the end of Jephthah and lots of lessons learned

Judges 12

"The men of Ephraim mustered their troops, crossed to Zaphon, and said to Jephthah, “Why did you go out to fight the Ammonites without letting us go with you? We’re going to burn your house down on you!”  Jephthah said, “I and my people had our hands full negotiating with the Ammonites. And I did call to you for help but you ignored me. When I saw that you weren’t coming, I took my life in my hands and confronted the Ammonites myself. And God gave them to me! So why did you show up here today? Are you spoiling for a fight with me?”

So Jephthah got his Gilead troops together and fought Ephraim. And the men of Gilead hit them hard because they were saying, “Gileadites are nothing but half breeds and rejects from Ephraim and Manasseh.”

Gilead captured the fords of the Jordan at the crossing to Ephraim. If an Ephraimite fugitive said, “Let me cross,” the men of Gilead would ask, “Are you an Ephraimite?” and he would say, “No.” And they would say, “Say, ‘Shibboleth.’” But he would always say, “Sibboleth”—he couldn’t say it right. Then they would grab him and kill him there at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two Ephraimite divisions were killed on that occasion.  Jephthah judged Israel six years. Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in his city, Mizpah of Gilead."
  
I've had to read this a bunch to understand what really was going on.  A few things I pieced together:

1 - We must celebrate victory, not stand in defeat.  Israel just walked through a big victory (remember from the last chapter?), but instead of celebrating, they were fighting among themselves.  Jealousy, bitterness, selfishness and greed overtook the miracles that the Lord had JUST done for them.  And the result of that nasty stuff was.....42,000 of them died.  Jesus gives us victory for a reason - to CELEBRATE IT!  Don't give the enemy any ground at all when the Lord does a miracle in your life.  

"My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?"  Galations 5:16-18

2 - We have to think before we act, and we have to act according to the spirit.  Jephthah had been really good about going to the Lord and seeking His counsel before he acted, until now.  When the Ephraimites came at him with all of these, let's just say, opposites of the fruits of the spirit, he really just reacted in the same way they had acted.  Ohhhhhhh, this is not an easy one.  It is very tempting to lash back at people when they throw insults and accusations at you.  Believe me, I deal with this a lot.  I remember one time when my friend Mario got really mad at me, picked up a big, clay flower pot and threw it at me, right in the middle of the street.  I sure did want to pick it up and throw it right back at him.  For real.  But, thank you Jesus that you send the Holy Spirit to convict us and give us time to react like you!

"Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."  Colossians 3:12-14

3 -  Don't let 1 word have influence over what you do.  It doesn't make sense to me why they would use the pronunciation of a word determine if people lived or died, but a lot of things don't make sense to me.  Like fax machines, or golf.  But this was how Jephthah was going to use his authority as judge to deal with the Ephraimites.  Words are powerful and carry a lot of hurt, or healing. 

 ^"A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it!" James 3:3-5

Of these three, this is what I came to the conclusion of:

give satan ground to rule = all the opposites of the fruits of the spirits = death

BUT

Jesus gives us victory to celebrate! = Holy Spirit helps us respond in love! = LIFE!

one of my favorite pieces of art.  worth more than millions to me.

 

holding up your end of the deal

Judges 11:29-40

God’s Spirit came upon Jephthah. He went across Gilead and Manasseh, went through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there approached the Ammonites. Jephthah made a vow before God: “If you give me a clear victory over the Ammonites, then I’ll give to God whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in one piece from among the Ammonites—I’ll offer it up in a sacrificial burnt offering.”

Then Jephthah was off to fight the Ammonites. And God gave them to him. He beat them soundly, all the way from Aroer to the area around Minnith as far as Abel Keramim—twenty cities! A massacre! Ammonites brought to their knees by the People of Israel.

Jephthah came home to Mizpah. His daughter ran from the house to welcome him home—dancing to tambourines! She was his only child. He had no son or daughter except her. When he realized who it was, he ripped his clothes, saying, “Ah, dearest daughter—I’m dirt. I’m despicable. My heart is torn to shreds. I made a vow to God and I can’t take it back!”

She said, “Dear father, if you made a vow to God, do to me what you vowed; God did his part and saved you from your Ammonite enemies.”

And then she said to her father, “But let this one thing be done for me. Give me two months to wander through the hills and lament my virginity since I will never marry, I and my dear friends.”
“Oh yes, go,” he said. He sent her off for two months. She and her dear girlfriends went among the hills, lamenting that she would never marry. At the end of the two months, she came back to her father. He fulfilled the vow with her that he had made. She had never slept with a man.

 It became a custom in Israel that for four days every year the young women of Israel went out to mourn for the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

Such a theme throughout the scripture, history, life - God does a miracle, brings you out of a valley to sit you up on a mountain THEN you do something really stupid.

Jephthah was a great warrior, God used him to bring victory, he went from junk to judge, he walked in his true identity of what God made him to be - THEN he did something a little crazy.

When you make a vow, it's a promise that you will uphold your end of the deal.  For Jephthah, he made a promise to God that was not to be broken, and this was a very foolish promise.  He vowed that "if you give me victory over the Ammonites, I will give you whatever comes out of my house to meet me when I return.  I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering."   

He was probably thinking a goat or sheep would come walking out of his front door.  But, it was his daughter, his only child.  Goodness.

His deal with the Lord brought him great grief.  Sometimes we can make vows based on what our emotion is at the time.  They may sound super spiritual, but they only bring frustration, guilt, and even grief when we are forced to uphold our end of the deal. 

I can remember times when I have made "deals" with God.  

"Lord, if you get me out of this mess, I will never do it again."  
"God, if you will give me this one thing I want, I will give you (fill in the blank)."
"Jesus, if you will  THIS, then I will THIS."
  
And the Lord fully expected me to do what I told him I would do.  And when I didn't uphold my end of the deal, there were lots of consequences.

If you are going to ask the Lord for a victory over something in your life, then make sure that what you offer him in return is not going to make you a Jephthah.  

God doesn't want promises for the future, he wants obedience for today.

I said 1 year ago, "Lord, if you will restore this home.......... I will live here, invest for the long-haul, love without expecting anything in return, stand firm on the front line of battle, and give myself over to you in every detail of my life."

He's doing his part, so I have to keep doing mine.

I mean, just look at these three.  This is MUCH better than frustration and grief!

lesson from the least likely

Judges 11:1-28

Now Jephthah of Gilead was a great warrior. He was the son of Gilead, but his mother was a prostitute. Gilead’s wife also had several sons, and when these half brothers grew up, they chased Jephthah off the land. “You will not get any of our father’s inheritance,” they said, “for you are the son of a prostitute.”  So Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob. Soon he had a band of worthless rebels following him.

At about this time, the Ammonites began their war against Israel. When the Ammonites attacked, the elders of Gilead sent for Jephthah in the land of Tob. The elders said, “Come and be our commander! Help us fight the Ammonites!”  But Jephthah said to them, “Aren’t you the ones who hated me and drove me from my father’s house? Why do you come to me now when you’re in trouble?”
“Because we need you,” the elders replied. “If you lead us in battle against the Ammonites, we will make you ruler over all the people of Gilead.”

Jephthah said to the elders, “Let me get this straight. If I come with you and if the Lord gives me victory over the Ammonites, will you really make me ruler over all the people?”
“The Lord is our witness,” the elders replied. “We promise to do whatever you say.”

So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him their ruler and commander of the army. At Mizpah, in the presence of the Lord, Jephthah repeated what he had said to the elders.
Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of Ammon, asking, “Why have you come out to fight against my land?”  The king of Ammon answered Jephthah’s messengers, “When the Israelites came out of Egypt, they stole my land from the Arnon River to the Jabbok River and all the way to the Jordan. Now then, give back the land peaceably.”

Jephthah sent this message back to the Ammonite king:  “This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not steal any land from Moab or Ammon. When the people of Israel arrived at Kadesh on their journey from Egypt after crossing the Red Sea, they sent messengers to the king of Edom asking for permission to pass through his land. But their request was denied. Then they asked the king of Moab for similar permission, but he wouldn’t let them pass through either. So the people of Israel stayed in Kadesh.  Finally, they went around Edom and Moab through the wilderness. They traveled along Moab’s eastern border and camped on the other side of the Arnon River. But they never once crossed the Arnon River into Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab.  Then Israel sent messengers to King Sihon of the Amorites, who ruled from Heshbon, asking for permission to cross through his land to get to their destination. But King Sihon didn’t trust Israel to pass through his land. Instead, he mobilized his army at Jahaz and attacked them.  

But the Lord, the God of Israel, gave his people victory over King Sihon. So Israel took control of all the land of the Amorites, who lived in that region,  from the Arnon River to the Jabbok River, and from the eastern wilderness to the Jordan.

So you see, it was the Lord, the God of Israel, who took away the land from the Amorites and gave it to Israel. Why, then, should we give it back to you?  You keep whatever your god Chemosh gives you, and we will keep whatever the Lord our God gives us. Are you any better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he try to make a case against Israel for disputed land? Did he go to war against them?  Israel has been living here for 300 years, inhabiting Heshbon and its surrounding settlements, all the way to Aroer and its settlements, and in all the towns along the Arnon River. Why have you made no effort to recover it before now? Therefore, I have not sinned against you. Rather, you have wronged me by attacking me. Let the Lord, who is judge, decide today which of us is right—Israel or Ammon.”

But the king of Ammon paid no attention to Jephthah’s message.

There is a simple, valuable truth we learn from this little glimpse into his life.

He was a great warrior.  He was a military strategist.  He was controlled by the spirit of God.  He was appointed as a judge.  He was also the illegitimate son of a prostitute.  

Despite where he came from, how his life was created, and how his family rejected him - God still had a purpose and plan for him.   He chose to walk in his purpose.  He didn't let the circumstances of his "lot in life" dictate how he actually lived.  He let the God who created him, lead him in his true identity.  

2 pages in my Bible is all I know of Jehthah.  But if you turn all the over to the back of the book, in Hebrews chapter 11, he is listed in the "Hall of Faith." 

^" I could go on and on, but I’ve run out of time. There are so many more—Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets. . . . Through acts of faith, they toppled kingdoms, made justice work, took the promises for themselves. They were protected from lions, fires, and sword thrusts, turned disadvantage to advantage, won battles, routed alien armies. Women received their loved ones back from the dead. There were those who, under torture, refused to give in and go free, preferring something better: resurrection. Others braved abuse and whips, and, yes, chains and dungeons. We have stories of those who were stoned, sawed in two, murdered in cold blood; stories of vagrants wandering the earth in animal skins, homeless, friendless, powerless—the world didn’t deserve them!—making their way as best they could on the cruel edges of the world.  Not one of these people, even though their lives of faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised. God had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours."  Hebrews 11:32-40

When I read about his life, I think of all the people I know that have adopted.  I see the lives of the orphaned, flourish and thrive.  See them be loved to the fullest.  Watch them grow into their true identity.  Regardless of what family history, genetic background, mother/father lifestyle, and features they may have - God has a purpose and plan for each life created.  

The same spirit of God that led Jephhthah into his purpose, and moves in the hearts of families to bring life to those that are orphaned, and lives inside of me, is the same spirit of God that raised JESUS from the dead.

What else is there to know and learn from Jephthah?  That's enough right there.

Here are two sons right here.  Both created by the hand of God.  Both brought into this world through different circumstances.  Both being loved by the same mother and father.  Both being ushered into life by their identity in who God purposed them to be.  Both sitting on the steps at my house.  Both are part of so many miracles, in their life and in mine!