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.
Chapter 1: Who are the judges mentioned in Judges 10-12?
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.
Chapter 2: Why did God sell Israel into the hands of their enemies?
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.
Chapter 3: What was Israel's response to their oppression by the Philistines and Ammonites?
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.
Chapter 4: Who is Jephthah and why is he appointed as a leader?
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.
Chapter 5: What was Jephthah's vow and its consequences?
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.
God has already given him the game plan, but Jephthah disregards it. Second, when the Israelites win and Jephthah comes home and the first thing through the door is his daughter, that's the moment when he can cancel the vow and go offer a sin offering to God instead. Leviticus 5 gives the option of revoking a vow that would result in sin.
Chapter 6: How does the story of Jephthah highlight the importance of understanding God's laws?
but it seems like Jephthah may not fully know the law he is called to uphold and lead others by. Third, and then I'll add a caveat to this third point as well, human sacrifice is strictly forbidden in at least four different places in the books of the law, including Deuteronomy 18.10.
Jephthah hastily makes a grand gesture in vowing to sacrifice anything, but when he says he can't take back his vow, he's wrong. This is just another example of why we have to weigh scripture against scripture. What Jephthah says here is inconsistent with what God has said directly.
My caveat to the third point is that many people believe Jephthah didn't actually sacrifice his daughter, but that he just consigned her to live as a single woman for the rest of her life. This would have saved him the agony of murdering his daughter. But either way, there's one consequence that would have stuck with him regardless.
Whether she lives as a single woman or whether she dies, his name dies out with him because she's his only child. And I also want to take a moment to point out a hard truth that we see in this passage here. Not everyone who wants to get married ends up getting married. Regardless whether she died young and alone or old and alone, Jephthah's daughter laments her lot in life, and lament is okay.
She even carves out time for it, and she does it in community. As a single woman, I'm inspired by Jephthah's response. When we open Chapter 12, we see that Ephraim's got FOMO again. They're the scrappy little tribe always looking for a reason to break out their weapons, just like in Chapter 8 yesterday.
Today, they're mad that Jephthah didn't call them to fight with him, but he says he did call them and they must have just forgotten to check their voicemail. They threaten to burn his house down, so he fights them, and they get the fight they're looking for. Real nice, guys. You're on the same team, remember? but they don't remember apparently.
They're hurling insults and trying to trick each other. The men of Ephraim, for example, are trying to pose as Gileadites, those people who live east of the Jordan River, but they have different accents than the Gileadites and it gives them away. This would be like if I were posing as a Canadian and someone from Vancouver asked me to say the word about or the word aluminum.
My citizenship would be evident right away. As a result of all the infighting, Ephraim loses 42,000 men. This is the first internal battle between the tribes of Israel, and it's a sign that things are going downhill quickly. We wrapped up today with a quick shot on the three judges that came immediately after Jephthah, Ibsen, Elon, and Abdon.
Tomorrow we pick up with possibly the worst judge in the whole book, Samson. What was your God shot today? Mine was just a short little sentence about God in 1016. It says, He became impatient over the misery of Israel. What a tender-hearted God. If you ever wonder if God likes seeing you suffer or is trying to punish you, know that He aches alongside you.
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