We saw in Judges 14 and 15 that the Philistines threatened to and later burned Samson’s wife and her father to death. These were not nice people! I thought the same when I heard about the death in prison of the Russian opposition leader. Here is another set of not-nice people: the gambling industry.

I am stunned by a February 18, 2024, article in the Wall Street Journal: A Psychiatrist Tried to Quit Gambling. Betting Apps Kept Her Hooked. It’s worth the read in its entirety. Here’s how it starts:

Kavita Fischer couldn’t believe her luck.

She started with $750 and hit a hot streak last summer that stretched over six days. She played round after round of online casino games until her winnings hit $500,000. The windfall would make up for every bad bet and pay off all she owed.

Fischer, a 41-year-old mental-health professional and suburban homeowner with two boys, was by then in debt by six figures from online gambling losses. For nearly a year, she lost again and again, complaining to at least one gambling company that she had a problem but couldn’t stop. As a psychiatrist familiar with human impulses and addiction, Fischer knew better than most what she needed to do.

Yet she was up against an industry skilled in the art of leveraging data analytics and human behavior to keep customers betting. Gambling companies tracked the ups and downs of Fischer’s betting behavior and gave bonus credits to keep her playing. VIP customer representatives offered encouragement and gifts.

After her six-day hot streak, Fischer made several requests to start withdrawing the half-million dollars from the PointsBet gambling app. But she kept changing her mind and plowed the money back into play. Within a day, she lost nearly all of it.

As I said, these are not nice people. Here are some snippets from the rest of the story:

Online casino gambling, which became Fischer’s habit, is legal in six states and has been an industry gold mine…Soon after Fischer started playing, a customer representative sent an email introducing himself. At DraftKings and other online betting companies, they are identified as VIP hosts. “I look forward to working with you and building a great relationship!” Jamyl Cogdell wrote on Dec. 9, 2022. Over four months, Fischer said they exchanged dozens of emails and text messages…

DraftKings and other gambling companies doled out tens of thousands of dollars in credits that kept Fischer playing long after she wanted to quit. With a real-time view of a customer’s gambling activity, VIP hosts keep in close touch. They can track when customers last used the app and offer credits and other incentives to persuade their most-valued gamblers—by definition, the biggest losers—to return.

In the first four months of 2023, she lost about $141,000 to the company. During that time, DraftKings gave her more than $36,000 in gambling credits. Overall, she lost more than $190,000 to DraftKings in 2022 and 2023…

A member of DraftKings’ Player Protection Team said in an email that she couldn’t get a refund for her losses. “We are sorry to hear about your experience with our platform and the financial issues you now are facing,” a representative of DraftKings’ Player Protection wrote. The email included phone numbers for gambling hotlines and links to gambling addiction websites.

As I have written before, the real message here is that just because society’s standards are changing doesn’t mean that something that used to be considered wrong or unwise is now OK. We need to be careful not to get sucked in, especially when we are fighting not only our own weaknesses but also a Satanically-inspired industry that preys on those weaknesses. These are NOT nice people!

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6.12, ESV)

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. (Ephesians 5.15 – 17, ESV)

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. (1 Timothy 6.9 – 11, ESV)

We continue our Lenten meditations with stanzas 9 – 18 of George Herbert’s poem “The Sacrifice.” Note that many of the stanzas contain what some analysts have called a paradox. Opposites. For example, in the fourth stanza below: “I suffer binding, who have loosed their bands.”

(Bullets allow me to single-space the lines.)

• Arise, arise, they come.  Look how they run!
• Alas!  what haste they make to be undone!
• How with their lanterns do they seek the sun!
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• With clubs and staves they seek me, as a thief,
• Who am the Way and Truth, the true relief;
• Most true to those, who are my greatest grief:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• Judas, dost thou betray me with a kiss?
• Canst thou find hell about my lips? and miss
• Of life, just at the gates of life and bliss?
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• See, they lay hold on me, not with the hands
• Of faith, but fury: yet at their commands
• I suffer binding, who have loosed their bands
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• All my Disciples flee; fear puts a bar
• Betwixt my friends and me.  They leave the star,
• That brought the wise men of the East from far.
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• Then from one ruler to another bound
• They lead me; urging, that it was not sound
• What I taught: Comments would the test confound.
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• The Priest and rulers all false witness seek
• ’Gainst him, who seeks not life, but is the meek
• And ready Paschal Lamb of this great week:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• Then they accuse me of great blasphemy,
• That I did thrust into the Deity,
• Who never thought that any robbery:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• Some said, that I the Temple to the floor
• In three days razed, and raised as before.
• Why, he that built the world can do much more:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• Then they condemn me all with that same breath,
• Which I do give them daily, unto death.
• Thus Adam my first breathing rendereth:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine? -“The Sacrifice” by George Herbert, stanzas 9 – 18.

“Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.” While he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; seize him.” And he came up to Jesus at once and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” And he kissed him. Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you came to do.” Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. (Matthew 26.46 – 50, ESV)

Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death, but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward and said, “This man said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to rebuild it in three days.’” (Matthew 26.59 – 61, ESV)

OK, let’s wrap this sordid Samson story up. Chapter 16 opens with just a little vignette involving Samson, a prostitute, Philistines, and the city gate:

Samson went to Gaza and saw a prostitute. He went to her. The news got around: “Samson’s here.” They gathered around in hiding, waiting all night for him at the city gate, quiet as mice, thinking, “At sunrise we’ll kill him.” Samson was in bed with the woman until midnight. Then he got up, seized the doors of the city gate and the two gateposts, bolts and all, hefted them on his shoulder, and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron. Judges 16.1 – 3, MSG)

Just a day in the life… Then Delilah comes on the scene:

Some time later he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek (Grapes). Her name was Delilah. The Philistine tyrants approached her and said, “Seduce him. Discover what’s behind his great strength and how we can tie him up and humble him. Each man’s company will give you a hundred shekels of silver.” (Judges 16.4, 5, MSG)

It must be that Samson wasn’t that big of a guy, not muscle-bound like, say, Arnold Schwarzenegger (two mentions in two days!?), or they wouldn’t be looking for the secret. At any rate, Delilah is on board with it, betraying Samson for money. His first woman was motivated by fear. I can’t figure out why Samson stays. He offers her three lies:

• Seven bowstrings
• New ropes
• Seven braids of my hair

And each time, she tries to subdue him and turn him over to the Philistines. Again, why does he stay? Aren’t her intentions obvious? Maybe the answer is in the first sentence of her story:

Some time later he fell in love…

Of course, the inevitable happened:

She kept at it day after day, nagging and tormenting him. Finally, he was fed up—he couldn’t take another minute of it. He spilled it. He told her, “A razor has never touched my head. I’ve been God’s Nazirite from conception. If I were shaved, my strength would leave me; I would be as helpless as any other mortal.” When Delilah realized that he had told her his secret, she sent for the Philistine tyrants, telling them, “Come quickly—this time he’s told me the truth.” They came, bringing the bribe money. When she got him to sleep, his head on her lap, she motioned to a man to cut off the seven braids of his hair. Immediately he began to grow weak. His strength drained from him. Then she said, “The Philistines are on you, Samson!” He woke up, thinking, “I’ll go out, like always, and shake free.” He didn’t realize that GOD had abandoned him. (Judges 16.16 – 20, MSG)

A sad verse. May it not happen to any of us: “He didn’t realize that GOD had abandoned him.”

But he gets one last chance, praying one last prayer, and goes out with a bang:

Then this: Everyone was feeling high and someone said, “Get Samson! Let him show us his stuff!” They got Samson from the prison and he put on a show for them. They had him standing between the pillars. Samson said to the young man who was acting as his guide, “Put me where I can touch the pillars that hold up the temple so I can rest against them.” The building was packed with men and women, including all the Philistine tyrants. And there were at least 3,000 in the stands watching Samson’s performance. And Samson cried out to GOD: Master, GOD! Oh, please, look on me again, Oh, please, give strength yet once more. God! With one avenging blow let me be avenged On the Philistines for my two eyes! Then Samson reached out to the two central pillars that held up the building and pushed against them, one with his right arm, the other with his left. Saying, “Let me die with the Philistines,” Samson pushed hard with all his might. The building crashed on the tyrants and all the people in it. He killed more people in his death than he had killed in his life. (Judges 16.25 – 30, MSG)

Samson’s life was characterized by a complete lack of self-control yet he killed A LOT of Philistines and is mentioned, as we’ve said before, in the Faith Hall of Fame (Hebrews 11.32 – 33).

You’ve all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You’re after one that’s gold eternally. I don’t know about you, but I’m running hard for the finish line. I’m giving it everything I’ve got. No sloppy living for me! I’m staying alert and in top condition. I’m not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else all about it and then missing out myself. (1 Corinthians 9.24 – 27, MSG)

We left Samson at the end of Judges 14 after he stormed out of his father-in-law’s house and killed 30 men to get their clothes to pay off a bet. Samson is not a role model by any stretch, but God used his lust for the wrong women and his anger to punish the Philistines. The story continues.

Later on—it was during the wheat harvest—Samson visited his bride, bringing a young goat. He said, “Let me see my wife—show me her bedroom.” But her father wouldn’t let him in. He said, “I concluded that by now you hated her with a passion, so I gave her to your best man. But her little sister is even more beautiful. Why not take her instead?” Samson said, “That does it. This time when I wreak havoc on the Philistines, I’m blameless.” (Judges 15.1 – 3, MSG)

So he caught 300 foxes (jackals in The Message), tied their tails together with torches between each pair, and sent them through Philistine grain fields. After which the Philistines burned his wife and her father to death just as they had threatened in Judges 14. So Samson reacts again:

Samson then said, “If this is the way you’re going to act, I swear I’ll get even with you. And I’m not quitting till the job’s done!” With that he tore into them, ripping them limb from limb—a huge slaughter. Then he went down and stayed in a cave at Etam Rock. (Judges 15.7, 8, MSG)

So the Philistines come after Samson even as the Israelites ask Samson to back off:

The Philistines set out and made camp in Judah, preparing to attack Lehi (Jawbone). When the men of Judah asked, “Why have you come up against us?” they said, “We’re out to get Samson. We’re going after Samson to do to him what he did to us.” Three companies of men from Judah went down to the cave at Etam Rock and said to Samson, “Don’t you realize that the Philistines already bully and lord it over us? So what’s going on with you, making things even worse?” He said, “It was tit for tat. I only did to them what they did to me.” (Judges 15.9 – 11, MSG)

And once more, “the Spirit of God came upon him…”

As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came to meet him, shouting in triumph. And then the Spirit of GOD came on him with great power. The ropes on his arms fell apart like flax on fire; the thongs slipped off his hands. He spotted a fresh donkey jawbone, reached down and grabbed it, and with it killed the whole company. And Samson said, With a donkey’s jawbone I made heaps of donkeys of them. With a donkey’s jawbone I killed an entire company. (Judges 15.14 – 16, MSG)

And the chapter ends with Samson’s first recorded prayer and a miracle:

Now he was suddenly very thirsty. He called out to GOD, “You have given your servant this great victory. Are you going to abandon me to die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” So God split open the rock basin in Lehi; water gushed out and Samson drank. His spirit revived—he was alive again! That’s why it’s called En Hakkore (Caller’s Spring). It’s still there at Lehi today. (Judges 15.18 – 19, MSG)

As I wrote in No Magic Formula, all the stories and characters in Judges are different. Gideon won his battle with 300 men, but Samson is a one-man wrecking crew! It reminds me of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character in True Lies or James Bond. Samson is not that good of a guy, but God uses him to wreak havoc on the Philistines.

I want to report to you, friends, that my imprisonment here has had the opposite of its intended effect. Instead of being squelched, the Message has actually prospered. All the soldiers here, and everyone else too, found out that I’m in jail because of this Messiah. That piqued their curiosity, and now they’ve learned all about him. Not only that, but most of the Christians here have become far more sure of themselves in the faith than ever, speaking out fearlessly about God, about the Messiah. It’s true that some here preach Christ because with me out of the way, they think they’ll step right into the spotlight. But the others do it with the best heart in the world. One group is motivated by pure love, knowing that I am here defending the Message, wanting to help. The others, now that I’m out of the picture, are merely greedy, hoping to get something out of it for themselves. Their motives are bad. They see me as their competition, and so the worse it goes for me, the better—they think—for them. So how am I to respond? I’ve decided that I really don’t care about their motives, whether mixed, bad, or indifferent. Every time one of them opens his mouth, Christ is proclaimed, so I just cheer them on! (Philippians 1.12 – 18, MSG)

We started our look at the last Judge, Samson, yesterday. The story starts with promise: a couple conceive him late in life, and Samson is called to deliver Israel from the Philistines:

You are, in fact, pregnant right now, carrying a son. No razor will touch his head—the boy will be God’s Nazirite from the moment of his birth. He will launch the deliverance from Philistine oppression.” (Judges 13.5, MSG)

Chapter 13 ends, as I say, with promise, but things start to go downhill right away:

The woman gave birth to a son. They named him Samson. The boy grew and GOD blessed him. The Spirit of GOD began working in him while he was staying at a Danite camp between Zorah and Eshtaol. Samson went down to Timnah. There in Timnah a woman caught his eye, a Philistine girl. He came back and told his father and mother, “I saw a woman in Timnah, a Philistine girl; get her for me as my wife.” (Judges 13.24 – 14.2, MSG)

When we think of Samson, we think “Samson and Delilah,” but Delilah doesn’t make her appearance until Judges 16. Chapters 14 and 15 are about this first woman, who remains unnamed. He shouldn’t be consorting with foreign women since such behavior is expressly forbidden (see Deuteronomy 7.3 – 6).

We also remember Samson for superhuman strength, an attribute that isn’t forecast, but appears when “the Spirit of God comes on him:”

Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother. When he got to the vineyards of Timnah, a young lion came at him, roaring. The Spirit of GOD came on him powerfully and he ripped it open barehanded, like tearing a young goat. But he didn’t tell his parents what he had done. Then he went on down and spoke to the woman. In Samson’s eyes, she was the one. (Judges 14.5 – 7, MSG)

Later, he sees honey in the carcass of the lion. He eats the honey even though as a Nazirite, he is supposed to avoid dead bodies. Then he propounds the riddle at his wedding feast:

From the eater came something to eat, From the strong came something sweet. (Judges 14.14, MSG)

The Philistines threaten to torch the bride and her family (these are not nice people!) so she cajoles the answer out of Samson prompting this famous reaction:

And Samson said, If you hadn’t plowed with my heifer, You wouldn’t have found out my riddle. (Judges 14.18, MSG)

Then the Spirit of God comes again:

Then the Spirit of GOD came powerfully on him. He went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of their men, stripped them, and gave their clothing to those who had solved the riddle. Stalking out, smoking with anger, he went home to his father’s house. (Judges 14.19, MSG)

Unlike the other judges, Samson never leads the Israelites into battle against the Philistines. He just kills them and irritates them as he has opportunity when he gets angry enough. More to follow…

There is a kind of matter-of-fact indifference in the tone of the narration, almost as if God is saying, “Well, if this is all you’re going to give me to work with, I’ll use these men and women, just as they are, and get on with working out the story of salvation.” These people are even given a measure of dignity as they find their places in the story; they are most certainly not employed for the sake of vilification or lampoon. God, it turns out, does not require good people in order to do good work. – From Eugene Peterson’s Introduction to Judges (in The Message)

 I could go on and on, but I’ve run out of time. There are so many more—Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets… .Through acts of faith, they toppled kingdoms, made justice work, took the promises for themselves. They were protected from lions… (Hebrews 11.32 – 33, MSG, emphasis mine)

We come to Samson, the last Judge who gets four chapters, the most of any judge: 96 verses! We saw that Abimelech chose himself to be the leader. Jephthah was recruited by his family to lead. By contrast, Samson was chosen by God, before he was born:

At that time there was a man named Manoah from Zorah from the tribe of Dan. His wife was barren and childless. The angel of God appeared to her and told her, “I know that you are barren and childless, but you’re going to become pregnant and bear a son. But take much care: Drink no wine or beer; eat nothing ritually unclean. You are, in fact, pregnant right now, carrying a son. No razor will touch his head—the boy will be God’s Nazirite from the moment of his birth. He will launch the deliverance from Philistine oppression.” (Judges 13.2 – 5, MSG)

The angel’s appearance reminds one of Zechariah in Luke 1 EXCEPT:

• The angel appears to the wife(!), and we don’t even know her name.
• She’s already pregnant.

There are also similarities:

• Samson will be a Nazirite from the moment of his birth (see Numbers 6)
• John the Baptist was filled with the Spirit from his birth and also avoid wine and strong drink (but the word “Nazirite” is not used).

[Zechariah’s son, called John the Baptist later on] will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. (Luke 1.15, ESV)

Manoah wants to see the angel for himself! So there is another conversation with the angel who ascended back to heaven in the flame of a burnt offering. It’s disturbing…

So Manoah took the kid and the Grain-Offering and sacrificed them on a rock altar to GOD who works wonders. As the flames leapt up from the altar to heaven, GOD’s angel also ascended in the altar flames. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell facedown to the ground. Manoah and his wife never saw the angel of GOD again. Only then did Manoah realize that this was GOD’s angel. He said to his wife, “We’re as good as dead! We’ve looked on God!” But his wife said, “If GOD were planning to kill us, he wouldn’t have accepted our Whole-Burnt-Offering and Grain-Offering, or revealed all these things to us—given us this birth announcement.”

The woman gave birth to a son. They named him Samson. The boy grew and GOD blessed him. The Spirit of GOD began working in him while he was staying at a Danite camp between Zorah and Eshtaol. (Judges 13.19 – 25, MSG)

A good start, but things go downhill rapidly. Stay tuned.

[John the Baptist] grew up, healthy and spirited. He lived out in the desert until the day he made his prophetic debut in Israel. (Luke 1.80, MSG)

I receive a weekly blog from my friend and former pastor Dr. John Ed Mathison. Last Wednesday’s was encouraging on many levels as he told the story of Doug McKelvy memorizing the Sermon on the Mount and presenting it to high school students:

He is seventy-nine years old. He could be sitting back playing dominoes or golf or watching television. Instead, he feels like his best days of witness are today and the days ahead. That’s an attitude with which to grow older!

He decided to memorize the Sermon on the Mount. That’s right—three chapters of the Bible in Matthew. I was invited to give the prayer at the Chapel program where all the seventh through twelfth-grade students at Alabama Christian Academy met to experience his rendition verbatim from the Sermon on the Mount.

That’s inspiring right there. 79 years old and still active. Still memorizing scripture. Still interacting with high school students. And John Ed doesn’t mention that he (John Ed) is still going strong at age 87, 15+ years after he retired as a pastor.

But what inspires me even more is this paragraph:

Doesn’t God have a sense of humor? Here is a Methodist preacher giving the prayer for God to bless the hearing and application of a seventy-nine-year-old Baptist lawyer speaking to a huge group of students at a Church of Christ high school. – Dr. John Ed Mathison, February 14, 2024

And I, a member of a Presbyterian church, am writing about it. We’re all on the same team!

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13.35, NIV)

John spoke up, “Teacher, we saw a man using your name to expel demons and we stopped him because he wasn’t in our group.” Jesus wasn’t pleased. “Don’t stop him. No one can use my name to do something good and powerful, and in the next breath cut me down. If he’s not an enemy, he’s an ally.” (Mark 9.38 – 40, MSG)

It’s the Lenten season, a time to remember our own mortality and think about Jesus’ upcoming suffering. It’s also tempting to focus too much on daily news which can be very depressing.

But any day can start with a sunrise like this one, observed on Ash Wednesday:

God’s glory is on tour in the skies, God-craft on exhibit across the horizon. (Psalm 19.1, MSG)

Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent was last Wednesday. I will devote each Sunday’s blog to a Lenten meditation, including Palm Sunday, March 24. We will end our Lenten meditations on Good Friday, March 29.

Our interim pastor, Dr. John Anderson, has just introduced us to a long poem I hadn’t seen before. At 62 stanzas, it will form the basis of our meditations. It’s “The Sacrifice” by George Herbert, published in 1633. I have modernized the spelling to make it easier to read. Here’s how it starts:

(The bullets allow me to single-space the lines.)

• Oh all ye, who pass by, whose eyes and mind
• To worldly things are sharp, but to me blind;
• To me, who took eyes that I might you find:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• The Princes of my people make a head
• Against their Maker: they do wish me dead,
• Who cannot wish, except I give them bread;
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• Without me each one, who doth now me brave,
• Had to this day been an Egyptian slave.
• They use that power against me, which I gave:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• Mine own Apostle, who the bag did bear,
• Though he had all I had, did not forbear
• To sell me also, and to put me there:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• For thirty pence he did my death devise,
• Who at three hundred did the ointment prize,
• Not half so sweet as my sweet sacrifice:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• Therefore, my soul melts, and my heart’s dear treasure
• Drops blood (the only beads) my words to measure:
• O let this cup pass, if it be thy pleasure:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• These drops being tempered with sinners’ tears
• A balsam are for both the Hemispheres [hemispheres = eyes]
• Curing all wounds, but mine; all, but my fears:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• Yet my Disciples sleep; I cannot gain
• One hour of watching; but their drowsy brain
• Comforts not me, and doth my doctrine stain:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine? -“The Sacrifice” by George Herbert, stanzas 1 – 8.

Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.” But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.” Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him. (Matthew 26.6 – 16, ESV)

Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26.36 – 41, ESV)

No sooner are we done with the sordid story of Abimelech than we come to Jephthah, Judge #9.

Abimelech was an outcast because his mother was a “concubine” of Gideon’s. I looked up concubine, and it means, in polygamous cultures, a wife of lesser status.

It turns out Jephthah is an outcast in his clan of Gilead because his mother was a prostitute:

Jephthah the Gileadite was one tough warrior. He was the son of a prostitute, but Gilead was his father. Meanwhile, Gilead’s legal wife had given him other sons, and when they grew up, his wife’s sons threw Jephthah out. They told him: “You’re not getting any of our family inheritance—you’re the son of another woman.” So Jephthah fled from his brothers and went to live in the land of Tob. Some riffraff joined him and went around with him. (Judges 11.1 – 3, MSG)

But unlike Abimelech who killed all his half-brothers so he could be in charge, Gilead’s brothers came to get him:

Some time passed. And then the Ammonites started fighting Israel. With the Ammonites at war with them, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob. They said to Jephthah: “Come. Be our general and we’ll fight the Ammonites.” But Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead: “But you hate me. You kicked me out of my family home. So why are you coming to me now? Because you are in trouble. Right?” (Judges 11.4 – 7, MSG)

Jephthah tries diplomacy with the Ammonites without success (see Judges 11.14 – 27). So Jephthah recruits an army and, empowered by “God’s Spirit,” defeats the Ammonites.

It’s completely unclear why Jephthah felt it necessary to make a stupid vow:

GOD’s Spirit came upon Jephthah. He went across Gilead and Manasseh, went through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there approached the Ammonites. Jephthah made a vow before GOD: “If you give me a clear victory over the Ammonites, then I’ll give to GOD whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in one piece from among the Ammonites—I’ll offer it up in a sacrificial burnt offering.”…Jephthah came home to Mizpah. His daughter ran from the house to welcome him home—dancing to tambourines! She was his only child. He had no son or daughter except her. When he realized who it was, he ripped his clothes, saying, “Ah, dearest daughter—I’m dirt. I’m despicable. My heart is torn to shreds. I made a vow to GOD and I can’t take it back!” (Judges 11.29 – 31, 34, 35, MSG)

I’ll never understand the nature of Jephthah’s vow.

• What/who did he expect to come out of the door of his house?
• Why did he feel a vow was necessary? Was he trying to help God out?

She said, “Dear father, if you made a vow to GOD, do to me what you vowed; GOD did his part and saved you from your Ammonite enemies.” (Judges 11.36, MSG)

So many lessons:

• The obvious one, backed up by Solomon’s observations in Ecclesiastes, is don’t make vows!

Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few…When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? (Ecclesiastes 5.2, 4 – 6, MSG)

• Be creative and self-sacrificial: I think Japheth could have offered himself in exchange for his daughter. That’s what Jesus did, essentially. Japheth lived only six more years (see Judges 12.1 – 7).
• Let’s bring it up to date: don’t sacrifice family on the altar of “ministry.” More than one Christian leader (professional or volunteer) has lost his wife or children because of too many hours devoted to ministry or church activity. I can think of two specific instances in my own life when I blew up a friendship because I thought some ministry activity I needed to do with people I didn’t know all that well was more important than relationships with people I did know well. It was a long time ago. I would do things differently now. For an insightful and humorous look at our tendency to put ministry before family,  read The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass, age 37 3/4. It’s available used for cheap. Worth it at any price.

And since you know that he cares, let your language show it. Don’t add words like “I swear to God” to your own words. Don’t show your impatience by concocting oaths to hurry up God. Just say yes or no. Just say what is true. That way, your language can’t be used against you. (James 5.12, MSG)

Anyone who neglects to care for family members in need repudiates the faith. That’s worse than refusing to believe in the first place. (1 Timothy 5.8, MSG)

God clearly says, “Respect your father and mother,” and, “Anyone denouncing father or mother should be killed.” But you weasel around that by saying, “Whoever wants to, can say to father and mother, What I owed to you I’ve given to God.” (Matthew 15.4, 5, MSG)

I’m well aware that these last two verses have literal meaning and application to specific situations different from the point I’m making. But in principle, doing “God’s work” doesn’t get one out of taking care of family.