Understanding Yourself

Post 291

Finally; by knowing the nature of your enemy, and intimately knowing your God, you will have the tools to begin the process of understanding yourself. This is not really something that can be taught, it must rather be learned, and in the learning there are the swings from anarchy to bondage and back again as you learn to apply in practice an apparent duality that seems theoretically impossible; which is that this is a two-party marriage between you and your God, and while you can’t do your marital duties alone, Christ won’t do them for you (Deuteronomy 31:7-8):

“Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” Ephesians 5:14.
* * *

What’s The Right Way?
Have you ever wondered, “What was God’s purpose for including the Judges in the Scriptures?” Those shameful historical records describe some very confused people and are as difficult to properly comprehend its meaning and purpose as when reading Ecclesiastes!

Remember, after Joshua led them across the Jordan River and initially conquered the Promised Land (Judges 1:1), the Judges of “pre-national” Israel preceded the national kings of Israel, much as America had about 200 years of “pre-national” existence before the U.S. Constitution created an official Federal Union-of-the-many-States for the next 200 years or so.
We like to think that universal organization of law is superior to regulationless freedom when it comes to societies, and the embarrassing record of the pre-king Judges of Israel seems to confirm this truth… but at the end of the period of Judges, God’s response to Samuel really confuses that perception:

“But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD.
And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them” I Samuel 8:6-7.

The meaning of this response from God can be found when we combine a sound knowledge of the three factors; Know the nature of your enemy, intimately know your God, and understand yourself (I Corinthians 11:28, II Corinthians 13:5, I Corinthians 11:31).
I dare say most Christians today have no idea who they really are, nor seem to care to find out. But a Saving repentance cannot be had without knowing what must be repented of (Romans 10:21). The Judges are a fantastic study that distinguishes between God’s involvement and man’s involvement “in the same person” of the Judges in the resulting events for the nation, in a time before the external governance was introduced. The Judges pictorially explains the human failure that made the external force of law necessary though it was not the better way.
Explained with an example: the external law of a king is like the chain put on your dog because it frequently runs away. And while the chain generally solves the problem, God is far more interested in having a dog that wants to stay home.
The thing to note specifically is that instead of learning self-discipline, the dog is the one asking for the chain. Strong evidence of a significant lack of character and a nature that openly says; “I refuse to learn.” How does a master train such a dog? He doesn’t. So he puts on the chain.
* * *

The first Judges:
After the death of Joshua and the entire second-generation of Exodus people that crossed the River (Joshua 2:6-10), the first homeborn generation of Israel returned to their natural evil ways:

“And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Ba’alim: and they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger” Judges 2:11-12.

So how is it possible that they so quickly reverted to other gods? Judges chapter 1 explains that in detail; they failed to obey God, to disposes the resident people in the land that God had given them, just as God had prophesied through Moses only one generation previous:

“And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them” Deuteronomy 31:16.

(We will come back to read more of this Mosaic prophecy when we get to the Judge Gideon, but for now let’s move on).

In a recent post we discussed the fuller fulfillment of this prophecy when they later were dispossessed from their land and taken to Babylon (Deuteronomy 29:22-28), but before that pivotal event they went through periods of mini-fulfillments for one main reason; They failed to cleans their land as they were instructed:

“Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places: and ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein: for I have given you the land to possess it” Numbers 33:52-53.

We cannot blow-by this very important and key concept, because a thorough initial clean up in full obedience is extremely important to your future rest:

“…Because that this people hath transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice; I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died: That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not. Therefore the LORD left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua” Judges 2:20-23.

If you will remember, God told them he would drive out the nations little by little:

“I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land” Exodus 23:29-30.

So we see that Joshua did not fail his mission; he brought them in and established their presence by possessing the land in general, and God designed it in this way that they should continue the work as they settled and expanded through the generations. As long as they remained faithful to the goal, God would continue to faithfully drive out their enemies before them. This is a Type of your driving out your old sins after conversion.
Too often we imagine salvation is a one-time event that ends all of the quest as a completed purpose in itself, but God has made clear that entering the Land is simply the beginning of a way of life that must be secured over time. Abandon the intended way of life and eventually you find yourself also dispossessed (Leviticus 18:24-28).

So what’s my point? It is that even when you start off well and strong and full of courage to obey God in all things, there comes a point when you begin to grow comfortable as a resulting byproduct of the blessing. In the comfort will come the temptation to allow an insignificant corruption to remain because you are pretty sure you can handle it, and in fact it can even be seen as an asset:

“And it came to pass, when Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute, and did not utterly drive them out” Judges 1:28.

Not a good idea. God’s word by historical example tells us that this never turns out well; we must remain vigilant while we are strong, to complete the work originally begun, and be wary of compromises that become welcome through acquired comfort, because the fight to remove it is now distasteful and seems unproportionally costly to the advantage of having it gone.

This is the prep-work established in Judges chapters 1 and 2 that create the perpetually compounding atmosphere through the rest of the Judge’s history.
Remember; they have the Mosaic Law, but they are supposed be applying it personally in their relationship with God on their own. IF they can do this there is no need for a king to govern them, just as a dog that does not run away does not need a chain to tie him down. God is giving them that chance of freedom, and as they fail, he provides ever-increasing degrees of sorrow and regulating confused assistance, with the intent that they will figure out they don’t like it, and stop running away.

The problem is that the chain itself becomes the regulation and so when it is removed the perception is that it’s now OK to run! Watch for this concept as you read through the Judges who are like a pre-chain periodic leash-and-collar in the effort to train the dog.
* * *

Another sudden fall to evil and a sure guide back:
The first Judge of Israel, after their first fall and cry to God for help, was Caleb’s nephew Othniel (Judges 3:9), a mighty man and an obvious choice (Judges 1:12-13), who by this time was one of the last “old guys” between generations as it were, who though young at the time, was actually there in the war led by Joshua himself! What a guy to lead them, and it would be an honor to follow his experienced guidance.
One of the significant repeating things that seems so easy to miss, is that God is the deliverer.
Humanity seems so badly to want to believe that God is an idea, while we and our circumstances are our own deliverer, yet the scriptures show repeatedly that our deliverance from our oppressors has nothing to do with our circumstances and everything to do with our appeal to God. God’s Spirit empowered Othniel to deliver them (Judges 3:10-11).
* * *

A third return to evil and another guide back:
After Othniel led them in Godliness and God took him away to see what they learned, the people lacked self-control and returned to their evil ways (Judges 3:12), until the resulting oppression caused them to again cry out to God for help (Judges 3:14-14).
So God sent them Ehud to deliver them… but he was not as Godly as Othniel as we see by his crafty subterfuge to accomplish his task (Judges 3:16-30). (This is yet insignificant until we see a pattern emerge).
Although having a great victory battle, Shamgar seems to get nothing more than a sidebar as he was apparently a #2 tagteam-deliverer with Ehud for reasons I don’t yet understand.
* * *

A fourth return to evil and a woman to guide them back:
As soon as Ehud died, the people returned to their evil, almost as if they were just waiting for the day! (Judges 4:1). And God in his faithfulness returned them to oppression until they cried “uncle.” It is noteworthy that this time it took them 20 years to come around rather than the 8 years each time previous. It seems they might be getting comfortable with oppression, or maybe they weren’t crazy about following a woman.
As is his habit, God sent them a deliverer when they cried for help, but this time there is a bit of complexity; Judges 4:4 tells us that the prophetess Deborah was already their judge through the 20 years of mighty oppression, so why didn’t they take her lead earlier? I’m guessing it has something to do with her gender. Can you see that with each fall to evil God sends them a less favorable deliverer? Not less favorable to God but less favorable to their pride as “God’s people.” The narration of Judges 4 seems to dwell on the embarrassment that a woman would deliver them, in spite of the fact that they would not be delivered without the man Barak as their representative. I admit I am doing a lot of “interpreting” on this one but the passage seems to encourage it.
* * *

A fifth return to evil and a slight change of normal operating procedure:
About this time it seems the LORD is becoming less willing to continue this game of responding every time they cry out. Like the dog’s leash being finally removed, the oppression is supposed to encourage them to stop doing wrong when God lets them up, but by God’s willing rescue whenever they have had enough they seem to be learning that some oppression can be worth the disobedience.
So this time when they cried out to God he sent them a prophet to review the terms:

“And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD because of the Midianites, that the LORD sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel,
I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage; and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and drave them out from before you, and gave you their land;
And I said unto you, I am the LORD your God; fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but ye have not obeyed my voice” Judges 6:7-10.

And that’s it.
You have to wonder how long a period they were left to stew on that, perhaps thinking this time the LORD would not deliver them.
* * *

Gideon, A reluctant deliverer:
I am now keenly aware that every detail in scripture has a purpose, so it is curiously unexplained why we are told that God’s angel came and sat under an oak tree-- perhaps to watch Gideon for a time-- before we are told that the angel then appeared to him for the purpose of speaking:

“And there came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Mideanites.
And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour (2428)” Judges 6:11-12.

You would think the reaction from this special man of valor, raised up by God to deliver the people, would have been one of ready comprehension of the salutation. But instead Gideon; the man hiding his produce from the Mideanite tax collectors, replies with:

“…If the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us?...” Judges 6:13.

What? Does Gideon not know his scriptures? Remember the above Deuteronomy 31:16?

“And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither thy go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.”

That passage continues and explains the answer to Gideon’s confusion:

“Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us? And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods” Deuteronomy 31:17-18.

It’s easy to put a lot of concepts together and come up with a theoretical answer after all the data is in, but when you are living out the consequences the answers are far less important to the question; “Where is God?”
Gideon was living with the obvious, and I’m pretty sure he knew the scriptures, which seemed to confirm that God had indeed forsaken them, and so his question to the angel is valid; What do you mean the LORD is with us?”

I have intentionally separated out two concepts in this prophecy; one is a trouble that solicits a return, and the other is a trouble that is an intended punishment to endure. The punishment comes after the return loses its value by regular abuse. The question becomes; “Which level of fulfillment am I experiencing now?” so that I know what to expect from God when we cry out.
Sorrow quickly breeds hopelessness and so when things are bad you get hopeless rather than shake awake to say; “NO! Let’s not allow this to continue!”

The confusion of a regular cycle of rebellion, oppression, returning and deliverance just to rebel again, becomes so great that the cause-and-effect of their situation is no longer understood even by God’s people... nor by the man of valor that God raised up as a Judge to deliver them! The result of unexplained circumstances is that even His faithful people begin to doubt God’s faithfulness by what they see. This is simply a case in lack of passed-down knowledge (Hosea 4:6) to those who could have used it in their faith (Psalm 119:92-93, Proverbs 29:18). This concept is important for us today to comprehend in our effort to respond to God within a wicked society who asks; “If there really is a God, why does he allow all the suffering?”
Gideon was only one step away from this question when he asked the angel; “Where is God in all this?” But that step is a big one!

In what way was Gideon a “mighty man of valor” if he doubted God’s faithfulness? The answer is more clear when we understand the meaning of valour:

valour 2428 chayil; from 2342; probably a force, whether of men, means or other resources; an army, wealth, virtue, valor, strength:-- able, activity, (+) army, band of men (soldiers), company, (great) forces, goods, host, might, power, riches, strength, strong, substance, train, (+) valiant (-ly), valour, virtuous (-ly), war, worthy (-ily).

The passage continues, and Gideon’s reply to the angel makes clear that his valor is not comprised by many of these meanings:

“…Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house” Judges 6:15.

Gideon’s valor; his “force,” is found elsewhere than in his family position, his wealth, or his courage (Judges 6:17,22,27,36-39, 7:2-7,10), yet by the angel’s reply to his argument we see that his valor is indeed expressed by his own actions as he obeys the LORD (*1):

“and the LORD said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man” Judges 6:16.

The source of this valor, that the angel apparently saw as he sat under the oak tree, and commended in a man who doubted God’s presence because of the circumstances, is perhaps found in the reply of his father to those who confronted Gideon’s actions of tearing down the alter of Ba’al as God commanded him to do (Judges 6:27-30):

“And Joash said unto all that stood against him, Will you plead for Ba’al? will ye save him? he that will plead for him, let him be put to death whilst it is yet morning: if he be a god, let him plead for himself, because one hath cast down his alter” Judges 6:31.

That really took some moxy from Gideon’s father to invoke testable reality among a people emotionally driven to defend a loved idol in the land. Gideon’s valor obviously stems from his father’s faithfulness to God in a land so unprotected by God that the man’s own son is confused between his own faith and the reality he sees around him. God commended Gideon’s valor not because of his confidence or even his understanding, but wholly because of his obedience in the face of sure repercussions. Did it bother God that Gideon chose to obey God at night where he could get away with accomplishing the task before being found out? No. Gideon obeyed God in his creative way, and that was all that was asked. His valor was in his willingness to do it, and his success was in God’s presence with him just as promised (v.16). Gideon’s confidence grew as he saw God enable him to succeed, but each success was a reach of faith before the results came in.

Be comforted that God’s pleasure in you is not found in your “deep knowledge” but in your simple obedience to what you know… Yet even ignorant Gideon had some foundation of obedience in knowledge as we see him prepare a gift-offering before the angel (Judges 6:18-21) that conforms to the Mosaic law of burnt offerings (Exodus 29:1-3 and Leviticus 3:11-12,4:28,5:6) offered where the LORD commanded (Deuteronomy 12:13-14 vs. Judges 6:20).
Obedience is not obedience unless the instruction is given and heard before it is applied. After obedience, comes enlightenment and understanding of things complex… like why God has allowed this mournful condition if he really is with us.
In a period of national rebellion, the confusion in the best of God’s people becomes significant (Judges 11:30-35), and while the consequences of their confusion can be unspeakably horrible, the fact that they are God’s people doesn’t change. This is the strange marriage between legalism and eternal security that God’s confused people today can’t seem to figure out. The simple solution is a perfect heart toward God (Deuteronomy 28:47), but for some reason people keep looking for another more complex solution that also allows for self-serving lust.
Good luck with that.

Gideon’s faithfulness to God was not the problem in Israel and he served God obediently to the deliverance of his people, but what was going on in Gideon’s head when he made the golden ephah from the earrings of the conquered (Judges 8:22-27)? Like Moses’ brass serpent and the Catholic’s infatuation with the powers of artifacts, these people will worship anything but God himself!
* * *

Abimelech a Judge?
The progression of troubles and confusion continues as Abimelech, Gideon’s only son of a concubine, killed all but one of Gideon’s 70 other children (Judges 8:30-31+9:5).
Now Gideon had made it clear that he nor his children (*2) would be Israel’s ruler (Judges 8:22-23) but after he was dead Abimelech pursued other plans, and he used the thought of all 70 of Gideon’s other sons as rulers to make his singular reign suggestion seem a lot more pleasant. It’s the classic “create an imagined bad scenario to make provision for your imagined solution” Governments today do this often to get what they want.

My point here is that Gideon was the first time in which Israel began wanting a king, and Abimelech his son was the first one to attempt to fill the order (Judges 9:22), but God had other plans that did not yet include a king for Israel (Judges 9:23).
Abimelech’s rule was a self-serving mess that foretold the nature of kings, much like the present administration of Obama over America. Will we heed the warning of history or fall to the same ends? The answer will be found in our response to the oppression because of our evil ways. But remember, I already showed by interpretation that America does not get multiple chances because we have an example that we are supposed to learn by.
* * *

A few free Judges:
Now for some reason, after Abimelech, Israel had two more successive judges without an apparent oppression that solicited a cry for help. The total span of these was 45 years (Judges 10:1-4) and apparently these Judges kept Israel from wandering, perhaps an American-style gift of God to encourage a familiarity with the lifestyle they should adopt. I have no more information to shed light on this, but after they were removed Israel returned to do wickedly. You really have to wonder why God would stay with a people so bent on serving other gods, yet they are so quick to accuse God of abandonment when he turns them over to evil for their sins, in an attempt to encourage a return.
So can you really blame God when he has finally had enough?
* * *

That’s just about enough!

“And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the LORD, and served not him” Judges 10:6.

OK, you can maybe understand when for one reason or another a strange god catches your eye and you find yourself enthralled with something you didn’t see coming… but how do you explain an entire flock of gods while at the same time failing to serve your own God who has already done so much for you?
Not to rabbit trail this, but what do these many gods have that Jehovah doesn’t? It has to be an appeal to your otherwise forbidden lusts; these gods encourage what your sin nature already wants to do.
And as before, God’s anger was kindled hot and he sold them into oppression (Judges 10:7-9), which as always, resulted in a cry for help:

“And the children of the Israel cried unto the LORD, saying, We have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken our God, and also served Ba’alim” Judges 10:10.

Now I don’t want to get nit-picky here, but after hearing this kind of repentance for the 7th time, you would think God might get a bit critical. So having just read that they turned to at least 12 gods (declared plural of each nation listed) they have the chutzpah to admit serving just Baal? I’m sorry but that just doesn’t sell well at this point. Rather I get the impression that they had found that a bouquet of flowers makes everything better, and now they are using it expectantly to get away with anything they want. Now perhaps I am reading too much into this but God’s response seems to support my perception:

“And the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Did not I deliver you from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Am’mon, and from the Philistines?
The Zidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, did oppress you; and ye cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand. Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more.
Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation” Judges 10:11-14.

“Well that’s not the normal response; This could be serious this time!”

You think?~

So they reply to the LORD with a bit more seriousness:

“…We have sinned: do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee; deliver us only, we pray thee, this day” Judges 10:15.

And to show that they were really serious this time:

“And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the LORD:…” Judges 10:16a.

OK, hold on a second! Am I reading this right? They first asked God to help them by “repenting” through confessing their sins… but only after that didn’t work they actually put away their strange gods?
It really does seem apparent that because of God’s great love for us, he in fact does put up with a lot of game playing, just like a husband with a self-centered wife whom he loves!

“…and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel” Judges 10:16b.

The wording of this seems to indicate that he did not immediately fix their problems this time, though it really hurt him to watch them suffer.

Now because we have it all written down in a neat history of the events, we can see that God did in fact send them their deliverer, but he did so in a way that took a while and that they didn’t see his hand in it while they fretted.
Notice as chapter 11 opens, we see Jeph’thah actually play the argument of God as they ask for his help when they need it, after having rejected him previously. Jeph’thah queries that if he helps them and succeeds, will they accept him as their head? The elders swore they would, with the LORD as their witness, and Jeph’thah reported all this back to God.

Next we see an accurate pre-play of the Palestinian argument today. The Ammonites came to fight on Israel’s land and Jeph’thah asks why. The response is so Palestinian:

“And the king of the children of Am’mon answered unto the messengers of Jeph’thah, Because Israel took away my land, when they came up out of Egypt, from Arnon even unto Jab’bok, and unto Jordan: now therefore restore those lands again peaceably” Judges 11:13.

I guess it has only been a few thousand years so you really can’t expect them to get over it that quickly, but the details in their memory seems to still be confused as ever:

“…Thus saith Jeph’thah, Israel took not away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Am’mon: But when Israel came up from Egypt, and walked through the wilderness unto the Red sea, and came to Kadesh; Then… Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said unto him, Let us pass, we pray thee, through thy land into my place. But Sihon trusted not Israel to pass through his coast: but Sihon gathered all his people together, and pitched in Jahaz, and fought against Israel. And the LORD God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they smote them: so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country. And they possessed all the coasts of the Amorites, from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and from the wilderness even unto Jordan” Judges 11:15-22.

But very applicable today, Jeph’thah takes his reasoning argument even further:

…”While Israel dwelt in Heshbon and her towns, and in Ar’oer and her towns, and in all the cities that be along by the coasts of Arnon, three hundred years? Why therefore did ye not recover them within that time?
Wherefore I have not sinned against thee, but thou doest me wrong to war against me: the LORD the Judge be judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Am’mon” Judges 11:26-27.

The Palestinians are not a people, have never been a people, and until Israel reclaimed their own wasteland, had no interest in the land of “Palestine.” But now they come to Israel claiming they took away their land and want Israel to give it back peaceably. The story never changes, and neither do the confusions of just who is the aggressor; The Avalon Project (http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/plocov.asp).

It is really easy to box the scriptures into a non-relevant category of literature and thereby safely miss the actual implication of real-life application. Do you suppose Am’mon had allies that concerned Jeph’thah? I’m sure they did, but Jeph’thah was the deliverer sent by God because they asked for His aid to solve their very real oppressions. The one thing that the former Israel knew by multiple experiences is that God would and could deliver them if they would but ask in returning to Him as their God. Today’s Israel has no such long experience and therefore no such faith to apply. Are you beginning to see the usefulness of this history now? And why God allowed them so many returns in grace? Did God deliver them because of their faithfulness or because of His? Can today’s Israel today take this history to heart?

“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life” Romans 5:8-10.

Return to the God who loves you, look to him alone to deliver you from your sorrows, God is waiting with longing to help you. And as the Creator of all things and peoples, everyone is welcomed home if they but ask. But don’t expect much from a God whose beloved Son and deliverer you reject (Matthew 23:39).
* * *

Understand yourself:
There is more to the Judges story and we have not yet even reached the truly pitiful part, God’s patience and longsuffering with Israel is extreme and he can work with and through virtually any nutjob such as Samson to deliver a very messed up people. The trick to a successful relationship with God is to know full well that it’s not based on your goodness. God actually wants to be God to you… so let him!

“For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. In that he saith, ‘A new covenant’, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away”... Hebrews 8:12-13.

But you really need to read the previous verses!

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
and they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for (because) all shall know me, from the least to the greatest” Hebrews 8:10-11.

Have you experienced the unction of the Holy One until you find security in His rest? The key remains the same as always: you just have to choose who will be your God. When you get that decision unshakably solid, you will be ready for the age to come.
* * * * * * *

(*1) The Oak Tree Insight:
After further investigation we can conclude that like the period of Ezekiel, the Jews of this period all worshiped idols by offering sweet savor to them until they filled the land with alters for that purpose:

“Then shall ye know that I am the LORD, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour to all their idols” Ezekiel 6:13.

This is not just under specially selected trees; but almost like a game to find an unused tree, they offered their incense to their idols under EVERY thick oak. Comparable history of idol worship shows that they remain set up there beneath those trees on altars. It reminds me of Mexico where out in the middle of the desert you can find a gnarly shade tree, more often than not, with several miniature Catholic shrines set up with idols of Mary where incense has long been burned. Pictures and prayers and trinkets trash the place with a recognizable “décor” of beseechment.
So now if we are told specifically that the LORD’s angel sat under an oak tree under the authority of Gideon’s father (Judges 6:11), we must conclude that this particular oak was big enough to provide shade but had no such incense burnt under it or God would not choose to be present there:

“This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” I John 1:5.

Now if every thick oak in the land was used to burn incense to idols, and yet this oak was idol free, so that the angel reclined in its shade, we have to ask; “Why?”
As the narration develops we learn why; it’s because Gideon and his father remained unusually true to Jehovah in a land of idol worshipers. The angel declared Gideon a man of valor because his family remained true to God; this was the source of his force that the angel commended.

(*2) Son, not Children:

“Then the men of Israel said unto Gideon, Rule thou over us, both thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son also: for thou hast delivered us from the hand of Midian.
And Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: the LORD shall rule over you” Judges 8:22-23.

The passage actually says son, which indicates that in spite of having more than 70 living children, Gideon already knew that his son Abimelech had sights on the throne in rebellion to his fathers will and faith, and that the men of Israel were really only interested in being ruled by Abimelech, who was like them, in contrast to the other 70 who were like their father.
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