kjv@Psalms:76 @ @ RandyP comments: In Judah God is known for the miraculous protection provided. Many a enemy has risen against her and against most incredible odds Judah has seen the Lord deliver. There is no tactical reason or military advantage they possessed for them to be victorious; other than God's hand. God's judgment is for the meek. There is then a sense of reverence and obligation to the Lord that must be paid. That He has done this for Judah is equally important for modern Christians as well as we have been grafted into this heritage too.
kjv@Psalms:79 @ @ RandyP comments: It is one thing for Judah to be corrected by the Lord and for Him to use neighboring nations as His instruments. It is quiet another for those nations to puff up, to think that it was by their hand, that the God of Jacob is silent, that they are somehow better. Their ill intentions may have been used by God but, that does mean that they are excused for intending and coming against His anointed. We know that as the hearts of Judah is turned back to God and their prayers are cried out that God will once again move in their favor for His covenant and His own name sake.
kjv@Psalms:83 @ @ RandyP comments: Even in that day there was a substantial and unified conspiracy against the presence of Israel. On one level it appears to be political but, from this author's vantage point it appears to be a spiritual warfare. Given that the promised Messiah was to come from Judah, given that all nations would one day worship in a New Jerusalem, given that God's name would dwell in Zion, given that all nations would blessed that bless Israel, the Devil I am sure makes it his object to tear at Israel. After nearly two thousand years of dispersed absence we are back to the same thing. It takes on political consequence but, have no doubt that it is spiritual in nature.
kjv@Isaiah:7:5 @ @ RandyP comments: Ephriam is another name for Israel now that it is divided from Judah.
kjv@Isaiah:7 @ @ RandyP comments: This is a very detailed prophecy. In 65 tears Ephraim/Israel shall be no more and not long after both Ephraim and Judah shall be without a king being first under the hand of Assyria. The fruitful land shall be over taken with flys and bees and become briers and thorns suitable only for cattle. Heads and beards and feet will be shaven in utter humiliation. During this era of captivity the messiah will born, His name, her virginity, His diet and distaste for evil all are revealed. Each and every piece of this prophecy has been completely fulfilled within a 675 year time span.
kjv@Isaiah:9 @ @ RandyP comments: How important to know that His anger is not turned but His hand is still extended. Israel/Judah/Manasseh have long strayed from any resemblance of covenant partnership with God; they have become exactly what covenant had told them not to be. The Lord has been more than long suffering towards them and is now prepared to do what He said would be done. This does not mean that it is all over though, that it all was a big mistake and that He is moving on without them; it means that they will serve His purpose just the same. For the present time it is to our benefit that this be, until the fulfillment of this Gentile age.
kjv@Isaiah:37 @ @ RandyP comments: We tend to imagine the worst. If this enemy was strong enough to do this or that to the others than what chance do I have. The other nations stuck to their flase gods; God was using Assyria to clean their house. Judah had their false gods but, there was also a remnant of those committed to Jehovah; God was using Assyria as a means of cleansing and correction. What a tremendous testimony especially being that the Assyrian defeat was prophicied. God also used a false messenger from Ethiopia. All things work for God's purposes, the more open, the harder we look for that common thread, the sooner we will see the events and circumstances in our lives in their truer light.
kjv@Isaiah:38:5 @ @ RandyP comments: Is this a common occurance? Is the kings life extended because he asked for it? or was it extended because in this time and place against Assyria Hezekiah's life meant more to God's plan than starting over with a new king in Judah? If so, then why did God allow his health to deteriorate in the first place? To affect the kings judgements from here on out?
kjv@Isaiah:38 @ @ RandyP comments: The king was suffering from some disease causing the skin to boil. Indications are that it was making him to be bitter towards God. Hezekiah had been a good godly king, the right man for the times at hand in Judah, but, not even that keeps one from suffering deadly illness, the curse of Adam. We cannot say that bitterness caused this cancer. We cannot say that the illness was intended to bring to light a hidden bitterness that then could be dealt with. We can not say that Hezekiah's illness was intended to stir the faith of the others around him. For then we would have to say the same about anyone of us. Though these things may have resulted, we can say that God dealt with everything that happened with the good of His plan and love for His servant in mind. The same would have been true if Hezekiah would have been called back into the Lord's rest.
kjv@Isaiah:39 @ @ RandyP comments: The text doesn't exactly say that because he showed them all that God was going to send them back to take all. The taking was because of the national sins of Judah and the prophecies of the previous chapters. Hezekiah was shown that there would at least be peace during his remaining fifteen or fewer years on earth. Why he would show them all his treasures for simply expressing concern about his prior health is to me a puzzle.
kjv@Isaiah:48 @ @ RandyP comments: Knowing the heart of man and His servant Israel, the Lord knew how we would bend the truth of this thing, that we would claim we knew it, that our own hands or our own gods brought this thing to pass. The Lord therefore declared it long before it happened, declared a new thing that could not be known any other way and performed it with intricate precision. This is how He has to operate given our blind and corrupted nature. It may seem terrible that Judah must suffer the furnace of affliction in double measure. It seems odd that this would be the only way left to refine them and prove His love/covenant. But, it seems odd that we would refuse to see things in the light of truth, follow His commandments and directions, not pollute His name with our rebellious and self serving whims.
kjv@Isaiah:48-49 @ @ RandyP comments: Babylon did not gain it's strength by it's own greatness or doings. Their surge was as unpredicted and irrational as any other peaceable nation of that time. The fact that the Lord made it happen testifies to His power, not theirs. They were the 'Grand Lady' of the region. He made them into a war like empire perhaps like no other in history not for their own glory (He would quickly take that away) but to reproof Judah and alert the known world His displeasure with sin/the inability of man fulfilling the Law/the coming of His Messiah/His unmovable commitment His covenant to Jacob.
kjv@Jeremiah:1:8 @ @ RandyP comments: Wouldn't you think that such a young God fearing prophet would be a treasure to Judah considering the rough patch that they are going through? What would he need delivering from?
kjv@Jeremiah:2 @ @ RandyP comments: The language of these pictures paint an indelible image that cannot be erased nor altered no matter what translation. Withered vines and broken cisterns, insolent camels and wild asses, brides in harlots attire, butchers stained in blood declaring themselves innocent. These things cannot be mis-interpreted into being something better or good about the state of Israel/Judah. The Lord is extremely upset there can be no doubt.
kjv@Jeremiah:3 @ @ RandyP comments: Signs of sin of the nation Israel here are refusing to be ashamed, adulterous idolatry, dealing treacherously, seeking salvation from hills and mountains, perverting ways, not obeying voice of Lord. In their division with Judah, which may have been rightful in and of its self, they had moved the their center of worship from Jerusalem to the two high places within their own borders to avoid having to go into Judah to worship. Which was a massive transgression. They were also fighting apparently over the possession of the Ark of the Covenant. The cure? Return from backsliding, acknowledge your transgression against the Lord and the scattering of your ways to strangers.
kjv@Jeremiah:4 @ @ RandyP comments: I see two possible explanations as to why the language very similar to kjv@Genesis:1 would be used here. 1a: This coming judgment will so severe as to symbolically set Israel/Judah back to the beginning as if none of this covenant had ever been. kjv@1b: It will be so devastating as to appear as dark and chaotic as earths infancy. 2: Gap theory suggests a gap between kjv@Genesis:1:1 and kjv@Genesis:1:2 where this type of judgment actually occurred to a pre-Adamic human or angelic race on earth; that what we read is not an account of creation but of a earth's first restoration. Both explanations may not be exclusive as well.
kjv@Jeremiah:5 @ @ RandyP comments: The emphasis is on the fact that both Israel and Judah believe themselves to be all of this, that the Lord supposedly is with them and yet there is not a man to be found that executes His judgments; no one fighting for His cause. They have become rich and that is their own proof. The Lord had stricken them and they have not grieved, consumed them and still they have not received correction. Certainly we as a nation must be concerned of this too, but, therein we see the difficulty; individuals may believe, even majorities of individuals, the course of nations however are not necessarily stirred by well intentioned individuals.
kjv@Jeremiah:11 @ @ RandyP comments: The chief complaint seem to be of the worship of false gods. From that branch out a multitude of other whoredoms and transgressions. As God has amplified Israel/Judah that all the nations of all the times might watch and hear of His dealings, such a nation as this called by His name and home of His tabernacle hear on Earth cannot be allowed to much leeway. Double measure blessings. Double measure curse and reproof. Today, we should know well the Lord's feeling towards other gods and false worship, but instead we seem to glory in it.
kjv@Jeremiah:16:5 @ @ RandyP comments: It is not that the Lord would have to perform this evil, He would have to simply remove His good. Think of how much good He has over our lives and what it would mean if those particular things were no longer there. Think about Judah then which has received these things in double measure.
kjv@Jeremiah:22 @ @ RandyP comments: The kings of Judah surely had their part in this coming judgment. There was a long pronounce track record of God pleading to them through His prophets. They were warned, they chose not to listen. They were commanded to execute judgment on behalf of the people and would not. They enslaved them for their own gain and ended up loosing everything. To the end that later, when other nations looked upon the wreckage they would know that this was not typical downfall of just any nation, this was God's people that had deserted their God.
kjv@Jeremiah:19 @ @ RandyP comments: The sight of Jeremiah breaking the ancient potters vessel at the east gate should burn in the hearts of Judah even to this day. The words he then proclaimed echoed true. Unfortunately, they still did not listen, whatever they had thought to gain from worshiping Baal was more convincing than loosing it all, being captive, and becoming so desperate as to eat their own children. Was it really?
kjv@Jeremiah:20 @ @ RandyP comments: Jeremiah is imprisoned for message at the east gate by the chief priest Pashur. He imprisons himself at the same time in a fit of depression. Every word that he had spoken in this prophecy is later proved to be right but, that is not of console to the prophet. I would imagine that even in these times the Lord brings people alongside to comfort, but, what really can be said? It is a tough time for all of Judah especially those in the right. The name given Pashur - Magormissabib suggests moved by fear all around.
kjv@Jeremiah:25 @ @ RandyP comments: Many would place the first world war in the early nineteenth century A.D., a major reshuffling of the power structures of the world. What is described here is perhaps the first world shift in the fifth B.C.. What had begun in a smaller scale in the 6th included Israel but, not Judah nor Eygypt etc... No nation now was allowed by the Lord not to drink from this cup. It was not a war of powerful alliances but of fracturing splits and singular domination. We see here God's greater vision, we have been focused too narrowly on Israel/Judah (false prophets, kings,etc..) and not on the entirety of mankind. The cup is prepared and filled in Jerusalem, but, is shared on all the nations. Babylon is used to begin the drunken slug-fest but, it too fractures soon after and is forced to drink as well by the much inferior Medes. The void is later filled by the Persians and then the Greeks.
kjv@Jeremiah:32 @ @ RandyP comments: I find it hard to believe the claims of some cults that the Jews are apostate beyond repair and that they themselves are now the true Jews. What has the Lord drawn them through? When were they scattered? When did their fathers do only wrong? They may be saved in the knowledge of Jesus Christ but, undoubtedly, they are not the Israel/Judah spoken of here. The Lord will put His fear into their (the Jews) heart that they will not leave Him anymore.
kjv@Jeremiah:33 @ @ RandyP comments: The Branch of Righteousness (Christians take to mean Jesus) grows unto David (comes down dwells among us in the flesh) executes judgment/righteousness in the land (some would take to mean an earthly rule but could mean a spiritual rule as well) Judah will be saved (again could mean spiritually) and Jerusalem dwell safely (spiritually secure in the knowledge and spirit of the risen Christ) David shall never want a man on his throne (because Jesus has moved the Davidic throne to the eternal kingdom, the right hand side of God the father, the God/Man rightfully sits on it forever more) neither shall there be needed any sacrifice or offering (for the God/Man on the throne has become unto us our final sacrifice, the complete atonement that the Father provides for us all). If this is not so, I see no other way that this covenant has not been broken or ceased for over two thousand years. Do you?
kjv@Jeremiah:35 @ @ RandyP comments: We are given an example of proof that it is within the heart of man to keep some form of covenant, that it is a matter of choice. This example was a very difficult and sacrificial choice. The right choice is always rewarded. Judah long ago had made their choice. God could have carried out their chastisement long ago, but, He has been careful to let us know that He has gone more than the extra mile towards them before executing this. It has given us plenty of opportunity to realize that this is not only the way it must be, it is also done for their ultimate good. We should see the certainty of our own depravity and the need for the Lordship of His Son and the redemption provided by the gracious gift of His Son's own blood.
kjv@Jeremiah:39 @ @ RandyP comments: What do all these men of Judah think now? Was Jeremiah the source of their downfall? Or were they? Or was he the lone prophet willing to stand forth and warn the peoples? Did Jeremiah hoot and howler and brashly reply I told you so? Many of these men did not live to be able to hear nor think at all. The ones that did live had too many problems of their own to be thinking of such. And as for Jeremiah, perhaps the saddest and most broken of them all... a call out to the far distant king of Ethiopia next on Nebuchadrezzar's list.
kjv@Jeremiah:46 @ @ RandyP comments: Egypt is in a bad spot. Not only are they being cursed for harboring the adulterous remnant of Judah (who were told not to go into Egypt or they would be a curse) they are judged by all the gods and idols of their own making. Surely the Lord has not kept this secret from them, we have some evidences of His dealings with them from this and other prophets. Other nations should be warned of this as well. When they see what and why this has happened to Egypt they should realize that this could be them as well.
kjv@Jeremiah:47 @ @ RandyP comments: God has never intended to work in the life of Israel alone. It has always been His plan to work in the life of all mankind and He has done that throughout. He has used Israel/Judah as His insertion point, His needle carrying the needed inoculation strategically planted. It is in their reaction to the antibodies, vile and repulsed, that they are stirred, inflamed and angered in to accepting His serum.
kjv@Jeremiah:51 @ @ RandyP comments: The righteousness of Judah had nothing to do with their own righteousness but, of the Lord's choice, His covenant with them. His righteousness made their righteousness and this form of righteousness is much much different. In the same fashion, Judah's escape from their captivity to Babylon was not in their own hands, their Lord was going to use the Medes to break their bonds. It cannot then be said that it was the hand of Judah, nor even the hands of the Medes (not with the impossible impenetrable odds that the Medes were up against); only by the hand of God. The Lord has used Judah in this same fashion to break many a nation since and continues to use them today; a nation the rarely was a nation with an army the rarely was an army.
kjv@Ezekiel:8 @ @ RandyP comments: Imagine this seeing this vision as the elders of Judah sat there in the parlor before you. It wouldn't surprise me if they were there to tell him how things were going to be if he didn't stop with all the rhetoric. Before the vision you might be thinking 'well these guys know what they are doing', 'intelligent people can see things different ways', 'how could all of them be wrong and only me right', 'hmmm...maybe some compromise is called for'. Then with the vision seeing these men the way God sees them? This is such a curious passage!
kjv@Ezekiel:17 @ @ RandyP comments: When the Lord says that the other trees of the field should know, we then should fully know that the Lord expects that by this action against the nation of Israel that the other nations involved will know what is occurring by His hand. They would know of the covenant between the king of Judah and Babylon that God was for, the breaking of the covenant by the making of a covenant with Egypt which God was firmly against, and the confirmation of God's wrath by the resultant slaughter of the kings and princes of the house of Judah captive in Babylon. When the Lord speaks/acts it is not for Judah's ears/eyes alone.
kjv@Ezekiel:23 @ @ RandyP comments: The Holy Spirit by these writings has gone to great lengths to have us understand what exactly is going on here. There should be no uncertainty as to what God wants us to know about this judgment. Multiple accounts, multiple graphical pictures, all similar in detail. The two sisters here are Israel (Samaria) and Judah (Jerusalem). Their adultery is religious and then political/economic and likely physical as well. They are depicted as doting upon their lovers. God is depicted turning their lovers against them, it will be the same foreigners they've doted on that will brutishly destroy them. Judah is especially coppable having watched Israel go through this beforehand and having had extended opportunity to repent. The question is why is it God is having Ezekiel go over and over again on these details, is it for our behalf?
kjv@Ezekiel:25 @ @ RandyP comments: "They will know that I am the Lord". Ammon, Philistia, Edom..... Would the Lord have declared this if it were not going to be overwhelmingly true? If He was over stating it, perhaps less they were to become vaguely aware or momentarily recognize or have suspicion that this is the Lord's work, it would not be the same as 'thou will know'. By the tone of these pronouncements I think we can deduce that the Lord has long been in contact with these people and has produce tangible works within them, warning them at least in how best to view Jerusalem's captivity. They remain caught up in a 'old hatred' knowing how the Lord felt yet continuing, bringing upon themselves a judgment more final than even Judah's.
kjv@Ezekiel:35 @ @ RandyP comments: The descendants of Esau from the Seir mountains, the Edomites are to be judged. Esau and Jacob had reconciled, but, his seed had renewed the quarrel and become frequent enemies of Israel shedding their blood. They had supposed that both lands Judah and Israel would one day be their own and had taken strength in the desolation of Israel. I am unsure of the time frame for this judgment as it seems to be when the whole earth rejoices (which may refer to the Millennium?). The Geneva notes call the people mentioned Idumeans, I'm not sure if there is a link.
kjv@Ezekiel:37 @ @ RandyP comments: Some of the dispersed have been regathered here since 1947 + 1968. Many are still left to come. Judah and Israel are again solidified as one. The things not yet achieved is the revelation of the true Shepherd, the cleansing of their hearts, the installment of David as His king. Whether the raising of the bones is literal or symbolic, it would have to be at least in the case of David. These things are moving ahead quickly.
kjv@Daniel:1 @ @ RandyP comments: The Lord is always moving ahead with His plans. As a nation Judah has now fallen into Chaldean hands but through the obedience of four young souls He plans to move Israel forward through the seventy year captivity. He has gifted these four with the skill, the knowledge, the situation and the opportunity needed. They won't be the only ones that He builds up and moves into place.
kjv@Hosea:1 @ @ RandyP comments: We are going back now to the time where Israel and Judah were two nations, just before Israel was put down. Hosea is a contemporary of Isaiah. He paints a vivid picture of the spiritual adultery of the nation that had gone whoring after other gods and could not stay faithful even though the Lord loved her dearly.
kjv@Hosea:5 @ @ RandyP comments: You can imagine Judah as it looks out to see what is happening to Israel. One would hope that the sight of such would sober them up but, it does the opposite. There is wickedness in the midst, and man's wickedness takes the opportunity to expand in disaster where man's righteousness tends to hide. The Lord withdraws Himself as is best until they can acknowledge their offense.
kjv@Hosea:11 @ @ RandyP comments: Hosea has spoken almost exclusively about judgments on Israel as a whole and namely the component areas of Ephraim/Samaria with little mention of Judah which for now remains mostly faithful. He is a prophet for this region. Comprised of 10 of the tribes, Ephraim itself being 3, their first and foremost transgression is that their worship of Jehovah was moved to two unsanctioned high towers in their own land so that they wouldn't have to cross into Judah to get to Jerusalem. Worship of Jehovah quickly morphed into worship of Baalim. Their jealousy toward the seat of David (corrupt as many descendant kings were) and resultant hatred was the beginning of the end for themselves.
kjv@Joel:1 @ @ RandyP comments: Joel was a prophet for Judah at the time of Isaiah and Amos and king Uzziah. The region faces a terrible plague like few ever seen, it sounds like a plague upon a plague. Not many of us have experienced a plague or drought, what little I know I've been told from grandparent survivors and some study of the 1930's dust bowl. They are times of great soul searching, there is nothing to do but pray and wait them out. People are changed however. They become thankful for the simple things, frugal and thrifty and inventive beyond end, engaged with family and neighbors and community. They set the table of viewpoint for generations to come. They also become much closer to God. They are reminders of how much/deeply we need God's mercies in so many ways, how much we miss them when they are partially withheld.
kjv@Amos:2 @ @ RandyP comments: With all of these external reasons given we finally get to Israel and Judah, all the more reason for judgment. Judah for despising the Law, not carrying out the commandments, and walking in the lies of their fathers. Israel for their callous treatment of the righteous/poor/meek, their sexual perversion and spiritual profanity. Both have witnessed God's work against other nations but disregarded that fact that their puffiness as 'the chosen' against God is all the worse.
kjv@Amos:3 @ @ RandyP comments: So this is where that quote comes from "shall two walk together lest they be agreed". Some sayings just stick. Do you walk with the Lord? Then do the two of you agree? Do the two of you not agree? Then you don't walk together. For Israel and also Judah there is a whole lot of agreeing needing to be done and there is only one way left for the Lord to get them to see that; they apparently think that everything is now settled.
kjv@Amos:7 @ @ RandyP comments: The land could not bear words of Amos' mouth. He was being blamed for everything that was going on. No, it wasn't the idolatry or the thievery or the oppression or deceit, it was the words of one minor herdsman prophet near Bethel. The well meaning friend is just as off by trying to talk Amos into moving to Judah for his own safety. When it is God's words one better hold true.
kjv@Obadiah:1 @ @ RandyP comments: As you have done so shall it be done to thee. Edom was deceived in two ways, by its pride thinking that it was above the destruction that Judah was facing, by nations that they thought were confederates. They joined in with these nations against Judah even to where the survivors fleeing out of Judah were being caught up and killed or made captive. The descendent's of Esau were meant to be brotherly. Instead they were fooled into that which they should not have done; an unpardonable brutality. They were to cut off and suffer in the same manner.
kjv@Micah:1 @ @ RandyP comments: We are back into the time of Isaiah looking at primarily Judah. There is a consistency amongst the prophets as to why it's judgment, idolatry and graven images. Here Micah points to a similarity between Samaria (the north country) and Jerusalem. One wouldn't expect to see the same idols and images in Jerusalem that would be seen in filthy Samaria, but, in this time one does. If Samaria is judged then why shouldn't Jerusalem? Samaria's incurable wound has come to the gates of Jerusalem. The many cities addressed here are all in Judah near to Jerusalem, some having historic interest.
kjv@Micah:5 @ @ RandyP comments: We have a Messianic prophecy here. Someone whose goings forth are from old (2000 years ago?) and from everlasting (deity), once born in Bethlehem (human) becoming Ruler (to the ends of earth). When? The key to understanding seems to be the time frame of Assyria. Assyria did not hold Judah in Jesus' time, Rome did. Assyria in the end times will again attempt to control but, will this time be beaten back once and for all by none other than the triumphantly returned Christ Jesus.
kjv@Nahum:2 @ @ RandyP comments: We get the picture of a fearless and brutal people used by the Lord at one time to empty the excellency His people Israel and Judah. Now their turn has come, a complete reversal of their fortunes. Empty void and waste, stripped of her young and old lions, not worthy of being looked back on is the end of Assyria.
kjv@Habakkuk:1 @ @ RandyP comments: In the midst of the prophet's many questions/complaints to God it is revealed that the Chaldean's are next to take Judah. If you knew anything about the Chaldean's you too would wonder why a people as filthy wicked as they would be used of this God to rule over His people. We have a tendency to look at the people in charge in a similar light. What did they do to deserve being this? How is it God put them there instead of me? Are they not bitter and hasty and scornful, all the things told to me not to be? Doesn't God require judgment and dignity? Why then is He silent in this matter? Habakkuk ponders.
kjv@Zechariah:1 @ @ RandyP comments: The Lord was displeased with Israel/Judah and He used the Gentile nations to correct them. But the gentile nations He used displeased Him as well and He will use them against each other to correct them. We have the sense that He has sent forth watchers to keep close eye on the dealings of these nations. He knows all; it is for the remainder of the heavenly host and for us that these things are being observed.
kjv@Zechariah:9 @ @ RandyP comments: The Christ King will not only be King of Judah but of all the earth. When He comes He will come with salvation already in His hands, already achieved having once been lowly and riding a colt, having spoken peace to the heathen, now thundering to defend and save His flock, to devour and subdue His enemies. How great His goodness How great His beauty
kjv@Zechariah:12 @ @ RandyP comments: Jerusalem is a cup of trembling to all around it. Seeing what the Lord has done makes it as a burdensome stone. Seeing what the Lord has done makes them fearful in themselves. Those that burden themselves with it are cut in pieces. From this point of world view, imagine how astonished they will be when the Lord puts it all back together, when Judah and Ephraim and the house of David again for no humanly reason becomes His power and might. In the midst of a spirit of grace and supplication there will be a mourning in Jerusalem for the one, the only Son, they had pierced.
kjv@Genesis:29:31 @ @ RandyP comments: Having children wasn't going to change Leah's situation with Jacob. She may of thought so, may have wished so, may have prayed for it to be so; for one reason or another it was just this way. Though the Lord had granted her children, they may have been more for her own good than for her marriage; that is one way to look at it. Perhaps the Lord wanted Jacob to change his heart, but, the decision was still all his; that is another take. Maybe this growing conflict between sisters is a sign of the internal tension amongst the tribes latter on. Either way, the Lord was moving on to begin his establishment of the twelve tribes starting with Leah's four sons. There may be design and will for each of us individually, but, there is also the overall plan/will as well. She may have come to this honest and sober conclusion by the time she had Judah. To have children in order to save a marriage is a huge burden for children to have to bare.
kjv@Genesis:38 @ @ RandyP comments: The tradition in this culture favored the continuation of ones seed by providing a young widow one of her deceased husband's brothers to care for and continue his line. We see this in other places as well. This woman's husband was slain by the Lord. His brother willing refused the tradition for unknown reasons and died as well. Appearances may seem be pointing to this woman so that Judah when another son was of age held his son off from her, she took matters into her own hand. The whole story seems to be a horrid mess, one event triggering an avalanche of reactions and impulses. The Lord's work is like working in a house of cards.
kjv@Genesis:44 @ @ RandyP comments: The truth is now pouring out from Judah's mouth. He is expressing concern for his dad, concern for his youngest brother, and a willingness to take the place of Benjamin for any wrong the brothers may have done. Nearly everything is here except an outright confession of the past treatment of Joseph.
kjv@Genesis:49:8 @ @ RandyP comments: dict:all Judah
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