Today’s Scripture Reading (January 6,
2016): Judges 11
Russia has
named the United States as one of the threats to Russian Sovereignty and World
Peace. The American War machine has been seen working within the countries of
the European Community of Nations and threatens to upset the delicate balance
of power between Europe and Asia. Whether the Americans really are a threat or
not, the truth is that the delicate European-Asia power balance has been a problem
ever since the Russian Revolution in 1917 and the Removal and execution of the
Tsar and his family (who were related to much of the European Royalty) and the takeover
of power, first by the Russian Provisional government and finally by the Bolshevik
Party, which paved the way for the creation of the Soviet Union – which in turn
resulted in the creation of NATO, which tends to be the offending arm of the
United States in Europe.
But much of
this is actually a self-fulfilling prophecy. Power always breeds an opposite power.
Comic book readers have noticed the trend for decades. If you have a
super-hero, you must have a super villain. And the truth is that Russia (Soviet
Union) and the United States have played those roles for each other throughout
most of the last century. And in every circumstance, including the current
conflict in Syria, they seem to find a way to take opposing sides. So the
question becomes, should we really expect anything else out of these two
nations.
The story of
Jephthah is a sad one. And the first thing we need to realize is that the story
is descriptive in nature – not prescriptive. It simply describes what happened
rather than being a story that says this is the way that we should act as
followers of God; just as the previous discussion on Russian-American relations
does nothing more than describe the current state of affairs between the two
countries. The discussion in no way says that this is the way things should be,
just that this is the way that things are. The story of Jephthah simply
describes what happened.
But the
other thing that we need to note is that there is no way that the story of
Jephthah should have ended the way that it did. God was already moving through
Jephthah before Jephthah took a radical and unexpected turn in the plot of the story.
The Bible consistently preaches against human sacrifice, and yet Jephthah makes
this vow that if he wins, then he will sacrifice “whatever comes out of his
house.” Jephthah had to be thinking about a human sacrifice – it was highly
unlikely that a cow was going to wander out of his house. And the motivation
for the vow likely came from his noticing the customs of the local Canaanite
religions. It is possible that he was thinking maybe a servant, but that would
have been no better than his daughter. Either way it is human sacrifice that
seemed to be on the mind of Jephthah.
And this vow
places God into a hard position. Either he fails Japhthah and Israel and stops
the human sacrifice, or he goes through with the original plan and hopes that
Japhthah will come to his senses and stop the sacrifice. God may have even
caused Japhthah’s daughter to come out first to drive home that this vow of his
was simply a bad idea.
But Japhthah
sees his daughter and mourns his inability to not go through with the vow. He
will go through with the sacrifice of his daughter even though the act violates
the law of God – all because of a vow that Japhthah should never have made.
As far as
Russia and the United States is concerned, there have been a number of vows on
both sides that should never have been made, and for peace to truly exist
between these two great nations, a way has to be found to go beyond the
rhetoric of words and power and try to find the common ground that has to exist
between friends. But as long as one feels that the other is trying to exercise
undo control, or that one is taking advantage of those countries within its
sphere of influence, then it is unlikely that the friendship will ever be a
reality – and the power dance and war of words will continue between the
nations.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Judges
12
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