A lot of folks judge the vow Yiftach made as a rash and off-the-cuff decision that reflected the mind of an ignorant thug.
However, when we examine how Yiftach operated, we see that’s far from the case.
He may have been a gangster but he proved to be a man of both wisdom and reason.
When he was approached by the elders of Gilead, the very people who had kicked him out of his hometown, he didn’t let bitterness get the better of him.
And when he approached the king of Ammon, he didn’t rush into battle like an undisciplined child.
Jephthah showed he had just as much brains as he did brawn,
Before going to war, Jephthah attempted negotiation first.
And only when that didn’t work, did he take up arms to fight.
My point is when we examine Jephthah’s behavior we encounter a man who was NOT prone to irrational behavior.
And I would say this attribute also applies to the vow he made.
Making that vow turned out to be a rash decision but it was NOT the result of rash impulses.
It was a decision Jephthah made based on what he thought was the best thing to do given the circumstances.
And let’s be honest, haven’t we all at one time or another made promises that later proved difficult if not impossible to keep?
Some people will argue it just ain’t right that the book of Hebrews casts Jephthah in a positive light.
Well, I said this before, but did you notice the great King David is also in that same list of names?
He’s in the line of Messiah and was called “a man after God’s own heart”.
God also promised David he would be seated on the throne of the Kingdom of Israel FOREVER!
Yet he was also an adulterer and a murderer.
King David even took the holy Ark of the Covenant and had it placed inside his tent selfishly thinking it would enable him to amass even more riches and power
So what’s the takeaway here?
The takeaway can be found in the following verse:
“…I will have mercy on whom
I will have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom
I will have compassion.”
-Exodus 33:19
These verses are also quite relevant.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
-Isaiah 55:8-9
I think we tend to forget that.
Yes, Yiftach was a man with many flaws who was far from perfect.
He had mixed the heathen practices of the Canaanites with the pure instructions of the Torah and as a result came to all sorts of wild and wacky conclusions about what was right and what was wrong.
But so did a lot of other Hebrews in his time.
And I’ve got news for you.
So do we today.
But here’s what’s awesome.
God still used Jephthah to achieve His divine purposes in spite of his flaws.
Sure, there were many things Jephthah did that were NOT good.
There were many times when his behavior was outside of the Lord’s Will for him.
BUT there were also times when his behavior was good and did conform to God’s Will for his life.
That’s just how the life of a believer rolls man.
We do our best to obey but sometimes we’re gonna fail.
When that happens, it doesn’t mean God has discarded us.
That’s why we have a Savior and the Holy Spirit.
Because it isn’t our flesh that perfects us, it’s our FAITH.
Woah, I like the ring of that.
So I’ll make that our takeaway for today.
Our redemption isn’t based on OUR perfection.
It’s based on our FAITH in His GRACE.
Done!
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