Brothers,
We still have many stories yet to be explored during class-time. That said, please choose either two shorter passages (10-15 verses long each) or one long passage (at most about 33 verses) of the following scripture passages and, in a well-developed paragraph (or more) response, please interpret the deeper meaning of the text.
In other words: Summarize the passage(s).
Then, tell us: What is message is being communicated by the story? What are the symbols presented by the OT writers? What do they mean? How do they apply to your own lived experience in the present?
Hear it and Proclaim it! This assignment is due TUESDAY, NOV. 6, 2007
Options:
- Joshua 6: 1-21
- Joshua 7: 1-26
- Joshua 10: 12-14
- Joshua 20: 1-6
- Joshua 24: 1-33
- Joshua 21: 43-45
- Judges 3: 1-7
- Judges 6: 1-24
- Judges 6: 25-40
- Judges 7: 1-8
- Judges 7: 16-22
- Judges 8: 22-35
- Judges 9: 1-6
- Judges 13: 1-25
- Judges 14: 1-20
- Judges 15: 1-20
- Judges 16: 1-31
12 comments:
The passages of Joshua convey to us many deeper meanings on how we should live our lives and treat each other. These are two of them.
Joshua 20:1-6 Innocence
In this passage from Joshua, it is clearly stated that if one man accidentally commits a crime against another man, and the man he accidentally commited the crime against seeks revenge, then he must go to another village and seek shelter from the vengeful man. What this means is that a man who is innocent or who has commited a crime by accident will be protected by God. This tells us we can always look to the protection of God for closure and happiness, and in the way God protects us we should protect others for the greater good of humanity. this expresses a deep loving relationship between our religious lives and our public and private lives that we should always acknowledge. In this passage, the symbols presented by the writers are the leaders of the city and the entrance of the city. The leaders of the city represent God, who is there to dictate the Law and watch over us at all times. The entrance to the city is the protection of God that we should embrace fully in our lives at all times. This applys to my own experience by because the passage reveals to me that we never seek revenge, or a man should never seek revenge against another man. Before we make rash desicions like this, we should turn towards God for wisdom and enlightenment so we know what to do and how treat each other.
Joshua 21:43-45 Love and Promise
This passage from Joshua tells us that God has fulfilled his promise to the Israelites and that they now have conquered the Promised Land. This passage reveals to us the love God felt towards his people even after all their years of infedelity in the Desert. Through the long journey, God kept the Israelites close to Him and never wavered in keeping His Promise. This shows us that if we truly love somebody we should always keep our promise to them. The only symbol that I have been able to find throughout this whole passage is the Promised Land. the Promised Land is a symbol of the special relationship between God and his people. It represents the unwavering faith and love that we should show God at all times. In my own experience, I feel that we should always keep promises between one another. This is a way to show others that we trust them and really admire what they do for us and others.
Judges 16:1-31 Sin and God's Will
What happens in Judges 16:1-31 is Samson goes to a town called Gaza were the people of Gaza wanted to kill him. So he left and later fell in love to a women from Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. She's then offered eleven hundred shekels of silver to tell the Philistines Samson's weakness so they can kill him. She keeps Asking him what makes him equal to man kind. He keeps telling her different stories because he knows that she's trying to get him killed. Later on he got tired of her nagging and told her everything which led to him being in prisoned by the Philistines. What he had told her was that to make him equal to man kind you had to shave his head bold. One night the Philistines told Samson to come and preform for them. So Samson said to the servant who held his hand, "Put me where I can feel the pillars that support the temple, so that I may lean against them." Then Samson prayed to the LORD, "O Sovereign LORD, remember me. O God, please strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes." 29 Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, 30 Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines!" Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it.
eleven hundred shekels of silver
- meant that Samson was portrayed
seven braids
- meant that God was with Samson and he had his strength
the temple falling
-meant that God answered Samson's pray when he asked for his strength back
Samson's head being shaved
-meant that Samson had sinned
joshua 24:1-33
in this passage the Lord questions the faith of the israelites. He believes that they have been worshipping strange gods. joshua also thinks this is true and asks the israelites if they are still loyal to the one true God. the israelites tell him that they still love and worship the Lord. this loytalty to God and to joshua symbolizes the faith and trust that the israelites had in God to get them out of egypt and into the land of "milk and honey". this also symbolizes the trust that they put into moses, joshua, and the other leaders who helped them to escape slavery in egypt.
the death of joshua at the age of 110 years old symbolizes that if you are loyal to God and always have faith in his decisions, you live a good, long, and meaningful life. this whole passage also symbolizes that if you have faith and trust in God that only good things will happen to you.
The Book of Judges describes to us faithful people that God chose to lead the Israelites through hardships. Gideon was one of them. Here is the beginning of his story.
Judges 6:1-24
The Midianite Opression-The Call of Gideon
In this passage the Midianites have been fighting (and conquering) the Israelites for 7 years. The Israelites have lost much faith with God, and are beginning to wonder why He has given them to the Midianites. So the people complained to God for one last time. God sent them an angel, and told them, "I am the Lord, the God of Israel. I led you out of Egypt, and brought you out of the house of bonadge(slavery). You shall lnot pay reverance to the God of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But, you have not given heed to my voice." What God is saying is that the Israelites must have faith, for He has saved them once, so he will save them again. However, they have not listened to Him all of the time, so they are suffering because of it. So God, in order to lead Israel out of this ordeal calls Gideon through an angel. The angel says" The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor." Gideon replies, "Please sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all of this befallen us?" Gideon too, has his doubts, and he asks God to show him a sign. Gideon goes, and prepares a kid and unleavened bread. God touched the unleavened bread, and flames burst up from all around it. Gideon knows this is God and prays to Him.
The message of this passage is to keep faith in God, because He is great, and He will certainly help you more than once. Some symbols that the writers use are the 7 years of oppression, and the flames around the sacrifice. The 7 years of oppression signify that the Israelites had to go through oppression before they could re-enter their wholeness with God. The flames could represent the Holy Spirit being given to Gideon, so he could lead the Israelites out of oppression. These symbols could represent things in my life. I have to go through ordeals in my life because I have sinned, but God will help me through them. Once I overcome them, I recieve more of the Holy Spirit to help me not to do what I did again.
Judges 13:1-25
This chapter explains how Samson was born. It starts with an angel appearing to the wife of Manoe who was barren and had no children. The angel informs her that she is to have a son and that she is not to drink strong drink nor eat unclean food. The angel continues saying that when the boy is born, no razor is to touch his head.
When Manoe heard of the news, he did not know what to do so he prayed to the Lord asking for guidance. The angel appeared once again as an answer to Manoe's prayers, and helped him have a better understanding of what was expected of him. Later, the boy was born and he was named Samson.
The message within this story is that nothing is impossible for God.
Symbols of this story are obedience and miracle. In this passage obedience is shown by Manoe and his wife. Obediance can also be thought of as faith because the couple was faithful that they would have a son. The second symbol, miracle, is in the conception of Samson. Without God this would not have been possible.
In my daily life I can believe or have more faith in God. The symbols also can help me better comprehend the bible.
Judges 16: 1-31
This passage is about Samson’s downfall. Because of their long and violent history, the Philistines and Samson are bitter enemies. The Philistines desperately want to kill him. When Samson marries Delilah, they offer her eleven hundred shekels of silver if she can find a way weaken Samson. He lies to her many times, but eventually, he becomes tired of her nagging about it and gives in. Her tells her that is his head is shaved, his strength will become like any other man’s. Delilah notifies the Philistines, and they shave his head, gouge out his eyes, and throw him in prison. When the Philistines attempt to humiliate him by having him perform for them, he kills many Philistines.
There are two main meanings of this passage. The first is that God is always forgiving. In Judges, God blesses Samson with supernatural strength. Samson leads a sinful life, giving in to lust on several occasions. However, at the end of the passage, when Samson is blind, humiliated, and captured, he turns to God for help. God then gives Samson his strength, and Samson is able to take revenge on the Philistines. The second meaning is about using what talents God gives you to perform good acts. With his strength, Samson had the potential to be a great leader, but he threw it away and turned to a life of sin. Therefore, he led for short time and was embarrassed by his enemies.
There are various symbols in this passage. In verse 22, it says that his hair began to grow again in the dungeon. His hair is a symbol for is heart, and his love and trust of God began to grow when he realized he had sinned. When Samson’s eyes are gouged out, it was a symbol of a way to help him grow out of sin, since much of his past sins had to do with the appearance of women. Though not exactly a symbol, the motif of selling the life a loved one for silver appears again in this passage when Delilah divulges the secret of Samson’s strength to the Philistines. Here, the passage displays a second kind of lust, the lust for money (greed).
Joshua 24: 1 -33 This is Joshua speaking to all the tribes of Israel, declaring that he was speaking for God. God told his people that he had delivered their fathers from many tribulations, such as plagues, floods, and war. He destroyed any and all that attempted to harm his people. He gave them land that they did not labor for. God is saying fear him for he is powerful and hold no God before him. Serve him for he is true and powerful. God reminded them of his doings and that they must believe in him. This tells us today such as when Hurricane Katrina struck many lives were loss, but many were saved. I believe they that lived should have a testimony how God spared their lives. They should have a deeper satisfaction for God and believe in his mercy and power. So many times people take for granite God's mercy and just assume it was luck. There is a reason for all things and we as man cannot always understand, but we must believe that it was God's will and we have to accept it. I don't believe it is God's will for any evil to come to mankind, but when we don't believe in God, we are not protected from evil that is brought about by Satan. So we must believe in God and pray daily asking for God's protection and mercy. If we sincerely believe, he will protect us and see us through some of the most difficult times in our life. Like the old
saying "believing is seeing"
Joshua 24:1-33
In this passage not only is God portrayed as an almighty God, but one that extends his graciousness and power towards us to help us in times of need and never to leave us in the dark like he did the Egyptians in this passage. God has saved people in the past from their own internal darkness and sin and will continue to do so if we worship him reverently. This passage tells us that we should fear the Lord and all of his glorious wonders if we turn against him to worship other gods or false idols.
Some symbols presented by the Old testament writers are some that could be considered a literary device or in this case irony. God tells the people not to make false idols or statues yet they do instead to worship him and to celebrate and reinstate their covenant. The covenant as we all know represents a promise made by God with the Israelites. The statues represent a sort of power and authority. This means that as only God considers statues of himself to be acceptable, then this shows his power is beyond any false gods. In churches and worship places today there are statues, crucifixes even that represent gods power and glory. So these represent the symbols portrayed by the writers of the bible that apply as much now as they did long ago.
Joshua 20:1-6
In this passage, God tells Joshua to set up places of refuge that a person, who has kill another by accident and unintentionally, may seek refuge and hide form the avenger of the killed. There he is protected from the avenger and is allowed trial and is forgiven.
This implies that God is forgiving and accidents arent punished as though the crime was accidental. A symbol in the passage is the place of refuge which could be a church where we can seek refuge and be safe. Another symbol is the high preist who acts as a judge, just like a preist could act as a judge and give us out penance for out sins.
Judges 3:1-7
This passage talks about how the Lord left other nations in the promise land as a test for the Israelites to see if they remained faithful to God. Then it continues with the Israelites slowly turning away from God and worshiping the gods of other nations, almost assimilating into the other nations. Eventually they forget all about God.
This passage tells us about temptation and how we can forget the right thing and the right path by accepting the temptations forgeting what is good. Symbols in the passage are the other nation's religions which is a symbol for temptations arond us in the world today. In my life, this passage coull tell me what happens when i accept the temptations and this willteach me to be resilliant and focus on the right thing.
the passages that i have picked are Joshua 10:12-14 and Joshua 20:1-6
10:12-14
In this chapter God is telling us how god helped the Israelites by giving up the amorites to them. The massage that is being passed is to help the good in any way you are able to help. A symbol that is described in this chapter are the amorites, they are what God gave the Israelites for help. They relate to my present when i help my younger brother with his homework when he is struggling.
chapter 20:1-6
In this passage, God tells Joshua to set up places of refuge that a person, who has kill another by accident and unintentionally, may seek refuge and hide form the avenger of the killed. There he is protected from the avenger and is allowed trial and is forgiven. This tells us that God will forgive you even if your crime was done on accident.A symbol is when they designate the cities it could also mean when we designate time to go to church and ask God for forgiveness.
Joshua 24: 1 -33
Joshua is summoning all 12 tribes of Israel. He started to speak to the tribes. Joshua declared himself a speaker for God. God told the tribes about they went through the plagues, war, and also floods. But God always protected his people from any harm. But in some cases there are many deaths. Like the Tsunami that hit India. But it wasn't all about death and suffering. It was mostly helping realize that we she be prepared not reacting. It made most families come together instead of fighting. Everyone forgot about all problems.
There is a reason why things happen. But mankind can't always can figure the problems. We often a have to relate back to our faith. The reason why we do this, there are endless possible answers. Thats why they say "believing is seeing"
Joshua 7:1-26
In this passage, Israel's army is defeated and Joshua becomes angry because of the loss. Joshua starts off by telling his men to persist on, but they are badly beaten at Ai, and Joshua falls flat on his face. He then becomes infuriated at God because they were so badly slain, and asks why this had to happen. The Lord explains that Israel has sinned and therefore must be punished. He tells him that they will regain their power once they remove the "ban in your midst" and begin following the laws of the covenant. Joshua the ventures to greet Achan to command him to stop sinning and give praise to the Lord. This passage shows that faith is important to us and that by following the law of the Lord, good things will come to us.
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