Flipped Devotional
review weekly readings from Flipped Devotional the Book with the author and her husband
Flipped Devotional
July 7 - 13
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Here are the scriptures from this week:
July 7 - Judges 4: 14-20
July 8 - Judges 4: 21-24
July 9 - 2 Samuel 9: 1-6
July 10 - 2 Samuel 9: 7-12
July 11 - Judges 7: 1-8
July 12 - 2 Kings 6: 10-17
July 13 - Judges 15: 1-5
Welcome to Flip Devotional the Podcast, where each week Martha Shannon, the author of Flip Devotional The Book, and Steve Shannon, discuss the readings from the week. If you haven't gotten Flip Devotional the Book, it's available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Also available on Barnes and Noble as an ebook. All right. I don't know. I think that's it. It's all the hoopla I'm going to give this time. We are doing the readings from July 7th through July 13th. I think we have added Panama. I think that's our newest location to our podcast. So welcome Panama. That's kind of exciting. And we haven't gotten any fan mail yet. So you and I are still at 0-0 of being mentioned in fan mails.
SPEAKER_00Well, I think I probably got a lot. You're just not telling me.
SPEAKER_02Well, you can keep thinking that. But here we go. July. So July has kind of a, I think, a fun theme. All of them start out with, Did you hear the one about? And and the reason I did this for a whole month was sometimes people go, the Bible's boring, or there's nothing exciting in it, or it's just, you know, you know. And they were really just coming up with reasons to not read the Bible.
SPEAKER_01Correct.
SPEAKER_02But so for the whole month of July, um, I've pulled stories that some stories are averse. Um, some stories are ones that people go, mmm, okay, that's weird, and they just move on. Um but I think they're interesting. I think they're kind of fun, kind of different, um, some kind of funky stuff going on. So there you go.
SPEAKER_00And it kind of shows the whole breadth of God. That some of these stories are fun. Uh, some are a little bit quirky, so maybe God's a little bit fun and a little bit quirky as well.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Well, you know, if you look at some people around us, you know he's fun and quirky.
SPEAKER_00Correct. She looks at me. I'll probably hear about that when I get to heaven. Excuse, come here. Can we talk fun and quirky?
SPEAKER_02All right, here we go. July 7th is Judges 4, 14 through 20. And this is about a woman named JayL.
SPEAKER_00Jael, jail. Jay L. And Deborah gets mentioned. So this is a Old Testament story where two women are highlighted.
SPEAKER_02They are the the main characters.
SPEAKER_00They are the main characters.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Definitely. And actually, July 8th is the rest of the story. So July 7th and 8th is Judges 4, starting with 14, and then twuly eighth ends in verse 24. So it's the whole story. Um Deborah was a prophet.
SPEAKER_00Correct.
SPEAKER_02And um Barak was a soldier. Okay. And um He was head of the army. And and she goes to him and says, Okay, you need to go. God's with you. Uh you are going to defeat S Sisera. Sisera? I think I guess that's how you say it.
SPEAKER_00Um, okay.
SPEAKER_02And so they go on, and Barak is kind of like, uh a little a little hesitant.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02Um and he wants Deborah to go with them.
SPEAKER_00Yes, he does. That happens beforehand. He wants Deborah to be there. And at some point, Deborah says, Well, Cicero will be delivered to the hands of a woman. Yes. Not you.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00So that's really not typical. And I suspect Barack thought it would be Deborah.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. That's that was my thoughts, too. Um they they go, Barack is pursuing them. Um and Sisera it says Sisera's troops fell by the sword. So already his army is pretty much gone.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the Lord routed Sisera. Not even close, right? Kind of the mercy rule. You know, they would have stopped the game after three innings in T ball.
SPEAKER_02Right. So But Sisera got away.
SPEAKER_00Yes, he yeah.
SPEAKER_02So he's running on foot, um, and he comes up to jail.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02Um where and she's the wife of Heber. Uh-huh. Um and she has a tent.
SPEAKER_00They all lived in tents, most a lot of people did.
SPEAKER_02And he he comes up there and and he feels like this is a safe place.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02Because he has an alliance with Heber.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02So he thinks this is a safe place. JL sees him and says, Come on in. Come on.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Don't be afraid, although he really should have been afraid.
SPEAKER_00He should have been paying a lot more attention.
SPEAKER_02And he comes in and she covers him with a blanket. He says, Well, I'm thirsty.
SPEAKER_00He wanted water and gave him milk.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_00Don't know if that's profound or not.
SPEAKER_02Well, I I wonder if, you know, they say if you drink warm milk.
SPEAKER_00It helps to sleep.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That could be it.
SPEAKER_02So I I wondered if that was it. And then he says stand in the doorway, you know, like to protect me, because I'm going to sleep. And lie if someone comes. Yes.
SPEAKER_00Tell them no one's here.
SPEAKER_02So that's July 7th.
SPEAKER_00So that kind of sets the stage for which is coming the fun and quirky part. Right?
SPEAKER_02Yes. Yeah. So JL um he he goes to sleep, and then she picks up a tent peg and a hammer.
SPEAKER_00Right. And I think it's important to remember that if you've gone camping and you got a two or four-person tent, the tent peg is probably six inches long, right? These tents were houses. They were big. So the tent peg may have been two to three feet long. May have been really big to hold up the whole tent. Kind of like if you go someplace and they have a tent set up, you see the ones they have, they're really large. So it was probably something of that size. Right. So it's just not, you know, like a nail or a big nail. This is a big piece of iron.
SPEAKER_02So she went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And drove the peg through the temple into the ground.
SPEAKER_00And he died. Yes. That's the part I put is that necessary to say Well, you just want to make sure in case, you know, something weird happened. So every time I've read this story, I can only think of those old games we had at kids with the spinner. Where it's in the middle and you kind of flick it with your thin and it comes around, you know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So I'm always thinking of that as as what takes place. And I always think she could have done that with Sisera. Spun him.
SPEAKER_02That's awful.
SPEAKER_00But it is pretty visual.
SPEAKER_02Okay. All right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Could have done that to Sisera, you know.
SPEAKER_02And then Barat comes by. Correct. You know, he's still trying to find him. Yeah. And JL comes up. Come here. Come here. I know who you're looking for. Let me show you the man you're looking for. And he went in and saw Sisera with the temp peg through his temple dead.
SPEAKER_00Dead.
SPEAKER_02Again.
SPEAKER_00Making sure there's no confusion about his status.
SPEAKER_02Oh my goodness. So that's the story of J.L.
SPEAKER_00JL or JL, whatever you want. But again, and two days, Old Testament, right? Deborah, who really, there's a song to Deborah coming up, you know, if you kept reading Judges, she was considered the leader, and JL kills the general of the enemy. I mean, it's a pretty big deal of what takes place for, you know, two women. And it's also kind of fun, you know, think about. And you know, it also like JL knew what to do.
unknownTrevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_02Well, that's what I was thinking. What worries me is one, she doesn't seem like she's nervous or hesitant or afraid to do this. It's like she it's like she had a plan.
SPEAKER_00Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And had a spare tent peg lying around. A hammer. Well, the hammer, you know, could understand that because they they may have used it and you know what, you're just going to put it there in your toolbox until you're ready to use it again. So the hammer doesn't surprise me as much as, you know, had a spare tent peg lying around.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And I would also think, and I don't know this, did she help put the tent up initially? But she knew exactly what to do, had a plan. And and the answer is if you focus on God, you can do whatever.
unknownTrevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_02This is true.
SPEAKER_00Right. This is true.
SPEAKER_02But I think putting the tent peg through, you have to be pretty quick.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Like you can't miss. You know how I put a nail in sometimes and I miss. Yeah. I mean, she can't miss and hit him in the head and then him wake up and then her try to put the tip peg through. She she's got hit correctly the first time.
SPEAKER_00She's got to go through the temple.
SPEAKER_02Get it at least halfway through with the first Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think these are all conversations on the A.
SPEAKER_02This is why it's a fun story. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_00It is a fun story. And it's a story of a victory for the Israelites. And women. And women, you know. And a large tent peg through a temple. It has all the best parts of a story.
SPEAKER_02It does. It really does.
SPEAKER_00But you know, I've never seen this acted out.
SPEAKER_02True.
SPEAKER_00I mean, it'd be a great like summer camp.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_00Bible study?
SPEAKER_02Yep, yep. I agree. There you go. All right. July 9th, July 10th are also a combo. Yeah. Um, because these were kind of long stories. You know, the the jail one, you don't want it to go straight to, you know, she picked up a tent peg and hammered it through his head. Like, what? Huh? Right. You need some background. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And when I wrote this, I didn't expect to do a podcast and explain it all. Or maybe I would have just done that much. But um I wanted you readers to know kind of what was going on.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So July 9th and 10th are about Mephibosheth.
SPEAKER_00Mephibosheth, correct.
SPEAKER_02Which was Saul's grandson.
SPEAKER_00And Jonathan's son.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00And Jonathan and David were really, really close friends.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00Ver I mean, like, you know. Best buds.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Yeah. So go ahead.
SPEAKER_00You tell us about this one. And David goes to Saul's household, a servant Zeba. Is there any descendant of Saul still alive? Right. Because Saul picked David. Saul, you know, it became a very complicated relationship. Saul thought David was threatening to him, and he was, but it wasn't David that made it threatening. So the servant Zeba says Jonathan, who would have gotten David's attention right away, has a son, and it's always who's lame in both feet. I think the story is he was dropped as a child. I think that happened early on, when they were escaping, when they were under attack. But anyway, so he he's lame in both feet. And so King David says, Well, bring him to me. So at the end of July 9th, Mephiboshev comes to David, right? And probably not knowing what to expect, knowing that his grandfather Saul had tried to kill David on several occasions. Right? So what's going to happen?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, because he does apparently come kind of afraid.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02But at this point, um, I I don't know how I don't know where David is in his life. I'm thinking he's kind of has been king, he's he's fought, he's kind of in this peaceful time, and and he's he was like, hey, um gosh, I remember Jonathan and I I wish I wish there was something I could do. Is is there.
SPEAKER_00And way back when, you know, David showed up with Goliath, and that's where he first, you know, he was going to go fight. Saul was there.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00And later on, when Saul would get angry, he needed someone to play a harp.
SPEAKER_02And David did that.
SPEAKER_00David did that. So that there's a relationship there, right? And at some point, well, Saul was told, your descendants will not be king. Because he didn't wait on the prophet to offer a sacrifice or something before battle. So Saul, then Saul chased David, tried to kill David, and David, you know, so all that stuff happened. So Mephishbashef would have known that history and would have been afraid of maybe David's going to take out his anger at my grandfather on me. So he shows up on July 10th. That is not what happened. And you know it had to be a real concern, because the first thing David said to him is, Don't be afraid. I will sh I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father, Jonathan. Right? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So n maybe not for the sake of Saul, but for Jonathan.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but he did ask anyone in Saul's family, right? So he was clearly interested, and that goes on, and he bows down, whatever your servant, you know, that you should notice a dead dog like me, meaning I'm not of of any value. I'm not, you know. So the king saw Ziba, and it's this is another fun story, and it shows how David is committed to Jonathan and cares about his son, but he then tells Zeba, right? I'm giving your master's grandson that belongs to all the stuff that belongs to Saul and his family. You and your son are your servants, are supposed to take care of that. Right? So here's your job. You're no longer going to be hanging around, you know, the king, right, at his court. And he says, Mephiboshef will always eat at my table. So Mephebashev doesn't go to the farm that he now has, but Ziba with his twenty sons and twenty servants goes and farms his thing, and that's what supports Mephiboshev for the rest of his life, apparently. I don't know that, but that's what it sounds like. But he he and Mephiboshev stayed in Jerusalem and ate every meal at the king's table. Which is quite an honor, obviously.
SPEAKER_02Well it says like one of the king's sons. Yes. So yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So he was yeah, took care of him, as honoring his father and even his grandfather, who right? And again, he always ate at the king's table. He was lame in both feet.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. Had to repeat that again.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and also speaks to how they perceive people with disabilities probably 3,000 years ago. Right. But David honored it. You know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So I mean again, is David on the Mount Rushmore?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Before we're done, we're gonna have to come up with our own Mount Rushmore.
SPEAKER_02Well, David was a man after God's own heart. How can he not be on Mount Rushmore?
SPEAKER_00A little deal with you know Bash Bathsheba.
SPEAKER_02He d God didn't take it away.
SPEAKER_00Right. Okay.
SPEAKER_02He didn't say you're no longer a man after my own heart.
SPEAKER_00Correct. Correct. Okay. We'll give you that one. I could agree with David. So that's it. So that I mean again, another story, the insight to God is he did pick David, and David was who God said he was.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And you know, without this story, you don't know Mephibosheth.
SPEAKER_00Right. Which is a sequence of letters, which is very hard for me to say.
SPEAKER_02It is hard. All right. July 11th. I I I like this story personally. Um this is Gideon.
SPEAKER_01Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_02Um and Gideon was, do you already have this in in Judges 6?
SPEAKER_00Oh, he's the guy that challenged, questioned God. God called him. And he said, Well, I got this piece of fleece handy. Can we leave it out overnight?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And if we do We've done that story, but just the Judges 6.15 says, Pardon me, my lord, but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family. So Yeah.
SPEAKER_00The weakest of Manasseh.
SPEAKER_02Manasseh, okay. And so again, the weakest and he's the least, so it's like as low as you can get.
SPEAKER_00Correct. Why did you know and and for some people, why would you have JL, a woman, kill Sisera, right? You know. This is very similar. You are the last person people think would be the leader of Israel, right? Mm-hmm. And when he first interacts with God, he is threshing or doing something. Mm-hmm. Where he's typically isn't done there. It's either threshing his wheat on a wine pressure, something, right? Hiding, but God calls him.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And to Gideon's trend, he listened and acted, right? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And we're going to see he and his army are victorious.
SPEAKER_01Correct.
SPEAKER_02And so if you are one who just feel like, you know, you're the weakest, you're the least. There's so many other people who have gifts and talents more than you, it's like, uh-uh, God don't care about that.
SPEAKER_00No. And I also tried to think of, remember, from God's perspective, the strongest of the biggest tribe to the weakest of the smallest tribe is a relatively insignificant measure, in my opinion. From God's perspective. Right. Right. Because the strongest of the biggest tribe is nothing compared to the heavenly angels, nothing compared to him or Jesus.
unknownTrevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_02And this story just goes to show that God prefers to fight with fewer, perhaps with the weakest in the least, because the point is to put um attention on God, not the person, not the massive army. Because Gideon starts out with thirty two thousand men to fight. And and God comes and says, Yeah, you got Too many. If you all go and fight and win, it says Israel would boast against me. And again, that's not the point. The point is for the glory to go to God.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02So God says, let's let's weed people out. Says if the anyone is afraid, tell them to go back home. And I I can just see it's 32,000 people. And Gideon goes, okay, is anyone afraid? Raise your hand and you can go home and bam, 22,000.
unknownLeave.
SPEAKER_02They're like, I'm I'm I'm afraid. I'm afraid. I'm afraid. All right, you you can go home. Like, okay. Now we have 10,000. God says, mm-mm. Too many. Too too many. Let's let's thin them out. And he has them go down to the water.
SPEAKER_00Well, first of all, it's 10,000 men at the water. Right? Right, right. That's a lot of men hanging around the water.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it must have been a lot of water. And uh, you know, I don't know. Did they just say, all right, everyone, go down, get a drink. Those of you who are left, let's go down, get a drink before we head out.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02Okay, and they either would lap the water with their tongues like a dog.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so they scoop it in their hands. Right. And like a dog, or they got down and into the water and drank it that way. Right. Now, one thing I was told years ago, if you get down on a knee and scoop water and drink it like a dog out of your hand, you can still be looking around you. So you can see what's happening around you. Where if you get down to the water's edge and essentially put your face into and you know, kind of drink water that way, you can't see what's happening around you. Gotcha. So did Gideon end up and and again, he went from thirty-two thousand to three hundred. Yep. And there's no way, and he had the three hundred to start. They were part of the thirty-two thousand. I'm sure Gideon, and and to his credit, he said, Okay, you know, I will go fight the enemy with three hundred men. Even if they really know how to drink and watch. There's still three hundred. You know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So they sent home thirty-one thousand seven hundred. And they sent home nine thousand seven hundred men who admitted to not being afraid. I'll stay and fight. I'm not afraid. And then you got three hundred. And what happens with the three hundred?
SPEAKER_02Well, we don't know.
SPEAKER_00We don't know.
SPEAKER_02Because we didn't put the rest of the story on here. But you can guess what happened.
SPEAKER_00He won. He prevailed.
SPEAKER_02Of course he did.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Of course he did, because that was the plan.
SPEAKER_00Yes, it was God's plan, right? And again, God doesn't need Gideon to 300 men, he wants Gideon in the 300 men.
SPEAKER_02And he could have done it with Gideon and the 32,000.
SPEAKER_00He could have, yes, correct. But he knew man's heart. And they would have been, oh, we're victorious, oh look what we did, as opposed to, oh my gosh. We showed up with 300 men.
SPEAKER_02Mm-hmm. Right.
SPEAKER_00So pretty cool.
SPEAKER_02All right. July 12th is another one of my favorite stories. We have Elisha and his servant.
SPEAKER_00And who never gets named.
SPEAKER_02Does he not?
SPEAKER_00I don't think so.
SPEAKER_02Okay, we'll ponder that. Um So Elisha is the prophet. We've we've heard about him.
SPEAKER_00We've um Axehead.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. Which was what, last week or something.
SPEAKER_00Um Elijah. He kind of was a well, he attached himself to Elijah. I'm not sure Elijah with the J really wanted Elisha, but he was there, right? Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_02Um so he is help me out.
SPEAKER_00What's the king of Amor Aram. Oh, he summoned his officers, demanded, tell me, which is the side of the king of Israel? Which of us is on? And they find out that Elisha was telling the king of Israel, because the king of Aram thought it was his guys, kind of being a spy. He said, No, it's Elisha. Tells the king every word you speak in your bedroom. How does he know that? We don't know, right? But he said, All right, go out and find where he is. So they find out where he is. So the king's trying to kill the king wants him dead. Because the king wants to defeat Israel, but the king of Israel knows what this king of Aram's doing, right? So, because Elisha supposedly tells him. So he's there. So that night they surround the city, right? And the servant, again, we're looking for his name, but the servant, Elisha's servant, looks up and says, Uh, we're in trouble. Right. We're surrounded. What's gonna happen to us, right?
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_00You know. And Elisha, don't be afraid. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them. Right? So the people on our side are better, or the what's on our side is better than what's on their side. And the servant sees all of King Aram's army up in the mountains, right? They're surrounded. What are they going to do?
SPEAKER_02I'm sure he's thinking, um, Elisha, there is no one out there.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_02It's it's all of them against us, and we're we're in trouble here.
SPEAKER_00And whoever else is hanging out in Dothan with them, but not an army, right? Right. So at that point, Elisha prays and says, Dear God, open up my servant's eyes. Let him see, right?
SPEAKER_02Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00And the servant looks up, and what does he see?
SPEAKER_02He sees horses and chariots and a chariots of fire. Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_00All around Elisha, right? Which Elisha could see, and now the servant sees it, right? They're now saying, Oh, I'm sure the servant is thinking, ooh, okay.
SPEAKER_02I know. I just We're good. I I love that story so much because we have God around us all the time. Yes. Protecting us, being there. We're not there alone, and sometimes we need to say, God, open up my eyes.
SPEAKER_00Let me see. Right?
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00You know, and the hills were full of horses and chariots of fire. So I don't know if they were horses of fire and chariots of fire, but they're both, right? But just the idea, that's what they see. Right?
SPEAKER_02And you remember the um Elijah went up to heaven in a chariot of fire.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Yes.
SPEAKER_02So uh Elisha has seen a chariot of fire before.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um. And yeah, there there they are.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So obviously they feel pretty good about their situation.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Good stuff.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Again, and the story is maybe we have to ask God to let us see what he's doing. And he may let us see what he's doing. Right? Mm-hmm. You know, I've said here before, God doesn't have a calendar, he doesn't have a phone, doesn't have a a watch, right? But let us see, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And God might just let you see what the line is or some idea. And maybe you don't get to see the plan, but you get to see, I got this. I got this, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um the other day I was thinking about God and and how we wish we knew and saw, you know, what's going to happen. I thought it's it's like when you're watching a movie and you're anticipating what's gonna happen next, and you're wondering what's gonna happen next, and you know, you're you're going through all that, but it it doesn't matter because the movie's already planned. Yeah, it's already out there, and and you just have to wait for the next thing to happen. Yes. And you can see if you were right or not. But it it's kind of like what following God is. He's out there doing it, and we're really just sitting there watching.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Because God's always the one doing all the work. We're just there following along, and every once in a while he's like, okay, you you can do this part. It's like, woo-hoo, okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um but but you just gotta watch and wait and see what comes up next.
SPEAKER_00Sometimes you gotta be still. Right.
SPEAKER_02All the time you need to be still.
SPEAKER_00And it's kind of like people laugh at this about what I do. If I'm reading a novel, when I get close to the end, I'll go to the last three or four pages and read the last three or four pages before I get there. Uh because I want to know how it ends before I invest any more time in it. Right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you can't do that with life.
SPEAKER_00No, I can't. And it's it's unfair. I should be able to. But, you know, we don't get to do that with God, but we need to have the confidence, right, of Elisha, who I guess saw them, but didn't really say that, right? Elisha had the faith that God's gonna take care of this. Open his eyes so he can see. Yeah, and he did.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Okay, I I've been looking this whole time through 1st and 2nd Kings, trying to find, because somewhere there's a story, and so I don't even know why I'm gonna share this because I don't have the answer. But somewhere there's the story of it's either Elijah or Elisha, and oh, um, and his servant, and one of the someone comes to with, I don't know if it's Elisha or Elisha, I think it's Elisha, and says, I will give you like all these things. And he's really he's trying to win them over, kind of really trying to trick them a little bit. Um, and Elisha says, No, no, no, no, I'm not gonna take any of that. And so the guy leaves without giving him, and then his servant says, Oh, we should have taken that. So his servant runs out to him and says, Hey, uh, so he thought about it and decided he wants it after all, so he gives it to him, and then Elisha, of course, knows what he did. Um, and he says he would have um uh a leprosy.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02And I was trying to find that because it's has the name of the servant in the case.
SPEAKER_00Well, this servant is Gahazi. Who ultimately? Um I think it's Second Kings. That's all I got. Okay. Nope, I can't.
SPEAKER_02All right.
SPEAKER_00Um But it's interesting, but this he was disgraced, I think, when Naaman was cured of leprosy or something. So I don't know if it's this servant, is that servant or not?
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00I don't know. There is a server that gets named.
SPEAKER_02Thank you.
SPEAKER_00You get full points for that.
SPEAKER_02Full or four?
SPEAKER_00You decide.
SPEAKER_02Full. I'm going with full. Okay, I'll stop looking. We'll move on. Sorry about the delay. It's good. It's good. It's just, you know, I it's somewhere in my head in partiality.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and it could be this Gehazi guy.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_00And it could be that that where he's he's overcome with greed, right? Two talents of silver, two valuable robes, something like that from Heyman, from Naaman. And that could have happened afterwards.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Yes.
SPEAKER_00This happened before. We'll give him credit. All right, the 13th.
SPEAKER_02Okay, July 13th. This is one of those stories that you go, how? How did he do this? And there's only one way God put some spell, something over um the foxes, because this is crazy. So this is Samson. Correct. Everyone has heard of Samson.
SPEAKER_00I would hope so.
SPEAKER_02Samson and Delilah.
SPEAKER_00Samson and Delilah, correct.
SPEAKER_02They're in a song, aren't they?
SPEAKER_00Yes, they are.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um, so uh Samson there was kind of a mix-up, and Samson left, and because he left, his wife's father thought he was gone, gone, and so he gave her to someone else.
SPEAKER_01Correct.
SPEAKER_02So Samson comes back to be with his wife, yes, exactly. And her father is like, um, so there's a problem because she's someone else's wife now.
SPEAKER_00That's a problem.
SPEAKER_02And Samson was upset.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02And um he the the father offers his her her younger sister, who was more attractive. So even in the Bible, back in Judges, back in the Old Testament, so many years ago, looks were prior. Yeah. You know, women have fought this forever. Yes. Yes, we had Leah and Rachel.
SPEAKER_00Rachel.
SPEAKER_02Leah had weak eyes.
SPEAKER_00Some funky eye thing had we.
SPEAKER_02We don't know what that means. But obviously, Rachel, they were sisters. Rachel was more attractive, and um Jacob?
SPEAKER_00Uh-huh. Is that who married? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And he ended up with Leah first, and you know, work seven more years, you get Rachel. Yeah. And we've done that story too, but still. Um yeah, this is terrible. She's more attractive. Don't you want her? And Samson's like, no. And he said, This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines. Now, this is a problem. Because with kids, you are constantly telling them it's not about getting even, you know, it's forgive, forget, you know, that type of thing. And here we have Samson in the Bible getting even.
SPEAKER_00Getting even. I can get even now. Right. Because earlier, you know, he had the riddle.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00Out of something something sweet, something, you know. And if they and she he told Delilah the answer, who told the other person the answer, so he had to go give them seven suits of clothing, right? He went and killed seven Philistines and took their clothes. And I guess people thought he didn't have a right to do that. This time, Samson says, I can be angry, right?
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00So what he does, and again, he had to do this with God, uh, but still, he thought of this on his own. Like he had this ready to go if he ever needed it. He captured 300 foxes. Okay? 300. Captured them. Foxes are quick, sly as a fox, right? 300. Um he then, and I like it when he captured 300, and then he then, a lot of questions. Did he capture 300 at once? Was there a fox convention going on and he locked the doors? Or he caught two, three, four at a time and put them someplace that they stayed, right? But then so he has them, and then he ties them in pairs by the tail. A piece of leather tying their tails together, right?
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, he ties them. I don't think he ties their actual tails, right?
SPEAKER_02Oh, see.
SPEAKER_00But he tied them tail to tail.
SPEAKER_02That's I've always envisioned this as if he tied the tails together.
SPEAKER_00I don't think yeah, I don't know. I uh you know, be you know, we have a German shepherd, Booker, her tail doesn't bend. No great Danes, their tails don't bend.
SPEAKER_02Well they don't bend, but it's it's floppy, like a shoelace.
SPEAKER_00Like it's not like a shoelace.
SPEAKER_02It's like go home see if we can tie Booker's tail tail to something.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's a galley's tail. Um but anyway, so I I always thought, regardless, he gets them I mean and and really in this whole sequence of events, how they're tied together. He ties them together. And somehow he does that. And again, wouldn't it's like killing 600 Phillips with an oxcoat. Wouldn't the foxes start getting unhappy and carrying on and Yeah.
SPEAKER_02See, that's where God had to have done something.
SPEAKER_00Yes. And then he does that, but then he goes back, and and this is great planning by him. He had sufficient ways to a way to tie them together. He had at least 150 torches. Yep. Right. Um and then he sets the torches on fire, right?
SPEAKER_02Well, he put fastens them to the tail and then he lights them.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, you don't want to be messing with the tail. Yeah, you don't want to sorry, my bad. Yes, yes. So they're attached. Then he lights them and he turns them loose, right? Mm-hmm. He burns up the shocks and the surrounding grain, he burns up the vineyards and the olive growth. I mean, he reached financial and natural disaster on the Philistines because of this wife situation.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But if you think about the logistics, he had to do this close to the where the grain was and the vineyards and the olive groves.
SPEAKER_02And how'd he have 150 torches?
SPEAKER_00He's a planter. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02It's crazy. And uh if he tied them together with leather or whatever, he he had enough of that?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he had extra.
SPEAKER_02And the 300 foxes.
SPEAKER_00It's like it's just Let's go back to Isaac. What? Going up to the mountain to be sacrificed. Yeah. They carried with them fire. Right. That was pointed out. Well, Samson had to have fire.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00He didn't have a zippo lighter. Right. He had some way to ignite something to burn on the torches. Right. Right. Right. So he had all this stuff figured out.
SPEAKER_02I think that was the easiest part is to have fire. One little thing of fire.
SPEAKER_00But still, he he carried all this stuff. He had it put over here, maybe up on a shell so the foxes wouldn't bother it. And he gets the he gets and he waits till he has 300 foxes. That must be 150 pairs must be the minimum to reach this disaster. You know, like I don't know. I think it's just a wonderful story about Samson, right, who came to a pretty bad ending, right? But still remarkable what he did.
SPEAKER_02I think it just shows that if God is with you, No one can be against you. You absolutely could do anything. You you could do this. What was the other story we had I guess maybe it was the oxcar? Sishar.
SPEAKER_00The oxcar, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, again, that's just I mean uh these stories are okay, you know what some people would say they'd say it's not true.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_02They got th they just made that up. It's not true. But I believe it's in the Bible is true.
SPEAKER_00Well, right. And I think you have to approach the Bible as this is true and Shamgar's true, because if this story with the foxes and Samson isn't true, why is the resurrection of Jesus true? Right? Why is God created in seven days true? Right? You can't pick and choose what you want to believe is true in the Bible.
SPEAKER_02Right, right, exactly.
SPEAKER_00You can do a lot of different things. You can work it through and try to rationalize it. But but if you say well, that's not true, right? Now, at some point we'll read parables, right? And Jesus said this is a parable, it's a story designed to teach. It's a story designed to teach. Right. So we know that. But this is a situation where it never said, I got this great story about this dude, Samson. It's not true, but I I just really want to tell you the story. Right. So But regardless. And you know, this week, you know, JL is a great story, right? David's Compassion with Mefiboshev, another great story. I still think Gideon's up there with all, you know. Oh. I got thirty-two thousand soldiers. What, three hundred and think of the other ones leaving. You know, I mean it's Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Really, all of the stories are with God. You could you can do anything. It's really not you can do anything. But God can do anything.
SPEAKER_00And we just need to be open to joining him.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. I I'm sure Samson never doubted that he he could pull this off. And I think he just kept tying them together. It was like, okay, this is working. Um putting a torch in, lighting it, you guys go on, and I'm I don't know, can't do it until I run out of foxes.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02But yeah, great stories.
SPEAKER_01Great stories. I agree.
SPEAKER_02Love it, love it. Yeah, fine, fun. All right. Well, thanks for listening to this week's Flip Devotional, the podcast. Don't forget to rate, review, subscribe, download, share with your friends, share with your family. Um y'all can read the passages. They are on the uh podcast site, so you can read the passages if you don't have the book. And then you all can talk about them, see what you can come up with, or if you wish, um partially act out the jail story. So someone did that for Steve, and we can be done with it.
SPEAKER_00Again, be very careful with your choice of hammer and and don't really hit somebody on the head. That'll make our lawyer happy, that disclaimer.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
