Jephthah was a figure of a story told in the Old Testament of the Bible. It can be found in the book of Judges, chapter 11. I will summarize the story as you can read the account yourself. This man named Jephthah had a very bad upbringing. His father frequented a prostitute and she gave birth to Jephthah. Jephthah's father then married another woman who gave birth to many children to Jephthah's father. As the children grew, they decided to kick Jephthah out of the family. He then fled to another area where bad men collected around him and he became a bandit. After awhile, the land of his father came under attack from a people called the "Ammorites". The leaders of his father's land called for Jephthah to come and be their "judge". A judge in the Bible was a person who rose up to save the people of God. Jephthah was a servant of God. He was not very knowledgeable about what God had already told his people, but at some level he must have known and feared God. Just before Jephthah went into battle with the Ammorites, he made a vow to God. His vow was to sacrifice the first person who came out of his house when he arrived after the battle. This was not a Biblical practice. Most likely he picked this up running with the bandits. Never the less, Jephthah was victorious against the Ammorites, came home, and found his daughter the first one out of the door to greet him. Scholars debate whether he really sacrificed his daughter or not. Either way, Jephthah did a dumb thing. And what is even dumber in what he did is that if he had known God and his word better; a. He would not have made the vow. b. Even after making the vow, he would have know that God made a provision in His law to undue a mistake like this. See Lev 5:15.
A couple of points can be learned about the nature of the God of the Bible from this story.
1. God took a man with a corrupt birth, corrupt upbringing, and a corrupt start into adulthood, and used him to accomplish God's will. I once heard a pastor say that in order for God to use you, you must be walking in his will. This story kinda refutes this idea. I do think that if you are not walking in God's will, you miss out on the glory and joy of his work. But it is clear that God can use anyone, whether he is in his will or not.
2. The second point I would make is that the God of the Old Testament is a God of grace. He showed Jephthah that no matter his past, God would still be with him. Also, even when Jephthah made a really dumb mistake, God provided a way to redeem that mistake. And even though Jephthah didn't know God's word very well, God still used him and gave him victory in battle. *
More could be said about this story but I have made at least my points. So why does this story make me a friend of Jephthah? I too did not have a great upbringing. I too was ignorant of God's word for a large part of my life. But I too have been shown grace and mercy by God. So I count Jephthah as a friend of mine, thankful that God has not only shown mercy to me, but has helped me to understand him better so that I can avoid the kind of mistakes that Jephthah made. This story also shows me that no one is beyond redemption, only those who do not want it.
So this is my big intro into blogging. I didn't intend it to be funny, only informative. If it was not even that, then I apologize. Mark it down to my novice position on blogging. I will endeavor to improve. I will end with this, one of my favorite quotes from Virgil, an ancient Roman poet:
"Fortune favors the bold". Or at least it doesn't reward chickens (no offense intended to the animal chicken, PETA)
*There are many views on this story, I only meant to give ya mine. Please do not be offended if you have a different view, I would love to hear it.
1 comment:
Mr. Ronald,
I enjoyed reading your post. I can't wait to read more posts. I found it funny that in the last paragraph you said "I didn't intend it to be funny, only informative." Then you gave a PETA comment. Haha.
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