Jephthah

Judges 10, 11 & 12

 
And just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse. 
 Israel prostituted themselves to Baal and Ashtoreths….

They sold themselves.

Unparalleled idol worship. 
Almost as if there was not a single god they did not bow down to.

Except One.

Ch 10:7 “Israel forsook the LORD. And because Israel no longer served Him God became angry with them and sold them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites. 8 Who that year shattered and crushed them.”

Ch 10:13 “The LORD replied, ‘…You have forsaken me and served other gods, so I will no longer save you. 14 Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble!’ 15 But the Israelites said to the LORD, ‘We have sinned. Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now.’ 16 They got rid of the foreign gods among them and served the LORD. And He could bear Israel’s misery no longer.”

Desperate deals made with God. 
Deliverance from an unlikely source. 
A social outcast. 
The son of a prostitute.
About as unclean and unholy a person as could exist.

Jephthah. 

And yet a mighty and very wise warrior.
Fierce, thoughtful, but impulsive.

He is diplomatic in his dealing and correspondence. 
And the spirit of the LORD came on him. 
He defeated the Ammonites. 

He impulsively promised to the LORD whatever came out of the door of his house to meet him when he returned in triumph. This would become a burnt offering. 

It was his one and only daughter. 
And he stayed true to his word. 
He kept his vow.

A leader with followers. 
Zealous for God. 

He did not take the easy road or the easy way out.

From the very start, God said inhabitants would be left in Canaan to test Israel. 
And it seems as though they didn’t pass a lot of tests together as a nation. 
And that a lot of failing happened. 
A lot of forsaking.

I was thinking yesterday that it is a whole lot easier and more uplifting to read the stories of the good guys, and the stories of success. To think that I can do that too. It is harder to read the stories of failure and also see ourselves in there.

Sometimes we fail and sometimes we succeed. 
But always we seek. 
And we move. 
And we lift up our eyes to hills. 
Because that is where our help will come from.