Archive for December 2007
Judges
Chapter summaries in Judges
Judges 1 – Further conquest by Judah, Simeon, Benjamin, Manasseh and Ephraim; failure to drive all Canaanites out of Manasseh, Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, Naphtali and Dan.
Judges 2 – God preserves some Canaanites as a thorn for Israel. After Joshua’s death Israel pursues Baals and Ashtaroth; God sends judges to defeat their enemies but Israel repeatedly forsakes him.
Judges 3 – Othniel saves Israel from slavery to Mesopotamia; Ehud saves Israel from Moab, killing Eglon; Shamgar saves Israel from the Philistines.
Judges 4 – Deborah and Barak save Israel from Jabin and Sisera; Jael kills Sisera.
Judges 5 – Deborah and Barak sing of God’s mighty deliverance; Israel has rest for 40 years.
Judges 6 – Midian oppresses Israel; God calls Gideon; Gideon tears down the altar of Baal and gathers an army; God shows Gideon the signs of the fleece.
Judges 7 – God gives Gideon and his 300 men (once 32,000) victory over Midian.
Judges 8 – Gideon completes his victory, disciplines cities that would not help, makes and worships an ephod. After his death idolatry returns.
Judges 9 – Abimelech the son of Gideon rules with treachery and evil, killing his brothers and many others. After three years God brings his death.
Judges 10 – Tola and Jair judge Israel; God gives Israel into the hands of the Philistines and Ammonites.
Judges 11 – Jephthah challenges the Ammonites and defeats them, but makes a foolish vow and must offer his daughter to the LORD.
Judges 12 – Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon and Abdon judge Israel.
Judges 13 – God gives Israel into the hands of the Philistines; the LORD appears to Manoah and his wife and tells of Samson’s birth; Samson is born.
Judges 14 – Samson pursues a Philistine woman; she betrays him and he kills thirty Philistine men.
Judges 15 – Samson kills a thousand Philistine men, and judges Israel.
Judges 16 – Delilah betrays Samson; Samson kills three thousand Philistines at his death.
Judges 17 – Micah creates an idol and ordains one of his sons and a Levite as priests.
Judges 18 – The tribe of Dan captures land for themselves and takes the idol and the Levite for themselves.
Judges 19 – A Levite and his concubine are assaulted by the men of Gibeah; she is killed and the Levite sends pieces of her body to the twelve tribes.
Judges 20 – Israel defeats the tribe of Benjamin, who refuse to give up the men of Gibeah.
Judges 21 – Israel provides wives for the survivors of the tribe of Benjamin. There was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
Hospitality
Peter Leithart writes of hospitality:
Feasting and care for the poor have been polarized in contemporary culture. If you’re a “conservative,” you’re in favor of free trade, consumption without guilt, festivity without concern for those who can’t join you, who probably deserve their poverty anyway. If you’re a “liberal,” you renounce festivity because other people are hungry and how dare you eat when someone else isn’t.
The Biblical prophets combine a promise of festivity with severe denunciation of greed, luxury, and oppression. But they combine the two seamlessly by emphasizing hospitality. The promise is a feast like the feasts of the Pentateuch, where the widow, stranger, and Levite are not forgotten but included as welcome guests.
Against both “conservative” indifference and liberal asceticism, the Bible presents the ideal of the hospitable society.
Joshua
Chapter summaries in Joshua.
Joshua 1 – God instructs Joshua and Israel to enter the land, and to be strong, courageous and faithful.
Joshua 2 – Joshua sends spies to Jericho who stay with Rahab and return with a good report.
Joshua 3 – Israel crosses the Jordan opposite Jericho on dry ground.
Joshua 4 – Israel builds a memorial of twelve stones from the Jordan to remember God’s might and fear him.
Joshua 5 – The nations fear Israel; Joshua circumcises the men and they celebrate the Passover; Joshua sees the commander of the army of the LORD.
Joshua 6 – God grants victory over Jericho.
Joshua 7 – Israel is defeated at Ai; Achan, his family and possessions are destroyed for Achan’s sin.
Joshua 8 – God grants victory over Ai; Joshua builds an altar and Israel reaffirms God’s covenant with its blessings and curses.
Joshua 9 – Gibeon deceives Israel into making them servants rather than conquering them.
Joshua 10 – The sun stands still in Israel’s battle against Gibeon’s enemies, the five Amorite kings; Israel is victorious and the kings are executed; Israel is victorious over all of southern Canaan.
Joshua 11 – Northern Canaan allies against Israel; God grants Israel victory. Joshua took the whole land and gave it for an inheritance to Israel.
Joshua 12 – A rehearsing of the kings defeated by Moses and by Joshua.
Joshua 13 – Joshua is old; the north’s Philistines and the south are unconquered. The inheritance East of the Jordan is recounted.
Joshua 14 – Caleb is given Hebron at his request.
Joshua 15 – The inheritance of Judah and of Caleb; the Jebusites are not driven out of Jerusalem.
Joshua 16 – The inheritance of Ephraim and Manasseh; Gezer is not driven out.
Joshua 17 – The inheritance of Manasseh; some Canaanites are not driven out.
Joshua 18 – Men are sent out to describe the remaining land; Benjamin’s inheritance.
Joshua 19 – The inheritance of Simeon, Zebulun, Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, Dan. Joshua is given a city.
Joshua 20 – The cities of refuge are established.
Joshua 21 – Cities and pasturelands are given to Levi. God fulfilled his promises of victory and gave Israel rest.
Joshua 22 – The eastern tribes return home; there is a misunderstanding over their altar of witness.
Joshua 23 – In his old age, Joshua reminds Israel of God’s goodness to them and charges them to remain faithful to God.
Joshua 24 – Israel renews their covenant, choosing to serve the LORD and forsaking other gods; Joshua dies.
I gotta have my orange juice. 