Judges. Some of the best life lessons I have learned have come in the form of watching the way things change (for better or for worse) over a long period of time. I reflected on this as I read today's passage. At the beginning of Judges, Israel was more or less unified and were moving in one direction as a nation. They pledged their allegiance to the one, true God and promised to follow His ways. Judges unfolds over many generations. Year by year their unity was shattered and the descended into all sorts of idolatry. If nothing else, that's a big lesson for us.
How else can we explain the spiritual blindness of Samson, which long preceded his physical blindness. Samson's hair wasn't the source of his strength; it just represented his obedience to God in one area of his life. His capitulation to the ploys of Delilah are mind-boggling. She used the same trick over and over again; he fell for it each time.
The story of Micah demonstrates just how far down they traveled. Micah's priest was a Levite, dedicated to serve God from birth. Yet his tools of worship included idols and and ephod which was the equivalent of some lucky charm to discern God's will. It's pathetic, but it's also prophetic of the same mixing of paganism with Christianity that takes place all over the globe today.
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