A Message for Misfits

Before he ever came to the plate, Jephthah had three strikes against him. He was an illegitimate child. Strike one. He was the son of a barmaid and a brute. Strike two. He was raised in an atmosphere of hatred and hostility. Strike three. Nurtured in an overcrowded cage of half-brothers, he was the constant target of verbal put-downs and violent profanity.

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Closing the Door to Lust, Part One

Samson was a he-man with a she-weakness. In spite of the fact that he was born of godly parents, set apart from his birth to be a Nazirite, and elevated to the enviable position of judge in Israel, he never conquered his tendency toward lust. On the contrary, it conquered him. Several things that illustrate his lustful bent may be observed from the record of his life in the book of Judges.

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Israel’s Dark Setting

The setting is Israel before the glory days of King David. There has been a long period—a couple hundred years—of intermittent warfare, cycles of events during which Israel would suffer invasion followed by famine.

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The Pre-Incarnate Son

Throughout the Old Testament, we encounter a mysterious figure referred to as “the angel of the LORD” (Genesis 16:7), “the word of the LORD” (15:1 NASB; Jeremiah 1:4 NASB), or even the “presence” of the LORD (Exodus 33:14). This figure sometimes takes human form (Genesis 16:7), comes as a voice from heaven (22:11), or appears […]

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Redeemed

You would be hard-pressed to find a more delightful story than that of Ruth. On the surface it reads like a romantic mini-drama in three scenes. Nice girl falls on hard times; girl meets man; man marries girl. But as with any really good story, just below the surface there are some very important ideas […]

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Listening to Jesus Beside the Sea

Introduction We can learn a lot about our relationship with God by studying the life of Peter. His journey with Jesus is a study in contradictions. In the midst of a raging storm, he impulsively climbed out of his boat at the invitation of Jesus to walk on water, only to divert his attention and […]

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Delilah: Tempting a Man to Death

“The lips of an adulteress drip honey / And smoother than oil is her speech” (Proverbs 5:3). How true of a woman who uses her feminine charm to beguile and deceive morally weak men to fall into sin. Delilah was one such woman. And Samson was one such man. Delilah made her home in the […]

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A Downward Spiral

When the book of Judges opens, the people of Israel had just come off of the experience of a great victory—they had conquered the land of Canaan and divided the land among themselves. When their leader Joshua died, however, no one stepped in to take his place. And this was the plan of God, to […]

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