Rejection of Jephthah by family                         verse 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 family                                verse 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 family                             verse 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 LORD              verse 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 Ammon            verse 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 replies                                        verse 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 lesson  verse 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 Jephthah  verse 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 LORD             verse 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 Ammonites                              verse 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 battle       verse 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 vow    verse 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 months                  verse 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.

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: 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.

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: 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.

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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 offering                                                           verse 31 

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DOCTRINES OF THE FAITH:

Scripture (66 inerrant books of the Bible)

God the Father (First person of the Godhead) 

LORD – Jehovah (Covenant keeping, Personal)   verse 9- 11,                                                                                           21, 23,                                                                                                     24, 27, 29, 30,                                                                                                32, 35, 36

LORD a witness                                                        verse 10

God – Elohim (Creator)                                           verse 21, 23,                                                                                                      24

LORD God of Israel                                                 verse 21, 23

LORD our God                                                         verse 24

LORD the JUDGE                                                   verse 27

LORD’S                                                                     verse 31

LORD delivered children of Ammon to Israel       verse 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 Jephthah              verse 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 Ammon                                                  verse 4- 6, 8,                                                                                                15, 22, 23,                                                                                                 27, 29, 31-                                                                                                       33,  36

King of the children of Ammon                               verse 12- 14,                                                                                                27, 28, 30,                                                                                                    36

Egypt                                                                                verse 13, 16

Moab                                                                                 verse 15, 17,                                                                                                   18

King of Edom                                                                  verse 17, 18

Sihon – king of the Ammonites                                verse 19- 22

Balak e son of Zippor – king of Moab                    verse 25

Enemies                                                                          verse 26 

Sin (Missing the mark set by God on man and angels) 

Harlot                                                                             verse 1

Vain men                                                                        verse 3

Hate                                                                                 verse 7

False god: Chemosh                                                    verse 24

Sinned                                                                           verse 27

Opened mouth                                                           verse 35, 36 

Salvation (Provided by Christ’s death on the cross for our sins) 

Witness                                                                       verse 10

Deliverance                                                                verse 21, 32

Vowed a vow                                                             verse 30

Burnt offering                                                           verse 31

Completed vow                                                         verse 39 

Israel (Old Testament people of God) 

Jephthah – the Gileadite                                          verse 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

Israel                                                                           verse 4 , 5, 13,                                                                                                                16- 40     

                        Elders of Gilead                                                        verse 5- 10

                                    Expelled Jephthah

                                    Hated Jephthah

                                    Wanted Jephthah to be head of army

                        Children of Israel                                                      verse 27, 33

                        Only daughter of Jephthah                                      verse 34- 39

                                    Understood father’s vow

                                    Asked for two months                                  

                        Custom in Israel: daughters of Israel                     verse 39, 40

                                    Four days a year 

Church (New Testament people of God)

Last Things (Future Events)

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DONATIONS:

Remember that all donations to Small Church Ministries are greatly appreciated. The treasurer will send a receipt, at the end of the year unless otherwise requested. Please be sure to make check out to “Small Church Ministries.” The address for the treasurer is P.O. Box 604, East Amherst, New York 14051. A second way to give to the ministry is through PayPal on the website: www.smallchurchministries.org  Also if you can support this ministry through your local church please use that method.  Thank you.

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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.

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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.)

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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.)

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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.)

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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.)

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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.)

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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!!)

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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.

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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.)

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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)

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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)

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Last Friday, Faithful America, a Christian organization, created a petition calling for the firing or resignation of Evangelist Franklin Graham from his roles as President and CEO of both humanitarian aid organization Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA).

The petition, which currently has over 20,000 signatures, criticized Graham in his defense of President Trump, such as tending to believe Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was stolen.

Additionally, Faithful America argued that Graham was unshaken by his “idolatry” of Trump following the “incitement of insurrection” at the U.S Capitol on Jan. 6, which left 5 people dead.

They continued their criticism by noting Graham’s reference of Judas’ betrayal of Jesus after he accused 10 House Republicans for voting in favor of Trump’s impeachment last week.

“On January 14, Graham literally compared Trump to Jesus, accusing Republicans who voted for impeachment of accepting ‘thirty pieces of silver’ to betray him,” the Faithful America petition asserted.

“As for the violence that left five dead, the court evangelical simply shrugged it off: ‘We knew he had flaws when he ran for office in 2016’,” they stated, referencing Graham’s comments in defense of Trump. “There is absolutely nothing Christian about that.”

“With blasphemous preachers like Graham blessing Trump’s Big Lie and pretending ‘antifa’ was behind the attack, it’s no wonder the failed coup featured crosses and ‘Jesus saves’ banners and flags. Graham and the religious right must be held accountable for their deadly dishonesty,” the Christian group asserted.

The petition also indicted the “once-vaunted” Samaritan’s Purse and the BGEA for forgetting “their original Christian missions” and abandoning the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Faithful America added that both organizations are complicit “in the spread of dishonest, discredited election conspiracy theories and the deadly, unpatriotic, white-nationalist terrorism at the U.S. Capitol incited by those lies.”

“Our faith in Jesus Christ demands that we do better than this. Your fellow Christians from across the country call on you to fire Franklin Graham, or to resign from the Board in individual protest,” they concluded.

Faithful America, in which their homepage describes as the “the largest online community of Christians putting faith into action for social justice”, had previously called for Samaritan’s Purse in another petition to remove Franklin Graham as its CEO for praying at the 2020 Republican National Convention.  (So sad from the left – me)

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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

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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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