May I Gently Suggest - iTunes Feed Jon Behrens

After giving advice on how to create and maintain a healthy, caring community, Paul concludes the letter with instructions for remaining personally effective in the great spiritual battle. In this, he draws on Isaiah and the Psalms to explain what each piece of the believer's equipment is to accomplish.

On Shavuot God has twice appeared in dramatic fashion to give His people tools by which to live and to expand His Kingdom. The first occasion at Sinai, He gave us the Torah. The second time in the Upper Room, He gave His Spirit to comfort and guide us. These are two tremendous gifts to people whom He loves.

From the tribe of Dan, Samson was born to a previously barren woman. His conception was announced by a divine messenger and his manner of life was unique. He was sent by God to deliver Israel from the Philistines.

In contemporary American usage, 'love' is heavily bound up with emotion and romance. Not so in the Torah or in Paul. The command to, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' might be usefully rendered, 'Care as much about your neighbor's welfare as you do about your own.' Read in that light, Ephesians 5 becomes commentary on the Torah's instruction to love your neighbor.

It is important that the census in the wilderness emphasizes that people are to be counted by name. This reinforces that God deals with people as individuals and not as interchangeable units. In addition to the theological implications, this has practical political implications. All of the various 'ism' theories of human governance treat people in mass, as interchangeable and expendable.

The Ammonites revive a 300 year old land dispute with Israel and invade to enforce their claims. Israel persuades Jephthah to take command and drive them out. In that process, Jephthah makes an unwise vow, the result of which is that he had no descendants.