Monday

15-April

Judges 10-12; Eccl 7:14-29; John 19

Judges 10:  How long did Israel follow God and then for how long did they turn away from God and worship other gods?

Judges 11:  Who did the Israelites look to for leadership? What vow did Jephthah make to the Lord?

Judges 12:  What caused tribes of Israel to fight against each other?  What is the significance of the word “Shibboleth”?

John 19:  What do you think of Pontius Pilate’s process in condemning Jesus?  Are you aware of the fulfillment of prophecy in Jesus’ crucifixion and death? Where was Jesus buried? (Read verses 36-37)

Journal Prompt: Consider and write about the words of this song, “The Power of the Cross” which we sang today in church:

Oh, to see my name
Written in the wounds,
For through Your suffering I am free.
Death is crushed to death;
Life is mine to live,
Won through Your selfless love. 

Answers:

Judges 10:  For 55 years, the Israelites followed God under the judges, Tolu and Jair. Then they ‘served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. And they forsook the Lord and did not serve him.” (verse 6)  During this time they were overtaken and oppressed by the Philistines and the Ammonites – this went on for 18 years before they cried out to God.

Judges 11:  The Israelites asked Jephthah, a mighty warrior and illegitimate son of Gilead and a prostitute, to lead them.  Gilead’s sons had excluded him from the family inheritance, so he had fled to live in the land of Tob. Jephthah vowed to the Lord “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the Lord’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.”  After he was victorious upon returning home the first person to come out of his house was his daughter – his only child.

Judges 12:  The Ephraimites accused Jephthah and the Gileadites about going to battle without them.  Jephthah told them it was their choice and they ended up in battle.  Shibboleth was a ‘password’ that the Gileadites required from anyone crossing the river – the Ephraimites could not say the ‘sh’ sound, and so the Gileadites would make them say the word and their inability to pronounce it would lead to their death.

John 19:   It was obvious that Pilate did not desire for Jesus to be condemned and he did what he could to convince the crowd not to condemn him as we see in verses  4, 6, 9 and 12 – and also 19, where he had the inscription: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, written to be placed on the cross.