Judges 5

Judges 5:2

"That the leaders led in Israel,
That the people volunteered,
Bless the Lord!

I have to admit, this is a little cryptic to me.  I can't quite be certain whether they're blessing God for the people's faithfulness, or for His bringing the people together.  For the first, they would be thanking Him for the victory they have been given, for everyone did their jobs properly.  They had faith that God would see them through safely, and so they did their duties together.

The other way, they're thanking God for His direct influence in bringing everyone together.  Rather than the people having faith, God worked directly on them to do their jobs correctly.  I have to admit that in the current political situation, this idea would be very appealing.  The leaders aren't leading the people?  Hey God, whack them into shape and get them moving in the right direction.  The people are apathetic?  God, could you install some backbones right away?  It would make for a much simpler, though less free-will, situation if God always pulled/pushed/forced people to do what He wanted them to be doing.

Judges 4

Judges 4:4

Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time.

This verse jumped out at me because of the timeline it implies.  I always thought that the judges were people who God raised up when the nation had gone astray and been subdued, and He called them up from relative obscurity to rescue the people and then lead them.  First they beat the oppressor, then they would judge and lead the people.  However, this verse suggests that Deborah was a judge before being called to lead.  It appears that she had been leading the people for some time before God called her to start the uprising against the Canaanites.

This makes me wonder, was there always a judge, and they simply weren't always called to rebel against the outsiders?  Did they have judges when times were good, even after the previous liberating judge had died?  Did God call them up specifically, or were at least some already in positions of power and God afterwards directed them?  Was the position of judge the lower equivalent of king, where the people always had one, and if so, was it normally a person selected/appointed by God or the people?  Were some judge positions inherited, as would later be the case with Samuel, or did the people/God appoint from all possibilities?  This small verse makes me reconsider the entire purpose of the position.

Judges 3

Judges 3:31

After him came Shamgar the sons of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad; and he also saved Israel.

And?  What, you mean that's it?  No more information?  He's one of the famous judges of Israel, and he gets one tiny little verse?

Okay, if you're not going to say, I have to just ask questions.  First off, was he a judge at the same time as Ehud, or truly after?  It doesn't say the people fell back to sin before he came along, so was he during that same time frame, and just defeated a different enemy?  Or was he a savior during the time after Ehud, when things were going good, and perhaps he won a defensive victory?

And how do you kill 600 people with an oxgoad?  Come to think of it, what exactly is an oxgoad?

Judges 2

Judges 2:22

in order to test Israel by them, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk in it as their fathers did, or not."

It's sad to see how similar a path the Israelites have now set themselves on as to how we now tend to be.  They had it made, promised peace by God Himself.  All they had to do was follow the instructions He had given them.  They needed to drive out the inhabitants of the land, and then settle in and follow the Law.  But they failed at the first part, which led them to fail at the second part.

With that failure, God decided to change the deal.  Instead of protecting them from all enemies, He would use those enemies to test the people, to show them how bad things could become, and remind them that He was still there, if they should choose to ask Him for help.  It was their choice, but He was always at hand, ready for them.  We're the same way today.  We intellectually know that God is there for us, but we tend not to think about Him that way until we're in trouble.  If we could just remember Him in the good times the same way, we would save ourselves a lot of pain and trouble.

Judges 1

Judges 1:21

But the sons of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem; so the Jebusites have lived with the sons of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.

I'm very confused at this point in the book, which is never a good thing when you're at the beginning.  A few verses earlier it says that Judah and Simeon had captured Jerusalem, and burned it.  Yet here it says that Benjamin did not drive out the people of Jerusalem.  So what's going on?

I see two possible answers, neither of which really satisfies me.  The first is that we're not dealing with events in chronological order.  That would mean that while Benjamin didn't drive out the people, Judah came in later and did.  Looking at everything else happening, I guess this is possible, but it doesn't make a lot of sense.  Granted, we're dealing with a new author, so it's possible that this is what's happening, but it seems odd.

The other option would be that Judah sacked Jerusalem, but the people escaped, returned, and rebuilt.  This, however, makes even less sense.  Why would Benjamin not go after the defenseless people when they were vulnerable, trying to rebuild their city?  Forcing them out should have been simple, barely requiring an army.  So why not do it?

Joshua 24

Joshua 24:22

Joshua said to the people, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen for yourselves the Lord, to serve Him."  And they said, "We are witnesses."

I don't really know why this verse caught my attention.  It just kinda leaped off the page at me.

I suppose that part of it is that Joshua had just told the people that they wouldn't be able to keep this promise to serve God, but they insisted that they would.  He then binds them by a type of oath, something that we don't really use today.

Honestly, I think this is something that should come back.  We are taught in the New Testament that we should not need to take oaths, but most of us fail at that charge in one respect or another.  If we were to force ourselves to look at what we say with this type of seriousness, where we are specifically checked on what we say to make sure we mean it, and then it's binding, I think many fewer issues would arise with Christians breaking their word.

I know that I try to mean what I say, but especially in terms of serving God, I often fail.  I'm much better at keeping my promises to people here than I am my promises to God.  I'm going to try to keep this verse in my head, and run it through whenever I'm promising something.  Hopefully, that will help my true sincerity and belief to increase.

Joshua 23

Joshua 23:11

So take diligent heed to yourselves to love the Lord your God.

Love isn't an emotion that I have a great deal of experience with.  Part of my learning how to control my ADD was to suppress the most . . . call it passionate . . . of my emotions, at both ends of the spectrum.  My emotions don't seem go much past enjoyment/affection on one side, and irritation on the other, without significant outside drive.  I know that many people have problems describing love, but others seem to do much better about it than I.

However, I have read and heard a lot about love, and one thing all the good information I've received has emphasized the importance of being active in it.  Love isn't something that just kinda happens, at least not over the long term.  Instead, it has to be worked at, and worked on, to last.  I checked the dictionary, and another term for "heed" is "careful attention."  The idea of being diligent and careful about loving someone is an issue I can understand, even though I haven't experienced it much.  However, I've been loved through hard times by my parents, so I can appreciate the effort necessary, and it is even more important dealing with God.  Without our love of God, we would have no hope of accepting Christ and truly meaning it.

Joshua 22

Joshua 22:25

For the Lord has made the Jordan a border between us and you, you sons of Reuben and sons of Gad; you have no portion in the Lord."  So your sons may make our sons stop fearing the Lord.'

My first thought when I read this was skepticism.  It seems absurd that suddenly a nation would decide that some of their people are not part of the nation, just because of a physical boundary like a river.  After all, didn't the entire nation start out east of the Jordan, and have to come west from there?  Why would that river which figured so prominently in their taking the land be a factor in deciding who was the Lord's people?

But then the rest of my mind caught up, and I realized how probable this would become.  The people were known to be fractious.  Rather than looking at them as a large family, it's more accurate to think of a clan.  These people tended to first look out or their immediate families, and the tribe would likely take precedence over the rest of the nation.  If they were given the proper motivation, either out of zeal or ambition, a smooth-talking leader could easily convince a large part of the nation that the rest had separated from them, not the other way around.  Or, maybe the eastern tribes would actually forget their past, and fall away of their own accord.  Either way, a division based on a major river is not as hard to comprehend as I first thought, and the leaders of the eastern tribes should be given credit for considering the possibility.

Joshua 21

Joshua 21:44

And the Lord gave them rest on every side, according to all that He has sworn to their fathers, and no one of all their enemies stood before them; the Lord gave all their enemies into their hand.

The faithfulness of the Lord still amazes me many times.  At this point, the Israelites aren't doing so well overall.  They've left several of the nations they were commanded to destroy intact, able to come against them in the future.  Yet despite this, God gives them the peace that He had promised He would, and keeps their enemies at bay.

I still wonder why God did not keep the pressure on them.  If He had not given them peace until they finished the job, what would have happened?  Would they have fought on, pressing against the remaining inhabitants until the job was done?  Or would they have broken, abandoned God because they did not think they could succeed?  It's at points like this where I have to remind myself that God does know the big picture better than I do, and He knew what would happen with this incomplete work.

Joshua 20

Joshua 20:9

These were the appointed cities for all the sons of Israel and for the stranger who sojourns among them, that whoever kills any person unintentionally may flee there, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood until he stands before the congregation.

I always had a couple of questions about how these cities worked.  First off, who is the avenger of blood?  Is this some kind of designated person, a relative of the man who died?  Is it determined by a certain kinship, or is it some kind of self-proclaimed position?  Is it even a formal type of position, or just meant to designate anyone who would come seeking revenge?

Second, how does the hearing work against the killer?  Is it held at the city of refuge, so that the killer's protected status is not endangered?  If so, how do they arrange for the correct people to be there at the hearing?  Is the congregation that of the killer/victim, or of the city?  If the hearing occurs in the killer's/victim's home city, how is the killer's protection guaranteed?  I wish we had more on this process.

Joshua 19

Joshua 19:47

The territory of the sons of Dan proceeded beyond them; for the sons of Dan went up and fought with Leshem and captured it.  Then they struck it with the edge of the sword and possessed it and settled in it; and they called Leshem Dan after the name of Dan their father.

I've spent several previous chapters noting how the tribes did not fulfill God's command to clear the land of its inhabitants.  Here, I have to give credit to the one people who seemed to still remember that command.  The people of Dan here showed courage and faith to continue the task that God had given them, and eliminating the inhabitants.

Indeed, if I'm reading this correctly, it appears that they were actually starting to embark upon the greater command God had given them.  It's suggested that the Leshem was beyond the original territory that the Israelites had been planning to take.  However, God had promised them all the land from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates, which would essentially cover all the way to modern-day Iraq.  The Israelites were only planning to take a small part of that, yet here Dan begins the expansion.  They've apparently done their part in clearing out the land given to them, so they start to work on expanding their borders, driving out more of those God has promised to them.

Joshua 18

Joshua 18:3

So Joshua said to the sons if Israel, "How long will you put off entering to take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you?

I wonder why the other tribes had delayed breaking out and settling the land.  The text doesn't really give any indication as to why they've held off, but I'd like to hope that it's because they knew the task was not complete.  They still had work to do before God's command would be finished, for not all of the inhabitants were gone.  However, Joshua here is basically telling them that the campaign is over.

As much as I'd like to think I'm guessing right, I really don't believe it.  It's been too consistent through the last few chapters that the people are done fighting, and are simply now waiting for the order to disperse.  There's no disagreement expressed against the idea that things are done.  The people are simply awaiting orders, and now Joshua has given them.  Whatever else may be true, it's clear that Joshua believes that the fight is over, and calls on the Lord to decide who should settle where.

Joshua 17

Joshua 17:16

The sons of Joseph said, "The hill country is not enough for us, and all the Canaanites who live in the valley land have chariots of iron, both those who are in Bethshean and its towns and those who are in the valley of Jezreel."

Talk about failing the Lord.  Here the sons of Joseph bring a dual indictment against God.  First, they complain that the territory they have been given through God's direction is insufficient for them.  They want more land, and think they deserve it, that God messed up the lots.  Then, to make matters worse, they say the reason they need more is because they can't get rid of the Canaanites who are there.  They believe that the Canaanites' chariots and military power make them too hard to conquer.

This is coming from a people who have just made a lightning offensive on the area, and won every battle?  Have these people no confidence in God's provision or His ability to give them victory?  I'd like to be able to look upon them with scorn, in a lot of ways, but I know I'm just as bad.  I constantly forget the blessings that God has given me recently, and behave as if I were fighting alone.  I constantly let Him down in my struggles.  I often wish I had the physical, personal evidence that these people did, but obviously that isn't automatically enough.