Friday, August 7, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
The Book of Judges
The Sunday School class I am part of at my church is getting ready to begin a study of the Book of Judges. This book is a history of the period of history of Israel from the time of the death of Joshua until the time of the first king of Israel.
The constant theme of Judges is the falling away from God and their covenant with Him, which covenant includes blessings for their obedience, but also the curses He promised would befall them if they strayed from the keeping of the Covenant. During this period of their history, God allowed them to be persecuted by the Canaanites and other tribes that they failed to destroy as commanded by God, which tribes God allowed then to remain until His chosen time to remove them. This was purposeful on God's part, because the Children of Israel would constantly be at war with these peoples who attacked them with frequency, raiding and taking their crops, the fruits of their labors. In this way, Israel would be forced to train for war in order to protect themselves, and eventually conquer most of the land promised them by God.
God also sent them at various times during this period, judges; men who would not only preach repentance and return to God, but also lead Israel in war against their various antagonists.
The book of Judges is an exciting book, at least to me, as it shows God's mercy over and over, to come to the aid of the nation of Israel, even though He knew that all had not fully repented, and that eventually, most would fall into pagan worship again.
This is a book of both judgment and mercy.
The commentator Matthew Henry has this to say aobut Chapter Three of the Book of Judges:
"Jdg 3:1-7
We are here told what remained of the old inhabitants of Canaan. 1. There were some of them that kept together in united bodies, unbroken (Jdg_3:3): The five lords of the Philistines, namely, Ashdod, Gaza, Askelon, Gath, and Ekron, 1Sa_6:17. Three of these cities had been in part reduced (Jdg_1:18), but it seems the Philistines (probably with the help of the other two, which strengthened their confederacy with each other thenceforward) recovered the possession of them. These gave the greatest disturbance to Israel of any of the natives, especially in the latter times of the judges, and they were never quite reduced until David's time. There was a particular nation called Canaanites, that kept their ground with the Sidonians, upon the coast of the great sea. And in the north the Hivites held much of Mount Lebanon, it being a remote corner, in which perhaps they were supported by some of the neighbouring states. But, besides these, 2. There were every where in all parts of the country some scatterings of the nations (Jdg_3:5), Hittites, Amorites, etc., which, by Israel's foolish connivance and indulgence, were so many, so easy, and so insolent, that the children of Israel are said to dwell among them, as if the right had still remained in the Canaanites, and the Israelites had been taken in by their permission and only as tenants at will.
Now concerning these remnants of the natives observe,
I. How wisely God permitted them to remain. It is mentioned in the close of the foregoing chapter as an act of God's justice, that he let them remain for Israel's correction. But here another construction is put upon it, and it appears to have been an act of God's wisdom, that he let them remain for Israel's real advantage, that those who had not known the wars of Canaan might learn war, Jdg_3:1, Jdg_3:2. It was the will of God that the people of Israel should be inured to war, 1. Because their country was exceedingly rich and fruitful, and abounded with dainties of all sorts, which, if they were not sometimes made to know hardship, would be in danger of sinking them into the utmost degree of luxury and effeminacy. They must sometimes wade in blood, and not always in milk and honey, lest even their men of war, by the long disuse of arms, should become as soft and as nice as the tender and delicate woman, that would not set so much as the sole of her foot to the ground for tenderness and delicacy, a temper as destructive to every thing that is good as it is to every thing that is great, and therefore to be carefully watched against by all God's Israel. 2. Because their country lay very much in the midst of enemies, by whom they must expect to be insulted; for God's heritage was a speckled bird; the birds round about were against her, Jer_12:9. It was therefore necessary they should be well disciplined, that they might defend their coasts when invaded, and might hereafter enlarge their coast as God had promised them. The art of war is best learnt by experience, which not only acquaints men with martial discipline, but (which is no less necessary) inspires them with a martial disposition. It was for the interest of Israel to breed soldiers, as it is the interest of an island to breed sea-men, and therefore God left Canaanites among them, that, by the less difficulties and hardships they met with in encountering them, they might be prepared for greater, and, by running with the footmen, might learn to contend with horses, Jer_12:5. Israel was a figure of the church militant, that must fight its way to a triumphant state. The soldiers of Christ must endure hardness, 2Ti_2:3. Corruption is therefore left remaining in the hearts even of good Christians, that they may learn war, may keep on the whole armour of God, and stand continually upon their guard. The learned bishop Patrick offers another sense of Jdg_3:2 : That they might know to teach them war, that is, they shall know what it is to be left to themselves. Their fathers fought by a divine power. God taught their hands to war and their fingers to fight; but now that they have forfeited his favour let them learn what it is to fight like other men.
II. How wickedly Israel mingled themselves with those that did remain. One thing God intended in leaving them among them was to prove Israel (Jdg_3:4), that those who were faithful to the God of Israel might have the honour of resisting the Canaanites' allurements to idolatry, and that those who were false and insincere might be discovered, and might fall under the shame of yielding to those allurements. Thus in the Christian churches there must needs be heresies, that those who are perfect may be made manifest, 1Co_11:19. Israel, upon trial, proved bad. 1. They joined in marriage with the Canaanites (Jdg_3:6), though they could not advance either their honour or their estate by marrying with them. They would mar their blood instead of mending it, and sink their estates instead of raising them, by such marriages. 2. Thus they were brought to join in worship with them; they served their gods (Jdg_3:6), Baalim and the groves (Jdg_3:7), that is, the images that were worshipped in groves of thick trees, which were a sort of natural temples. In such unequal matches there is more reason to fear that the bad will corrupt the good than to hope that the good will reform the bad, as there is in laying two pears together, the one rotten and the other sound. When they inclined to worship other gods they forgot the Lord their God. In complaisance to their new relations, they talked of nothing by Baalim and the groves, so that by degrees they lost the remembrance of the true God, and forgot there was such a Being, and what obligations they lay under to him. In nothing is the corrupt memory of man more treacherous than in this, that it is apt to forget God; because out of sight, he is out of mind; and here begins all the wickedness that is in the world: they have perverted their way, for they have forgotten the Lord their God."
To download the free Bible resources I use on my PC, click on the title of the post. It will take you to the E-sword.com web site, where the basic program is free, as are a great number of resources that are no longer protected by copy right laws and are herefore in the public domain.
There is absolutely no charge for the basic program or any of hte free resources. The only resources that require payment for download are study resources and Bibles that are currently protected by copyright laws.
It is my prayer that many will choose to take advantage of this resource, and that God will bless their use of it.
The constant theme of Judges is the falling away from God and their covenant with Him, which covenant includes blessings for their obedience, but also the curses He promised would befall them if they strayed from the keeping of the Covenant. During this period of their history, God allowed them to be persecuted by the Canaanites and other tribes that they failed to destroy as commanded by God, which tribes God allowed then to remain until His chosen time to remove them. This was purposeful on God's part, because the Children of Israel would constantly be at war with these peoples who attacked them with frequency, raiding and taking their crops, the fruits of their labors. In this way, Israel would be forced to train for war in order to protect themselves, and eventually conquer most of the land promised them by God.
God also sent them at various times during this period, judges; men who would not only preach repentance and return to God, but also lead Israel in war against their various antagonists.
The book of Judges is an exciting book, at least to me, as it shows God's mercy over and over, to come to the aid of the nation of Israel, even though He knew that all had not fully repented, and that eventually, most would fall into pagan worship again.
This is a book of both judgment and mercy.
The commentator Matthew Henry has this to say aobut Chapter Three of the Book of Judges:
"Jdg 3:1-7
We are here told what remained of the old inhabitants of Canaan. 1. There were some of them that kept together in united bodies, unbroken (Jdg_3:3): The five lords of the Philistines, namely, Ashdod, Gaza, Askelon, Gath, and Ekron, 1Sa_6:17. Three of these cities had been in part reduced (Jdg_1:18), but it seems the Philistines (probably with the help of the other two, which strengthened their confederacy with each other thenceforward) recovered the possession of them. These gave the greatest disturbance to Israel of any of the natives, especially in the latter times of the judges, and they were never quite reduced until David's time. There was a particular nation called Canaanites, that kept their ground with the Sidonians, upon the coast of the great sea. And in the north the Hivites held much of Mount Lebanon, it being a remote corner, in which perhaps they were supported by some of the neighbouring states. But, besides these, 2. There were every where in all parts of the country some scatterings of the nations (Jdg_3:5), Hittites, Amorites, etc., which, by Israel's foolish connivance and indulgence, were so many, so easy, and so insolent, that the children of Israel are said to dwell among them, as if the right had still remained in the Canaanites, and the Israelites had been taken in by their permission and only as tenants at will.
Now concerning these remnants of the natives observe,
I. How wisely God permitted them to remain. It is mentioned in the close of the foregoing chapter as an act of God's justice, that he let them remain for Israel's correction. But here another construction is put upon it, and it appears to have been an act of God's wisdom, that he let them remain for Israel's real advantage, that those who had not known the wars of Canaan might learn war, Jdg_3:1, Jdg_3:2. It was the will of God that the people of Israel should be inured to war, 1. Because their country was exceedingly rich and fruitful, and abounded with dainties of all sorts, which, if they were not sometimes made to know hardship, would be in danger of sinking them into the utmost degree of luxury and effeminacy. They must sometimes wade in blood, and not always in milk and honey, lest even their men of war, by the long disuse of arms, should become as soft and as nice as the tender and delicate woman, that would not set so much as the sole of her foot to the ground for tenderness and delicacy, a temper as destructive to every thing that is good as it is to every thing that is great, and therefore to be carefully watched against by all God's Israel. 2. Because their country lay very much in the midst of enemies, by whom they must expect to be insulted; for God's heritage was a speckled bird; the birds round about were against her, Jer_12:9. It was therefore necessary they should be well disciplined, that they might defend their coasts when invaded, and might hereafter enlarge their coast as God had promised them. The art of war is best learnt by experience, which not only acquaints men with martial discipline, but (which is no less necessary) inspires them with a martial disposition. It was for the interest of Israel to breed soldiers, as it is the interest of an island to breed sea-men, and therefore God left Canaanites among them, that, by the less difficulties and hardships they met with in encountering them, they might be prepared for greater, and, by running with the footmen, might learn to contend with horses, Jer_12:5. Israel was a figure of the church militant, that must fight its way to a triumphant state. The soldiers of Christ must endure hardness, 2Ti_2:3. Corruption is therefore left remaining in the hearts even of good Christians, that they may learn war, may keep on the whole armour of God, and stand continually upon their guard. The learned bishop Patrick offers another sense of Jdg_3:2 : That they might know to teach them war, that is, they shall know what it is to be left to themselves. Their fathers fought by a divine power. God taught their hands to war and their fingers to fight; but now that they have forfeited his favour let them learn what it is to fight like other men.
II. How wickedly Israel mingled themselves with those that did remain. One thing God intended in leaving them among them was to prove Israel (Jdg_3:4), that those who were faithful to the God of Israel might have the honour of resisting the Canaanites' allurements to idolatry, and that those who were false and insincere might be discovered, and might fall under the shame of yielding to those allurements. Thus in the Christian churches there must needs be heresies, that those who are perfect may be made manifest, 1Co_11:19. Israel, upon trial, proved bad. 1. They joined in marriage with the Canaanites (Jdg_3:6), though they could not advance either their honour or their estate by marrying with them. They would mar their blood instead of mending it, and sink their estates instead of raising them, by such marriages. 2. Thus they were brought to join in worship with them; they served their gods (Jdg_3:6), Baalim and the groves (Jdg_3:7), that is, the images that were worshipped in groves of thick trees, which were a sort of natural temples. In such unequal matches there is more reason to fear that the bad will corrupt the good than to hope that the good will reform the bad, as there is in laying two pears together, the one rotten and the other sound. When they inclined to worship other gods they forgot the Lord their God. In complaisance to their new relations, they talked of nothing by Baalim and the groves, so that by degrees they lost the remembrance of the true God, and forgot there was such a Being, and what obligations they lay under to him. In nothing is the corrupt memory of man more treacherous than in this, that it is apt to forget God; because out of sight, he is out of mind; and here begins all the wickedness that is in the world: they have perverted their way, for they have forgotten the Lord their God."
To download the free Bible resources I use on my PC, click on the title of the post. It will take you to the E-sword.com web site, where the basic program is free, as are a great number of resources that are no longer protected by copy right laws and are herefore in the public domain.
There is absolutely no charge for the basic program or any of hte free resources. The only resources that require payment for download are study resources and Bibles that are currently protected by copyright laws.
It is my prayer that many will choose to take advantage of this resource, and that God will bless their use of it.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Executiive Change
Steve Hartnett of Grapevine Texas has started a group to work for change in corporate executive pay structures. Steve is a businessman himself, having been successful in his entrepreneurship for a couple of decades at least.
Just a taste of what you will find at Executive Change:
"Senate Leader Introduces Bill Limiting Deductible Compensation
Issue: Executive/Deferred Compensation
Action Taken: On May 7, the Senate Democrats’ second-in-command, Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL), introduced S.1007--the Excessive Pay Capped Deduction Act of 2009-- a bill that would impose a limit on the deductibility of compensation paid to any company employee. At the same time, he also introduced S.1006, a bill that would require a supermajority of publicly traded company shareholders to approve compensation payable to any company employees if that compensation package were to be in excess of the limit. The limit is 100 times the company’s average compensation."
____________________________________________________________________
This is not a partisan issue. I am a Conservative, but I believe that minority stock holders are getting a raw deal from the companies they hold stock in when these companies throw money hand over fist into executive compensation packages, especially when these companies are losing value and under performing, or the ones who have taken the Porkulus bailout and then paid millions in bonuses to executives who have not earned them.
This in turn is bad for the economy because the executives can ignore what is good for stockholders while making gross amounts of compensation in the form of inflated salaries, stock options, and other compensation such as enough retirement money to fund retirement for hundreds if not thousands of employees.
Click on the title to this post to go to Steve's blog, and if you agree with what is being proposed there, join the effort.
Just a taste of what you will find at Executive Change:
"Senate Leader Introduces Bill Limiting Deductible Compensation
Issue: Executive/Deferred Compensation
Date: May 11, 2009
Action Taken: On May 7, the Senate Democrats’ second-in-command, Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL), introduced S.1007--the Excessive Pay Capped Deduction Act of 2009-- a bill that would impose a limit on the deductibility of compensation paid to any company employee. At the same time, he also introduced S.1006, a bill that would require a supermajority of publicly traded company shareholders to approve compensation payable to any company employees if that compensation package were to be in excess of the limit. The limit is 100 times the company’s average compensation."
____________________________________________________________________
This is not a partisan issue. I am a Conservative, but I believe that minority stock holders are getting a raw deal from the companies they hold stock in when these companies throw money hand over fist into executive compensation packages, especially when these companies are losing value and under performing, or the ones who have taken the Porkulus bailout and then paid millions in bonuses to executives who have not earned them.
This in turn is bad for the economy because the executives can ignore what is good for stockholders while making gross amounts of compensation in the form of inflated salaries, stock options, and other compensation such as enough retirement money to fund retirement for hundreds if not thousands of employees.
Click on the title to this post to go to Steve's blog, and if you agree with what is being proposed there, join the effort.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Iran, among other things
TEHRAN, Iran - In a sign of endurance for Iran's protest movement, demonstrators clashed with police Friday as one of the nation's most powerful clerics challenged the supreme leader during Muslim prayers, saying country was in crisis in the wake of a disputed election.
Why Obamacare can't work.
In his speech to the AMA in Chicago June 15, 2009, Obama shared his diagnosis, solutions, and justification for healthcare reform: health costs are spiraling out of control and are a threat to the economy, families, businesses, and the federal government. The current system is unsustainable. Costs are increasing faster than they should because we spend money on things that don't make us healthier. We equate expensive care with better care. We overuse and reimburse for treatments that are not needed and we pay for quantity instead of quality.
Click on the link in the title of this part of my post for the full treatment.
Consider this; Social Security is going to run out in 2023, or so they tell us. The truth is, it has already run out, there is no social security trust fund, the number of people retiring is increasing and our working population is decreasing.
Common sense should tell us that adding more debt to the Federal Budget for healthcare in teh face of a crisis in the whole Social Security Program is just plain insane, for lack of a better definition, at least one I can publish in common decency.
This probably helps explain the eagerness of both parties in DC to grant amnesty, yes, that its what it is, to illegal immigrants who are here in violation of the laws of our nation. They need someone to take the place of our declining work force.
Meanwhile, they are busy destroying our economy, and may not be able to provide jobs for those they grant amnesty in the very near future. Obama contradicts himself on how well the economy is doing; telling us one day it is looking good, and a day or two later that it is going to be a long haul to recovery.
The turnout of tens of thousands of worshippers for former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's sermon at Tehran University and the battles with police outside represented the biggest opposition show of strength in weeks. Protesters faced fierce government suppression and hundreds were arrested following the disputed June 12 presidential election.
Read the rest by clicking on the tile of this post.
***************************************************************************************
And now to things of concern on the home front.Why Obamacare can't work.
In his speech to the AMA in Chicago June 15, 2009, Obama shared his diagnosis, solutions, and justification for healthcare reform: health costs are spiraling out of control and are a threat to the economy, families, businesses, and the federal government. The current system is unsustainable. Costs are increasing faster than they should because we spend money on things that don't make us healthier. We equate expensive care with better care. We overuse and reimburse for treatments that are not needed and we pay for quantity instead of quality.
Click on the link in the title of this part of my post for the full treatment.
Consider this; Social Security is going to run out in 2023, or so they tell us. The truth is, it has already run out, there is no social security trust fund, the number of people retiring is increasing and our working population is decreasing.
Common sense should tell us that adding more debt to the Federal Budget for healthcare in teh face of a crisis in the whole Social Security Program is just plain insane, for lack of a better definition, at least one I can publish in common decency.
This probably helps explain the eagerness of both parties in DC to grant amnesty, yes, that its what it is, to illegal immigrants who are here in violation of the laws of our nation. They need someone to take the place of our declining work force.
Meanwhile, they are busy destroying our economy, and may not be able to provide jobs for those they grant amnesty in the very near future. Obama contradicts himself on how well the economy is doing; telling us one day it is looking good, and a day or two later that it is going to be a long haul to recovery.
This is Gadfly, the annoying pest, out for the night.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Iran protesters take to the streets.
CAIRO — Thousands of Iranians poured into the streets of Tehran on Thursday, clapping, chanting, almost mocking the authorities as they once again turned out in large numbers in defiance of the government’s threat to crush their protests with violence.
Skip to next paragraph 
Multimedia
Associated Press
In Tehran, police officers fired tear gas, and they and militia members reportedly beat protesters. More Photos »
As tear gas canisters cracked and hissed in the middle of crowds, and baton-wielding police officers chased protesters up and down sidewalks, young people, some bloodied, ran for cover, but there was an almost festive feeling on the streets of Tehran, witnesses reported in e-mail exchanges.
A young woman, her clothing covered in blood, ran up Kargar Street, paused for a moment and said, “I am not scared, because we are in this together.”**************************************************************************************
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's supreme leader has imposed his will on the streets with security forces that crushed mass protests over the country's disputed election. But he faces an unprecedented level of behind-the-scenes political discontent among the Muslim clerics who form the theological bedrock of the Islamic Republic.
The bitterness could represent a deeper, long-term challenge to the rule of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The outright rejection by some clerics of election results that Khamenei ruled valid breaks a basic taboo against criticizing the man who in the philosophy of the Islamic Revolution literally represents God's rule on earth.
We also would like to see an end to the brutality towards women by the religious enforcers of Iran. How about an end to honor killings and hanging women for adultery who were raped, not adulterers. Homosexuals? I believe they have a right to live, work, have a place to live. I don't hate them, thought some will claim I do, because I believe that practicing homosexuality is a sin against God. The homosexuals who know me as a friend or acquaintance know that I love them, and pray for them.
We don't hang homosexuals in the United States. I don't deny that some people show them hate, like the Phelps group, the Ayatollahs of American Christianity. In Iran, they are hung, sometimes after being raped by men as a punishment. How sick is that.
God's love and peace.
Gadfly
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Iran: The protest pick upsteam again.
CAIRO — Thousands of Iranians poured into the streets of Tehran on Thursday, clapping, chanting, almost mocking the authorities as they once again turned out in large numbers in defiance of the government’s threat to crush their protests with violence.
Skip to next paragraph
Multimedia
Associated Press
In Tehran, police officers fired tear gas, and they and militia members reportedly beat protesters. More Photos »
____________________________________________________________________
These people are courageously challenging a brutal regime for the right to have a true Deomocracy with real elections and not suppression of protests. A more moderate government, a secular government, is what they desire.
Pray for these brave people. Their victory will be a victory for religious tolerance in a nation that has become a brutal persecutor of any religion but Islam, a nation where the Zoroastrians and Christians and others have token rights in theory, but persecution is what they receive if they make a public display of thier religion, or proselytize.
Proselytizing, and leaving Islam are punishable by death.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
George W. Bush speaks in Woodward, Oklahoma
President George W. Bush received a thunderous welcome in Woodward, Oklahoma. He spoke at their 4th of July celebration.
Click the title of this post to go to the source of the video and read the blog.
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