FROM TODAY’S RECAP: - Leviticus 5:4-6 - Deuteronomy 18:10 - Judges 8 - Psalm 34:18 - TBR Kids Page Note: We provide links to specific resources; this is not an endorsement of the entire website, author, organization, etc. Their views may not represent our own. SHOW NOTES: - Follow The Bible Recap: Instagram | Facebook | TikTok | YouTube - Follow Tara-Leigh Cobble: Instagram - Read/listen on the Bible App or Dwell App - Learn more at our Start Page - Become a RECAPtain - Shop the TBR Store - Credits PARTNER MINISTRIES: D-Group International Israelux The God Shot TLC Writing & Speaking DISCLAIMER: The Bible Recap, Tara-Leigh Cobble, and affiliates are not a church, pastor, spiritual authority, or counseling service. Listeners and viewers consume this content on a voluntary basis and assume all responsibility for the resulting consequences and impact.
Full Episode
Hey Bible Readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap. We're continuing our downward spiral of Israel's judges after yesterday's tragedy with Gideon's son Abimelech, and today we encounter six bad judges. The first two barely get a mention. There was Tola from the tribe of Issachar, who lived among the tribe of Ephraim for some reason. Then there was Jer the Gileadite.
Gilead is a region in the Transjordan, 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 Transjordan, 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 oppressed them for 18 years on the east side of the Jordan River, and they also fight against them on the west side of the Jordan River. 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 Transjordan, 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 Jephthah, who bears a lot of resemblance to what we saw from Abimelech yesterday. For being an outlaw and an outcast, Jephthah 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 Jephthah explains 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 Jephthah knows he has a war on his hands.
God's spirit travels with Jephthah 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 Jephthah makes a really 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 keep his laws. That's the way to victory, not hasty vows.
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