Judges 1-4
Judges 5-6:24
Judges 6:25-7
Judges 8-9:20
Judges 9:21-57
Judges 10-11:27
Judges 11:28-12:15
Judges 13
Judges 14-15
Judges 16
Judges 17-18
Judges 19-20
 
 

But God had a divine purpose for Samson and one for the enemy!  Samson’s parents responded back to Samson’s foolishness, “is there not an acceptable woman among your relatives (one saved and filled with the Holy Ghost—set apart for the Lord) or among all our people?  Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines (the heathens, un-regenerated man/woman) to get a wife?” “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness Cor. 6:14, NIV? 

But Samson persisted with his parents to get the Philistine woman for him (vs. 3-7). (For his parents did not know that the Spirit of the LORD was ordaining this.  The Lord was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were ruling over Israel.  God not only wanted to confront them, but to destroy them, and He would use Samson and all of Samson’s idiosyncrasies, his weaknesses, to do it).  Samson and his parents went down to Timnah together, and as they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring towards him.  The Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson in power, and Samson tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. 

Samson did not tell his parents what had happened, he continued on to Timnah where he talked with the woman and he liked her.  In the natural, it looked as if Samson was betraying not only his parents and his people, but also his God.  But God had a greater purpose that man could not see nor understand. 

When your family looks at you and at what you are doing and in their eyes and understanding, it seems as if you have betrayed them; when the people in church see you praising and worshiping God out of your spirit and not your flesh, which is contrary to the way they’re used to doing things, you do not have to tell them it is by the Spirit of the Lord, for God will reveal it to them, if He chooses to; when people question why you still serve God when they see what you’ve been through; you tell them, “It is not by me, but by the Spirit of the Lord that I am able to stand here and praise Him, it is by the Spirit of the Lord that I am here!” 

Our God has a hidden agenda that cannot be seen nor understood by man.  Just as Samson did, you will have to continue to walk the way of the Lord and trust in Him and His timing, because only by the Spirit of the Lord can what needs to be accomplished in and through you be done.  When you follow the Lord, the power and the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, to defeat any lion (enemy), and it is the Spirit of the Lord that will tear that enemy apart, with the Words of God, the anointing of God, not by might, nor by power, but by His Spirit. So he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty. Samson was not focused on a temporal situation (marriage to the Philistine woman, her beauty, natural pleasures, etc.), but he was focused on an eternal gain (the deliverance of his people and the revenge of the Lord by God using him, by his obedience to the Spirit of the Lord).

Later when Samson went back to marry the lady from Timnah (vs. 8-9) he looked at the carcass of the young lion that he had torn sometime back.  Inside the lions carcass was a swarm of bees and honey.  Samson took a scoop of the honey and enjoyed it and saved some for his parents, but did not tell them where it came from. 

Inside your enemy, the very thing that God empowered you to destroy, there is something that you can pull from it and when God cleanses it, can be used for your good, to strengthen you and be used for the Glory of God. Your past, your mistakes, regardless of how old or recent they are, when God has empowered you to defeat those things that had hindered you from a close relationship with God, (that lion), He will not only cleanse that thing, but strengthen and empower you.  When you look back through the eyes of God, there is always something good that can be recovered and always a reason to give God the glory.  If you were once a drug addict and the Spirit of God empowered you to overcome that lion, then what you endured can be used to deliver someone else and to God be the glory. 

Samson made a feast for the woman, as it was customary for the bridegrooms (vs.10-11).  Samson was given thirty companions, he then told them a riddle and said, “If you can give me the answer within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes.  If you can’t tell me the answer, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes” (vs. 12-13).  They said to Samson, “Tell us your riddle.”  In verse 14, Samson gives them his riddle, “Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet.”  For three days, no one could decipher the answer.  On the fourth day, they called to Samson’s wife and asked her to coax the answer out of her husband or they would burn her and her father’s household to death.  With this Samson’s wife threw herself on him crying and asking, ‘why do you hate me, you do not really love me.  You have given my people a riddle, but have not told me the answer.” Be careful that you do not use the weapon God has given you to defeat the enemy, the lion, to betray God by exposing the things that God has shared with you in secret. 

The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law, Deuteronomy 29:29, NIV. 

Samson told her that he had not even explained it to his parents, so why should he share the answer with her (16-17).  Samson was out of order; he first betrayed the confidence of the Spirit of the Lord and then did he not first share it with his parents. When you do not seek your spiritual leader(s), your spiritual parents, those that God has put over you, you are out of Spiritual order, natural order and most of all God’s order—and there is always a consequence to pay. Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you, Hebrews 13:17, NIV. 

We should never share or boast about  ‘our’ strength, wisdom with the enemy, because we will be devoured, but we must show and boast in the strength of the Lord, for it is the Lord who devours our enemies, not us.  Samson’s wife continued to cry the whole seven days of the feast, so on the seventh day finally he told her, because she continued to press him—she then explained the riddle to her people. 

The enemy will always press you to betray God, what God has entrusted you with, but that is when we must press more into God and the things and people of God. Whenever you join yourself with the enemy, regardless of what it looks like, that enemy will always betray you; when you attempt to use your wisdom, versus God’s wisdom, when you think you know the way better than God does. The word of God says; for it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh, Philippians 3:3, NIV. As long as we are God-focused, and not self-focused (our way, our mission, our purpose, our understanding, our ministry, etc.) we cannot help but to succeed. Because when we are God focused, we are following His way, His Word and the Word of God will not, CANNOT, return void. So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it, Isaiah 55:11, KJV.

On the seventh day of the feast, before sunset, the men toyed with Samson with the answer. When you have revealed your weakness, your wisdom, to the enemy and not the strength of the Lord, the wisdom of God, the enemy will taunt you, because it ‘thinks’ it has the upper hand.  “What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?” Samson replied back to them, that if they had not threatened his wife, they would not have solved the riddle, (vs. 18). 

Remember, your enemy has no knowledge, no strength, no power to defeat you and what they do have was only obtained through stealing it from you, with the attempt to use it against you to destroy you. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy, John 10:10,KVJ. But the word of God says in Joel 2:25, NIV—I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm—my great army that I sent among you.  What God is saying is that the enemy cannot even use the strength that God gave you, the wisdom that He gave you to destroy you, because within that strength, that wisdom, God has placed a special chip- a war tactic chip.  It is like a heat missile where it is pre-coded (meaning before you received the deposit) to destroy only one person, and that is not you!  But it is pre-coded to seek, to find and to destroy the enemy! 

Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson with power.  He went down to Ashkelon, struck down thirty of their men, stripped them of their belongings and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle.  Burning with anger, Samson went up to his father’s house, and unknown to Samson, his wife was given to the friend who had attended him at his wedding (vs. 19-20).  When Samson, later at the time of wheat harvest, went to his father-in-laws house to be with his wife, her father would not let Samson be with her, stating that he assumed Samson hated her and he had given his daughter to Samson’s friend (15:1-2).  The father-in-law suggested that Samson look at his wife’s younger sister. 

Chapter 15 is the flight and the fight of Samson and the Philistines, and explains how God used not only Samson’s great strength, but the weakness of his anger too.  God used it for Samson and his people’s benefit and for the glory of God. 

When we focus only on our weakness and our mistakes and not what God can do through them; when we do not allow God to refine our weakness and turn it into strength, thus exhibiting the character of God through us, then we ultimately position ourselves to be defeated by that which we were meant to destroy.  When we focus on the sin and not what God intended for us to learn from it, we set ourselves up to make the same mistake again.  But when we focus on the strength of God and not our own, God can do mighty exploits in and through us. 

Chapter 15:3-9 tell of Samson’s anger being lashed out against the Philistines. God used Samson’s anger to stir up the Philistines, for their ultimate defeat and His revenge for what they had done against His people.  Samson allowed the men of Judah to bind him as long as they promised that they would not kill him.

As Samson approached the Philistines (verse 14), the Spirit of the Lord came upon him.  As we submit to God and follow after Him, when we come face to face with our enemies, the Spirit of the Lord will come upon us, rise up within us, do battle for us, and break the back of the enemy.  Samson broke the ropes binding him as if it were charred flax (cotton) and he found the jaw-bone of an ass and killed thousands of Philistine men.  The Spirit of God can not be bound by man, by religion, not by anything or anyone, it will break free and breakthrough and defeat and or destroy the very one(s) who tried to bind it! 

When Samson finished, he cried out to the Lord (vs.17-19) and the Lord replenished his natural strength and spiritual strength.  God opened up a hollow place and there sprang forth water.  God will always replenish us after the battle, He will fill us up before the battle and after the victory, He will always refill us. The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him, Lamentations 3:24, KJV. Samson led the people for twenty years, because he knew that God was not only his portion, but his strength. 

When we seek God’s way of doing things, regardless of how silly or unpopular they may be, we are then moving by His Spirit.  The Spirit of the Lord will never move in the ‘popular’ circle, but He moves in the circle of the ‘remnant’.  Psalms 84:10, NIV says—I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.  What David was saying is that he would rather be that remnant for the Lord, than be found in the house, the home, and the circle of the popular crowd.  Only when the Spirit of the Lord moves, will lives be healed, changed and delivered.  Any other way leads only to death and destruction. 

When the Spirit of the Lord moves across your family, your home, your church, will you be found ready and willing to be that remnant.  Samson was a remnant for his time, his generation, so were David and countless others.  Are you willing to be that remnant for yours, for it may not be popular, but is it “BY THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD?”
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In this chapter, we find Samson fulfilling his fleshly desire after being used of God in a great victory.  Remember the battle is the Lord’s, the victory is ours through the Lord, and the Glory belongs to Him. For the battle is the LORD's, and he will give all of you into our hands, 1 Samuel 17:47, NIV.  Instead of seeking God after the victory had been won to see where, how or when the enemy would attack next, Samson chose to seek comfort, rest, and fulfillment with a prostitute. 

Understand, after God gives us the victory over whatever we were in the battle for or about, the devil is not going to lay down or walk away with his head hung down and say, “oh well, he/she got me good this time. I might as well find someone else to kill, steal and devour.”  No, on the contrary, he has already devised his next plan of attack on you. But our God is always multiple steps ahead of the devil.  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it, 1 Corinthians 10:13, KJV.  But if we do not seek the counsel of the Lord, the devil will swallow us up. “First seek the counsel of the LORD,” 1 Kings 22:5, NIV.   Samson’s enemies had planned to attack him, to ‘catch’ him off-guard; but the Spirit of the Lord, the strength of the Lord was still with him. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance, Romans 11:29, KJV. Samson defeated those who thought they would defeat him. 

Sometime later, Samson fell in love with a woman of the Valley of Sorek.  He allowed himself to see beauty through the natural eyes, instead of seeing if there was beauty of the spirit first.  Only when we first seek God, can he reveal to us what we are unable to see on our own—I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams, Numbers 12:6, NIV.  When we set up ‘house’ with the devil, it is not you that will clean him out, but on the contrary, it is he that will clean you out.  The house is anything that ‘you’ say belongs to the Lord, your family, finances, job, your body, even your worries or cares.  If you accepted Jesus as your Savior and not your Lord, that is the Lord of everything, then yes, Jesus saved you, but you have not yet allowed Him to be your Lord.  The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all)  Acts 10:36, KJV.

The Philistine rulers told Delilah to coax Samson into telling her where his strength came from.  If she could find out, they would ‘reward’ her with eleven shekels and silver from each one of them.  You see, when Jesus is not Lord over ALL, then the devil never enters your house alone, but he brings with him some of his imps (pride, jealousy, greed, hatred, anger, etc).  The devil can be ‘bought’ and what he has is for sale, but you always pay a greater price in the end than what you ‘bargained’ for in the beginning with the devil.  When you refuse to address the sin of lying and make a compromise with the devil and say, “ok, lying can stay, but fornication has to go”, then you may kick out one devil, but seven more will come in, because nothing the devil has comes without a price. 

But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord, Romans 6:23, NIV.  The price was paid by Jesus Himself, and all we have to do is stay in a ‘Yes, Lord’ stance and state of mind, in order to receive the Giver of the gifts.

So Delilah began to ask Samson where his strength came from.  Samson went through a variety of deceptions with Delilah as to the secret of his strength, and Delilah tested each one.  But he who deceives in the end gets deceived by the great deceiver of all.

When Delilah realized that Samson was only toying with her (in today’s language, ‘the brotha lied to you girlfriend’), Delilah then said to Samson, “if you REALLY loved me, then you would betray your God and share with me the truth of where your strength comes from.” (Or, the devil might taunt you and say, ‘if God is really God, then why are you going through what you are’, or ‘if God is able to save you, then why hasn’t He saved you?’)  These are just some of the tactics of the enemy to get you to not only doubt God, but to test God and His love for you.  For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.  James 1:13, NIV.   Delilah bugged Samson until even a Goody powder would not help.  So Samson gave in to the devil’s tool—to the devil’s snare. 

God had raised Samson and anointed him, even in his mother’s womb.  God had appointed Samson as a mighty man, a judge, but instead of allowing the Spirit of God to govern his will, his actions, he allowed his flesh to rule.  Samson took the destiny that God had pre-ordained for him and gave it over to the enemy.  The price for his destiny was to uncover himself before the enemy by saying ‘I love you’ to the enemy.  When Delilah received the information, guess where she went?  She went back into the den of the devil and said, ‘Look what I have! I have the strength to one of God’s anointed, I know how to bring him down and destroy him.’ 

Delilah then made Samson a drink and as he made himself comfortable in her arms, her bosom, he fell asleep. The drink had been spiked and left him feeling at ease that the enemy (Delilah) would never harm him, let alone betray him.  Don’t miss the fact that Samson had betrayed God by trying to prostitute the anointing, the gifts, the office that God bestowed upon him, for the pleasure of flesh—the enemy. 

We get comfortable in ‘just’ going to church, but never experiencing the power of God, the anointing of God, or the presence of God.  We may be in a physical church, but do not have the Church of God on the inside of us where He not only stops by, but habitats.  It’s one thing to experience a visitation of God, but another to feel Him habitating not only in the church, but in our lives.  Webster describes the word ‘habitat’ as— the place where something (someone) is commonly found.  In other words, we won’t have to leave church and tell people, “Girl, God showed up today, we felt Him stop by.”  But when God moves and makes known that He is there, by signs and wonders and/or exploits, we were already aware of His presence. Perhaps He just moved in a different way than we were used to seeing, a different facet, but His presence was already known because He lives there, in us, the church, the building, the temple.  So you don’t have to wait for Him to show up, He’s already there; you’re just waiting for Him to show out—AGAIN! 

We have gotten too comfortable with just being able to say, “I went to church.” Even the devil goes to church and sometimes he’s in the pulpit, the choir, the usher board (I know the truth hurts, but only God’s truth will set us free from the ‘Den of Delilah’.)  As long as we are comfortable in ‘just’ going to church, but not having the Church of God on the inside of us or seeing God move in our lives and in other lives, then we are residing in the ‘Den of Delilah’.  The Word says where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, freedom. 2 Corinthians 3:17, KJV. There must be freedom in the spirit where God can move, shake, un-rattle and destroy the chains, or the bondages that we have allowed Satan to bind us with.  God does not just want to loose you, but to destroy that which binds you—so that He may send you forth to fulfill the destiny—the call on your life.  God is not going to deliver by religion, by sin, by looks, by how good you sing, preach and or pray or even by the numbers on your church roll call, but He said, by His Spirit—not your pastors, your neighbor or your prayer partner, but only by His Spirit and His Spirit only! This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel; ‘Not by might not by power, but by my Spirit’ says the LORD Almighty, Zechariah 4:6, NIV.  And the same word that was given to Zerubbabel is the same word that is for us today. 

After Samson had fallen to sleep in ‘the Den of Delilah’—in her lap, he let his guard down and allowed deceit to blind his spiritual eyes, his spiritual perception, which was the voice of the Lord.  She called one of her helpers to shave Samson’s hair (his strength in the Lord, his covenant between the Lord).  She then had him subdued, bound and then cried out, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!”  When Samson awoke, he tried to shake himself free from what was binding him, but he could not.  Samson did not realize that the LORD had left him. 

It is not just important to shake off what is binding us, but the very one(s) that bound us.  You cannot be free from drugs if you are still associating with the drug dealer.  You cannot be set free from prostitution if you are still running ‘errands’ for the pimp.  When the Philistines saw that Samson no longer had the strength of the Lord, the favor of the Lord, he was then at their ‘mercy’—and Satan has NO MERCY. Our only hope, our only strength, our only wisdom, is in the Lord, not in ourselves.  The Philistines gauged Samson’s eyes out (but the devil had already blinded his spiritual eyes, in the Den of Delilah) and when you can no longer see in the spirit, by the Lord, you might as well be blind in the natural. 

The Philistines began to have a party, and state that their god had given them Samson.  If Samson had not prostituted the Lord and sold his Covenant of the Lord for the Covenant of the devil, via Delilah, then the Philistines gods would have had no temporal victory over Samson.  They laughed and mocked the man of God, they praised their god for giving them victory.  But because Samson not was only blinded in the spirit, but in the natural, the spirit of God through repentance moved across him.  You see, when we forsake God and His ways, His favor may leave us or turn aside from us, but not His mercy, not His grace.  He will still woo us to repent so that not only can His favor return, but His blessings with it. 

In the ‘Den of Delilah’ were all the imps, demons, Jezebel people, having a party at the expense of the man of God, getting ready to sacrifice him to their god.  When you have fallen into sin, for whatever the reason is, and when those in your family, people on your job, those in the church, are ready to cry out, “Crucify, Crucify” and refuse to show you mercy, and behind your back and, yes, even sometimes in your face, they say, ‘I knew he was not going to make it, I knew he was not a man of God, I’m more anointed that he is; I preach, sing, prophesy or rather PROPHALIE better than he did.’ The next thing you know, they are telling you that you are no longer welcome at the ‘Church of holy saints of America.’  And then you are voted out as the pastor, the man of God, a member of the choir, the deacon board, because you got caught up in Delilah’s Den. 

Understand, being caught up in the Den of Delilah is not about sexual sin, although it can be; but it is about SIN, whatever shape, form or fashion it takes.  The Den of Delilah can be the spirit of religion, control, manipulation and you mask it as Holy or Righteousness.  Delilah pretended to be something she was not, to love Samson more than she loved her own people, when all she wanted was the fruits of her labor of evil (the money promised).  It mattered not to her what happened to Samson as long as she got P-A-I-D.  And this is the way that sin is.  It will not weep or lament over your downfall, your broken relationship between Jesus or anybody else.  Sins purpose is to destroy and to devour, not to mend and to restore. 

Samson asked one of the guards to put him where he could feel the pillars, and he asked the guard if he could lean against the pillars.  Samson realized that it was now time to lean back into the Rock, to push himself from out of the Den of Delilah and back into the Rock.  Now remember the Den was crowded with people who were celebrating over the ‘defeat’ of Samson and glorifying their god.  Samson, then cried out to the Lord in prayer—“O Sovereign LORD, remember me.” 

When we cry out to God with a repentant heart, God will remember us and turn his face back to us and strengthen us.  Samson asked the LORD to strengthen him just once more, not for his victory or revenge, but for the victory and revenge of the LORD. 

Samson was even willing to die for the LORD’s revenge now, for he said, “let me die with the Philistines.”  Samson pushed against the ROCK, he leaned not only on the Rock, but into the Rock.  And Samson not only destroyed those who had bound him, but the very thing that was binding him.  Samson’s family buried him in the tomb of his father. 

We have all, at one time or another, gotten ‘Caught up in the Den of Delilah’, but what is more important is that we come to ourselves and then lean/push into the ROCK and cry out unto the LORD to remember not our sins, our shortcomings, but to remember us.  When we repent, the Lord remembers it not. He has just been waiting for us to remember that HE IS!  We have all been ‘Caught up in the Den of Delilah (non-gender reference)’ and some of us are still caught up.  And sometimes God has to allow us to blinded, so that we can then see, and because we cannot see in the natural, we then begin to lean on the only thing we have known—the ROCK. 

If you are caught up in the Den of Delilah, lean on the ROCK, cry out unto the LORD and ask Him to remember you.  And when you repent, He will turn His face back to you, and the very thing that binds you, He will not only set you free, but give you the strength in Him to destroy the ones who bound you.  You will destroy more of your enemies after you were blinded than before you ‘thought’ you could see, when your vision was cloudy, marred by pride, lust, jealousy and much more of the things that are found in the Den of Delilah.
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In Judges 17:3, Delilah consecrated “her” silver for “her” son’s sake, with the purpose of making a carved image and a cast idol.  Remember in Exodus 20:3-4, we are taught, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.  Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”  The silversmith made the image and idol and they were placed in Micah’s house.  But what has the word of God said about boxing Him in?  “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.  And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else—Acts 17:24-25.”  “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.” 

In Judges 17:7, a young Levite from Bethlehem (city of David), who had been living with the clan of Judah, went in search of another place to stay.  The Levite priest left the city of David (Bethlehem), from the presence of praise (Judah), to go seeking.  While in search, the seeking Levite came to the house of Micah where carved images and idols had been made and now resided.  When you leave the place where His holiness is and where praises are being lifted up (spirit), in search of doing “your” own thing, you will always come to a place of idols (flesh/self).  When you leave the place where the “Spirit of the Lord” is to be where religion and doctrine is founded and housed, you will always reap the consequences of the flesh verses the eternal benefits of the spirit. 

The Levite went in search of a place where he was not sent by God—”The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way, Psalms 37:23.” So the idol worshiper (Micah) said to him, “Live with me and be my father and priest (17:10).” Some of us are seeking someone or something to be our ‘god’, where that place should only be reserved for God and by God.  We still seek man to be the hearers of God for us, instead of seeking to hear God ourselves.  We seek others to be our strength, when God has said—“For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:1). We are seeking others and things to save us, when there is only ONE that can save and deliver, that one is Jesus.  “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21; Luke 19:10; John 3:17; 1 Tim. 1:15; Heb. 7:25). 

Micah said, “Now I know that the LORD will be good to me since this Levite has become my priest” (17:13). The key point here is that the Lord did not send the Levite; but the Levite went in search of…  The word of God tells us to ‘seek’ but the first word in Matthew 7:7 reads, “ASK”.  We do a lot of seeking, but we do very little asking FIRST.  The entire verse reads—“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” If you have not first ASKED, how will you know what you are seeking for? If you are a sheep and you have not first asked God where it is that you belong in the body of Christ, or what role or part you play in the kingdom, then why are you seeking?  God says “in everything acknowledge Him first”, not when we get around to it. Acknowledge means to take notice of; to recognize as genuine or valid. In other words, I recognize you as my Lord early, even before I get out of bed, that unless you guide me, I shall fall and stumble.  We do not ask most of the time because we do not want our ‘real’ motives for seeking to be exposed and for God to correct us.  What is our motive for seeking and if our motive (heart) is not pure, the first thing you will find in your seeking is flesh (idols, idol makers, idolatry). 

In Judges 18:1, “In those days Israel had no king.  And in those days the tribe of the Danites were seeking a place of their own where they might settle, because they had not yet come into an inheritance among the tribes of Israel.”  The Danites sent out five warriors from Zorah and Eshtaol to spy and explore the land.  They came near the house of Micah where they spent the night.  They had recognized the voice of the Levite and inquired who had brought him there.  In other words—who sent you? Was it the LORD, or was it ‘self’.  They asked, “why are you here?  What are you doing in this place?” He never responded to their questions, but began to tell them what Micah (not the Lord) had done for him. “Moses told his father-in-law about everything the LORD had done...(Exodus 18:8)”.  “The LORD had done the same for the descendants of Esau… (Deuteronomy 2:22).” “…The LORD had done for Israel (Joshua 24:31).”  The point that I am making is that the conversation should have been what the “Lord had done” not what man had done, but the Levite had not been sent by the Lord.  The Levite stated he was hired as a priest by Micah (man), not by God.  The Danites asked the Levite if their journey would be successful.  The priest said, “Yes, Go in peace.  Your journey has the LORD’s approval.” 

In Chapter 18, verse 7, the five men left and came to Laish where they saw that the people were living in safety (content with where they were—not seeking God, the things of God, or people of God). Proverbs 19:23 says, —“The fear of the LORD leads to life: Then one rests content, untouched by trouble.”  They were unsuspecting and secure in where they were and what “they” had accomplished. They were perhaps a sheep without a shepherd or had strayed away from the shepherd, only to be caught unaware by a hireling, a wolf. They were a people that lacked nothing in the natural, but in spirit they lacked everything. They were a people who felt they needed no shepherd, no guidance, no protection—no God!  They did not need to go to church to fellowship with other believers, no need for a covenant family. 

When you isolate yourself from God, the things of God, and the people of God, you will always fall prey to the wolf that will chase you to a hireling. A hireling has no interest in your soul or your state of being and could care less where you spend eternity.  A hireling is only interested in what it can devour from you or of you.  They saw ‘things’ as their coverings and as their comfort; they felt no need for neighbors. 

When the Danites returned home they gave their report to their fellow brothers and said, “come on, let’s attack them!  We have seen that the land is very good.  When you get there, you will find an unsuspecting people and a spacious land that God has put into your hands, a land that lacks nothing whatever” (vs. 8-10). 

Six hundred men armed for battle set out from Zorah and Eshtaol, the men traveled through Kiriath Jearim in Judah. From there they went on to the hill country of Ephraim and came to Micah’s house (vs.13). These are the same five men that had originally spied out the land of Laish and said to their brothers, “Do you know that one of these houses has an ephod, other household gods, a carved image and a cast idol? Now you know what to do.”  So the men went to the house of the young Levite at Micah’s place and greeted him.  The men went into Micah’s house and took the carved image, the ephod, the other household gods and the cast idol, and the priest said to them, “what are you doing?”  The men told the priest to be quiet and to come with them and be their priest.  For they said it is better for you to be the priest over a tribe than to be a priest over one man. 

Too many times as a shepherd we get caught up in numbers.  When the focus should be am I right where God wants me to be, doing what He has called me to do at this very moment.  We read earlier in the book of Judges how God told Gideon “You have too many men...” God does not need a lot to accomplish mighty things, just ask the twelve who followed Jesus. We are not mighty in numbers, but mighty in and through Him.  Just because your church does not have five thousand members does not mean that the Lord is not there and on the same note; it does not mean that if you have five thousand members, that the Lord is there.  He is there when you are doing all that He has asked of you, the adding is His responsibility, not yours. 

The Levite priest was glad and he took the ephod, the other household gods and the carved image and went along with the people. The Levite priest was a hireling, he was not a shepherd sent by God, so therefore when the battle came, instead of fighting for the house of God, then men and women of God, he allowed himself to be conquered.  He was persuaded by the enemy, verses him conquering and devouring the enemy.  But a shepherd would not only fight for the house of God and the people of God, but the things of God; a shepherd would lay down his life for his sheep and tell the enemy, ‘you will have to come through me to get to what the LORD has entrusted into my care.  You will have to kill me first to harm them’.  Is this not what Jesus did?  He laid His life down for the things of God and the people of God.   Or ask the boy David who fought and killed the lion and the bear to protect his father’s sheep.  He also fought and killed Goliath because Goliath was mocking not only the people of God, but God! 

Only the Spirit of God will be found in a true shepherd—one who willingly lays his life down for his sheep. “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.  The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again” (John 10:16-17). 

God never called the Levite priest, but God used him, and the Levite priest had no stake in what happened to Micah or his things. Jesus said, my sheep know my voice, a stranger they will not follow. “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me (John 10:14).  “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.  I and the Father are one” (John 10:257-30). 

God saying that apart from Him, His sheep do nothing; as Jesus apart from the Father did only what He heard the Father tell Him.  Jesus never went on His own accord or by His own will.  A shepherd has a stake in his sheep, whether it is one or a thousand. But a hireling has no stake in the things of God, let alone the people of God.   The Levite priest had no stake in Micah or his house or his manufactured gods. 

This is the problem with some of us in the church today; we have no investment in the people of God, let alone the things of God.  We church hop because we do not agree with the sermon, the preacher or the members.  We have spent our lives hopping from one thing to another, relationships, jobs, churches, because we have no investment in them.  We put time, money, into everything except for God.  As a shepherd and as a sheep, it is time to invest not just time, but money into what God has called us to do, and that is to win souls. 

The silver means redemption, the silver money used to create Micah’s false idols and gods was just Satan’s way of imitating what we already have.  We have a GOD that is not formed by silver, but that His blood has already redeemed us!  If you are a sheep, seek God for His shepherd and if you are God’s shepherd, are you missing a sheep that a hireling has his eyes on?
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This is a clear picture of you and me as the concubine prostitute, and Jesus as the Levite.  The word ‘Concubine’ means—a woman with whom a man cohabits without being married: as one having a recognized social status in a household below that of a wife.  Every time we sin knowingly, and refuse to repent and turn from sin, we in essence show ourselves to be a concubine prostitite.  Yet Jesus (the Levite), through the Holy Spirit, is forever seeking to draw us back into a right and Holy relationship with Him.  There are several times in the scriptures when God refers to Israel as being unfaithful, when they sought other gods and idols (Numbers 25:1;Numbers 14:33; Deuteronomy 23:17, Jeremiah 13:27; Ezekiel 16:20, 26).

The Levite went sojourning for his concubine, the word sojourning means—to journey; to make a journey.  The concubine went BACK to the place where the Levite (Jesus) had delivered her.  How many times have we sinned against God after He has forgiven us for the same thing and cleansed us from it?  Anytime we willingly sin, we are cheating on God, because the word says God is our husband (2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:23)—we show ourselves as being a concubine prostitute.  And when shame enters in, we tend to go back to what God has already delivered us from and cleaned us from, even though we have been dressed in His righteousness and His holiness.  We listen to the lies of the devil instead of yielding to the truth of His word and the comfort of His love.  Instead of believing that His word means exactly what it says—“Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39). Yet out of His love and His mercy for us, He goes sojourning—to draw us back unto Himself.  “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).

In verses 5-9, we see the father of the concubine trying to persuade the young Levite to stay; he’s providing all the reasons why his son-in-law should stay; he is providing what seems to be ‘comfort’ for his son-in-law.  But there is never comfort or safety in a place where God has not told us to be—safety and comfort are found only where He is.   When we go back to the places, the thing, or the person that God has already delivered us from, the enemy will use those things, people, and places to try to entice you; to make you think it is better than it really is; the enemy will show you only the ‘good’ side in order to make you so comfortable that you want to stay and try to forget the bondage you were under before the Levite (Jesus) came and delivered you.  The enemy will make you think you belong there, and that you belonged there all the time.  He will make you wonder why you would want to be anywhere else but ‘here’?  But when your Levite Master (Jesus, the Holy Spirit and or the Holy Spirit using someone) comes for you to tell you to come out, to separate yourself, you need to come out!

In verse 10, we see the Levite refusing to stay, to tarry another night at his father-in-law’s house.  He realized to stay another night would deter him from his original goal, which was to come and get his concubine and take her back home.  He realized for a brief moment and he took his focus off his original purpose.  This is what the enemy will try to do, is get your focus off the plan of God, the will of God, the purpose of God; to try and make you forget what God is still doing in your life, even in the midst of your mess-ups, shortcomings, to keep you stuck back in what you were delivered from.  Shame says for you to run; Grace tells you to stand.  Shame says for you to hide; Mercy says, I will cover you.  Shame says, He could never love or use you; but Jesus says, I paid it all for you on Calvary.  The only thing you did was sever your relationship with God, because sin creates a wall, a barrier between God and us.  But true repentance, destroys the wall and re-establishes not only communication, but relationship between God and us.  So Mercy rose up and took Grace by the hand and went sojourning for what belonged to Him.  There is no shame, in which Mercy and Grace have not already hung, bled and died for.  Mercy took the nail on the right hand for you and me, and Grace took the nail on the left hand for you and me. 

While the Levite, his servant and concubine were in the midst of traveling back home; the servant said to the Levite, let us stay here in Jebus.  The word Jebus means —trodden hard, or fastness, or “the waterless hill.”  The Levite knew he did not need to stay at a place which was waterless, or where the Holy Spirit did not reside.  Too many times when God is trying to get us back to the place we are supposed to be, we get tired or weary in the journey and want to stop at a place where the anointing is not, at a place where God’s will for you is not there.  We need to press on, push through until we get to where God is leading and wanting to take us.  Notice the word Jebus means ‘trodden hard’; it is a place that if you stay there, the enemy will walk on you, because trodden means—to step or walk on.  So not only will the enemy walk on you, but he will walk hard on you, so you must press on to where the Holy Spirit is leading you. 

In verse 12, the Levite replied no, he would not stay in an alien place, a place where God’s spirit did not rest or reside.  And why would we want to stay in a place when the Spirit of the Lord is not there?  The Levite said we must press on to Gibeah or Rama; Gibeah is known as ‘The People’s Wickedness’.

They reached Gibeah and tried to get lodging, but no one would take them in. By the evening an old man who was living in Gibeah (the men of this place were Benjamites) came in from his work in the fields.  The old man began to inquire of the Levite whom he was and where he came from?  The Levite answered all of his questions and explained to him that he, his servant and concubine were looking for lodging for the night. He explained how they had their own food and they would not be a burden to anyone.  The old man offered to let the Levite stay at his house so they would not spend nighttime in the square, and offered to supply him with whatever he needed (vs. 20).  The old man took them in and fed their donkeys and they washed their feet and had something to eat.  Some of the wicked men of the city began to surround the house.  They began to pound on the door and tell the old man to bring the Levite out to have sex with him (vs. 22). When you are in process of returning to where God has purposed you to be, the devil will use anything he can to surround you, to try to overtake you, to pervert the purpose of God in your life, in short to try and destroy you.  “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10.

The owner of the house went out (the place of safety, protection of where God has you) and told them no, the man was a guest in his house, and to take his virgin daughter and the Levite’s concubine.  He said he would bring them out to them and to do to them as they wished (vs. 24).  But the wicked men would not listen to him, so the Levite took his concubine and sent her outside to them, they raped her and abused her throughout the night and at dawn let her go (vs. 25).  The evil she had sown had come back to her, pressed down, shaken together and running over.  Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again (Luke 6:38).  For God’s word says in Genesis 8:22— “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” What God is saying is that we will always reap whatever we sow, the measure and the seed we sowed with will come back to us, pressed down, shaken together and running over.

The concubine had sown seeds of lies, deceit and fornication on her husband; the seeds she had sown had come back to her in abundance.  She went back to the house where her master was and fell down on the door and laid there until daylight.  When the Levite got up and went outside, he saw her lying there and told her to get up, but she did not respond.  The Levite put her on his donkey and continued on to his home (vs. 27).  When he reached home, he took a knife and cut up the dead concubine into twelve parts and sent them to all the areas of Israel. Everyone who saw it was shocked, because nothing like this has ever been done since their captivity in Egypt (vs. 30).  The twelve parts represented the twelve tribes of Israel.  Then all the Israelites came out as one man and assembled before the Lord at Mizpah (Ch. 20:1).  Mizpah means—watch-tower; the look-out.  The men came out and rose up as one unified voice to be the watchmen on the wall for their brother who had been wounded, robbed and humiliated.  They asked the Levite to tell them how all this took place (vs. 3).  The Levite began to tell them what had happened and how he and his concubine were treated, and how they murdered her in a city where men of God were supposed to have lived. 

This town, this city of Gibeah, was a brother city that was supposed to be a house of God, a safe place, a safe haven.  This is the place, Gibeah (God of Judgment), where God sought judgment on the wicked people.  For the word says, vengeance belongs to the Lord, He will repay (Psalms 94:1; Nahum 1:2; Romans 12:19; Hebrews 10:30). The Levite sent out each piece of the concubine to Israel’s inheritance (his seed, children).  The Levite wanted them to speak up and give their verdict of what should be done to the town, the city that did such wickedness to a kinsman, in the eyesight of the Lord. 

In Judges 20 starting at verse 8 through 12, the Israelites stated they would not go home until justice had been served for the evil done to the Levite and his concubine.  In verse 12, the Israelites tell the men and women of the city (Gibeah) to surrender the wicked men so the city can be purged. God not only wants to purge the Church of wickedness, but those who reside on the inside of it.  Only when the Church is purged, can God use us to help purge the world.  When there is sin in our life, the Holy Spirit is the Watch-Tower or the Watchmen on the Wall, and with God and Jesus they act as ONE VOICE.   The Holy Spirit’s verdict is to purge us of whatever sin is in our lives, no matter how small or irrelevant we think it is, when the SPIRIT of JUDGMENT says it must go.  When you have people in your local church, family, or friends and there is wickedness, and they refuse to repent and turn and walk in God’s statues, and to heed His word and warnings, we have to give them over to the Holy Spirit and try not to hide them, or cover-up for them.  This is what happened in the town of Gibeah (Benjamites).  They would not listen to the SPIRIT of JUDGEMENT (God).  When we refuse to heed the Spirit of Judgment upon a person, a sin, or whatever God has judged as un-holy, un-righteousness, and we try to ‘hide it’, ‘cover it’, ‘protect it’, in essence we set ourselves up for a battle against Judgment!

In verses 13 the confrontation of the SPIRIT of JUDGMENT and the battle occur.  The men of Gibeah gathered seven hundred chosen men, who were left-handed and could sling a stone at a hair pace and not miss. The men of Israelites went up to Mount Bethel (House of God) and inquired of Him who should fight.  They sought council and wisdom of whom had declared the judgment (God).  And God declared that His Praise (Judah) would go first.  Praise must be the first thing to enter the battle with the enemy—it must always go before you and behind you.  Only the Spirit of Praise will usher in the presence of God, (Psalms 18:3; Psalms 21:13 are just a few scriptures which speak of praising God and how God shows His strength in the face of your enemies, which are His as well.)  We can never enter a battle with the enemy with our wisdom, words or murmuring and complaining, only when we enter with the spirit of praise will God show up and show out on our behalf. 

The men of Gibeah cut down over twenty-two thousand Isralites on that day, but the Israelites CHOSE to encourage each other and stood their ground.  They did not complain to or about one another or blame each other or blame God, they encouraged each other in God and God’s ability in them.  When you’re in a battle and you have sought God’s council and followed through with what He has spoken; the key word here is FOLLOW THROUGH, for it will do you no good to seek God and then not to do as He has said; even when in the beginning it seems as though you are not winning the battle, continue to stand on what God has spoken to you — now is not the time to change horses in the midst of the battle.

The Israelites went before the Lord and wept (vs. 23) and asked God if they should go up again against the Benjamites (Gibeah), and the Lord’s response was the same—“go again.”  The Benjamites then cut down another eighteen thousand Israelites; so the Israelites went again before the House of God (Mount Bethel) to seek the Lord.  They went before God weeping and to ask for His council.  But how many of you know the third time is a divine number and order with God, which shows not only that God is in the battle with you, but now the Son and the Holy Spirit have just stepped in the battle — unity, TRINITY!  For the battle is not yours, but it belongs to the Lord—2 Chronicles 20:15.  The battle is only the Lord’s when we seek His council and we do all He has asked us to do.  The Israelites fasted and wept before the Lord until evening, and offered burnt offerings before Him (vs. 26).  In those days, the Ark of the Covenant of God rested there with Phinehas, son of Eleazar the son of Aaron ministering before it.  They asked the Lord if they should go before the Benjamites again and the Lord’s response was “Go, for tomorrow I will give them into your hands” (vs. 28).

The Israelites went up against the Benjamites on the third day (for we know on the third day, Christ rose).  It seemed again the Benjamites were defeating the Israelites so much that the Israelites were saying, “let’s retreat and draw away from the city to the roads”(vs. 32).   Then ten thousand Israelite men made a frontal attack on the Benjamites (God will face your enemies face to face, He does not have to sneak up and attack them from behind—for He is God all by Himself).  The attack was so heavy that the Benjamites did not realize how near disaster they were. When God fights your battle for you—when the SPIRIT of JUDGEMENT speaks and you have sought God’s council, and done exactly what He asked—He will fight your battle.  The attacks will be so brutal they will not even realize what has happened until disaster is near.  On the third day, the Israelites took down twenty five thousand and one hundred armed Benjamites.  When the Benjamites saw they were defeated, the Israelites spread out and put the whole city of Gibeah to sword.  The men of Israel had arranged with the ambush to send up a cloud of smoke, so when the Benjamites saw the cloud of smoke, they became terrified and realized truly the SPIRIT of JUDGMENT had come upon them (vs. 36-41).  The Benjamites began to flee from the Israelites—“The LORD shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth” (Deut. 28:25).

Eighteen valiant Benjamites fell before the Israelites, they struck down seven thousand more between Rimmon and Gidom (vs. 45).  On the third day, twenty-five thousand Benjamites died, and only six hundred men escaped and hid for four months.  The Israelites went back to Gibeah, and killed all the animals and set the town on fire.  What should have only been a few wicked men for the SPIRIT of JUDGMENT to take care of turned out to be 98% of the city—because of the one’s who rebelled against the SPIRIT of JUDGMENT and tried to cover, protect and justify sin, so God judged the whole city.  And JUDGMENT only allowed a few of the Benjamites to escape.  When God has judged our sin, and we refuse to let Him deal with it, however He chooses—which is always with love, mercy and grace, but if we continue to try and hide it, make excuses for it, we then enter into a battle with the SPIRIT of JUDGMENT—and Judgment always wins!  When there is sin in our church, our family - instead of letting the Spirit of Judgment deal with it and purge us, if we attempt to protect it when God has judged it, we will end up loosing more than what we think we were protecting or gaining.  He who judges—judges RIGHTLY and RIGHTEOUSLY.  The judgment of the Lord always comes swiftly and harsh for all of those who oppose Him, but with tender love and kindness to those who welcome the SPIRIT of JUDGMENT.  For it is He who gives us His strength to stand under the council of His Judgment, for does He not Judge/chastise those He loves.  “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth”—Hebrews 12:6.

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Created by Lynn Lillard