Violence and Murder (Judges 18:7-23, 27-29)

3/1/2010 8:19 AM

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY

 

My Worship Time                                        Focus:  Violence and murder

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                        Reference:  Judges 18:7-13,27-29

 

            Message of the verses:  “7 ¶  Then the five men departed and came to Laish and saw the people who were in it living in security, after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure; for there was no ruler humiliating them for anything in the land, and they were far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone. 8  When they came back to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtaol, their brothers said to them, "What do you report?" 9  They said, "Arise, and let us go up against them; for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good. And will you sit still? Do not delay to go, to enter, to possess the land. 10  "When you enter, you will come to a secure people with a spacious land; for God has given it into your hand, a place where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth." 11  Then from the family of the Danites, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, six hundred men armed with weapons of war set out. 12  They went up and camped at Kiriath-jearim in Judah. Therefore they called that place Mahaneh-dan to this day; behold, it is west of Kiriath-jearim. 13  They passed from there to the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah.

            “27 ¶  Then they took what Micah had made and the priest who had belonged to him, and came to Laish, to a people quiet and secure, and struck them with the edge of the sword; and they burned the city with fire. 28  And there was no one to deliver them, because it was far from Sidon and they had no dealings with anyone, and it was in the valley which is near Beth-rehob. And they rebuilt the city and lived in it. 29  They called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father who was born in Israel; however, the name of the city formerly was Laish.”

            This section kind of fills in the blank of the previous SD, because it tells what the Danites did after capturing Jonathan and all of Micah’s idols.  The spies had traveled about 100 miles to the north to a town about thirty miles from the Mediterranean Sea which was inhabited by the Sidonians who were a peaceful people who had much wealth, but no protection and so the Danites killed all who were there and burned the city and then built another city called Dan.  There action here was a fulfillment of what Jacob said about his son Dan in Genesis 49:17:  “Dan is only a small snake in the grass, a lethal serpent in ambush by the road When he strikes a horse in the heel, and brings its huge rider crashing down (Message). 

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Violence is not something that I do because of the grace of God, but at times it does run through my mind because of some of the things that I view on TV, including sports.  This is not good at all.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

 

1. Make that final step to rid myself of the TV, only watch it in a very limited manner.

 

3/1/2010 8:42 AM