| Author | Message | ||
| Colleentinker |
Last night we studied the story of Jephthah in our FAF meeting. (We're actually in Hebrews 11, but we're doing character studies of the people named there. Jephthah is in verse 32.) Jephthah is a provocative character. He was Gilead's son--by a prostitute. (His story is in Judges 11-12.) He was banished by his half-brothers and became a leader of a sort-of militia gang. When the Ammonites became too oppressive, the Gileadites came looking for him to lead the army against the oppressors. (No Israelites in good standing had the courage or expertise to lead such a campaign.) The thing that really makes Japhthah memorable, though, was his vow to sacrifice whatever came from his house as a burnt offering if the Lord helped him win. His daughter came out to meet him, so he offered her as a burnt offering. Jephthah was essentially a pagan; in fact, all Israel was a mish-mash of paganism and Judaism. They apostatized so often that they probably didn't even really remember all the points of the law. Human sacrifices were common among the pagans, and leaders were expected to offer more significant offerings than extra animals. Jephthah undoubtedly thought his vow and sacrifice would be things God would value. The take-home for me was quite powerful. God did not make Jephthah get his theology straight or clean up all his understandings and behaviors before he worked through him. What counted with Jephthah, and what I believe puts him in the "faith chapter", was that he decided to commit himself to God's cause. He said "Yes" to God, even though he didn't have a reformed life. God could use him because he was willing to go to war under God's authority. After all his years of pgagnism or quasi-paganism, he was willing to swear before the Lord at Mizpah to lead Israel against the Ammonites. I'm not making a case for hanging onto sin. After all, the New Birth was not part of Old Covenant theology. But Jephthah was pagan enough to vow to offer a human sacrifice to GOD, no less, and he was uninformed enough not to know that there was a condition in the law that allowed for a sacrifice to be redeemed for a certain monetary offering. God didn't stop him from offering his daughter. But God used him because Jephthah committed his loyalty to Him. Even when God redeems us and makes us his own, he doesn't stop us from experiencing the consequences of the sins in our lives. He will redeem those sins and those consequences as we submit them to him, but God doesn't cancel our consequences. I see leaving Adventism in this category. We were honestly deceived; we believed sincerely in our Adventism. Yet our sincerity didn't negate that we were WRONG. We still have to live with the consequences of having been Adventist. God redeems those consequences, and we experience grace much more profoundly than some other Christians who didn't come out of serious legalism. But God didn't wait for us to get our theology straight before calling us. Our saying "Yes" is what counts. The details become God's business! Praise God for Jephthah--praise God for calling all of us! Colleen |
