Judges 10:6-10
Although confession here is a start--finally God is talking back!! that‘s what confession does, because it’s honest--it’s not enough. Acknowledging your faults is ONLY the first step. It’s not enough to invite the rescue of God.
Judges 10:16
They FINALLY destroyed their foreign gods. And worshiped ONLY the Lord. God was THEN grieved by their misery.
NOW--you see this picture of Israel, destroyed and despondent...ready to come back to God with honest hearts FINALLY, and ready to enjoy the favor of the God of Israel again. But when you ask the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for help...you better be ready to receive the help He provides…
ENTER JEPHTHAH.
Good ol’ Jeph was an outcast. He was born from a prostitute, because Israel was crazy and doing whatever they wanted...and as he grew up, his half-brothers from legitimate mothers, threw him out on the street so that he wouldn’t try to steal their inheritance. The town, the people of Israel must have supported this, because no one took him in, and he ended up living in the land of Tob….
Judges 11:3
What you think disqualifies you--might just be the very thing God uses.
Judges 11:4-12
When God helps, he doesn’t always just snap his fingers and make the army disappear. He doesn’t make the war go away here…HE JUST SENDS HELP. And his help is so multi-faceted. He’s not only helping the Israelites here, but he’s also bringing home and lost son of Israel!! He’s restoring a family!
This is where I think Jeph made his first mistake as King.
See, remember, Jeph is an outcast. He’s probably built that into his identity somehow...son of a prostitute, owed nothing, given nothing in life...everything he has he’s earned with his own two hands..and now, now he has a chance to be vindicated! A chance to show them ALL.
A chance to make his brothers come running back and begging for mercy….asking HIM for handouts...all his dreams coming true!
The thing is, God doesn’t anoint us for our own sakes…our gifts do not exist in a bubble.
WHY did he want the victory?
We have to examine our own motives. Our hearts are endlessly wicked, the Bible says--we can make excuses for all kinds of behavior...but if we have selfish motives, at some point, it’s possible to want something TOO badly..
Judges 11:29-33
BUT EVEN WITH THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD ON HIM….I think Jeph doubted. I think he had failed so many times and for so long he saw himself as a failure, that he couldn’t fully bring himself to trust the Lord either…
He couldn’t see himself as a child of God, because he never had.
He couldn’t see himself as fully VICTORIOUS, because he had built his identity in failure.
God never asks us to be strong IN OUR OWN STRENGTH.
Ephesians 6:10, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.”
HOW did he get his victory?
He didn’t say God give US the victory to help your people. His heart wasn’t for the people. It was on vindication for HIMSELF.