Women in the Word

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12/28/2016 12:27 pm  #21


Re: Judges

Judges 17

Scripture
17:3 And he restored the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother. And his mother said, "I dedicate the silver to the LORD from my hand for my son, to make a carved image and a metal image. Now therefore I will restore it to you."
 
Such shocking ignorance or willfulness, one. Here she says she wants to worship God by making a carved image which God expressly forbids.
 
This shows how ignorant she was of the worship of God. She was so familiar and comfortable with pagan worship, that she just naturally responded to worship God in the same way. It seemed normal and appropriate to her.
 
We can get so familiar and comfortable with this world and the compromises of this world, that things which are an abomination to God just seem normal and acceptable to us. This is especially true in movies, television and music.
 
We also see that she wanted to worship God how she wanted, not how God had commanded.
 
This is also a temptation in our day. People want to worship God according to ways that satisfy them and not necessarily in ways that is pleasing to God and they do not worship Him according to what He has commanded, but worship Him according to their sensibilities.
 
God says, if you love Me, you will keep My commands. People live in ongoing sinful lifestyles where they reject God’s standards, but claim to be Christians because they “love” God. But we cannot worship God in our own way, but in the way that He dictates. He is sovereign. He is in control. We must submit ourselves to a holy, loving, just, and all wise God.

This all goes back to verse 6, "In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." They did what was right in their own eyes instead of obeying God. And we today want to do what is right in our own eyes and not obey God's standards when they don't seem to fit our understanding or standards.

 

12/29/2016 8:37 am  #22


Re: Judges

Judges 18

Scripture
18:5 And they said to him, "Inquire of God, please, that we may know whether the journey on which we are setting out will succeed."

 
Observation
They were not trying to seek God’s will, but using Him as a crystal ball to see if what they wanted will happen. And they are seeking to speak with or hear from God through a “spiritual leader” who already had shown himself disobedient to God and unfaithful.
 
Application
Are we trying to get God on our side, or are we seeking to get on God’s side?
 
One of my favorite passages is in Joshua 5 when Joshua sees the angel and ask if he is on his side or his enemies side. The angel answers no. Now, that was not a yes or no question. Joshua was saying pick between me or someone else. The angel responds in a way that means, no, but as an agent of the Lord I come. The angel says no, I am not on either one your sides, I am on a mission from the Lord.
 
The angel was not on Joshua’s side, or the other side, he was on God’s side.
 
Scripture
18:19 And they said to him, "Keep quiet; put your hand on your mouth and come with us and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and clan in Israel?"

 
Observation
They craved something to worship so they sought out something other than the one true God. They needed security and direction of a god, but they wanted a god they controlled, not a god that controlled them.
 
Application
Our society also craves a god to trust. That is why after every crisis people suddenly get “spiritual.” But people will not serve the true God because they don’t want to relinquish control of their life. They want a god they control, created according to their opinions, desires, and sensibilities. Romans 1
 
Scripture
18:20 And the priest's heart was glad. He took the ephod and the household gods and the carved image and went along with the people.

 
Observation
He was not looking to honor and obey God, but for honor and riches for himself.
 
Application
If God puts us in a position of leadership, we must guard our hearts to be sure that we are always seeking to direct glory to God and not to elevate ourselves.

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12/29/2016 8:58 am  #23


Re: Judges

Judges 19
 
This is the kind of wickedness seen in Sodom and Gomorrah. This shows how utterly depraved thing got when people “did what was right in their own minds.” Romans 1 says this is what happens when people reject God’s rule and authority and serve themselves, they become completely depraved. This “doing what was right in their own eyes” is not leading to righteous behavior.
 
Jeremiah 17:9 says the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. This is why we must accept God’s sovereignty and not insist that everything has to make sense to us. God has already made clear what He expects of us: to do justly, love mercy and serve Him from a place of humility. (Micah 6:8) Oh, and God defines justice and mercy, not our misdirected culture or wishy washy hearts.
 
Scriptures
18:24 Behold, here are my virgin daughter and his concubine. Let me bring them out now. Violate them and do with them what seems good to you, but against this man do not do this outrageous thing."

 
Observation
The customs in that region were that a host was dishonored if he was not hospitable to his guest. This was a strong obligation on “decent” people in this society.
 
This also shows the low view of women in this society. The host had to protect his male guest, but the women were possessions to be traded and bargained with.
 
Now this is not God’s view of women. And we saw in earlier books how he gave protections to women, inheritances to women (which was unheard of in this era), leadership to women, etc.
 
What a distorted obsession with custom and societal expectations that he would do something so evil to maintain a custom.
 
Application
Do we allow ourselves to be so pressured by custom or expectations that we do things that are wrong or unpleasing to God to save face in the eyes of others or our community or family? What about letting our family obligations and expectations pressure us to do wrong or to compromise?
 
Scripture
18:29 And when he entered his house, he took a knife, and taking hold of his concubine he divided her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel.

 
There was no king or central authority, so he was doing this to call all of Israel to judgement against these people.

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12/29/2016 10:58 am  #24


Re: Judges

Judges 20
 
Scripture
20:13 Now therefore give up the men, the worthless fellows in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and purge evil from Israel." But the Benjaminites would not listen to the voice of their brothers, the people of Israel.

 
Protecting the wicked makes you just as bad. Romans 1:32 says the wrath of God is not just on those who do evil, but those that approve of it as well.
 
Scripture
20:14 Then the people of Benjamin came together out of the cities to Gibeah to go out to battle against the people of Israel.

 
They were actually going to fight against their fellow Israelites to protect their brethren from the just punishment for their evil. We can never defend evil even when it is from those close to us; we must accept just consequences.
 
Scripture
20:18 The people of Israel arose and went up to Bethel and inquired of God, "Who shall go up first for us to fight against the people of Benjamin?" And the LORD said, "Judah shall go up first."

 
Observation
They seem to be sincerely seeking God’s will here, and in verse 23 and 26, and yet, they keep getting destroyed. This is a lot of life lost: 40 thousand men who were husbands, fathers and sons. This is great anguish, suffering and sorrow, a great tragedy.
 
And yet in verse 26 they are not bitter; they still seek God and come to Him with humility by fasting.
 
Application
How do we respond? In the face of this degree of pain and suffering, when we think and tried to do what God wanted us to do, do we get angry and bitter or do we still go back to Him in humble worship?
 
Wow, that is hard. It is amazing after all the wickedness in this society, here they are holding fast to obeying and serving God even in the face of great suffering.
 
They tolerated wickedness until it was even too much for them. Then to rid their nation of this wickedness it cost 40,000 lives. There was a great cost in tolerating this apostasy for so long.
 
Sin is like that. We tolerate sin and compromise in our lives and in our hearts and eventually it becomes so perverted and so wicked that we want to kick it out of our lives, but by that time the cost is great and it has cost us greatly in our relationship with God, relationship with others, sometimes financially, physically in our health, emotionally, psychologically.
 
We think we can dabble with sin and compromise to please ourselves and that there will no real consequences. Well, it was either Chuck Swindoll or John MacArthur that I was listening to on the radio and said: sin will take you further than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay. There will be great consequences when we dabble with sin.

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