Tag Archives: Judges

Devotional

God’s People, part 40: Divided

Leave a comment

Read Judges 20-21

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“Jesus knew their thoughts and replied, ‘Any kingdom divided by civil war is doomed. A town or family splintered by feuding will fall apart.’” (Matthew 12:25 NLT)

When we think of God’s people, we tend to think one of two things. We might think of the Israelites who were God’s “chosen people”, or we might think of specific characters in the Bible. Either way, we tend to idealize the people we are thinking about. For instance, we may think that God’s people are super faithful, holy, perform miracles and live wholly devout and righteous lives. Unfortunately, this idealism enables us to distance ourselves from being God’s people, because we feel that we fall short of those ideals. As such, I have decided to write a devotion series on specific characters in the Bible in order to show you how much these Biblical people are truly like us, and how much we are truly called to be God’s people.

MelGibson-BraveheartPart 40: Divided. One of my all-time favorite films was the 1995 Mel Gibson movie, “Braveheart”. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this film, if such a person exists, it is the tale of Sir William Wallace who rose from being a Scottish peasant to the noble whom Scotland hailed as the Guardian of their kingdom. While the film has many historical inaccuracies, it certainly captured heart of a people who were seeking to be unified under a single leader who would rule justly with a pure heart.

The film tells the tale of a Scottish peasant who had to marry his wife in secret so that he didn’t, by law, have to share her with the local English lord. Unfortunately, the English discovered she was married and tried to rape her; however, not before Wallace tried to free her. The attempt to liberate his love from the tyranny of the English failed, and his wife was publicly put to death in order to lure Wallace out of hiding.

It did, indeed, lure him out. It was that evil, murderous act that sparked the peasant to rise up into a brilliant noble who would lead his Scots to victory against the English at the Battle of Stirling. Again, no one knows if this truly happened this way or if this is more legend than it is history, and we do know that the battle of Stirling Bridge was missing the bridge in the film; however, the reality is that William Wallace did end up leading the Scots to a number of victories against the English.

Yet, in the end, William Wallace was betrayed, captured and ultimately killed by the English. Why? Because the leadership of Scotland were divided. Some of the nobles prized their land and money over the people they served and chose to side with the English King, while others took the side of William Wallace. A people that are divided among themselves cannot stand, but are bound to fall.

We see the same thing going on here throughout Judges, culminating in Judges 20-21. In fact, the last verse of chapter 21 is, “In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.” (Judges 21:25 NLT) Not only did they not have a king and not only did they do whatever they deemed to be right in their own eyes, but they also fought against their own people who were of different tribes.  There was utter chaos among God’s people.

We can learn from this. When we do not look to Christ as our King, when we do not follow and obey our sovereign God, we fall into chaos. We can look to all of the human rulers we want to save us, we will never find salvation through the world, nor through the women and men who lead it. Our salvation comes through Christ, the one and only true King, who has commanded that we be a people of love. When we choose, hatred, enmity, strife, division, and chaos over LOVE, we are choosing the world over God. Let us be a people who know AND FOLLOW our one, and true, Sovereign Ruler. Let us be a people who know AND FOLLOW LOVE.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
“Out of ignorance and fear comes judgment and division.” – David Furnish

PRAYER
Lord, help me to choose you and not become mired in the chaotic fear and ignorance of this world, which leads to division. Use me as an agent of hope, peace, love and unity. Amen.

Devotional

God’s People, part 34: Jephthah

Leave a comment

Read Judges 11

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
But I say, do not make any vows! Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Anything beyond this is from the evil one.” (Matthew 5:34a, 37 NLT)

When we think of God’s people, we tend to think one of two things. We might think of the Israelites who were God’s “chosen people”, or we might think of specific characters in the Bible. Either way, we tend to idealize the people we are thinking about. For instance, we may think that God’s people are super faithful, holy, perform miracles and live wholly devout and righteous lives. Unfortunately, this idealism enables us to distance ourselves from being God’s people, because we feel that we fall short of those ideals. As such, I have decided to write a devotion series on specific characters in the Bible in order to show you how much these Biblical people are truly like us, and how much we are truly called to be God’s people.

1909 Jephthahs DaughterPart 34: Jephthah. Daughter, O daughter, wherefore art thou daughter? I wonder if you have even heard the name Jephthah before. He was, believe it or not, one of the major judges who rose up to deliver Israel from her enemies. He was a judge for a period of six years and was a great, great warrior. Yet, like all of God’s people, Jephthah was far from perfect.

The Bible indicates that Jephthah was the son of Gilead and a prostitute, who lived in the land of Gilead. Given the nature of a prostitute’s job, this might mean that his father was not named Gilead, but was unknown. In other words, his father could have been any one of the men of Gilead consorting with a prostitute. So, the great and mighty warrior’s story starts off with the detail that he was an “illegitimate child”.

Yet, this child (as all children are) was created and loved by God, and he rose up to defend his people against the Ammonites. With that said, he was reluctant to at first, because of the way he had been treated by his own people, the Israelites. Since his birth was scandalous, he was shunned and driven out of Gilead by the residents there. He was told he would have no inheritance in his father’s house. Again, his father might have been named Gilead, or this might be symbolic of not being welcome in his home town due to the scandalous nature surrounding his mother.

When asked to defend Israel against Ammon, Jephthah refused to do so unless they made him a permanent ruler over all the Israelites. The people, desperate for his help, vowed an oath under God to make him the permanent ruler. So, Jephthah agreed to lead the Israelites against the Ammonites. Scripture tells us that he was filled with the Spirit of God; however, Jephthah wanted to ensure victory and, in doing so, made a tragic and fatal mistake. He vowed that if the Lord would give him victory, he would sacrifice the first thing that walked through the front door of his house.

What a silly, silly vow. Why would he vow such a thing? Didn’t Jephthah know that the first thing that would walk through his door was his one and only daughter? This is, yet again, another one of more vile texts we find in the Bible, for Jephthah does indeed hold true to his vow to God and sacrifices (aka murders) his daughter. He lets her wander the hillside with her friends for two months but, following that, he sacrifices her.

The Bible is not clear as to whether or not God wanted such a sacrifice, or whether God wanted Jephthah to carry that sacrifice through. All we have is the vow that he made and the action that he carried out. With that said, God’s silence does not mean that this is what God wanted, let alone what God demanded. The reality is that people do all sorts of evil and sick things, and God does not come down out of the heavens (as was the case with Abraham) to stop them from carrying it forward.

The point of this story is not to take it literally and get hooked on the gory and horrific details. The point of is to learn something about ourselves in it. Had Jephthah trusted that the Spirit of the LORD was with him, he would not have made such a rash, foolish and ultimately tragic vow. Had he merely trusted in God’s presence, he would have simply led his people out to victory and won. Instead, by trying to secure his victory through bartering with God, he put himself and his daughter in a situation that should have never existed.

I believe that Jephthah should have never carried that vow out to conclusion, just as he should have never made the vow to begin with; however, he did what he did and we’re left horrified by the whole scenario. Let this be a reminder to us that we need not barter with God, as if God can be bought by our silly vows and promises. All God asks of us is to seek to live justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with the LORD, our God. The challenge for us is to be satisfied in our faith, to be satisfied with the assurance Scripture gives us of God’s presence in our lives, to be confident in the hope that GOD will not abandon us, and that salvation and deliverance will come. Why? Because God delivers and is faithful. Let us be faithful back to God and place our trust in the Holy Spirit within us.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
“Those that vow the most are the least sincere.” – Richard Brinsely Sheridan
 PRAYER
Lord, your Holy Spirit is within. Give me the assurance to trust in your presence. Amen.

Devotional

God’s People, part 30: Judges

Leave a comment

Read Joshua 2:16-23

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.” (Judges 21:25 NLT)

When we think of God’s people, we tend to think one of two things. We might think of the Israelites who were God’s “chosen people”, or we might think of specific characters in the Bible. Either way, we tend to idealize the people we are thinking about. For instance, we may think that God’s people are super faithful, holy, perform miracles and live wholly devout and righteous lives. Unfortunately, this idealism enables us to distance ourselves from being God’s people, because we feel that we fall short of those ideals. As such, I have decided to write a devotion series on specific characters in the Bible in order to show you how much these Biblical people are truly like us, and how much we are truly called to be God’s people.

judgesPart 30: Judges. When we hear the term “judges”, we think of a number of things. We think of people who are in a position of legal authority, whose job it is to make decisions and sentence people under the laws of the town, the county, the state or the federal government. We think of people who determine the winners at competitions. We think of people who look down their noses at people and make sweeping generalizations and self-righteously determine other people’s eternal fate. The latter one is the kind of “judge” that Jesus warned against becoming, for who can truly be THAT kind of judge?

Yet, the book of judges was not written with hypoctical judging in mind, nor was it written with our understanding of a penal judge in mind; rather, the judges were people who were placed in charge to keep the law and order in the land and, esepcially, to protect Israel from outside threats such as the Philistines. With that said, those designated as judges were still human and had their flaws. They still had the tendancy to be hypocritical, sinful people who wrongly “judged” others; however, their role as Judge was ultimately to serve and protect the people of Israel!

What’s more, it is important to understand the theological underpinnings that led to this form of governance. From the time of their exodus from Egypt, the multitude of slaves that became the people of Israel wandered for forty years in the wilderness. That’s right, for FORTY YEARS they wandered, only to end up settling in a place that was a mere 250+ miles away! Through that time of wandering, they put the Ark of the Covenant (which was seen as the throne of God) in front of them, for God was the leader who was leading them to their freedom.

Moses, Joshua and those that followed were people in conversation with God, who was their leader. What an amazing display of faith it was; then again, what else do desparate people have to rely on but their faith? Once the nomadic multitude from Egypt settled in Canaan and became established, things changed. For one, they made a number of enemies along the way. Also, as they began to prosper, they came up in competition against competing Kingdoms. So, even if they had not made enemies, competition would have made them enemies.

As such, neighboring countries began to threaten and attack them and they began to panic. Many of the people were pushing to have a king rule them and, of course, a king would have led to fortresses and armies and some sense of security. With that said, prophets also warned the people that such a king would grow in power and eventually abuse that power. They urged the people to keep their focus on God and to see God as their King.

For a time, these prophets served as “judges” who saw themselves as accountable to God and led by God to hold Israel accountable. They were not kings or queens who could rule over people; however, they were given the duty of basically protecting the people of Israel from threats, both within and without. If God was still ruler of Israel, the judges were the enforcers of God’s reign. That is how the ancient judges saw themselves, and how they functioned.

As we will see with a few of the judges I will highlight, that plan was really a bandaid response that that only temporarily stalled Israel’s quest for a human ruler to place faith in. They wanted to place their faith in what they could see and was tangible. This switch in the placement of faith proved, as we’ll see, to be quickly disasterous. While there is no need to take the judges’ accounts literally, quibbling over whether we should have human rulers or not, it is a good exercise for us to look at it metaphorically and see the truth that lies in there.

Do we place God as the ruler of our lives? Do we place our faith completely in God and follow God where we are being led. Or do we place our faith in ourselves, or other human leaders, and hope that God will come along with us? While it is important to recognize that humans are key players in God’s plan, there is a fine line between being a key player in God’s plan and seeing God as a key player in our plan. I pray that we all can discern who’s lead we are ACTUALLY following, God’s or our own.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
“The same God who made a way in the waters, will make a way in the wilderness” – Unknown, based on Isaiah 43:15-19

PRAYER
Lord, forgive me for the times I have done things my way and give me the wisdom to see things your way. I desire to follow your lead. Amen.