JUDGES 12
Read Judges 12:1-7
We left Jephthah at the end of Chapter 11 with that tragic situation where he painted himself into a corner, making an oath that was at best ill-considered, at worst flying in the face of God’s word, and which resulted in the death of his daughter. But that wasn’t the end of his problems. We read that Jephthah had defeated the enemy, the Ammonites. But one of the Israelite tribes, the Ephraimites, complained that Jephthah had ignored them in this campaign and they were going to take revenge on him. Jephthah countered by saying that he had called on them to join in the fight against the Ammonites but they had ignored him. More fighting between God’s people followed – as if it weren’t bad enough fighting their enemies, it seems that they always had to fight among themselves. And we might say that not a lot has changed over the years with the history of inter-denominational fighting within Christianity. Again and again God saved his people through the judges (however imperfect they might be) but that salvation was marred by their behaviour. True salvation will only be achieved by someone greater than Jephthah, someone who is perfectly obedient to God’s word and God’s will.
Read Judges 12:8-15
Again, the Bible frustrates us by not giving us enough information. We learn that Ibzan, Elon and Abdon became leaders of God’s people – but there is so little information about them, other than the curious facts of the number of their children and the number of their children’s donkeys. Were they good or bad? Did they defeat the enemies? Did they turn the Israelites away from worshipping false gods and idols? We will never know.
But maybe that is a reminder to us that the Bible is not about the lives of men and women, but rather, it is about God’s actions. The Bible is theo-centric, and in particular it is about how Jesus on the cross has saved us for eternal life in the presence of our Lord in a way that any number of Judges are not able to do.
One thing to note in all these little biographies is that the Judges served for a limited time and then we are told that they died and were buried and were succeeded by another deliverer. We can contrast these with the saviour that God raised up and who died, but rose again, whom death could not hold and who lives and reigns today.