Days 58-59: Judges 2:1-11:40

I cannot believe how fast I am going through this Bible. When I started this journey,  I looked down at Genesis 1:1 with some dismay. "How am I ever going to get to Revelation 22:21?" I thought. I suppose by the grace of God and some sweet reading skills that I picked up in university, I have managed to get through the first 6.5 books of the Bible. Only 60.5 to go!

Today's reading was of the judges of Israel. I think what happened was, after Joshua died, that was the end of the generation that was in the desert. So, with him, all of the experience in the desert with the LORD was gone, and probably only kept through oral tradition. Without a proper leader in place, Israel turned to the religions of the gentile peoples. God was not happy, and sold them into slavery of these gentile people to sort of "discipline" them.

Eventually, God raises up the Judges, people to command Israel's armies and mediate Israel's civil disputes. First comes Othniel. Fun fact: I learned that the English "iel" is sort of an attempt to get at a Hebrew phrase that means "God", as in YHWH, the I Am/Will Be. Cool beans. Othniel was appointed by God to deliver Israel from the Mesopotamian king named Cushan-Rishathaim, who apparently reigned around 1200 BC. After that, they lived in peace and Othniel died.

Then they started sinning after Othniel's generation died off. So, God sent another kingdom to enslave Israel. They cried out to God, and He sent Ehud, a lefty to kill the king. So, normally a man wore a sword on his left thigh to be drawn with his right hand. In that culture, they would look only at the left thigh. Because of this, he was able to sneak his sword in and kill the fat king. Israel was free again.

Then there was Deborah. Hooray for strong, prominent women in the Bible! Deborah rose to become a judge after Israel, AGAIN, sinned against God. Long story short, she advises the military commander (Barak, but not Obama) how to defeat the other army, and says that the enemy named Sisera. She prophecies that Sisera will be killed by a woman. It turns out later in the story that Sisera comes to a poor woman's tent desperate for water. After he falls asleep, this woman, Jael, grabs a tent peg and a hammer, and drives the tent peg through his temple. I wonder what sort of witty one-liner Horatio would come up for that one.

Gideon is the next.

Then there is this weird prophecy. After Gideon's death, his son, Abimelech goes bad and kills his seventy brothers, all except one: Jotham. Jotham then prophecies.

"⁸ One day the trees went out to anoint a king for themselves. They said to the olive tree, ‘Be our king.’
 ⁹ “But the olive tree answered, ‘Should I give up my oil, by which both gods and humans are honored, to hold sway over the trees?’
 ¹⁰ “Next, the trees said to the fig tree, ‘Come and be our king.’
 ¹¹ “But the fig tree replied, ‘Should I give up my fruit, so good and sweet, to hold sway over the trees?’
 ¹² “Then the trees said to the vine, ‘Come and be our king.’
 ¹³ “But the vine answered, ‘Should I give up my wine, which cheers both gods and humans, to hold sway over the trees?’
 ¹⁴ “Finally all the trees said to the thornbush, ‘Come and be our king.’
 ¹⁵ “The thornbush said to the trees, ‘If you really want to anoint me king over you, come and take refuge in my shade; but if not, then let fire come out of the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon!’"

I'm not sure what it means, but it was definitely interesting. It was almost as if it was prophecying that the good people in Israel would not give up their professions to lead Israel. Only the thornbushes would crave that power. I do not know for sure though. Here was a promising website that might explain it, though. It turns out the olive tree represents the Holy Spirit, the fig tree represents God the Father, the vine represents Christ, but in the end the people chose the thorns which represent the sinful world, and importantly not any of the Trinity.

Lest I turn my back on Him who loved me first. Time and time again, I see in Scripture that God in His infinite love and wisdom craves righteousness for me and my household. Like a good parent, He disciplines those He loves. I will be honest, there are days when He feels more like a story in an old book than a living God, moving maker of heaven and earth, immanent in my daily life. It is times like those, like tonight for example, when I quote the father of sick child in Christ's parable to myself. "Lord, I believe. Help me in my unbelief." (Mark 9:24).

1601 pages to go!