In the book of Judges we learned after Jephthah, Ibzan and Elon ruled, “Abdon the son of Hillel, a Pirathonite, judged Israel. And he had forty sons and thirty nephews, that rode on threescore and ten ass colts: and he judged Israel eight years. And Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died, and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the mount of the Amalekites”, and in chapter thirteen and verse one of Judges, we learn how, “the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD ” where we read,
And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD;
and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.
The verse reads, “And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD;” The writer began with the words, “and the children of Israel” which means “and the offspring and progeny belonging to Israel whose name means ‘God prevails’ and is the name of the descendants and the nation of the descendants of Jacob” “did evil again” or ”performed and produced bad, malignancy, disagreeableness and wickedness another time”, “in the sight of the LORD” which means “within the vision and presence belonging to Jehovah who is the existing One and the proper name of the One True God”. The writer shared how the offspring belonging to “Israel” performed malignancy and wickedness within the presence of Jehovah God another time.
The verse goes on to say, “and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.” The writer continued with the words, “and the LORD” which means “and Jehovah who is the existing One” “delivered them in the hand” or “set, put, established and assigned them, the people of Israel, to be under the power, might, strength and authority” “of the Philistines” which means “belonging to the Philistines whose name means ‘immigrants” and were the inhabitants of Philistia; descendants of Mizraim who immigrated from Caphtor (Crete?) to the western seacoast of Canaan” “forty years” or “forty annual sets of days”. The writer shared how Jehovah God responded to the wickedness performed by the people of “Israel” by putting them into the power and might of the “Philistines”.
When we consider the words in this verse, we learn how the people of “Israel” performed wickedness within the presence of Jehovah God yet another time, and on this occasion He set and put them under the power and authority of the “Philistines”. This was not God’s original desire, and if the people of “Israel” had not abandoned Him and His ways, they would have never suffered this consequence. However, they, like us, sometimes need to go through difficulties to turn back to Him. God loves us, and He sent His Son Jesus into the world to die on the cross for the sins of all mankind and raised Him from the dead after three days. When we yield to Him as our personal “Savior and Lord”, He will forgive our sins, grant us everlasting life and put His Holy Spirit within us to guide us into all truth and empower us to live according to that truth so we never turn away from Him and thereby do not have to suffer consequences from our hating foes. (See John 3:16; 2 Thessalonians 3:3)
Next time we learn how, “there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites whose name was Manoah”, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.
Until tomorrow…there is more…
See more devotionals on the website "thewordfortodaywithray.com" or look for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation to Generation”, the marriage book “So, You Want to Be Married”, “One Year in the Sermon on the Mount” and the new poetry book "Random Mushrooms Volumes I and II" and the new novel "Elizabeth County" in all major bookstore sites, http://www.amazon.com ; http://www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore. All references are from "Strongs Concordance”.
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