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This mighty warrior, man of valor, judge is one of the most interesting men in the Bible to me. When one reads the text closely, we find some extraordinary things about him.

He was the son of a harlot… but his father owned him, and raised him. This means he probably didn’t have much love growing up. Yet, he got a good education in the history of Israel, and because Israel’s history is so intricately entwined with the law in the Torah, he had a good understanding of the Law.

His brothers hated him, so when his father died they threw him out without one bit…  ( Click for more )

In our little walk through Judges, we've noticed something quite troubling about the Israelites. They have a terrible time keeping God first. Joshua told them that “you cannot serve the Lord for He is a holy God,” He’s jealous, and won’t forgive their transgressions and sins. This is a deeply troubling statement to me. After all, I know He has forgiven me all my sins. But then, I believed Him about His Son. I trusted Him with my life and heart.

Then Joshua explains why God won’t forgive them. “If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign…  ( Click for more )

None of the scholars that I usually study before writing a column or chapter study make a connection between what happens in Judges Chapter 9 and what happens in Revelation, but I see such similarities I have to point them out.

Judges was a time when God was the ruler and authority over Israel. He raised several men and one woman to lead the Israelites along the path God had made straight for them, and to keep them in the right of the Law. After Gideon, though, the people wanted him to be king. He rightly refused. Gideon said to them, "I will not rule over you, and my sons…  ( Click for more )

Today is the day for wisdom to triumph and pride to be killed. Say that out loud even if you might feel a bit silly. Of course, if you are in the public library, someone might shush you, but never let someone shush your resolve. Overcoming is too important for persevering believers.

In every bit of research I’ve done for this book, there are two themes that always bubble to the top, and those are prayer and the old adage that hurt people hurt people. Another truth that abounded is that God’s perfect will is for His children to never stop learning for their eternal…  ( Click for more )

In the Garden…

Seemingly the women and the men are working at cross purposes toward the same end: annointing of Christ's body before burial. The women and also Nicodemus & Joseph of Arimethia want to prepare it. (John 19) Since Nicodemus and Joseph were associated with the Jewish leaders, the women (as we say here in the South) had no truck with them so separate preparations were made. Since Joseph asked for Jesus' body and the tomb was his, this is most likely why he and Nicodemus were able to prepare Jesus' body for the burial before the women got finished…  ( Click for more )

I've often thought the movie The Passion of the Christ was horrendously accurate concerning Jesus' crucifixion. That doesn't come close to reading this article written so many years ago. The anguish and brutality, the love and the hate come to life in ways that the facimile of a movie cannot produce. I weep everytime I read this.

A Physician Analyzes the Crucifixion

(Originally published in Arizona Medicine, March 1965, Arizona Medical Association. A medical explanation of what Jesus endured on the day He died.)

By Dr. C. Truman Davis

Dr. C. Truman…  ( Click for more )

After weeks of scorching heat and baking sunshine, I tried to lift my head at the faint scent of moisture in the air. I wasn't wrong. Definitely moisture wafted on the breeze because a tree frog began his anxious croaking. He smelled it too, and began rejoicing over that first drop of water before it even fell. Then the thunder cracked with an earth-shaking boom. The first drops of rain tickled my arms, but I was too weak at the moment to do anything but thank God for the rain. Rain began lightly enough, refreshment for the parched ground and sending up a wonderful fragrance…  ( Click for more )

A soft answer turns away wrath…

This Wisdom of Solomon that had not been written yet, was well proven by Gideon. When he called his tribe’s brother, the tribe of Ephraim, to go get the heads of the kings Oreb and Zeeb. The tribe did so, and then Ephraim reprimanded him sharply for not calling them to help fight against the Midianites and Amalekites.

Gideon says softly, “Didn’t God give into your hands the heads of these two Midianite leaders? What did I do that was better than that?” This wise answer calmed them down so anger did not escalate…  ( Click for more )

Gideon rose early. I often wonder if the biblical writers mention that these warriors of God such as Joshua and Gideon “rose up early” to contrast that they used to stay up late and consequently slept late. Probably not… they didn’t have electricity back then nor did they have books to read that would keep them awake to all hours. Solomon tells us that sleepiness clothes a person in rags (Proverbs 23:21). The early risers had purpose in their hearts, ready for the day after a night’s good sleep.

The call went out to the tribes most effected…  ( Click for more )

In the beginning of Judges 6 we see that the Children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD. I’m thinking this is a parenting problem as well as a spiritual problem. Not that parents are raising heathens. According to the most recent Pew Study, almost 8 in 10 millennials are raised in a Christian home, but as adults they are leaving the church and prefer being called "nones" as in "none of the above." That has to be distressing to Christian parents. One of my daughters went that direction. I am heartsick about it.

Back in the late 60s church…  ( Click for more )

Is there a person in your life that causes sparks to fly just like iron scraping iron?

That person may be your Jabin. He was king in Hazor, a city state of Canaan during the time of the judges. God sold the Israelites into his hand because they went back to their wanton ways after Ehud died.

There had been peace in the land for 80 years. The longest time of peace recorded in Judges. Evidently, Ehud had kept the people on the godly track during that time by restraining and punishing everything that smacked of idolatry, keeping them in service to the one, true God…  ( Click for more )

Whenever the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. Judges 2:18

This is a crucial verse to keep in mind throughout the study of Judges.

God is always in control, and He will allow some things, albeit bad things, to happen in order to train us up and to test our hearts. The four essentials for victory in these ‘bad things’ are gifts from God to us, and He expects…  ( Click for more )

Why judges?

Can you imagine having to stand in the heat of the day, while the body responds with rivers of sweat, or the chill of night working by the light of a flickering torch, beating on a rock? Joshua did. He wrote a copy of the law, every word of the law on those stones (Joshua 8:32) while the Children of Israel stood by. All the important people, the elders and the judges on this side and all the regular people like you and me on that side; half in front of Mount Ebal and the other half in front of Mount Gerizim. The mountains were Bald and Rocky respectively. Not only…  ( Click for more )

There is a very old joke about scientists who arrogantly believed they could create life. They took a bucket and filled it with dirt, then another bucket and filled it with water, then happily headed for their laboratory. God stopped them in their tracks and said, “You want to create life? Go create your own dirt and water, and start with that.”

God has instilled an instinctive sanctity of life into each person’s conscience. It is part of our character. Yet, humans can “reason” themselves out of it in so many different ways.

Gene therapy and…  ( Click for more )

I was hunting through my old columns for the Front Porch Bible study I’ll be leading this coming Wednesday. At the bottom of one of them I said this,” When someone finds your goat and steals it, then first listen to God’s voice as He says, ‘Peace. Be still.’ Say the first ten words of the Lord’s Prayer. Pour out every bit of your ire, bitterness, hurt, unforgiveness, and stubbornness before Him. Every time you think of what has hurt you, pray one of David’s prayers. Trust God to vindicate you. He absolutely will. You may never know…  ( Click for more )

I can’t help it. I laugh every time I read Exodus 14:11.

The situation was surely calamitous, no doubt about it. Pharaoh and all his army, chariots, and horses on one side, and on the other a deep, dark, blue sea called the Red Sea on the other. Nowhere to go and nowhere to hide. They were stuck in the middle of a bad situation.

The first thing the Israelites do is turn to Moses, raise their hands in that very Jewish gesture, and say, “What? Are there no graves in Egypt that you must bring us out to the wilderness to die? It would have been better to serve the…  ( Click for more )

I had a question years ago concerning the difference between God’s will and His perfect will, or even if there was a difference. I finally grappled to the conclusion that God’s perfect will happened when His children were in perfect obedience to Him. Mary was given a choice whether to be used of God to bear His Son. She gently agreed regardless of the personal cost to her. “Let it be as you say,” she told the Angel of the Lord. Jesus’ father, Joseph, is another flawless example of this kind of obedience. If he had not immediately obeyed the…  ( Click for more )

Notice how packages have the ability to create excitement? Even when we know what’s in it, a package can bring a smile to your face. You ordered it; you asked for special delivery, and then it arrives. Slicing into the wrapping, taking the prize out of the box, and putting the thing to use makes the day seem brighter somehow. Then comes a season of giving and receiving that creates more than just a little excitement produced by one little package.

Christmas is definitely the most wonderful time of the year. I love the fragrance of crisp air and (when it is cold enough…  ( Click for more )

Notice how packages have the ability to create excitement? Even when we know what’s in it, a package can bring a smile to your face. You ordered it; you asked for special delivery, and then it arrives. Slicing into the wrapping, taking the prize out of the box, and putting the thing to use makes the day seem brighter somehow. Then comes a season of giving and receiving that creates more than just a little excitement produced by one little package.

Christmas is definitely the most wonderful time of the year. I love the fragrance of crisp air and (when it is cold…  ( Click for more )

We are buried under Black Friday ads to spend, spend, spend, so we can save, save, save. I want to say, “Bah! Humbug!” Not because I’ve been watching Christmas movies on TV, but because I’m told that:

I’m not happy without a new car for Christmas.

I’m not happy without soft skin, hair without gray strands, and a healthy cat eating the right food.

I’m not happy because I need a contraption to take the calluses off my feet.

I’m not glad because I have not purchased piles of gold toward my retirement, and I don’t…  ( Click for more )

Do you ever get a sore soul?

I mean soreness like a sore tooth in your spirit. The feeling just washes through, leaving a feeling of dread or bleakness. I usually get this feeling when something bad is going to happen. This feeling could develop because the Holy Spirit is grieved for you. God speaks to believers in many different ways. When friends and/or fellow believers speak out or do things to harm you, a child of the living God, that deeply grieves the Holy Spirit.

I'm not talking about when believers have sinned, and there is a feeling of guilt. That is something…  ( Click for more )

Job 11:12 For an empty-headed man will be wise when a wild donkey's colt is born a man.

Can't you just hear the exasperation? I can and it makes me laugh. It reminds me of Solomon saying "Living with a contentious woman is like incessant, dripping rain." (Loose paraphrase).

And here is another one, Proverbs 11:22 As a ring of gold in a swine's snout, So is a lovely woman who lacks discretion. That is so true and said with such a twist of humor I can't help but laugh at the image it draws into focus.

And this one, Proverbs 21:9 Better to dwell in…  ( Click for more )

In the list of the Fruit of the Spirit we see kindness is listed in the center: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

You see how the first four are basically states of being? They are similar to the leaves of a tree.

God is love, we are loved, we love others. Because of that, we experience joy, peace and patience. We then exhibit kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The first four well up inside us from God Himself through the Holy Spirit's indwelling. They are our sustenance, they gather oxygen…  ( Click for more )

What are your first impressions of the first parable found in Matthew 25? What does it say to your heart?

Just as Jesus spoke to the people of His day through parables to teach them, God speaks to us through these same parables. Sometimes they made no sense to the disciples, so they asked Jesus to explain. Sometimes they made perfect sense to the people of that day, but because today we are not as familiar with first century society, these parables don’t make sense to us.

The first thing to take note of is that Jesus is comparing the Kingdom of Heaven to 10 virgins,…  ( Click for more )