Judges_Chapter_21__John_Karmelich
1.
Congratulations, we've made it to the final
chapter of Judges. We're going to finish
a tragic story that began two chapters ago about a man trained to be a priest
but left that calling. His
"girl" got killed by a homosexual gang, and
a civil war that erupted essentially due to her death. I'll admit, this reads like a soap opera, but
the sad part is it's actual history. The big question is why should we care about
this? It's because the whole book of
Judges including this final story reminds us of what'll happen if we turn from
God's will. The reason He made us in the first place was to glorify Him with
our lives. God gave us the freedom to
live however we want. What He desires is
that we give our freedom "back to Him" as to use our lives as living
witness for Him. It doesn't mean we must
be perfect. It does mean that He desires
we let Him guide our lives and use our lives as a witness for Him.
a)
Believe it or not, that leads perfectly to this
chapter. Here, the Israelites feel
guilty about a war they caused and the results of that war. In this chapter, the Israelites commit to a
pair of foolish vows as if to say, "Things are really messed up around
here. Here's what we got to do in order to deal with the mess up!" Unfortunately, those vows make life worse
than it already was. It's God's way of
saying, "My rules are all you need to live as I desire. It is a reminder than when we do over and
above it, usually leads to disaster".
When we make such vows, God expects us to honor them. That's because keeping our word means we're
keeping our reputation of doing what we say we're going to do. Bottom line, this chapter is one big mess up
after the other. It involves more mass
killing, kidnapping, and giving of the daughters of Israelites to other
Israelites against their will. In short,
it's the ending chapter of a three chapter soap opera and it ends as strangely
as this story began.
2.
Let me ask a related question: This is the final chapter of Judges. Why end it this way? The book stopped dealing with judges (people
appointed by God to lead) chapters ago. The last part of this book tells a
couple of "soap opera" stories (to use my favorite term describing
this story) that is all about horrid deeds that occur in Israel during the era
of these judges. It's as if the author wants us to know, the Israelite problems
weren't all because of external threats.
They also had problems as they were willing to turn from the way God
wanted them to live , to live however they want. In fact, the final verse in Judges makes that
point: Everyone did, "Whatever they
wanted". That is my paraphrase of
the last verse. The key point of this three chapter story and of the whole book
for that matter is here's what happens to a person or a group that turns from
God and starts to live however they'd like to live and do whatever they feel
like doing.
a)
OK John, you're preaching to the choir
again. Cut that out! If we're reading a bible study figure that
we're trying our best to live, as God desires. Why should we study this chapter
if it's so horrid? In other words,
"This isn't me, so why should I care?" As I've been saying all through my study of
this book, the great danger to any believer is turn from God as it's easy to
do. Let's be honest temptation, for a
lack of a better term is tempting. A
desire for us to live however we want is always there! It doesn't go away with time or prayer. It is a reminder to even the most devout
believer that living however we want to live (that is, for us to ignore how God
wants us to live) is always a temptation away!
b)
Let me use a biblical example to show how easy it
is. If you told Solomon right after he'd
finish building the temple and gave a magnificent prayer to dedicate that
temple to God, I would bet he'd say, "Turn from God, what are you
nuts?" God gave Solomon the spiritual gift of great wisdom. In spite of it, he married hundreds of
wives. The wives turned him from
God. My point is a desire to do
something that wasn't God's will is a starting point from turning from
Him. The Israelites who lived at that
time wanted to live however they wanted to live. That's the great danger all of us face if we
start compromising with how it is God wants us to live. A key point of the book of Judges is the
danger of compromising with God's desire for our lives!
c)
So John are you saying I
can't do whatever I want? Being a
Christian means we're free to live however we want. That's not the issue. The issue is "what do we
want?" If all we do care about is
enriching our own lives then we've wasted the greatest gift we got, the time
God's given us to live on this earth.
Please understand that I'm not against downtime or a hobby we may enjoy. I'm saying that if we never use our lives to
make a difference for the kingdom of God is in effect a waste of a life. That's the underlying message of Judges.
3.
Nice speech.
What does any of that have to do with this final chapter? Everything as this book is going to end with
a bunch of Israelites making a bunch of commitments that God never desired a
believer to make. It ends with killing
of innocent Israelites by other Israelites.
It ends with a final scene of Israelites kidnapping innocent Israelite
women in order to have wives for themselves. It is one big example of "doing whatever
one feels like doing" and living with the consequences of a lifestyle they
choose to live thinking they're pleasing to God with a horrid lifestyle. Let me give a few details of this final chapter
here:
a)
The story opens after the end of a civil
war. I need to begin by summarizing the
last two chapters in a few sentences, as it's all part
of the same story: The last two chapters told the story of a man who had a
concubine. That term refers to a
"wife" with less rights. As they were traveling home to their hometown
they spent the night with a stranger.
Then a gang of thugs wanted to rape him. He offered his concubine to
save his own life. She got raped and
abused and left her for dead. In
response, he cut her up in pieces and sent her pieces all over Israel. It set up a civil war between the Israelites
living near the "street gang" and the rest of the Israelites. Those Israelites greatly outnumbered those
defending the actions of that gang and after a series of deadly battles with
the casualty counts given, the war is now over.
Chapter 21 in effect deals with the "clean up" issues of that
war.
b)
The first thing we learn in Chapter 21 is after
the war, the Israelites made a vow that they would not give any of their women
as wives to the tribe that was almost wiped out. Know that in the course of
that war, the Israelites wiped out all the women and children as well as most
of the men of the one tribe of Israelites that defended the homosexual rape
gang!
i)
The rest of the Israelites felt guilty that one
of the 12 tribes was almost wiped out but not guilty enough that they were
willing to let any of their daughters marry the 600 survivors of that tribe.
c)
Then of all things the Israelites took a
headcount to see if anyone didn't come join the war. The purpose of that survey was because they
figured if anyone failed to join them, in their mind that meant they didn't
care about correcting the wrong or sided with the opposition. Nobody from one town came. A vow was made to kill everyone from that one
town and only spare young virgins to give them as wives to the survivors to the
tribe that lost the war. Yes this is
horrid and not exactly something God endorsed!
d)
Just when you think this soap opera can't get any
weirder, it does. The Israelites still need
more women for the one tribe that lost all their women. Because they made a vow to not give any of
their women to men of this tribe they had to get creative! They recalled that a big dance event occurred
once a year in Israel. They let the men
of that almost dead tribe to kidnap girls as they danced. That way they weren't giving away their
girls, just letting the kidnapping occur.
In effect that's the end of the story and the end of the book. There are so many things wrong about this story, it's hard to know where to begin!
4.
If you haven't figured it out by now, my lesson
title is "A soap opera". Better yet, "What does God want us to
learn from this soap opera?" The
answer has to do with understanding what happens when we think "we can get
away with a little sin" as after all, we're free to do whatever we want to
do as believers. What we easily forget
is sin not only has consequences for our lives, but also it has consequences to
others around us. That's what this
"soap opera" teaches. The
Israelites make a bunch of mistakes where they think they can correct wrongs
with more wrongs. What we need to learn
from this lesson isn't so much the specifics of the mistakes but the attitude
of the danger of not living as God desires.
With that said, let's begin on the details:
5.
Chapter 21, Verse 1: The men of Israel had taken an oath at Mizpah: "Not one of us will give his daughter in
marriage to a Benjamite."
a)
Keep in mind we're in the middle of a story. Also remember that the chapter breaks were
not added until millenniums after this story was written. For all intents and purposes all of the
Israelites were gathered in one place as they had just finished fighting a
civil war.
b)
Now that the civil war was over, one of the results was that one of the
12 tribes of Israel is for all intents and purposes wiped out. The war lead to the death of all the woman as well as the
children of one of those 12 tribes.
c)
The winning side (the other 11 tribes) had so much anger at the losing
group they made a vow that nobody from the other 11 tribes would give any of
their daughters in marriage to the Benjamites, the losing tribe. We learned
from the last chapter that a total of only 600 men remained of about 25,000 men
who were part of that tribe before the war in Israel occurred.
d)
As a matter of record, this story did not necessary occur at the
"end" of the Judges era. It
had to be at some time when no external enemy was threatened them. It's a case where they didn't have to worry
about external threats, so therefore they were busy "infighting" as
they had no reason to unite against external threats.
i)
It's God's way of showing that Israel at that time weren't perfect
people when they were not facing external threats. They also turned from God
and messed up as the nation was also busy doing "whatever they felt
like" even without external threats!
e)
Anyway, the rest of the Israelites now had a dilemma. They didn't want one to see an end to one of
the 12 tribes of Israel, as they knew God's intent to divide the land into area
to be used by each of those tribes.
However the other 11 Israel tribes just fought a war with the 12th, over
whether Israel should tolerate what was done by a homosexual gang there. Now that the war is over, the Israelites were
busy thinking, we can't give our girls to them as
wives as we're too angry at them because we lost lots of our men in our war
with them. Therefore this "bad
vow" was made.
6.
Verse 2: The people went to Bethel, where they sat before God
until evening, raising their voices and weeping bitterly. 3 "O LORD,
the God of Israel," they cried, "why has this happened to Israel? Why
should one tribe be missing from Israel today?"
a)
One has to see the irony here.
The Israelites made a vow to not give their wives to anyone of the tribe
of Benjamin. Then they cry out to God,
"Why should a tribe be missing?" I got to admit if I was God, I'd be screaming
at them, "Why are all of you crying out to Me, you are the one's who made
this mess with the war and wiping out the men, women and their children and then
you all come to Me and say "Now What""?
b)
That leads to the natural question, what should we do when we mess
up? Should we seek God? Of course!
Does this mean He approves of what the Israelites are about to do in the
rest of the chapter? Of course not. The short version of what is coming up is the
Israelites are about to murder more of their own! Obviously it's not God's will! What we have here is a classic case of
"Two wrongs never make one right" or more for that matter! What is to be learned here is that when we
mess up, yes we should seek Him, but it also means we're to seek His Word as a
guide on how He wants us to live, even as we're messing up badly!
c)
With the correct solution understand, let's look at the wrong solution:
7.
Verse 4: Early the next day the people built an altar and
presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. 5 Then the
Israelites asked, "Who from all the tribes of Israel has failed to
assemble before the LORD?" For they had taken a solemn oath that anyone
who failed to assemble before the LORD at Mizpah
should certainly be put to death.
a)
Anyway, the
Israelites as a whole were still gathered together as a nation. They did some offerings to God showing how
serious they were. Then with "mob
mentality" they asked if anyone was missing. Whoever was missing should be killed. The vowed that anyone who didn't show up for
the war that just ended should be killed.
Let me explain further:
b)
The thinking was
"All us Israelites risked our lives in this war with the Benjamintes. All of us lost people we loved. However, if anyone failed to join us, they
should suffer because they failed to suffer in our cause! They're not "real Israelites"
because they failed to show up today. We
need to punish all of them for this! I'm
sure the Israelites were scared that if they didn't attack anyone who didn't
show up, God will punish them all the more! With that said, let's move on.
8.
Verse 6: Now the Israelites grieved for their brothers, the
Benjamites. "Today one tribe is cut off from Israel," they said. 7 "How can
we provide wives for those who are left, since we have taken an oath by the
LORD not to give them any of our daughters in marriage?" 8 Then they
asked, "Which one of the tribes of Israel failed to assemble before the
LORD at Mizpah?" They discovered that no one
from Jabesh Gilead had come to the camp for the
assembly. 9 For when they counted the people, they found
that none of the people of Jabesh Gilead were there.
a)
The short version
is the Israelites "felt bad" that one of the Israel tribes is
essentially not a tribe as they're down to 600 men with no women or
children. They were thinking how is it
we can remedy the situation? Then the
Israelites discovered no one from a town called Jabesh Gilead didn't send anyone to the battle. Therefore the Israelites were thinking, we
need to wipe out the men and married women in that town/city and at the same
time we can take their young girls to be wives for the surviving Benjamintes.
b)
To state the
obvious, this is a horrid idea. To kill
everyone in that town for failing to help out in a war is overkill (pardon the
pun)! Keeping their virgin daughters
alive to provide wives for the Benjamites is another bad idea. To repeat what I
stated earlier, "Two wrongs do not make a right". Let alone killing every last married man,
woman, male child as well as the babies in order to provide wives for the 600
remaining Benjamintes. There's nothing good to say
about this plan, but that's what the Israelites came up with.
c)
OK John, hit us
with the "why should we care" lecture as we know you're dying to do
so, at this point. To state the obvious,
wiping out an entire city for failing to help in a war, is just the
beginning. The underlying lesson of the
whole story is about group failure to do what God desired the Israelites to do,
which is to live as they desire.
i)
Let me back up to
the last chapter and think how this whole situation should have been handled.
First, it was wrong of the Levite to offer his concubine to this group. Second if anyone's to be punished it was just
the rape gang! If the Benjaminites do refuse to let the Israelites attack the
guilty group, then they could say to Benjamin, "you'll
be guilty as well". Isn't that what
happened? We don't know. The truth if the Levite would have acted properly
and not offered up his girl, who knows what would have happened? Even if the Benjamintes
agreed to the war to protect those gang members, I'd say that still doesn't
justify wiping out about everyone in a city who refused to be a part of that
battle!
ii)
Thanks for
stating the obvious. Odds are pretty
good we'll never have to face any situation like this. Agreed.
However, any of us can start "sinning a little" and then look
for ways to cover it up or figure that "two wrongs might make a
right". I think of King David arranging for the death of a man because he
was having an affair with his wife. It's
another bible example of trying to cover our sins with more sins.
iii)
The reason we get
stories like this is to show how it's human nature to try to cover sins with
more sins, and make things worse. That's
the lesson to learn here.
d)
Realize the
Israelites were thinking about "killing two birds with one stone
here". I'd say it was a single decision to wipe out a whole town just to
find wives for the survivors of that tribe.
It doesn't justify the murder of all the other people. But like King David, they want to add
"sin to sin" to try to make things right! So here's a question: Why don't we read of God punishing the
Israelites for this sin? The answer is He may have and it's not told how He
punished them. As all Christians know,
we believe in a just God who judges fairly for how we live our lives, so yes, I
do believe the Israelites did suffer for this action!
9.
Verse 10: So the assembly sent twelve thousand fighting
men with instructions to go to Jabesh Gilead and put
to the sword those living there, including the women and children. 11 "This is
what you are to do," they said. "Kill every male and every woman who
is not a virgin." 12 They found among the people living in Jabesh Gilead four hundred young women who had never slept
with a man, and they took them to the camp at Shiloh in Canaan.
a)
In these verses,
the Israelites put their bad plan into action.
They send 12,000 solders with orders to kill everybody in that town
except those who are obviously virgins.
I am willing to bet all the women were yelling out at that point,
"I'm a virgin too"! However
the killing spree occurred, the point is only 400 young women were spared.
b)
So was it fair to
kill all the innocent women and children here?
Why don't we read of God punishing these men for murder? Why don't we read of any consequences of this
story? I would start by saying because I
believe there is a God and there is a judgment day, all the men were judged as well
as the Israelites who ordered this killing.
The most stated line in the whole book is in effect, "Everyone did
whatever they wanted to do". That's an insult as far as God was concerned
because these Israelites were supposed to be His witnesses to a "lost and
dying world" of how God wants us to live out our lives!
i)
That leads to the
question of how we're people judged before Jesus? In the effect it is the same way we're judged
today: What do you know about God (or could have known) and what did we do with
that information? A baby who was killed
in this war is obviously not judged the same way as those who committed murder
either before the war, during it or after.
God judges all people fairly.
Just because these men were Israelites does not mean they were
automatically saved. Just because we say we are Christians doesn't mean we're
saved either! The proof of our salvation
is based on what we did with that information!
c)
Getting back to
the story, what should have been done?
First the Israelites shouldn't have vowed to not give their daughters to
the Benjamites. Once they were stuck
with that vow, I would say the next logical step was to either get
"foreign brides" or ask the leaders of the city that didn't show up
(and make the vow) to give their wives to the Benjamites. All I'm saying is there were better solutions
than killing everyone in town!
i)
We can speculate
all day about what could have happened.
The truth is, what did occur, occurred, and now everybody has to live
with the results. Our lives can be like
that as well. We can say, "Yes, we
messed up. Yes we should have done this
or that. However the damage is done. So what do we do now?" What we should always do when we sin, confess
it to God as sin and then start to live our lives as a witness for Him. God doesn't expect perfection. What He does expect is when we mess up, we
acknowledge His way was right and ours was wrong and get on with our lives. Obviously a lot of decisions we make aren't
based on biblical principals. In such cases, I believe we're free to do
whatever we want to do as long as we're a witness for Him with our lives.
ii)
Meanwhile, we
left the Israelites sparing young virgins to be wives for the people they just
had a war with!
10.
Verse 13: Then the whole assembly sent an offer of
peace to the Benjamites at the rock of Rimmon. 14 So the
Benjamites returned at that time and were given the women of Jabesh Gilead who had been spared. But there were not
enough for all of them.
a)
I was thinking
about this scene from the view of the surviving Benjamites. They probably all lost most of their families
and friends in this war. The enemy gives
them a consolation prize of new brides that were not part of their tribe! My guess is neither the men nor the women
were in the best mood after all that happened.
After all the young girls lost all of their families as well. I'm sure it took a long time for everyone to
be happy and accept the situation. I'm
sure there was a lot of anger in this situation. That leads to the topic of how do we handle anger.
Let me explain:
i)
Jesus said,
"But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you
that you may be children of your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:44-45a, NIV). All I am
saying is when we're angry about a situation, the best thing to do is to give
that situation to God and ask for His strength and help us deal with what we
must deal with. It takes time, and I've
had people hurt me and I've had to pray for them for a long time in order to let
that pain go. When we refuse to forgive
them we're only hurting ourselves. Often
we hang onto the pain as that's all we got left of a broken relationship!
a)
Let me also
separate justice from forgiveness. A person may still deserve to go to prison
for something they did. Forgiving is not
about letting people get away with things.
It's not letting them continue to hurt us for whatever they did do. That's my point here.
ii)
That leads back
to the Benjamites and the virgins. I'm
sure all of them had a lot of anger issues about the situation. I'm sure it took time for them to accept
this. The point is we can't change the
past, but if we're willing to forgive for how people did hurt us, we can get on
with our lives and still be of use to God as we are!
iii)
Realize from
these six hundred marriages not only came King Saul
(the first Israel king) but also the apostle Paul was a descendant of
them. My point is good things can always
come out of the most horrid of situations.
iv)
With that said,
let's hold the happiness for a moment.
There is more to this "soap opera" and that's coming up in the
next set of verses.
11.
Verse 15: The
people grieved for Benjamin, because the LORD had made a gap in the tribes of
Israel. 16 And the elders of the assembly said,
"With the women of Benjamin destroyed, how shall we
provide wives for the men who are left? 17 The Benjamite survivors must have heirs," they said,
"so that a tribe of Israel will not be wiped out. 18 We can't give
them our daughters as wives, since we Israelites have taken this oath: `Cursed
be anyone who gives a wife to a Benjamite.' 19 But look, there
is the annual festival of the LORD in Shiloh, to the north of Bethel, and east
of the road that goes from Bethel to Shechem, and to
the south of Lebonah."
a)
For those who
don't know, I read and listen to a lot of commentaries in preparation of my
studies. My favorite on these verses was
Chuck Missler.
He joked, "The Israelites hired a bunch of good attorneys who found
a loophole in their pledge to not give their daughters to the
Benjamites". It described these verses
well. Instead of letting their daughters
to the remaining 200 Benjamites, the plan was to let these men kidnap girls
while they danced at annual festival to God.
b)
Like I keep
saying, whenever you think this soap opera can't get
any stranger it does. The Israelites are
going to go along with this plan. For those of us who have daughters, how is it
you'd feel about letting someone kidnap your daughter and take them to marriage
as to get around a bad vow that you've made?
Personally I'm not crazy about the idea to put it mildly. Remember that we're reading of a bunch of
people who are "doing whatever it is they feel like doing" which
means ignoring living as God wants them to live! It means the people are going along with this
plan. It makes me wonder if they've told
their daughters or just let it happen? Either way, it's a horrid story and once
again, it is going to require a lot of forgiving in order for there to be
positive marriages even after a horrid war.
c)
Notice the
Israelites thought they were pleasing God by doing this. It was done at a party to honor God. The
parents let their daughters do this knowing that instead of having a big
wedding party to give away their daughters, they are letting them be kidnapped
by those they were just at war with.
The Israelites also thought they're pleasing God by not going back on
their vow. As I said in the beginning, the reason we're not to go back on our
word even if we make a bad vow, is our "word is our bond" and can we
be trusted otherwise. It is a case of
God expecting us to keep our word, even in very bad situations! Obviously it's not to count if say, we make a
vow to murder someone or something similar!
12.
Verse 20: So they instructed the
Benjamites, saying, "Go and hide in the vineyards 21 and watch. When
the girls of Shiloh come out to join in the dancing, then rush from the
vineyards and each of you seize a wife from the girls of Shiloh and go to the
land of Benjamin. 22 When their fathers or brothers complain to us,
we will say to them, `Do us a kindness by helping them, because we did not get
wives for them during the war, and you are innocent, since you did not give
your daughters to them.' "
a)
Here is where the "justify our sins" section comes in. When the families complain about their
daughters being kidnapped for marriage, we'll say, "it
was all our faults because we didn't provide wives for them due to our
vows!" These verses also tell us
that the families of the girls were not in on the kidnapping plan until after
it occurred!
b)
We also get the details on how this occurred. The Benjamites who didn't have wives were
told to hide in the vineyards. When the
girls danced, they were to jump out in to get a girl for themselves! Now there's a way to pick out a bride! Can't
you just see the couple fights that occurred many years later? "Hey I picked you out and I can throw
you away". Or if the wife said,
"We wouldn't be in this mess if you hadn't fought against al the
Israelites to begin with and have to result to kidnapping in order to get a
wife!" I'm guessing that not a lot
of these marriages had a "happily every after" lifestyle. In short it's another example of a failure to
live as God desires we live and watching the consequences play out. If we get anything out of this lesson it's
the idea that there are long term consequences to failing to live as God
desires.
c)
You know the old
expression, "Truth is stranger than fiction"? It's certainly true here!
d)
Anyway, we're a few verses away from wrapping up this lesson, which to
the cheers of all my readers will be shorter than most of my lessons! Let's continue:
13.
Verse 23: So that is what the Benjamites did. While the girls
were dancing, each man caught one and carried her off to be his wife. Then they
returned to their inheritance and rebuilt the towns and settled in them. 24 At that time
the Israelites left that place and went home to their tribes and clans, each to
his own inheritance.
a)
Here is the
actual kidnapping and the epilogue of the story in two verses. The Benjamites went back to the territory
where they lived. Remember that most of their towns got wiped out by the
war. Therefore, they had to rebuild
where the towns where they lived with the wives that were given to them or
captured by a kidnapping.
b)
Here's the
strange part. This is not only how the
story ends, it's also how the book ends. It sort of leaves us hanging asking,
"Why didn't God step in? or why did He allow all
of this horrid stuff to occur? Why end
the book like this? In effect, the answer is in the final verse of the book of
Judges:
14.
Verse 25: In those days Israel had no king; everyone
did as he saw fit.
a)
There's the book
of Judges in one line! As I've stated many times in these studies of Judges
this line is meant as an insult. When it
says "no king", don't think of David or even Saul, it is a reference
to not letting God be the king over our lives.
God separated the Israelites so that they'd be a witness for Him. The same way God separates Christians today
to be His witnesses to nonbelivers! So how do you know if God has separated
you? Easy, if you've dedicated your life
to be used to make a difference for Jesus, you have been separated. It must be accepted. If you haven't what are you waiting for? Not only is it the path to live forever, it's
also the best way to live out one's life here and now.
b)
What about how
much we've messed up? Welcome to the
club. All we can do is own up to our
mistakes, tell God how we desire to live as He wants us based on His Word and
we make the best decisions we can under those guidelines. That's what living the Christian life is all
about.
c)
OK, I admit, I'm
preaching to the choir again. Let me
wrap it up by reminding ourselves of the reason why this "soap opera"
is in the bible in the first place! To remind us believers of the danger of
turning from God and taking matters in our own hands!
i)
It's the danger
of thinking, I want to be pleasing to God and I'll go over and above how the
bible expects me to live. I'll be a
"supersaint". Remember that salvation is only based on our
trust that Jesus is God, died for our sins and is Lord (yes, it's the tough
one) over our lives. It's when we (all
of us) fail at any moment to let Him be that Lord is when we really start to
mess up. That includes trying to go over
and above what the bible expects of us. That's my
message for this week in a nutshell!
15.
OK, I promised to lighten up for this last lesson and I mean it. For the sake of my newer readers, I always
include a bibliography after the last lesson of all my studies and one appears
on the next page if interested. Thanks
as always for reading. If you like what
you've read, besides sending a thank you note to me, the best thing you can do
is pass it forward. I'm referring to
using your life to make a difference for Jesus.
Pray about how you can be used of God.
Tell Him, you dedicated your life to serving Him. Your life is His business. Ask Him how and
when He wants to use your life for His glory. Take the time to work with other
believers to find a way of doing what you like to do in order to make a
difference for Him. That's the best way
I can pray for everyone here and that is my closing prayer. I ask this in Jesus name, Amen.
Supplement: Bibliography
"If I have seen further, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants." (Isaac Newton)
Without
prayer and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, all these commentaries are
useless. My prayer as I prepare these
lessons was for God to show me the things He wanted me to learn, and second,
the lessons He wanted me to pass on in my writings. I have quoted many sources throughout these
lessons. If any of these writers appeal
to you, I invite you to read or listen to them further via the places listed
below. I have also quoted other sources
not listed, and those names are usually listed in the lessons. These other authors were usually quoted from
the materials listed below and taken from those sources.
First
and foremost, the greatest commentary on the bible is the bible itself. Here are the bible versions I use in
preparation of my lessons. I mostly
quote The New International Version (NIV), Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by
International Bible Society; The New King James Version (NKJV), Copyright ©
1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.; The King James Version (KJV) (no
copyright on that version); the English Standard Version. (ESV). The copyright information for the ESV is in
point #7 below. The Living Bible (TLB)
Copyright © 1971, 1986 by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.,
Wheaton, IL 60189;
"The Message" copyright © 1993 by Eugene H. Peterson.
All rights reserved. All the bible text
used in these lessons (except the ESV) is taken from Parsons Software:
Electronic Edition STEP Files Copyright © 1999, Parsons Technology, Inc., all
rights reserved and from Zondervan Reference Software (32-bit edition) Version
2.6, Copyright © 1989-1998 The Zondervan Corporation.
Here are the commentaries I have referenced over these
lessons. The specific commentaries on
Judges are listed first, and then bible-wide commentaries. They're listed in
alphabetical order by author. References
to audio commentary means the information was gathered via the Internet in MP3®
Format, unless otherwise stated:
1.
Commentary on Judges by Jon Courson. It is in book
form from Harvest House Publishing. It
is also available in MP3® and MP4® (video) format at http://www.joncourson.com/.
2.
Commentary on Judges by Bob Davis. They are available for free in MP3®
format at http://northcountrychapel.com/studies/.
3.
Commentary on Judges by David Guzik. It is available for free in audio and text format.
The web address is http://www.enduringword.com/library_commentaries.htm Mr. Davis quotes a
lot of famous authors from the 19th and 20th Century on these books and I've
used some of those quotes.
4.
Commentary on Judges by Chuck Missler, available at
K-House Ministries 1-800-KHOUSE1. The
web address is http://www.khouse.org.
His studies on Judges are also on Youtube.
5.
The English Standard Version Study Bible; Copyright
(2005-2009) The Standard Bible Society. The version itself is copyrighted 2008 by
Crossway Bibles, a publication of "Good News Publishers". I go through the notes of this study bible in
the preparation for each lesson.
6.
The Expositor's Bible Encyclopedia, Zondervan
Publications, (via CD-ROM 1998 release). This is a multi-volume encyclopedia
with notes on every bible verse. It is
available through Zondervan. Paperback
books are published on individual Bible books from this same source.
7.
The Life Application Bible, Zondervan
Publishing: www.zondervanbibles.com/0310919770.htm.
8.
The MacArthur Study Bible with commentary by John
MacArthur Nelson Bibles (1997) ISBN: 0849912229.
9.
I also refer sometimes to J.P. Moreland apologetic ministry
which is at www.jpmoreland.com
and Greg Koukl's apologetic ministry, which is Stand
to Reason at www.str.org I
also quote from Dennis Prager on many Jewish issues.
He is a nationally syndicated radio broadcaster. See dennisprager.com.
10. Also quotes a lot by Dennis Prager, a devout Jewish (non-Christian) man who has a
syndicated radio show around the United States.
11. My apology if I have quoted
someone else and I have forgotten to include them in this list.