2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
Yesterday, I began writing about Jephthah, the illegitimate son of a prostitute who had been banished by his half-brothers to Tob, just outside Gilead where his family’s home was. The rejection Jephthah suffered at the hands of his family foreshadowed that which Christ experienced in Nazareth long years afterward [LK 4: 16-30]. Israel had been oppressed by the Philistines and the Ammonites, their enemy neighbors who had conquered them, for 18 years. Allowing this to happen was God’s punishment for the practice of idolatry that had been going on in Israel [JG 10: 6-9 & 11: 1-3]. Jephthah was a brave soldier, and when the Ammonites went to war with Israel, the leaders of Gilead realized they needed Jephthah’s leadership. By the time the Israelite soldiers camped at Mizpah in Gilead and the Ammonites were also camped in Gilead, the Israelites realized the folly of their idolatry and got rid of their foreign gods and worshipped the Lord [JG 10: 16]; they had confessed that sin to God. Jephthah responded to the leaders of Gilead asking him to lead them into battle by saying, “If you take me back home to fight the Ammonites and the Lord gives me victory, I will be your ruler,” in JG 11: 9. They agreed to those terms and made him their ruler and leader. These terms were agreed to in the Lord’s presence (10-11).
Japhthah sent a message to the Ammonite king, asking him what his quarrel was with the Israelites. The king replied in JG 11: 13, “When the Israelites came out of Egypt, they took away my land from the Arnon River to the Jabbok River and the Jordan River. Now, you must give it back peacefully.” In JG 11: 16-23, Japhthah refuted this claim, explaining that the countries of Edom and Moab [see DT 2: 4-5,9, & 16] had refused to allow the Israelites to access Canaan by crossing their countries. That meant that the Israelites had to travel east from Kadesh, where they had been camped and then turn north toward the Ammorite territory ruled by King Sihon. This route had taken them around and not through Edom and Moab. The Lord God gave them a victory over King Sihon when the latter went to war to prevent them from crossing his territory [see DT 3: 1-11 & NU 21: 31-35]. Gilead was the territory that the Ammorites had once possessed. This territory extended from the Arnon in the south to the Jabbok in the north and from the desert on the east to the Jordan on the west. It was over this territory that they crossed into the Promised Land after their victory over King Sihon and the Ammorites. Jephthah then asked, “Are you going to try to take it back? You can keep whatever your god Chemosh has given you. but we are going to keep everything that the Lord, our god, has taken for us,” in (24). Later in (27) he added, “You are doing wrong by making war on me. The Lord is the Judge. He will decide today between the Israelites and the Ammonites.” The Ammonite king paid no attention to his message from Jephthah.
A pivotal event happens at this point in the story. The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah who went through Gilead and Manasseh and returned to Mizpah (in Gilead) and then on to Ammon. JG 11: 30-31, “Jephthah promised the Lord: ‘If You will give me victory over the Ammonites, I will burn as an offering the first person that comes out of my house to meet me when I come back from the victory. I will offer that person to You as a sacrifice.” This was a pretty rash promise to make, but it was a promise to God nonetheless. In (32) we find out that Jephthah crossed the river to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave him victory.
The next series of events gives us insight into the degree of faithful obedience Jephthah would demonstrate. JG 11: 34-35, “When Jephthah went back home to Mizpah, there was his daughter coming out to meet him, dancing and playing the tambourine. She was his only child. When he saw her, he tore his clothes in sorrow and said, ‘Oh, my daughter! You are breaking my heart! Why must it be you that causes me pain? I have made a solemn promise to the Lord, and I cannot take it back!’” In this pain, we can imagine that pain that God must have felt when He knew He would sacrifice His only Son on the cross for us. So many of the OT stories foreshadow those of the NT. Later, after giving his daughter two months to grieve with her friends that she would die childless and unmarried, he did what he had promised the Lord, and she died still a virgin . This is the origin of the custom in Israel that Jewish women go out for four days every year to grieve for the daughter of Jephthah of Gilead. There is a question about what Jephthah did to his daughter. Human sacrifice is repulsive to God and certainly not approved by Him [DT 18: 9-14]. Humans were dedicated, then redeemed by money [see EX 13: 12 & LV 27: 1-8]. Another view says that Jephthah gave his daughter as a perpetual virgin in service to Jehovah. Either way, Jephthah was to be denied the right to see his daughter happily married and the mother of any grandchildren he might have had. The lesson in all of this is to make only carefully considered promises in the first place. However, since Jephthah did keep his promise to God, we can view him as an obedient and trusting man.
JG 12: 1-7, which I hope you will read, tells a story that reveals Jephthah’s imperfections. Jephthah and the Gileadites got into a terrible row with their brothers from west of the Jordan in Ephraim. The Ephraimites angrily claimed that the Gileadites hadn’t called them to help them advance on Ammon. The Gileadites said they had asked for their help and had been turned down. They ended up fighting each other, and Jephthah and his men killed 42, 000 of their Ephraimite Jewish brothers over this. Jephthah and his men did this by blocking the places over which the Jordan River was crossed and then asking men trying to cross it to pronounce the Hebrew word, “shibboleth,” which means “a flowing stream.” The Ephraimites couldn’t pronounce it correctly and called it “sibboleth” instead. That is how Jephthah’s soldiers knew which men to slay. JG 12: 7, “Jephthah led Isreael for six years. Then he died and was buried in his hometown in Gilead.“
PRAYER: O Lord, Your patience with mankind’s imperfections is a gift. We must be mindful that this gift has its limits. The stories You have given us in the Scriptures like that of Jephthah have wonderful and wise lessons for us. They make us examine our lives for attitudes of prejudice. They direct our attention to how You do Your work through others around us. They remind us not to make rash promises, but to consider the impact of our attitudes and actions on ourselves, on others, and especially on You. In these stories of the OT, You give us a unique and important perspective on the events that follow them of the NT. By what we study, You reveal Yourself to us in ways that, if we will understand them, will bless our lives. For all of this and more, You deserve our eternal thanks, praise, worship, adoration, loyalty, obedience, and trust. We glorify and magnify Your name and that of Your Son. We offer You our love and devotion in His name, amen.
Tomorrow, we will begin looking at the story of Sampson found in JG 13-16 to see how trusting God impacts his life and the life of the others with whom he came in contact. Our loving Abba is all around us, desiring to be the center of our lives. His requests for us are so small in comparison to the blessings and eternal life He offers us. Keep this in mind as we work through the challenges of our lives. Then, you will begin to understand the depth of the love He has for each of us. Peter and I also send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn