The Midas Touch

You remember the story of King Midas, right?

He was the mythological king that was endued with a gift such that anything he touched turned to gold - this also proved to be an excellent deterrent to his nose picking habit.

But alas - there was a problem: As I recall the story, his beautiful and tender daughter came to him with loving eyes and before he knew what he had done - Midas caressed the compelling lass and she turned into a 14 karat chunk of metal.

There is a story that reminds me of that tale and it's located in the book of Judges; that's in the Bible.

If you are just joining this blog, over the past month or so I have been on a slow walk through the book of Judges. It is proving to be a somewhat depressing book for me - despite more action than the latest "blockbuster" movie - because the book chronicles the downfall of a nation. And it looks too much like our current culture.

Anyway, the last post centered on the story of Abimelech. His story didn't end well and some time after that - contrary to a point I made in another recent post - the people of Israel repented.

That's right, the people of Israel came to terms with God - they said "we are in trouble and we have been bad and we know it too!".

And God basically replied, "Give that nation a Kewpie doll! They are so correct!" ... okay that line was thrown in for comedy relief. . . but God did reply something to that effect and His tone implied that He was not ready to just smooth things over this time.

He really did tell them to go back to those idols they kept worshipping and let them deliver them.

When God is talking to someone other than me and He says stuff like that - I have to admit that something deep down inside me says: "YES!!" ... it is a different story when God says stuff like that to me.

God did deliver them, and He raised up a warrior by the name of Jephtha to lead this deliverance.

Jephtha tried diplomacy to some degree: the Ammonites were the bad guys in this story and the king of the Ammonites sent a message to Jephtha to explain why they were giving the Israelites such a hard time. The King of the Ammonites' message sounds very much like the rhetoric we hear from the enemies of modern day Israel.

"When Israel came up out of Egypt, they took away my land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, all the way to the Jordan. Now give it back peaceably."

Jephtha proceeded to explain - quite eloquently - Israel's history and how that the nation had requested peaceful passage through their land and the former king, Sihon decided war would be his response. Further, since God had given the victory and the land to Israel, he thought they should just keep it.

As they were proceeding into the inevitable battle, Jephtha vowed a vow to offer as a burnt sacrifice to Jehovah, the first creature that came to greet him. If, that is, God would bring him home victorious.

Now I think that most scholars say that Jephtha's vow should be translated to mean that he would offer it as a burnt sacrifice if it was suitable, otherwise he would offer whatever came to greet him in some other way that God approved. I am inclined to agree since we know that God would not stand for human sacrifices.

Sure enough, as Jephtha returned home victoriously, it was his daughter - his only child - that ran to meet him.

It seems that the proper fulfillment of his vow was that he would not allow her to be married and thus she would have no children and he would have no heir.

It was a somewhat sad day for Jephtha.

Do you have those periods in which it seems that God's victories seem to come as a mixed bag?

I do sometimes. Usually it is because I have meddled with the process - tried to wrestle the situation back out of God's hands and run the show for awhile. I believe God... yet I think He needs my help.

Are we tacking things on to our faith - things like Jephtha's vow - to try and better ensure God's response to our situation?

Maybe God only wants us to believe. Just trust Jesus + nothing else.

There is an old song that I will leave with you...

Only believe
Only believe
All things are possible
Only believe.

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
The "NIV" and "New International Version" trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society. Use of either trademark requires the permission of International Bible Society.

This story can be found in Judges 11