Judging by the book

So today I spent at least 5 hours trying to understand these 2 chapters in the Bible that were just difficult to grasp. These were Judges, chapters 11 and 12. Can't say it was time wasted, but it was definitely very challenging and somewhat frustrating. When your Bible is a New-Norwegian translation and you are reading the old testament, things become very complicated in a matter of seconds. The language is just a bit...tricky, to say the least. Luckily I did not have to despair for long because of the great invention of the Internet!!! I googled the NIV version and read the chapters, but then a new problem arose. I just did not get it. Have you ever had that happen to you - one minute you are reading something and you understand everything and all is fine, and the next you're just lost and you can't seem to grasp anything? It's like you kind of know what it's saying but then again something isn't quite adding up and there seems to be a deeper meaning with all of it that you just don't get. Well, that's what happened to me anyway. Never mind all the people and places that have oh so difficult names (which I often seem to confuse...I always confuse city names with people names :S), but the random vow and the brutal sacrifice just don't fit in let alone make any sense.

Luckily the Internet had some answers for me. As did my pastor who happened so conveniently to be online when I was stuck with all these questions. At the end of the day I finally grasped some valuables from these chapters and here is what I learned:

1) Never make rash decisions or vow's. And whatever you do don't treat God as a vending machine saying if you give me this then I will... God knows what he wants from you and he will tell/ask whenever and whatever he sees fit

2) All can serve God, no matter what background you come from, what your relatives and family have done you are not them and it is up to you whether you are going to choose to serve God or not. He has a plan for everyone and he never puts anyone in "booths" of useful and useless. Therefore neither should we put each other in those booths, for none of us are better than others

3) If you are in a quarrel with someone, do not attack them with aguments and anger, you are then stooping to their level. In stead, try to show the other party their unreasonableness by calm explanation of your point of view, if the other person hears you then you can resolve the issue calmly and no one will come to harm.

4) Trust in God in all you do and ask for His advice. Only He knows all and will tell you what the right thing is. Doing it your way without consulting God is very silly and often you end up in a situation you could have easily avoided if you had just sought God's word and listened to Him in the first place.