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RE: WHERE DID WE COME FROM?

What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............

And they gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had said. Then he expelled from there the three sons of Anak.

Judah fought against Jerusalem and took it: Here it is recorded that the city of Jerusalem fell to Judah. It was occupied for a time (Adoni-Bezek was taken there and died there), but later fell back to the Jebusites (see Judges 1:21). Under the leadership of King David Israel conquered the city again some 400 years later (2 Samuel 5:6-10).

“The city of Jerusalem is one of the oldest cities in the world, having been occupied almost continually for a period of 5,000 years.” (Cundall)

Then Judah went against the Canaanites who dwelt in Hebron: Judah also conquered Hebron, and the city was given to faithful Caleb and his family (see Joshua 15:13-19).

Hebron was the ancient city of Abraham and the city which discouraged the ten unfaithful spies from taking the promised land in Moses’ day because of the Anakim which lived there (Numbers 13:22-23).

Cundall notes that Judges 1:9 describes the three major geographic divisions of Israel:

The mountains, or more literally the hill country, “which describes the mountainous regions between Jerusalem and Hebron.”

The South, also known as the Negev, which is “the semi-arid area between Hebron and Kadesh-barnea.”

The lowland, sometimes called the Shelphelah from the Hebrew word used here. This “is the region of foot-hills running north and south between the coastal plain and the central mountain range.”

Give me a blessing: Charles Spurgeon preached a wonderful sermon on Judges 1:12-15 titled, Aschsah’s Asking, A Pattern of Prayer. Spurgeon showed how the request from a daughter (Aschsah) to a father (Caleb) gives us a “parable of prayer.”

Aschsah was a good example because she thought about what she wanted before she went to her father. Before you pray, know what you need before God. She came to God with a very definite request that had been considered beforehand. “Think what you are going to ask before you begin to pray, and then pray like business men. This woman does not say to her father, ‘Father, listen to me,’ and then utter some pretty little oration about nothing; but she knows what she is going to ask for, and why she is going to ask it.” (Spurgeon)

Aschsah was a good example because she asked for help with her request, asking her husband – she urged him to ask her father for a field. “A friend, some time ago, said to me, ‘My dear pastor, whenever I cannot pray for myself, and there are times when I feel shut up about myself, I always take to praying for you: ‘God bless him, at any rate!’ and I have not long been praying for you before I begin to feel able to pray for myself.’ I should like to come in for many of those odd bits of prayer. Whenever any of you get stuck in the mud, do pray for me. It will do you good, and I shall get a blessing.” (Spurgeon)

Aschsah was a good example because she knew it was her father she asked.

Aschsah was a good example because she went humbly, yet eagerly.

Aschsah’s prayer was a good example because her father asked her what she wanted. God will ask us the same thing and we should know what we want.

Aschsah’s prayer was a good example because she shows that we should actually ask for what we want before God. It is a pleasure for God to hear you ask.

Aschsah’s prayer was a good example because of what she simply prayed. Her prayer was, “give me a blessing.”

Aschsah’s prayer was a good example because she mingled gratitude with her petition (you have given me land in the South).

RE: WHERE DID WE COME FROM?

What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............

Judah said to Simeon his brother, “Come up with me”: The leaders of the tribe of Judah acted wisely here. By partnering with another tribe, the work was much easier. Here, the tribes functioned in the same way that God wants the church to function – as a body, with each part of the body helping out other parts of the body.

“The tribes of Judah and Simeon were blood-brothers (Genesis 29:33-35) and are uniformly depicted as acting in the closest relationship.” (Cundall)

The LORD delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand: Seeking the LORD, obeying His guidance, and working together as a body always produces great results. Their success was plain to see: the LORD delivered all their enemies into their hands.

They killed ten thousand men at Bezek: This place where the conquered was called Bezek and the leader of this city was Adoni-Bezek, which means “Lord of Lightning.” This was an enemy with a fearful name, but Judah and Simeon defeated him none the less.

And they found Adoni-Bezek in Bezek: The word found in this verse expresses a hostile encounter. The armies of Judah and Simeon didn’t just stumble over Adoni-Bezek.

Their punishment of Adoni-Bezek may seem cruel, yet we see that it was simply justice in its truest sense. He had done this same thing to seventy kings; so now he had his own toes and fingers cut off.

The punishment made Adoni-Bezek worthless as a warrior; he could trouble Israel no more as a military man. “It was a custom among those Romans who did not like a military life, to cut off their own thumbs, that they might not be called into the army. Sometimes the parents cut off the thumbs of their children, that they might not be called into the army.” (Clarke).

We also see Judah and Simeon acting in an unselfish manner. They fought a battle in territory that did not directly belong to them. The city of Bezek was far to the north of Judah’s tribal lands.
(8-20) Judah’s victories in the southern part of the land given to Israel.
Now the children of Judah fought against Jerusalem and took it; they struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire. And afterward the children of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who dwelt in the mountains, in the South, and in the lowland. Then Judah went against the Canaanites who dwelt in Hebron. (Now the name of Hebron was formerly Kirjath Arba.) And they killed Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai. From there they went against the inhabitants of Debir. (The name of Debir was formerly Kirjath Sepher.) Then Caleb said, “Whoever attacks Kirjath Sepher and takes it, to him I will give my daughter Achsah as wife.” And Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, took it; so he gave him his daughter Achsah as wife. Now it happened, when she came to him, that she urged him to ask her father for a field. And she dismounted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, “What do you wish?” So she said to him, “Give me a blessing; since you have given me land in the South, give me also springs of water.” And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. Now the children of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up from the City of Palms with the children of Judah into the Wilderness of Judah, which lies in the South near Arad; and they went and dwelt among the people. And Judah went with his brother Simeon, and they attacked the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. So the name of the city was called Hormah. Also Judah took Gaza with its territory, Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory. So the LORD was with Judah. And they drove out the mountaineers, but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the lowland, because they had chariots of iron. And they gave Hebron to Caleb,

What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............

After the death of Joshua: The Book of Judges shows us a time that is sometimes confusing, difficult, and dark. For this reason, many neglect the Judges and regard this period of time as a “dark ages” of Israel’s history. Yet if we neglect this book we neglect a wonderful account of the love and graciousness of God, and how He lovingly corrects His people.

i. What we find out about man in Judges is depressing; but what we find out about God in Judges is wonderful. “On the human side, it is a story of disobedience and disaster; and on the Divine side, of continued direction and deliverance.” (Morgan)

ii. “There is, however, one light in which the whole book may be viewed, which renders it invaluable; it is a most remarkable history of the longsuffering of God towards the Israelites, in which we find the most signal instances of his justice and mercy alternately displayed; the people sinned, and were punished; they repented, and found mercy. Something of this kind we meet with in every page. And these things are written for our warning. None should presume, for God is JUST; none need despair, for God is MERCIFUL.” (Clarke)

2. (1b-2) After Joshua’s death, Israel seeks the LORD.
It came to pass that the children of Israel asked the LORD, saying, “Who shall be first to go up for us against the Canaanites to fight against them?” And the LORD said, “Judah shall go up. Indeed I have delivered the land into his hand.”

a. The children of Israel asked the LORD: Here they did the right thing – the thing Joshua would have wanted them to do. With Joshua gone, they were not left without a leader; they were simply called to a renewed trust in God.

b. And the LORD said: When Israel sought the LORD, He guided them. This is a consistent pattern through the Book of Judges. God never failed to deliver and help His people when they sought Him.

i. Jesus expressed the same idea in Luke 11:9: “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” When we ask of God and seek Him in sincerity we should expect that He will answer us. His response may come in an unexpected way, but we should expect that it will come.

c. Judah shall go up: God directed that the tribe of Judah – the tribe that the Messiah would come from – should lead the way in this fight. Judah was also the largest and strongest tribe. In this case, God’s plan made obvious military sense as well.

i. Under the leadership of Joshua Israel had broken the back of the Canaanite’s military strength; yet it remained for each individual tribe to actually go in and possess what God had given them.

3. (3-7) Judah (with the tribe of Simeon) defeats Bezek and their king.
So Judah said to Simeon his brother, “Come up with me to my allotted territory, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I will likewise go with you to your allotted territory.” And Simeon went with him. Then Judah went up, and the LORD delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand; and they killed ten thousand men at Bezek. And they found Adoni-Bezek in Bezek, and fought against him; and they defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. Then Adoni-Bezek fled, and they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and big toes. And Adoni-Bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off used to gather scraps under my table; as I have done, so God has repaid me.” Then they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died.

What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............

The Book of Judges
Continuing victory in Israel. After the death of Joshua.

Now after the death of Joshua: In this period of the Judges, Israel lost the critical next link in its godly leadership. Moses was the great leader used by God to bring them out of Egypt; Joshua was Moses’ assistant and the great leader used by God to bring them into the land of promise. But Joshua appointed no leader after him to guide the whole nation. They were in a critical place where they had to trust God more intensely than they ever had before.

i. God gives wonderful human leaders to His work on this earth, and it is always difficult for God’s people when those human leaders pass from the scene. In such a situation, we may live in the past, wishing that leader were still with us.

b. After the death of Joshua: During this period of the judges (lasting some 340 years), there was no standing “office” of national leadership. Israel had no king, no president, and no prime minister on earth – only God in heaven. Yet at the necessary and appropriate times God brought forth a leader for the nation. For the most part these leaders would rise up, do his (or her) job, and then return to their obscurity. This required that the people of Israel maintain a real, abiding trust in God.

i. These national deliverers were not elected, and they didn’t come to leadership through royal succession. They were specially gifted by God for leadership in their times, and the people of God recognized and respected that gifting.

ii. When this book uses the term judge, it doesn’t mean someone who sits in a court and decides legal issues; the Hebrew word shaphat has more the idea of a heroic leader. “The Hebrew word Shophetim is derived from a word meaning to put right, and so to rule, and this is exactly what these men did.” (Morgan)

iii. The people of Israel had great obstacles. They were surrounded by people who lived in the most terrible immorality and idolatry, making a constant temptation to the same sins. The idolatrous lives of the Canaanites who lived around Israel were focused mainly on three things: money, sex, and having a relationship with God on my terms instead of God’s terms.

RE: Save The Planet - Stop Eating! Too Much Of A Commitment? At Least Cut Out This Stuff...

You forgot Hominy..I haven't
had that for years. My mom use to fix it.

I don't care much for grits either...

I do like tortillas and corn bread though.

RE: I am a treasure girl...

I've always been told ..the more you make the more you spend.
You know if wages go up, cost of living will go up.

RE: MOSES & TABLETS OF STONE

Maybe!