We are given the family lines of Tola and Jair. Issachar was a tribe described as lazy. Remember what Jacob prophesied over the tribe in Genesis 49:14? Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens: 15. And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant, and bowed his … Read more
If stuff beyond your control happens (and stuff happens, you know), cry a bit and be ready to start all over. God learnt it the hard way when he had to push the first Adam out of Eden, bring a second Adam, and go through Gethsemane. Life is a patient process. Slow down on worry and hurry, and build up on work, values, skills, and focus. Every dream is achievable.
Closely related to laziness is the temptation that empty hands place on us. For if you do nothing and get nothing, how do you take care of your needs? Many turn to the abuse of things they were meant to take care of. Corruption is the lifestyle of the reckless, negligent and incompetent. For when they find their hands empty of gain, reward and benefit, they turn to the siphoning of what does not belong to them.
Sometimes God speaks loudest when He leaves words out. As children of God who listen to God through the words of the Bible, it is important to note that the mentoring directions of the Holy Spirit come not only from the text of what the scriptures say, but also, what they leave unsaid.
After Gideon’s colorful leadership and the trauma-inducing events following his death, Tola and Jair led Israel for fifty- five years. The work of these two men over fifty-five years is covered by exactly four verses in the Bible. The fifth verse clarifies the significant social bankruptcy that followed the insignificant leadership of these two men. What made the lives and times of these two men so disregarded by the chronicler of the book of Judges? The extreme destructiveness of laziness and corruption in leadership is highlighted in Series 23.