The Wagley GroupApril, 2025 – Faithful Living® ~
Gilead was married and had several sons. Sometime later, he went into a prostitute and she gave birth to Jephthah. As he got older, his half-brothers continually railed against him and vowed that he would never receive any of their father’s inheritance. When he could take it no longer, he fled to the land of Tob, east of the Jordan River.
As the Ammonites made war on the Israelites and their losses mounted, elders and military men traveled to Tob and pleaded with Jephthah to return and lead the Israelites in battle against their enemy. When Jephthah was finally convinced, he returned to help and they made him their commander. Then he made a vow unto the Lord…
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.”
Then Jephthah was off to fight the Ammonites. And GOD gave them to him. He beat them soundly, all the way from Aroer to the area around Minnith as far as Abel Keramim—twenty cities! A massacre! Ammonites brought to their knees by the People of Israel.
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!”
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.”
And then she said to her father, “But let this one thing be done for me. Give me two months to wander through the hills and lament my virginity since I will never marry, I and my dear friends.”
“Oh yes, go,” he said. He sent her off for two months. She and her dear girlfriends went among the hills, lamenting that she would never marry. At the end of the two months, she came back to her father. He fulfilled the vow with her that he had made. She had never slept with a man.
It became a custom in Israel that for four days every year the young women of Israel went out to mourn for the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite. Judges 11: 29-40 MSG
Like Jephthah, God also made a vow as a result of the fall [Original Sin] in the Garden.
What was the vow that God made? “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 KJV
Because of our collective sins, the expressed and irrevocable will of the Father was brought forward. Someone had to pay the price and no one could fulfill the penalty except His sinless Son. The result: God brutally tortured and murdered [crucified] Jesus on Calvary’s cross. Why? Because He loves us that much. God made Jesus drink the full cup of His wrath to reconcile humanity back to Himself. Therefore, Jesus has preserved for God a people holy and sanctified forever.
Isaiah prophesized hundreds of years before the birth of Christ about the how and why Jesus was executed.
The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He, was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed.
We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost. We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way. And GOD has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong, on him, on him. Isaiah 53:2-6 MSG
The enemy that was totally annihilated on Good Friday was sin and death itself. That is why Christ followers all over the earth annually celebrate Resurrection Day.
Many have and will continue to debate the season of our Lord’s death, burial, resurrection and ascension into Heaven. These specific times should not concern us. What matters most, is that it actually happened. Therefore, we rejoice with extreme gladness of heart for this supreme reality. Thanks be to God for his graciousness and mercy that has given us the victory in Jesus Christ our Lord!