Day 7

"God it turns out, does not require good people in order to do good work. He can and does work with us in whatever moral and spiritual condition he finds us. God, we are learning, does some of His best work using the most unlikely people."
-Eugene Peterson

I finished up Joshua and moved to Judges today, where I read Gideon's story. He was called by God to defeat the Midianites. Turns out he had 70 sons! One son, Abimelech, killed all the other sons but Jotham with one stone. Abimelech was then Israel's king for 3 years.

The next story I came across was Samson's. An angel of God came down and spoke to Manoah's wife. She learned she was pregnant with a son and he would be God's nazirite from his birth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazirite
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascetic

God's power came over Samson at a young age. In the vineyards of Timnah, he ripped a young lion (I'm assuming bigger than Simba) open with his bare hands, but he didn't tell his parents of this occurrence. Samson returned to the scene of the crime and bees swarmed the carcass and honey was there. Mmm bee vomit inside a carcass...is there a metaphor here? He must've been the Andrew Zimmern of his time.

Samson thought a Philistine woman was "the one" so his father made arrangements with the woman, while Samson prepared a feast. Young men did that in those days and because the people were cautious, they arranged for thirty friends to mingle with him. Samson has a riddle for them. and suggests that if they can figure it out during the seven days of the feast, he'll give them thirty linen garments and thirty changes of fine clothes. But if they can't figure it out then they'll give him thirty linen garments and thirty changes of fine clothes.

Here's the riddle: From the eater came something to eat, from the strong came something sweet.

No one would figure out the riddle so Samson's bride to be turned on the water works and nagged him to tell her the answer. On the 7th day, the men asked for the answer to which Samson replied, "If you hadn't plowed with my heifer, you would've have found out my riddle." Substitute wife for heifer. Samson received God's power and took out 30 Ashkelon men and gave their clothing to the riddle solvers. His bride became his best man's wife, which apparently, he wasn't aware of. In retaliation, he took 30 jackals (similar to coyote), lashed the tails together, and tied a torch to each pair. They were let loose in the Philistine vineyard. Samson's bride and her father were then burned death...that seems fair :p

Samson meets Delilah. Delilah gets bribed by tyrants to find out Samson's secret strength, which are his long flowing locks. Delilah nags endlessly and Samson caves. The Philistines gouge out his eyes and imprison him all the while boasting their god Dagon gave them Samson. Three thousand people see Samson on display. God gives him strength one last time and he pulls in on the pillars he's chained to and kills everyone, including himself.