Judges 13:1-23.  When I first read through theses verses this morning I was at a loss.  Only one thing stood out to me and I couldn’t really see how it might be important.  It is though and I’ll come back to it.  Then I read a little in a commentary, a book written to help us understand the details of the passage.  I only got a little way into the introduction for this section and the author mentioned a detail that I had missed.  What I missed was what was missing.  What?  Ask yourself, “What’s missing from this story?”  In verse one the people did evil in the sight of the God, they were sinning (missing God’s mark).  God brought in a foreign power to rule over them.  They were in the hands of the Philistines and were their servants.  The rest of todays reading then tells the story of a childless couple finding out that they will have son.  Verse 5 tells us that he will begin to save the people from the Philistines.  So what’s missing?  Think of the cycle so far in Judges.  Sin, Servitude, _________ ,Salvation, Silence.  If you can’t fill in the blank read the “Intro to Judges” or some of the past posts (Or just keep reading).

Several things have happened recently that seem to fit with how today’s reading might apply to us or at least me.  Recently I heard of a couple that has no children, it was something that they chose to do in their lives.  But now they are getting older and one of them thought, “Who’s going to take care of us when we get older?”  The next thing was a conversation yesterday with one of the young people in the church.  We spent some time together and in our conversation we talked about evangelism, talking to others about Jesus and their need for Him.  Finally last night I was watching an episode of a TV show called “Last Man Standing”.  It’s a comedy show about an outdoorsy guy (His job is managing a hunting and fishing and sporting goods chain of stores). He lives with his three daughters (maybe 13-20), wife, and preschool grandson (no son-in law).  In a previous episode the main character fixed up the daughter with the baby with a young guy from his work.  In the episode I just watched the oldest daughter wakes up fully dressed on top of the blanket and the scene pans out to reveal the guy also fully dressed and asleep next to her.  A muffled scream.  The guy wakes up.  Oops they had fallen asleep talking.  Dad’s in the hall and they boy jumps out the window (second story) and limps across the lawn.  Dad enters.  Goes to close the window and sees the boy.  Busted.  Family meeting.  Rule:  “No shenanigans in my house!”  The daughter then announces that she is moving out.  Meeting adjourned, sort of.  What happens next is the interesting part with respect to todays reading.  The mom supports the daughter.  Tells the dad it’s unreasonable to expect the daughter to “just say no”.

So what does this all have to do with Judges 13:1-23?  What was missing in the cycle above is the cry for help.  The Israelites were living under the control of the Philistines, for 40 years, and seemed OK with it.  They were not asking for a deliverer.  So what was the one thing that stood out to me in the story?  It was the announcement to Manoah’s wife about the baby.  Scholars like to compare this with other similar announcements in the Bible like Sarah (Genesis 18:9-15), Rachel (Genesis 30:1-24), Rebekah (Genesis 25:19-26), Hannah (1 Samuel 1:1-20), and Elizabeth (Luke 1).  What came to my mind in the announcement was Jesus. Of course it was different for Mary she wasn’t barren, she had never even tried, she wasn’t married yet.  But there was an angel and an announcement of pregnancy (Luke 1:26-31), and most importantly Jesus’ purpose.  Mary and Joseph were both told to name the child Jesus (Luke 1:31, Matthew 1:21)  which means “God saves”.  He was to be named that because he would save his people from their sins.  We also learn from Luke 1:32-35 that he was a holy child, would rule over the Israelites forever, and was actually God’s son.

And then there’s the Nazareth connection.  Manoah’s child was to be a “Nazirite”.  When God gave His law to Moses for the Israelites there was a section describing rules for dedicating yourself to God for a special time (Numbers 6:1-21). You would make a promise to God and dedicate yourself, you would be holy (set apart for a special purpose).  Part of the way you would show that you were serious was to not eat grapes or drink wine or grape juice, no vinegar, no raisins, nothing from a grape vine.  You also would not cut your hair.  Finally you could not touch anything dead.  At the end of the promised time you would make a special offering and go back to your normal life.  The word “Nazarite” is comes from a Hebrew word “Nezer” that means to separate.  It was also used to describe untrimmed vine and is related to a Hebrew word for crown.   So the uncut hair is seen as a crown from God during the time of the vow.

Jesus’ parents were from Nazareth, a town in northern Israel.  The town was in a smaller valley hidden from view from the surrounding countryside. In a conversation between Philip and Nathanael (John 1:45-46) Nathanael has doubts about Nazareth being the place the Messiah could come from.  Nazareth is a Greek name and we do not know what the word means or where it comes from.  Some scholars think it is linked to the Hebrew word “Nezer” and others think it is not.  Jerome, an early leader in the church (300’s AD) thought that the word Nazarene meant something like our work “hick”, a person from the country.  Often people who live away from towns are seen as crude and rough, less suited for important positions like ruling a nation. Matthew tells us that the “prophets” said that the Messiah would be a “Nazarene” but there is no specific prophecy like that in the Old Testament so we cannot cross-reference the word.  The fact that Matthew says “prophets” using a plural probably means that he was summarizing an idea from several prophecies and not quoting one specific prophet.  Isaiah tells us that the Messiah would not be “majestic” and that he would be “despised” (Isaiah 53:2-3).  That seems to fit with Jerome’s suggestion about Nazareth.  On the other hand often things that are dedicated for special use (think of the definition of holy) are kept in safe places.  Like fine china hidden away in a cupboard until Thanksgiving.  Nazareth could come from the word “nezer” and Jesus would then be holy and hidden until just the right time (an idea very common in the book of Mark).

So the Israelites weren’t calling out for a savior.  They were living as slaves and didn’t even seem to care.  They had become comfortable with the lifestyle of the Philistines in their midst.  They were not living holy dedicated lives.  They didn’t even see their need for a savior.  It’s kind of like the couple above, they didn’t see their need.  Maybe they even thought that the world was over populated and they were doing a good thing.  Or in my conversation with the young person.  We talked about getting people to see their need for a savior.  How do you tell people about Jesus when they seem happy with the way life is?  But God cared and he sent a savior anyway.  To the Israelites and now to us.  Are we too comfortable to call out to Him too.  Think of that TV show.  How sad that that mom would justify fornication.  In TV land the girl can be all happy as mom and dad watch over the kid while she goes on a date.  It’s not really clear, though, where the child is when she and mom and dad are all at work.  In TV land it works in real life our actions have hard consequences.  Disobeying God has hard consequences.  Are we ignoring God in our real world?  It will catch up with us sooner or later. We need a savior and we need to call out to Him.  God help me not get too comfortable with the world.  Let me not forget your standards.  Let me not forget how dedicated you were in serving us.  You didn’t give up grape juice and hair cuts.  You gave up Heaven.  Then you gave up your blood.  Help me see my need for ou each day.  Help me understand how to show their need to others.  Thank you for being dedicated help me be dedicated too. 

Judges 12:1-15.  Today we come to the end of  Jephthah’s story.  Yesterday we saw him lead his troops to victory over the Ammonites.  But before the battle he had made a stupid vow to God in an attempt to manipulate God.  If  God would give him the victory then he would give the first thing from his house that  came to meet him to God as a burnt offering.  Unfortunately it was his only child, a daughter.  And she had never had children.  That would be the end of his family.  His troubles were not over though.

In the story of Gideon we saw that one of the tribes, the Ephraimites, felt cheated because Gideon had not invited them to the battle from the beginning (Judges 6:34-35; 7:23-8:3).  The funny thing is that Gideon did eventually invite them when the battle got near their territory.  Gideon was able to calm their anger and went on to finish the battle with the Midianites.  Now Jephthah is being called out by Ephraim for the same thing, not inviting them to the battle.  In his case though the fight is already over.

Remember that Jephthah was a Gileadite.  He was from a part of the tribe of Manasseh. When the Israelites approached the land promised to them by God the tribes they had some battles with surrounding people (It was one of those battles that the Ammonite king talked about yesterday as he picked the fight with Jephthah).
The twelve tribes stood on the east side of the Jordan River looking to the land west of the river which God had promised them.  According to Number 32 the tribes of Gad and Reuben had a lot of livestock.  Maybe they were  in charge of the herds for the traveling Israelites.  As they all stood on the east side of the river those two tribes asked to be given the land they were standing on, the hill country on the east of the Jordan that would eventually be known as Gilead.  It was good pasture land.  At first Moses was angry that they did not want to go into the promised land and fight for it.  The same thing had happened forty years before (Numbers 13-14) and the people had been banished to the wilderness for 40 years.  The Gadites and Reubenites assured Moses that they would only leave their wives, children, and livestock on the east side of the river, they would go and fight with the rest of the Israelites as they took over the promised land.   Part of the tribe of Manasseh, the sons of Machir (Gilead’s father),  also got in on the deal.  They had fought and taken over some cities in the area.  So when Moses gave orders to give the land to Gad and Reuben he also gave orders for some of it to be given to Machir’s part of Manasseah.  The orders were given to Joshua who was the leader of Israel after Moses.  he led the people into the land, started the conquest, and divided the land among the tribes.  He also was the leader of Israel leading up to the times we are reading about in the book of Judges.  So the Gileadite’s territory was on the east side of the Jordan River.  Remember also that Jephthah was thrown out of the family by his half-brothers and went to live in the land of Tob.  The exact location of Tob is unknown but from different historical evidence we know it was also east of the Jordan River neat Succoth and Penuel (the towns that would not help Gideon).   Jephthah probably lived his whole life east of the Jordan River and that is where he fought his battle with the Ammonites.  Ephraim on the other hand was one of the tribes that lived west of the Jordan River.

The battle that Gideon fought started on the west side of the Jordan.  When he called the Ephraimites into the battle he wanted them to block the Midianites from crossing the river and escaping to the east.  They were only partially successful and Gideon eventually had to chase the Midianites east through Gilead.  But for the most part Gidoen’s fight was on the west side of the Jordan.  So it makes sense that the Ephraimites wanted a part of that fight.  Now though, they are all over Jephthah for not inviting them to a battle that stayed totally on the east side of the river.  Gideon was able to calm the Ephraimites down by bragging about what a great job they had done in capturing two of the invading kings.  He compared himself to left over grapes in the field and them to the best wine.  Jephthah is a different story though.  The Ephraimite actually cross over the river and get all over Jephthah.  His response is that he called them and they didn’t come so it’s their fault that they weren’t part of the fight.  No where in the story do we see Jephthah calling the Eprriamites to help and it is not very likely that he did.  He is probably lying and trying to manipulate the situation, like he did when he promised a burnt offering to God if God would give him the victory.  The outcome with the Ephraimites is as much a disaster at the one with his daughter.  Jephthah has to future family  he not about to lose his reputation as well, he’s a valiant warrior.  So he goes to battle against the Ephraimites and statrs to win.  Jephthah has his troops block the river crossings so Ephraim is trapped as they try to retreat and he kills 42,000 Ephraimites.  The last verses of Jephthah’s story tell us that he judged Israel for six years.  The man from Gilead then dies and is burried in Gilead.  Once again the cycle is changed, no mention of peace, of the land being undisturbed.  The last mention of that is with Gideon.

Todays reading ends with the mention of three more minor judges (kind of like the mention of two between Gideon’s son and Jehpthah).  The first one is Ibzan of Bethlehem (a town near Jerusalem on the west of the Jordan River in the territory of Judah).  All we know about Ibzan is that he has his children marry with non Israelites, the law of Moses forbid such marriages, and that he ruled for 7 years.  Then Ibzan dies and is burried in Bethlehem.  The second minor judge is Elon from Zebulun.  He ruled for 10 years then dies and is burried in his home territory.  The third minor judge is Abdon.  He is listed according to his home town, Pirathon.  His father’s name is added but not his tribe. We are told that Pirathon is in Ephraim but it looks like Ephraim is being used as a name for more than just tribal land, like Gilead east of the Jordan River which overlapped Gad’s territory.  We are never told Abdon is an Ephraimite. We are also told that Abdon had seventy descendants who rode on donkeys.  Like Judges 5:10 and Judges 10:4 this is probably a reference to richness and royalty.

The story of Judges has moved from a united nation to one of petty rivalries.  From the twelve tribe fighting together against foreign invaders to the twelve tribe fighting against themselves. It has even come to the point where the leader are identified by their cities rather than their tribes.  One time Jesus caused a powerful demon to leave a person.  The religious leaders were scared, this was a threat to their personal power so they accused him of using power from Satan.  Jesus told them that a kingdom divided against itself cannot last for very long (Luke 11:14-17).  Israel was quickly becoming a kingdom divided against it’s self.  We see though God in the background.  Even when the different tribal or city leaders were ruling the author of Judges talks about them “judging Israel”.  Abimelech wanted to be ruler over Shechem.  Jephthah wanted to be ruler over Gilead.  But they all “judged Israel”.  I think our history is like that too.  We plan our way but God is in the backgorund moving history forward according to his plan.  We plan and move but he gets what he wants done done (See Proverbs 16:9).  Romans 8:28 says that God causes all things to work together for good in the lives of those who love Him and are trying to follow his plan.  Notice that it does not say all things are good, God uses them though to get His plan done.  Notice, too, that it’s not good for everyone.  It all only winds up being good for those who who love Him and are living for Him.  Again this doesn’t mean no trouble in your life if you love God.  In fact the Bible is very clear that if you love God you will have more trouble in your life.  The journey will be tough but the destination will be very good.  Yes God is working in history.  But there are consequences if you are not on God’s side.  There were consequences in the lives of the Israelites.  Jephthah’s name was lost, his family line was ended.  His daughter paid the ultimate price because her father was proud and self willed.  The Ephraimites lost too, 42,000, because they were mad about not being invited to the party.  God is in contrly and His plan will be done.  Are you on His team?  Is it God’s way or your way that matters?  Ar youmore worried about what people think of you or what God thinks of you?  Is it about you, your family, your town, your country or about God?  Lord help my life be first and only about you.  All the parts of my life are part you have put in place, they are from you so they can be about you too.  Help me keep my life that way, about you.  Be honored in my life.