Ironically, the book of Judges comes across as the most lawless. In the two first chapters here the judge is the son of a prostitute. At first he is driven from his home, but eventually is called back by the elders when they are attacked by the men of Ammon.<\/p>\n
Jephthah drives the Ammonites out, and in the process promises God to give the first thing that comes out of his door as a burnt offering to God. It happens to be his daughter, his only child. His daughter says she will submit to this awful death, but first must go to the mountains to “bemoan her virginity”<\/p>\n
She does, and then she is burnt. Poor girl. I can’t understand how God would want that.<\/p>\n
The final chapter is how the Israelites start sinning again and are overtaken by the Philistines. It tells of\u00a0 Manoah and his wife, who are childless. One day an Angel of God appears to them and tells them they are to have a son, but the wife must no longer drink wine, as the child is to be a Nazirite and will help free Israel.<\/p>\n
She is never to cut the child’s hair, she is told by the angel. Can you guess who the child is named?<\/p>\n
Psalm 9 talks about God as the refuge for the oppressed, a lovely thought.<\/p>\n
Dear God, thank you for a lovely day today. Thank you for my family and my health and faith and the laughter we all had today. Please bless us tomorrow as we go to church. In Jesus’ name, Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ironically, the book of Judges comes across as the most lawless. In the two first chapters here the judge is the son of a prostitute. At first he is driven from his home, but eventually is called back by the elders when they are attacked by the men of Ammon. Jephthah drives the Ammonites out, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-articles"],"yoast_head":"\n