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Judges Chapter 9

- After the death of Gideon, one of his sons Abimelech proposes to his brotheres to rule over them!

- So they give him 70 pieces of silver!

- He uses the money to hire men and kills all his brothers with one stone except Jotham his youngest brother who hides!

- Then Jotham speaks to the leaders of Shechem!

- He asks them if they acted sincerely in making Abimelech king taking into account what his father did for them!

- Because Abimelech’s mother is Gideon’s slave girl!

- Then Jotham flees!

- And Abimelech rules over Israel for 3 years!

- To avenge the killing of Gideon’s sons, God lets hostility develop between Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem!

- Then they fight together and Abimelech killed all the men of Shechem and destroys the city!

- But when Abimelech attacks the city of thebez!

- There a woman throws a millstone on him and crushes his skull!

- And he asks his attendant to kill him so nobody can say a woman killed him!

- So the attendant kills him!

- Then all the men of Israel go back home!

- Finally God repays Abimelech and the men of Shechem for the evil they had done!

- Thus even if it takes time, God always repays those who do evil!

- When you go against God, he will repay each one according to what he did or not!

- Once again we have a warning!

- When time arrives for God to repay those who deserve it, it is no time to cry or weep!

- And it happens so many times till God finally rejected Israel!

- Remember Daniel’s prayer for the restoration of Jerusalem in spite of its mountain of sins against God!

- And God’s answer: THE RESTORATION OF JERUSALEM AND ITS DESTRUCTION!

- THE MESSAGE SEEMS CLEAR BUT NOT FOR EVERYBODY!

 

[JLG]

Judges Chapter 10

- And Tola judged Israel for 23 years!

- And Jair judged Israel for 22 years!

- And again Israel committed spiritual prostitution!

- And God gave them into the hands of the philistines and the Ammonites!

- For 18 years!

- And finally they called to God for help!

- But God told them GO AWAY!

- So they removed the foreign gods from their midst and served God!

- And then the Ammonites prepared to fight again against Israel!

 

[JLG]

Judges Chapter 11

- And Jephthah was the son of a prostitute!

- And he became a mighty warrior!

- And the elders of Gilead asked Jephthah to become their commander!

- Jephthah made a vow to God!

- If God was to give the Ammonites in Jephthah’s hands, the one coming out of the door of his house would become God’s!

- And Jephthah won and he took the control of 20 cities!

- When he came back home, his daughter came out to meet him!

- She was his only child!

- She would stay a virgin and served God!

- And it became a tradition on Israel, from year to year, the young women of Israel would go to give commendation to Jephthah’s daughter four days in the year!

 

[JLG]

Judges Chapter 12

- The men of Ephraim are angry because Jephthah didn’t call them to fight against the Ammonites!

- They want to burn Jephthah’s house with him in it!

- But he says he called to them for help but they did not save him from their hands!

- So he went against the Ammonites with God’s help!

- So Gilead fights against Ephraim and Gilead wins!

- And the men of Gilead pursue them!

- To know they were from Ephraim they just had to ask them to pronounce a word they were unable to pronunce correctly!

- Finally 42,000 men were killed!

- Ephraim was a son of Joseph!

- Once again you can be a good person and tries to educate correctly your children but it doesn’t mean they will keep on the right track!

- That’s free will!

- Like Adam and Eve!

- The only difference is that they were perfect!

- And Jephthah judges Israel for six years and he dies!

- Then Ibzan judges Israel for seven years!

- And Elon judges Israel for ten years!

- And Abdon judges Israel for eight years!

 

[JLG]

Judges Chapter 13

- Israel goes back to spiritual prostitution!

- And God gives them into the hands of the Philistines for 40 years!

- And God ‘s angel appeared to Manoah’s wife who was barren and childless!

- And he told her she was going to have a child!

- But she couldn’t drink alcohol or eat anything unclean!

- Because he was to become a Nazirite of God from birth!

- And he was to save Israel from the Philistines!

- And he was called SAMSON!

 

[JLG]

Judges Chapter 14

- Samson wants to marry a Philistine woman!

- In fact, God is looking for an opportunity against the Philistines who are ruling over Israel!

- On one occasion, Samson kills a lion with his bare hands thanks to God’s spirit!

- Later on when he looks at the dead body of the lion, he sees a swarm of bees and honey!

- Then he takes it and eats it!

- And he gives some to his parents!

- Then Samson has a banquet with 30 groomsmen!

- He asks them a riddle!

- If they get the answer he will give them 30 linen garments and 30 outfits of clothing!

- But they don’t know so they ask his philistine woman to trick her husband Samson otherwise they will burn her and her father’s house!

- So they can answer his riddle and Samson is furious because he knows they have tricked him!

- So he kills 30 Philistines and gives them their garments!

- And Samson’s wife is given to one of his groomsmen who has accompanied him!

 

[JLG]

Judges Chapter 15

- As a consequence, Samson gets 300 foxes and takes torches and turns the foxes tail to tail and puts one torch between each pair of tails and he sets fire to the torches and sends the foxes out into the fields of the Philistines!

- Then he sets on fire everything from sheaf to standing grain and the vineyards and the olive groves!

- Then the Philistines burn Samson's wife and her father!

- Then he kills many Philistines!

- So 3,000 men of Judah capture and bound Samson!

- When they give him to the Philistines, God’s spirit empowers him and he frees him and he takes a jawbone and kills 1,000 Philistines!

- And Samson judges Israel for 20 years!

 

[JLG]

Judges Chapter 16

- Samson goes to Gaza and goes with a prostitute!

- Then the Gazites are told about Samson and surround him and lay an ambush to kill him!

- But Samson gets up at midnight and grabs the doors of the city gate and the two side posts and puts everything on his shoulders!

- Later He falls in love with a woman called Delilah!

- Then the lords of the philistines tell her to trick Samson and find out the source of his power and how to take it away!

- In exchange they are ready to give her a fortune!

- But Samson doesn’t tell her the truth about his strength so when the Philistines try to capture him he can free himself!

- Then the philistines try to capture him but it still doesn’t work because he didn’t tell Delilah the truth!

- Then a third time it happens the same!

- Finally he tells her the truth and she cuts his hair and he loses his strength!

- And the Philistines capture him and bore his eyes out!

- And they put him in prison!

- Later his hair grows again!

- And the Philistines offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon because of Samson!

- And they take Samson out of his prison to make fun of him!

- And they make him stand between the pillars of the temple!

- And Samson asks a boy to bring him to the pillars that support the temple!

- 3,000 Philistines are present!

- And Samson asks God to give him back his strength and die and kill the Philistines!

- And Samson takes away the pillars and he kills more Philistines than during his whole life!

 

[JLG]

Judges Chapter 17

- There was a man called Micah!

- And he gave back to her 1,100 silver pieces!

- She took 200 silver pieces and gave it to the silversmith to make a carved image and a metal statue to put in micah’s house because he had a house of gods!

- Micah had one of his sons to serve as priests for him!

- There was no king in Israel and everyone was doing what was right in his own eyes!

- A Levite was looking for a place to live so Micah told him to stay with him and served as a father and priest to him!

- And the young man became like one of his sons!

- Then Micah knew that God would bless him!

- Does it remind you of something: AND EVERYONE WAS DOING WHAT WAS RIGHT IN HIS OWN EYES!

 

[JLG]

Judges Chapter 18

- The tribe of Dan has not received an inheritance so they send men to spy the land they want to get!

- The men spend the night at the house of Micah!

- They meet the young Levite and ask him questions!

- Then he answers them to go in peace and that God is with them!

- Then the spies spy the land!

- When they come back, they tell everything what they see!

- So 600 Danites get ready to fight!

- Then they go to the house of Micah!

- The five spies go to the house of Micah and take the carved image, the ephod, the teraphim statues and the metal image!

- And they ask the young priest to go with them!

- Micah realizes he can’t do anything against the Danites so he lets the priest go with them!

- They destroy the city of Laish and burn it and rebuild it and settle in it and call it Dan according to their father’s name!

 

[JLG]

Judges Chapter 19

- A Levite takes a concubine as his wife!

- But she is unfaithful to him!

- And she goes to her father’s house!

- She remains there for 4 months!

- Then the Levite goes to see his wife to bring her back!

- He stays there for three days!

- His father-in-law asks him to stay another day!

- The next day it is the same!

- And he finally leaves with his wife!

- They get close to Jerusalem and spend the night at Gibeah!

- They sit down in the public square of the city!

- But nobody offers them to stay overnight!

- Then an old man who only lives in the city for a while offers them to spend the night at his house and he takes care of them!

- Some men come to the house and want the man to have sex with him!

- But the old man refuses!

- And he offers his daughter and the man’s concubine!

- But they refuse and take the concubine and abuse her all night!

- In the morning the woman comes back to the house and dies!

- So the man cuts her in 12 pieces and sends one piece into each territory of Israel!

- Then the men of Israel take counsel to know what to do!

 

[JLG]

Judges Chapter 20

- Israel gathers before God at Mizpah!

- The men of Israel ask the Levite what has happened to his murdered woman!

- As a consequence the men of Israel want to go against the men of Gibeah because of what they have done!

- And they want the men who have acted badly to put them to death!

- But the Benjaminites refuse!

- And they want to fight against Israel!

- So Israel goes to Bethel to inquire of God!

- And God tells them that Judah must lead them!

- And the Benjaminites kill 22,000 men of Israel!

- And Israel is ready to fight again!

- And the Benjaminites kill 18,000 men of israel!

- But God tells Israel to go again against the Benjaminites!

- It seems to be that the Benjaminites are going to win again!

- But Israel retreats so all the Benjaminites leave Gibeah!

- And 10,000 men of Israel go to Gibeah!

- The fighting is heavy!

- And God defeats Benjamin!

- 25,100 Benjaminites are killed!

- Then Israel burns Gibeah!

- The Benjaminites flee but the men of Israel follow them and 18,000 Benjaminites are killed!

- The rest flee into the wilderness!

- Finally 25,000 Benjaminites die this day!

- And Israel strikes the cities of Benjamin and they burn cities!

 

[JLG]

Judges Chapter 21

- All the men of Israel swear the oath not to give their daughters to a man from Benjamin as a wife!

- All Israel comes to Bethel to cry out and weep because of the loss of Benjamin!

- And they make an oath that anyone who has not come up to God at Mizpah was to be put to death!

- They learn that the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead have not come!

- So 12,000 men are sent to kill the inhabitants, men, women and children!

- Only the 400 virgins are not to be killed!

- They tell the survivors of Benjamin to go to Shiloh because there is a festival there every year and set an ambush and get women for them!

- The men of Benjamin do it and they go back to their inheritance and rebuild their cities and settle in them!

- All the men of Israel go back to their homes!

- And the chapter ends by saying there was no king in Israel and everybody was doing what was right in his own eyes!

 

[JLG]

Conclusion of the book of Judges

- Israel didn’t obey God because they made a covenant with the inhabitants of Canaan and they didn’t destroy their altars!

- As a consequence, God let the inhabitants of Canaan stay in the land to ensnare Israel to spiritual prostitution!

- God would choose men to save Israel from time to time!

- But most of the time they would commit spiritual prostitution!

- And the book of judges ends saying there was no human king in Israel and everyone was doing what was right in his own eyes!

- In fact, we can say the same everywhere in the Bible!

- In the Bible, Israel was used to committing spiritual prostitution!

- And humanity has always been used to spiritual prostitution!

- Let’s say spiritual prostitution is a specialty of humanity!

 

[JLG]

- What is the connection between the book of Judges and the books of Samuel?

- In Judges we get spiritual prostitution and everyone was doing what was right in his own right!

- In Samuel we are told about Samuel’s father who goes to worship and to sacrifice to God in Shiloh from year to year!

- Let’s say it is a kind of ritual!

- And Hannah prays to God because she is barren and she asks God for a son she will give to God in exchange like a Nazirite!

- And God listens to her!

- We just get simple examples of faithfulness!

- And Hannah respects her vow to God!

- And when Samuel starts his service for God, we are told that the word of God had become rare and his visions were not widespread!

- In fact, God seems to be away because Israel keeps committing spiritual prostitution!

- But there is still some kind of faithfulness!

- But nothing special!

- Think that the two sons of Eli are priests and they don’t care about God!

- And they act badly!

- And God doesn’t do anything!

- He lets the situation get worse and worse!

- There is mainly a spiritual desert!

- But then he starts to speak to Samuel who is a boy!

- Think of that: no one is worthy to be honored by God!

- Except Samuel who is only a child because of his mother!

- And he tells him what is going to happen to Eli and his two sons in due time!

- But Samuel must be taught and take the lead and Israel!

- He is going to become the high priests and the judge in Israel!

- So first Samuel’s mother did the first step toward God and God the second and a lot more!

 

[JLG]

- Superficiality of humanity vs Deepness of some individuals!

- And they are lights for us!

- There are two ways!

- Light vs darkness!

- We can choose which one!

- One is easy, the other is a lot more complicated because it is necessary to make efforts to understand the Bible!

- Just free will!

- An oasis among the desert!

 

[JLG]

- Israel didn’t do anything to make things change!

- Eli did the same with his two sons: nothing!

- What does humanity do: nothing!

- But God acts!

- And God continues to appear to Samuel in Shiloh!

- Judges and the book of samuel same continuity!

- IN Samuel 7:2 we are told about 20 years before All Israel begins to seek after God!

- And we are only told about starting!

- You can imagine the rest by yourselves!

- Samuel 7:15-17 tells us that Samuel spent his life judging Israel in Ramah and every year he would traveled to bethel, Gilgal anMizpah!

- Chapter 8:1-3 tells us that Samuel appointed his sons as judges for Israel but they acted badly not like Eli’s sons but badly!

- As a consequence, Israel asked for a human king!

- He did according to what Samuel told him for a while!

- Gradually he chose the wrong way and God rejected him!

- And Samuel would not speak to him about God’s will anymore!

- Why should it be different?

- Man’s tradition vs God’s word!

- I like when chapter 12:22 tells us God will not abandon his people!

- No but his people will abandon him as usual!

- And the next verses speak about being swept away!

- But people usually read the beginning and not the end!

- Unfortunately the end is more important than the beginning!

 

[JLG]

- In Chapter 12 Samuel warns Israel!

- They did evil but they can follow and serve God faithfully with their heart!

- But that’s free will!

- Always free will!

- And doing evil is also free will!

- In Chapter 13 Samuel reproves Saul!

- Saul’s evil is free will!

- All the time Samuel warns them but they don’t listen!

- But he keeps warning them again and again!

- No way to say we didn’t know!

- No you did it and you kept doing it!

- It is as simple as that!

- In Chapter 15 Samuel reproves Saul!

- And Saul is rejected as king!

- Is that so difficult to change?

 

[JLG]

- Saul doesn’t care!

- He keeps doing according to his will!

- And Samuel anoints David!

- But like in the case of Israel and humanity, God is patient!

- And David becomes close to Saul!

- He becomes his harpist!

- David defeats Goliath!

- And Israel speaks in better terms of David compared to Saul!

- And Saul becomes jealous of David!

- And Saul tries to kill David!

- And he will try to do it many times!

- He can see that God’s spirit is with him!

- And Jonathan, Saul’s son, and David become friends!

- And Jonathan will warn David against his father!

- And he will tell him in case of danger!

- And David marries Saul’s wife!

- But Saul will keep trying to kill David!

- He won’t change his mind!

- He doesn’t care about God even if he is king because of God!

 

[JLG]

- In Chapter 19, we can see how Saul’s hate for David grows and at the same time Jonathan’s love for David increases!

- And Jonathan speaks well of David to his father!

- And he brings David back to his father!

- And David keeps serving Saul!

- Till Saul tries to kill him again!

- We see all the time the same mistake from man!

- He always wants to follow the wrong track!

- Always the same stubbornness!

- I will do as I want!

- And David has to escape again to survive!

- And God pushes Saul to try to kill David!

- But as usual he can escape!

- God is preparing the end of Saul!