Women of the Bible: Samson's mother

The Bible doesn't give the name of Samson's mother. It does indicate that, even in Old Testament times, a woman could, and did, take spiritual leadership, even when her husband was apparently a believer.

I have posted the story of Manoah's wife -- Samson's mother, some years ago. Here is that post, giving the appropriate Bible text.

Women of the Bible: Jephthah's daughter

I’m trying to post scripture related to each woman in the Bible, in alphabetical order by name. Not all women are named. For some reason, it occurred to me that I hadn’t included the daughter of Jephthah. The Bible doesn’t name her.

Judges 11:11 Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them. Jephthah spoke all his words before Yahweh in Mizpah.

12 Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, “What do you have to do with me, that you have come to me to fight against my land?”

29 Then Yahweh’s Spirit came on Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed over to the children of Ammon.

30 Jephthah vowed a vow to Yahweh, and said, “If you will indeed deliver the children of Ammon into my hand, 31 then it shall be, that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, it shall be Yahweh’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.”

32 So Jephthah passed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them; and Yahweh delivered them into his hand. 33 He struck them from Aroer until you come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and to Abelcheramim, with a very great slaughter. So the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.

34 Jephthah came to Mizpah to his house; and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. She was his only child. Besides her he had neither son nor daughter. 35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes, and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you are one of those who trouble me; for I have opened my mouth to Yahweh, and I can’t go back.”

36 She said to him, “My father, you have opened your mouth to Yahweh; do to me according to that which has proceeded out of your mouth, because Yahweh has taken vengeance for you on your enemies, even on the children of Ammon.” 37 Then she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me. Leave me alone two months, that I may depart and go down on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my companions.”

38 He said, “Go.” He sent her away for two months; and she departed, she and her companions, and mourned her virginity on the mountains. 39 At the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed. She was a virgin. It became a custom in Israel 40 that the daughters of Israel went yearly to celebrate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year. 

This story is one of the hardest to accept, if not the hardest story to accept, in the Bible. Why did Jephthah make this vow in the first place? Who or what did he expect to welcome him home? Why didn't God intervene and send out a calf or something? Note also verse 29. Was this for everything in Jephthah's life, or just as battle leader. We don't know.

The most compelling part of the story, I guess, is that both Jephthah and his daughter accepted the situation and followed through. There's no evidence that either Jephthah or his daughter thought seriously of not carrying out the terms of the vow. They are to be commended for this. The daughter, at least, had firm belief in God, and will be eternally rewarded, I should think. Jephthah is not the only person to make a foolish vow to God. People are doing that even today, no doubt.

I refer you to what commentaries have said about this story, for example what Matthew Henry wrote about it, for more on the story of Jephthah's daughter.

With Christ in the school of prayer, by Andrew Murray, 64

This post continues a series of excerpts from With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray. I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this public domain work available. To see their post of the book, go here. The previous post is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color.

But the word of the Master teaches us more. He does not say, What dost thou wish? but, What does thou will? One often wishes for a thing without willing it. I wish to have a certain article, but I find the price too high; I resolve not to take it; I wish, but do not will to have it. The sluggard wishes to be rich, but does not will it. Many a one wishes to be saved, but perishes because he does not will it. The will rules the whole heart and life; if I really will to have anything that is within my reach, I do not rest till I have it. And so, when Jesus says to us, ‘What wilt thou?’ He asks whether it is indeed our purpose to have what we ask at any price, however great the sacrifice. Dost thou indeed so will to have it that, though He delay it long, thou dost not hold thy peace till He hear thee? Alas! how many prayers are wishes, sent up for a short time and then forgotten, or sent up year after year as matter of duty, while we rest content with the prayer without the answer.
 

Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness, by Zinzendorf, translated by John Wesley

This source gives the text of the following hymn, "Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness," written in German by Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf, and translated into English by John Wesley, both in 1739:

1 Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness
my beauty are, my glorious dress;
'midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,
with joy shall I lift up my head.


2 Bold shall I stand in that great day,
for who aught to my charge shall lay?
Fully absolved through these I am,
from sin and fear, from guilt and shame.


3 Lord, I believe Thy precious blood,
which, at the mercy seat of God,
forever doth for sinners plead,
for me, e'en for my soul, was shed.


4 Jesus, be endless praise to Thee,
whose boundless mercy hath for me,
for me a full atonement made,
an everlasting ransom paid.


5 When from the dust of death I rise
to claim my mansion in the skies,
e'en then this shall be all my plea,
Jesus hath lived, hath died, for me.


6 O let the dead now hear Thy voice;
now bid Thy ransomed ones rejoice;
their beauty this, their glorious dress,
Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness.


Here's a modified version, making the word use more current:

1 Jesus, Your blood and righteousness
my beauty are, my glorious dress;
'midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,
with joy shall I lift up my head.


2 Bold shall I stand in that great day,
for who aught to my charge shall lay?
Fully absolved through these I am,
from sin and fear, from guilt and shame.


3 Lord, I believe Your precious blood,
which, at the mercy seat of God,
forever does for sinners plead,
for me, e'en for my soul, was shed.


4 Jesus, praise to You I sing,
Your mercy boundless, O my King,
for me a full atonement made,
an everlasting ransom paid.


5 When from the dust of death I rise
to claim my mansion in the skies,
e'en then this shall be all my plea,
Jesus has lived, has died, for me.


6 O let the dead now hear Thy voice;
now bid Your ransomed ones rejoice;
their beauty this, their glorious dress,
Jesus, Your blood and righteousness.

Thanks to Christ! Thanks for reading.

Worship ideas from Leviticus 1-8

Worship in Leviticus

We aren’t bound by OT Law. Acts 15:7b Peter rose up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that a good while ago God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the nations should hear the word of the Good News, and believe. 8 God, who knows the heart, testified about them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just like he did to us. 9 He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. 10 Now therefore why do you tempt God, that you should put a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? 11 But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they are.” [All scripture from the World English Bible, public domain, and, except when otherwise indicated, from Leviticus.]

Acts 15:19 [James speaks] “… my judgment is that we don’t trouble those from among the Gentiles who turn to God, 20 but that we write to them that they abstain from the pollution of idols, from sexual immorality, from what is strangled, and from blood.

In his The Bible Jesus Read: Why the Old Testament Matters, Philip Yancey reminds us that the OT teaches us something that we need to hear: The world revolves around God, not around us. In another book, he says that God kept trying to reach us, first revealing Himself as the Father, in the OT, then as the Son appearing on earth as a man, and now through the Holy Spirit, who lives in us. We need those reminders, and without the Old Testament, we wouldn't have them.

Perfect sacrifices, when offering: Leviticus 1:3 “‘If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. [3:1 and 3:6 also say “without blemish.”]

1:10 “‘If his offering is a burnt offering from the flock … a male without blemish.

I need to give God my best.

Remove the junk: 1:14 “‘If his offering to Yahweh is a burnt offering of birds, then he shall offer his offering of turtledoves, or of young pigeons. 15 The priest shall bring it to the altar, and wring off its head, and burn it on the altar; and its blood shall be drained out on the side of the altar; 16 and he shall take away its crop with its filth, and cast it beside the altar on the east part, in the place of the ashes

"with its filth!" should be taken away. God is a holy God.

No yeast, no honey: 2:11a “‘No meal offering, which you shall offer to Yahweh, shall be made with yeast; for you shall burn no yeast, nor any hone.

I can't explain either of these prohibitions, as the Bible doesn't do so. But one possible lesson from this is that, if I have a conviction (say that I shouldn't drink coffee (!)) which I believe is God-given, I should stick to it, even if others don't share it, or I can't explain it.

 

First fruits: 2:14 “‘If you offer a meal offering of first fruits to Yahweh, you shall offer for the meal offering of your first fruits grain in the ear parched with fire, bruised grain of the fresh ear.

I think it's a good practice to have devotions early in the day. (I know that that's impossible for some people.) It's also a good practice to give offerings and tithes before we start paying our bills, or buying other things.

Even when you didn’t realize you had sinned: 4:1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘If anyone sins unintentionally, in any of the things which Yahweh has commanded not to be done, and does any one of them: 3 if the anointed priest sins so as to bring guilt on the people, then let him offer for his sin, which he has sinned, a young bull without blemish to Yahweh for a sin offering.

5:2 “‘Or if anyone touches any unclean thing, whether it is the carcass of an unclean animal, or the carcass of unclean livestock, or the carcass of unclean creeping things, and it is hidden from him, and he is unclean, then he shall be guilty.

I have a hard time with that one, but it's there. These commentaries make sense to me:

David Jamieson, Commentary on Leviticus 4 (public domain) All sins may be considered, in a certain sense, as committed "through ignorance," error, or misapprehension of one's true interests. The sins, however, referred to in this law were unintentional violations of the ceremonial laws,--breaches made through haste, or inadvertency of some negative precepts, which, if done knowingly and wilfully, would have involved a capital punishment.

And Matthew Henry wrote this:

But if the offender were either ignorant of the law, as in divers instances we may suppose many were (so numerous and various were the prohibitions)

Continuous: 6:9 “Command Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the law of the burnt offering: the burnt offering shall be on the hearth on the altar all night until the morning; and the fire of the altar shall be kept burning on it. 12 The fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it, it shall not go out; and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning: and he shall lay the burnt offering in order upon it, and shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings. 13 Fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it shall not go out.

The application is obvious!

No fat, no blood: 7:23 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘You shall eat no fat, of bull, or sheep, or goat. 24 The fat of that which dies of itself, and the fat of that which is torn of animals, may be used for any other service, but you shall in no way eat of it. 25 For whoever eats the fat of the animal, of which men offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh, even the soul who eats it shall be cut off from his people. 26 You shall not eat any blood, whether it is of bird or of animal, in any of your dwellings. 27 Whoever it is who eats any blood, that soul shall be cut off from his people.’”

I'm not aware of any church that makes a big deal out of eating only meat which has had the blood drained from it. Note that James also mentioned blood. Blood was crucially significant, in both the Old and New covenants. (See below) That must be honored. Perhaps I should be more wary of consuming blood.

As for fat, James didn't forbid that. Although Leviticus says not to eat it, that seems to have changed by New Testament times. There are references to eating from a "fatted calf" (KJV and NKJV language) in Luke 15 and Matthew 22, in celebration, by Jesus, himself. 

Consuming too much fat, or the wrong kinds, may be bad for our physical health.

Cleansed: 8:6 Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water. 7 He put the coat on him, tied the sash on him, clothed him with the robe, put the ephod on him, and he tied the skillfully woven band of the ephod on him, and fastened it to him with it. 10 Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and all that was in it, and sanctified them. 11 He sprinkled it on the altar seven times, and anointed the altar and all its vessels, and the basin and its base, to sanctify them. 12 He poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron’s head, and anointed him, to sanctify him.

God is holy!

Blood is symbolic: 8:22 He presented the other ram, the ram of consecration: and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram. 23 He killed it; and Moses took some of its blood, and put it on the tip of Aaron’s right ear, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the great toe of his right foot. 24 He brought Aaron’s sons; and Moses put some of the blood on the tip of their right ear, and on the thumb of their right hand, and on the great toe of their right foot; and Moses sprinkled the blood around on the altar.

Again, the significance of blood, symbolically cleansing the priests. 

Thanks for reading!