Today’s Reading: Judges 12-13

Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion).

Cana, where Jesus performed His first public miracle, the changing of water into wine, was also the hometown of one of the Twelve Apostles, Nathanael (John 21:2). Along the street leading to the Franciscan Wedding Church, a chapel marks Nathanael’s home. The Chapel of St. Nathanael is the place to read his words to Philip as they talked about Jesus. Some believe Nathanael’s famous but curious remark, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46), indicates some consternation that the hometown of the Messiah was the “ordinary” neighbouring village of Nazareth, no more noteworthy than his own.

GOOGLE MAPS – To see where the photo was taken, click HERE.

Key Verse: Judges 12:6

…then they would say to him, “Then say, ‘Shibboleth’!” And he would say, “Sibboleth,” for he could not pronounce it right. Then they would take him and kill him at the fords of the Jordan. There fell at that time forty-two thousand Ephraimites.

There still are “wars and rumours of wars” as Jesus told us there would be (read Matthew 24:3-14). A new book by Joel Rosenberg, The Third Target, surely brings it all up to date. The same lands we read about in Judges are a boiling cauldron of satanically inspired evil, as it was in ancient times. I highly recommend Joel’s book as the best current read. King Abdullah of Jordan is front and centre! (click here to order The Third Target from the Crossroads eStore).

Four more Judges and 31 more years of peace and prosperity…then came one of the most unusual characters in all the Bible, Sampson. I’ve checked with experts on the historical and archaeological accuracy of this book, and it gets high marks from them all. Therefore, the stories about Sampson, no matter how hard to believe, are no doubt true also. Sampson’s birth tells us that God plans ahead for His future leaders. It also informs us that God uses very imperfect people for His purposes. We are all candidates for His call.

PRAYER FOR TODAY:

Lord God, I thank You that You call imperfect people like me. I ask for Your continued grace and strength to take on humanly impossible tasks. I’m not asking for physical strength like Sampson, although a little would help. I’m asking for moral strength to be more like Jesus, in whose Name I pray. Amen!

100 PERSONAL WORDS:

My son-in-law’s parents are buried in the graveyard just behind the Church of Nathanael (photo above) in their home village of Cana of Galilee. Nizar and Ellen named their youngest of six children after the Apostle from Cana in whom Jesus found no guile (read John1:43 – John 2:12). I understand that Cana, located just five miles north of Nazareth, was the larger of the two communities. I find Nathanael’s comments, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth,” to show the human side of the Apostles…competition between the communities. My son-in-law was the heavy-weight boxing champion of the Galilee, and that’s my tenuous connection with Sampson for this blog. Nizar, like Sampson, has had to learn some very hard lessons in life. God is using him big time! (check yesterday’s blog at the end of my “100 Personal Words”).

Yours for our availability to God for His purposes,

David

Just a short walk away from Nizar Shaheen’s family homestead in Cana is the graveyard beside the Chapel of St. Nathanael (Franciscans) where Nizar’s parents are buried.