Because of double sessions in the later years, I missed them in high school, but I did have one year in a small town where grades 7-12 were packed into the same school.  Every Friday afternoon during football season, our three afternoon classes were each cut 10 minutes short so we could meet for the final thirty minutes of the day in the gym, cheer with the cheerleaders and their shaking pompoms, clap along with the band until our eardrums nearly burst and our hearts beat in rhythm with the bass drums, and get a gander at those beefy young men—16, 17, 18 years old, bigger than even my own daddy.  As a chubby frizzy-haired 12 year old, it was the closest thing to a riot I ever experienced.  We all yelled and screamed and applauded and hooted at renditions of the opposing team mascot.  We were going to win, we were sure, and we screamed, “We will WIN, WIN, WIN, WIN,” till we all went home hoarse and hyped up on school spirit.
            Sometimes we won, sometimes we lost, but we all showed up again Monday morning, bleary-eyed and less than thrilled to be in our first classes of the day, a long week ahead of us and all thought of football and “Our Great School!” a distant memory.  Pep rallies have their place, but if emotion is all that keeps the spirit going, it isn’t much of a heart is it?
            Elijah found that out on Mt Carmel.  Everyone pictures this great contest as his ultimate victory, perhaps the biggest in the prophet’s life.  They forget to turn the page in their Bibles. 
            Yes, the crowd saw an amazing miracle.  The prophets of Baal called all day to a deaf god made of metal, shouting his name over and over and over.  They tried to get his attention with loud cries, with dancing and with self-mutilation.  No one answered. 
            Elijah on the other hand, made the request as difficult as possible, soaking the sacrifice and the wood and filling up a trench with water till it overflowed.  Did you ever wonder what those poor three-year-drought-stricken people thought as all that water ran off onto the ground?  But none of it mattered when Jehovah sent fire from Heaven that licked it all up in a flash, and consumed the sacrifice—after just one call from Elijah.
            Then the pep rally began in earnest.  The people fell on their faces and said, The Lord, he is God.  The Lord he is God, 1 Kgs 18:39.  Can’t you hear it now?  The chant probably continued on, over and over and over, louder and louder, as Elijah called for the prophets of Baal and slew them all.  The exhilaration he felt must have been amazing.  “We did it, Lord!” he must have thought.  “Finally your people realize there is no God like Jehovah, and they will worship you again.”
            Turn the page. 
            Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, "So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow." Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life...1 Kings 19:1-3.
            Our assemblies have a small element of the pep rally in them.  It is good to cheer one another on, in the same way the men of Antioch laid their hands on Saul and Barnabas, prayed, and sent them on their first preaching trip, Acts 13:1-3.  It is wonderful to encourage a weak soul who has come to us for help.  It fills the heart to sing praises to God and to commune with one another around the Lord’s Table.
            Yet Paul does not spend much time on that emotional aspect of our assemblies in 1 Cor 14, about the clearest picture we have of a first century assembly.  Instead, his constant reminder is “Let all things be done unto edifying,” v 26.  It is, he said, the only thing truly profitable, v 6.  Paul understood that the pep rally aspect of an assembly wouldn’t last beyond the echo of the amen, but good solid teaching would carry one through life.
            If your idea of “getting something out of the services” is that excited, heart-pounding feeling that comes with emotion instead of deeper insight into the Word of God through good teaching and hard study, you are stuck in high school.  Mature people can remain motivated without the hype.  The understanding wrought by hours spent with God in quiet runs deep in their hearts. It keeps them encouraged when times are rough, wise when Satan does his best to deceive, and controlled when temptation pulls every string and pushes every button.
            Pep rally religion doesn’t last, but the Word of God in one’s heart abides forever.
 
Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth." What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away...For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings...If you abide in my Word, you are truly my disciples,  Hosea 6:3-6; John 8:31.
 
Dene Ward

I have to admit this one requires a bit of speculation, even after you gather all the facts, but I think it is worth considering or I would not put it out there.
   Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai (Gen 16:1-2).
   Where did Hagar come from?  Abraham went to Egypt almost immediately after he left Haran.  He was 75 then and 86 when Ishmael was born, so 10 years passed between the time he went to Egypt and the time he took Hagar as a wife (Gen 12:4; 16:16).  Several Old Testament scholars say that when girls reached puberty in those ancient Near East cultures, they were considered marriageable, possibly as young as 14.  People want to say that the ancients were malnourished and would have had a much later puberty, but these were rich people we are talking about here.  I doubt if malnourishment was an issue.  By the first century, at least one scholar says that girls were betrothed at 13 and married at 14.  Even 14 is two to three years later than today's girls reach puberty so I can easily imagine that Hagar was about that age or maybe a year older, but not much more than that.
   So it is plausible that Abraham and Sarah acquired Hagar's mother when they went to Egypt—possibly as a gift from Pharaoh (Gen 12:16), and that she brought with her a four to five year old daughter who grew up in Abraham's house.  From that righteous couple she must have learned about God.  Read the encounters she had with "the angel of the LORD" and the "angel of God" (Genesis 16 and 21) and see for yourself.  Truly I have seen Him who looks after me (Gen 16:13) does not sound like a pagan idea of God.
   Now add to this the servant who is sent to get Isaac a wife (Gen 24), who prayed to God and trusted Him to answer that prayer.  "Abraham…has clearly taught his household about the God he follows.  Not only does this servant pray—itself an indication that he knows God—he is confident God can act immediately and decisively and will do so because God has a special relationship with his master" (Our Eyes Are on You, Nathan Ward, p 10).  These two servants grew up in and/or lived in Abraham's household.  They saw their worship, their faith, and their absolute trust in God.  And that brought them to at least some and possibly a full degree of faith themselves.  Remember, despite Abraham sending Hagar and Ishmael away at God's order, Ishmael still returned to Abraham's burial roughly seventy years later (Gen 25:7-9).  Somehow, a connection continued.
   So here is the lesson.  Would someone growing up in our home, or perhaps simply growing up next door, see the kind of faith Abraham and Sarah had?  Would they even have heard the name of the God we worship and have seen us in prayer and study?  Would they have seen how God was pivotal in our decisions and actions?
   Abraham and Sarah made their share of mistakes, but the majority of their lives acted as a sound testimony of their faith.  What about ours?

For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him (Gen 18:19).

Dene Ward

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, Eph 5:25
            Abraham married his half-sister Sarah.  He was surrounded by polygamy.  His friends and neighbors in Ur and later in Canaan were likely polygamists. He was wealthy and polygamy was far more common among the rich.  It took money to support several wives and a few dozen children.  And—Sarah had not given him an heir.  That alone would have been cause for the men of that place and era to find a second, or even third wife.  I can just imagine a neighbor stopping by and saying, "Abraham, my daughter is marriageable now.  She is healthy and could give you the children Sarah has not."  I can even imagine that happening several times. 
            But Abraham did not succumb for decades.  He was 85 when Sarah finally prevailed upon him to take Hagar as a second wife, a concubine since she was a servant.  (Concubines are wives of second rank. Gen 16:3).  It took Sarah's great love for her husband and great faith in the plan of God—that there had to be an heir for the promises to come about—before he would even think of doing so.
            Somehow, this man of God had learned the Divine Plan of God for marriage—one man for one woman for one lifetime—and had lived up to it, even among rampant, and culturally acceptable, polygamy.  This man had learned to love his wife "as his own body" thousands of years before Paul put it into words.
            We miss all that because none of us would have ever even dreamed of polygamy to solve the problem.   We miss it because monogamy is second nature to us.  We miss the love this man had for his wife, even after she had grown old and unable to bear him a child, a child God said had to be born for all those promises He made to come about.  Still he was willing to wait, willing to be satisfied with the woman he had originally chosen, when no one else he knew would have.
            And how many of us become dissatisfied over the trivial, dissatisfied enough to trade one in for a new model, as the old saying goes?  How many of us can match the devotion these two people had for each other through thick or thin, for richer or for poorer, for better or for worse?  How many of us jump at the first "worse" there is to get out of it?
            See what you miss when you don't study the culture of the times?  See what you miss when you think we are so much smarter, so much wiser, so much more knowledgeable about God than those ancient people were?  Drop your baggage at the door and see what they have to teach you.
 
In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.  For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” (Eph 5:28-31)
 
Dene Ward

By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out unto a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he became a sojourner in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for the city which hath the foundations, whose builder and maker is God (Heb 11:8-10).
            I have heard it said, and even, I am afraid, thought that way myself at least a little bit, what was the big sacrifice Abraham and Sarah made when they left Ur?  They lived in ancient times with no modern conveniences, and in a primitive culture where things like architecture and the arts were not important at all.  There's that intellectual snobbery raising its ugly head.
            Go online.  Look in books like the Zondervan Bible Encyclopedia or the Holman Bible Atlas.  In the first place, the Sumerian culture was an alliance of city states of which Ur was just one.  Each had its own king who ruled the surrounding lands and villages.  A ziggarut sat at the city center with a shrine to the patron deity of the city.  And now you see one reason God wanted Abraham and Sarah out of there.
            In addition we have found in the tombs gold jewelry, daggers, helmets, and lyres—art and music did exist in that culture.  Among the many ruins archaeologists have found economic documents, medical treatises, law codes, agricultural manuals, a writing about a Great Flood, and philosophical writings.  They have found canals used for irrigating crops.  They have discovered that Ur had an educational system, some form of both hot and cold municipal running water, a sewer system, and paved roads.  So much for primitive, huh?
I also found a couple of artists' renditions of the typical upper class home—based on the ruins.  Have you ever been to the Columbia Restaurant in Tampa?  Go to www.opentable.com/Columbia-restaurant-ybor-city.  Look for the room with the fountain in the middle, with balconies overlooking a central room below, and that is similar to the picture of the house in Ur that I found.  Make no mistake, Abraham was a wealthy man.  This home could quite easily have been the one he left.  Now tell me it was no big deal for him to leave all that behind and live in tents for the rest of his life!  As an experienced camper, I know for certain that Sarah put up with sand in her sandals, in her blankets, and in her food!  They left a life of relative luxury to wander for decades in a hot, dirty land.
           Abraham and Sarah most certainly did sacrifice in order to follow God, even from the beginning, far more than most of us have ever been called to sacrifice, or maybe ever will.  Think hard today about your commitment to God and what you are willing to sacrifice for Him.  Even the best of us are far too materialistic and addicted to convenience and ease.  Perhaps we need a wake-up call.
 
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things make it manifest that they are seeking after a country of their own. And if indeed they had been mindful of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a city (Heb 11:13-16).
 
Dene Ward
 

Our culture gets in the way of our Bible study far too often.  It is a lesson taught to me by a younger woman about twenty years ago.  During that class we were discussing the wives of David and the problems that might have caused—all of them being wives of the same man.  Naturally the idea of jealousy and resentment came up first, and we discussed that for several minutes. Finally this young woman spoke up and said, "I don't think we have any idea how those women felt.  They grew up with the idea of polygamy.  It was all around them, especially in the neighboring countries, and even among the richer Israelites.  They knew from the beginning that they might find themselves in this situation.  Their own mothers might have been in that situation.  How can we who are used to monogamy even imagine what they were feeling?"
            I knew immediately that she was correct.  We carry our cultural baggage into our Bible study when we need to be dropping it off at the study door.  The only way to know how these women might have felt is to talk to a woman who has experienced it since none of us have.
            And because of our cultural baggage we miss a lot of other examples in the Biblical text.  Lately, I find lessons in passages I have studied for years, even decades, without ever seeing before.  I suppose that some of these things just take age and experience to realize, as well as hour after hour of study. 
            And there are other problems as well.  When you have studied something for years, it is difficult to enter into it again without remembering all the things you have already discovered or thought about.  It is especially difficult if you have them written all over your Bible.  It will be practically impossible to see anything new.  My husband and a couple of the Florida College Bible faculty have openly recommended that you only write in one Bible and leave your study Bible blank for exactly that reason.  You may think those little squiggles won't influence you as you study the passage anew, but you are wrong.  It's like the elephant in the room—they are there and you can't help but think about them, even if you try to make a point not to read them.  And if you are young and absolutely sure that such is not the case with you, please take a step back and think about the arrogance of chucking advice from older, wiser, and far more knowledgeable heads.
            And then there is the old intellectual snobbery problem.  We think we are so much smarter than those "primitive" people back then, and that our culture is so much more enlightened.  And that effectively wipes out some of the more important lessons they can teach us.  And so I plan to present a series of lessons we might have missed.  I really do not know how long this series will last.  It might stop and then start again when I find other lessons I have not yet thought of.  For now, most of these will revolve around Abraham and Sarah.
            We will begin next week, one lesson a week to give you time to absorb something new, but in the meantime, let me challenge you to start reading all those old Bible narratives, look again at those characters, and see if you can find something new yourself.  Perhaps you can share your discoveries with me as we go along.  I would love to hear them.
 
Wherefore also it was reckoned unto [Abraham] for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was reckoned unto him; but for our sake also, unto whom it shall be reckoned, who believe on him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead (Rom 4:22-24).
 
Dene Ward

The days of our years are threescore years and ten, Or even by reason of strength fourscore years; Yet is their pride but labor and sorrow; For it is soon gone, and we fly away (Ps 90:10).
 
At times your mind tends to wander to places it never has before, but probably should have.  When you reach that general rule the psalmist talks about, "threescore and ten," it suddenly dawns on you that anything can happen any day now.  Of course that is true for any age, but now it is true many times over.  I have known people who seemed perfectly healthy in their mid-70s, but who suddenly received a grim diagnosis and were gone in a few months.  Others have been felled by a sudden heart attack, and still others simply did not wake the next morning.
            Then you begin to think about the days ahead in a different way.  I just started a new women's Bible study group.  This study usually takes 2-3 years with a class that meets every week for an hour during the school year.  But this particular group meets once a month for 90 minutes.  It could take us 8-9 years to finish.  Who is to say that I will be able to finish it?
            And then you consider your grandchildren.  My son followed his father's example and did not have his first child until he was thirty.  If his son does the same, I am not likely to see any great-grandchildren.  And that led to some thoughts about the great characters of the Bible.  Abraham lived to be 175.  Isaac was born when he was 100 and had his two sons at 60.  So Jacob and Esau did know their grandfather Abraham, and were 15 at his death (Gen 25:7).  Somehow you never think of Abraham seeing his grandchildren, much less long enough to have developed any kind of relationship with them.
            In the same vein, you can figure out, if you start at his age at death and work backwards, that Jacob was 77 when he went to Haran and 84 when he married his two very young cousins.  Doesn't that put a wrinkle in the heel of your socks!?  And, you can also figure that his first eleven sons and at least one daughter were born in a span of no more than 10 years, maybe as little as 6 or 7.  That's what happens with four wives whose pregnancies can overlap.
            Yes, my mind wanders in strange places sometimes, and what in the world does this have to do with anything anyway?  Well, you may not be my age, but you certainly know people who are there.  Probably your elders and many of the Bible class teachers in your congregation, as well some of the pillars all of you depend upon.  Where will they be in ten years?  In twenty?  Probably gone, and will you be ready to take their places?  It took them many years to gain the knowledge and wisdom they have.  That means it's time for you to begin preparing to take their places.  It's time for you to begin serious study, and to start putting it into practice while they are still around to advise you.  And if you are one of those who thinks they don't need the old fuddy-duddies and their outdated way of doing things, it's time to get an attitude adjustment while you still have someone to fall back on when you make a serious blunder or two.
            And more than that, it's time to get your life before God aligned with his Word.  You may not even have threescore and ten.  I have known far too many young men and women die before they leave their forties, some without warning.  Yes, it can happen to you, too.
            Sometimes thinking rambling thoughts can be a little silly, a little ridiculous, even.  But sometimes they can lead you where you need to go for the sake of your soul.  Sit still long enough, quiet enough, with nothing else in your hands once in a while to think them.
 
It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart (Eccl 7:2).
 
Dene Ward
 

A long time ago I wrote a post about a man named Joseph, focusing on the name the apostles gave him—Barnabas, son of exhortation/encouragement/consolation, however your version puts it.  The challenge for that day was to imagine what nickname they would have given you.  While it was certainly a worthwhile challenge, that narrow a focus did not do the man justice. 
            There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet (Acts 4:34-37).
            Barnabas, for so he was called from this point on, was a generous man.  We do not know the size of the field he sold, but go online and find the price of even a 1 or 2 acre property and you will find it in the four figures easily and probably five.  Five acres might well go for 6 figures, depending upon its location.  Whatever he got, it was commensurate to the cost of living and the daily wage of people living in that day, the only real way to judge.  Would I be willing to give that amount for people I had not known for long?
            Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. But there were some of them…who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. The report…came to the…church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord…for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith…Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch…And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians… [Then] prophets came down from Jerusalem.. And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world...So the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul (Acts 11:19-30).
            When the news came to Jerusalem about the conversion of some Gentiles, Peter had to explain himself (Acts 11:1-3ff).  Though many seemed satisfied (v 18), by Acts 15, several years later, things were still unsettled with many.  But not Barnabas.  He cut to the chase, so to speak.  When the Antioch church began preaching to and accepting Gentiles, he hurried to help.  When he "saw God's grace", he was "glad."  To him it seems, the gospel was about saving souls, any souls. 
            Read on and see a description any of us would love to wear.  He was full of faith, a good man, filled with the Spirit, v 24.  He looked for the needs and good of others, found Saul to come help at Antioch, which undoubtedly did both the church and Saul much good.
            And when the famine arose, the brothers in Antioch counted both him and Saul trustworthy enough to carry the collected monies to those in need.
            We next find Barnabas in Acts 13.  Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off (Acts 13:1-3).
            Now we can see Barnabas as a team player.  He and four others, including Saul, had evidently been working together in Antioch for a good while.  We see not an inkling of discord among them, no one claiming to be better or more important than the rest, unlike a certain group of twelve who followed Jesus around.
            But now, when the Holy Spirit hands Barnabas and Saul a special job, they go.  No complaining, no excuses, a la Moses—they just go.  And please be aware:  Barnabas is still the mentor here.  They are called "Barnabas and Saul" until 13:43 when suddenly it changes to "Paul and Barnabas," and it stays that way for the rest of the journey.
            But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers.  And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.  And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.” Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus (Acts 15:1-3. 12. 36-39).
            And we see yet more about Barnabas here.  Not surprisingly, given his above history, Barnabas is willing to become involved in a controversy.  Can we first make something clear?  These men did not go to Jerusalem to make a decision.  God had already made the decision, and stated it as far back as Gen 12:3 and for hundreds of years afterward.  They gathered to show God's decisions by giving direct statement of scripture (15:13-19), approved example (15:12), and necessary conclusion (15:7-11).  Barnabas's participation in this showed his understanding and approval of their proper interpretation of scripture and willingness to stand for what God wanted regardless who disagreed.
            And then we see in Barnabas a patient mentor (vv 36-39).  Not everyone can see the talent in a raw personality, but Barnabas could.  He did it with Saul in Acts 9 and he did it with Mark and, I am certain, with many other young Christians as he continually earned that nickname we began with.  Generous, encouraging, full of faith and the Holy Spirit, trustworthy, responsible, a teacher, a team player, and patient mentor—a GOOD man.
            Don't let his example go unnoticed.
 
And when [Saul] had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus (Acts 9:26-27).
 
Dene Ward

Sometimes you read a passage of scripture for years without seeing what it really says.  I suppose it was only seven or eight years ago that I really saw Gen 21:11.  Sarah had had enough of Hagar’s attitude, and Ishmael she viewed as nothing but a competitor to Isaac.  She wanted to send them both away.  And the thing was grievous in the sight of Abraham because of his son. 

“…because of his son.”  For the first time ever it dawned on me that Abraham loved Ishmael.  Of course he did.  This was his son!  In fact, when God backed up Sarah’s wish with a command of his own, he said, Let it not be grievous in your sight because of the lad and because of your handmaid, v 22.  Hagar had been his wife, (16:3) for eighteen to twenty years, depending upon Isaac’s age of weaning.  A relationship had to be broken, two in fact. 

Now look at Abraham as he sends the two of them away, particularly his oldest son.  Do you have a child?  Can you imagine knowing you will never see that child again, and how it must have felt as Abraham saw their departing figures recede into the heat waves of the Palestine landscape? 

Too many times we look at Bible people with our “super hero glasses” on.  We fail to see them as real people with real emotions.  Of course they could do as God asked.  They were “heroes of faith.”  When we do that, we insult them.  We demean the effort it took for them to do what was right.  We diminish the sacrifices they made and the pain they went through.  And we lessen the example they set for us.

That may be the worst thing we do.  By looking at them as if they were “super” in any way at all, we remove the encouragement to persevere that we could have gained.  “There is no way I could do that.  I am not as strong as they were.  I’m not a Bible super hero.”  If you aren’t, it’s only because you choose not to be. 

Those people were just like you.  They had strengths and weaknesses, successes and failures.  They had problems with family, with temptations, and with fear of the unknown.  You have everything to work with that they did. In fact, you have one thing the Old Testament people didn’t have—a Savior who came and took on the same human weaknesses we all have (Heb 2:17; 4:15), yet still showed the way.  For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps, 1 Pet 2:21.  If you belittle the accomplishments of those people as impossible for you to copy, you belittle His too.

Take off the glasses that distort your view.  Instead, see clearly the models of faith and virtue God has set before us as real people, warts and all.  They weren’t perfect, but they managed to endure.  Seeing them any other way is just an excuse not to be as good as we can be.

Brethren, be imitators together of me, and mark them that so walk even as you have us for an ensample, Phil 3:17.

Dene Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.

All ancient books of history, Biblical or secular, are written for their object lessons.  Ancient historians were not interested in just telling the stories of what happened, nor of charting social movements across time, but they told the stories of great men, great battles, great villains to highlight the lessons to be learned.  Maybe it is because I just led a study of the book of Judges, but I think it may be one of the most obvious collections of object lessons out of any ancient history. 
            Most are aware of the cycle of the Judges:  Israel sins.  God punishes Israel.  Israel repents and cries out to God.  God sends them a Judge to save them from their oppressors. There is peace in the land during the life of the judge, but after he dies, Israel again sins and the cycle starts over.  Many studies of the book of Judges start and end with that cycle, but there is so much more to the book that that.  First, it isn't so much a cycle as a spiral, as Israel's sins get worse and worse and God's punishments get more and more severe.  (Compare Jdgs 3:7 with 10:6 and then 3:8 with 10:7)  Surely there are lessons we can learn from that.  More interesting to me is the fact that every excuse given for the failure of the Israelites to complete the conquest of the land is answered by the various salvations performed by the judges. 
            In Judges 1:19 the tribe of Judah could not drive out the inhabitants of the valleys because they had chariots of iron.  From this point, the rest of the chapter is a litany of failure as tribe after tribe did not drive out the inhabitants of the land as God had commanded. Often the reason given is that the Israelites wanted to keep them around as slaves, but by the time of Deborah the Israelites were enslaved to these same Canaanites.  Vs. 34 says the Amorites forced the tribe of Dan up into the hills and would not allow them into the coastal areas.  In all of these cases we see the Israelites making decisions based upon their own strength, their own wisdom, and their own desires rather than following God's instructions in faith.  Reading between the lines, their concerns seemed to be the numerical superiority of the Canaanites, the superiority of the Canaanites' weapons, and their own desires for slaves and, maybe, just friendly neighbors.
            By the time of Deborah the questions of fighting against a numerically superior foe who has better weapons should have been answered by Othniel's victory over an empire-building king from Mesopotamia.  The idea of friendly neighbors should have been answered by the Moabite oppression, relieved by Ehud in a secret agent mission worthy of 007, and by the early troubles with the Philistines, answered by Shamgar.  Now, the erstwhile Canaanite slaves have banded into a coalition headed by Jabin, king of Hazor and they have enslaved the Israelites.  Sisera, commander of Jabin's army, had 900 chariots of iron at his disposal.  These chariots were rather long wagons with high sidewalls which protected the multiple archers who rode in them.  They were as nearly impregnable in their day as M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks are today against foot soldiers.  When God commanded Deborah to send Barak to fight against Sisera, Barak had only 10,000 infantry men.  Human wisdom said that Barak did not have a chance. His army would be run down, trampled upon, and shot to pieces.  However, God fought on Israel's side and they won a decisive victory.  If you trust God, maybe you can defeat chariots of iron.
            Gideon then takes on an enemy as numerous "as the sands on the seashore" (7:12), a phrase normally reserved for Israel and the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham.  Gideon had all of 300 men with him.  Though the Israelite army later joined Gideon for the mop-up and pursuit, the greatest slaughter of Midianites occurred when Gideon only had 300 men with him.  If God is on your side, maybe the enemy's numbers don't matter? 
            Gideon and Jepthah both conquered cities.  Samson vividly demonstrated that one person plus God is all the army anyone needs.  Samson also demonstrated that to "dwell among them" was untenable as his downfall came as a result of being too friendly to his enemies. 
            Over and over, all the reasons for Israel not driving out the Canaanites, stated or implied, are answered by God every time He saves them via a judge.  It is almost as if He is saying, over and over, 'If you had trusted me in the first place, you wouldn't need saving now'. 
          Just a thought:  Maybe the same is true of us today, in our battles against worldliness? 
 
Jude 24-25  "Now unto him that is able to guard you from stumbling, and to set you before the presence of his glory without blemish in exceeding joy, to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and power, before all time, and now, and for evermore. Amen."

Lucas Ward
 

Now that we have Jephthah’s vow straightened out, maybe it’s a good idea to look at his daughter.
            First, let’s realize her age.  If she was not married in that culture, she had not yet, or had barely reached the age of puberty.  The custom was to marry the daughters off once they reached that age.  John MacArthur says they were generally betrothed at 13 for one year and then married, so this girl could not have been over 14.
            Let’s take a side trip here to forestall a few wrong conclusions.  Even if puberty arrives earlier nowadays than it did in ancient times, as some scientists seem to believe, it doesn’t mean maturity does.  One is physical and the other mental.  In that time those young people were expected to be responsible enough to raise and provide for children as soon as they were able to have them.  Do we expect that of our children?
            Even as late as the 19th and early 20th centuries young men were working to help provide for the family as young as 12 or 14.  Boys brought up on farms were doing men’s work at 8 or 10.  Girls were caring for baby brothers and sisters, and working as hard as their mothers in the house and field at the same age.  No wonder they were ready to marry in their early teens, and no wonder they could make a valid commitment to God at an early age.  They weren’t pining to be a fireman one day and an astronaut the next.  They understood responsibility and lifetime commitment and were ready for it far sooner than our children are.  Maturity isn’t about knowing facts and answering questions.  Neither is spirituality.  Be careful what you equate.  Culture does make a difference.
            So this very young teenager has just found out that her life is going to be different than she ever expected because of a decision her father has made, not one she has made.  Can’t you just see the TV depiction of a teenager today?  Standing hipshot, she crosses her arms, rolls her eyes and whines, “Da-uhd!”  This isn’t fair.  This isn’t what I planned.  I had dreams and you ruined them all!  It’s my life not yours!
            Don’t think for a minute that a child has no responsibility to his parents’ vows.  As soon as a man accepts the office of an elder, his family is accepting extra scrutiny and extra inconvenience as he performs his work, and less of his time.  The same is true of a deacon though in a lesser way.  The same is certainly true of a man who gives his life to preaching the gospel.  It doesn’t lessen his own obligations to his family, but it does increase his family’s obligations to God.  It also means their behavior must be above reproach. 
            Let’s be realistic here.  No, it isn’t only elders, deacons, and preachers’ families who must behave themselves, but the ramifications are much worse since they represent the local church, and the Lord, in the eyes of the world.  The world may very well be wrong about what they expect of these men, but it is simply naïve to think it doesn’t work that way.
            Then there is this point—every Christian has vowed his life to God.  So in a very real way, every Christian family is under the microscope.  As soon as a child crosses the line, you know what everyone thinks—wasn’t he raised better than that?  As soon as his life deviates from the life a Christian should live, the world suddenly looks at his parents differently.  Even if it is not their fault, even if they have done the best they possibly could have, someone will lose respect for that couple, and certainly for the life they have espoused.  No, it isn’t always fair, but what is it we always tell our children?  Life isn’t fair.
            Every one of us is someone’s child.  If you were blessed as I was to have godly parents, they vowed you to God just as surely as Jephthah vowed his daughter.  They said, “We will raise this child to serve you all his life.”  Have you honored that vow?
 
"Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children-- how on the day that you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, the LORD said to me, 'Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.' Deut 4:9-10
 
Dene Ward