The Lord to the children of Israel: …and you cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand? And yet you have forsaken me, and have worshipped strange gods: therefore I will deliver you no more. Go and call upon the gods which you have chosen: let them deliver you in the time of distress.
Strong, almost human, parent-child relationship in the Old Testament between God and the children of Israel. It was limiting in scope and in effect, so much so that God progressed to the New Testament and gave His Only Son to the world, so that we would get and experience love through Jesus Christ and The Holy Spirit. Amen! Alleluia!
Yet how many times do we forsake God? How many times do we forsake ourselves? How many times do we forsake other human beings?
Who can, and who will deliver me in the time of distress?
Certainly not my selfishness or my overactive worldly mind or my self-centered ego. Or the Devil or Satan in disguise. I only feel true relief, comfort and love through Jesus’s love for me and all of us. In my case, food and sugar, while they temporarily self-medicate me, they never can cure me. Only with God’s help, only with Jesus’ help, and only with The Holy Spirit’s help is that even possible.
Analogous to the spiritual law that only light can displace darkness, only love can displace hate, only turning to God can I come out of my self and experience the peace, joy, and freedom in life as Our Creator so intended for us to do so!
We know the familiar story of Abraham willing to sacrifice his son Isaac yet the Lord stopped him in time. Yet there is Jephte in the Book of Judges who fulfilled a vow to the Lord and did sacrifice and offer his daughter as a holocaust to the Lord.
Therefore the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephte… If thou will deliver the children of Ammon into my hands, whosoever shall first come forth out of the doors of my house, and shall meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, the same will I offer a holocaust to the Lord.
And Jephte passed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them: and the Lord delivered them into his hands… and the children of Ammon were humbled by the children of Israel.
…his only daughter met him with timbrels and with dances: for he had no other children… for I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I can do no other thing… Grant me only this I desire: Let me go, that I may go about the mountains for two months, and may bewail my virginity… and the two months being expired, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed, and she knew no man.
What are we to make out of this? How are we to understand the meaning of the two biblical Old Testament passages in light of God’s demonstrated love through His Only Son Jesus in the New Testament?
Is it as simple as “that was then in God’s wrath in the Old Testament and this is now in Jesus’ love in the New Testament?”
Why, therefore, a cow? I have no idea.
And when the flame from the altar went up towards heaven, the angel of the Lord ascended also in the flame.
We shall certainly die, because we have seen God. And his wife answered him: If the Lord had a mind to kill us, he would not have received a holocaust and libations at our hands, neither would he have showed us all these things, nor have told us the things that are to come.
And she bore a son, and called his name Samson. And the child grew, and the Lord blessed him. And the spirit of the Lord…
First bit of country in the Bible… “if the Lord had a mind to kill us”… and the wife figured it out before her husband and she figured it out right!
I beseech you, take her for me to wife…that thou will take a wife of the Philistines, who are uncircumcised? Take this woman for me, for she hath pleased my eyes.
…behold a young lion met him raging and roaring. And the spirit of the Lord came upon Samson, and he tore the lion as he would have torn a kid in pieces… and behold there was a swarm of bees in the mouth of the lion and a honeycomb…
Samson: …I will propose to you a riddle… out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness…
The story of Samson to be continued…
Our riddle…
Who can, and who will deliver me in the time of distress?
Only God the Father, Jesus Christ His Son, and The Holy Spirit!
Day 85: Reading The Bible with a TROML Perspective; Who Can, and Who Will Deliver Me in the Time of Distress?
Read and inspired by the Old Testament, The Book of Judges Chapters 10-14
Bible Notes:
This Book is so called, because it is a history of the Jews under the government of the Judges, men, like Gedeon and Samson, who were raised up to rule Israel before they had kings. It describes the religious and political condition of the Jews and the work of the twelve Judges.
Judges Chapter 10: Thola and Jair judge Israel; Philistines and Ammonites oppress Israel; The Israelites cry to God; Israelites put away false gods.
After Abimelech there arose a ruler in Israel, Thola…, and he judged Israel three and twenty years.
To him succeeded Jair the Galaadite, who judged Israel for two and twenty years.
But the children of Israel, adding new sins to their old ones, did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served idols… and the gods of… and they left the Lord, and did not serve him.
And the Lord being angry with them, delivered them into the hands of the Philistines and of the children of Ammon. And they were afflicted, and grievously oppressed for eighteen years… and Israel was distressed exceedingly.
The Lord to the children of Israel: …and you cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand? And yet you have forsaken me, and have worshipped strange gods: therefore I will deliver you no more. Go and call upon the gods which you have chosen: let them deliver you in the time of distress.
Children of Israel to the Lord: “We have sinned, do thou unto us whatsoever pleaseth thee: only deliver us this time. And saying these things, they cast away out of their coasts all the idols of strange gods and served the Lord their God: and he was touched by their miseries.
Judges Chapter 11: Jephte flees from his brothers; Jephte becomes prince of Galaad; Jephte’s message to the Ammonites; Jephte’s vow; Jephte defeats the Ammonites; Sad fulfillment of Jephte’s vow.
Wife of Galaad: Thou canst not inherit in the house of our father, because thou art born of another mother… and there were gathered to him needy men, and robbers, and thy followed him as their prince.
Jephte: If you come to me sincerely, that I should fight for you against the children of Ammon, and the Lord shall deliver them into my hand, shall I be your prince?
But what the Lord our God hath obtained by conquest, shall be our possession…
Why have you waited so long a time attempted nothing about this claim? Therefore I do not trespass against thee, but thou wrongest me by declaring an unjust war against me.
Therefore the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephte… If thou will deliver the children of Ammon into my hands, whosoever shall first come forth out of the doors of my house, and shall meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, the same will I offer a holocaust to the Lord.
And Jephte passed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them: and the Lord delivered them into his hands… and the children of Ammon were humbled by the children of Israel.
…his only daughter met him with timbrels and with dances: for he had no other children… for I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I can do no other thing… Grant me only this I desire: Let me go, that I may go about the mountains for two months, and may bewail my virginity… and the two months being expired, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed, and she knew no man.
Judges Chapter 12: The Ephraimites quarrel with Jephte; The men of Galaad slay the Ephraimites; Death of Jephte.
Sedition—incitement of discontent or rebellion against a government.
And Jephte the Galaadite judged Israel six years: and he died…
Abesan of Bethlehem judged Israel seven years.
Ahialon, a Zabulonite, judged Israel ten years.
Abdon, a Pharathonite, judged Israel eight years.
Judges Chapter 13: Philistines subdue Israel; An angel foretells the birth of Samson; The angel reappears to Manue’s wife; The angel instructs Manue; Manue’s sacrifice; The angel ascends in a flame; Birth of Samson.
And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord: and he delivered them into the hands of the Philistines forty years.
And an angel of the Lord appeared to the wife of Manue… thou are barren and without children: but thou shall conceive and bear a son… for the child shall be a Nazarite of God from his infancy… and he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines.
…may come again, and teach us what we ought to do concerning the child that shall be born.
…but if thou wilt offer a holocaust, offer it to the Lord.
And when the flame from the altar went up towards heaven, the angel of the Lord ascended also in the flame.
We shall certainly die, because we have seen God. And his wife answered him: If the Lord had a mind to kill us, he would not have received a holocaust and libations at our hands, neither would he have showed us all these things, nor have told us the things that are to come.
And she bore a son, and called his name Samson. And the child grew, and the Lord blessed him. And the spirit of the Lord…
Judges Chapter 14: Samson desires a Philistine wife; Samson kills a lion; Samson finds honey in the lion’s mouth; Samson’s wedding feast; Samson’s riddle; The answer to Samson’s riddle; Samson slays thirty men.
I beseech you, take her for me to wife…that thou will take a wife of the Philistines, who are uncircumcised? Take this woman for me, for she hath pleased my eyes.
…behold a young lion met him raging and roaring. And the spirit of the Lord came upon Samson, and he tore the lion as he would have torn a kid in pieces… and behold there was a swarm of bees in the mouth of the lion and a honeycomb…
Samson: …I will propose to you a riddle… out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness…
Thou hatest me, and dost not love me: therefore thou wilt not expound to me the riddle which thou hast proposed to the sons of my people. So she wept before him the seven days of the feast: and at length on the seventh day as she was troublesome to him, he expounded it. She immediately told her countrymen. And they on the seventh day before the sun went down said to him: What is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion?
And the spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he went down to Ascalon, and slew there thirty men… and being exceedingly angry he went up to his father’s house: but his wife took one of his friends and bridal companions for her husband.
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