HAKIM-HAKIM 11:30-31

We see the familiar cycle in the book of Judges: Israel rebels, falling into idolatry. As a consequence, they are oppressed. In their distress, they repent and cry out to God. God reminds them of His faithfulness, responds to their plea by raising a deliverer, and sets in motion a plan to restore them. In Judges 11, that deliverer is Jephthah. The story of Jephthah reminds us how God, in His mercy, raises unlikely people to fulfil His purpose, but also how human wisdom, when clouded by worldly thinking, can lead to tragic endings.

The Bible doesn’t paint the perfect picture that we might hope to see; rather, it paints a picture that makes sense only when we consider God as the true superhero in a massive movement of redemption from the first to the last chapters of the Bible. A good God has good reasons for filling his stories with morally flawed people. Through their failures, his grace is on full display.

No one is perfect! How can we manage our mistakes, failures and breakdowns? The bible is full of people who failed, yet most of them are used by God. From their failures we can learn that God will lead us into a life of victory.

For all the victory and triumph in the book of Joshua, Judges paints a far more somber picture. The repetition, "Everyone did what was right in their own eyes" (Judges 17:6, 21:25) describes this dark period of Israel's history succinctly. Yet even in the midst of their rebellion, God was faithful to fulfill his covenantal promises to his people.