Judges
11:1-7 (NIV) Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior. His father was
Gilead; his mother was a prostitute. 2 Gilead's wife also bore him sons, and
when they were grown up, they drove Jephthah away. "You are not going to
get any inheritance in our family," they said, "because you are the
son of another woman." 3 So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in
the land of Tob, where a group of adventurers gathered around him and followed
him.
4 Some
time later, when the Ammonites made war on Israel, 5 the elders of Gilead went
to get Jephthah from the land of Tob. 6 "Come," they said, "be
our commander, so we can fight the Ammonites."
7
Jephthah said to them, "Didn't you hate me and drive me from my father's
house? Why do you come to me now, when you're in trouble?"
NOTE: This is a sad
start to a story. There is sexual sin in the family by the father. There is
conflict among the siblings. There is greed, since Jephthah would be the first
born, and the heir to the family inheritance. And finally, there is selfishness.
The men of Gilead never ask forgiveness for their sin. There is no record of
the father standing up for the son. And now, when life is difficult, the people
go searching for a strong man to fight their battle. The story of Judges seems
to spiral down into greater and greater depths of sin. It is Romans 1:18-32 in
full living color. They people reject God's rule, God gives them over, and
after some teeth gnashing and a return, the cycle begins again, except it goes
a little deeper each time. That is the warning to us in our sin, that we can't
continue the cycle of sin and repent, because it goes deeper each time. We need
to escape the cycle. We need to ask God's help to protect us from the deeper
cycle of sin. As Jesus pray, "… and lead us not into temptation, but
deliver us from evil."
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