FREEDOM ISN'T FREE

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to faithhopegodlove@aol.com In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

When the Ammonites were called to arms and camped in Gilead, the Israelites assembled and camped at Mizpah. The leaders of the people of Gilead said to each other, "Whoever will launch the attack against the Ammonites will be the head of all those living in Gilead."

Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior. His father was Gilead; his mother was a prostitute. 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." So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where a group of adventurers gathered around him and followed him.

Some time later, when the Ammonites made war on Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob. "Come," they said, "be our commander, so we can fight the Ammonites."

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?"

The elders of Gilead said to him, "Nevertheless, we are turning to you now; come with us to fight the Ammonites, and you will be our head over all who live in Gilead."

Jephthah answered, "Suppose you take me back to fight the Ammonites and the Lord gives them to me—will I really be your head?"

The elders of Gilead replied, "The Lord is our witness; we will certainly do as you say." So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and commander over them. And he repeated all his words before the Lord in Mizpah.

Then Jephthah sent messengers to the Ammonite king with the question: "What do you have against us that you have attacked our country?"

The king of the Ammonites answered Jephthah's messengers, "When Israel came up out of Egypt, they took away my land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, all the way to the Jordan. Now give it back peaceably."

Jephthah sent back messengers to the Ammonite king, saying:

"This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites. But when they came up out of Egypt, Israel went through the desert to the Red Sea and on to Kadesh. Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, 'Give us permission to go through your country,' but the king of Edom would not listen. They sent also to the king of Moab, and he refused. So Israel stayed at Kadesh.

"Next they traveled through the desert, skirted the lands of Edom and Moab, passed along the eastern side of the country of Moab, and camped on the other side of the Arnon. They did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was its border.

"Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon, and said to him, 'Let us pass through your country to our own place.' Sihon, however, did not trust Israel to pass through his territory. He mustered all his men and encamped at Jahaz and fought with Israel.

"Then the Lord, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his men into Israel's hands, and they defeated them. Israel took over all the land of the Amorites who lived in that country, capturing all of it from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the desert to the Jordan.

"Now since the Lord, the God of Israel, has driven the Amorites out before his people Israel, what right have you to take it over? Will you not take what your god Chemosh gives you? Likewise, whatever the Lord our God has given us, we will possess. Are you better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever quarrel with Israel or fight with them? For three hundred years Israel occupied Heshbon, Aroer, the surrounding settlements and all the towns along the Arnon. Why didn't you retake them during that time? I have not wronged you, but you are doing me wrong by waging war against me. Let the Lord, the Judge, decide the dispute this day between the Israelites and the Ammonites."

The king of Ammon, however, paid no attention to the message Jephthah sent him.

Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites. And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord : "If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord's, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering."

Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into his hands. He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon.

When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of tambourines! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, "Oh! My daughter! You have made me miserable and wretched, because I have made a vow to the Lord that I cannot break."

"My father," she replied, "you have given your word to the Lord. Do to me just as you promised, now that the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. But grant me this one request," she said. "Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry."

"You may go," he said. And he let her go for two months. She and the girls went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. After the two months, she returned to her father and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin.

From this comes the Israelite custom that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

Judges 10:17-18, 11

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

But the Israelites said to the Lord, "We have sinned. Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now." Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them and served the Lord. And he could bear Israel's misery no longer. Judges 10:15-16


Israel had done evil before God once again and found themselves in big trouble in Chapter 10 because although they cried out to God, God wasn’t willing to help them. He instead told them to go back to the false gods they had decided to worship and ask them for help. As we saw in our study yesterday, Israel took three key steps to reconciling themselves with God: 1) they repented 2) they submitted and 3) they took action where action was needed. In return for their contrite attitude, God, unable to bear their misery any longer, gets set to once again deliver them from their oppressors.

Those oppressors, the Ammonites, were “called to arms and camped in Gilead” while the Israelites “assembled and camped at Mizpah”. With a battle nearing, the “leaders of the people of Gilead” said, "Whoever will launch the attack against the Ammonites will be the head of all those living in Gilead." There obviously weren’t a lot of volunteers because we read that the “elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah” and asked him to be their commander when the “Ammonites made war on Israel”. Jephthah was definitely qualified as scripture tells us he was a “mighty warrior”, but there was only one problem. The very men who were now asking Jephthah to lead them were the same ones who mistreated him and threatened to remove any right to a family inheritance. This was because Jephthah’s mother was a prostitute, making him an illegitimate son in the eyes of his other brothers who caused Jephthah to flee and settle “in the land of Tob, where a group of adventurers gathered around him and followed him”.

At first bitter with the elders because they mistreated him, Gilead asks them to affirm that they will do what they said they would do…make him the head of Gildead if the Lord gave them into his hand. The elders of Gilead replied, "The Lord is our witness; we will certainly do as you say." So Jephthah went with the “elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and commander over them”. Jephthah then “repeated all his words before the Lord in Mizpah”.

So Israel once again had a judge in the person of Jephthah and he didn’t take long to address the problem at hand…the Ammonites.

We read where Jephthah and the Ammonite king exchanged dialogue on the land, specifically regarding who had rights to it. After Jephthah asked the Ammonite king why they had attacked Israel, the king accused Israel of taking the land from the Ammonites after they had departed Egypt. Jephthah countered by setting the record straight. After leaving Egypt, Israel had been rejected in their attempt to enter Moab and Edom by the kings of those lands and eventually battled Sihon who “mustered all his men and encamped at Jahaz” to fight Israel. During that battle, “”the Lord…gave Sihon and all his men into Israel's hands and they defeated them”, taking over “all the land of the Amorites who lived in that country” and “capturing…it from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the desert to the Jordan”. In other words, the land already belonged to Israel and the Ammonites were trespassing on it.

Jephthah goes on to mock the Ammonite king asking him if he’s not satisfied with what his god, Chemosh, had given, instead going after the land that Israel has occupied for “three hundred years”. He also asks the king why he waited until now to attack and attempt to take the land. Finally, Jephthah tells the king, “I have not wronged you, but you are doing me wrong by waging war against me. Let the Lord, the Judge, decide the dispute this day between the Israelites and the Ammonites." Indeed the Lord would decide, even if the “king of Ammon…paid no attention to the message Jephthah sent him”.

Scripture tells us a “Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah” as he “crossed Gilead and Manasseh” and “passed through Mizpah of Gilead” before advancing “against the Ammonites”.
And this is where this story of Jephthah takes a weird turn. For whatever reason, Jephthah, who already had the Lord with him going into battle, decided he needed to make “a vow to the Lord”, a vow that would have tragic consequences.

For Jephthah promised, “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord's, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering." And with that, Jephthah leads the fight against the Ammonites and “the Lord gave them into his hands”, devastating “twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim” before subduing Ammon. Enthused with the victory, “Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah”.

And as he approached his home, out came his daughter…”his only child”…“dancing to the sound of tambourines”. Jephthah remembered his vow and immediately fell distraught, tearing his clothes and crying out, “Oh! My daughter! You have made me miserable and wretched, because I have made a vow to the Lord that I cannot break." For Jephthah would have to offer his only daughter up as a burnt offering.

Jephthah’s daughter shows exceptional poise despite the circumstances and tells her father, “…you have given your word to the Lord. Do to me just as you promised, now that the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. But grant me this one request…Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry." And so Jephthah honored her request, letting her go for two months while “she and the girls went into the hills and wept because she would never marry” and “after the two months, she returned to her father and he did to her as he had vowed”. His daughter died a virgin.

The story of the judge Jephthah is a bittersweet one. While he had great success in his life, he also had great tragedy as well as he ended up having to sacrifice his own daughter as a tribute to the victory that God had given. I can’t help but see this account as a prelude for what was to come. For we will see how Israel will never seem to be able to break the endless cycle of doing evil in the eyes of the Lord, finding themselves disciplined for it, crying out for deliverance and receiving it before being restored. Then they would do it all over again. Sin was destroying Israel as it was all mankind and something had to be done to stop it…something significant in order for victory to be made certain. So God sent His only Son Jesus from heaven to earth to live and walk amongst the people, show them the way to live the holy, righteous, loving life the Father expected, and then offer Himself up as a living sacrifice, allowing Himself to be nailed to the cross to pay the price for our sins. Through Christ’s death and ensuing resurrection, we discover that freedom is not always free…the same lesson that Jephthah learned when he sacrificed his only daughter. And since Christ sacrificed it all for us…laying down His life…we should be willing to lay it all down for Him as well. He gave up His freedom for ours…He sacrificed it all so we might not have to…and then gave us the instruction we need to follow His lead.

What did He tell us?

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:19-20

Through Jesus’ death and victory over the grave, we too received the assurance through Him that we would not perish but have eternal life. In other words, through our belief and trust in Jesus as Savior, our future is already set. And so our focus is to be on those whose future is not yet set, those who are lost and do not yet know Christ.

Will doing that require sacrifice? Yes.

Will doing that mean that we need to lay aside our desires for the desires of Jesus? Absolutely.

Should we complain and belabor what we are to do for the cause of Christ? We had better not.

Friends, as Christians, we have avowed ourselves to Jesus Christ…to live as He lived…to think as He thought…and to act as He acted…which included total sacrifice out of love and compassion for others. Settling for anything else than our total sacrifice and dedication toward loving and seeking to help others know and trust in Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior is falling short of the mark. For Christ died to set us free to live, showing us that freedom isn’t free but comes with a cost. As we enjoy the freedom He died to provide us, the least we can do is sacrifice some of our freedom to help others find theirs. We should want to do nothing less for our blessed Savior and the Father who gave Him up for us. Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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