Growth of a nation

Episodes three and four of The Bible have focused on the growth of the Hebrew nation from the 2 million slaves who left Egypt to population of over 6 million who occupy the Promised Land of Canaan. No longer under the leadership of Moses and Joshua, the people are led by a collaboration of the judges and Levite priests ruling together to hear God's voice and direct His people. Over the three hundred years since the death of Joshua, Israel's territories are ruled by local judges like Deborah (Judges 4-5), Gideon (Judges 6-7) and Samson (Judges 13-16). But the judges did not develop the strong connection to God the early leaders cultivated and so they repeatedly failed to follow God's commands and led Israel astray.

Last week we saw how Samson's great strength might have stabilized Israel's power in the land. Instead, Israel was compromised and he was destroyed because he believed his wants were more important than the leadership of God. In an irony of justice, Samson's eyes, which have consistently led him to feed his desires instead of the will of God, are gouged out by his Philistine captors and this powerful man becomes their helpless slave (Judges 16:21). Some time later, Samson asks God for one last gift of unusual strength to take down the building where 3000 Philistine leaders and women are partying. God grants his prayer, but the vengeance topples Samson as well as his captors (Judges 16:28-30). The book of Judges summarizes the era as one in which the people had no one righteous leader to follow "so everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25).

Sandwiched between the stories of the judges and the kings are books of Ruth, whose devotion to Naomi and Israel's God puts her in the lineage of Christ and in First Samuel 1-3, Hannah's willingness to return to God's temple her promised son, Samuel, to be trained to take his place as Israel's final judge-high priest. Take the opportunity to read Ruth and First Samuel to be reminded of the dedication and steadfastness of these servants of God.

While Samuel is a faithful leader, he is a poor father and his sons are corrupt and evil men, unfit to rule in Samuel's place (First Samuel 8). Eventually, God commands Samuel to add another anointed post to prophet and priest - that of king. God directs him to anoint the first two kings of Israel: King Saul and then David. And with God's permissive will, the rocky and crooked reign of Israel's kings begins. These first kings vividly show us how God's clay pots can have bursts of greatness with His leadership followed by long, all too familiar periods of weak self-serving. For me, these stories show me what we look like in God's eyes...limitless potential for His mighty work frequently mired in the dust of our humanity.

Alana