10/3 Reading (Judges 16-18; 1 Corinthians 8)

Judges 16: Now we get to the story of Samson and Delilah. Delilah was a Philistine woman. The leaders get her to seduce him and see how they can overpower his strength. He gives her three different explanations and each fails: tie him up with 7 fresh bowstrings, tie him up with new ropes, and weave the 7 braids of his hair into one. After the third failure, Delilah says “‘How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you won’t trust me’” (CEB Study Bible; Judges 16.15)? Wait, what? That makes no sense. Finally he tells her that if his hair is shaved off, he will be weak. That works! Idiot! The Philistines take him captive and poke out his eyes. But…his hair starts to grow back while in captivity.

The Philistines throw a big celebration and have Samson perform for them in their temple. Samson asks God to grant him strength one last time so he can have revenge for the loss of his eyes. He pushed over two pillars and the temple collapses, killing everyone inside, all of the people on the roof, and himself.

Judges 17: This seems like a random story to me. First, the story is of a man named Micah, who had stolen silver from his mother, but then gave it back. She was so happy she devoted it to God and had an image made for her son, Micah. Then we learn about the different things that Micah does, like making a shrine and taking in a Levite who becomes his priest, replacing his son, who was his priest. From what I remembered, the Levites had a sacred responsibility to God. This doesn’t seem like that fits the bill.

Second, this chapter doesn’t follow the format of the earlier chapters. The focus is just on one man, who was not a judge or ruler or anything like that.

It almost seems like this chapter is here to set up possible future conflict.

Judges 18: Chapter is all about the tribe of Dan searching for a land. They migrate to a northern territory. I didn’t catch that no official land was given to this tribe, so it does make a little sense that they would migrate to find something. They end up taking the levitical priest from Micah (see Judges 17) and possession of Laish.

The first part of the first verse is interesting: “In those days there was no king in Israel” (Judges 18.1).

1 Corinthians 8: This chapter is actually pretty straight forward: don’t eat the meat offered to false idols in sacrifice. Ok.