JUDGES 11

My dad used to say this about marriage: "God gives the best to those who leave the choice with Him." I can wholeheartedly attest to the truth of that statement. For those of you who know me and my husband, it may come as a shock, but when I met David, one of the first things I thought about him was that I could never date him. He just wasn’t "my type." Or so I thought. As it turns out, God knew my type a lot better than I did! Go figure!

And over and over again in my life, I have seen that God truly does give the best gifts. So, that’s why this statement of Jephthah in Judges 11 really resonated with me: "Now since the Lord, the God of Israel, has driven the Amorites out before his people Israel, what right have you to take it over? Will you not take what your god Chemosh gives you? Likewise, whatever the Lord our God has given us, we will possess." (vs 23-24)

Jephthah was talking to the king of the Ammonites, who was determined to attack and conquer the people of Israel. When the king complained that the Israelites had taken land that rightfully belonged to the Ammonites, Jephthah responded that God had given it to them. And, he so appropriately added, Will you not take what your god Chemosh gives you?

That’s my favorite part. And it really made me think about my life... and all the different "gods" who vie for my attention. Every god offers something, you know. The god of greed offers materialism. The god of lust offers sexual excitement. And so on. Every false god under the sun promises something. What is your god giving you? Will you take what your god gives?

I don’t know about you, but I have discovered that no god can compare with the God of heaven. What He gives is absolutely the best, all the time. And He knows what’s best for us... even when we don’t. He knows what we need, and what we truly want, even if we don’t know ourselves as well as He does yet.

But even if we have decided to go with the God of heaven, we have to ask ourselves the same question Jephthah asked the king of the Ammonites: Will you take what the Lord your God gives you? Since God gives the best, it seems like the answer to that question would be a no-brainer. Of course we will take what He gives us! But what about when what He gives us isn’t what we think we want or need? What then?

Will we trust that God gives the best? Will we remember that He has always given us the best in the past? Are we willing to take what the Lord our God gives us?