Wed.’s Devo - The Light Has Come

Read: Judges 11:1-12:15; John 1:1-28; Psalm 101:1-8; Proverbs 14:13-14 The armies of Ammon were gathered to fight Israel. They camped in Gilead and the people of Israel were camped in Mizpah. The children of Israel had just renewed their covenant with the Lord and proclaimed that whoever attacked the Ammonites would become their leader. The problem was they didn’t have a strong leader. *** They knew of a man who could lead them, but they had driven him out of their town because he was the son of a prostitute. His name was Jephthah. He had his own army of rebels who followed him. The people of Gilead sent for Jephthah and asked him to lead them with the promise of being their leader afterwards. He finally agreed to come. *** Jephthah corresponded with the king of Ammon asking him why they were attacking Israel. Ammon wanted their land back and accused Israel of stealing it from them. Jephthah made it clear that they didn’t steal it from them but God gave it to them. He told them they could keep the land their gods gave them and Israel would keep the land their God gave them. He reminded them of Balak who had the same dispute. He ended up leaving without fighting because God showed him through Balaam that God had given them the land. That was 300 years ago, why now had they come to take back the land? *** Ammon didn’t answer Jephthah’s message and the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah and he gathered men until he had an army. Before he went to war he made a vow to the Lord that whatever came out of his house first, when he returned in victory, he would sacrifice as a burnt offering. He surely thought a goat or an animal would come out first. *** He led his army against the Ammonites and God gave them the victory. When he came home, it was his only off-spring, his daughter, that came out of the house to welcome him. He was distraught with sadness, but she told him that he had to fulfill his vow. She asked for two months to go into the hills and mourn the fact that she would never get married and have children. Then she came home and he offered her as a burnt offering to the Lord. *** How disturbing. This is the thing about the time of the judges - they did what was right in their own eyes. Jephthah made a very foolish vow and paid for it. *** That wasn’t the end of Jephthah’s troubles, now the tribe of Ephraim was upset and threatened to burn his house down because he hadn’t included them in the battle against Ammon. Jephthah reminded that he had asked for them to help earlier and they refused to come. They didn’t like that answer and it ended up in a battle. Jephthah and his men defeated the men from Ephraim and captured the shallow crossing of the Jordan River. *** Whoever came there to cross over into their land would have to first pronounce the word “Shibboleth”. The people from Ephraim had a speech impediment and couldn’t pronounce it right so they would know they were from Ephraim and kill them. They killed 42,000. *** Jephthah judged Israel for 6 years and when he died, Ibzan from Bethlehem judged Israel. Ibzan was Israel’s tenth judge. He had 30 sons and 30 daughters. To build up his influence, he sent his daughters to marry outside his clan and brought in women from other clans to marry his sons. *** When Ibzan died, Elon from Zebulun judged Israel for 10 years. He had 40 sons and 30 grandsons who all rode on donkeys. (Why this is important is a mystery to me, but it is mentioned.) He judged for 8 years, then Abdon judged next. *** In the New Testament we begin the book of John that was written specifically to the Church. It begins just like the Old Testament book of Genesis, “In the beginning.” It tells us all about Jesus as “The Word”. He was with God in the garden and everything God created in the garden was created through Jesus. Jesus gave life to all God created. This life brought light that can never be put out. *** God sent John to proclaim his coming. John was to tell everyone about the light that was coming. Jesus chose to come back into the world that he created as a human, but the world did not recognize him so, they rejected him. There were those who did accept him and they were given the right to become his children. *** John introduced Jesus to the world as the one who existed long before him even though John was 6 months older than Jesus. When the Jewish leaders came and asked John who he was and what made him think he could baptize people, he told them he was not the Messiah, Elijah, or “the prophet” but, he was a voice clearing the way for the Lord to come. He told them that there was someone among the crowd whose ministry would follow his. This man would be much more powerful than him. *** Lord, thank you that the light, the power and the glory of your son is inside each of us. May we walk in that understanding and authority. May we be broken to let your light shine.