Judges 11, Proverbs 19, Hebrews 4

God wants you. If you think you're a nobody and that God can't possibly use you to accomplish His purpose, then you read the right chapter today. Jephthah's experience dispels those thoughts. If we think some one else is unworthy of Christian fellowship because of their pedigree or their past, reading about Jephthah will disprove those notions. He is one example of many in the Bible where God chose the most unlikely candidates to carry out His missions.

Take it seriously. Jephthah is also an example of the seriousness of promising God we'll do something. The incident with his daughter is hard to understand. But a couple of things are clear.
1. A vow to God must be kept. 
2. We should carefully consider the vows we make and not spout off whatever pops into our heads in a moment of excitement. Consider the cost.

Wisdom, words, and action all go together. The wise person speaks only after careful thought and only the truth. She then acts in ways that are kind and merciful. A foolish person speaks without regard for truth or the well-being of others and her actions result in destruction.

The Power of Word. God spoke the world into existence, and then rested. The gospel of salvation brought through the work of the cross has been spoken, or preached, to us. The Word of God, scripture, is living and powerful. Jesus is our High Priest, to whom we can go for mercy and grace in our times of need. Let us hold fast our confession. If we say Jesus is Lord, we need to be prepared to live it out so we can enter the rest of heaven.

Live your words. Let's recognize that God wants to us each of us in His plans, accept the gift of salvation and live it out with wise words and actions.

Judges 10, Proverbs 18, Hebrews 3

Judges 10 says as much about God as it does about the Israelites. Their fickle nature is well-known to us and we recognize both their almost unbelievable lack of sense and the same tendency within ourselves. But God, although He needed to punish their waywardness, could hardly stand it. The cries of His people, no matter how just their suffering, tore at His heart. And so He prepared to save them. Just like He prepared to save us when He sent Jesus Christ to die for our sins.

"The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe." (v 10) The name of the Lord is the only name by which people are saved. And that only happens because of His great mercy and love.

Unbelief is the one thing that will keep us from being saved by the name of the Lord and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We must cry out to Him, run to Him, trust Him, and believe that He is Who He said He is. Then He will come to our aid and save us. Even though we don't deserve it.

Judges 9, Proverbs 17, Hebrews 2

Judges 9 is a gruesome, sad chapter. Israel followed the wrong man. Shechem followed the wrong man. Greed seemed to know no end, for a while. But eventually the gravy train ended, tempers flared, war broke out again, and judgment came against all who had put their trust in men, money, and power instead of God.

Hard lesson. The wisdom of Proverbs teaches that "he who is glad at calamity will not go unpunished" (v.5) and "an evil man seeks only rebellion; therefore a cruel messenger will be sent against him." (v.11) Abimelech learned these lessons the hard way.

Don't Drift Away. "Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away." (v.1) We are in no less danger than Gideon and Abimelech of drifting away.

We have a Brother who will not betray us, but will come to our aid and intercede for us as our high priest. We need to stay in close fellowship with Him so that we don't allow anything to come between us and cause us to drift away.

Judges 8, Proverbs 16, Hebrews 1

God's assignment for Gideon included war, which was physically exhausting. It cost him the lives of his relatives and at the very end, when he and his men were famished, no one would help them or feed them. They were left to conquer the last two kings with no resources except faith in God.

Returning as victors, they subdued those who had ridiculed them and withheld food from them. The thrill of victory was so sweet that Gideon apparently believed he could let his guard down. So he set up a golden ephod which the people worshipped instead of God. It may have started out as a reminder of God's victory, but it became a substitute for God instead.

Because of his sin, Gideon's influence shrank until no one even remembered God by the time of his death.

It's too bad Gideon didn't have Proverbs to read. If he had realized that a proud heart is an abomination to the Lord, pride goes before destruction, wisdom is much better to get than gold, and it's better to be humble than to divide the spoil with the proud, his legacy might have been different.

Jesus is exalted above the angels. He is God's Son and they are ministering spirits sent to help those who "inherit salvation." Angels helped Gideon. Jesus himself, pre-incarnate, gave Gideon his assignment and went before him into battle.

Gideon needed to remember, as should we, that there is only one God, and whatever we do for Him only happens by His power.

Judges 7, Proverbs 15, Philemon

This chapter of Judges tells of another, most unlikely, battle and victory for the Israelites. A pattern is emerging. God approaches a person who seems to have certain abilities and gives him or her an assignment far outside those abilities. The assignment is daunting, with huge ramifications. The person takes some persuading, but eventually obeys. God does a miracle and His assignment is accomplished.

1. What is God's assignment for you?
2.  How far outside your comfort zone is your assignment?
3.  Will you obey?

Proverbs 15 is primarily about words. What we say indicates the state of our hearts. How was Gideon's battle won? Partly with words: "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!" These words of the soldiers indicated the faith in their hearts. There is power in our words. We need to make sure the condition of our hearts and minds produces wise speech. If we pay attention to what we way, the content and attitude of our words, and discover not wisdom, but foolishness, sorrow, scoffing, anger, strife, disdain, or pride, we need to recognize the problem. We are not living a life of obedient faith and God cannot accomplish His purposes through us.

What was God's assignment for Philemon? To receive Onesimus back into his household, not as a run-away slave, but a brother in Christ. Unheard of. And outside Philemon's legal rights.

What was God's assignment for Onesimus? To go back to the man he ran away from and face the consequences, even though he didn't have to as long as nobody told Philemon where he was.

I can imagine that neither man relished his assignment. We aren't told the outcome, but since the letter is included in the Bible, we assume Onesimus did go back and that Philemon accepted him as a Christian brother. Only obedience to God and His power at work could have accomplished this reconciliation.

1.  Is there someone to or about whom your words might indicate a need for reconciliation?
2.  Is this the God-sized assignment He has for you?
3.  Will you obey and let God do the work?

Check your heart condition. Begin saying the right words. And watch to see what God does.

Judges 6, Proverbs 14, Titus 3

God called Gideon a "mighty man of valor" while he was still hiding in the wine press. God saw what He had in mind for the future.

Gideon could only see the present . . .  and he had questions. "If the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us?"

God didn't answer Gideon's question. He gave an assignment. This is where we tend to push the pause button in our lives. We want our questions answered before we proceed. But Gideon obeyed.

The first assignment didn't look like what it was. Tearing down idols and thus making the whole community angry might not have been Gideon's idea of valor or how to save Israel from the Midianites. But he obeyed. He trusted God to fit all the pieces together.

Proverbs 14:12 says, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Verse 14 adds, "The backslider in heart will be filled with his own ways, but a good man will be satisfied from above."

We who have been saved, "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy . . ." have a responsibility "to be ready for every good work." The Bible is full of instructions for right living and we are to follow them. But we are also to follow God's leading in assignments. He lives in us and will, by the Holy Spirit, manifest Himself in such a way as to accomplish His work through us. Even if it doesn't look like what He says it is.

Judges 5, Proverbs 13, Titus 2

Glory. Deborah took time after the victory to give the glory to God. But she also recognized that Israel won because "the people willingly offer[ed] themselves." And she chastised the tribes who didn't provide soldiers.

Surrender. Full surrender to whatever the Lord asks of us - "to the point of death" (v.18) - is required in order to see Him do mighty works through us. Otherwise, we end up on the sidelines watching the triumph of others.

Victory. A wise person, who lives and speaks and works with prudence, joins the victory parade and is satisfied.

Live it Out. Leaders rise to the top as they follow Christ, live pure lives, and teach others how to be like them. We are all trained and taught by the grace of God. When we follow Him, are 100% sold out to Him, it shows in the way we live and speak. That's when God does great things.