Beloved, I would like to invite your spirit to attend to the text of Scripture below. Spirit, hear the word of the L-rd for you for today.
Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute. Gilead was the father of Jephthah. And Gilead’s wife also bore him sons. And when his wife’s sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, “You shall not have an inheritance in our father’s house, for you are the son of another woman.” Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob, and worthless fellows collected around Jephthah and went out with him.
Judges 11:1-7 ESV
After a time the Ammonites made war against Israel. And when the Ammonites made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah from the land of Tob. And they said to Jephthah, “Come and be our leader, that we may fight against the Ammonites.” But Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Did you not hate me and drive me out of my father’s house? Why have you come to me now when you are in distress?”
Spirit, it is possible to possess your birthright in isolation, but we cannot become people of destiny apart from community.
And in order to have the destiny that belongs to us in fullness, we need not just any community, but the right community.
Spirit, I would encourage you to remember, that G-d wastes nothing, even our mistakes and our selections of the wrong communities. He was here first, He allows and orders our steps, and though He is sovereign, He is not in control as with a marionette. Unlike Panem, He does not dangle your reality out of reach like a carrot to a donkey.
He does not reap you in order to terrorize you and keep you grasping for something unreachable.
He may use you to thwart a wicked system or wicked systems, and He may allow you painful passages for a season because He is hunting for true social justice, not the place where one political party overthrows another so that the oppressed can become the oppressors, but the L-rd’s destruction of unjust power structures so that HE CAN RADIATE HIS GLORY IN INTEGRITY and so the government can be placed more firmly upon His shoulder (Isaiah 9:6). In order to accomplish this, He may allow you to come to some level of harm in order to accomplish an end against his enemy from which they will never recover. You may end up putting some real skin in the game, and enduring some real pain, so the enemy thinks you are out because of despair. Friends may appear to turn against you, but this is all to the working of the L-rd.
Spirit, the question is, how will you respond when you are placed in painful situations, not situations of abundant comfort, but of abundant discomfort, pressed in on every side?
Jephthah faced three problems as I see it.
- He forgot who the real enemy was. He was focused on the people who had made fun of him, ran him out of town, probably gaslit him, not remembering that the L-rd’s enemies throughout the book of Judges were the Baalim which His people stubbornly worshipped. He focused on their hatred and so backed himself into a corner that was not the L-rd’s focus for him.
- He did not realize the L-rd was allowing pain into his life in order to build a greater victory against the L-rd’s enemies. G-d allows pain to bring us up to a higher place of earned authority.
- Most importantly, Jephthah responded to the pain in many horrid ways, wrong ways, and this wrong response to pain, instead of bringing a blessing, brings a skewed perspective and violated boundaries.
So spirit, when bad things happen to you, I bless you to slow down, stop, pause, and reflect.
I bless you to Selah.
I bless you to purposefully ascertain and discern any potential reasons the L-rd may be allowing painful situations.
I bless you to stop and connect as deeply as you can with the L-rd and to learn His plan for you in this season of pain. Jephthah was a warrior and designed to war, not to lead politically. The L-rd intentionally created a vacuum in military leadership so He could bring His children to accept His appointed general for that season.
I bless you not to engage in rash vows or hasty decisions.
I bless you to hear His voice.
I bless you to enshroud yourself in Father’s-wisdom-baptized decisions, and not go beyond and sacrifice things He never told you to sacrifice, unlike Jephthah.
I bless you to rest and allow the L-rd to unfold His plans in fullness so you can have not just your birthright, but also your destiny in the context of the series of communities He has for you.
Be at peace and rest in His love for you, spirit.
In the name of Yeshua ha-Mashaiach.