BARAK THE RELUCTANT (Judges 4-5)

Barak son of Abinoam shows up in the Bible as a not very good role model. He's the commander God put in charge of the troops of Israel, when they rebelled against the Canaanites.

Barak's name means "blessed." But he didn't live like a very blessed man. His parents recognized blessing; what new parent doesn't feel blessed when first they hold a baby in their arms? (unfortunately some do, but not Barak's family.)  Somehow that joy and positive attitude didn't get passed on their son.

Deborah served as a judge in Israel. I couldn't but notice that her oak--her court-- sat in the same hill country that some years before, the Ephraimites were afraid to conquer. Now it's clearly under Israelite control, secure enough for her to hold court.

As judge, Deborah calls for Barak. She tells him "It has become clear . . . that you should prepare to battle."  Something about the wording suggests that Barak knew this as well as Deborah. She eases his fears as much as possible: I'll get king Sisera to you. I'll make sure you win. All you have to do is go and fight the battle.

With her words, "I'll make sure you win," Barak wiped his forehead with relief. "As long as you're coming along . . . I won't go without you."

Elsewhere in these two chapters we're told the Israelites volunteered "with abandon." (a subject I considered writing about.)  NOT Barak. Even in the 21st century, women have only recently begun serving on the front lines.  Imagine how strange it must have seemed back in Deborah's day.

She scolded Barak for his attitude. "With that kind of attitude, you won't gain any glory from the battle. A woman will kill Sisera."

That's what happened. The female assassin Jair alongside the female judge defeated King Sisera, the Canaanites, and their iron chariots.

A few concluding thoughts:

• Barak's name suggests his parents believed in the Lord High God. He had a good heritage.
• Barak was well known, unless God told Deborah to get in touch with a complete stranger.
• Barak's less-than-enthusiastic response didn't keep God from using him.
• It did prevent him receiving all the blessing God had for him.
• However, it doesn't appear that Barak was punished.
• God accomplished His will even when his "first choice" for the leader refused to do all of it.
• God called and used women in strong positions, as the supreme court for all Israelites and the assassin who killed Israel's greatest enemy.
• Both Deborah and Jair were married--talk about combining marriage and family with a career!

I'll end with a suggestion: the next time God calls you to a task, volunteer with abandon and joy. (Don't read this as a suggestion that you volunteer for any position within your church, community, ministry, etc.)

Othniel, the Bridge (Judges 1-3)

Today we start Judges, with its awful cycle of sin, oppression, repentance, deliverance, back to sin

again . . .

It didn't take much time at all.  Less than a generation, really, although in one of those all-or-nothing statements the Bible writers used to make their points, we're told "Eventually that entire generation [Joshua's lifetime] died and was buried. Then another generation grew up that didn't know anything of God or the work he had done for Israel." (Judges 2:10)

Joshua had had a lifelong ally in Caleb. He's the one who said "Give me this mountain!" and took it when he was 85 years old.  He looked for a man cut from the same cloth for his son-in-law: He promised his daughter Acsah (hey, she has a name!) to the man who took the town, Debir.

His nephew Othniel attacked Debir, took it. Acsah was a chip of her father's block, as well. She demanded farmland and water from her father--and he gave it to her. You might call Othniel and Acsah a power couple.

But while Othniel and Acsah were enlarging their territories and trusting God, Joshua and Caleb's generation died out. In spite of numerous warnings, the third generation removed from Egypt turned immediately to the idols of the surrounding nations. God brought the curses down on them. In some very sad words, we're told "Every time they walked out the door God was with them--but for evil, just as God had said." (Judges 2:15)

Enter Israel's first judge--Othniel, the same Othniel who had shown initiative

and courage and defeating Debir. The Israelites enjoyed peace during his lifetime, forty more years. He successfully bridged the gap between Joshua's generation and the next.

The people who were children during the conquest of Canaan rebelled against God. Somehow Caleb and his brother avoided that trap, and passed on a pure faith to their children.

I am blessed to be the daughter of a first-generation Christian. I clearly remember the before-and-after of change in my mother's life. Her change led me to receive Christ. A desire to share my faith with others burns brightly in me, and I am blessed to see it in my children.

I pray about my grandchildren, however. The children of Christians are blessed in that they hear the gospel from infancy. But they may struggle with it being blase, a culture and not a relationship.

Pray with me that our children and grandchildren experience the height and depth of God's love for themselves. That they will be spared the cycle of sin, oppression, repentance, and deliverance that plagued the Israelites for hundreds of years.

In the musical Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye and Golde pray for their daughters, "May you be like Ruth and like Esther."  My son, who is a Messianic believer, prays for his son, "May you be like Ephraim and like Manasseh."

Perhaps a better prayer would be, may they be like Othniel and Acsah.

P.S.--I am battling some stomach virus or even possibly C-Diff.  I will publish these as I can. :)

ONE FOR ALL, ALL FOR ONE (Joshua 22)

I slept the morning away. I'm still sick, but I quickly realized that I need to start my writing day
where I always do: in God's word. It's not "urgent" or contracted, but it may well be the most important thing I do all day.

Today I finished reading Joshua. Boy, that went by fast! It seems like I hardly started. The final chapters finish up things. The final parcels are alloted to the remaining tribes, the 2½ tribes east of the Jordan are reminded of the importance of staying true to the Lord their God, and Joshua leads the tribes in a recommitment to their covenant with God.

After charging the eastern tribes to remain true and to not rebel against God, Joshua adds an interesting statement: don't rebel against us by building your own altar apart from the Altar of our God. (Joshua 22:20, MSG)

In the case of the nation of Israel, it was always a case of "one for all and all for one." Remember the case of Ai, the city they attacked after Jericho? They lost the battle--because of one man's sin. If one tribe rebelled against God, God would count them all guilty. Rebelling against God meant rebelling against their fellow citizens.

Paul said the same thing about the church. In the passages from 1 Corinthians about spiritual gifts and the body of Christ, the church, he says, If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance. (1 Corinthians 12:22)

If my sin only brought consequences on myself, that would be bad enough. Unfortunately, the effects ripple across those around me. My physical family, my work place, my church, the church world wide.

With all the arrogance of the young, I used to tell my mother, "You only have two choices: either you obey God, or you serve the devil." She asked (taking my spiritual arrogance seriously), "Why can't I do what I want to do? Don't I get a choice?"

The truth is more complex than the way I presented it to my mother. The closer we grow to God, I believe, the closer our desires align with His. God made us the way we are and it usually figures into His will for us.

But the heart of my statement is true. If we don't obey God, we are rebelling against Him. Not only Him, but also His people.

Conversely, God's people are also key in helping us to recognize God's calling on our lives. Those around us may recognize a spiritual gift, a service God has called us to, before we do.

Teamwork, again--I am only one cell in a multi-celled body, but cancer can begin with me and destroy the whole.

We're not perfect, and we all will do things that hurt the body of Christ as a whole. That's when "every other part is involved in the healing."

Basically, Christianity is a team sport. We win or lose together, so we are wise if we take care of our own.

P.S. Does Mom's story fit in here? Felt I should add it, not sure why?

ILL TODAY

The stomach bug has caught up with me, so I am begging off from writing today's post. It's from Joshua 22-24--Joshua's final charges to Israel. Good stuff! Go look it up and share with me. Or an encouraging verse or song.  

If I get to feeling better, I'll pop in later. If not, hasta manana.  Thanks to all of you!

WANT MORE? GOT IT Part 2

I confess I find the descriptions of the division of the land b-o-r-i-n-g. My mind doesn't process visual images like maps and directions very well. So I read the descriptions the same way I had read about the sacrifices, comparing details instead of skimming over the verses. When everything is the same, the differences jump out at me.

Just yesterday we listened to Ephraim's pity party. "They have iron chariots!" They failed in their God-given mission to drive out the inhabits of the land.

Today Dan tells a different story. Oh, Joshua does tell us that the Danites failed to get rid of the Amorites on the plain. But they didn't give up. They suited up and went to war, attacking and taking the town of Leshem. I'm not entirely clear from the context if Leshem was on the plain or in the mountains, but they grabbed ahold of God's promise and found themselves a place to live.

This reminds me a little bit of the story of the prodigal son. One son worked by his father's side, and the other squandered his inheritance.

It also sounds like a lot of writers that I know. A conference director put it this way: no wonder God gives the same idea to more than one person. One person alone might fail in their God-given mission.

The Danites weren't perfect. They struggled with defeating the people of the plains. But they persevered and won a victory. When they defeated Leshem, God and His angels celebrated with them.

What's your assignment from God today?

WANT MORE? GO TO WORK

I often ponder how God passed the spiritual blessings of His promise to Abraham through Judah's line and blessed Joseph's descendants with large numbers and prosperity. I am saddened that the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh play such a minor role in the spiritual history of Israel.  I'd like to think that Joseph's family would become spiritual giants, in his shadow. But they didn't.

Today I catch a first glimpse into that change. The leaders of Ephraim and Manasseh came to Joshua with a complaint: There are too many of us for the land you allotted to us. Give us more.

Joseph didn't mind complying with that request. He gave the hill country.

The tribes were dissatisfied with the additional allotment. They threw a pity party and revealed their real complaint: we can't get rid of the people of the plains you assigned to us. The Canaanites who live down in the plain . . . have iron chariots. Whimper, whimper. They wanted the land handed to them on a silver platter.

Joseph would have made a plan and developed work plans. His sons wanted it handed to them.

In a few more centuries, after King Solomon, the kingdom divided into north and south. The southern kingdom consisted primarily of Judah, where we get the word "Jew." The northern tribe was called "Israel," but at times was also referred to as Ephraim. And anyone familiar with the history knows that Israel was the quicker to sin, to wander from God, and to bring down judgment on exile on themselves.

A sad, sad story for their forefather.

Yesterday, we looked at how reason and faith work together.  I mentioned that sometimes God does ask us to do things that don't make sense. That's how the Ephraimites felt. "They're too strong for us. They have chariots, of iron. They have an atomic bomb and we don't." You get the idea. Reason said they couldn't conquer them.

Sometimes God calls us to do the difficult or even the impossible. Only, without a neon-sign-in-the-sky, I always wonder if it's God who is calling me to a task, or my own overinflated desires. It helps to have a faithful friend who can serve as a sounding board.  Someone like Joshua who can say "You will clear the land and make it your own . . . The powerful Canaanites, even with their iron chariots, won't stand a chance against you."

It's okay to ask God to make things clearer. It's okay to ask for confirmation. And I have decided that most movements from God begin with an element of doubt. I act in faith, believing God has called me to the task, but not entirely sure. Sometimes I stumble and fall. I may race and not win the prize (as in a publishing contract.)

And sometimes, like Ephraim and Manasseh, I whimper and say, "It's too hard. Don't ask me to do that."

Today is a day of acting in faith. I don't feel all that well. My mind is struggling to pull thoughts into some semblence of order. But I write, trusting God with the outcome. God has called me to this battle, and it's my job to show up.

Whatever you sense God asking of you. Pray about it. Seek wisdom from friends. Ask God for open and closed doors. Move in the direction you believe He has called you. Don't let fear of iron chariots stop you.

If you ask God for something--don't be surprised if He tells you to go out there and earn it.

In words of worldly wisdom, if you aim at nothing, you're sure to hit it.