Apart from Jesus, God has never had any perfect people to work with here on earth. His plans have mostly been accomplished through flawed individuals and even sinful nations. The main characters in today’s reading are examples of what God had to work with.

Jephthah’s Story

Jephthah’s dad, Gilead, was married, but he consorted with a prostitute and fathered Jephthah. He grew up in his father’s household, but was looked down upon by his half brothers and they drove him away so he couldn’t share in their dad’s estate. He went north to Tob.

Jephthah was a natural leader who attracted people on the fringe of society. His friends were “a gang of scoundrels.” But when Jephthah’s brothers in Gilead needed help fighting some Ammonites, they asked him to come back home

“Jephthah said to them, ‘Didn’t you hate me and drive me from my father’s house? Why do you come to me now, when you’re in trouble?’” Judges 11:7

His brothers offered to make him the head of the family if he would come back and rescue them. Ammon was trying to resurrect a three-hundred-year-old land dispute with Israel, but Jepthah sent a message demonstrating that Israel in fact owned the land they occupied.

“The king of Ammon, however, paid no attention to the message Jephthah sent him.” Judges 11:28

So Jephthah prepared for war.

Jephthah’s vow

The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah as he went war, and that was all he needed to win the victory over Ammon. However, Jephthah complicated things by making a vow the God didn’t require. He vowed to make a burnt sacrifice of whatever came out of the door of his house when he returned from battle.

The Lord gave the Ammonites into Jephthah’s hands and he devastated twenty towns in the region. The Ammonites were no longer a problem for Israel.

When Jephthah went home the first person to greet him was his only daughter.

“When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, ‘Oh no, my daughter! You have brought me down and I am devastated. I have made a vow to the Lord that I cannot break.’” Judges 11:35.

Jephthah’s daughter asked for a two-month reprieve while she and her friends mourned that she would never be married.

After the two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin.” Judges 11:39

 What Became of Jephthah’s Daughter?

Judges 11:39 doesn’t say what Jephthah actually did with his daughter. There is no mention of her becoming a burnt sacrifice, which would have been a great offense to God. God detested human sacrifice.

The passage mentions that the daughter didn’t mourn for her loss of life, but her opportunity to be married. Some scholars believe that instead of killing his daughter, Jephthah kept her in seclusion, set apart for God, for the rest of her life. She remained a virgin all her life.

It’s hard to imagine that the Israelite women would have commemorated Jephthah’s daughter each year if she had become a burnt sacrifice. God detested the sacrifice of human beings.

Whatever the actual outcome of Jephthah’s vow, it teaches us that we should not make rash promises to God.

Ephraim is Offended Again

 The men of Ephraim were a hotheaded bunch. Just as they had done with Gideon, they argued with Jephthah about not being called in at the start of the battle with Ammon.

“They said to Jephthah, ’Why did you go to fight the Ammonites without calling us to go with you? We’re going to burn down your house over your head.’” Judges 12:1

This sparked a civil war with Ephraim invading the east side of the Jordan River to fight the men of Gilead. They lost the battle and 42,000 Ephraimites died.

Jephthah led Israel for six years and then he died and was buried in Gilead.

Three More Judges

 Ibzan from Bethlehem succeeded Jephthah as Israel’s leader for seven years. He expanded his influence by marrying his children to the children of other Israelite clans.

After Ibzan, came Elon the Zebulunite who led Israel for ten years.

Abdon from Ephraim followed Elon and was Israel’s judge for eight years.

Finally Samson was born. He was Israel’s twelfth and final judge.

The Birth of Samson

 Israel slipped back into idolatry and for forty years God let them suffer under the hands of the Philistines. During that time, God met with a childless couple in the small tribe of Dan and promised them a son.

Manoah and his wife were not expecting this. I think God enjoyed meeting with this couple. He returned more than once to make sure they understood what he said to them.

The angel of the Lord first met with Manoah’s wife and told her she was going to have a child. He told her not to touch anything fermented or unclean while she was pregnant. When he was born her son was to be a Nazarite all of his life.

When his wife told Manoah the news, he didn’t question his wife’s story. He simply prayed for more information about how to raise the child.

“God heard Manoah, and the angel of the Lord came again to the woman while she was out in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her. The woman hurried to tell her husband, ‘He’s here! The man who appeared to me the other day!” Judges 13:9-10

The angel of the Lord confirmed the message he had already given Manoah’s wife. When the couple offered to give him a meal, he told them to bring a burnt sacrifice and offer it to the Lord instead.

An Encounter with God

Manoah’s first hint that he was talking with God may have come when he asked for the angel’s name and he replied, “Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding.” Judges 13:18

Manoah placed his offering of a young goat on a rock in front of the Lord. “And the Lord did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched: As flame blazed up from the altar toward heaven, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame.” Judges 13:19-20

Manoah and his wife knew they had seen God. Manoah thought they would die, but his practical wife pointed out that if they died the prophecy of the child wouldn’t come true.

In due time the boy was born and they named him Samson. As he grew up the Spirit of the Lord began to stir in him.

Reckless Samson

 Samson was headstrong as well as physically strong and God used that as part of his plan to punish the Philistines. Samson found a Philistine girl to marry and his parents objected, but “[they] did not know that this was from the Lord who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines.” Judges 14:4

The Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson in many unexpected ways. He enabled Samson to kill a lion with his bare hands, something so incidental to Samson that he didn’t even bother to tell his parents about it.

When Samson lost a bet with thirty Philistine men and struck down thirty Philistine strangers, took their clothes and paid off his bet. He also learned that he couldn’t trust his new wife so he left her and went home.

Time passed and Samson went to see his wife, only to find out that her father had given her to someone else. Furious, he went and caught three hundred foxes, tied them together in pairs with a burning torch attached to each pair. Then he released them into Philistine fields, vineyards and olive groves, and burned them to the ground.

When the Philistines learned Samson set the fire in anger over losing his wife to another man, they killed Samson’s wife and her father. That angered Samson even more. He took revenge by slaughtering many Philistines then he went to cool off in a cave in Judah.

Judah Turns Against Samson

The Philistine army sudden appeared in Judah and the people of Judah wanted to know why.

“We have come to take Samson prisoner,” they answered, “to do to him as he did to us.” Judges 15:10

Three thousand men from Judah went in search of Samson and found him in the cave. They explained that the Philistines were their rulers and they had to tie him up and deliver him to them. The Philistines were delighted when they Samson bound with ropes. . . until the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and he broke the ropes, picked up a donkey jawbone and killed a thousand of them.

Samson was weak with thirst after his great victory and he asked God, “must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” (Judges 15:18) God did a miracle for his champion and brought water out of a hollow place for him.

God Uses Unusual People

Jephthah and Samson were both reckless men who made big mistakes. We might not have chosen them as leaders for Israel, but God used them to accomplish his will.