Thurs.’s Devo - The Word

Read: Judges 11:1-12:15; John 1:1-28; Psalm 101:1-8; Proverbs 14:13-14 Gilead was the founder of his town. He had many sons from his wife and one son named Jephthah, from a prostitute. Jephthah was a mighty warrior but the sons of Gilead’s wife threw Jephthah out of the house because they didn’t want to share their inheritance with him. *** The Ammonites came up against Israel to defeat it, so the elders of Gilead went and brought Jephthah back to help. They promised him he could rule over them if he would help them fight. Jephthah agreed and sent a message to the king of the Ammonites asking him why he was coming to fight them. He explained that he was coming to get his land back from when Moses led the people out of Egypt. Moses had fought the king of Sihon and took his land and drove them out. They wanted it back, peacefully. *** This land had been occupied by the Ammonites and the king of Sihon, but when they waged war on Moses, God gave it to the Israelites. The tribes of Gad, Manasseh and the half tribe of Manasseh lived in their land now. Jephthah told the king that they should possess the land God gives them and the Ammonites should possess the land their god, Chemosh gives them. But, God had given Israel this land. *** The king of Ammon wouldn’t listen to Ahimelech. The Spirit of the Lord was with Jephthah as he took his army to meet the Ammonites. Jephthah pledged that when God gave him victory over the Ammonites, he would sacrifice to him the first thing that came out of the door of his house, thinking it would be an animal. *** God did give him a great victory and when he returned home, the first thing to come out of his house was his only daughter. She came out with her tambourine, dancing. *** Jephthah was distraught and told her what he had vowed. She asked for two months first to go wander the mountains and mourn the fact that she would never become a wife and a mother. She took some friends with her, then returned and he sacrificed his daughter to the Lord. *** Keep in mind, this was the days of the judges where man did what was right in their own eyes. *** After Jephthah’s great victory and sad ending, the people of Ephraim came to fight against Jephthah because he hadn’t invited them to fight with them against the Ammonites. Jephthah told them he did ask them to help and they had refused, so he did it himself and God gave him the victory. *** Now, Jephthah had to fight the army of Ephraim. They took the fords of Jordan that had belonged to Ephraim. The Gileadites refused to allow anyone from Ephraim to cross over the Jordan. They would make them say the word Shibboleth and if they could’t pronounce the “h”, they would know they were from Ephraim and kill them. They killed 42,000 Ephraimites at this ford. *** Jephthah judged Israel for 6 years then died. Ezban judged the next 7 years, and Elon the next 10. After him Abdon judged Israel for 8 years. *** We start reading John today, which begins the same way Genesis does. John explains that Jesus was with God from the beginning when he created the earth. When God said, “Let there be light,” he was referring to Jesus as the light. *** John was sent by God to witness to the people about this light, the true light, who was Jesus. He said the world wouldn’t receive Jesus, but those that did, would have the right to be his children. These were the people who were born of God. *** Jesus was God’s Word that became flesh and lived on earth among people. He showed us what the Father was - full of grace and truth. *** The Jews sent priests and Levites to ask John if he was the Christ. He said that he was not the Christ or a prophet, but a voice, crying in the wilderness to get their lives straight and make a way in their hearts for the Christ. When they asked him why he baptized, if he was not the Christ or a prophet, and he said that there was one coming who was much more worthy. He would baptize, not with water, but with fire. *** Lord, thank you for your baptism. May you baptize us fresh with your fire and your power.