“Then the spirit of Adonai came upon Yiftach; and he passed through Gil‘ad and M’nasheh, on through Mitzpeh of Gil‘ad, and from there over to the people of ‘Amon.”-Judges 11:29
The Lord is about to prepare Yiftach for battle.
And how does He do it?
Does He put him through a rigorous training regimen?
Does He provide him with the latest cutting edge military weaponry?
Does He have him repeat mind-numbing, feel-goody, warm fuzzy New Agey Law of Attraction meditations?
Nope, the Lord doesn’t provide or have Yiftach do any of that.
The Lord provided Yiftach with ONE THING and one thing only.
And we’re told what it is in verse 29…
The SPIRIT of the Lord came upon Yiftach.
And once that happened, oh boy, was Yiftach transformed beyond belief.
He went from being a mere man to an unstoppable, high-velocity Holy Spirit-filled cannonball.
As I’ve explained before, there are two basic Hebrew words used to refer to the workings of the Holy Spirit.
They are LABESH and HAYYAH.
These words are similar but also very different.
I know you’re scratching your head right now, so let me explain.
LABESH means to clothe a person… literally, like putting a coat or dress on someone.
When the Lord clothed a person in His Holy Spirit, that person was given just enough supernatural power or wisdom to perform the task at hand…and this could include miracles.
However, here in verse 29 of Judges chapter 11, the word HAYYAH is used.
This word is different than LABESH.
HAYYAH means that God’s Spirit so overtakes a man that it’s almost as if his will is replaced by the Lord’s Will.
It wasn’t a complete takeover, of course, like demon possession or something.
But when a human being was HAYYAH’d by the Lord, that person became exceptionally obedient to God’s commands.
For Jephthah, this also represented a complete change of his status.
Kind of like what happens to believers in our day and age when we’re born again.
No longer was Yiftach just your average, middle-of-the-road general.
He was now a divinely appointed SHOPHET for the Lord…and was about to kick some serious buttocks.
I’m not finding your word HAYYAH in Judges 11:29 here. Can you show me the Hebrew word you are looking at in this verse?
Hi Deby,
Thanks for pointing that out.
The Hebrew in Judges 11:29 uses the phrase “vattehi al Yiftach ruach Adonai”, where the verb comes from hayah, which simply means “to be” or “to come to pass.” So the text is saying the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah.
My earlier explanation overstated the meaning of that specific word. The idea of the Spirit strongly empowering someone is a broader pattern seen throughout Judges, not something carried by the word hayah itself.
A better comparison would be with passages like Judges 6:34, where a different word (labash, “to clothe”) is used.
Appreciate you catching that.