THAT I MAY KNOW HIM.[PHP.3:10]
VOWS ARE SACRED; LEARNING FROM JEPHTHAH, THE BROKEN LEADER! (JUDGES 11:1-3,30-35)
I want to say as an appetizer that, contrarily to what many of us think, Jephthah's daughter wasn't burnt as a sacrifice , but was dedicated as a celibate,to serve God in His House for the rest of her life;
And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and BEWAIL my VIRGINITY, I and my fellows. (Jdg 11: 37)
Also ,most of our travails as humans can be traced to our careless utterances in the past. The devil and his demons listen hard to the words spoken by us,looking for the one that he can use against us.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. (Pro 18: 21)
In the life account of Jephthah,we meet face to face with the depravity of the human race...his default nature of sin. From my point of view, Jephthah's story is not an Old Testament favourite. Indeed,his deeds elicite different responses from different people.
Jephthah was a leader, a judge of Israel, who fights Israel’s enemies and leads the Nation into freedom. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him to lead him into battle.
And yet, no sooner had the Spirit come onto Jephthah, than he made the biggest mistake of his life. He made a vow to God to sacrifice the first thing that came to meet him when he comes home victorious. But God NEVER asked for a vow. God had already sent His Spirit. Jephthah was trying to buy the support that was already his; he simply did not understand the Ways of God.
His lack of understanding then grew to tragic dimensions. As he came home, his daughter came out to meet him… and Jephthah promised to fulfil his vow. Still he misunderstood the ways of God. The law of Moses made specific provisions for the redemption of people (and even animals) vowed to God (Leviticus 27:1-13): the sacrifice of children was forbidden (Leviticus 18:21; Deuteronomy 18:10). But Jephthah thought his attempt to ‘buy’ God was more important than his daughter. What he knew of God was only partial and skewed.
Yet let us not judge Jephthah too quickly. If we go back to the beginning of his story, we meet a man who has been shaped by his upbringing: rejected by his family and stigmatised as the son of a prostitute.
Jephthah had very little space in his life to learn what it means to be accepted and supported. Instead, he grew up trying to control the world around him through violence and manipulation. As others hurt him, he responded in kind and became a mercenary, then negotiated hard for his place as a leader of Israel.
He may have led Israel into victory against the Ammonites, but his motivation seems primarily to prove himself and find a place of safety in the community that had rejected him. There is little in Jephthtah’s background that could have prepared him for the way God relates to His people: freely, in complete love, with grace.
We do not need to prove ourselves, or buy God’s love and protection. Jephthah was so keen to protect himself, he missed out on the chance to live life with the God who could have made him safer than he could ever have imagined.
Yet, some critics of the Bible would even seize the life of Jephthah as an example of God’s unreasonable sense of justice and mercy. For these reasons, we need to take a deeper look at the story of Jephthah. Did his story really reveal God as a God who is bloodthirsty and devoid of mercy?
When we return, we will look into some spiritual Truths from his life.
Remain blessed, !
VOWS ARE SACRED; LEARNING FROM JEPHTHAH, THE BROKEN LEADER! (JUDGES 11:1-3,30-35)
I want to say as an appetizer that, contrarily to what many of us think, Jephthah's daughter wasn't burnt as a sacrifice , but was dedicated as a celibate,to serve God in His House for the rest of her life;
And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and BEWAIL my VIRGINITY, I and my fellows. (Jdg 11: 37)
Also ,most of our travails as humans can be traced to our careless utterances in the past. The devil and his demons listen hard to the words spoken by us,looking for the one that he can use against us.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. (Pro 18: 21)
In the life account of Jephthah,we meet face to face with the depravity of the human race...his default nature of sin. From my point of view, Jephthah's story is not an Old Testament favourite. Indeed,his deeds elicite different responses from different people.
Jephthah was a leader, a judge of Israel, who fights Israel’s enemies and leads the Nation into freedom. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him to lead him into battle.
And yet, no sooner had the Spirit come onto Jephthah, than he made the biggest mistake of his life. He made a vow to God to sacrifice the first thing that came to meet him when he comes home victorious. But God NEVER asked for a vow. God had already sent His Spirit. Jephthah was trying to buy the support that was already his; he simply did not understand the Ways of God.
His lack of understanding then grew to tragic dimensions. As he came home, his daughter came out to meet him… and Jephthah promised to fulfil his vow. Still he misunderstood the ways of God. The law of Moses made specific provisions for the redemption of people (and even animals) vowed to God (Leviticus 27:1-13): the sacrifice of children was forbidden (Leviticus 18:21; Deuteronomy 18:10). But Jephthah thought his attempt to ‘buy’ God was more important than his daughter. What he knew of God was only partial and skewed.
Yet let us not judge Jephthah too quickly. If we go back to the beginning of his story, we meet a man who has been shaped by his upbringing: rejected by his family and stigmatised as the son of a prostitute.
Jephthah had very little space in his life to learn what it means to be accepted and supported. Instead, he grew up trying to control the world around him through violence and manipulation. As others hurt him, he responded in kind and became a mercenary, then negotiated hard for his place as a leader of Israel.
He may have led Israel into victory against the Ammonites, but his motivation seems primarily to prove himself and find a place of safety in the community that had rejected him. There is little in Jephthtah’s background that could have prepared him for the way God relates to His people: freely, in complete love, with grace.
We do not need to prove ourselves, or buy God’s love and protection. Jephthah was so keen to protect himself, he missed out on the chance to live life with the God who could have made him safer than he could ever have imagined.
Yet, some critics of the Bible would even seize the life of Jephthah as an example of God’s unreasonable sense of justice and mercy. For these reasons, we need to take a deeper look at the story of Jephthah. Did his story really reveal God as a God who is bloodthirsty and devoid of mercy?
When we return, we will look into some spiritual Truths from his life.
Remain blessed, !
THAT I MAY KNOW HIM.[PHP.3:10]
π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯
VOWS ARE SACRED; LEARNING FROM JEPHTHAH, THE BROKEN LEADER! (JUDGES 11:1-3,30-35)
π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯
I want to say as an appetizer that, contrarily to what many of us think, Jephthah's daughter wasn't burnt as a sacrifice , but was dedicated as a celibate,to serve God in His House for the rest of her life;
And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and BEWAIL my VIRGINITY, I and my fellows. (Jdg 11: 37)
Also ,most of our travails as humans can be traced to our careless utterances in the past. The devil and his demons listen hard to the words spoken by us,looking for the one that he can use against us.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. (Pro 18: 21)
In the life account of Jephthah,we meet face to face with the depravity of the human race...his default nature of sin. From my point of view, Jephthah's story is not an Old Testament favourite. Indeed,his deeds elicite different responses from different people.
Jephthah was a leader, a judge of Israel, who fights Israel’s enemies and leads the Nation into freedom. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him to lead him into battle.
And yet, no sooner had the Spirit come onto Jephthah, than he made the biggest mistake of his life. He made a vow to God to sacrifice the first thing that came to meet him when he comes home victorious. But God NEVER asked for a vow. God had already sent His Spirit. Jephthah was trying to buy the support that was already his; he simply did not understand the Ways of God.
His lack of understanding then grew to tragic dimensions. As he came home, his daughter came out to meet him… and Jephthah promised to fulfil his vow. Still he misunderstood the ways of God. The law of Moses made specific provisions for the redemption of people (and even animals) vowed to God (Leviticus 27:1-13): the sacrifice of children was forbidden (Leviticus 18:21; Deuteronomy 18:10). But Jephthah thought his attempt to ‘buy’ God was more important than his daughter. What he knew of God was only partial and skewed.
Yet let us not judge Jephthah too quickly. If we go back to the beginning of his story, we meet a man who has been shaped by his upbringing: rejected by his family and stigmatised as the son of a prostitute.
Jephthah had very little space in his life to learn what it means to be accepted and supported. Instead, he grew up trying to control the world around him through violence and manipulation. As others hurt him, he responded in kind and became a mercenary, then negotiated hard for his place as a leader of Israel.
He may have led Israel into victory against the Ammonites, but his motivation seems primarily to prove himself and find a place of safety in the community that had rejected him. There is little in Jephthtah’s background that could have prepared him for the way God relates to His people: freely, in complete love, with grace.
We do not need to prove ourselves, or buy God’s love and protection. Jephthah was so keen to protect himself, he missed out on the chance to live life with the God who could have made him safer than he could ever have imagined.
Yet, some critics of the Bible would even seize the life of Jephthah as an example of God’s unreasonable sense of justice and mercy. For these reasons, we need to take a deeper look at the story of Jephthah. Did his story really reveal God as a God who is bloodthirsty and devoid of mercy?
When we return, we will look into some spiritual Truths from his life.
Remain blessed, ππ!
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