February 12

Journey-through-the-Bible-with-us

READING FOR FEBRUARY 12, 2025: JUDGES 15, MATTHEW 8, PSALM 6                             JUDGES 15 This scene begins with Samson going to see his wife at her father’s home. He brings with him what must have been the then equivalent of chocolate or roses: a young goat. His father-in-law blocks his entrance and informs Samson he has given the woman to Samson’s friend because he thought Samson was angry with her.  The father tries to interest Samson in his younger daughter, to no avail. This story is full of people acting in an ungodly way, much like we experience today. The odds are not good for a Hallmark Christmas movie ending.  

Samson, in his anger, captured 300 jackals, tied them by their tails, and placed torches between their tails. He then let them loose in Philistine fields, ruining their crops. As we see in the middle east today, an act of violence leads to retaliation. The Philistines burned to death Samson’s wife and father-in-law, convenient scapegoats. This in turn led Samson to slaughter Philistines, thinking this would end the cycle of violence. Do we think it will?   

Faced with a military mobilization by the Philistines, 3,000 men of Judah didn’t bravely rise up and throw off the yoke of their oppressors. Instead, they turned over Samson, God’s chosen deliverer, to the Philistines. This didn’t catch the sovereign (all authoritative), omniscient (all knowing) God by surprise. The Spirit of the Lord rushed (isn’t that a great picture) upon Sam-- son. He found a jawbone and killed 1000 Philistines with it.  Again, we see God using unlikely, even very flawed people to achieve His purposes through methods we could never imagine. How can God use us to achieve his purposes today? “And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28: 18-20).

MATTHEW 8 As has been mentioned earlier, during the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus raised the standard of holy living considerably from the Old Testament law. Perhaps we think today we cannot ask too much of our congregation or guests who are exploring Christianity. It says in verse 1, though, that great multitudes followed Him as he descended from the mountain after this extremely challenging sermon. Maybe it would be better to call people to Kingdom great-- ness than to worry about scaring new attenders away by making too many spiritual demands. 

As Jesus left the mountain, he engaged in three episodes involving healing:

  • A leper approached Jesus, correctly stating that Jesus could heal if He was willing—a great insight. Jesus confirmed this by healing the man. Jesus in turn had a task for the man: don’t tell anyone about the healing but present an offering to the priest as a testimony to them. Perhaps this underlined his previous statement about coming not to abolish the law but to fulfill it (Matt. 5:17). 

READING FOR FEBRUARY 12, 2025 CONTINUED: MATTHEW 8, PSALM 6

  • As Jesus entered Capernaum, which would serve as his base of operations, a Roman centurion approached. He was part of an occupying force. (This episode also appears in Luke 7 with some key differences. Those differences deserve analysis but will be better addressed during the study of Luke.) Again, the centurion had remarkably good insight about Jesus—much better than the religious leadership (often the case today). The centurion made a masterful analogy comparing his position as a man under authority and also having complete authority over 100 soldiers with Jesus’s complete authority over natural forces, such as illness. Thus, Jesus healed the centurion’s servant remotely, not even traveling to the scene. Jesus used this opportunity to prophesy about the worldwide family in the Kingdom. This has certainly come true. The locations of greatest Christian activity now are South Amer- ica, Africa, Asia. Let’s also pray for places of declining activity: North America, Europe, and Australia.
  • Then Jesus arrived at Peter’s house and noticed that Peter’s mother-in-law was sick. Jesus touched her and her fever left. An interesting detail is that she immediately arose from bed to serve Jesus. This is a great reminder that when we are healed or receive any blessing from God, we have the opportunity to respond by immediately serving God.

The healings Jesus performed are a fulfillment of Isaish’s prophecy that “He Himself took our infirmities and carried away our diseases.”  Some Bible teachers believe that such healings no longer take place after the period of the Apostles. Many others suggest there is no Biblical reason for miracles not to occur today and in fact do in places of more dynamic faith. Talking

about lacking dynamic faith, Jesus pointed out two such cases in this chapter:

  • One of his disciples asked if he could follow Jesus after his father was buried, possibly waiting for an indetermined amount of time until his father died. 
  • Other disciples experienced a storm while in a boat and thought they were perishing.

In both cases, Jesus rebuked his disciples. He wants us to go all in now following Him, not fearing the obstacles. Do we have reasons for holding back in serving Jesus? It’s not likely to be more convenient later. A third example is an outright rejection. An entire city asked Jesus to leave. Pray that we and those we love won’t ask Jesus to leave. It’s possible to do so by the choices we make without realizing we are rejecting our only hope in this life and the next. 

PSALM 6 Rather than considering content this time, let’s think about poetic structure. In C. S. Lewis’s book on the Psalms, he mentions that the poetic technique used most often in the Psalms is parallelism. In each verse the Psalmist writes a brief phrase then immediately afterwards repeats content that means the same but with different words. In Psalm 6:1 we read, “Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger,” followed by a short phrase that means the same: “Nor discipline me in Your wrath.”  Psalm 6:2 starts with, “Be gracious to me, Lord, for I am frail,” followed by the similar “Heal me, Lord, for my bones are horrified.” Lewis mentions that this repetition is great for remembering but also fortunately works well when translated to any language. We need to remember to interpret these Psalms as poetry. Also, consider God’s anger/wrath. What is it?