Heralds Digest

  “Then he became very thirsty; so he cried out to the Lord and said, “You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant; and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?” So God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out, and he drank; and his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore he called its name En Hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day.” Judges‬ ‭15‬:‭18‬-‭19‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ Of all the places visited by Samson and in all his many turns in life, the turn in his moment of thirst at En Hakkore stood out as the true and honest desire for God’s intervention. At En Hakkore, he became very thirsty, approached God, and left the presence of God with his spirit returned and revived. Outside En Hakkore and almost in all of his life’s engagements, Samson would turn to physical cravings and carnal appetite that pleased only his eyes, until the Philistines plugged those eyes disgracefully out of their sockets. There have been many turn...

  “Then Manoah prayed to the Lord, and said, “O my Lord, please let the Man of God whom You sent come to us again and teach us what we shall do for the child who will be born.”” ‭‭Judges‬ ‭13‬:‭8‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ Prosperous projects start with a good concept, but they do not stop at the concept stage. Good implementation strategies evolve consistently to drive these projects toward great accomplishments. For Manoah and his wife, the conception of the fruit of the womb had led them to wait consistently upon the Lord. And after their prayer appeared to have been answered through the Angel of the Lord’s visitation to the wife, Manoah prayed for the Lord to come again and provide the implementation strategies against unity of purpose on Samson’s parenting. Likewise, be it the project of our parenting at home, partnership in business, or productivity at the workplaces, only the Lord has the best strategies for prosperity and productivity. Sometimes, we struggle with the good concept towards adv...

  “So Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you take me back home to fight against the people of Ammon, and the Lord delivers them to me, shall I be your head?”” Judges‬ ‭11‬:‭9‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ Home heirs are expected to perpetually enjoy the privileges, communal support system, and the unique potentials within the family. But in reality, selfishness has often resulted into the making of a weapon of destruction out of the family’s commonwealth. In the case of Jephthah among his Gilead family and inheritance, he was discriminated against and disenfranchised instead of being recognized as home heirs. Fortunately, Jephthah recognized the superiority of his heavenly inheritance above his rightful claim as part of home heirs. Consequently, Jephthah was able to develop his potential in and through God when he freely indulged the hatred and ill-treatment of his brothers over the home inheritance. And when it was time to utilize his heavenly inheritance as home help, he was positioned to ask...

  “But Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you; the Lord shall rule over you.” Then Gideon made it into an ephod and set it up in his city, Ophrah. And all Israel played the harlot with it there. It became a snare to Gideon and to his house.” Judges‬ ‭8‬:‭23‬, ‭27‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ The reign of Gideon teaches the absence of reliability in human abilities, breakthrough, and life’s achievements. Even while Gideon’s motive towards the embrace of divine guidance in leadership was commendable, the potent corruption of the heart of man by the desire for position, power, and recognition destroyed the legacy of a man with a might in God’s presence. It shows that the motive for the Lord’s rule in life’s affairs must translate to a reliable reign of His pursuits in the heart. Unfortunately, the desire for absolute position, power, and recognition to reign led to Gideon’s family insurrection and the destruction of his seventy sons (except Jotham), after the reign...

  “And so it was, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, that he worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel, and said, “Arise, for the Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand.”” Judges‬ ‭7‬:‭15‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ The battle for deliverance in life is usually very dreadful. Experienced soldiers are often prepared to submit to the possibility of casualties ahead of any combat. And for the inexperienced and combat-light Gideon, the stake of fear and defeat was high. Despite the divine preparation with evidence of divine support, Gideon needed to clearly hear the workings of God in the camp of the enemies before stepping into the battlefield. And it was a delightful feeling when Gideon finally heard the telling of the opposing camp’s dream with the interpretation that “ This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel! Into his hand God has delivered Midian and the whole camp” . Unfortunately, believers are more freely disp...

  “Also I said to you, “I am the Lord your God; do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell” But you have not obeyed My voice’ ” Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?”” Judges‬ ‭6‬:‭10‬, ‭14‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ If the fear of the Lord only is the beginning of wisdom, then the fear of anything or anyone that prevents the fear of the Lord is both foolishness to man and unfair to God. When the backslidden Israelites were delivered to the Midianites because of their fear of the gods of the Amorites, God revealed to them the cause as their sin of unfair fear when they cried unto Him. Unfortunately, unfair fear has always promoted the works of human beings, their achievements, and their creativities at the expense of obeying the words and revelations from the Lord. Whereas, the beginning of wisdom singled out Gideon in his generation as someone who truly understood the impor...

  “Then she sent and called for Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, “Has not the Lord God of Israel commanded, ‘Go and deploy troops at Mount Tabor; take with you ten thousand men of the sons of Naphtali and of the sons of Zebulun; And Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go!”” Judges‬ ‭4‬:‭6‬, ‭8‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ Good missions and outreaches in life do not have a clear identifiable ribbon. Therefore, good going is mostly a risk of association with good people. When Deborah told Barak “ Has not the Lord God of Israel commanded, ‘Go and deploy troops at Mount Tabor ’”, he preferred to test the conviction of Deborah by asking her to go with him. In other words, “ If you are sure, then let’s go together ”. Unfortunately, in most of life’s projects, there are more good guesses than good going…therefore, people will prefer to wait for our breakthrough and accomplishment before accepting our proposit...