Reading 113 - Oswald Chambers Devotional Bible
Devotional: "God brings us into circumstances to educate our faith, for it is the nature of faith to make its object.....real".
Old Testament: Judges ch. 11
This reading covered one of the more difficult passages in the Bible regarding Jepthath's daughter (Judges, chapter 11). In the story, Jepthath made a vow to the Lord that if the upcoming battle was won, he would sacrifice the first thing that came out of his house as a burnt offering to the Lord.
It was his only child, his daughter, that came out of the house to greet him when he got home. Jepthath explained to her what he had promised, and she agreed to be sacrificed so her father could keep his word to the Lord. There is a chilling phrase that ends this story with "and then Jepthath did according to his word to the Lord".
There are several points to make with this story as follows:
1. Jepthath is a flippin' idiot. We are strongly advised not to make vows of any kind, save for marriage vows, to the Lord. For if we do, we are bound to keep them, or risk breaking a vow to the Almighty. Even Jesus urged us not to put ourselves in that position.
2. Jepthath certainly was not a lawyer. Proverbs teaches us to "count the cost" before we commit to anything, and Jepthath left a vow open-ended with "whatever comes out of my house". Were he wiser, he could have vowed to sacrifice a sheep, a bull, a ram, etc.
3. Jepthat's daughter is the heroine of this story. She could have run away and never come back, but she fully understood what had happened, and that she was to die. She asked for 2 months to "bewail her virginity", aka "let me hang out with my friends for a while" for she knew she would never marry, have children, watch them grow up, or live the full life that she thought she would. Instead of resisting, out of love for her father she submitted to this so her father could honor his word to the Lord. "No greater love hath a man than this, that he lay down his life for a friend". She laid down her life for her father; even though what he had done was extremely foolish. She willingly paid the price for him. This is further confirmed by the fact that the end of Judges chapter 11 it states "and all of the daughters of Israel spend 4 days of each year lamenting the daughter of Jepthath". It is his daughter that is honored.......................not him.
4. It boils down to ownership. This teaching is very strong, and hard to take, because what this describes is human sacrifice to the Almighty. The more I think about it, the more it bothered me until I was reminded of Job. "The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord". The Lord allowed all of Job's children to die in an accident, the Lord allowed Jepthath's daughter to be sacrificed. No sheep appearing out of nowhere to be sacrificed at the last minute to save the day, no angel telling Jepthath to stop. Initially this reads like a bone chilling Twilight Zone story where you keep expecting someone to show up and save the day..........but no one comes. It seems so unfair. Until I remember, the Lord gave us our lives, and they are His to do with as He wishes. Whether we like it or not, whether we believe in Him or not. If the Lord takes my life, can anyone give it back to me? I am at His mercy, and the length of my days are determined by Him and Him alone. He is in control, I am not. This grates on my nerves, because at my core, I still am determined to run my own life the way I please, with no regard for any authority other than my own. This has always resulted in disaster for me, you'd think I would have learned by now.
That said, I'm encouraged from Oswald's words when he says "to turn head faith into personal possession is a fight ALWAYS, not sometimes....". I'm so glad I'm not the only one that has this issue. I fight, continually, to keep my focus on what God is doing in my life, not what I want to be doing with my life.
Tying in all the passages:
Psalm 50: 7-15:
"Pay your vows to the Almighty/Call upon me in your time of trouble/ I will deliver you/ and you shall glorify Me" - eerily appropriate given the OT passage on Jepthath's daughter, but also a bridge to the NT selection for the day.
Proverbs: in the multitude of people is the king's glory, and the lack of people is a prince's downfall.
NT: Luke17: 1-19: Jesus stating that if you had faith as large as a mustard seed, then if you told the mountains to uproot themselves and throw themselves into the sea, they would obey you. Also covers the incident where 10 lepers cried out to Jesus on the edge of town for healing, He stops, tells them to go to the priest, and that they were healed. 10 lepers were healed, only one came back to glorify God ("I shall deliver you/ and you shall glorify Me"). That leper was a Samaritan. Jesus wondered aloud about the other 9, who were *not* Samaritans, and told him "your faith has made you well".
The Homeless Man and my Unsaved Friend:
Last Thursday went to lunch with Jeff, we go to Panda Express for a bite. Outside was a homeless man, smelly and stinky (much like the lepers in Jesus's day). Instead of reaching out to him, I draw back and just want to have a nice lunch with my friend and ignore him. God was having none of it. Jeff, of all people, the unsaved guy, offered to buy him lunch. The homeless man agreed. He stood in line with us, he sat with us, and he was telling stories and pouring his heart out because he was just so happy to have someone listen. I was getting uncomfortable because he was loud, smelled, and drawing attention. It was at this point that he started witnessing to Jeff. He was telling Jeff how God was good, how he was translating the Lord's prayer into Cheyenne, he sang this for us, and that Jesus poured out His blood for us and that if we let God take care of our troubles, then they would be taken care of.
That's called being put into my place, y'all. I didn't say hardly a word over lunch, I had nothing to say. I was sitting here thinking that I would be the one saying something...........and instead God used this homeless man to witness to Jeff. I was a spectator to God using everything he could to not only have this homeless man blessed and fed, but to have yet another seed planted into Jeff's heart, and a valuable lesson taught to me should I remember and learn. This is how God works, there is nothing done at the expense of another. Stinky Homeless Guy was fed, I was humbled, and Jeff was blessed. I'll be seeing that homeless man again in our eternal home, he's much better off than many people I know. I am much better off for having encountered him. God help me, my pride and my cynicism close me off to so much.
God has no need of faith, He simply is, and that is enough. I'm the one that needs faith, because I can't see Him, and I still don't trust Him to deliver me from my circumstances, or to stand with me through them, though in my head I believe I do. When push comes to shove, I instinctively rely on myself to pull myself through and so far with rare exception, I've been able to do so. This is not good. My strength and independence, an asset in today's world, in a hindrance in my relationship to God. The more I let Him carry me, the further I can go.
Old Testament: Judges ch. 11
This reading covered one of the more difficult passages in the Bible regarding Jepthath's daughter (Judges, chapter 11). In the story, Jepthath made a vow to the Lord that if the upcoming battle was won, he would sacrifice the first thing that came out of his house as a burnt offering to the Lord.
It was his only child, his daughter, that came out of the house to greet him when he got home. Jepthath explained to her what he had promised, and she agreed to be sacrificed so her father could keep his word to the Lord. There is a chilling phrase that ends this story with "and then Jepthath did according to his word to the Lord".
There are several points to make with this story as follows:
1. Jepthath is a flippin' idiot. We are strongly advised not to make vows of any kind, save for marriage vows, to the Lord. For if we do, we are bound to keep them, or risk breaking a vow to the Almighty. Even Jesus urged us not to put ourselves in that position.
2. Jepthath certainly was not a lawyer. Proverbs teaches us to "count the cost" before we commit to anything, and Jepthath left a vow open-ended with "whatever comes out of my house". Were he wiser, he could have vowed to sacrifice a sheep, a bull, a ram, etc.
3. Jepthat's daughter is the heroine of this story. She could have run away and never come back, but she fully understood what had happened, and that she was to die. She asked for 2 months to "bewail her virginity", aka "let me hang out with my friends for a while" for she knew she would never marry, have children, watch them grow up, or live the full life that she thought she would. Instead of resisting, out of love for her father she submitted to this so her father could honor his word to the Lord. "No greater love hath a man than this, that he lay down his life for a friend". She laid down her life for her father; even though what he had done was extremely foolish. She willingly paid the price for him. This is further confirmed by the fact that the end of Judges chapter 11 it states "and all of the daughters of Israel spend 4 days of each year lamenting the daughter of Jepthath". It is his daughter that is honored.......................not him.
4. It boils down to ownership. This teaching is very strong, and hard to take, because what this describes is human sacrifice to the Almighty. The more I think about it, the more it bothered me until I was reminded of Job. "The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord". The Lord allowed all of Job's children to die in an accident, the Lord allowed Jepthath's daughter to be sacrificed. No sheep appearing out of nowhere to be sacrificed at the last minute to save the day, no angel telling Jepthath to stop. Initially this reads like a bone chilling Twilight Zone story where you keep expecting someone to show up and save the day..........but no one comes. It seems so unfair. Until I remember, the Lord gave us our lives, and they are His to do with as He wishes. Whether we like it or not, whether we believe in Him or not. If the Lord takes my life, can anyone give it back to me? I am at His mercy, and the length of my days are determined by Him and Him alone. He is in control, I am not. This grates on my nerves, because at my core, I still am determined to run my own life the way I please, with no regard for any authority other than my own. This has always resulted in disaster for me, you'd think I would have learned by now.
That said, I'm encouraged from Oswald's words when he says "to turn head faith into personal possession is a fight ALWAYS, not sometimes....". I'm so glad I'm not the only one that has this issue. I fight, continually, to keep my focus on what God is doing in my life, not what I want to be doing with my life.
Tying in all the passages:
Psalm 50: 7-15:
"Pay your vows to the Almighty/Call upon me in your time of trouble/ I will deliver you/ and you shall glorify Me" - eerily appropriate given the OT passage on Jepthath's daughter, but also a bridge to the NT selection for the day.
Proverbs: in the multitude of people is the king's glory, and the lack of people is a prince's downfall.
NT: Luke17: 1-19: Jesus stating that if you had faith as large as a mustard seed, then if you told the mountains to uproot themselves and throw themselves into the sea, they would obey you. Also covers the incident where 10 lepers cried out to Jesus on the edge of town for healing, He stops, tells them to go to the priest, and that they were healed. 10 lepers were healed, only one came back to glorify God ("I shall deliver you/ and you shall glorify Me"). That leper was a Samaritan. Jesus wondered aloud about the other 9, who were *not* Samaritans, and told him "your faith has made you well".
The Homeless Man and my Unsaved Friend:
Last Thursday went to lunch with Jeff, we go to Panda Express for a bite. Outside was a homeless man, smelly and stinky (much like the lepers in Jesus's day). Instead of reaching out to him, I draw back and just want to have a nice lunch with my friend and ignore him. God was having none of it. Jeff, of all people, the unsaved guy, offered to buy him lunch. The homeless man agreed. He stood in line with us, he sat with us, and he was telling stories and pouring his heart out because he was just so happy to have someone listen. I was getting uncomfortable because he was loud, smelled, and drawing attention. It was at this point that he started witnessing to Jeff. He was telling Jeff how God was good, how he was translating the Lord's prayer into Cheyenne, he sang this for us, and that Jesus poured out His blood for us and that if we let God take care of our troubles, then they would be taken care of.
That's called being put into my place, y'all. I didn't say hardly a word over lunch, I had nothing to say. I was sitting here thinking that I would be the one saying something...........and instead God used this homeless man to witness to Jeff. I was a spectator to God using everything he could to not only have this homeless man blessed and fed, but to have yet another seed planted into Jeff's heart, and a valuable lesson taught to me should I remember and learn. This is how God works, there is nothing done at the expense of another. Stinky Homeless Guy was fed, I was humbled, and Jeff was blessed. I'll be seeing that homeless man again in our eternal home, he's much better off than many people I know. I am much better off for having encountered him. God help me, my pride and my cynicism close me off to so much.
God has no need of faith, He simply is, and that is enough. I'm the one that needs faith, because I can't see Him, and I still don't trust Him to deliver me from my circumstances, or to stand with me through them, though in my head I believe I do. When push comes to shove, I instinctively rely on myself to pull myself through and so far with rare exception, I've been able to do so. This is not good. My strength and independence, an asset in today's world, in a hindrance in my relationship to God. The more I let Him carry me, the further I can go.
posted by Rae at
9:28 AM
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