Day 20 ~ Flawed men of power

For some reason I'm really looking forward to getting to Ruth and trying to figure out where her story falls in the chronology based on the clues we've been given. We can create a basic timeline with the ages given at death, and the times between the judges, and the geneology (like Rahab, who was an ancestor of Ruth's husband Boaz)...Anyway, back to Gideon.

Gideon was from the tribe of Manasseh from the village of Orphah (which doesn't appear to have been uncovered archaeologically), presumably from the portion of the tribe on the west of the Jordan. He was joined in his army by soldiers from Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali, all to the north of his territory. Now, if you remember correctly, the Midianites have been mentioned many times so far, but were always to the east of the Jordan. Apparently things had gotten so bad in the promised land that the Israelites couldn't even keep neighboring enemies from invading them. Apparently the Midianites had crossed the Jordan into the west and were oppressing at the time of Gideon. After their strategic pitcher/torch/trumpet plan, the small army chased the Midianites into the territory of Ephraim. Why do I tell you all this? So you can understand why Ephraim gets on Gideon's back in the first verse of our reading today.

• Chapter 8: Gideon and his army cross the Jordan to the east pursuing the Midianites. They asked for food from two different towns and were refused. After Gideon captured the kings Zebah and Zalmunna, he returned to the towns of those who refused them food and punished them. He then reminded the kings Z&Z that they had killed some of his relatives and killed them himself. Israel wants Gideon to rule over them, but he refuses saying only God can rule over them.
• Gideon collects all the golden earrings (of course, the Ismaelites wear earrings 8:24) from which he made a golden ephod. We've only seen the word Ephod used in the context of the jewel encrusted piece worn by the high priest to this point, but going forward it the word will be used to describe a linen ephod, and this ephod that Gideon makes, intended to be something sacred, but it apparently became some type of idol.

Back to our cycle of Judges: Israelites do evil...become oppressed by a native people who weren't utterly destroyed...God raises a judge to delivers them...followed by a period of obedience and peace. . Starting in day 19:

Mesopotamia...8 years slavery...judge Othniel...40 years of peace
fat Eglon in Moab...18 years...left-handed Ehud...80 years of peace
Shamgar - no specifics on this judge
Jaban of Canaan...20 years...Deborah (who is a bit cocky, it seems to me)...40 years
Midian...7 years...Gideon...40 years
Baal worship/reign of bad Israelite king Abimelech...3 years...Judges Tolah/Jair...23 years/22 years (doesn't say it was peaceful
Philistines & Ammon...18 years ...Jephthah...6 years followed by Judge Ibzan/6 years...Judge Elon/10 years...Judge Abdon/8 years
Philistines...40 years...Gideon...20 years

• Gideon had many wives and 70 sons. One son by a concubine (in addition to his seventy wives?) was named Abimelech (8:29-31). Remember that Gideon was renamed Jerubbaal when he tore down some idols after being addressed by the angel. Abimelech gained the trust of his brothers and then killed them all but one, Jotham. Then the men of the city made Abimelech king, presumably out of fear. He attacks and kills many, but a woman drops a millstone on his head and he asks to be killed by sword of one of the soldiers to it wouldn't be said that he died at the hands of a woman. Sorry Abimelech, they got the story down in a way you would not have approved of.
• Chapter 10. Israel has a smorgasboard of idol worship going on, and the Lord delivers them into slavery to the Philistines and people of Ammon. All of the eastern territory was in slavery, and then the Ammonites crossed the Jordan westward and were attacking Benjamin, Judah and Ephraim. God tells them to cry out to the new gods they have served for help. But they put away the idols and God's "soul could no longer endure the misery of Israel" 10:16.
• Chapter 11: Why would Jephthah's kinfolk kick him out for being illigitimate, then go get him to lead them? He was out running around and causing trouble with a group of raiders. Jephthah gives the king of Ammon a history lesson about why they can't have the land which the people didn't buy.
• The spirit of the Lord comes upon Jephthah, who promises that he will sacrifice as a burnt offering the first who comes out his door when he comes home in victory if God will aid in the defeat of the people of Ammon. Of course, his only child, a daughter, greets him after God allows him to subdue the people of Ammon. Why would God accept a human burnt offering? It doesn't say God accepted it, but Jephthah fulfilled his vow to God.
• What is with these people of Ephraim and getting mad when they don't get asked to go fight? This is the second time already. 12:1
• Jephthah shows his true colors - he did a smack down of Ephraim, and the Israelites actually stooped so low as a "nation" of Israel that they are enslaving and killing their own people. They know that the people of Ephraim can't pronounce a word correctly, and if they say it wrong, they kill them.
• Ibzan clearly breaks a rule from long ago, don't marry outside your tribe, he brings in outsiders as wives for his 30 sons.
• 13:1 - the Lord delivered the people into the hands of the Philistines for 40 years. We don't know if this includes the time God's anger grew hot in 10:7 and sold them to the Philistines and the Ammon - because chapters 10-12 deal with fighting with Ammon. This slavery to the Philistines may be the same time, because in chapter 13, we're in a different area, to the north with the tribe of Dan.
• An angel is again the choice of communication between God and his chosen. The wife of Manoah is greeted by an angel and told specific rules to follow for her son to be born. She wanted her husband to get in on the instructions...apparently she was more than willing to be a vessel of the Lord's work and wanted to get it right. Manoah also sees the angel, and not realizing it was an angel, offers to fix dinner. The angel tells them to prepare a sacrifice to God instead, which they do (and amazingly still know how to do). They assume their sacrifice was accepted by God. The angel does a cool trick in the fire.
• They have a son...Samson, who is to be raised as a Nazarite. See Numbers 6. Other Nazarites: Samuel, John the Baptist.
• Chapter 14 - Samson parents were aware that their son should not marry outside their tribe, but Samuel wanted a Philistine gal. Apparently, God had planted that desire in Samuel to create an occasion to move against the Philistines (14:4)
• Apparently Samson has a huge anger control issue. To pay the bet off of 30 articles of clothing, he goes and kills some men and takes their clothes, then gives his traitor wife to his best man...
• ...then he wants her back, and not only does he have an anger control problem, but he has a cruelty to animals problem and uses some live foxes as torches to ruin the crops, and deflects the Philistines anger onto his father-in-law. Samson then has a reason to attack the Philistines directly - they have killed his father-in-law, and he does some revenge killing then heads for the hills. The tensions grow as the Philistines come looking for Samson, and Samson's people are more than willing to give him up to get the heat off.
• Samson, filled with power by God, goes berzerk with a jawbone and kills 10,000 Philistines.
• What does Samson want for his effort? A drink of water (15:18).
• God certainly uses some flawed people and some questionable ways to get his will done. Samson is a bully, a killer, visits prostitutes, and a liar. He meets his match in the money-hungry Delilah, offered a great sum of money to find out Samson's secret to his strength through her feminine charm. Samson can't take the pestering of a woman (16:16), and just like his first wife, he tells her what she wants to know to shut her up. You know the rest of the story...cut hair...lost strength...gouged out eyes...one last blast of strength...many people (more than Samson had killed) die in a pile of rubble along with Samson as he makes the building collapse.
• Judges 17 tells us just how backward the people had become...Micah's mother dedicated silver to the Lord so she can make idols of it. Micah, from tribe of Ephraim, ordains one of his sons as a priest (wrong tribe, not appointed by God), but when a Levite comes to visit, Micah offers him the role of priest of his household.
• Who does this sound like: 17:6 "In those days ... everyone did what was right in his own eyes."?
• We find that the tribe of Dan still hasn't been able to gain their promised land in chapter 18. They are out scouting a weak place to attack, and when they come across what apparently is a unique occurance of a Levite priest (even though wrongly appointed), they immediately ask him for help, like a soothsayer. They steal the priest from Micah, along with his idols and fake ephod, and bring him along like a good-luck charm. I don't see them asking of God, nor of the priest asking of God, but they sure do like to use God's blessing without really knowing what it is. They defeat this weak little village and set up their own little idol chapel "all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh" 18:31 - the tabernacle was still the main place of worship for the nation, and it was in Shiloh.
• Chapter 19. The levite and his concubine picked the wrong town to sleep in. Note that they picked this town because it was an Israelite town, not a foreign town, but it was filled with homosexuals that weren't shy about what they wanted. As before in another similar story, the poor innocent daughter gets offered up to these heathen. Why would they rather protect a stranger than their own child? The daugher doesn't get taken this time, but the concubine does, and they basically ravage her and leave her to die. So the Levite cuts her up and sends a bit of her to each tribe.
• This special package to the tribes ignites some unity in all the tribes but Benjamin and a civil war is launched against Benjamin. The Lord, after being asked, sends men from Judah first to attack. But Benjamin takes the united tribes for some battle losses, but in the end were defeated.
• It's like we entered a totally new book with Judges 20. Apparently this description of the skirmishs against Benjamin has taken a big step back in time. 20:26-28: Then all the children of Israel, that is, all the people, went up and came to the house of God and wept. They sat there before the LORD and fasted that day until evening; and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD. So the children of Israel inquired of the LORD (the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days, and Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days)." I need to dig out my chronological Bible.

Remember my first paragraph today? Given the curveball in chapter 20, it may be next to impossible for me to figure out the chronology on my own. This is becoming a big ball of intertwining strings and timelines. Just wait until we get to Revelation, it is even more overlapping!