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Roger McCort

Horror Stories of the Bible: The Return • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

Judges 11:29–40

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Date: 2021-10-24

Audience: Grass Valley Corps

Title: A Horror Story

Text: Judges 10:17-12:7

Proposition: There is always a right choice

Purpose: Sacrifice your pride, not your people

Grace and peace.

Bible Horror Stories: The Return

Before I start, one quick word about Bible translations. Translating anything from one language to another is a tough job. Some languages have one word for something that can take a dozen sentences to describe in another language. Some are complicated the other way. In English, when frozen water falls from the sky we call it snow or hail or ice. In the language of the Sami people of Scandanavia, there are over 180 words for the same thing. Of course, Sami language has over a thousand different words for reindeer, including one, njirru, which means a truculant female who resists the rop, and another, busat, which means a reindeer bull with a single, oversized testicle.

As if that weren’t complicated enough, translators also need to decide whether they are trying to translate to the closest word equivalent, what we call a word-for-word translation, or to the closest idea, a thought-for-thought translation. So does one translate njirruword for word by saying that it means “reindeer” or does one translate the idea it is trying to convey by saying that it means “truculent female”? Either is correct, but in English they can be taken to mean very different things.

It’s the same with Bible translations. We usually use the New Living Translation here. It’s a modern English-language translation of the best Bible manuscripts we can find. The translators tried to combine word-for-word and thought-for-thought translations in a way which would be understandable to this generation of English readers. As a general rule, I think they did a fantastic job of wrestling the text into a form we can read and understand.

BUT…

(You knew there was a BUT coming.)

Every once in a while, we hit a section where the folks who put this together into a form we can understand seem to go a little sideways. The way they translate isn’t wrong, but it is slanted a bit towards a certain interpretation which may or may not be supported by the text. I’m certain that it is not their intent – they are just trying to make sure the reader is clear, even when the text may not be.

Today, in Judges chapter 11, we are in one of those places. I found myself making so many notes about how the NLT says one thing and the original text says something slightly different that I have decided to set aside this translation for the day and use another one which is a little better at capturing the intent of the original author. So, the words which I use today will be the ones from the New Revised Standard Version – it’s a bit more academic, but I think it will serve us better. Please still follow along in your own bibles! We’ll start today at:

Judges 10:17-18

17 Then the Ammonites were called to arms, and they encamped in Gilead; and the Israelites came together, and they encamped at Mizpah. 18 The commanders of the people of Gilead said to one another, “Who will begin the fight against the Ammonites? He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”[1]

The situation is that Israel was mostly on the west side of the Jordan and the Ammonites lived on the eastern side. To get to the best place for an army to cross the Jordan, the Ammonites moved north into the Gilead region which Israel controlled.

Mizpah – which means watchtower – was a defensible location on the east side which Israel used to protect the fords across the river.

The armies drew together and the people of Gilead began to look at their leaders and realize that they didn’t really have any war leaders who could handle this kind of battle. So, they offered the top position in their society to whomever would lead them to victory. I know it doesn’t say victory in the text, but if the army was defeated, the leader would be dead or discredited and wouldn’t be leading anything.

Judges 11:1-3

Now Jephthah the Gileadite, the son of a prostitute, was a mighty warrior. Gilead was the father of Jephthah. 2 Gilead’s wife also bore him sons; and when his wife’s sons grew up, they drove Jephthah away, saying to him, “You shall not inherit anything in our father’s house; for you are the son of another woman.” 3 Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob. Outlaws collected around Jephthah and went raiding with him. [2]

The region of Gilead was named after a powerful clan leader in the earliest days of the tribe of Manasseh, which was one of the Israelite tribes, along with Gad and Reuben, which also lived there. Jephthah’s father seems to have been a clan chief as well, and he was named after the original.

Jephthah’s mother may be getting slandered here by being called a prostitute. The Hebrew word being translated is zonah(Zone-ah) and while it could refer to a prostitute, it can also refer to any woman who has had sex outside of marriage. From the story as we are told it, we can tell that Gilead claimed Jephthah as his legitimate son, even though he was not the son of his wife. We can also say with reasonable certainty that Jephthah was the oldest son and that Gilead had intended for him to be the primary heir.

What it sounds like happened was that Gilead died and his sons by his legal wife brought the matter to court, claiming that Jephthah was illegitimate and should be disinherited. They won and Jephthah found himself with no home, no land to work, and no means of support.

He ended up living in the hills, raiding others to make a living. Probably the Moabites and Ammonites, the two main enemies in the region. He became exceptionally good at what he did.

Judges 11:4-5

4 After a time the Ammonites made war against Israel. 5 And when the Ammonites made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah from the land of Tob.[3]

This bit overlaps the first couple of verses. The Ammonites came against Israel in Gilead; the elders in Gilead made an offer that anyone who came forward to lead the army into battle would – if he survived – rule over them. Apparently, they had no takers, because here they are, hat in hand, going to get Jephthah.

Judges 11:6-7

6 They said to Jephthah, “Come and be our commander, so that we may fight with the Ammonites.” 7 But Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Are you not the very ones who rejected me and drove me out of my father’s house? So why do you come to me now when you are in trouble?”[4]

Hey, you took everything I ever had or knew and chucked me out of your little glee club. What are you thinking coming to me for help?

We don’t know exactly how much time has passed since Jephthah had been exiled, but it seems to have been awhile. These elders? Probably a combination of old timers who had been part of the council that had Jephthah stripped of his rights and sent away and new men, including one or more of his brothers. So, the very people who rejected him and stole his life from him. And now they are trying to use him.

Judges 11:8

8 The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “Nevertheless, we have now turned back to you, so that you may go with us and fight with the Ammonites, and become head over us, over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”[5]

Yeah, sorry about the whole rejection thing. Come on back and save us and we’ll let you be in charge.

This sounds a lot like how the Israelites had been trying to deal with God throughout the book of Judges. They rejected him, ignored him, broke their promises to him, until they found themselves in trouble, then it was, “Oh, please come back. We really will follow this time…”

Judges 11:9-11

9 Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you bring me home again to fight with the Ammonites, and the LORD gives them over to me, I will be your head.” 10 And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The LORD will be witness between us; we will surely do as you say.” 11 So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and commander over them; and Jephthah spoke all his words before the LORD at Mizpah. [6]

Don’t miss what’s happening here. Verse 9 isn’t Jephthah being surprised by their offer. This isn’t, “Wow, you’re going to make me the head?” It’s a calculated restatement of what they said. “If you do this, you will answer to me.” He’s making sure there is no wiggle room in the deal they just offered.

The elders respond by making a sacred oath. This isn’t manipulation – or at least it isn’t JUST manipulation. This is a serious vow and they’ve opened themselves up to retribution from Jephthah and from the LORD God if they fail to follow through.

Verse 11 is the same thing being done publicly back in the town of Mizpah. That binds them even further because everyone knows. Jephthah rules here, at least until the Ammonites attack.

Judges 11:12-13

12 Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites and said, “What is there between you and me, that you have come to me to fight against my land?” 13 The king of the Ammonites answered the messengers of Jephthah, “Because Israel, on coming from Egypt, took away my land from the Arnon to the Jabbok and to the Jordan; now therefore restore it peaceably.”[7]

Jephthah’s first move as war leader and chief is to reach out to the Ammonites to try to resolve the situation diplomatically. The Ammonite king says that he’s here to reclaim land stolen when Israel first moved out of Egypt, which happened three hundred years before.

Judges 11:14-20

14 Once again Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites 15 and said to him: “Thus says Jephthah: Israel did not take away the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites, 16 but when they came up from Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh. 17 Israel then sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Let us pass through your land’; but the king of Edom would not listen. They also sent to the king of Moab, but he would not consent. So Israel remained at Kadesh. 18 Then they journeyed through the wilderness, went around the land of Edom and the land of Moab, arrived on the east side of the land of Moab, and camped on the other side of the Arnon. They did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was the boundary of Moab. 19 Israel then sent messengers to King Sihon of the Amorites, king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, ‘Let us pass through your land to our country.’ 20 But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory; so Sihon gathered all his people together, and encamped at Jahaz, and fought with Israel.[8]

One quick aside: Sihon was the king of the Amorites, not the king of the Ammonites. Two distinct groups! Don’t get confused.

Judges11:21-22 21 Then the Lord, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they defeated them; so Israel occupied all the land of the Amorites, who inhabited that country. 22 They occupied all the territory of the Amorites from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the wilderness to the Jordan.[9]

Who gave the Amorite land to Israel? Right, the LORD did. Jephthah is saying that this strip of land came from Amorites, not the Ammonites who were trying to take it now.

Judges 11:23-24 23 So now the LORD, the God of Israel, has conquered the Amorites for the benefit of his people Israel. Do you intend to take their place? 24 Should you not possess what your god Chemosh gives you to possess? And should we not be the ones to possess everything that the LORD our God has conquered for our benefit?[10]

This is pretty diplomatic. This land was a gift from our God. You can have what your god gave you, but we’re keeping what our God gave us. It’s an offer of peace – if the boundaries are respected.

Judges 11:25 25 Now are you any better than King Balak son of Zippor of Moab? Did he ever enter into conflict with Israel, or did he ever go to war with them?[11]

Back in the book of Numbers we find a series of stories where Balak wants to destroy Israel, but he’s afraid of them. He keeps trying to get a priest named Balaam to curse Israel. Instead, Balaam finds he can’t say anything but the words God puts in his mouth, which is always a blessing for Israel.

Because he couldn’t get Israel cursed, Balak never brought his army into their territory, nor did he fight against them. Instead, he went home rather than face the LORD’s people.

Jephthah’s not done though. He has spotted one more flaw in the Ammonite argument.

Judges 11:26 26 While Israel lived in Heshbon and its villages, and in Aroer and its villages, and in all the towns that are along the Arnon, three hundred years, why did you not recover them within that time?[12]

It’s been three hundred years. We haven’t had any trouble or seen any effort from your people during that whole period where this land is concerned. You’d think there would have at least been a note!

Judges11:27 27 It is not I who have sinned against you, but you are the one who does me wrong by making war on me. Let the LORD, who is judge, decide today for the Israelites or for the Ammonites.”[13]

This is a good ending. Hey, I think you’re wrong, but I’m willing to let YHVH make the call.

Judges 11:28

28 But the king of the Ammonites did not heed the message that Jephthah sent him. [14]

No reply. That means that diplomatic channels have just closed. And this is where the story takes a strange turn.

Judges 11:29

29 Then the spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh. He passed on to Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed on to the Ammonites.[15]

The Spirit of the LORD settles on Jephthah and in some manner gives him authority that a man of his social standing wouldn’t ordinarily have. Remember, Jephthah’s been an outlaw throughout his adult life. His elevation to war leader and clan chief is nice and all, but it doesn’t really mean much outside the clan. Here the Spirit of the LORD has come, and Jephthah travels to all three tribes of Israel that lived in Gilead. The suggestion is that, as he passed through, he drew an army to him, led them back to Mizpah, and from there into battle against the Ammonites.

Somehow, though, this wasn’t enough for Jephthah. He’d been restored to his home, given command over the region, blessed with the Spirit of the LORD in his life, enabled to bring together an army in record time, but he’s still worried that he’s going to fail. Which leads him to put a little something else on the table to try and buy victory from God.

Judges 11:30-31

30 And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD, and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, 31 then whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return victorious from the Ammonites, shall be the LORD’s, to be offered up by me as a burnt offering.”[16]

OK, for all the nice things I said about this translation, they don’t get everything right. In verse 31, this should say “WHATever comes out of the doors of my house…” shall be offered up as a burnt offering.

But what was the point of this? Why was Jephthah trying to strike a bargain with God? He had the Spirit of the LORD on him. He’s obviously doing the LORD’s work. But suddenly, out of some indecisiveness or some cockiness or some desire for even more personal glory, he throws out this deal that if God will just deliver the Ammonites into his hand, freeing Israel from their threat and growing oppression, he will give back to the LORD one goat or cow or sheep or whatever it was that stuck its head out the door first on the day he returns home.

God didn’t ask for this. Jephthah was a smart, well-versed Israelite who knew that God doesn’t ask for this kind of thing! God’s not about making bargains or making us exchange something for his love. Yet here Jephthah is, trying to buy something that he’s already been given: God’s blessing.

Judges 11:32-33

32 So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them; and the LORD gave them into his hand. 33 He inflicted a massive defeat on them from Aroer (ah-way-oh) to the neighborhood of Minnith (meen-eet), twenty towns, and as far as Abel-keramim (ahvel-khra-meem). So the Ammonites were subdued before the people of Israel.[17]

This is one of the shortest victory descriptions in scripture. It’s as if the author is trying to let us know that it happened, but only so he can get on to the rest of the story. “Jephthah won because God gave the Ammonites into his hand, but that’s not important. Let’s move on.”

Really? Is that all we get? There was quite a build up from the beginning of the Ammonite invasion until now to just cover the whole victory in three sentences. Where’s the detail? Where’s the victory speech and the big party? Where is Jephthah’s medal of honor? It’s just not here.

Why isn’t it here? Why isn’t there a victory celebration? It sounded like there was going to be one, from the very beginning, right up until that stupid promise to sacrifice the first thing that came out the door in the morning. Before then, we had lots of details and information. From that point forward, it’s been tense – short sentences laying out the facts and nothing but the facts. It’s almost as if the author is trying to tell us that something had changed.

Because it had.

At first glance, Jephthah’s desire to offer a sacrifice is understandable. He’s leading an army of people who rejected him into battle. It sounds dicey, right? Why not throw a little extra prayer and offering at the problem? Hey, God, I know you’re in control and all, but let me sweeten the pot for you. Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, as long as your will is total, crushing victory for me! And, in exchange, I’ll offer you a dinner of whatever it is that comes through my front door first when I go home.

Let’s talk about Palestinian-style shepherd homes. They were ingenious in their design. So much so that the same layout still exists in parts of the middle eastern countryside today. The home itself was mostly a single room, though in many homes there was a loft or rooftop apartment called an upper room as well. That area was reserved for guests or special occasions. The family lived in the main room. Let me put up a picture…

[Palestinian Home – top view]

You can see something else different from your home here as well. When you entered the house, you weren’t entering the family area. You would go into a stable area instead. The entry hall was a little lower than the rest of the house and it’s where the family kept its animals at night.

[Palestinian Home – side view]

When you opened the door to the house, you could go either into the stable hall or turn right and go up a few steps into the main room. Keeping the animals in the house kept them safe and supplied a source of heat to help keep the residents warm at night. They didn’t go snuggle with the goats – the animals’ body heat rises and warms the family level of the small house. It’s ingenious.

So, when Jephthah vowed to sacrifice whatever came out from his door first, this is what he has in mind. He’ll open the door and whichever cow, sheep, or goat rushes into the yard first will be his sacrifice to God. What could possibly go wrong?

Judges 11:34

34 Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah; and there was his daughter coming out to meet him with timbrels and with dancing. She was his only child; he had no son or daughter except her.[18]

You can hear his heart stop…

It might have been more than just his daughter. There could have been a whole procession – a victory celebration! – coming out behind her, singing, dancing cheering, playing music…

But he only sees her.

His little girl.

His only child.

And his stupid vow overwhelms his spirit.

Judges 11:35

35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes, and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low; you have become the cause of great trouble to me. For I have opened my mouth to the LORD, and I cannot take back my vow.”[19]

He isn’t blaming her. He’s trying to explain to her why her joyful welcome is causing him such great pain.

“You have brought me low” is from the Hebrew word kara (kaw-rah), which means to be struck down or driven to one’s knees.

The ancient sages said that Jephthah should never have made this vow, because he didn’t know what or who might come out his door. He didn’t know if the mystery sacrifice he was offering would be acceptable to the LORD.

And, as it turned out, it wasn’t. God abhors child sacrifice. It was practiced in this region regularly as part of worshipping a false god – Molech. He was worshipped by the Moabites and also by the Ammonites. So, to celebrate his victory over the Ammonites and their allies the Moabites, Jephthah has now pledged to do exactly the thing that YHVH, who gave him the victory, ordered his people not to do, not to be like. The very thing he said he detested the Ammonites for.

But Jephthah said he has opened his mouth to YHVH, and now cannot take back what he promised.

She hasn’t even heard what the promise is yet, but his daughter can tell that it’s not good and it’s also not good for her. But instead of getting angry…

Judges 11:36

36 She said to him, “My father, if you have opened your mouth to the LORD, do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, now that the LORD has given you vengeance against your enemies, the Ammonites.”[20]

Vengeance isn’t quite the right word – at least not in the way we use it. The original language says something closer to “YHVH has effected your vindication…”

Despite whatever doom is now on her head, Jephthah’s daughter is trying to keep his focus on the great victory over his enemies and on his reacceptance into the ranks of his clan and his new place as clan chief. “Do to me exactly according to what went out of your mouth to the LORD, because the LORD has restored you and defeated the invaders through you.”

Her name isn’t recorded. That struck me as odd. The scriptures tend to record the names of any significant, history-making person, regardless of whether they are male or female. But she is just Jephthah’s daughter. And I wondered why that was and did some digging into the ancient teachings about this passage to see if I could find why, and I think I did. It’s because she supported her father’s decision to carry out his vow.

According to the ancient sages, Jephthah should have gone to the high priest to have his vow annulled or to pay a redemption price to buy his daughter back. They say that the problem was that Jephthah felt since he was leader of the nation, the priest should come to him. The priest thought that Jephthah should come to him. In their pride, neither would seek the other out, thus the two never met and his daughter’s tragedy was sealed. The sages teach that God punished both men for their foolishness. The high priest lost his position. Jephthah… Well, we’ll see.

Judges 11:37-40

37 And she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: Grant me two months, so that I may go and wander on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, my companions and I.” 38 “Go,” he said and sent her away for two months. So she departed, she and her companions, and bewailed her virginity on the mountains. 39 At the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to the vow he had made. She had never slept with a man. So there arose an Israelite custom that 40 for four days every year the daughters of Israel would go out to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite. [21]

There are those who try to say that Jephthah didn’t follow through on his vow. They argue that because it isn’t discussed in detail, it must not have been done. This passage talks about her grieving her virginity, not her life, so maybe she was just sent away to serve in some temple position where she would remain chaste.

But that doesn’t fit with what we are told. We hear that her father did with her according to the vow he had made. That’s clear. He vowed to make a burnt offering of whatever came out his door. His daughter came out his door. He killed her. He used her blood as an atonement sacrifice. He cut her into pieces just as he would have done with any animal sacrifice. He burnt those pieces on the altar of God until they were completely consumed by the fire.

What is there to say to this horror? Some people accuse God of encouraging or allowing this to happen, but at no point does God EVER approve of child sacrifice. He fights against it. Perhaps because his own son is going to be sacrificed by this same nation he works to raise up, to keep on the right path, so they can bring the fallen people of the world to him.

I am a strong believer that God gives us free will. He gives us the ability to create our own story through the choices we make. Jephthah putting his little girl on the altar was not part of God’s plan. God’s plan for her has been thwarted, corrupted, destroyed by the foolish pride of a foolish man who knew better.

She was his only child. You know what she was mourning up in the mountains? The fact that their family line ended with her. That was a big deal in that time and place. The promise of family is about to be extinguished forever. She wasn’t mourning for herself. She was mourning for her father, because she loved him to death.

I kind of want to stop here. This is horror enough! The dark stain of evil that spreads from human acts of violence and efforts to manipulate God is plainly visible in the death of this child. But there is more to Jephthah’s story.

He stands here as a broken leader. He defeated the external enemy but was conquered by his own pride. And now his own people are going to challenge his patience.

Judges 12:1

The men of Ephraim were called to arms, and they crossed to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, “Why did you cross over to fight against the Ammonites, and did not call us to go with you? We will burn your house down over you!”[22]

Ephraim. Throughout the book of Judges this tribe thinks of itself as the key to Israel’s salvation. And here they are willing to kill the man who didn’t wait for them to come take part in the battles. Pride. Foolish pride!

Judges 12:2-3

2 Jephthah said to them, “My people and I were engaged in conflict with the Ammonites who oppressed us severely. But when I called you, you did not deliver me from their hand. 3 When I saw that you would not deliver me, I took my life in my hand, and crossed over against the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day, to fight against me?”[23]

Jephthah dealt with the challenge of the Ammonites with a careful, diplomatic exchange. There he fought to hold on to peace and promised to avoid bloodshed if boundaries could be respected. But that was the wise governance of a man who had a family. Now he is a man who killed his own daughter. His anger, self-loathing, and sense of failure will rule his response to this challenge.

Judges 12:4-6

4 Then Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and fought with Ephraim; and the men of Gilead defeated Ephraim, because they said, “You are fugitives from Ephraim, you Gileadites—in the heart of Ephraim and Manasseh.” 5 Then the Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. Whenever one of the fugitives of Ephraim said, “Let me go over,” the men of Gilead would say to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” When hesaid, “No,” 6 they said to him, “Then say Shibboleth,” and he said, “Sibboleth,” for he could not pronounce it right. Then they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand of the Ephraimites fell at that time. [24]

Gilead was a clan. Ephraim was a whole tribe. Ephraim insulted them. Was that cause for war? No. But the tragedy of one death weighed on Jephthah so much that he ordered his men into battle against Ephraim and vented his anger.

Is it right? No. Is it effective? No. He wins the war, though. Remember, Jephthah is a mighty warrior. He gets his men in place on the fords and traps Ephraim on his side of the Jordan River. Then he exploits their accent. No “shh” sound in the Ephraimite vocabulary.

Say “Shibboleth! No? Kill them.”

Forty-two thousand lives wasted.

Forty two thousand more deaths caused by foolish pride.

They all could have been spared.

But this is the legacy of Jephthah. He had a moment where the Spirit of the LORD was upon him. But he turned his back on God and followed his pride instead. And this is all that’s left to show for his life: The forty-two thousand and one crumpled bodies of his own people.

Judges 12:7

7 Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died, and was buried in his town in Gilead.[25]

Dr. Lawson Stone says, “If Jephthah had been met by anything other than a human being when he returned, he would be remembered as a man of great character, faith, and even goodness.”

I wish that had been what happened. So, I suspect, did he.

A final note to bring us to a close.

In Hebrew, verse 7 literally reads that Jephthah was buried in the towns of Gilead. Not one town, but towns, plural.

The sages said that God punished Jephthah for the evil he did to his daughter by inflicting a wasting disease on him. One by one his limbs atrophied and fell off or were cut off in an effort to save his life. They were each buried in the town he was in at the time, scattering his body across the land like the wind would have scattered his daughter’s ashes.

Fitting? Maybe. You decide.

How do I wrap up a horror story into a neat conclusion which draws us closer to our Creator? I don’t know that there is a good way. To my mind, this story serves mostly as a warning against thinking we are ever in a place where we have no choices left. There is always a choice; always a way to do the right thing. Sometimes doing that right thing involves death. Not the death of a child or anyone else, but the death of our own foolish pride.

How often do we choose to do the wrong thing because we don’t want to be embarrassed by having to speak the truth, admit we screwed up, or face the consequences of our own mistakes?

The altar is always available. God does want your sacrifices! Bring your pride, your foolishness, your anger, your self-loathing, your sense of failure, your struggles… Bring your crap to God on the altar of prayer. He’ll take it.

You can start today over, clean, without the burdens of yesterday weighing you down. Bring it to the altar and leave it there and face a new life filled with new choices.

[1] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jdg 10:17–18). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. [2] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jdg 11:1–3). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. [3] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jdg 11:4–5). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. [4] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jdg 11:6–7). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. [5] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jdg 11:8). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. [6] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jdg 11:9–11). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. [7] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jdg 11:12–13). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. [8] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jdg 11:14–20). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. [9] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jdg 11:21–22). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. [10] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jdg 11:23–24). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. [11] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jdg 11:25). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. [12] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jdg 11:26). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. [13] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jdg 11:27). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. [14] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jdg 11:28). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. [15] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jdg 11:29). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. [16] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jdg 11:30–31). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. [17] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jdg 11:32–33). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. [18] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jdg 11:34). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. [19] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jdg 11:35). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. [20] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jdg 11:36). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. [21] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jdg 11:37–40). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. [22] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jdg 12:1). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. [23] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jdg 12:2–3). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. [24] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jdg 12:4–6). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. [25] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jdg 12:7). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

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