My thoughts (Julie Benson):

Welcome to Jerry Springer, 13th Century BC.

Our first guest today is Samson, a man of enormous strength and violent behavior. He is popular with the Israelites who see him as their protector. Consecrated to God at birth, Samson has taken a Nazirite vow to never drink wine, to never touch a dead body, and to let his hair remain unshaven throughout his life.

Meet Delilah: Samson’s latest love interest, from the Valley of Sorek. Though she has never professed her love, Delilah has preyed upon Samson and has broken her lover’s heart insisting that Samson divulge his secret of strength to her. She is the poster child of femme fatales for her seductiveness, conspiracy, and deception toward her lover.

Waiting backstage are the Philistines. With their power and Delilah’s vulnerable social position, they have used Delilah as a pawn in their political games to rid themselves of Samson. It is difficult to estimate what Delilah’s emotional response may be, but by providing her with enough income to last her the rest of her life, there is little she can do but accept this offer.

Delilah asks Samson to trust her enough to reveal his own weakness and to let go of the need to be in control. Delilah has power over Samson and uses it to her best advantage. The audience can feel Samson’s loathing and exasperation as Delilah incessantly nags him and nags him and nags him: “If you really loved me…”

When we carry an attitude of entitlement, our dealings with others are often the same. Our motives and intentions become selfish and we disregard the sacred worth of those we truly love. It is the ones we are closest to that most often receive the brunt of our ugly ego. We issue demands and ultimatums, and we refuse to relinquish control. Like Delilah, we advance on our target with tunnel vision, leaving no room for discussion or compromise. We need to stop the aggression and realize that we do not own our partner. Consciously choosing gentleness over hostility will only strengthen a relationship. The next time you have a burning request, check your own ego at the door and fully consider the other’s value and worth.

‘Til next time, take care of yourself — and each other.

Thought for the day: Reflect upon how you have been treating the person closest to you in your life. Identify one area of that relationship that needs extra nurture and care; then develop a plan to foster that growth.

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. Use the item above as a starting point, or consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.

As you read, consider: What might God be saying to me in this passage? Summarize your thoughts in a sentence or two before reading on.

My thoughts (Deb Doty):

Jael did what with a tent peg? Eeeeuuuuuuuw! How gross!

Maybe one of the reasons why this passage can offend our modern (and postmodern) sensibilities is that it’s a woman who performs the act of extreme violence, skewering a sleeping human being — a human being she has lured into a sense of safety and trust. It’s shocking because it’s so unexpected. She isn’t a warrior. She’s a housewife. Besides, she’s not even an Israelite. She’s a Kenite — this ain’t her fight! So, how in the world did she end up turning a macho (but exhausted) general into a shish kabob?

[Now, here’s where we pause to take a brief look at the back story—otherwise known as the context. Kenites were the nomadic descendents of Moses’ wife’s father. They had entered the Promised Land (Canaan) with the Israelites, so their history had intertwined with Israel’s history. But our passage tells us that Jael’s husband had set off on his own, and his clan was at peace with King Jabin, General Sisera’s boss. So, it appears that Jael’s clan was a neutral party to the war that was taking place between Israel and Canaan.]

So, picture it….

Sisera, exhausted after running from a lost battle, staggers to a tent, seeking haven among a friendly group of people. Jael welcomes him, comforts him, and feeds him — just as you’d expect a Middle Eastern nomadic woman of her time would do. And just as could be expected from a Middle Eastern macho general of his time, he feels safe. He is alone with a mere woman (no threat there!) — and this woman will, of course, follow his orders and protect him. He has nothing to fear, so he falls sound asleep.

The Bible doesn’t tell us why Jael decides to do what she does. But for some reason, Jael decides not to be neutral. Maybe something about Israel’s God resonates within her heart and she just has to side with that God. Or maybe she’s figured out that if Sisera is running like a frightened hare, it’s wisest to side with the obvious winners. But whatever her reason, she chooses to side with Israel.

With that decision made, she makes an even more startling decision. She — a lone woman — will kill the mighty General Sisera. And so she picks up a tent peg and a hammer and tiptoes up to the snoring soldier and… BAM! She pins him like an insect in a Boy Scout’s bug collection. And from that moment on, the tide turns, Israel subdues King Jabin of Canaan, and Israel lives in peace for 40 years.

Oh, by the way, did I mention that part of a nomadic housewife’s duties included setting up the tent? Yup, tent pitching was woman’s work. So, when Jael decided to kill Sisera, she picked up two familiar household items — items she used with regularity — a tent peg and her hammer. Using what she just happened to have at hand, what just happened to be a woman’s tools, she turned the tide for Israel.

Are you in the middle of a battle in your life? Do you cry out to God, “But I can’t make a difference! I can’t possibly overcome this terrible situation! I’ve tried and tried, but I still can’t seem to defeat this one thing. God, why don’t you send someone bigger and stronger than me to set everything right?”

Look around you. What’s that in your hand? Only a hammer, or a tent peg? Think again.

Thought for the day: Look around with fresh eyes. The very thing you need may be right there in your hand.

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to start, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.

As you read, consider: What might God be saying to me in this passage? Summarize your thoughts in a sentence or two before reading on.

My thoughts (Tyler Connoley):

I think all of us have probably been in a situation similar to Bathsheba’s at one time or another. We’ve never been wife to a king, or mother to a crown prince, but we’ve been in a place where we felt we were passed over for a promotion. Or maybe it was a time when we were betrayed by someone in authority — the boss promised us a bigger cubicle and then didn’t follow through.

Our first impulse in such situations is often to storm into the boss’s office, guns blazing. Or maybe we choose to lick our wounds, quit, run away. In Bathsheba’s case the latter option might have been the safest thing to do. She didn’t know for certain that David hadn’t chosen Adonijah as his successor (David was a fickle leader after all). And, in those days, it was common for a new king to kill off all potential heirs — which meant Solomon was in mortal danger from Adonijah, if Adonijah was the legitimate heir.

But Bathsheba didn’t hit the king with a fit of rage, and she didn’t run away. Instead, she came to David in humility, but with a firm conviction of what she deserved and what he had promised.

Bathsheba trusted the king’s word, and treated him appropriately. She went to him directly and confronted him with what was going on. Without defensiveness or hostility, she held David firmly to his promise. The result was that her son became king, she became the queen mother — and, more importantly, God’s mission in Israel was expanded. Bathsheba’s brave actions, cool head, and forthrightness paved the way for a golden age in Israel’s history.

Thought for the day: Is there a situation where you feel you’ve been slighted by someone in authority? Might it be appropriate to follow Bathsheba’s example (and the advice of Matthew 18:15-20) and take your complaint directly to the source?

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to start, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.

As you read, consider these questions: What might God be saying to me in this passage? Summarize your thoughts in a sentence or two before reading on.

My thoughts (Christen D. Peters):

The passages in question really highlight for me that God has a purpose and, indeed, a need for all of us. We ALL have gifts — and a place for those gifts to be used.

Here we have the story of a woman who helps the Israelites defeat Jericho simply by hiding spies sent in by Joshua. Jericho at the time is a city of great wealth and strength. More than likely, the average person of the time would have bet a month’s wages on Jericho winning the battle.

Rahab, though, is not just any woman. To outward appearances, she is a prostitute… or harlot… or ‘innkeeper’ (perhaps along the lines of Dolly Parton and a certain little abode in Texas). More importantly, though, Rahab has been given the gift of prophecy. She sees the events unfolding, recognizes that God’s will is for the Israelites to triumph over Jericho, and acts in faith that there is only one God and that God’s way is the right way. As a result, her entire family of non-Israelites is saved by God. She goes on to marry an Israelite and become an ancestress of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

When you look in the mirror and wonder how God could possibly have endowed you with any gifts, think of Rahab. When you wander into the recesses of your mind and wonder about your effect on the world around you, think of Rahab. When you can’t possibly believe that a perfectly imperfect human like you can play a part in the will of God, think of Rahab.

Thought for the day: God made you… God knows you… God loves you… and God needs your work within this human existence. Believe that you are important in the grand scheme of things. God certainly thinks so!

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to start, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.

As you read, consider: What might God be saying to me in this passage? Summarize your thoughts in a sentence or two before reading on.

My thoughts on this passage (Deb Doty):

This reading plops us down smack in the middle of a story — so a little back-story is in order:

God had promised Abram and Sarai that they would become the parents of a great nation. But years had passed, and they found themselves elderly and still childless. Sarai decided they would do the safe, common sense thing — the only option that seemed to remain: she would offer her Egyptian slave-girl, Hagar, to bear Abram’s child, and then she would claim that child as her own. This was well within the custom of the time. And besides, it made good, practical sense — so it must be God’s will, right?

Wrong.

As soon as Hagar became pregnant, Sarai discovered that her plan had a downside. Hagar began to view her mistress with contempt. What did Hagar do? Maybe she rolled her eyes when Sarai approached. Maybe she mouthed off to some of the other slaves. Or maybe she resented being used and simply sizzled with animosity deep within. Who knows?

But Sarai was irked that Hagar was not cooperating with the smoothly flowing plan she had envisioned. So, since Hagar was just her slave-girl, Sarai acted within her power and did as she pleased — she began to deal harshly with her. We aren’t told what Sarai did, but whatever she did, it was harsh enough to cause Hagar to run away into the wilderness. And that’s where our passage begins.

Hagar is resting by a spring in the wilderness on the way to Shur, heading back home to Egypt. She’s traveled a loooong way. And this is where the “angel of the Lord” finds her. The “angel of the Lord” referred to here is not one of God’s subordinate, created creatures. From the text, we can tell that what Hagar sees is a theophany – a rare appearance of God in human form.

God knows who she is, but asks where she came from and where she’s headed. Hagar admits she’s running away. God tells her to return to Sarai and — God actually uses the submit word (a word most of us choke on!). God also promises her that she will be the mother of multitudes (just like Sarai!) and that her son, Ishmael (which means “God hears!”) will be a real handful with everyone he meets. Then Hagar does something that no one else has done before: she names God. Her name for God? “The God Who Sees.” In this wilderness encounter, she has come to know God for herself. She knows God has heard her and personally come to see her. God hears; God sees. Now she knows God will hear her and God will see her — yes, even her — when she returns to her harsh mistress. She has found hope in a hopeless situation. Because God hears and God sees, she will never be alone no matter what happens.

Are you alone in a wilderness, caught between where you’ve been and where you’re headed, too tired to go forward, and too terrified to go back? Maybe, like Hagar, people in power have been harsh with you, proving their strength at your expense. Maybe they even thought they were doing God’s will when they hurt you. In your powerlessness it seemed all you could do was run away. And sometimes that is all we can do to protect ourselves.

But sometimes, when we least expect it, God says to us, “Go back. Even if what happened to you was unfair, you need to go back for your own good.”

Going back doesn’t mean that what happened was OK. (Sarai was still wrong in mistreating Hagar.) It doesn’t mean that what happened was God’s will. (Sarai’s lack of faith in God’s uncommon sense set in motion a rivalry that still haunts her descendants.) And it certainly doesn’t mean you won’t be hurt again. (About 14 or 15 years later, Sarai would finally banish Hagar and Ishmael forever.)

In going back, Hagar demonstrated the power she had found in God’s presence. She showed that her faith in the God Who Sees was stronger than Sarai’s. (It was even stronger than Abram’s!) In going back, she put her life in God’s hands. Sarai could have had her killed, but Hagar believed what God had told her — she would live and have a son, and that son would have children. And God honored her trust. When she and Ishmael were finally cast out, she left with a strong teenage son and provisions prepared by Abram himself. And God was with them.

Thought for the day: Learn from Hagar! You can trust the God Who hears and sees — even when it doesn’t make sense.

Today, let’s join together in prayer for: the areas in our lives that don’t make sense, or where things are unfair. God, what do I do? Dare to ask that, then listen.

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. Use the item above as a starting point, or consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.

As you read, consider: What might God be saying to me in this passage? Summarize your thoughts in a sentence or two before reading on.

My thoughts on this passage (Julie Benson):

I have always been fascinated with Miriam — she was, after all, the first woman noted in scripture to sing praise before the Lord! Equally fascinating, however, is the way Miriam was stricken with leprosy, but ultimately was only subjected to seven days of life as a leper. Miriam could have cried and begged to the Lord, however, it was her brothers who pleaded on her behalf.

I am pleading for the lepers in today’s society.

A friend once confided in me that he feels like a leper because he is HIV-positive. This beautiful, talented, generous, and passionate disciple of Christ appreciates each new day and the wonders that life has to hold. He is filled with laughter and love, joy and compassion, freedom and Spirit.

But he has been rejected by the world and struggles to find acceptance because he is a “leper.” It is quite a common story among those living with HIV and AIDS. These are God’s children right here in Indiana — and under our own church roof.

Just like lepers in Bible times, our HIV-positive brothers and sisters are being cut off from society, rejected by family members, shunned by friends, and quickly abandoned by potential love interests as soon as the issue surfaces.

Who is pleading on their behalf?

Who is being Jesus to them?

In a time when it was unthinkable to be in the presence of a leper, Jesus had no qualms or conditions whatsoever. Before Jesus healed the leper who was brave enough to approach Him on the road, Jesus reached out His hand and touched him. And I do not find it one bit ironic that scripture points out that it was in the home of Simon the leper that Jesus was anointed with a costly jar of perfume, broken and spilled out, the day before His crucifixion.

You see, Jesus was safe to be with. Those who were suffering could come out of the closet and receive love and acceptance just as they were. We have a sacred duty to stamp out our own fear and prejudice and to give all of our brothers and sisters a place to be themselves. Once we have honestly accomplished this task, it is our responsibility to promote education and awareness so that others can do the same.

Would Jesus want anything different?

Thought for the day: May God convict our hearts with compassion and understanding so that we might plead on behalf of others.

Today, let’s join together in prayer for: those who are living with HIV/AIDS, and for the world that often casts them aside.

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. Use the item above as a starting point, or consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.