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Keep Your Vows

Day 72

Reading: Judges 9:1 - Judges 11:40

Gideon, as we have already read in the previous chapters, was a great man who also had many wives and a concubine. He had 70 sons and one with the concubine named Abimelech. His legacy was blighted by this aspect of his family. 

The people of Israel had offered Gideon to become a ruler and that his son's sons should rule over them- see Judges 8:22. However, Abimelech convinces the people of Shechem to make him their ruler and he then kills his step-brothers except one named Jotham. Jotham then declares a parable where he announces how Abimelech would struggle as the people would turn against him. Abimelech died a cruel death where a woman dropped a stone that crushed his head.  Don't go killing your brethren it will result in disaster for you.

The book of Judges is about the cycles of how the children of Israel served God, they forgot God, suffered oppression, cried to God for mercy and deliverance, and then received liberty from captivity.  God doesn't like seeing His people bound. His soul cannot endure your misery. God's desire is for you and me to enjoy the best of what He has for us.  The key to a turnaround is putting away the foreign gods.

God uses the one who is not likely to be used. It does not matter your lineage. He uses those who are not qualified in the eyes of men. Jephthah was sent away from Gilead by his step-brothers because his mother was a prostitute. He was too illegitimate for them but not for God's use. He became a bandit leader however, when the Amorites came to attack the children of Israel, the elders of Gilead recalled him and made him the head. He knew his heritage well and was very aware of how the children of Israel possessed the land. His question to the Amorites was very clear that he understood that God had given them the land and the Amorites could not take back what God took away from them and gave to the children of Israel. 

Jephthah means one whom God sets free, one who sets free, a liberator, or one who breaks through. He made a vow to God that he would give to God whatever comes out of the house to meet him. This man was simply telling God I will sacrifice to you anything that I have, let my name become a reality to this people today. He didn't consider the cost. God indeed gave him the victory and he did not flinch in keeping the vow. His only child was what he gave to God. God today is looking for people who are willing to make vows and keep them. 

Memory Verse: Judges 10:16

Decree:

Father, I thank You for loving me. I put aside every foreign god. I rededicate my life to you.I yield my all to Jehovah in surrender. Forgive me that many times I have made a vow and not kept it. Today, Lord I make one vow to You; I will serve You with my all, all the days of my life. Lord have Your way in every way of my life in Jesus name. Amen. 






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