JUDGES Lecture 5

JUDGES – Lecture 5 Integrity, Conviction, Courage Kay Arthur, Teacher

“Men Wanted!”, and I am not speaking as a single woman. Men Wanted! Men of integrity, men of courage, men of conviction, men who are men of the word of God--God wants men like that. “The eyes of the Lord run to and forth, throughout the whole earth, looking for a man whose heart is completely His, that God might show Himself strong on His behalf.” We want to look at the kind of men that God wants, and we are going to look at that by looking at the kind of men that we shouldn’t be. So we are going to look at both types of men. As I begin, I want to read to you a letter that was left by General Douglas MacArthur as a legacy, a spiritual legacy to his son. It was written during the desperate early days of the Pacific War. This is what he wrote. “Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid. One who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat and humble and gentle in victory. Build me a son whose wishbone is not where his backbone should be, a son who will know Thee, and that to know himself is the foundation stone of knowledge. Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort, but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge. Here let him learn to stand up in the storm. Let him learn compassion for those who fail. Build me a son whose heart will be clear, whose goal will be high, a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men. One who will learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep. One who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past. And after all these things are his, add, I pray, enough of a sense of humor so that he may always be serious, yet never take himself too seriously. Give him humility, so that he will always remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength. Then I, his father, will dare to whisper, ‘I have not lived in vain.’” Give me a man. Well, this was Douglas MacArthur’s prayer. It was a prayer for his son. God takes us to the book of Judges, and what does He do? He gives us a vision of men and one woman, Deborah, who become judges of Israel. When we look at Judges, Chapters 9-12, this is what we see. We see Tola who judged for 23 years. We were not told anything about him. Jair, we are told he had 30 sons, and they rode on 30 donkeys, and he judged for 22 years. Now that is all we know about him. We see Jephthah, a valiant warrior who judged for six years. We are going to look at him. We see Ibzan, who had thirty sons and thirty daughters, and he judged seven years. (These were busy men. You wonder how they had time to judge.) We have Elon, who judged for ten years; and Abdon, who had forty sons and thirty grandsons who rode on donkeys, and judged for eight years. These are men acknowledged in the book of Judges as judges. We know from Judges 2 that when God’s people were in bondage because of the evil they did, and they finally cried out to the Lord, that God raised up a judge. God was with the judge all the days of that judge’s life, and God delivered His people through the judge. Then the judge would die, and what kind of legacy did they leave? Well, this is all we know about these men, except Jephthah, and we are going to look at him in depth. We see that, among all these six men that I have named, only one man stands out. That’s the man we are going to look at in a few moments. But as we look at these chapters, I want you to see that these chapters, Judges 9-12, focus basically on four men or groups of men. We have Abimelech, the man who would be king. We have the men of Shechem, and the men of Shechem are the ones who are going to make him king. Then we have Jotham, who is a brother of Abimelech. Then we have Jephthah. In these men, when you look at them, you go from evil men to a good man. What you have in-between is the men who are living in between these kind of men. The men of Shechem who side with the evil; Jotham who stands and calls the people to consider their ways; and then Jephthat, who was called a valiant warrior. It is kind of like the old cowboys and Indians movies, when there were the good guy and the bad guys. So you have the bad guys, and you have the good guys. We want to see what lessons we can learn from these bad guys and these good guys. Go to Judges 8:33, which tells us what it is like after Gideon dies. It says, (33) “Then is came about, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the sons of Israel again played the harlot with the Baals.” [In other 1 words, here they are again, (Excuse me, but the King James Version uses it, and I love the word) and “they go a whoring after the Baals.” We need to understand that anytime something takes your affection away from God, you have played the harlot with whatever takes your affection away from God. So this is what they did.] “and made Baal-berith their god.” [Now Baal means “lord.” You have studied it, and you have studied who Baal is like. Berith means “covenant.” They take Baal, and they say he is the god of covenant, and they go after this god instead of the God that made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and his descendants and promised them the possession of a land forever. So this is the state of Israel at this time.] Judges 8:34-35 says, “Thus the sons of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side; (35) nor did they show kindness to the household of Jerubbaal (that is Gideon) in accord with all the good that he had done to Israel.” [So God wants you to know that we had a valiant man over here by the name of Gideon. And Gideon did good to the house of Israel. Gideon was God’s man. But now the people have forgotten Gideon. Now the people are not treating Gideon’s family properly.] In Judges 9:1, we meet an evil man. “And Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal (Gideon) went to Shechem to his mother’s relatives.” [Now why is he going to Shechem? Why are his mother’s relatives there? Gideon judged up in the north, but now Gideon’s judgeship reached all the way down to Shechem. You see this when you go back to Judges 8:30.] “Now Gideon had seventy sons who were his direct descendants, for he had many wives. (31) And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech.” [Now what does Abimelech mean? Abimelech means “the father is king,” or it means “my father is king,” or it means “father is king.” There is debate on what it means, but technically it is “father is king.” So when Gideon went down south to Shechem, which implies that his judgeship went down that far, he had left all these wives at home. So what does he do? He has a concubine down in Shechem. Now a concubine was a woman who acted, in sense, like a wife. Obviously like a wife in having his kids, she was treated like a wife, but she did not have the right of inheritance. And her children did not have the right of inheritance. So you find Abimelech having a mother in Shechem, and you find him going to the clan of the household of his mother’s father saying (9:2) “Speak, now, in the hearing of all the leaders of Shechem, ‘Which is better for you, that seventy men, all the sons of Jerubaal, rule over you, or that one man rule over you?’ Also, remember that I am your bone and your flesh.” [In other words, “Before you answer that question, as to whether you want seventy men to rule over you or one man to rule over you, just remember before you answer the question, I am your closest relative. I am the one closest to you.” [Now, why is he saying, “rule over you”? Because, all of a sudden what you find in Abimelech is this word, “Rule, rule, rule--King.” He is an ambitious man. He is the man who would be king at all cost. He is a man whose father was offered a kingship, a kingship that is premature in the plan of God, a kingship that Gideon refuses. Go back and look at Judges 8:22-23. After he delivers the children of Israel, “Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, ‘Rule over us, both you and your son, also your son’s son, for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian.’ (23) But Gideon said to them, ‘I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you; [I am not going to rule over you, and my son is not going to rule over you. No, we are not setting up a kingship among the Israelites. This is not God.] “the Lord shall rule over you.” Now we are going to look at, and we are going to study the book of Samuel. We are going to see when the people insisted on a king. We are going to see what God said about that. (I just didn’t take you there, because I don’t want to preempt it.) I just want you to see that this is not God’s time. It is not God’s way, and yet here is Abimelech, whose name is “my father is king,” or “father is king,” or “the king my father.” That’s his name. Somehow, somewhere, I think Gideon got a little messed up in his thinking, don’t you? I think with his naming his son like that, because you see, they wouldn’t name a son before his birth. They would wait and see and think about that child, and see what that child is like. You are going to see this when you study the book of Ruth. You are going to look at Naomi’s sons. You are going to look at their names, and you are going to see. So many times they would wait and see what their son was going to be like; or else they would have ambition for their child, and so out of ambition for their child, they would name their child that. Somehow this young man got it into his head that he was going to be king. 2 Yet his father said, “No, my son shall not rule over you.” So you see a man, an evil man, because he is moving against the will of God, he is moving out of the will of God. He is going after a kingship; he is a man that wants power. He is a man that wants to rule. You see him persuading (in Judges 9) his relatives to make him king. You see him hiring worthless, reckless fellows. Look at what he says in v 3. “And his mother’s relatives spoke all these words on his behalf in the hearing of all the leaders of Shechem;” [In other words, he wins all the family, and the family goes out to win the city.] “and they (the men of Shechem) were inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, ‘He is our relative.’” [Now what do you see happening with the men of Shechem? The men of Shechem are connecting themselves to the aura of this man who is going to be king. Why? Because it is right? No, they are doing what is evil in the eyes of God. They are doing what is right in their own eyes. They say “Listen, if this man is going to be king, then let’s hook our wagon to his star, and let’s get part of his glory. Let’s shine with him.” So what happens? What does he do?] Judges 9:4. “And they gave him seventy pieces of silver from the house of Baal-berith…” [So they are taking money from this house, from this false god, and they are supporting him and what he is going to do. What does he do with the money?] “with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless fellows, and they followed him.” [As I read and studied this a number of days ago, all I could think of was Hitler. Now Hitler was far more atrocious than this man, but I thought how Hitler came to power; and how Hitler denied his Christian background, and how Hitler hired all these worthless men who came along (he hired some brilliant men too), but these troops, these SS officers, would do his dirty work.] So then what does Abimelech do? (9:5) “Then he went to his fathers house (Gideon’s house) at Ophrah, and killed his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, on one stone. But Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left, for he hid himself.” [Now we know that he has a young son over here. He has a first born, in Judges 8:20, whose name is Jether. So it must be that this is a son that was born after Jether. He was born after Jether, because Jether is called his first born in Judges 8:20, but then we have the rest of Gideon’s life, so this must be his first born. This is the one that escapes. This is the one who runs into hiding, and this is a man that you and I need to look at.] I want you to see the kind of men who aligned themselves with Abimelech. These men of Shechem were Jews. They lived ten miles north of Shiloh. What is significant about Shiloh? That is where the tabernacle was. They live only ten miles north of that, but what are they doing? They build a temple to Baal; they make a covenant with Baal. This temple, Shechem, is right in the shadow of two mountains— the shadow of Mt. Ebel and the shadow of Mt. Gerizim. Now what happened there? (Joshua 8 tells us, and Deuteronomy tells us what was to happen in Joshua 8.) In Joshua 8, when they cross the Jordan River, they go to Mt. Ebel and Mt. Gerizim, just as God instructed them in Deuteronomy. What do they do? They split the priesthood, and the people stand down in the valley, and what do they do? They read the blessings, and they read the curses, the blessings that will come on them at Mt. Gerizim, if they do what they are suppose to do, and the curses at Mt. Ebel that will come up them if they don’t do what God tells them. So they stand there and they read the blessings and the cursings. It is in the shadows of these mountains that they stand and erect a temple to Baal. These are the men of Shechem. These are the men that align themselves. These are the men (and I put it down) that are “What’s in it for me?” kind of men. We have gone through all sorts of scandals and things like this. You take an evil man and watch the men that he surrounds himself with. I don’t mean to be rude, but I believe that President Clinton is an evil man, and look at the people that surrounded themselves around him. Why did they do that? Because, they were “What’s in it for me?” men, and he took care of those that were around them. Look at the leader, and then look at the people around them, because like attracts like. You will see that if you get a man that has no morals and has no principles. What did the USA do when President Clinton was found to be in such vile immorality, such flagrant immorality? Nothing! Why? Because they excused him, because they were like him. Now I don’t want to shock you, and please don’t write me and tell me I was wrong to do what I just did. I have written a book on sex, Sex According to God. A & E Biography had a thing on Hugh Heffner. Hugh Heffner took you, and I was able to go because nothing turned me on, it just revolted me. But he took you into the Playboy mansion. I don’t think any man should watch what happened, and he showed 3 you what went on. He, at the age of 75, has six playmates that are his girls, that live with him, and that sleep with him. But then it showed all the parties that he has. I watched these men on screen stand there on screen--Drew Carey, I mean what he said, I thought, “You are the lowest.” But then I saw Bill Cosby on screen saying it was a highlight of his life to go to the Playboy mansion to one of these parties. They are nothing. They are absolutely nothing but Sodom and Gomorrah all over again, with the women thrown in. Anything goes in the grotto. It is awful, absolutely awful. But what is Hugh Heffner saying? He said, “I can’t believe this is happening to me now.” He went through a period where he was married, and his wife said, “We closed the doors to all these parties. We have kids.” Finally, he just went down, and down, and down in depression. Then they separated, and they divorced. So now he has the parties back and he says, “I never thought that they would welcome me.” He says, “My goodness, at this time in my life, I am like a rock star. I looked at that, and I thought, “That is American culture.” Think about what has happened since Playboy Magazine hit the newsstands. Evil men will be like a magnet to attract other evil men to them, and they will support them in their sin. The men of Shechem knew that Abimelech had just killed his brothers. Oh, he didn’t have a close attachment, he lived far away, but he had a common father. He killed his brothers on one stone, and they saw it, and they didn’t do anything. And they supported him, and they gave him the money to hire the worthless fellows. All of these parties that Hugh Heffner throws he finances with the proceeds from selling Playboy Magazine. And these guys on that screen were telling you how they had found their first Playboy Magazine at the age of twelve, how they would go and keep these magazines in the woods, and how they would go out and dig up those magazines. They were full of dirt and everything, but this is what they were putting before their eyes. Now listen to me, what you put before your eyes, what you see with your eyes goes right in . Don’t you forget this, don’t you forget this, that what you take in with your eyes is right there on the screen of your mind. That’s what happened. They saw it, and they condoned it, and they think they get away with it. But there is one son that escapes by the sovereignty of God. I love this young man. He is one of my heroes. He is a man of courage. He is a man who calls the others to consider where they are. He is like a meteor; he flies across the sky. He is there just temporarily, and yet you see the light against the darkness of the inky sky. This is what you see with him. (I wish I were more eloquent.) Judges 9:7. “Now when they told Jotham, he went and stood on the top of Mt Gerizim, (remember this is the men of Shechem) and lifted his voice and called out. Thus he said to them, ‘Listen to me, O men of Shechem, that God may listen to you.” [This is the very first parable in the Bible.] (8) “Once the trees went forth to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us!’ [Now they say to the olive tree, they say to the fig tree, they say to the vine, “Reign over us.” All of them say, “No, I can’t leave what I am called to do to come reign over you.” So not being able to find an olive tree, not being able to find a fig tree, not being able to find a vine, what do they do? They turn to a bramble, and they say to the bramble, “Rule over us.” What does the bramble say?] (15) “If in truth you are anointing me as king over you, come and take refuge in my shade; but if not, may fire come from the bramble and consume the cedars of Lebanon” [What is this bramble saying? Listen to it. This is Abimelech. He is saying, “Listen, if you aren’t with me, then may fire consume you.” In other words, he is going to brook no adversaries, no opposition, no one. He is not a man that is going to let other men make decisions. “If you want me as your ruler, then I will be your king over you, but if you don’t want me to rule over you, then fire on you.” ] Now, what is different between an olive tree, a fig tree, and a vine, and a bramble? An olive tree, a fig tree, and a vine all bring forth fruit. A bramble doesn’t bear any fruit. You see that here is not someone that has fruit to give to others, but here you have someone who is stickly and prickly, and says, “Listen, you come over to me, or you burn.” So you see this young man standing before them. He says in v.16, “Now therefore, if you have dealt in truth and in integrity in making Abimelech king,” [To whom is he speaking? The men of Sheckem that have put this man in power. He knows he can not be in power unless he has support. Listen, where you find an evil man in power, know this, there have been those who put him willingly in power. And they think they are going to get away with it. Does Abimelech become king? Yes. Does he rule? Yes. How long does he rule? Three years. It looks like they hitched their wagon to the right star, doesn’t it? Because they have three years when he 4 rules, and Jothan is talking to them. (16) (Jotham says,) “If you have dealt in truth and integrity in making Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal (Gideon) and his house, and have dealt with him as he deserved – (17) for my father fought for you and risked his life and delivered you from the hand of Midian;” [In other words, these were not men of principle. These were not men of integrity. You know that they were not men of principle and integrity because they did not take care of Gideon, because they did not take care of Gideon’s family. You can tell they are only in it for themselves. So he is talking to them.] What I want you to think about when you elect any man or elect any woman to an office or when you choose a leader, choose a leader that is a person of truth, a person of integrity whose life has good fruit that you can see, who respects righteousness and despises brambles, and you will be choosing the right one. But listen, if you choose the other person, because of the economy, because of your own good, or whatever, then you are going to reap the consequences. I love this. He says, in (19) “if then you have dealt in truth and integrity with Jerubbaal and his house this day, rejoice in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you. (20) But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech and consume the men of Shechem and Beth- millo; and let fire come out from the men of Shechem and from Beth-millo, and consume Abimelech.” [In other words, if you have dealt in integrity, then God’s blessing be upon you. But if you haven’t, then God’s judgment be upon you. And let the men of Shechem and Beth-millo consume Abimelech, and let Abimelech consume the men of Shechem and Beth-millo. Does it come to pass? Yes, it comes to pass. But look, what is Jotham? Whish ---- that’s it. That’s all we know about him, and yet the world needs more Jothams. The world needs men who will stand fearlessly on Mt Gerizim and pronounce the blessings that will come from obedience, and turn to Mt. Ebel and remind them of the curses if they do not obey. I have started praying for Hugh Heffer. I had never prayed for him before. He has chronicled his whole life, a room full of everything that he has chronicled. It is a chronicle of sin. It is a chronicle of degradation, and that man does not know it. Why? Because he has all these men around him that are applauding him and thinking he is absolutely wonderful, and basking in all his money can buy, but who truly, truly in a sense love Hugh Heffner, because he has liberated them sexually. You know the story in Judges 9:22. “Now Abimelech ruled over Israel three years. (23) Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech, (24) in order that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come, and their blood might be laid on Abimelech their brother, who killed them, and on the men of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to kill his brothers.” [And what do you see? You see another just like Abimelech that becomes an enemy. His name is Gaal. He is the son of Ebed. Gaal is just as ambitious.] Look at what happens in v. 28, when Gaal shows up in Shechem. (28) “Then Gaal the son of Ebed said, ‘Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerubbaal, and is Zebul not his lieutenant? Serve the men of Hamor (the Hivites) the father of Shechem; but why should we serve him? Would, therefore, that this people were under my authority! Then I would remove Abimelech.” [Here is another contender for the throne. You have to know that there is always a contender for the throne of evil. There is always a contender for the throne of evil. We need Jothams, and we need Jephthahs.] Now let me tell you just one thing about Jothan. When I look at Jothan, and I tell you that he is like a meteor that comes across the dark sky that shines his light. I would suggest that you subscribe to “Christian History Magazine.” It is full of stories of the conflict between good and evil down through the ages, and the great men of God that God raises up. How many of you have ever heard of John Huss? Not many of you have heard of him. John Huss lived in 1415. He was from Prague. He was a man that not a brilliant student. There was nothing about him that spoke or let you think that this is a man that is going to be greatly used by God. To me he was like a Jotham. He was an ordinary guy, an ordinary guy who was going to stand for righteousness. In Constance, Germany, on July 6, 1450, it was a Saturday. The cathedral was packed. The cardinals where sitting there in their red miters, as was the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Zeigizman (?). This Emperor had promised safe passage to John Huss if he would simply come and appear before the court. He promised him safe passage, but he was not a man of his word. Now 5 they have John Huss on trial. They have in the nave of the church all his priestly garments laid out. They give him two options. The options are: he can give unqualified submission to this counsel, or he can die. He can either recant or die. Now what was this man? This man was like a Jotham that went to Mount Gerizim, so to speak, and called the people to righteousness, and to consider who was ruling over them. In 1412, Pope John the 23rd proclaimed a crusade against the King of Naples, who had seized control of Rome. It was politics in those days, so to raise funds, he promised indulgences. And he sealed these indulgences. This was the way he made his money. Huss saw this; this is an evil man in a position of Pope. Huss saw this, and he saw the corruption that was all around him, and he was outraged, and he preached against this practice. When he preached against this practice, they said to him, “O.K. Away with you. We are not going to have this.” Huss refused to submit, and he said, “Even if the fire burns my body, even if the fire to burn my body was placed before my eyes, I will not obey. Shall I keep silent? God forbid. Woe is me if I keep silent. It is better for me to die than not to oppose such wickedness, which would make me a participant in their guilt and hell.” He called sin, sin, because they were taking the money from the church’s coffers, just like Baal-berth from that temple, and they were building houses of prostitution and all sorts of other things with that money. He would not be quiet. Now he is on trial. And as he is on trial, he is given one final chance to save his life by recanting. They take him and they tie him to the stake. The wood is all around him; the fire is ready to be kindled. A pause fell over the meadow, and Huss’s voice could be heard clearly. “God is my witness, the principle intention of my preaching and all my other acts or writing was solely that I might turn men from sin. And in that truth of the gospel that I wrote, taught, and preached in accordance with the sayings and exposition of the holy doctrine, I am willing glad to die.” An audible murmur rippled. The signal was given, and the executioner set the pyre ablaze. The smoke rose up, and the people watched breathlessly. And in the midst of the bellowing flames, an incredulous crowd heard him sing three times, “Jesus, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me. Jesus, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me. Jesus, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me.” He was like a meteor, but he was a Jothan, and he called the people to stop and consider where they were and where they were going. And he called sin, sin. Go to Judges, Chapter 11, and we come to Jephthah. When we come to Jephthah, we find Israel in great trouble again. We find that now the reign of Jair is over. It says, in Judges 10:6, “Then the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, served the Baal…” (7) “And the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He sold them into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the sons of Ammon. (8) And they afflicted and crushed the sons of Israel that year; for eighteen years they afflicted them…” (10) “Then the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord again,” and the Lord speaks to them again. (11) “And the Lord said to the sons of Israel, ‘Did I not deliver you from the Egyptians, the Amorites, the sons of Ammon, and the Philistines? (12) Also when the Sidonians, the Amalekites and the Moanites oppressed you, you cried out to Me, and I delivered you from their hands. (13) Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods; therefore I will deliver you no more. (14) Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your distress.’ (15) And the sons of Israel said to the Lord, ‘We have sinned, do to us whatever seems good to Thee; only please deliver us this day.’” [So what do you see them do?] (16) “So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord;” [What does the Lord say?] “and He could bear the misery of Israel no longer.” [The heart of God! His mercies are new every morning, and His compassion fails not. He will save Cosby, He will save Heffner, He will save Carey, and He will save these men, if they will turn away from their sins. But if not, they will burn in the lake of fire, where the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched. He has a heart of compassion, but He will not tolerate sin.] So who is raised up? Jephthah, the Gilead, a valiant warrior. He is called a man of valor. Look at Judges 11:1. “Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a valiant warrior, but he was the son of a harlot.” [He was just the son of a harlot. Yet here is a man that determines that his past is not going to color his present or his future, and he becomes a man of valor. As a result of that, you know the story, how his brothers do not want him around, how they try to get rid of him until they are in trouble, until the sons of Ammon come down. Then they go to him, and they ask him, “Won’t you come and be our head? Won’t you come and fight for us against the Ammonites?” 6 What do you see in v.10? “And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, ‘The Lord is witness between us; surely we will do as you have said.’ (11) Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them; and Jephthah spoke all his words before the Lord at Mizpah.” [This Mizpah on the east of the Jordan in the area of Gilead. What do you see? Here is a man who is a man of valor, here is a man who fears God, here is a man who is a man of knowledge. Here is a man of reason, here is a man that is not just coming to conquer and kill and destroy, because when the sons of Ammon come against him, he says, “Wait a minute; wait a minute. Let’s talk about this. Let’s discuss why you want to fight us, why you don’t want us on this land.” He says, “Let’s talk about it.” They say, “Well, we want it because you have taken our land. Look at v. 13. “And the king of the sons of Ammon said to the messengers of Jephthah, ‘Because Israel took away my land when they came up from Egypt, from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok on the Jordan; therefore, return them peaceably now.” [Sounds like Arafat; it sounds just like Arafat. “You have taken our land. You have taken the land of Palestine.” (Nowhere does the Bible ever call it Palestine.) “You have taken our land. Return it to us, and we will quit these suicide bombings.” You try to reason with Arafat, but you can’t reason with the man, because he says one thing out of one side of his mouth and another thing out of the other side of his mouth. I have heard the tapes. I have been in the home of the guy who is the editor for the Jerusalem Post. When I walked in for dinner, he was upset. He said, “Come here,” and he had just gotten tapes from a talk that Arafat had given to just an Arab audience, telling them that they were going to drive those Jews into the sea. All the time talking peace, peace, but not intending peace.] So this is Ammon. So what does Jephthah do? He reasons with them. He gives them the history. Jephthah takes them through the history of Israel, and how they got the land. (21) “And the Lord, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they defeated them; so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country.” [Look, if this is the Jordan River, here are the Amorites, and here are the Ammonites. So he says this is what they did, (23) “Since now the Lord, the God of Israel, drove out the Amorites from before His people Israel, are you then to possess it?” [Here is the Jordan River; here are the Amorites,and here are the Ammonites. He said, “God gave us this land. God drove out those Ammonites. Now you are sitting over here, and you want to possess it? You have had three hundred years, why haven’t you done it? Why do you want it now?” And what you see here is a message that Israel needs to deliver to Arafat. “Why are you asking for a land that God has given to the children of Israel? What do you see? You see evil over here in Arafat. You see a wrong thinking, because they do not know the word of God. So Jephthah takes them back to the word of God, and you know the story. You know how he is ready to go to battle. As he leaves his house, he is so set on winning this battle that he makes a vow to the Lord. “Lord, if you will give me this battle for You, whatever comes out of the door of my house I will give up to You as a burnt offering.” He wins the battle; he comes back home, and his daughter comes out to meet him. What does he say? (I want you to see this man. I want you to understand him.) (35) “And it came about when he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, ‘Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you are among those who trouble me; for I have given my word to the Lord, and I cannot take it back.’” [That’s a man of integrity. Despite what he vowed, despite what happens, and you know the debate. She was either put to death, or she remained a virgin for the rest of her life and served in the temple. We can debate it, and we can read the scholars and all that, but the point is this--the man said, “I made a vow to God.” He was a man of integrity, a man of his word. “And I am going to keep my word.” He had one child, a daughter, that he had apparently had spent time with, because what does the daughter say?] (36) “My father, you have given your word to God. We will keep your word.” [Even at great personal cost to herself, either her life, or either her perpetual virginity, and his never having an heir to carry on his name, here was a man of his word, a man who was going to keep his word at all costs.] When you look at Jephthah, I think of the words of Theodore Roosevelt. “It is not the critic that counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust, sweat, blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthwhile cause, who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph 7 of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails at doing greatly; so that his place will never be with those cold and timid souls who do not know victory or defeat.” I don’t know what you think, but I would tell you this, “Don’t remember Jephthah by his daughter; remember Jephthah as a man who was a man of valor, as a man who turned away from his past and did not let his past hinder him, a man who feared God, who made a covenant before the people, who took the judgeship offered to him in an unusual way not like any of the other judges, and who stood and was a man of God. These are the kind of men that are wanted today. And these are the kind of men that you and I need to rally around. I have kept this for years. “Wanted: men for this hour. Our day demands strong men, men of conviction. We need men who cannot be bought, whose word is their bond, who put character above wealth, who possess opinions and a will, who are larger than their vocations, who do not hesitate to take chances, who will make no compromise with wrong, who will not lose their individuality in a crowd, (and that is so important because the peer pressure is so great), who will be as honest in small things as in great things, who will not say they do it because everybody else does it, whose ambitions are not confined to their own selfish desires, who give thirty-six inches to the yard and thirty-two quarts to the bushel, who will not have one brand of honesty for business purposes and another brand for private life, who are true to their friends through good report and evil report, in adversity as well as prosperity, who do not believe that shrewdness, sharpness, cunning and long headedness are the best quality for winning success, who are not ashamed or afraid to stand for the truth when it is unpopular, who can say, ‘No,’ with emphasis while all the rest of the world is saying, ‘Yes.’ We need eagles. A shell gives the turtle warmth and security. He has no foes, no cares, nothing to strive for. The eagle flies through the heavens, screaming defiance to the elements. Aroused, he is formidable. The eagle, not the turtle, is America’s symbol. We need men of character. God give us men! A time like this demands strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready hands, men whom the lust of office does not kill, men whom the spoils of office cannot buy, men who possess opinions and a will, men who love honor, men who cannot lie. These are the kind of men that we want.” As you think of Judges 9–12, think of all these men, the judges, and all we know is that they had thirty sons, thirty grandkids, they rode on donkeys. And then think of Jothan, that meteor across the sky, who saw the evil and who spoke up. There have been countless many like him down through the generations--never made a king, never put into office, but who stood and let the voice of righteousness be heard, and challenged the people to chose who they wanted to rule over them. And then think of Jephthah, a man who was willing to go to war, a man of valor, a man who kept his word, even at great personal cost to himself. Where are you? Where are the men? Where are the men of valor? We know where the evil men are. They are so apparent. They are all over. I just want to ask you a question. Why are they able to rule? Why are they able to rule? Why do others come around and applaud them for their evil doings. I was absolutely sick when I saw all these stars applauding Hugh Heffner, who gave them a new way to live. Fire will come down and judge them, but at least they need to hear someone stand up and say, “Consider your ways.” Who do you want to rule over you? Do you want blessing or cursing?