
• 2:17:14
  Speaker 1: the threshold. He said to her, get up, let's go.
• 2:17:19
  Speaker 1: There was no answer. The woman was dead. A victim
• 2:17:24
  Speaker 1: of the previous night's brutality. The Levite put her on
• 2:17:27
  Speaker 1: his donkey and went home. Once there, he took a knife,
• 2:17:30
  Speaker 1: cut her body into twelve pieces, and sent them throughout
• 2:17:34
  Speaker 1: the territory of Israel with a message about the terrible
• 2:17:37
  Speaker 1: crime committed in Gibea. Everyone who saw it said, such
• 2:17:42
  Speaker 1: a thing has never been seen or done since the
• 2:17:44
  Speaker 1: day the Israelites came up out of Egypt. Consider it,
• 2:17:48
  Speaker 1: take counsel, speak up. The Levite had turned his personal
• 2:17:53
  Speaker 1: tragedy into a national scandal, forcing Israel to confront the
• 2:17:58
  Speaker 1: depravity that had taken route in its society. The response
• 2:18:02
  Speaker 1: would be dramatic, leading to another tragedy, a civil war.
• 2:18:07
  Speaker 1: The Levite's strategy worked. The horrific crime in Gibeah stirred
• 2:18:12
  Speaker 1: the indignation of all Israel. Judges twenty one to two
• 2:18:16
  Speaker 1: tells us. Then all Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and
• 2:18:19
  Speaker 1: from the land of Gilead came together as one and
• 2:18:23
  Speaker 1: assembled before the Lord in Mizpah. The leaders of all
• 2:18:27
  Speaker 1: the people of the tribes of Israel took their places
• 2:18:30
  Speaker 1: in the assembly of God's people, four hundred thousand men
• 2:18:34
  Speaker 1: armed with swords. This was an extraordinary nationwide mobilization from
• 2:18:40
  Speaker 1: Dan to Beersheba was an expression that referred to the
• 2:18:44
  Speaker 1: entire territory of Israel, from north to south. The number
• 2:18:48
  Speaker 1: of soldiers assembled, four hundred thousand, shows just how seriously
• 2:18:53
  Speaker 1: the matter was taken. The Benjamites heard that the Israelites
• 2:18:57
  Speaker 1: had gone up to mizpahurrently chose not to participate in
• 2:19:01
  Speaker 1: the national Assembly. During the gathering, the Levite explained what
• 2:19:06
  Speaker 1: had happened in Judges twenty four to seven. He says,
• 2:19:10
  Speaker 1: I and my concubine came to Gibeah in Benjamin to
• 2:19:13
  Speaker 1: spend the night. During the night, the men of Gibeah
• 2:19:16
  Speaker 1: came after me and surrounded the house, intending to kill me.
• 2:19:20
  Speaker 1: They raped my concubine and she died. So I took
• 2:19:24
  Speaker 1: my concubine, cut her into pieces, and sent a piece
• 2:19:28
  Speaker 1: to each region of Israel's inheritance. Because they committed this
• 2:19:32
  Speaker 1: shameful act in Israel. Now all you Israelites speak up
• 2:19:36
  Speaker 1: and decide what must be done. The Levite's account leaves
• 2:19:40
  Speaker 1: out some crucial details, most notably the fact that he
• 2:19:44
  Speaker 1: was the one who handed his concubine over to the
• 2:19:46
  Speaker 1: men of Gibeah. He also says they intended to kill him,
• 2:19:51
  Speaker 1: when the original text makes clear they meant to rape him.
• 2:19:55
  Speaker 1: These distortions were likely made to secure the full support
• 2:19:59
  Speaker 1: of the tribe. The response was unanimous. All the people
• 2:20:03
  Speaker 1: rose as one and said, not one of us will
• 2:20:06
  Speaker 1: go home, not one of us will return to his tent.
• 2:20:10
  Speaker 1: This is what we will do to Gibea. We will
• 2:20:13
  Speaker 1: go up against it as the lot determines. We'll select
• 2:20:17
  Speaker 1: ten men out of every hundred from all the tribes
• 2:20:20
  Speaker 1: of Israel, a hundred out of every thousand, and a
• 2:20:24
  Speaker 1: thousand out of every ten thousand to provide provisions for
• 2:20:28
  Speaker 1: the army. Then, when the army arrives at Gibeah in Benjamin,
• 2:20:31
  Speaker 1: it will repay them for the outrageous act they committed
• 2:20:35
  Speaker 1: in Israel. The plan was clear. The United Tribes would
• 2:20:38
  Speaker 1: march against Gibeah to punish those responsible for the crime.
• 2:20:43
  Speaker 1: But before launching an attack, they tried a diplomatic approach.
• 2:20:48
  Speaker 1: They sent messengers throughout the tribe of Benjamin saying, what
• 2:20:51
  Speaker 1: is this wickedness that has taken place among you? Hand
• 2:20:54
  Speaker 1: over those wicked men of Gibea, so that we may
• 2:20:57
  Speaker 1: put them to death. And purge this evil from Israel.
• 2:21:01
  Speaker 1: It was a reasonable demand. They weren't seeking to punish
• 2:21:05
  Speaker 1: the whole tribe, only the perpetrators. But the Benjamites response
• 2:21:09
  Speaker 1: was shocking. But the Benjamites would not listen to their
• 2:21:13
  Speaker 1: fellow Israelites. Instead, they prepared for war from their towns.
• 2:21:18
  Speaker 1: They came together at Gibeah to fight against the Israelites
• 2:21:22
  Speaker 1: at once. The Benjamites mobilized twenty six thousand swordsmen from
• 2:21:27
  Speaker 1: their towns, in addition to seven hundred chosen men from
• 2:21:31
  Speaker 1: those living in Gibea. Among all these soldiers were seven
• 2:21:35
  Speaker 1: hundred select troops who were left handed, each of whom
• 2:21:39
  Speaker 1: could sling a stone at a here and not miss.
• 2:21:42
  Speaker 1: Rather than handing over the guilty, the tribe of Benjamin
• 2:21:46
  Speaker 1: chose to protect them. It was a decision that revealed
• 2:21:50
  Speaker 1: just how far their moral compass had eroded. Tribal loyalty
• 2:21:55
  Speaker 1: outweighed justice. On the other side, the Unite tribes also
• 2:22:01
  Speaker 1: gathered their forces. The Israelites, apart from Benjamin, mustered four
• 2:22:06
  Speaker 1: hundred thousand swordsmen, all of them experienced warriors. Before going
• 2:22:11
  Speaker 1: into battle, the Israelites went up to Bethel to consult
• 2:22:14
  Speaker 1: God who of us shall go first to fight against
• 2:22:18
  Speaker 1: the Benjameats. The Lord replied, Judah shall go first. The
• 2:22:24
  Speaker 1: stage was set for one of the most tragic civil
• 2:22:26
  Speaker 1: wars in Israel's history. A nation that was supposed to
• 2:22:30
  Speaker 1: be united in worship of the Lord and obedience to
• 2:22:33
  Speaker 1: divine law was now about to turn its weapons on itself.
• 2:22:40
  Speaker 1: The next morning, the Israelites encamped near Gibea to launch
• 2:22:44
  Speaker 1: their attack, but the first battle didn't go as expected.
• 2:22:48
  Speaker 1: In Judges twenty twenty one, we read the Benjamites came
• 2:22:53
  Speaker 1: out of Gibeea and cut down twenty two thousand Israelites
• 2:22:57
  Speaker 1: on the battlefield that day. This unexp defeat shook the Israelites.
• 2:23:02
  Speaker 1: Even though they vastly outnumbered their opponents, they lost thousands
• 2:23:06
  Speaker 1: of men. They went up to the sanctuary, wept before
• 2:23:10
  Speaker 1: the Lord until evening, and asked, shall we go up
• 2:23:14
  Speaker 1: again to fight against the Benjamites, our fellow Israelites. The
• 2:23:19
  Speaker 1: Lord answered, go up against them. So the Israelites gathered
• 2:23:22
  Speaker 1: their courage and took their positions again at the same
• 2:23:25
  Speaker 1: place as the first day. But when they advanced on
• 2:23:29
  Speaker 1: the second day, they were again defeated. The Benjamites came
• 2:23:34
  Speaker 1: out from Gibeah to meet them and cut down another
• 2:23:37
  Speaker 1: eighteen thousand Israelites, all of them armed with swords. This
• 2:23:41
  Speaker 1: second loss was even more devastating. In just two days,
• 2:23:45
  Speaker 1: forty thousand Israelites had fallen. The entire army went up
• 2:23:49
  Speaker 1: to Bethel, where they sat weeping before the Lord. They
• 2:23:53
  Speaker 1: fasted until evening and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings
• 2:23:58
  Speaker 1: to the Lord. This time their inquiry to God was
• 2:24:02
  Speaker 1: more earnest, and the Israelites inquired of the Lord. In
• 2:24:06
  Speaker 1: those days the Ark of the Covenant of God was there,
• 2:24:09
  Speaker 1: with Finihas, son of Eliazar, the son of Erin, ministering
• 2:24:13
  Speaker 1: before it. They asked, shall we go up again to
• 2:24:17
  Speaker 1: fight against the Benjamites, our fellow Israelites or not. The
• 2:24:21
  Speaker 1: mention of Finihas helped date the event. This was still
• 2:24:25
  Speaker 1: within the first few decades after Joshua's death, not long
• 2:24:28
  Speaker 1: after the conquest of Canaan. The Lord answered, go for tomorrow.
• 2:24:33
  Speaker 1: I will give them into your hands. Then the Ichi
• 2:24:37
  Speaker 1: Israelites set an ambush around Gibir. When the Benjamites came
• 2:24:42
  Speaker 1: out to fight, the Israelites retreated strategically, drawing them away
• 2:24:46
  Speaker 1: from the city. The Benjamites began killing Israelites as before,
• 2:24:51
  Speaker 1: about thirty men along the roads and in the fields. Confident,
• 2:24:55
  Speaker 1: the Benjamites said, we are defeating them as before, But
• 2:25:01
  Speaker 1: the Israelites had agreed, we will flee and draw them
• 2:25:05
  Speaker 1: away from the city onto the roads. Meanwhile, ten thousand
• 2:25:10
  Speaker 1: chosen Israelites emerged from their positions west of Gibea. The
• 2:25:14
  Speaker 1: battle was intense, but the Benjamites had no idea of
• 2:25:18
  Speaker 1: the disaster looming. They did not realize that disaster was
• 2:25:22
  Speaker 1: about to overtake them. The Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel,
• 2:25:27
  Speaker 1: and that day the Israelites struck down twenty five one
• 2:25:30
  Speaker 1: hundred Benjamite swordsmen. Then the Benjamites realized they were beaten.
• 2:25:35
  Speaker 1: The men of Israel had retreated before the Benjamites because
• 2:25:39
  Speaker 1: they were relying on the ambush they had set near Gibea.
• 2:25:43
  Speaker 1: Those in ambush rushed into the city, spread out, and
• 2:25:47
  Speaker 1: put all its inhabitants to the sword. The agreed upon
• 2:25:51
  Speaker 1: signal was a large column of smoke rising from the city.
• 2:25:55
  Speaker 1: When the Israelites in the main battle saw the smoke,
• 2:25:58
  Speaker 1: they changed tactics and turned against the Benjamites, who had
• 2:26:02
  Speaker 1: already killed about thirty Israelites. The Benjamites, seeing the smoke
• 2:26:08
  Speaker 1: rising from the city, were struck with fear. The Benjamines
• 2:26:13
  Speaker 1: looked and saw the smoke from the city going up
• 2:26:15
  Speaker 1: into the sky. Then panic overwhelmed them, for they realized
• 2:26:19
  Speaker 1: that disaster had come upon them. They tried to flee
• 2:26:22
  Speaker 1: toward the wilderness, but were pursued and surrounded. Judges twenty
• 2:26:27
  Speaker 1: forty three to forty four describes the massacre. They surrounded
• 2:26:31
  Speaker 1: the Benjamites, chased them relentlessly, and overtook them east of Gibea.
• 2:26:37
  Speaker 1: Eighteen thousand Benjamites, all brave warriors, fell that day. The
• 2:26:42
  Speaker 1: remaining survivors fled toward the wilderness to the Rock of Rimen,
• 2:26:46
  Speaker 1: but along the roads the Israelites killed another five thousand
• 2:26:50
  Speaker 1: Benjamites and continued pursuing the rest all the way to Guidom,
• 2:26:55
  Speaker 1: where they killed two thousand more. In total, twenty five
• 2:27:00
  Speaker 1: five thousand Benjamites, every one of them a valiant warrior,
• 2:27:04
  Speaker 1: were hilled that day. Only six hundred men escaped to
• 2:27:07
  Speaker 1: the wilderness to the Rock of Rimen, where they stayed
• 2:27:11
  Speaker 1: for four months. Then the Israelites returned to the towns
• 2:27:14
  Speaker 1: of Benjamin and killed everything they found, people, animals, everything.
• 2:27:21
  Speaker 1: They also set fire to every town they came across.
• 2:27:24
  Speaker 1: The tribe of Benjamin stood on the brink of extinction.
• 2:27:28
  Speaker 1: Out of twenty six thousand warriors, only six hundred survived,
• 2:27:32
  Speaker 1: hiding on a rock in the wilderness. No Benjamite women
• 2:27:36
  Speaker 1: or children remained alive. It was an unprecedented calamity for Israel.
• 2:27:42
  Speaker 1: The initial fury toward Benjamin began to give way to remorse.
• 2:27:46
  Speaker 1: In Judges twenty one one three, we read at Mispa,
• 2:27:50
  Speaker 1: the men of Israel had taken an oath not one
• 2:27:52
  Speaker 1: of us will give his daughter in marriage to a Benjamite.
• 2:27:57
  Speaker 1: The people went to Bethel and sat before God until evening,
• 2:28:00
  Speaker 1: weeping loudly and bitterly, Oh Lord, God of Israel. They cried,
• 2:28:05
  Speaker 1: why has this happened in Israel? Why should one tribe
• 2:28:08
  Speaker 1: be missing from Israel to day? The thought of losing
• 2:28:12
  Speaker 1: one of the twelve tribes horrified them. They had vowed
• 2:28:15
  Speaker 1: not to give their daughters in marriage to the Benjamites,
• 2:28:18
  Speaker 1: but now they realized this would mean the end of
• 2:28:21
  Speaker 1: the tribe. How could the six hundred survivors ever find wives.
• 2:28:28
  Speaker 1: The next morning, they built an altar and offered burnt
• 2:28:31
  Speaker 1: offerings and fellowship offerings. Then they remembered another oath they
• 2:28:36
  Speaker 1: had made who among all the tribes of Israel failed
• 2:28:39
  Speaker 1: to appear before the Lord at Mizpah. They had vowed
• 2:28:44
  Speaker 1: that any one who failed to appear would be put
• 2:28:46
  Speaker 1: to death. It turned out that no one from Jabesh
• 2:28:50
  Speaker 1: Gilead had joined the assembly to confirm. They conducted a
• 2:28:54
  Speaker 1: census and found no one from that city. So the
• 2:28:58
  Speaker 1: Assembly sent twelve thousand warriors to Jabesh Giliad with orders
• 2:29:03
  Speaker 1: to kill every inhabitant, including women and children. The only
• 2:29:08
  Speaker 1: exception would be the young virgin girls, who were to
• 2:29:12
  Speaker 1: be spared. They found four hundred virgin girls in Jabesh
• 2:29:16
  Speaker 1: Gilad and brought them to the camp at Shiloh in
• 2:29:19
  Speaker 1: the land of Canaan. Then the whole assembly sent a
• 2:29:23
  Speaker 1: peace offering to the Benjamint at the Rock of Rimen,
• 2:29:26
  Speaker 1: inviting them to return. The six hundred Benjamite men came
• 2:29:30
  Speaker 1: back and received the women from Jabesh Giliad who had
• 2:29:34
  Speaker 1: been spared, But it wasn't enough. There were only four
• 2:29:38
  Speaker 1: hundred women for six hundred men. Two hundred Benjamites were
• 2:29:42
  Speaker 1: still without wives. The people were distressed over Benjamin's fate,
• 2:29:47
  Speaker 1: for the Lord had created a breach among the tribes
• 2:29:49
  Speaker 1: of Israel. The leaders of the assembly asked, how can
• 2:29:53
  Speaker 1: we find wives for those who are left? Since the
• 2:29:56
  Speaker 1: women of Benjamin have been destroyed. They couldn't simply give
• 2:29:59
  Speaker 1: their their own daughters because of the oath. Then someone
• 2:30:03
  Speaker 1: came up with another solution. Look, there's the annual festival
• 2:30:06
  Speaker 1: of the Lord in Shiloh, north of Bethel, east of
• 2:30:10
  Speaker 1: the road that goes from Bethel to Shechem, and south
• 2:30:13
  Speaker 1: of Lebanon. They instructed the remaining Benjamite men go hide
• 2:30:17
  Speaker 1: in the vineyards and watch when the young women of
• 2:30:20
  Speaker 1: Shiloh come out to join the dancing. Each of you
• 2:30:23
  Speaker 1: should rush out of the vineyards and seize one of
• 2:30:25
  Speaker 1: them to be your wife. Then return to the land
• 2:30:29
  Speaker 1: of Benjamin. If the girls fathers or brothers came to complain,
• 2:30:34
  Speaker 1: the Israelite leaders would say, do us a favor. Let
• 2:30:38
  Speaker 1: them keep the women. We couldn't find wives for them
• 2:30:40
  Speaker 1: in battle, And besides, you didn't actually give your daughters
• 2:30:44
  Speaker 1: to them, so you're not breaking your oath. The Benjamites
• 2:30:48
  Speaker 1: followed the plan. Each man kidnapped one of the girls
• 2:30:51
  Speaker 1: who were dancing and took her as his wife. Then
• 2:30:55
  Speaker 1: they returned to their land, rebuilt their towns, and settled there.
• 2:30:59
  Speaker 1: This busy z our arrangement allowed the Israelites to technically
• 2:31:02
  Speaker 1: get around their oath, though it clearly violated the spirit
• 2:31:05
  Speaker 1: of the law. The young women of Shiloh had no say.
• 2:31:09
  Speaker 1: They were simply taken with that the immediate crisis was resolved.
• 2:31:13
  Speaker 1: The tribe of Benjamin was preserved, though drastically reduced. The
• 2:31:17
  Speaker 1: Israelites then dispersed, returning to their tribes and clans, each
• 2:31:22
  Speaker 1: to his own inheritance. The Book of Judges ends with
• 2:31:26
  Speaker 1: a sentence that perfectly sums up the moral and social
• 2:31:29
  Speaker 1: chaos of the time. In those days, there was no
• 2:31:33
  Speaker 1: king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his
• 2:31:36
  Speaker 1: own eyes. That phrase appears four times throughout the book,
• 2:31:40
  Speaker 1: underscoring how the absence of a central authority to enforce
• 2:31:44
  Speaker 1: God's law led to moral decay. What began with idolatry
• 2:31:49
  Speaker 1: and disobedience ended in horrific crimes and civil war. The
• 2:31:53
  Speaker 1: story of Judges serves as a stark warning of what
• 2:31:57
  Speaker 1: happens when a people abandons its moral and spiritual foundations.
• 2:32:02
  Speaker 1: The nation that had once entered the Promised Land, united
• 2:32:05
  Speaker 1: and full of purpose, was now torn apart by internal conflict,
• 2:32:10
  Speaker 1: with one of its twelve tribes nearly wiped out. My friend,
• 2:32:15
  Speaker 1: we've reached the end of this incredible journey through the
• 2:32:18
  Speaker 1: Book of Judges. We've seen how Israel went from a
• 2:32:21
  Speaker 1: unified nation under Joshua to a people without direction, where
• 2:32:26
  Speaker 1: everyone did what was right in his own eyes. We
• 2:32:29
  Speaker 1: followed unlikely heroes like Gideon and Samson, witnessed the courage
• 2:32:33
  Speaker 1: of Deborah and the tragedy of Jephtha, and saw just
• 2:32:37
  Speaker 1: how far a people can fall when they stray from
• 2:32:40
  Speaker 1: divine principles. This story, over three thousand years old, still
• 2:32:46
  Speaker 1: speaks volumes to day. It reminds us that the choices
• 2:32:50
  Speaker 1: we make as individuals and as a society carry real consequences.
• 2:32:57
  Speaker 1: If you enjoyed this perspective on the Book of Judges
• 2:33:00
  Speaker 1: and want more content like this, don't forget to subscribe
• 2:33:03
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• 2:33:09
  Speaker 1: biblical narratives we all love, and why not share this
• 2:33:12
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• 2:33:15
  Speaker 1: in your circle who needs to experience these stories in
• 2:33:19
  Speaker 1: a fresh and engaging way. In the upcoming episodes, we'll
• 2:33:23
  Speaker 1: continue our journey through the pages of the Bible, discovering
• 2:33:27
  Speaker 1: together the treasures of this extraordinary book. Until then, stay
• 2:33:32
  Speaker 1: in peace.