Judges 10-13: This morning the song Take Time To Be Holy came to my mind. Here are the words:

Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord;
Abide in Him always, and feed on His Word.
Make friends of God’s children, help those who are weak,
Forgetting in nothing His blessing to seek.

For Israel and for us this is the key to not needing a warrior to save us. Israel had been told time and again to keep God’s covenants with them. They were to seek Him and worship Him alone, but as the scripture says, they did what was right in their own eyes. They did not seek the Lord. When things got so bad that they finally turn back to Him in repentance, the cost was high. In today’s reading they were so desperate for a leader that they went back to Jephthah, a young man who was a mighty warrior the they had pushed out of leadership and their country because he was the son of a prostitute. When Israel faced the Ammonites and there was no one to lead them they sent for this rejected son. Jephthah trusted the Lord and in the end he had victory and Israel was saved, but he made a senseless vow to the Lord that cost him his only child. Though my heart goes out to the child, at least Jephthah lived out what true devotion to God really looks like.

Oh how our world needs godly men who will stand up for what is right. How we need young men and women who from their birth live out their walk with Jesus and are truly holy. It only comes as we spend time with the Lord speaking to Him, reading His word. We must make Christian fellowship priority and surround our children but also ourselves with godly influences. As we then help those who are weak and those in need not forgetting that God is our strength, then we will not need to have a warrior to save us for our God will be between us and the enemy that pursues. If only Israel would have stayed close to the Father and clean before Him. If only we would. We can’t rewrite Israel’s history, but we can change ours before calamity comes.

Though the enemy pursues us, our God will fight for us. As we stay close to God, He will be our defender, provider and friend.