Thadeus’s Reviews > The Word on Fire Bible: The Promised Land > Status Update

The story in 1 Kings 21 of the insatiable desire of King Ahab, the contentedness of Naboth, and the deceit of Ahab's wife, Jezebel, is truly instructive and the commentary from St. Ambrose describes it well.

"Because Israel did not have arms, it abandoned the country to its enemies. We too grant our enemy an opportunity by our laziness in reading or consulting spiritual teachers, just as the Israelites did by their neglect of making arms or seeking Israelite smiths for them."
- St. Bede commentary on 1 Samuel 13:22-23

I'm struck by the similarities of the angel of the Lord appearing to Manoah's wife, the mother of Samson, in chapter 13 of Judges, to the Angel Gabriel's appearance to Mary in the New Testament. Reading the Old Testament really does strengthen understanding of the New Testament!

It is especially so when having the commentary of the Church Fathers inlaid beautifully in the Word on Fire editions!

"The human will cannot be assaulted from without; it can only be betrayed from within, by a free decision which, multiplied, forges the chain of habit..."
Bp. Fulton Sheen on commentary on Judges 10:6-9