Day 88: Bad Representative Leadership

Today we clearly read about a bad judge, Jephthah, Dr. Mackie describes him as a mafia tribal chiefdom from the hills, who the elders of Israel went to for deliverance and while Jephthah was a good warrior he was entirely unfamiliar with the God of Israel and treated God more like a Canaanite god by making an oath to sacrifice the first thing or person that came through the door - note there is a total lack of Yahweh’s response to this oath - and the first person to walk through his door was his only child, his daughter. And while she isn’t a baby, this story does read more like child sacrifice and Canaanite worship than anything we’ve been reading about Yahweh God and His laws, will, and ways for His people. Remember the story of Abraham and Isaac, where Yahweh provided the sacrifice in place of Isaac which was a foreshadowing of what Jesus would do for us and differentiates the God of Israel from all the other near eastern ancient religions of that time. Dr. Mackie describes how at this point, Israel and its leader do not seem to remember the character of their own God, Yahweh.  Jephthah also orders the kills of tens of thousands of other Israelites. For me, this is an ongoing reminder that the theme we’ve been reading is the #1 way to avoid drift and forgetting is to come close to God and His Word, remember the story, who He is, what He’s done, and His purpose and ways, the inheritance, the rescue mission. What an awesome God we serve! 

Resource:

Solomon, Marty and Billings, Bret (2017) The Redemption Cycle, Episode 36. BEMA Discipleship Podcast https://www.bemadiscipleship.com/36 

Dr. Mackie, Tim and Collins, Jon. Judges Summary, Bible Project. https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/judges/ 

 

Credits:

Podcast music by Stockaudios from Pixabay. Speaker, Dr. Rachel Bodell. Podcast Sound Engineer, Alan Darling. Podcast Artwork, Will Gerard.