Hallelujah! This is Pastor Son Yoon-sang, the man of Wonju who was born and raised in Our Church. The passage we will meditate on today is about the judge Jephthah. The meaning of the name Jephthah is He opened it, and the Lord opened the way for the church to be established in Wonju. We pray that a church of refuge for the salvation of souls may be established in Gangwon-do, which the Lord has opened.
We have stereotypes and prejudices that we feel embarrassed when we see the prophets. However, we are just like the prophets. As I meditated on the prophet Iddo for a week, I realized, Jephthahis just like me! God wants to show His living presence to weak human beings. Therefore, the only thing weak human beings can do is to rely on God, who is life itself.
Today, Jephthah receives the anointing of God#039s Spirit, but because he does not fully trust in God, he commits an irreversible act. He achieves a great victory but loses what is most precious to him. Through today#039s message, let us consider what we should do to avoid committing an irreversible act.
First, we should move forward with a sense of mission, not ambition.
Jephthah tried to persuade the Ammonites to stop the war, but when they responded stubbornly, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah. The more stubborn the Ammonites were, the more God gave us the strength to endure. We may worry about whether we can win the war against the Ammonites, but the real problem is the evil and ambition within us that does not trust in God. Jephthah vows to offer the first person to greet him after victory as a human sacrifice to God. This is the sin that God abhors most. He makes this choice because he does not trust Gods promise to be with him and because his army seems insignificant compared to the Ammonite army. Ambition is judging according to one#039s own will and opinion rather than staying where God leads.
Jephthah made the vow of human sacrifice out of anxiety. Because he was anxious, the old customs and values of human sacrifice, which were Canaanite practices, suddenly emerged. Therefore, today#039s passage shows us that we must handle anxiety well. Because of anxiety, we forget our mission and rush toward ambition. When we are anxious, we must look back on the past and remember how God has held us and what He has done for us up to now. As we walk in the same way, believing in the promises God has given us, we will come to believe in His work and care.
Second, we should tear our hearts and repent.
God grants a great victory in the war against Ammon. This is to comfort Israel and establish God#039s kingdom. Jephthah should have remembered God, the Lord of war, and repented of his ambition after seeing this victory, but his lack of understanding led to tragedy. After the victory, his beloved only daughter came out to greet him first. Because Jephthah was so stubborn, his only daughter had to be offered as a burnt offering. Jesus obeyed the cross mission of giving up everything, and God granted the glory of salvation by restoring everything. If Jephthah had laid aside his pride and ambition, consulted the community, and followed the Word, he could have been restored. But he did not follow the God who desires obedience and did not repent.
I would liketo be a pastor who repents, not a successful pastor or one who maintains appearances, but one who confesses, Without God, I can do nothing. I hope that we all can confess to the Lord who comes to us despite our weakness, mistakes, and ugliness: I am nothing without You! You must be with me!
Third, we need a community that mourns over sin.
Jephthah#039s daughter knew that her father#039s vow belonged to God, so she set aside her own opinion and obeyed, saying, Let your word be done. Our community also ignores unfaithful spouses and incompetent husbands, but because we hear it as God#039s work and the word of redemption history, we set aside our own opinions and obey. Jephthahs daughter asked for two months to mourn her death with her friends before returning. After she was offered as a burnt offering, the sorrow spread, and people began to commemorate that day and live according to Gods will. In this way, repenting and mourning over the consequences of sin has the power to purify and restore the community.
The news of the mourning community spread, and even in Wonju, people began sharing their own struggles and praying together for the salvation of evangelism targets and their children. A deacon who attends the prayer meeting gave his imprisoned son a copy of Quiet Time and A Woman Who Quiets Every Day, and his son met Jesus. Seeing his changed appearance, other prisoners also read the book, and one of them sent the deacon ten letters of gratitude. I will introduce the contents of one of them.
I have never met your mother, but I always think of her as my benefactor and am grateful to her. I have read the book you sent me more than five times, and when I sent the book and Quiet Time to my wife who sent me to prison, she said that the book that had always been on our bed was Quiet Time, and that the pastor who had once told her to listen to the sermon was Pastor Kim Yang-jae.
I discovered the affair through my brothers and wifes KakaoTalk messages, and I assaulted both of them. However, after reading the book, I received such grace that it became the foundation for forgiving my wife. My dream is to engage in community activities with my wife at Our Churchs Couples Pasture, testify about her suffering and recovery, and proclaim the living presence of God. I desire to become a couple who is nurtured at Our Church and lives according to the Word.
Today, after this sermon, I will depart to prepare for the establishment of Our newChurch in Wonju. Even before the church was established, I saw Gods provision, and I experienced the joy, awe, and gratitude that come from walking in faith toward the one soul God is seeking.
I hope that through a community of mourning and the Word of redemption, we may lay aside ambition and vain desires, labor for the salvation of souls, and see those who suffer persecution and injustice come into the light of life. May the grace that testifies to the true value of what is precious be among us, as we bless in the name of the Lord for the sake of those who are losing what is precious.
