Hey Bible Readers! I'm Tara-Leigh Cobble
and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. [Music] we're continuing our downward spiral of Israel's
judges after yesterday's tragedy with Gideon's son ailec and today we encounter six bad judges the
first two barely get a mention there was TOA from the tribe of isachar who lived among the tribe of
Ephraim for some reason and then there was J the gileadite Gilead is a region in the trans Jordan
so this is our first judge from across the Jordan River when you read the term gileadite just know
that's a reference to an Israelite from the trans Jordan not one of their many enemies then we
see that the people of Israel are falling into apostasy again in fact we get seven groupings
of other gods that they're beginning to worship it looks like they'll worship anything they don't
discriminate at all God grows angry with them and sells them into the hands of two other people
groups the Philistines and the ammonites they oppress them for 18 years on the east side of
the Jordan and they also fight against them on the west side of the Jordan finally Israel sees
the error of their ways and they repent but this time God tells them that things are going to
happen differently he's not just going to raise up a judge to save them like he's done in the past
he tells them to cry out to those other gods for help instead their response to him suggests that
maybe they really do get it this time they agree that they don't deserve saving and they accept his
words while still begging him for mercy and help they know he's their only hope then they forsake
their idols and worship Yahweh hooray then we cut to the ammonites in the trans Jordan ready to go
to war with Israel the Israelites try to rally a sergeant for their army so they can fight them
but instead of asking God for direction they ask each other and they hastily appoint a man named
jeepa who Bears a lot of resemblance to what we saw from AMC yesterday for being an outlaw and
an outcast jeepa is pretty reasonable when he tries to negotiate with the ammonite king the
king is angry because he says Israel took some land from him at some point but jeepa explained
that's not what happened yes we took this land but from someone else not you because you didn't
own it at the time we conquered it which by the way was about 300 years ago and besides Yahweh
is the one who gave it to us anyway so you can't have it but the ammonite King isn't interested
in being reasoned with and jeepa knows he has a war on his hands God's spirit travels with jepa
as he passes through the land protecting him this is interesting because even though he wasn't
appointed by God as judge over his people he is the judge over God's people nonetheless
and God comes to help him but jeepa makes a terrible wartime decision he's probably nervous
and desperate so he makes a hasty vow to God in an effort to win the war he promises that if God
gives them Victory he will sacrifice whatever comes out of his house first when he returns
granted he was probably thinking it would be an animal but there were loads of things wrong
with this vow regardless first God has promised Israel Victory if they kept his laws that's the
way to Victory not Hasty vows God has already given them the game plan but jeepa disregards it
second when the Israelites win and jeepa comes home and the first thing through the door is his
daughter that's the moment when he can cancel the vow and go offer a sin offering to God instead
Leviticus 5 gives the option of revoking a vow that would result in sin but it seems like jeepa
may not fully know the law he's called to uphold and Lead others by Third and then I'll also
add a caveat to this third Point as well Human Sacrifice is strictly forbidden in at least
four different places in the books of the law including Deuteronomy 18:10 jeepa hastily makes
a grand gesture in vowing to sacrifice anything but when he says he can't take back his vow he's
wrong this is just another example of how we have to weigh scripture against scripture what jeepa
says here is inconsistent with what God has said directly my caveat to the third point is that many
people believe jeepa didn't actually sacrifice his daughter but that he just consigned her to live as
a single woman for the rest of her life this would have saved him the agony of murdering his daughter
but either way there's one consequence that would have stuck with him regardless whether she lives
as a single woman or whether she dies his name dies out with him because she's his only child
and I also want to take a moment to point out a hard truth that we see in this passage here not
everyone who wants to get married ends up getting married regardless of whether she died young and
alone or old and alone Jeff do daughter laments her lot in life and lament is okay she even carves
out time for it and she does it in community as a single woman I'm inspired by Jeff's response
when we open chapter 12 we see that ephraim's got fomo again they're the scrappy little tribe
that's always looking for a reason to break out their weapons just like in chapter 8 yesterday
today they're mad that jeepa didn't call them to fight with him but he says he did call them
and they must have just forgotten to check their voicemail they threat to burn his house down so
he fights them and they get the fight they're looking for real nice guys you're on the same
team remember but they don't remember apparently they're hurling insults and trying to trick each
other the men of Ephraim for example are trying to pose as gileadites those people who live east of
the Jordan River but they have different accents than the gileadites and it gives them away this
would be like if I were posing as a Canadian and someone from Vancouver asked me to say the word
about or the word aluminum my citizenship would be evident right away way as a result of all the
ighting Ephraim loses 42,000 men this is the first internal battle between the tribes of Israel
and it's a sign that things are going downhill quickly we wrapped up today with a quick shot on
the three judges that come immediately after jeepa ien Elon and abdon tomorrow we'll pick up with
the worst judge in the whole book Samson what was your godshot today mine was just a short
little sentence about God in 10:16 it says he became impatient over the misery of Israel what a
tenderhearted God if you ever wonder if God likes seeing you suffer or if he's trying to punish you
know that he aches alongside you he wants what is best for you even more than you do he certainly
felt that way about the Israelites they kept choosing sin and he was doing the tough love
thing at the time letting them hit rock bottom but all the while his heart was aching over their
Rebellion he Grieves when his kids are in misery and he draws near I love how Psalm 34:18 puts
it the Lord is near to the Brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit if you feel like the
Israelites miserable from your own Rebellion or if you feel like Jeep's daughter mourning your life
circumstances I'm praying today that you will feel The Nearness of the Lord in your brokenhearted
State and that your spirit will somehow feel less crushed as you remember his great salvation
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