Judges 13:1-5
From this point until the time of David, the Philistines are the main enemy of the Israelites. Samson's mother was not able to have children. This is not written as if this is something God is doing it to her, but as if it is simply her natural condition. At any rate, it is no problem for God, who is able to work all kinds of miracle and facilitate the creation of new life in her womb.
Just as miraculously, God is able to create new life in our barren sinful hearts and make our lives righteous.
Monday, 31 August 2015
Wednesday, 26 August 2015
Judges 12:8-15 // Factual
Judges 12:8-15
Three more obscure judges.
Why Ibzan wanted all his sixty children to marry foreigners I don't know.
Why Abdon gave seventy young donkeys to his sons and nephews to ride I don't know.
Why Elon had nothing to be said about him I don't know.
The Bible does not always have a spiritual agenda for recounting something. What about 2 Timothy 3:16? Even without a spiritual agenda, Bible passages are still useful. Anyone trying to reconstruct the history of the judges, needs the record of these obscure judges to be accurate.
God cares about accurate history. God cares about facts.
To ensure that what we say to others is not only sincere but also factual is a challenge. But it is a necessary one.
Three more obscure judges.
Why Ibzan wanted all his sixty children to marry foreigners I don't know.
Why Abdon gave seventy young donkeys to his sons and nephews to ride I don't know.
Why Elon had nothing to be said about him I don't know.
The Bible does not always have a spiritual agenda for recounting something. What about 2 Timothy 3:16? Even without a spiritual agenda, Bible passages are still useful. Anyone trying to reconstruct the history of the judges, needs the record of these obscure judges to be accurate.
God cares about accurate history. God cares about facts.
To ensure that what we say to others is not only sincere but also factual is a challenge. But it is a necessary one.
Sunday, 23 August 2015
Judges 12:1-7 // Shibboleth
Judges 12:1-7
Why the Ephraimites hated Jephthah enough to want to murder him is not very clear. Their justification that he should have let them do the fighting sounds like bureaucratic nitpicking. Maybe Ephraim had a special army that was meant to fight off invaders. At any rate the previous judge had been a Gileadite, so there is no clear precedent for this. Besides this, Ephraim had been unable even to defend themselves. Perhaps the Ephraimites were worried about the prospect of a bandit being chief of Gilead.
Whatever their reasons, the Ephraimites raised an army to go and kill Jephthah. It may be that not one of those soldiers made it home. The Gileadites not only defeated the Ephraimites, they guarded their route home and executed them one by one as they tried to escape. They identified their cousins of Ephraim by their accent, they were not able to make a "sh" sound, using the word Shibboleth, which has acquired an idiomatic meaning today.
(Definition of the English idiom here if you want it. The original Hebrew word has the idea "growing, flowing")
Why the Gileadites were so cruel that they wanted to kill every Ephraimite is not clear either, they may have been afraid of the Ephraimites trying another invasion.
What lessons can we take from this closing chapter of Jephthah's life? I see some lessons for church politics. One is that the group in power may be surprised at the result if they make war on the radical and slightly unsavoury people that God is using. Another is that whatever side of a conflict you are on, you may well get hurt. Even though they were practically part of the same tribe, the Gileadites had no mercy on the Ephraimites. Don't join an army that's going to murder a man and his family. Don't get on the bandwagon trying to destroy the reputation of a man that's trying to serve God, even if he has real problems.
Finally, despite the politics and stark evil; Israel was still God's people with God's message of truth. Don't sacrifice your salvation for a grudge or for your disgust with those who claim to represent God but do not.
Why the Ephraimites hated Jephthah enough to want to murder him is not very clear. Their justification that he should have let them do the fighting sounds like bureaucratic nitpicking. Maybe Ephraim had a special army that was meant to fight off invaders. At any rate the previous judge had been a Gileadite, so there is no clear precedent for this. Besides this, Ephraim had been unable even to defend themselves. Perhaps the Ephraimites were worried about the prospect of a bandit being chief of Gilead.
Whatever their reasons, the Ephraimites raised an army to go and kill Jephthah. It may be that not one of those soldiers made it home. The Gileadites not only defeated the Ephraimites, they guarded their route home and executed them one by one as they tried to escape. They identified their cousins of Ephraim by their accent, they were not able to make a "sh" sound, using the word Shibboleth, which has acquired an idiomatic meaning today.
(Definition of the English idiom here if you want it. The original Hebrew word has the idea "growing, flowing")
Why the Gileadites were so cruel that they wanted to kill every Ephraimite is not clear either, they may have been afraid of the Ephraimites trying another invasion.
What lessons can we take from this closing chapter of Jephthah's life? I see some lessons for church politics. One is that the group in power may be surprised at the result if they make war on the radical and slightly unsavoury people that God is using. Another is that whatever side of a conflict you are on, you may well get hurt. Even though they were practically part of the same tribe, the Gileadites had no mercy on the Ephraimites. Don't join an army that's going to murder a man and his family. Don't get on the bandwagon trying to destroy the reputation of a man that's trying to serve God, even if he has real problems.
Finally, despite the politics and stark evil; Israel was still God's people with God's message of truth. Don't sacrifice your salvation for a grudge or for your disgust with those who claim to represent God but do not.
Saturday, 22 August 2015
Judges 11:34-40 // Faith and Grief
Judges 11:34-40
This is probably one of the most disturbing passages of scripture for me. Not because it shows anything against God, but because what happened was just a terrible, horrible, pointless thing. I have heard that Jephthah's daughter may have had a life as a kind of nun, but this doesn't really fit with the mourning of the girls of Israel. I wish I could explain it away, but I can't escape the conclusion that Jephthah's daughter was murdered by her own father to fulfill a foolish vow.
Jephthah's daughter is not primarily a victim however. She showed unshakable faith as well as genuine grief. No doubt she will live on in the resurrection, with every desire met by Jesus, the lover of our souls.
Are we ready to meet our destiny with this kind of faith? By God's grace we will.
This is probably one of the most disturbing passages of scripture for me. Not because it shows anything against God, but because what happened was just a terrible, horrible, pointless thing. I have heard that Jephthah's daughter may have had a life as a kind of nun, but this doesn't really fit with the mourning of the girls of Israel. I wish I could explain it away, but I can't escape the conclusion that Jephthah's daughter was murdered by her own father to fulfill a foolish vow.
Jephthah's daughter is not primarily a victim however. She showed unshakable faith as well as genuine grief. No doubt she will live on in the resurrection, with every desire met by Jesus, the lover of our souls.
Are we ready to meet our destiny with this kind of faith? By God's grace we will.
Friday, 21 August 2015
Judges 11:29-33 // Give Dad What He Really Wants
Judges 11:29-33
The spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah and inspired him to attack Ammon quickly before they invaded. The thing that God inspired Jephthah to do was successful. It was not necessary for Jephthah to make a deal with God, he was already doing God's will. But Jephthah, like all of us, had some ideas of his own.
I don't know what he was thinking, promising to sacrifice the first thing that came out of his house. It can hardly have been a sheep, goat, ox or dove. These are the things that God permitted the Israelites to sacrifice. Jephthah made an absurd promise, it was almost impossible for him to righteously follow through with it.
Sometimes in the heat of the moment, we make foolish decisions. What we do with the consequences says a lot about our character. But so does the kind of decision we make without thinking. In the case of Jephthah, he had a kind of religious devotion, but it was a bit egotistical. He was willing to make big promises, and be the big man of the moment. But he was not inclined to promise God the things that He had asked for. (See for example Leviticus 7)
Many times we Christians are like that today. We sing songs full of great promises to God and hold meetings that are supposedly to worship God. But unless we are actually giving God the service that He has asked for in His Word, we may as well stay home.
The spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah and inspired him to attack Ammon quickly before they invaded. The thing that God inspired Jephthah to do was successful. It was not necessary for Jephthah to make a deal with God, he was already doing God's will. But Jephthah, like all of us, had some ideas of his own.
I don't know what he was thinking, promising to sacrifice the first thing that came out of his house. It can hardly have been a sheep, goat, ox or dove. These are the things that God permitted the Israelites to sacrifice. Jephthah made an absurd promise, it was almost impossible for him to righteously follow through with it.
Sometimes in the heat of the moment, we make foolish decisions. What we do with the consequences says a lot about our character. But so does the kind of decision we make without thinking. In the case of Jephthah, he had a kind of religious devotion, but it was a bit egotistical. He was willing to make big promises, and be the big man of the moment. But he was not inclined to promise God the things that He had asked for. (See for example Leviticus 7)
Many times we Christians are like that today. We sing songs full of great promises to God and hold meetings that are supposedly to worship God. But unless we are actually giving God the service that He has asked for in His Word, we may as well stay home.
Thursday, 20 August 2015
Judges 11:12-28 // Records
Judges 11:12-28
Knowing history can be useful. The king of Ammon was justifying his invasion by claiming that Gilead rightly belonged to his kingdom. Jephthah made a counter claim, defending Israel's right to posses the land. The king of Ammon would not relent, and Jephthah had to fight instead for his land and his people.
This reminds of another pair of warring monarchs. Satan claims this world as his rightful kingdom, and humanity as his slaves. Jesus had to fight to take us back. Jesus had to shed blood. Not the blood of others, His own blood. Jesus has kept careful records so that when He reclaims this land, there will be no need to doubt if it is rightfully his.
We should be careful to keep records. Tax records, life records, records of our spiritual journeys. This will help us when Satan or his servants try to claim us as their own. We will have records that we can use to be sure they are wrong.
Knowing history can be useful. The king of Ammon was justifying his invasion by claiming that Gilead rightly belonged to his kingdom. Jephthah made a counter claim, defending Israel's right to posses the land. The king of Ammon would not relent, and Jephthah had to fight instead for his land and his people.
This reminds of another pair of warring monarchs. Satan claims this world as his rightful kingdom, and humanity as his slaves. Jesus had to fight to take us back. Jesus had to shed blood. Not the blood of others, His own blood. Jesus has kept careful records so that when He reclaims this land, there will be no need to doubt if it is rightfully his.
We should be careful to keep records. Tax records, life records, records of our spiritual journeys. This will help us when Satan or his servants try to claim us as their own. We will have records that we can use to be sure they are wrong.
Wednesday, 19 August 2015
Judges 11:12 // Diplomatic
Judges 11:12
Jephthah, in his wisdom knew not to go straight into battle. But to try a diplomatic solution first. It is a pity that we do not use this wisdom more often in our lives.
Jephthah, in his wisdom knew not to go straight into battle. But to try a diplomatic solution first. It is a pity that we do not use this wisdom more often in our lives.
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