The Good Fight
Wednesday, March 26
The Good Fight
Judges 12:4a & 6b-7
Then Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and fought with Ephraim. … At that time 42,000 of the Ephraimites fell. Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in his city in Gilead.
Had it not been for the foolhardy bribe he made with God smack dab in the middle of his biography, Jephthah’s brief chronicle, from his humble beginnings as a prostitute’s son, to being banished by his kin and leaving town rather than taking revenge, to forgiving his betraying brothers and accepting their call to lead them against the Ammonites, to his fealty to God, would’ve been the highlight to me from this dark, shadowy book of Judges. He’s the sort of person I like to root for in a story like this. A child unwanted by his family and left out of his father’s inheritance. A bit like Joseph, who got sold into slavery by his own vicious brothers, yet who also didn’t allow a root of bitterness to suffocate his faith. Jephthah was made for the spotlight but content in the shadows. Always a warrior but never a bully. A man devoted to prayer, even if the praying wasn’t always well thought out. A loving father, a fearless warrior, and a judge who walked faithfully with God.
It gets me thinking though: six years seems premature in the grand scheme of things, doesn’t it? Even going by typical Judges standards, six years is a drop in the bucket. Deborah and Barak judged Israel for forty years, and so, too, Gideon, and so, too, Othniel. And during Ehud’s time, Israel had rest for eighty years. But let’s take that as a challenge from the LORD today in our own leadership responsibilities. Let’s not take the precious time He’s given us for granted. We may not have forty years to lead our kids and grandkids, or teach those classes, or fix those cars, or serve those meals, or compose those songs, or lead those volunteer ministries; we may only have a few—in fact, this could be our last. But the measure of our contribution for the LORD is obedience and faithfulness and diligence, not length of tenure.
Friend, whether God has wired you for forty years of service or six, like Jephthah, fight the good fight with all you’ve got and finish well.