Reading
SAA Notes
The tragic story of Jephthah’s daughter is not one of human sacrifice. Jephthah’s daughter weeps not because she will die, but because she will now never marry. She is dedicated to the Lord and presumably serves Him at the Tabernacle with the other women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting! Exodus 38:8. Jephthah’s line will die out! This is a great catastrophe – one that we moderns miss, because we don’t think it is!
SJA Notes
* Dear Lord God, be gracious to us, heal us, for we have sinned against You!
“Then the Spirit of the LORD was upon Jephthah,”
There are not many in the old testament of whom this was true, that we are told about, that God in the Person of the Spirit comes down and abides in them for a period of time.
We live on the other side of Jesus coming to earth as a man to walk to Calvary, death on a cross for the forgiveness of our sins.
We live on this side of Jesus, God in the Person of the Son, sending the Holy Spirit to be our companion, to in-dwell in us, little tabernacles!
God’s people then did not have this.
They lived by faith as Hebrews 11 tells us, but the Holy Spirit was not poured out on all believers.
How blessed we are then, today, for we know God dwells within us.
This can exhort us toward thankfulness, even when we are feeling otherwise.
God dwells with us, Immanuel!
* God Above,
Thank You that You dwell with us in the now, You in the Person of the Spirit our companion.
Thank You for the great hope we have, in You, of resurrection.
That we can cry alongside Job, that after our skin has been thus destroyed, yet in our flesh we shall see You!
Amen, Hallelujah for that – Thank You God!
Amen.