Hi friends! After yesterday's exciting battle between Gideon and Midian now we see some family drama between some of Gideon's descendants. The contrast of these two stories will be really significant in helping to point out the message that authors are trying to teach in the next famous story from Judges that we will study tomorrow. Try to connect the dots between the days - it's one of my favorite things to do when I study scripture! But I'm a bible nerd. haha.
Scripture to Read
Audio Bible
Questions to Consider
What does this teach me about God?
What does this teach me about humanity?
What does this teach me about the relationship between the two?
What about this story stays with me? Why?
Where would Jesus be in this story? Where would I be?
- My Thoughts -
Two thoughts on this one actually. Look at that, two for the price of one. Well done you little bargain shoppers you. First, how power corrupts. My lord, in these 3 chapters we have 3 different situations of political manuerveing to try and overthrow the current leader. All that it does is cause death, war, and moves the people farther from God. But I think we all know those people that will do anything to move up the social ladder or the pay ladder at work. Of course there is nothing wrong with this in moderation, but those that sacrifice time with their family, or who throw people under the boss often find at the top it is very lonely. A life full of skepticism about people makes it difficult to keep friends. I view this for Abimelech, who destroyed (literally) his entire family in order to be ruler of the people, and what happened? The very people he ruled tried to ambush him and kill him! When we chase power we chase corruption and when we chase corruption it often ends in nothing but despair. Be careful to avoid that temptation, friends. In Jesus' kingdom the first shall be last and the last shall be first.
Second thought - the obsession the biblical authors have with women and being virgins. Gosh just stop you old creeps. But really, my primary concern with this has more to do with the anguish his daughter feels at dying a virgin, as if some level of life is not fulfilled because she is not sexually active or because she is not a mother. We do this a lot in culture even if we don't recognize it. We view singleness as shameful, we literally feel bad for people that are single. Further, we often do this with women where we see motherless women as "not complete" or question them with things like "so, when will you have kids?" This implies a lot, that a woman is not perfect and valueable for who is unless she is a mother.
Let's be careful with the questions we ask in small talk. When our first questions to people are about their careers or their families (or lackthereof) we are reinforcing a trope that we are defined by what we do or who we care for rather than how we care for ourselves.
Prayer: (Prayer of St. Teresa of Avila)
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours, Yours are the eyes with which He looks Compassion on this world, Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good, Yours are the hands, with which He blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, Yours are the eyes, you are His body. Christ has no body now but yours, No hands, no feet on earth but yours, Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
It's a small thing but for some people it's really valuable and let's be honest people are going to talk way more passionately about animals or hobbies than they would their jobs
I think I'm going to start asking people their favorite hobby or animal first instead of asking about their partner or job.