Judges 11
Rejection of Jephthah by familyverses 1-3
Now Jephthah – the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor
and he was the son of an harlot – and Gilead begat Jephthah
And Gilead’s wife bare him sons – and his wife’s sons grew up
and they thrust out Jephthah – and said to him
You shall not inherit in our father’s house
FOR you are the son of a strange woman
Then Jephthah fled from his brethren – and dwelt in the land of Tob
and there were gathered VAIN men to Jephthah
and went out with him
Need of Jephthah by familyverses 4-6
And it came to pass in process of time
that the children of Ammon made war against Israel
And it was so – that when the children of Ammon made war against Israel
the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the land of Tob
and they said to Jephthah
Come and be our captain
that we may fight with the children of Ammon
Jephthah’s question to familyverses 7-10
And Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead
Did not you hate me – and expel me out of my father’s house?
Why are you come to me now when you are in distress?
And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah
Therefore we turn again to you now – that you may go with us
and fight against the children of Ammon
and be our HEAD over all the inhabitants of Gilead
And Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead
IF you bring me home again to fight against the children of Ammon
and the LORD deliver them before me
shall I be your HEAD?
And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah
The LORD be witness between us
IF we do not so according to you words
Jephthah enters presence of the LORDverse 11
THEN Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead
and the people made him HEAD and CAPTAIN over them
and Jephthah uttered all his words
before the LORD in Mizpeh
Jephthah sends letter to king of Ammonverse 12
And Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon
saying
What have you to do with me
that you are come against me to fight in my land?
King of Ammon repliesverse 13
And the king of the children of Ammon
answered to the messengers of Jephthah
Because Israel took away my land
when they came up out of Egypt
from Arnon even to Jabbok and to Jordan
now therefore restore those lands
again peaceably>
Jephthah gives king of Ammon a history lessonverses 14-27
And Jephthah sent messengers again
to the king of the children of Ammon
and said to him
Thus says Jephthah
Israel took not away the land of Moab
nor the land of the children of Ammon
but when Israel came up from Egypt
and walked though the wilderness
to the Red sea
and came to Kadesh
Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom
saying
Let me – I pray you- pass through your land
BUT the king of Edom would not hearken thereto
And in like manner they sent to the king of Moab
BUT he would not consent – and Israel abode in Kadesh
THEN they went along through the wilderness
and compassed the land of Edom – and the land of Moab
and came by the east side of the land of Moab
and pitched on the other side of Arnon
BUT came not within the border of Moab
for Arnon was the border of Moab
And Israel sent messengers to Sihon – king of the Amorites
the king of Heshbon
And Israel said to him
Let us pass – we pray you
through your land into my place
BUT Sihon trusted not Israel to pass through his coast
BUT Sihon gathered all his people together
and pitched in Jahaz – and fought against Israel
And the LORD God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people
into the hand of Israel – and they smote them
SO Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites
the inhabitants of that country
and they possessed all the coasts of the Amorites
from Arnon even unto Jabbok
and from the wilderness even unto Jordan
SO now the LORD God of Israel has dispossessed the Amorites
from before his people Israel – and should you possess it?
Will not you possess that which Chemosh your god give you
to possess?
SO whomsoever the LORD our God shall drive out
from before us – them will we possess
And now are you anything better than
Balak – the son of Zippor – king of Moab?
did he ever strive against Israel
or did he ever fight against them
while Israel dwelt in Heshbon
and her towns
And in Aroer and her towns and in all the cities that be along
by the coasts of Arnon three hundred years?
WHEREFORE I have not sinned against you
BUT you do me wrong to war against me
the LORD the Judge be judge this day between the
children of Israel and the children of Ammon
King of Ammon pays no attention to Jephthahverse 28
Howbeit the king of the children of Ammon
hearkened not to the words of
Jephthah which he sent him
Jephthah makes rash vow to the LORDverses 29-31
Then the Spirit of the LORD came on Jephthah
and he passed over Gilead
and Manasseh – and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead
and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over to the
children of Ammon
And Jephthah vowed a vow to the LORD
and said
IF YOU shall without fail deliver
the children of Ammon into mine hands
THEN it shall be – that whatsoever comes forth of the
doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace
from the children of Ammon
shall surely be the LORD’S
and I will offer it up for a burnt offering
Jephthah defeats Ammonitesverses 32-33
So Jephtah passed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them
AND the LORD DELIVERED them to his hands
And he smote them from Aroer – even till you come to Minnith
even twenty cities – and to the plain of the vineyards
with a very great slaughter
Thus the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel
Jephthah’s only child meets him after battleverses 34-35
And Jephthah came to Mizpeh to his house
and behold
his daughter came out to meet him
with timbrels and with dances
and she was his only child
beside her he had neither son nor daughter
And it came to pass – when he saw her – that he rent his clothes
and said
Alas my daughter – you have brought me very low
and you are one of them that trouble me
FOR I have opened my mouth to the LORD
and I cannot go back
Jephthah’s daughter tells him to keep his vowverses 36-37
And she
said to him
My father – IF you have opened thy mouth to the LORD
do to me according to that which has proceeded out of thy mouth
FORASMUCH as the LORD has taken vengeance for you of
Your enemies – even the children of Ammon
And she said to her father
Let this thing be done for me – let me alone two months
that I may go up and down upon the mountains
and bewail my virginity – I and my fellows
Jephthah gives daughter two monthsverses 38-40
And he said
Go
And he sent her away for two months
and she went with her companions
and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains
And it came to pass at the end of two months
that she returned unto her father
who did with her according to his vow
which he had vowed
and she knew no man
And it was a custom in Israel
that the daughters of Israel went yearly
to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite
FOUR DAYS in a year
COMMENTARY:
DAILY SPIRITUAL BREAKFAST: Young Believers
: 2 And Gilead’s wife bare him sons: and his wife’s sons grew up, and they thrust out Jephthah, and said to him, You shall not inherit in our father’s house, for you are the son of a strange woman. (312 “strange” [’acher] means other, another, not their mother, second, different, additional, or subsequent to another point in time)
DEVOTION: Apparently Gilead led a wild life before he got married. He had a son by a prostitute whom his wife and her sons didn’t want around after the death of their father. They didn’t want to give him the inheritance of the firstborn. They were thinking more of the money than a relationship.
So off goes Jephthah into another country and he has a group of friends who might have come from a similar background gathered around hm. He was an outcast with no inheritance.
This group seemed to make money any way that could. They were fighting men who followed Jephthah.
Now the children of Ammon attack his former address and his half-brothers want to hire him to fight against this enemy. They know of his ability to fight and they knew that they were not able to lead like he was. He was their answer to defeating their enemy.
So, the brothers offer full restitution if he will lead them into battle. Isn’t it interesting that when we really need family, we will turn to them but when we don’t, we seem to be off by ourselves many times?
Satan doesn’t want families to get along. He wants them divided as much as possible. Anytime a group of people work together to do something that would please the LORD there is trouble.
Should the brothers have treated Jephthah better? YES!! Do we sometimes treat people we don’t think we need in our badly? Most of the time, the answer is YES to this question.
CHALLENGE: For a believer this should not be how we treat those around us, especially, family.
DAILY SPIRITUAL LUNCH: Transitional Believers
: 7 And Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, Did not you hate me, and expel me out of my father’s house? And why are you come to me now when you are in distress? (1644 “expel” [garash] means to drive out, to expatriate, to divorce, drive away, put away, or trouble)
DEVOTION: Families can be tough. Here we have an example of children of one mother treating the child of another woman with contempt. They wanted nothing to do with him. They divorced him from the family. He was put away from them. He had no inheritance with them when their father died.
However, when hard times came and they needed someone with his talent, they called to him for help. His reply was normal: “You didn’t want me before, why do you want me now.” They promised him that they would make him a leader and captain of them if he would fight the Ammonites for them. He was a great warrior.
They wanted him back to help them defeat the children of Ammon. We know that people are fickle. Here are relatives driving away an illegitimate brother and then when trouble comes they want him back. He wanted them to keep their promise to him. They said they would.
The Holy Spirit gave him the courage and ability to fight the Ammonites. They were defeated. However, before the battle he made a rash vow. He promised to offer as a burnt sacrifice whoever came out of the door of his tent on his return in victory. It shows how far the children of Israel were from the LORD. Human sacrifice was not what the LORD wanted from HIS people.
Jephthah made a vow and he kept his vow. This gives us a warning that we should never promise the LORD something when we are in trouble that when we get out of trouble we don’t want to keep. We need to be people of our word, but we should watch what we say. We are better off not promising God anything rather than promising HIM something we are not going to keep once the time of trouble is over.
Lessons can be learned from this historical account during the time of the judges. First, we need to watch how we treat our relatives. As followers of the LORD we should leave the doors open to our relatives. We have the responsibility to witness to our relatives. Jephthah was willing to return to help his relatives. Are our relatives willing to listen to the message of Christ when we talk with them? Too often we appear to be hateful to those who are outside of Christ. That is not the case. We hate the sin but not the sinner. Jephthah had a group of brothers who only thought about the present inheritance, rather than, their future safety. Secondly, we need to watch what we promise the LORD during hard times. If we are not prepared to keep our vow, we should never give one. Have you ever promised the LORD something during hard times that you are presently not keeping? If so, confess it and ask the LORD to forgive you for your rash statements. In the future, don’t say things that you are not willing to do once the LORD delivers you from your circumstances.
The Old Testament is written to give us instructions regarding our relationships with the LORD and others. Keep your relationship pure before the LORD and with the LORD. Fellowship with the LORD is the most important fellowship. Fellowship with fellow believers is next. A good relationship with family is important. Watch your statement to the LORD!!!!
CHALLENGE: In blended families we need to be sure that our actions are pleasing to the LORD. Our mouth should be one that encourages each member of the family.
: 10 And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, The LORD be witness between us, if we do not so according to your words. (8085 “witness” [shama] means to hear, listen, to perceive sound or have the power to perceive sound through the auditory sense, to grant request, give heed or agree)
DEVOTION: Is it hard to trust someone or a group that has treated you wrong in the past? Have you ever had someone hurt you and then a few years later come to you and ask for your help? Has family hurt you in the past?
This is what Jephthah had to deal with regarding his family. They sent him away and now they wanted him back because they needed him more than they needed him.
His first question to them was “Will you keep your word to me now?” He had his doubts. He knew their history with him. Once they didn’t need him any more, they would think about getting rid of him.
However, his brothers used the LORD as their witness that they were going to keep their word to him. It was the best witness they could use. He trusted this witness. He knew that the LORD would deal with them if they broke their word to HIM.
So he was guaranteed a position in the tribe with a victory over the Ammonites He made a promise to God if he won which was not a good promise. He kept his word as well.
He was a man who was kicked out of his home and had to live with rebellious people because his family didn’t want anything to do with him. Now they were willing to use him to fight their battle. He won the battle and had a life with his family again.
We need to realize that our family is made up of human beings that tend to be selfish and lazy. This causes family conflict. However, we find at times that once there is a crisis families do come together and work together especially those that want to honor the LORD.
DAILY SPIRITUAL SUPPER: Mature Believers
: 27 Wherefore I have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong to war against me: the LORD the Judge be judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon. (7462 “wrong” [ra‘ah] means evil, wickedness, depravity, misfortune, disaster, morally objectionable behavior, wickedness, or perverseness)
DEVOTION: The argument has been made by Jephthah to the children of Amon. He stated that in the past the children of Israel tried to pass through the land peaceably and the children of Amon would not allow them to pass through without a fight. The children of Israel won the fight and took over the land.
Now the children of Amon wanted the land back and were willing to fight again for it. This was not what should have happened but they thought they were strong enough to defeat the children of Israel.
Now Jephthah gathered an army form the tribes of Gad and Manasseh to go against the children of Amon. He defeated them completely. He knew that he was right because the LORD had given a victory in the past. He was not wronging them but they were wronging him.
Today we find that we are fighting old battles that the LORD had given us victory over in the past. We have battles over theology that should have been settled long ago but new men and women come forward with the thoughts that the past battle was not enough and a new battle had to be fought.
One of the battles that we have today is a battle over the Bible. Which translation is right and which is wrong The problem is that if we translate a verse differently here and there than we can find room for an argument. This is wrong but it is happening all the time today.
The standards the LORD has set in the Word of God are not subject to change because some people think that some sins should be allowed which were not allowed before. The Bible is our final standard and trying to reinterpret it to fit our current trends in the church is not the answer.
We need to keep the standard high for all believers. What was sin in the past is still sin in the present. We have to change to fit what the Bible says and not try to reinterpret what we think it should say.
CHALLENGE: We have to accept sin as sin and not change the standard to fit our current society. The war is real even if we have had victory in the past.
: 39 And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she retuned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew no man. And it was a custom in Israel. (2706 “custom” [choq] means statute, ordinance, decree, prescribed task, enactment, set time or regulation.)
DEVOTION: Here we have a man making a vow to the LORD. He wanted to win the battle. He was not thinking straight regarding his vow or promise to the LORD. One of the problems with the vow was that he was under the influence of the Holy Spirit at the time, so he would not have made a vow that would displease the LORD.
Human sacrifice was something that would displease the LORD. The LORD was not like the other gods of the lands around the children of Israel who offered human sacrifices to their gods. He was under the influence of these false gods for many years but it doesn’t seem like he would offer and individual in sacrifice for a victory.
So we have a dilemma. Would he under the influence of the Holy Spirit contradict the command of the LORD? Would he be saying that he would dedicate whoever came out of his tent to service to the LORD or as some have suggested whoever came out would be something else.
In the case of his only daughter, she would be a virgin for the rest of her life and serve the LORD. This would be tragic in two ways.
First every woman in Israel wanted to give birth to the Messiah and this would exclude her from being able to have HIM.
Second, she was an only child and would not give her father grandchildren which would have continued his seed to another generation. Remember that children were a blessing of the LORD in those days. Today many see children as a burden the LORD has given them.
The biggest lesson we can learn from this vow is that we should not say to the LORD we will do something that later we realize is not something that would please HIM. Also, if we do promise God, we will do something we should be people that keep our word to the LORD and to others as well. We should be known for keeping our promises even to our children.
CHALLENGE: Be careful what you promise the LORD. Only make statement of promise that would please the LORD.
DISCIPLINES OF THE FAITH:
BODY
Chastity (Purity in living)
Fasting (Time alone with LORD without eating or drinking)
Sacrifice (Giving up something we want to serve the LORD)
Submission (Willing to listen to others and LORD)
Solitude (Going to a quiet place without anyone)
SOUL
Fellowship (Gathering together around the Word of God)
Frugality (wise use of resources)
Journalizing (Writing down what you have learned from the LORD)
Study and Meditation (Thinking through your study in the Word)
Secrecy (Doing your good deeds without others knowing but God)
SPIRIT
Celebration (Gathering around a special occasion to worship LORD)
Confession (Tell the LORD we are sorry for our sins on a daily basis)
Prayer (Conversation with God on a personal level)
Silence (Letting the LORD deal with some problems and needs)
Worship (Time to praise the LORD alone or in a group)
Burnt offeringverse 31
DOCTRINES OF THE FAITH:
Scripture (66 inerrant books of the Bible)
God the Father (First person of the Godhead)
LORD – Jehovah (Covenant keeping, Personal)verses 9-11, 21, 23, 24, 27, 29, 30, 32, 35, 36
LORD a witnessverse 10
God – Elohim (Creator)verses 21, 23, 24
LORD God of Israelverses 21, 23
LORD our Godverse 24
LORD the JUDGEverse 27
LORD’Sverse 31
LORD delivered children of Ammon to Israelverse 32
God the Son (Second person of the Godhead – God/man, Messiah)
God the Holy Spirit (Third person of the Godhead – our comforter)
Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthahverse 29
Trinity (Three persons of the Godhead who are co-equal = ONE God)
Angels (Created before the foundation of the world – Good and Evil)
Man (Created on the sixth twenty-four hour period of creation)
Children of Ammonverses 4-6, 8, 15, 22, 23, 27, 29, 31-33, 36
King of the children of Ammonverses 12-14, 27, 28, 30, 36
Egyptverses 13, 16
Moabverses 15, 17, 18
King of Edomverses 17, 18
Sihon – king of the Ammonitesverses 19-22
Balak e son of Zippor – king of Moabverse 25
Enemiesverse 26
Sin (Missing the mark set by God on man and angels)
Harlotverse 1
Vain menverse 3
Hateverse 7
False god: Chemoshverse 24
Sinnedverse 27
Opened mouthverses 35, 36
Salvation (Provided by Christ’s death on the cross for our sins)
Witnessverse 10
Deliveranceverses 21, 32
Vowed a vowverse 30
Burnt offeringverse 31
Completed vowverse 39
Israel (Old Testament people of God)
Jephthah – the Gileaditeverses 1-40
mighty man of valour
son of harlot
not inherit
son of a strange woman
land of Tob
captain of army
hated
expelled from father’s house
talked to the LORD in Mizpeh
foolish vow
only child: daughter
Israelverses 4, 5, 13, 16-40
Elders of Gileadverses 5-10
Expelled Jephthah
Hated Jephthah
Wanted Jephthah to be head of army
Children of Israelverses 27, 33
Only daughter of Jephthahverses 34-39
Understood father’s vow
Asked for two months
Custom in Israel: daughters of Israelverses 39, 40
Four days a year
Church (New Testament people of God)
Last Things (Future Events)
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QUOTES regarding passage
We sin against Christ and we misrepresent the Gospel when we suggest to sinners that what God demands of them is moral improvement in accordance with the Law. Moralism makes sense to sinners, for it is but an expansion of what we have been taught from our earliest days. But moralism is not the Gospel, and it will not save. The only gospel that saves is the Gospel of Christ. As Paul reminded the Galatians, “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.” [Gal. 4:4-5]
We are justified by faith alone, saved by grace alone, and redeemed from our sin by Christ alone. Moralism produces sinners who are (potentially) better behaved. The Gospel of Christ transforms sinners into the adopted sons and daughters of God.
Therefore, many scholars conclude that when Jephthah did to her as he had vowed (Jud. 11:39), he commuted his daughter’s fate from being a burnt sacrifice to being a lifelong virgin in service at Israel’s central sanctuary. (Lindsey, F. D. (1985). Judges. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 402). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)
11:35 Alas. Here is indicated the pain felt by her father in having to take the life of his only daughter to satisfy his pious but unwise pledge, .( MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006). The MacArthur study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Jdg 11:35). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers.)
40 The yearly commemoration of this noble girl makes sense only if she died at the hands of her father. The view that she served at the sanctuary (Exod 38:8) in lifelong ministry would not demand this kind of lamenting. And, sad to say, not all the women “at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting” remained virgins either (1 Sam 2:22).
The death of this innocent girl came because of a rash vow. Jephthah knew that it was a sin to break a vow (Num 30:2), but in this case it was a greater sin to fulfill it. Jephthah was treating his daughter as a “person devoted to destruction” (Lev 27:29). This punishment was a strong curse reserved for the enemies of God (cf. Josh 6:17), but Jephthah’s daughter had done nothing to deserve such a fate. According to Proverbs 26:2, “an undeserved curse does not come to rest.” Perhaps an analogy may be drawn from the oath Saul took and Jonathan inadvertently violated. Saul concluded that his son must die, but the people rescued the popular prince (1 Sam 14:28, 43–45). Likewise, though Jephthah sincerely believed God required him to go through with his promise, he was badly mistaken. (Wolf, H. (1992). Judges. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel (Vol. 3, pp. 456–457). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.)
Whichever position is taken, the attitude of Jephthah’s daughter is worth noting. Whether by death or by perpetual sanctuary service, she was to bear no children. This was a cause of great sorrow in ancient Israel. Yet she submitted herself to her father’s vow: You have given your word to the Lord. Do to me just as you promised. An Israelite custom, though probably somewhat localized, developed from the incident. Each year the young women of Israel went out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite. (Lindsey, F. D. (1985). Judges. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 402). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)
Since he was met by his daughter, Jephthah gave her to the Lord to serve Him at the tabernacle (Ex. 38:8; 1 Sam. 2:22). She remained a virgin, which meant that she would not know the joys of motherhood and perpetuate her father’s inheritance in Israel. This would be reason enough for her and her friends to spend two months grieving, for every daughter wanted a family and every father wanted grandchildren to maintain the family inheritance.
Nowhere in the text are we told that Jephthah actually killed his daughter, nor do we find anybody bewailing the girl’s death. The emphasis in Judges 11:37–40 is the fact that she remained a virgin. It’s difficult to believe that “the daughters of Israel” would establish a custom to celebrate (not “lament” as in KJV) the awful sacrifice of a human being, but we can well understand that they would commemorate the devotion and obedience of Jephthah’s daughter in helping her father fulfill his vow. She deserves to stand with Isaac as a faithful child, who was willing to obey both father and God, no matter what the cost. (Wiersbe, W. W. (1994). Be available (p. 100). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)
FROM MY READING:
(Remember the only author that I totally agree with is the HOLY SPIRIT in the inerrant WORD OF GOD called THE BIBLE! All other I try to gleam what I can to help me grow in the LORD!!)
Moralism is Not the Gospel (But Many Christians Think it Is
by Albert Mohler
Writing about his own childhood in rural Georgia, the novelist Ferrol Sams described the deeply-ingrained tradition of being “raised right.” As he explained, the child who is “raised right” pleases his parents and other adults by adhering to moral conventions and social etiquette. A young person who is “raised right” emerges as an adult who obeys the laws, respects his neighbors, gives at least lip service to religious expectations, and stays away from scandal. The point is clear — this is what parents expect, the culture affirms, and many churches celebrate. But our communities are filled with people who have been “raised right” but are headed for hell.
The seduction of moralism is the essence of its power. We are so easily seduced into believing that we actually can gain all the approval we need by our behavior. Of course, in order to participate in this seduction, we must negotiate a moral code that defines acceptable behavior with innumerable loopholes. Most moralists would not claim to be without sin, but merely beyond scandal. That is considered sufficient.
GOD’S OMNISCIENCE
Great is our LORD, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.
Psalm 147:5
Another of God’s great attributes is His omniscience. God knows all things, and His knowledge is always absolute knowledge. It is perfect knowledge, a complete knowledge of everything.
There are very many statements of this, of course, in the Scriptures. Take, for instance, Psalm 147:5: “His understanding is infinite.” Then in Proverbs 15:3 we read, “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.”
The Bible tells us quite a lot in detail about this knowledge, this omniscience of God. For instance, it tells us about God’s knowledge of nature: “He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names” (Psalm 147:4). But let me give you another example. Do you remember those tender words of our Lord in which He tells us that not a single sparrow falls to the ground without our Father’s knowing it (Matthew 10:29)? Everything in the realm of nature is known by God. It is quite inconceivable to us, but the Bible asserts this is true of God. Look up into the heavens on a starry night and see all that multiplicity of stars. He knows them, every one, and He has a name for everyone. There is nothing in creation but that God knows it in that intimate and personal sense.
But we are obviously more interested in God’s knowledge of us and of our human experience. Psalm 139 is very eloquent here. The psalmist says, “Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off” (verse 2). My very thought! He knows all about me. “Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways” (verse 3). Indeed, he goes further in verse 4 and says, “For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.” What an exact and detailed knowledge God has of us!
A Thought to Ponder: God knows all things, and His knowledge is always absolute knowledge. (From God the Father, God the Son, p. 63. By Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones.)
GOD’S OMNIPOTENCE
…him who works all things after the counsel of his own will. Ephesians 1:11
Another of God’s attributes is His omnipotence. God is all-powerful. The omnipotence of God is that by which He brings to pass everything He wills. The omnipotence is the will of God being put into operation. How often we read in the Bible about the will of God. For example, Paul writes of “him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.” What is the will of God? It is the final ground of everything, of all existence. It is the final explanation of everything that has ever happened or everything that will happen. And the Bible teaches that the will of God is sovereign; in other words, it is not determined by anything but by God Himself. It is the expression of His Lordship, His absolute being.
But remember, His will is never arbitrary. It is never exercised except in perfect harmony with all the other attributes of God’s great and glorious being. It is the same God who is glorious and wonderful. It is the same God who is love and compassion and mercy. We must not divide these things, though we distinguish them for the purposes of thought and understanding.
Furthermore, you will find that the will of God expresses itself in two main ways. He declares certain things that He Himself is going to do; that is called the decretive will of God. He also prescribes certain things for us to do; that is the prescriptive will of God. The terms are not of great importance, but constantly in the Bible you see these two aspects of God’s will. God tells us what He Himself is going to do, and He gives commands to us about what we are to do.
A Thought to Ponder
The omnipotence of God is that by which He brings to pass everything He wills. (From God the Father, God the Son, pp. 66-67 by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones)
Chuck Colson liked to say that the Kingdom of God will never arrive on Air Force One. It’s still true. Any reprieve in the last few years in the areas of religious liberty and the sanctity of life is coming to an end, and recent events should make the truth of Chuck’s statement obvious. Whether politics are upstream or downstream from culture (and the right answer is that it’s really both), it is not the vehicle for lasting cultural change.
In fact, the history of Christianity shows that lasting cultural change rarely comes about in ways we are expecting. Christian influence requires that Christians cultivate virtue in both our private and public lives. One virtue that once changed the world is patience.
In his book, The Patient Ferment of the Early Church, the late Mennonite historian Alan Kreider explained Christianity’s extraordinary rise from a beleaguered sect to the movement that transformed the Roman Empire.
As one reviewer of Kreider’s book put it, “Christianity probably shouldn’t exist.” Not only did its Roman contemporaries hate the Church, but Christians didn’t make it easy to join up. With a stringent moral code and an extended period of catechesis prior to baptism, which only happened one a year around Easter, the Early Church wasn’t very “seeker friendly.”
Yet, it grew.
Why? Surprisingly, it wasn’t because of an emphasis on evangelism, public preaching, or other missionary activities. The Church Fathers seldom wrote about those subjects, perhaps because they didn’t need to. But they did emphasize patience, which Kreider defined as “not controlling events, not anxious or in a hurry, and never using force to achieve [their] ends.”
If this sounds like a boring and timid church-growth strategy, it wasn’t.
In the ancient world, patience was a trait associated with subordinates, such as slaves and victims. People at the bottom of the social hierarchy were expected to exercise patience, not those at the top. By emphasizing patience, the Church Fathers mobilized early Christians to be profoundly counter-cultural, which, to borrow a line from the Book of Acts, turned the world upside-down.
Patience, enacted in habits such as teaching and worship, produced the “ferment” of Kreider’s title. People lived lives that were not only in marked contrast to the lives of their neighbors but were better than those practiced in the larger society. Christians ran towards the plague when others ran away from it. They didn’t kill their children, and even adopted children left to die. They treated their spouses and children with love and respect while others treated their own families as little more than household slaves.
At the Colson Center’s Truth. Love. Together virtual event last year, Andy Crouch marvelously described the patient ferment of the Early Church. As he put it, people took notice and asked Christians “to give an account for the hope that was within them.” As a result, the Church grew from being a persecuted sect numbering in the thousands at the end of the first century to half the empire by the start of the fourth. The “patient ferment” of the Early Church transformed the world.
As Crouch put it, instead of “fermentation,” we often prefer “carbonation,” hoping a quick shot of power or a new clever church-growth method will do the trick. There might be some fizz, but the effects are short-lived. The Early Church understood that long-lasting change requires long-lasting effort. It requires understanding that the fruit of our labors may not be seen until after we are gone. It requires that we live for faithfulness, not success.
Now none of this means that Christians should abandon the public square or the political process. It certainly doesn’t exempt us from speaking the truth at every level, and it includes speaking, when necessary, those very hard truths our culture won’t tolerate right now.
A prime example of cultural fermentation was British Parliamentarian William Wilberforce. Wilberforce and his committed band of Christian co-laborers worked for decades to abolish the slave trade and restore virtue in the British Empire. Yet, neither he nor his children lived to see the full fruit of their labors. Why should we expect things to be different? Why should we be exempt from the need for patience?
We shouldn’t. And to think otherwise is to confuse carbonation for fermentation and Air Force One for the Second Coming. (BreakPoint)
Genesis 42
Joseph’s brothers go to Egypt.
INSIGHT
This puzzling chapter becomes more enlightening when we suggest that Joseph was testing his brothers to discover if they would treat Benjamin differently than they had treated him. The issue was whether or not they could be trusted to bring Joseph’s beloved brother to him without harm. While Joseph’s heart cried out for reconciliation with his family, he was being cautious for Benjamin’s sake. Joseph was wise as a serpent but harmless as a dove (Matthew 10:16).
We should be the same.(QuietWalk)
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TEMPORARY CONVERSION
But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that…is offended.
Matthew 13:20-21
Our Lord, because of the danger of a “temporary something” happening, was constantly dealing with this and seemed to be repelling people. Indeed, they charged Him with making discipleship impossible. Take that great sixth chapter of John where the people were running after Him and hanging onto His words because of the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, and our Lord seemed to be trying deliberately to repel them.
Take also the parable in Matthew 13—the Parable of the Sower—and our Lord’s own exposition of it. Notice particularly verses 20-21: “But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that hears the word, and anon with joy receives it; yet hath he not root in himself, but endures for a while: for when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, by and by he is offended.” But notice what our Lord says about this same man: he “anon with joy receives it [the Word].” That is what I mean by temporary conversion. He seems to have received the Word, he is full of joy, but he has no root in him, and that is why he ends up with nothing at all. Now that is our Lord’s own teaching; there is the possibility of this very joyful “conversion,” and yet there is nothing there in a vital, living sense, and it proves temporary.
Paul speaks in 1 Timothy 1:19-20 of “holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck.” Now that is very serious teaching. He says the same thing in 2 Timothy 2. There is such a thing as temporary conversion, temporary believers, but they are not true believers. That is why it is so vital that we should know the biblical teaching as to what conversion really is.
A THOUGHT TO PONDER
There is the possibility of a joyful conversion proving to be temporary.
(From God the Holy Spirit, pp. 119-120, by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
The Prayer of Moses
“O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.” (Psalm 90:14)
This majestic yet reflective psalm is the oldest of all psalms. The superscript of the psalm identifies it as “a prayer of Moses, the man of God.” While we are not directly told to do so, it is helpful to consider this psalm as the dying song of this man of God as he reflected back on his long life, including the 40 years in Egypt, the 40 years in Midian, and most importantly the recent 40 years of wilderness wanderings. As we survey this psalm, think of Moses pondering his life’s work shortly before he died.
The first stanza of the psalm (vv. 1-2) contrasts the unchanging eternity of the Lord, “even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God” (v. 2), with the perpetual changes of the recent wilderness wandering in which the people had no “dwelling place” (v. 1). The next stanza (vv. 3-6) notes the frailty of man and the death of a whole generation. But God is the ever-living One; His years do not fail (v. 4). God is also a holy God, justly exercising righteous wrath. The open iniquities and secret sins of all mankind, particularly the people of God, merit His judgment (vv. 7-8).
In verses 9-12 we see the transient, carnal experiences of man contrasted with the permanent, spiritual nature of God. We need to recognize the intensity of His anger (v. 11) and govern our lives accordingly. “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (v. 12).
Perhaps the climax of this psalm is reflected in verses 13-15, where we see the beauty of the Lord our God described as the crowning adornment of human character. The only assurance of the permanent establishment of the work of a man is in its identity with the work of God. Our request of God (The Institute for Creation Research)
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