Judges 4-5; Psalm 59; 1 Corinthians 13

Judges 4
1-23 Deborah and Balak

• At the death of Ehud, Israel turns again to evil, and God "sells" them to King Jabin of Canaan, whose army commander is Sisera.
• Israel cries to God for help, for Sisera has 900 iron chariots and had cruelly oppressed Israel for 20 years.
• Deborah, a prophetess, also serves as a judge, advising people from under "the palm of Deborah" in the hill country of Ephraim.
• She sends for Barak (of Naphtali) and tells him to gather an army of 10,000 to meet Sisera.
• Barak agrees, but only if she goes with him.
• Deborah: Okay, but you won't get any glory out of this. The LORD will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.
  
• Sisera meets Barak in battle, but when he sees they will be defeated, he flees on foot. The rest of his army is killed.
  
• He flees to the tent of Heber, a Kenite (see Judges 1:16), who has encamped away from the other Kenites. Sisera believes it to be safe territory, for Heber's clan is on good terms with King Jabin.
  
• Heber's wife Jael invites Sisera in to rest in their tent, gives him milk when he asks for water. He asks her to keep watch for him. Instead, after he goes to sleep, she drives a tent peg through his temple. When Barak comes in pursuit of Sisera, he is already dead.
• God subdues King Jabin, and the Israelites eventually destroy him.

Judges 5
1-31 The Song of Deborah and Barak

• Praise to the God of Israel
• Tribute to Deborah and Barak
• Blessings to Jael
• And the land has rest 40 years.

Psalm 59 - A Miktam of David, when Saul has had his house watched
David never loses faith that God will save him.
3 - "[My enemies] lie in wait for my life..."
8 - "But you laugh at them, O LORD...O my strength, I will watch for you; for you, O God, are my fortress."

1 Corinthians 13
1-13 The Gift of Love
I like the above title the editors of the NSRV have given this chapter. Love is, after all, a gift from God. If we see it as a gift we have received, perhaps it will be easier to extend to others. Paraphrasing this chapter doesn't seem appropriate, and so much as been written and said about this chapter, my words will fall short. Nevertheless, here is what I see as I read it this time:

• Pretty speeches, insights into God's word, faith that can move mountains, even an ultimate sacrifice of life itself is nothing without love.
• Love is patience and kindness and truth personified. Envy, boasting, arrogance, rudeness, insisting on one's own way, irritability, resentment, pleasure in wrongdoing are all what love is not.
  
• It bears, believes, hopes, and endures all things.
  
• It will remain when everything else -- all the spiritual gifts we admire and strive for -- are gone.
• These spiritual gifts are like our childhood, or like a mirror in which we see just a dim image. When we will reach full enlightenment, these childish things will disappear, and we will see clearly.
  
• Our faith, our hope, and love will remain, but the greatest of these is love.