ripple effect: vacaville

Read Judges 13:1-25.

[Stuff we're skipping:

* Gideon goes after the bad kings and ends up capturing and killing them along with some other people who talked smack along the way.

* Weirdly, Gideon makes an ephod (a religious item); and it says that it became a snare (maybe a sense of pride?) to Gideon. Even so, Israel had peace for 40 years because of Gideon.

* Gideon had 70 sons and ends up having a son through a concubine named Abimelech (popular name...this is like the 4th one). He dies; and, after that, people turn to worshipping Baal again!

* Abimelech conspires to be king of Israel by killing all of his brothers. He kills all but the youngest, Jotham. Jotham spoke out against this insurrection and fled.

* Abimelech had a rough reign, highlighted by desperate attempts to keep power (he burned a tower full of men AND women). He was going to do it again, but some lady dropped a stone on his head. Before he died, he made some boy stab him because he didn't want to die because a woman killed him.

* Judge #6: Tola. All it says it that Israel was at peace for 23 years.

* Judge #7: Jair. He reigned 22 years, and had 30 sons on 30 donkeys!

* The Israelites served Asherah and Baal again, got beat down, cried out to God, and God gave them Judge #8, Jephthah. Jephthah was the son of a prostitute who left his home. He came back as a hero, though, and led the Israelites. He ended up cutting a deal with God, "If you let me win, I'll sacrifice whatever comes out of my house first when I return." He won, and his only daughter came out to celebrate. He ended up killing her. Whoah. Jephthah got invaded by Israelites too because he was from the Gileadites (who weren't really from Jacob's sons). They beat down all comers, though; and they could tell who was on their side by their accents. Weird. Jephthah only judged Israel for 6 years.

* Judge #9: Ibzan. He judged 7 years. Judge #10: Elon. He judged 10 years. Judge #11: Abdon. He judged 8 years.]

And that brings us to #12, probably the most famous judge…

1. So…Israel disobeyed and is oppressed by the Philistines now. Will they ever learn?
2. A Nazirite is someone who is set apart for God. They can’t eat anything from grapes, cut their hair, or come close to dead bodies. They also make three huge sacrifices in order to be set apart. This was a big deal because a Nazirite was considered holy. And this holy man will help them beat the Philistines!
3. Manoah doesn’t know the angel is an angel. He watches the “man” warp into heaven through the smoke from his sacrifice. Do you think he got it then?
4. So the cool wife gives birth to Samson. And he’ll be judge #12.

What do you think about…

Manoah?
Manoah’s wife?
The angel?