Darryl's Blog
Still looking for Jephthah
This post is going somewhere. Stick with me for a minute.
Last week I spent some time in the strange story of Jephthah in the book of Judges (chapters 10-11). Jephthah is the son of a prostitute and a gang leader or freedom fighter, followed by a group of lawless men - "scoundrels" is how one version puts it. He eventually becomes a judge who delivers Israel from its enemies. He's infamous for seeming to offer his daughter as a human sacrifice.
How did such a guy get to be a leader? Not every day that a gang leader and a son of a prostitute rises to the top.
For the first time in Judges, they get a judge without God's involvement. God had written them off and told them he wouldn't give them another leader. Another leader wasn't the solution. They needed to repent.
Instead of listening to God, they go, "Okay, I guess it's up to us." They go looking for their own leader, instead of dealing with the problems that they know they have.
Jephthah got to be leader because people were looking for a quick fix instead of dealing with the deeper issues, which is still a temptation for us today. We are still looking for Jephthah's - charismatic leaders with track records - to bail us out, but a charismatic leader and a strategic plan is not the answer to every predicament. Sometimes the issues run deeper.
I said last Sunday:
There are a lot of times that we get into trouble, and we go looking for something to save us. We try to find our own solutions, often without looking at the underlying problems. In this case, Israel never really considered repentance as an option. They went for the quick fix, and they included God only as an afterthought.
I'm not opposed to good leadership and even strategic planning, but I wonder if sometimes we look for leaders and plans rather than dealing with the deeper issues like repentance. In other words, we're still looking for Jephthah to bail us out.
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"We try to find our own solutions, often without looking at the underlying problems"
I think that's a profound statement Darryl. You are saying it to the problably mostly Christian folks at your church, but that statement can be so greatly applied to our society in general.
So much of what we do is reactionary. The gov't reacts to the issues of the day. What's the hot topic, how do we address it in such a way that we can appease the public and make ourselves look good.
When you watch the news, when you read the newspapers that becomes so abundantly clear.
What are the hot button issues of today where we live? Youth crime, gangs, homelessness, mental health, drug addictions, alcoholism and on and on and those are just issues I'm thinking about from a policing point of view.
When you look at any one of those issues and how we as a society are dealing with them, you very quickly come to the conclusion of what you just said there, "We try to find our own solutions, often without looking at the underlying problems." That's exactly what we do in society. Quick fix. It hardly ever works and the problems get worse.
Ah, but we have the answer don't we? We who follow Christ, we know Who the Answer is. We have to go out and proclaim Him. Let them laugh, let them ridicule, but let us go, empowered by Him and tell people the Truth. The Truth can set people free and as it does the underlying problem, the problem of sin, is dealt with and the solution is clear.
Have a great week-end proclaiming Him, Darryl.