Thursday, February 13: Judges 14- Understanding the Word.

Reading today’s chapter, I scratch my head. I don’t understand the mentality behind treating women the way the text reports women were treated in Sampson’s day. First he sees a woman and says to his parents "I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife" (2). Then after the debacle of a riddle and the poor ending to the marriage week, Sampson goes and gets the 30 sets of clothing and storms back home. What happens to the woman? Samson's wife was given to the friend who had attended him at his wedding (20). The woman is referred to as Sampson’s wife yet she is given to some other man.

Women really were treated like property. Not once was her thoughts or desires considered.

I confess I do not understand this. I am a western person of the 21^st  century and this kind of behavior does not fit my cultural paradigm.

Is the Scripture teaching the way we are to live? If so, obedience would call me to follow it. Or is Scripture merely reporting the way things were, without comment on design and right or wrongness of the culture presented in the account?

I land with the second answer. The whole of Scripture does not present this manner of living as representing God’s command for living. Ephesians, in particular, presents very different views marked by love and respect.

In my time in the Word this morning, God reminded me of a few things.

1)      The whole Word of God must be taken into play when working to understand God’s views and teachings on a particular subject. Choosing a verse out of its context and without consulting the whole teaching on the subject throughout Scripture can lead to problems.

2)      I need to be honest with who I am and how much my own culture colors my thinking and views on life and scriptures. My culture doesn’t have a monopoly on understanding God’s Word and my culture can be wrong in areas of faithful living.

3)      God worked and works through human culture orchestrating His desires, without necessarily sanctioning all elements of that culture.

4)      I am humbled as I sit before God’s Word. His ways are higher than mine and His thoughts higher than mine (cf. Isaiah 55).

Lord, I submit to You. I promise to hold Your Word –the whole of it- sacred and allow it to inform me and teach me Your ways. I ask for Your Holy Spirit to lead me into all truth. Allow me to apply my mind diligently to the study and knowing of Your Word as a tool to know You and to grow in obedience. In Jesus’ name, the ‘Word of God made flesh’, I pray. Amen.