Judges
Please read through all of the book of Judges. Which of the 12 judges is your favorite? What's particularly admirable about this judge? Do you notice any "warts," (i.e., character flaws)? What's the most important lesson to be learned from the story of this particular judge?
posted by Ancient Art at 6:36 PM
7 Comments:
There are a few judges that I find quite interesting. One of them is Gideon. Gideon catches my interest because he listened to God, tore down his father's altar of Baal and built an altar to God. To me, this really proves his confidence and loyalty to God. Also, when God told him to take his army to fight the Midianites, he did so, with a small army and won.
His one "wart" or character flaw was the fact that he always needed God to assure him. It seems that every time God told him to do something, Gideon needed a sign and not only one, but sometimes he needed two. This makes me question his faith at times. It doesn't seem like he could trust God until he was absolutely sure the instructions were from him.
Frankly, I do not have a favorite judge. The only one that stands out in my mind is Samson, probably because he is the most talked about of all the judges in the Old Testament. He has confidence in his fighting abilities because he is the strongest man to ever live. But there are times when he comes across as being a bit arrogant. He also doesn't seem to have much of a brain. When he meets Deliah she constantly haprs on him to tell her the source of his strength. When he gives her an answer, each time she takes the measures he indicated are needed to bind him and have him taken captive. That should have been a warning to him that she meant him harm, but no instead he tells her the truse source of his strength and she cuts his hair allowing him to be taken captive by the Philistines. However, to give the man some credit he does humble himself before God in the end and God allows him to have one final bit of glory.
My favorite Judge is Gideon. I liked him because he always has to ask to see a sign to make sure it is really what god want him to do. this is also what i think is flaw is. He should just believe in God because if you don't belive then what is faith. You can't always seeing yourself win a game but you always have faith that it is going to happen.
After reading the book of Judges, I like Ehud the most. Even though the Israelites keep on doing evil in the lord's eyes, and he puts them under another ruler, they cry out for help and god delivers a deliverer. After 18 years of tyranny under Eglon King Moab, the Lord sent Ehud to free the Israelites, and he does so by going right to King Moab's throne (pretty brave) to kill him. Now why Ehud was not "paded" for a weapon is questionable, but he did say he had a word for Moab from god. Now it was incredibly brave to slain the king, but how it was stated seemed to be a "WART" on how the king's fat gobbled up the sword. Seems far fetched to me. But by locking the doors and the servants waiting outside for the king to come out, Ehud seemed like a pretty smart guy too.
I think that my favorite judge was Deborah. First of all, there weren't too many female judges, and she was rather funny. She was a ruler(not common back then as well as today) and rather outright in her courage. I would like to have a bit of her in me sometimes.
"I will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this, the honor will not be yours, for the LORD will hand Sisera over to a woman."
What a riot! Poor Barak...
The judge that was my favorite was Samson. The man who was given Superman talent by God threw it all away to the woman he loved. Samson was strong enough to defeat the Phillistines but not strong enough to resist the temptations of Delilah.
He trusted Delilah, but Delilah deceived him by shaving his hair (which made him lose his strength) and handed him over to his enemies, who poked his eyes and shackled him as a prisoner. Samson eventually got his revenge when he used his returning strength to knock down the pillars of a building and killing his captors.
Samson is an example of a person who has physical strength but mental weakness. He relents when women pester him about anything. He was the ultimate warrior, killing many using his strength and cunning, even killing a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey. However, he was plagued by his mental weakness of letting his secret into the wrong hands. His hairs allowed him to have his strength but his mind allowed his hair to be cut off which weakened him. In the end, he trusted God and he regained his strength for him to defeat his enemy that also killed himself.
I don't particulary like one Judge more than the other I think they all are pretty interesting. I just find Gideon to be a bit different from the rest. Gideon is different from most people in the Bible so far. He is not very confident in the things he does. He tears down his father's alter which is brave, however he tore it down at night. He was very different kind of "hero". Ehud was also a very interesting Judge. Walked in murdered the King and walked out. I found him to be a little fascinating as well.
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