READINGS FOR MARCH 20 - MARCH 26

MARCH 20

We get a glimpse into the character of Gideon when he admits that he is afraid. (chapter 7, verses 10, 11). Another glimpse of his character is when he makes the statement right before the Midianites flee, "For the Lord and for Gideon." Was pride beginning to surface here?

Notice that Gideon captured the two Midianite kings and routed their entire army with his 300 exhausted men. The Israelites wanted to make Gideon their ruler after he killed the two kings of Midian (incidentally Moses' father-in-law was a priest of Midian). Gideon tells them that he will not be their ruler and that the Lord will rule over them. Yet Gideon makes a golden ephod from the plunder that had been taken from the Midianites. This ephod is usually something worn by the priest. Another definition of the word ephod is image. This ephod or image was placed in Gideon's town and all Israel worshiped the golden ephod. Now this sounds as if Gideon wanted a lasting monument to himself, and not something to honor God. And look what happened with the people.

Judges 8:27b
All Israel chased after it there as though it were a prostitute. It became a trap for Gideon and his family.

Does this mean that there were sexual orgies going on around the golden ephod as there were at the golden calf recorded in Exodus?

The commentary on page 353 takes some liberties with the golden ephod.  The commentator mentions that Gideon makes this golden ephod to honor the true God of Israel.  However, Scripture does not support this.  In fact Scripture paints quite a different picture.

Even though Gideon sinned God allowed the land peace for 40 years during Gideon's lifetime and he died at a good old age and was buried in the tomb of his father. What a merciful God we have!

It gets a little confusing with the two different names, Gideon and Jerub-Baal. Can you believe he had seventy sons??? And even more astounding that one of those sons, the son of a concubine, would kill all seventy of them, save for Jotham. Was Jotham another son of the concubine? Seems like the math doesn't work here with the seventy.

Lots of lessons to be learned from Gideon. As we are faithful to God, He will give us more responsibility. God expands and uses the abilities He has already built into us. God uses us in spite of our limitations and failures. We can easily fall into sin if we are not consistently following God.

Great lessons for us today, wouldn't you say???

MARCH 21

In the opening verses of Judges 10 we read about a couple of Israel's leaders and no mention of whether or not they were obedient to the Lord.  Then beginning with verse 6 we find that the Israelites are once again doing evil in the eyes of the Lord.  It mentions several false gods including Baal and Ashtoreth and other false gods who were similar gods but with different names.  Baal was the god of the harvest and Ashtoreth was the goddess of sex.  The god Chemosh mentioned in Judges 11 was the national deity of the Moabites and a god of the Ammonites, also identified with ‘Baal-peor’, ‘Baal-zebub’, ‘Mars’ and ‘Saturn’.  It would seem that if the people were doing evil in the eyes of the Lord, then the leaders were disobedient to the Lord.

Because the people served these false gods, the Lord sold them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites. (The Ammonites were descended from Ammon, Lot's son by his daughter).  Israel was in great distress because of their disobedience in following false gods.  Of course they were warned repeatedly against following these false pagan gods.

Gilead is a mountainous region bounded on the west by the Jordan, on the north by Bashan, on the east by the Arabian plateau, and on the south by Moab and Ammon; sometimes called ‘Mount Gilead’ or the ‘land of Gilead’ or just ‘Gilead’, divided into north and south Gilead.

Stories in the Bible don’t always have a “happily ever after” ending. The story of Jephthah and his daughter is one of those stories that is shocking to us in our society today. Jephthah made a rash bargain with God. If God would allow him victory against his enemies, he would sacrifice the first thing that came out of his house. Unfortunately, it was his daughter that came out of the house to meet him. How could a man make such a promise? Equally shocking for us today is that Jephthah’s daughter also honored her father’s bargain.
So Jephthah was willing to offer in sacrifice whatsoever came from his house to meet him.  He was faithful in keeping his vow to the Lord as stated in verse 31.  

…then whatever (or whatsoever) comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the LORD's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.” 

If we take this verse at face value, then Jephthah would sacrifice his daughter as a burnt offering to the Lord. This situation caused some troubling thoughts for us.  What was Jephthah thinking by making such a rash vow?  What must he have thought when his daughter came through the door?  Was he expecting a faithful pet to come out?  Had he given any thought to the “whatsoever” being his daughter?  What was his motive for wanting to win the battle?  Was it for victory for the Israelites or was it for himself to show his brothers and other fellow Israelites that he was not to be looked down upon because he was an illegitimate son?  Was his motive victory for his people for his own selfish pride?

We look at this vow as rash and careless, unwise and even foolhardy.  And yet, God allowed it. God could have arranged whatsoever He wanted to come out of the house. God could have had an animal come out or the girl to come out. We know how God felt about the pagan false god Molech who required child sacrifice. God even said that child sacrifice never came to His mind.  It’s as if God said He didn’t think He needed to tell us not to murder our own children. This situation is quite different from the near sacrifice of Isaac by his father Abraham.  God was the one who told Abraham to sacrifice his son, knowing He would stop Abraham from going through with it. So why would God have honored Jephthah’s vow.  If He disapproved of the vow then why did He allow the victory over the Ammonites?  He could have allowed the defeat of Jephthah and therefore no need for him to make the sacrifice. So, God must have approved of the vow. Is this out of character for God?  We really questioned this.  So we dug a little deeper. 

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Let’s look back at this part of the verse then whatever (or whoever) comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the LORD's,

If we stop right here, shall be the LORD's we can take this oath two ways.  Here’s where we must examine the culture of the time. Some versions use only the word whatever, but the Hebrew word means whatsoever and can be animal or person.  If an animal came out of the house, then the animal would be sacrificed as a burnt offering. If a person came out of the house, then the vow would be to dedicate that person to the Lord.  In the words of the verse, that person shall be the LORD's.  Persons set apart to God in a vow were “given” in service to the tabernacle, such as Samuel was when he was dedicated by his mother to tabernacle service.  This provision is listed in the laws in Leviticus.

Leviticus 27:2  “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, If anyone makes a special vow to the LORD involving the valuation of persons, 

5  If the person is from five years old up to twenty years old, the valuation shall be for a male twenty shekels, and for a female ten shekels. 

At times the people redeemed the child by paying the money or the child could be given in service to the Lord at the tabernacle or later the temple. There were women who were set apart for the tabernacle service, who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting (Exo_38:8; 1Sa_2:22). If we take Jephthah’s vow this way, then  Jephthah’s daughter became one of these women who served at the tabernacle. If this were the case, then it meant sending his unmarried, only daughter, only child to the service of the tabernacle for the rest of her life, never to be married or have a family.  This meant that Jephthah would have no descendents since  his daughter was his only child.

So, we have two possibilities for the meaning of this story.  Either, Jephthah’s daughter was sacrificed as a burnt offering or she was dedicated to tabernacle service, never to have a family.    God does not approve of the sacrifice of children. 

How did the daughter react?

36  And she said to him, “My father, you have opened your mouth to the LORD; do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, now that the LORD has avenged you on your enemies, on the Ammonites.” 

Jephthah made the vow and would honor the vow.  No matter how we may feel about this careless vow, the fact that he honored the vow is quite commendable.  However, the more commendable is the reaction of his daughter. 

37  So she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: leave me alone two months, that I may go up and down on the mountains and weep for my virginity, I and my companions.” 

38  So he said, “Go.” Then he sent her away for two months, and she departed, she and her companions, and wept for her virginity on the mountains. 

So, we have two possibilities for the meaning of this story.  Either, Jephthah’s daughter was sacrificed as a burnt offering or she was dedicated to tabernacle service, never to have a family.  Which is it?  Sacrifice or tabernacle service?

Either way it was sort of a sacrifice.  Burnt offering was a sacrifice but tabernacle service was also a sacrifice.  Jepthtah sacrificed having descendants.  The daughter sacrificed having a family and a normal life. 

For many, many years, we believed that the daughter was given as a burnt offering.  But we have since changed our thinking.  First of all, honoring child sacrifice is outside the character and nature of God. Concerning the sacrifice by Abraham of Isaac, God did not allow Abraham to complete the sacrifice and one of the purposes of that near sacrifice was to illustrate the later sacrifice of God’s own son, Jesus.  To allow the sacrifice of Jephthah’s daughter would diminish the sacrifice of Jesus.  If God didn’t approve of the vow, He would not have allowed the defeat of the Amorites. The daughter asked that she be allowed to go up and down the mountains and weep for her virginity. If the vow that her father made was for her to be a burnt offering sacrifice, then they would have bewailed her death, not her virginity. Jephthah is listed as a hero of the faith (Heb_11:32) so it is hard to think of him as doing something so contrary to God’s ways as offering his daughter as a human sacrifice.

Was there anything wrong with making an oath to the Lord? We must  also ask why he made the oath.  Since he was illegitimate and had no inheritance in his father’s house, he had something to prove.  So was his motive for being victorious over the enemy for his people Israel or to legitimize himself?

Even a Spirit-led person can do foolish things. The Holy Spirit does not overwhelm and control us, He guides us - and that guidance can be resisted or ignored.

When Jephthah told his daughter about the bargain he had made with God, she asked to be allowed two months to roam the hills and weep with her friends.  Did Jephthah think that she might run away to a distant land and he wouldn't have to sacrifice her?  Also, did he think that God would stop the sacrifice of his daughter the way He stopped the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham?  Notice that the girl returned to her father willingly.  She also returned a virgin putting to rest any suspicion that she may have "sowed wild oats" while she was gone.

What does God say about such a bargain as Jephthah made?
Ecclesiastes  5:4-6a
When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it. Do not let your mouth lead you into sin.

Leviticus and Deuteronomy list rules pertaining to vows of dedication.

Deuteronomy 23:21-23
If you make a vow to the LORD your God, do not be slow to pay it, for the LORD your God will certainly demand it of you and you will be guilty of sin. But if you refrain from making a vow, you will not be guilty. Whatever your lips utter you must be sure to do, because you made your vow freely to the LORD your God with your own mouth.

This passage is very clear that such vows like the one that Jephthah made are not from the Lord. They are from the mouth of men. Lessons for us are equally clear. We must be very cautious in making vows to the Lord.  But when we make a vow, we'd better keep our end of the bargain.

MARCH 22

It is impossible for a believer to read the story of Ruth and not be overcome with its significance.  It is a story of how God puts ordinary people (Ruth and Boaz) together to do “extra” ordinary things.

The commentary in today's reading states that Ruth is a Gentile.  This word is used in the New Testament to differentiate between those who were Jews and those who were not.  The primary reference is to a difference of religion and worship.  In Ruth's case she was a Moabite, a descendant of Lot who was a Hebrew.

Can we draw some conclusions here about Ruth's statement concerning Naomi's God? Was Naomi's faith so strong, her witness so great that Ruth wanted to follow after this God of Naomi? Or did this godly witness come from Naomi's son, Ruth's husband?  Is our Christian faith and witness that strong? Ruth left her country, her family, her home to go with Naomi. Had Ruth not gone with Naomi, Naomi would have been hard pressed. She may not have been able to support herself or glean in the fields for herself.  She would have been totally dependent on her family for support.

When they arrived in Bethlehem it was during the barley harvest, late spring. Was it love at first sight when Boaz saw Ruth? He told the harvesters to deliberately drop some good stalks for Ruth to pick up.

What a beautiful illustration of a kinsman redeemer in Boaz for Ruth. It shows us the connection with Jesus as our kinsman redeemer.

Naomi told Ruth to wash, perfume herself, and put on her best clothes and go to Boaz at the threshing floor. This meant that Ruth was no longer in mourning and was available for marriage. When Ruth went to the threshing floor and removed the garment from Boaz, she was letting him know that she was ready for marriage.  The obligatory time of mourning was passed.  It was again time for the barley harvest, which meant a year had passed.

Boaz sent Ruth back to Naomi with a bundle of barley. But it was much more than that, Ruth returned to Naomi with the knowledge that she would be redeemed by her kinsman redeemer.

The transaction at the city gate concerning Boaz's bargain for Ruth was a legal binding agreement. The city gate was where the business of the town was taken care of, like a courthouse or town hall. Notice they didn't write out contracts, just some witnesses and a sandal would do.

When the elders of the town say to Boaz, "may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah", they were in effect amending the established law that the son of the kinsman redeemer would be considered the son of the dead husband of the woman he was marrying. They were giving permission for Boaz to be listed as father in his son's genealogy, rather than Ruth's dead husband Mahlon.  They made an exception of the law as was done with Judah and Tamar. Also, Naomi was considered the grandmother of the son of Ruth and Boaz even though technically, he was only a distant relative.

Think about the genealogy of both of these people. Ruth was a descendant of the incestuous relationship of Lot and his daughters. Boaz was the son of the Jericho prostitute Rahab. And yet God chose Ruth and Boaz  to be great grandparents of King David and so the ancestors of Jesus.

What foreshadowing in this quote to Boaz from the elders at the gate, “May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem.” Through the descendants of Boaz certainly came One who is and who was famous in Bethlehem - our kinsman redeemer - Jesus!

MARCH 23

More Christophanies in today's reading...evidence of God the Son in the Old Testament. Manoah's wife was sterile until she was visited by an angel of the Lord. When Manoah's wife saw the man of God she thought He looked like an angel. In Manoah's encounter with this same man of God, Manoah inquired of Him, “Are you the one who talked to my wife.”

The angel identified Himself just as He did with Moses at the burning bush, as “I am.” (page 100 - Exodus 3)

Manoah still did not realize that this was the angel of the Lord. Then Manoah asked His name, just as Jacob did in the “wrestling” incident with the man. (page 67 - Genesis 32:24-32)

Then this most wonderful of images…Manoah and his wife witnessed an ascension. They knew they had seen God because they thought they were doomed to die…same thing that Gideon said when he saw the angel of the Lord, the pre-incarnate Son of God!  (page 354 - Judges 6:22-24) And just as Jacob did when he wrestled with the man. (page 67)

Oh, and the son born of the sterile wife of Manoah? None other than Samson. Samson was from the tribe of Dan, a Nazarite, set apart from birth to begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines. The spirit of the Lord came upon him in power and he was able to do great and powerful things.

"The Spirit of the Lord began to stir him..." What exactly does that mean to have the Spirit of the Lord stir a person? The Hebrew word for stir is "pa-am" and means "to thrust, agitate, be disturbed, troubled". Now if the Spirit of the Lord is the one doing the stirring, it must be to agitate a person to do something godly, or to be disturbed about sin, or be troubled about current events that are not going the way they should. Many times we witness events in our world that are not godly, how often are we stirred to DO something? More importantly, how often do we actually DO something?

Samson taking a Philistine wife was "of the Lord", which means this was in the plan in order to fulfill the purposes of God.

When Samson told his wife that his source of his supernatural strength was the length of his hair, he was using this as yet another ruse, just as he had done all the other times pretending to divulge the source of his strength.  Because he was a Nazarite, Samson was to use no razor on his head, and yet he allowed his head to be shaved, breaking his vow. The Lord left him after this because he had broken his Nazarite vow.  The length of his hair had nothing to do with his strength.  His strength came from God.

Samson did redeem himself later when he began the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines. He accomplished what God intended him to do. God's will WILL be done!

MARCH 24

What a sad note concerning those Israelites who continually were attracted by pagan idols and practices...“In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.”

Does this sound like our world today? Everyone does as everyone wants. So much emphasis today is on what feels good, it seems to be all about self-gratification.

The Danites, from the tribe of Dan (one of the 12 tribes of Israel) hadn’t yet claimed the inheritance that God promised them. They took Laish and renamed it Dan. There they set up pagan idols. This among other things is why the tribe of Dan is excluded from the 144,000 listed in Revelation.

Did you ever wonder what happened to Moses’ descendants? Some apparently didn’t do so well. One of his descendants fell in with the tribe of Dan and continued to use idols.

Micah installed a young Levite as priest and offered him ten shekels of silver a year, food, clothing, and shelter in exchange for acting as priest for him, in a shrine that included an ephod and some idols. Micah rationalized installing this Levite as a priest saying,"Now I know that the Lord will be good to me, since this Levite has become my priest."  

Rationalization is seldom a good thing.  In this case, rationalization was definitely not a good thing.  Micah thought he could justify keeping the pagan influences as long as a priest was there as a "godly" influence.  Micah must have thought the priest could purify the pagan and make it godly.  What pagan practices do we "purify" to make them godly?

Similar things are recorded by the prophet Ezekiel.  And there was no doubt as to how God felt about that.

Ezekiel 43:8
They put their doorway by my doorway and their doorposts by my doorposts. Only a wall separated me from them. They dishonored my holy name because of the disgusting things that they have done. So I destroyed them in my anger. 

The man, Micah, plays an infamous role in today's reading. He compromised and perverted true worship of God. Through his leadership, the rest of the tribe practiced idolatry. The Power of One truly is illustrated in this story. Micah led the people away from God. As individual Believers today, we too have the Power of One, the power to lead people to God and not away from Him. It should be easy for us. After all, we have the Power of the Holy Spirit within us!

MARCH 25

A Levite living in the hill country of Ephraim took a concubine (something like a common-law wife) but she was unfaithful to him.  This unfaithfulness doesn't necessarily mean she committed adultery, but that she simply left him to go back to her father's house.  The Levite went after his concubine and on the way back home with her, stopped at Gibeah.  The common practice of the day when traveling was to go into the city and sit in the city square until someone offered a place to stay for the night.  An old man offered his house to the Levite and his concubine.  Wicked men of the city came to the old man's house demanding that he send the man out to them so they could have sex with him.  This story is quite reminiscent of what happened in Sodom with Lot and his family and the angels.  The old man offered his virgin daughter, which the wicked men refused, and the Levite man offered his concubine.  The men did disgraceful things to the concubine and she died.  When the man, the Levite, returned home, he recounted the incident (however, he left out the part about him sending the concubine out to the men).  Then he cut up the concubine into 12 parts and sent the pieces into all the areas of Israel.  As a result the Israelites decided to do battle against the tribe of Benjamin.  However, they did not inquire of the Lord before gathering their troops for battle. They only asked who of the tribes would be first into battle.  As a result the Israelites were defeated by the warriors of Benjamin in this battle.  After this defeat, the Israelites wept before the Lord and then they inquired of the Lord.  They were still defeated in battle by the Benjamites.  Lastly, the Israelites wept, fasted, presented sin offerings, and then inquired of the Lord.  They were successful.  Before the Israelites could purge the sin from the Benjaminites God had to first purge the sin from the Israelites.

Lessons for us today?
We have to learn obedience, make ourselves right before the Lord by repenting of our sins, inquire of Him concerning our decisions, then we will be successful in "battle".  We do battle each day with the evil forces of  wickedness.  Our weapons come from God's Word.

The tribe of Benjamin had turned to homosexuality – a practice that God calls an abomination. God used the Israelites to discipline the Benjamites. He wanted homosexuality purged from Israel.  Yet the people grieved for Benjamin.  They had made an oath that they would not give their daughters in marriage to any man from the tribe of Benjamin.  After making this oath, they grieved for Benjamin because this would cause a gap in the tribes of Israel. So they subverted their oath by finding a "loophole".  They couldn't GIVE their daughters to the Benjamites but they could allow their daughters to be TAKEN. (Judges 21:16-24).  The intent of the vow they took was to deny their daughters in marriage to the Benjamites.  They violated this vow, "loophole" or not.

One of the most profound statements in the Chronological Bible commentary so far is this one. “Religious apostasy is somewhat understandable in an age of idolatry and pagan practices, so it is not surprising to see the Israelites repeatedly lapse into spiritual unfaithfulness."

It is absolutely amazing how applicable this is to our world today. Many of God’s people continue to “fall away” from sound biblical truth. This is spiritual unfaithfulness. Paul echoed these same words in his letter  to Timothy.

2 Timothy 4:3-5
For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

Why would we want to turn away from God's truth and honor pagan practices instead?  Are we, like the ancient Israelites, finding a "loophole" to suit our own desires?

But what a great encouragement Paul gave to Timothy and to us. But you (put your name here), keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

Even though there may be spiritual unfaithfulness all around us, we must keep on doing the work that God has called us to do...to be His faithful witnesses!

MARCH 26

In the midst of all the spiritual apostasy going on around them, both Hannah and Elkanah were devout enough to go to Shiloh to worship and sacrifice at the prescribed times. And yet, Elkanah had two wives. Did he take Peninnah as his second wife because Hannah was barren? Contrast the devotion of Elkanah to the actions of Eli’s sons.  Quite a contrast.

Hannah wanted something so much (a son) that she was willing to give it up. She honored the covenant of the redemption of the first-born son, not by paying the redemption fee, but by giving her son to the Lord. Check out Hannah's prayer. She relates a great contrast between godliness and corruption.  She was quick to give the Lord the praise that He deserves.  And her prayer was prophetic in many ways.  Obviously she was given great insight.

Samuel was from the tribe of Ephraim.  Even though Hannah gave up her son in service to the Lord as soon as he was weaned, she still was a typical mother in many ways. She made him a special little robe each year.

The two sons of Eli, the priest, were corrupt. In fact the entire priesthood seemed to be corrupt "they had no regard for the Lord."  Look at what the two sons did concerning the Lord's offering.  And Eli benefited from his son's sins.  Not all "godly" men are Godly men.  They were taking out the best first for themselves.  "...they were treating the Lord's offering with contempt." Connections today??? Perhaps when money offerings are brought into the church and are then spent frivolously, misused, or wasted?

The sons were also sleeping with the women who served at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.  Why did Eli allow this?

“Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord.” What does it mean to grow up in the presence of the Lord?  Suppose it has anything to do with being in constant communication with the Lord?  Later on we read in Scripture that none of Samuel's words fell to the ground - part of what it means to live in the presence of the Lord.  If a person is in constant communication with the Lord, then the words that come from that person's mouth should be in accordance with the will of God.

There is mention of "faithful priest" who will minister before the Lord's anointed. There are many prophetic foreshadowings of the "faithful priest".  One of them is the faithful priest Zadok. His descendants will serve before the Messiah in the millennial kingdom.

Ezekiel 44:15-16
"'But the priests, who are Levites and descendants of Zadok and who faithfully carried out the duties of my sanctuary when the Israelites went astray from me, are to come near to minister before me; they are to stand before me to offer sacrifices of fat and blood, declares the Sovereign LORD. They alone are to enter my sanctuary; they alone are to come near my table to minister before me and perform my service.

These descendants of Zadok will be given this high honor because Zadok was faithful in carrying out his duties in the sanctuary.

How are we as Believers doing in carrying out our duties in the midst of spiritual apostasy? Are we as faithful as the priest Zadok?