HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 598
J U D G ES 1 1
11 The Lord replied, “Did I not rescue you from
the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites,
the Philistines, 12 the Sidonians, the Amalekites,
and the Maonites? When they oppressed you,
you cried out to me for help, and I rescued you.
13 Yet you have abandoned me and served other
gods. So I will not rescue you anymore. 14 Go and
cry out to the gods you have chosen! Let them
rescue you in your hour of distress!”
15 But the Israelites pleaded with the Lord and
said, “We have sinned. Punish us as you see fit,
only rescue us today from our enemies.” 16 Then
the Israelites put aside their foreign gods and
served the Lord. And he was grieved by their
misery.
17 At that time the armies of Ammon had gathered for war and were camped in Gilead, and
the people of Israel assembled and camped at
Mizpah. 18 The leaders of Gilead said to each
other, “Whoever attacks the Ammonites first
will become ruler over all the people of Gilead.”
Jephthah Becomes Israel’s Judge
Now Jephthah of Gilead was a great warrior. He was the son of Gilead, but his
mother was a prostitute. 2 Gilead’s wife also had
several sons, and when these half brothers grew
up, they chased Jephthah off the land. “You will
not get any of our father’s inheritance,” they
said, “for you are the son of a prostitute.” 3 So
Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the
land of Tob. Soon he had a band of worthless
rebels following him.
11
• Regrets
JU D G E S 1 1 :7
It has been said, “Be careful how you
treat others on your way up, because
they are the same people you’ll meet on
your way down.” In other words, life has
cycles. Sometimes we are on the way up
life’s ladder and everything’s going our
way. We have wealth, we have power,
we’re at the top of our game. But there
will also be times when life doesn’t go
our way, and we move down the ladder.
We are struggling and need help—help
finding a job, help out of financial trouble,
help to overcome a bad decision. It’s
ironic how often the very people we
thought we didn’t need at one point in
life suddenly become so important to
us later. Jephthah’s brothers learned
this hard lesson. Treating all people with
the grace, mercy, and kindness that
God intended will usually cause us to
be treated with that same grace, mercy,
and kindness in our hour of need.
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4 At about this time, the Ammonites began
their war against Israel. 5 When the Ammonites
attacked, the elders of Gilead sent for Jephthah
in the land of Tob. 6 The elders said, “Come
and be our commander! Help us fight the
Ammonites!”
7 But Jephthah said to them, “Aren’t you the
ones who hated me and drove me from my
father’s house? Why do you come to me now
when you’re in trouble?”
8 “Because we need you,” the elders replied.
“If you lead us in battle against the Ammonites,
we will make you ruler over all the people of
Gilead.”
9 Jephthah said to the elders, “Let me get this
straight. If I come with you and if the Lord gives
me victory over the Ammonites, will you really
make me ruler over all the people?”
10 “The Lord is our witness,” the elders replied. “We promise to do whatever you say.”
11 So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead,
and the people made him their ruler and commander of the army. At Mizpah, in the presence
of the Lord, Jephthah repeated what he had
said to the elders.
12 Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king
of Ammon, asking, “Why have you come out to
fight against my land?”
13 The king of Ammon answered Jephthah’s
messengers, “When the Israelites came out of
Egypt, they stole my land from the Arnon River
to the Jabbok River and all the way to the Jordan. Now then, give back the land peaceably.”
14 Jephthah sent this message back to the Ammonite king:
15 “This
is what Jephthah says: Israel did
not steal any land from Moab or Ammon.
16 When the people of Israel arrived at
Kadesh on their journey from Egypt
after crossing the Red Sea,* 17 they sent
messengers to the king of Edom asking for
permission to pass through his land. But
their request was denied. Then they asked
the king of Moab for similar permission,
but he wouldn’t let them pass through
either. So the people of Israel stayed in
Kadesh.
18 “Finally, they went around Edom and
Moab through the wilderness. They traveled
along Moab’s eastern border and camped
on the other side of the Arnon River. But
they never once crossed the Arnon River
into Moab, for the Arnon was the border
of Moab.
19 “Then Israel sent messengers to King
Sihon of the Amorites, who ruled from
Heshbon, asking for permission to cross
through his land to get to their destination.
20 But King Sihon didn’t trust Israel to pass
11:16 Hebrew sea of reeds.