DV2

Judges 6:12 when the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior. 6:15 “But Lord, Gideon, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.

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The right self-evaluation of God’s servants

The Lord never tells lies, also His angels. So the words the angel of the Lord said to Gideon is true, Gideon was a mighty warrior. But before God, Gideon thought His clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and he was the least in his family. Just like in 1 Corinthians 1:27 is written that but God chose the foolish things of he world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. Apostle Paul described himself as foolish and weak, but we know, Paul was well educated; he was the most knowledgeable apostle, all kinds of people, even philosophers he can debate with them and defeat them with the truth of God. Just like 2 Corinthians 10: 4-6 the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world, on the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete. So it’s similar that Gideon and Paul looked themselves much lower than God’s commentary on them. I think it’s a principle that someone who wants to be used by God should like Gideon, Paul. The Lord may say to you, you are mighty, strong, knowledgeable, wise, but yourselves should not think so, you should think you don’t deserve God’s grace, because we were taken from dust (Genesis 3:19). What a great grace that we, creation from dust, be chose by God to take part in His eternal plan, and be given the eternal life. If all the servants of God can think themselves just like Gideon, our church is hopeful, but the fact is that in some churches, the leaders think they are something. Just like if they do not serve God, who can God use? They may say: “I am so good, so wise, so knowledgeable, and so strong, God has to use me. If not, God’s plan cannot be carried out.” It’s wrong, no one can change God’s plan. If we don’t serve God, it’s not God’s loss, but our own loss. So God cannot use them to do great things, because God stops proud persons.

DT 2

2. Why is the word “judge” an inaccurate label for the leaders of pre-monarchial Israel?

 

The related information in Kaiser’s A History of Israel: The Hebrew root of spt had a much wider meaning that the idea of simply “administering justice to,” or “to pass sentence”, “settle a case,” “do justice,” and “mete our justice.” Based on the usages of this same root in Ugaritic, Phoenician, and texts at Mari, the basic meaning could now successfully be established as meaning “to rule,” The Ugaritic participle-noun had the meaning of “leader” or “ruler.” But the Phoenician and Punic texts were no less significant. At Carthage, for example, the “suffetes,” sptm, were known as those who ruled. The word spt occurs outside the Book of Judges in the Bible with the meaning of “to rule,” particularly in the Psalm 148:11 the same designation appears alongside the king and the prince. In the kingship psalms of Psalm 96:13 and 98:9, the verb spt clearly means to rule other than to judge. Another example from the period of the judges is to be found in the description of the institution of the monarchy. There, in 1 Samuel 8:5, the people demand: “Appoint a king to lead [better: ‘to rule over;’ Hebrew spt us, such as all the other nations have.” The same concept is found in verse 6 and 20. In fact, the difference between a judge and a king can be seen in the story of Gideon, who was invited to be the “master” (Hebrew: masal) over the “men of Israel,” but he refused, and his son Abimelech took up the right of kingship over the citizens of Shechem (Judg. 8:7, 22-23; 9:2).

In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit. (Judges 21:25) So the pre-monarchial Israel had no true leaders, the word ‘judges’ probably refer to the nations heroes who only lead the Israelites to resist the aggression of the enemies. Some of the Judges fought back the invaders only by themselves, such as Shamgar, Samson.

And Samuel is a Judge, but also a prophet, a priest. And the “judge” means some persons are tried to get the justice. And most of the judges didn’t judge the people, So it’s an inaccurate label for the leaders of pre-monarchial Israel.

 

References:

A History of Israel by Walter C. Kaiser

The Bible

 

DV1

Joshua 13:1-2 When Joshua was old and well advanced in years, the Lord said to him, “You are very old, and there are still very large areas of land to be taken over, This is the land that remains: all the regions of the Philistines and Geshurites.”

God’s idea is different

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God’s words are always different with human’s Joshua was the military leader of the Israelites to conquer the Promised Land; he defeated a lot of kings during his conquest. Absolutely Joshua was a great leader; he must live a hard life. To our opinion, if a leader has suffered a lot of difficulties for many years, and he has had many achievements now, and also he is very old and well advanced in years. Mostly we should speak to Him: Thank you very much for your efforts during these many years, you have done some many great works, you are so tired, it’s suitable for you to retire and enjoy a relaxed life. Thanks God, we are stupid before Him, He is not like us. We always looked at what we have done, but God is different, He always looked at what we have not done, but we should do and have the potentiality to do if we depend on His power and try our best. God said to Joshua: You are very old, and there are still very large areas of land to be taken over. It’s human’s habit that we always focus our eyesight on the achievements in the past time. We should change the idea. We should look into the future. We should not always count what we have done on the kingdom of heaven, we should always count what we have not done, but we should do. May God give us wisdom that we can count our remainder days during the world, and love the Lord our God with all our hearts and with all our souls and with all our strength and with all our mind and love our neighbors as ourselves. (Luke 10:27) We cannot fulfill the expectation God has put on us, what we should do is to minimize the difference. We cannot live a lazy life. We should strive for God’s kingdom until the end of our life, so that we can face God with less shame. This is the true attitude a God’s servant should have. May God bless us!

DT1

Why is the complete destruction of Canaanites (and others) ordered by Yahweh? Isn’t he a God of Mercy and Love?

God ordered the complete destruction of Canaanites (and others), in my opinion, the reason is that the Promised Land is filled with idols and the people in the land are squalid. If they were not cut off from Israelites, it’s dangerous. From Bible we can conclude that the Israelites is a race specially selected by God, but most of them didn’t obey the God’s order. It’s strange that God’s people always live a life just like a unbeliever. Yahweh ordered them to make a complete destruction of Canaanites, but they always made some people in Canaan survived. From the Bible we can find that the Israelites always worshiped the gods of the Canaanites. I think one important reason is the Israelites didn’t obey God’s order to make a complete destruction, so then they were impacted by the Canaanites survived, they didn’t worship God, they worshiped the false gods in Canaan. All the people in the world are sinners. Having a tendency of enjoying the pleasures of sin is the sinners’ nature. And the cost of sin is to perish forever. I think it is God’s wisdom to order to make the complete destruction to save the God’s people. If not, all the people will perish. Of course God is of Mercy and Love. But He is also righteous. It’s wrong to look at His Mercy and Love apart from his righteousness. All of us should perish, not because God is not of Mercy and Love, but because our own sin. For us, to perish is righteous. This is the destiny we deserve. But God is of Mercy and Love, He chose us in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. (Ephesians 1:4) and God created us, He has the authority to show His Mercy, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”(Exodus 33:19) The mercy of God is the Grace we absolutely don’t deserve. Just like the parable of the workers in the vineyard in Matthew 20:1-16, we just like the workers, the workers don’t have the authority to grumble against the landowner. God has the absolute authority to show his mercy which we absolutely don’t deserve on anyone of us or not. So God is of Mercy and Love. We sinners cannot judge the righteous God, but be judged by Him.

 

QUiz8

1.What mountain is probably the “Mount Sinai” mentioned in Exodus?
Why is this the most preferred?
2. Trace the route of the Exodus and give brief description of what
happened at a particular place. For example:
Balut: this is where the israelites stopped for lunch. moses used his
staff to create the food.
Manggahan: after the big lunch, the israelites headed to this place
for dessert.
1. Jebel Musa seemed to be the preferred site because of the imposing granite formation of this massif and the presence of the extensive plain at its base. Furthermore, when Justinian had the monastery and basilica of St. Catherine erected at the foot of Jebel Musa, the “mountains of Moses,” in the middle of the sixth century, this seemed to formalize a tradition that can be traced back to at least the fourth century.

The journey to Sinai. Israel departed from the eastern shore of Yam suph, after watching the overthrow of the Egptian chariotry, they paused to give praise to god. The Desert of Shur, for the next three days they traveled without finding water. Ain Musa, the Springs of Moses, a site not mentioned in any biblical text. Marah, this site is notorious for its salty, brackish water. Moses cast a piece of wood into the pool, and it became sweet and drinkable. Elim, this site had at least twelve wells to supply the people and their herds. The Desert of Sin, is problematical as to it exact location. Dophkah, here the divine provision of manna began and continued for the next forty years. Rephidim, the people found their water depleted, this led to the famous water-form-rock scene. The Israelites were attacked by Amalekites. Moses was visited by his father-in-law, Jethro. Mt. Sinai. The Sinai Covenant was given to them with the Law and orders of service for the worship of Yahweh.

The journey from Sinai to Kadesh-Barnea .Moses sent out the twelve spies into Canaan. The spies traveled all the way north to Rehob, on their way back, the spies encountered the Anakim, they also picked a huge cluster of grapes at Eschol from Hebron to demonstrate the fruitfulness of the land. Only two of the spies, Caleb and Joshua, counseled that Canaan could be taken, the conquest could have been was now delayed from 1445 until about 1407 B.C. Hormah, when Yahweh did not go with the troops, they were as vulnerable as the others, if not more so.

From Kadesh-Barnea to the plains of Moab. Moses sent messengers to the king of Edom requesting permission to travel up the King’s Highway through Edom. Moses left Kadesh and made camp in Hor, where Aaron died.The king of the Canaanite site of Arab launched his own preemptive strike against Israel. Israel secured a victory over Arad at Hormah, Israel went east from Hor to Zalmonah, then on to an unknown Oboth. The list in Numbers 33 appears on the surface to be a routine listing of sites along the route of the Exdus. Yet the list of Transjordanian cities noted from their move from the Arabah near Elath to the plains of Moab is amazing in light of recent finds. Such sites as Iyyim, Dibon, Almon-diblathaim, Nebo, Abel-shittim and Jordan River. The march continued up the east side of Edom, the Sihon attacked Israel, defeated by Moses and his warriors. The Isreal came ot Og’s capital city of Edrei, there the giant king was slain, and all sixty of his cities taken. Thus, Israel now controlled all of Transjordania form the Arnon Valley in south to Mount Hermon in the north.

DT8

What is the city of refuge? What is its function, why did the Lord had the Israelites set it up?

Numbers 35:9-15

Then the Lord said to Moses: “Speak to the Israelites and day to them: ‘When you cross the Jordan into Canaan, select some towns to be your cities of refuge, to which a person who has killed someone accidentally may flee. They will be places of refuge from the avenger, so that a person accused of murder may not die before he stands trial before the assembly. There six towns you give will be your cities of refuge for Israelites, aliens and any other people living among them, so that anyone who has killed another accidentally can flee there.

According to these verses, the city of refuge is a selected city to which a person who has killed someone accidentally may flee. It will be a place of refuge from the avenger, so that a person accused of murder may not die before he stands trail before the assembly.

In my opinion, the reason of Lord having the Israelites set it up is because of his great love. Of course, those people are killers, but their motivation is not to kill someone: For example, Deuteronomy 19:5-6 For instance, a man may go into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and as he swings his ax to fell a tree, the head may fly off and hit his neighbor and kill him. That man may flee to one of these cities and save his life. Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue him in a rage, overtake him even though he is not deserving of death, since he did it to his neighbor without malice aforethought. But according to the Laws of Moses, he should die. God is good; He always shows mercy on us. So He had the Israelites set the cities of refuge up. And another reason, the city of refuge is the copy of the Savior—Jesus Christ, who will save His people from sins. According to our sins, we should die. But God shows His mercy through Jesus Christ. Just like John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

DV8

Deuteronomy 8:2-3

Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years; to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you should keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna. Which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

The blessings from God

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God is omniscient; of course, he knows what was in your heart. Whether you would keep his commands without any humbling and testing. Why the Omniscient humble us and test us? The reason must not be “God can know our hearts only after the humbling and testing”. Apparently, God‘s purpose of humbling and testing is for our own benefits. God is so good; can we follow Him with out humbling and testing? Absolutely not. Humbling and testing are not comfortable, but essential. If we haven’t been humbled and tested by God, we cannot be suitable vessels that can be used by God. It’s God’s principle that you must endure many sufferings for God, and then you will get the glory from him. Even the only son of God—Jesus Christ. He is the most beloved one of God, but he suffered a lot, and endured many sufferings absolutely unfair to him. Then he was put the position of “sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in Heaven” (Hebrew 1:3). Nowadays many Christians pray for God’s blessings but they don’t want to endure sufferings for God, “ How can you rise from dead, if you don’t want to die?” If the sufferings are not because our own sins, it’s grace of God. God always trains us by this way, so that we can be suitable to be used by god and glorify His name. If you think you are blessed by God: you are wealthy, live a comfortable life without enduring sufferings for truth, you should be watchful, may be you are ignored by God: He would not use a person before he endures sufferings for the truth—every word of God. may be you “blessings” are from “the evil one”, just like Matthew 4:9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “ if you will bow down and worship me.” We accept the blessings from God, we refuse the “blessings” form the evil one.