April 30--Why You Can Be Sure a Happy Ending Is Coming

The nightly news gives us lots of reasons to doubt it, but the Bible says that a happy ending is coming that we can count on.  See if you agree:  Judges 11-12, John 1:1-28, Psalm 98, Proverbs 14:12-13.

Click here for the written post of today's episode.

Eve reads her Bible journal aloud on this episode.

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Transcript

Judges 11-12

John 1:1-28

Psalm 98, Prayer, Proverbs 14:12-13

SPEAKER_00 0:00

April 30. Why you can be sure there's a happy ending coming. I won't be reading the scripture references. For those, please check the written post. I've been culling my kids memorabilia for more than ten years, putting their best drawings, camp letters, report cards, and photos in one big fat notebook for each of them. It's been an on again, mostly off again project that tugs so hard at my heartstrings I can only do a little bit at a time. I had no idea when I became a mama forty three years ago how wonderful being a mama would turn out to be. I had no idea how our lives would grow, who my kids would become, what would happen to us as a family. I knew nothing going in except that I wanted as many children as possible, which turned out to be five of them. Motherhood is by far the most exciting journey of my lifetime, and it's still going on because now I have nine grandsons. All of them are brilliant and beloved, so well worth what little trouble their parents cost us. I know a happy ending to life as we know it is coming one day because life keeps getting better now, more people, more life, more love, more learning, more growing, more knowing, more of everything that makes life worth living. I believe all this same sort of wonder will continue only without sorrow and multiplied by infinity. Eventually I'll step down here, but whenever that time comes, I'm certain that what waits on the other side will absolutely knock the socks off this life, and this life has been awesome. I can hardly wait for it. Today's passages say more about the happy ending we can all be sure of The Old Testament chapters are Judges eleven to twelve. Ever wonder if you'll make a difference? If the world will be a better place for having you in it, if you'll do anything noteworthy for God? I do, but when I do, I've got the wrong main character in mind. The player to pay attention to isn't you or me. The main player is God, and the main action is what he's doing in the world. And with that change of focus, the better thing to wonder is what is God up to and how can I plug into that? Will God use the good things I do to advance his kingdom? Will he redeem the bad things I do too like he promises? Because this is God's world, and I'm just a tiny piece of it. The story I'm living is only part of his larger one. Enter Jeptha, a mixed bag if there ever was one. Jeppta does good and bad things and sometimes both in the same moment, and this is encouraging because sometimes I do too. From Jepptha I learned that God doesn't need people who have spotless family pedigrees or circles of godly friends or lots of money to give away, or even regular daily devotions in order to use them to get his work done. All of these are good things, of course, and God encourages them, but he can take a nobody like Jepptha from the wrong side of the tracks, kicked out of his own family, impulsive and rash, running with the wrong crowd, and use him to do what needs doing without commenting on his shortcomings. God's power to empower Rif Raf may not be very churchy or applauseworthy, yet Jeppta's story is in the Bible, and it's well worth looking at. God's spirit came on Jepptha just before he attacks the Ammonites, and he makes an impulsive vow, making a bargain with God about having victory over his enemies. He says that if God lets him win, he'll devote or sacrifice as a burnt offering whatever comes out the door to greet him when he gets home afterwards. Two things are worth noting before we go further. One is that even under the influence of the Holy Spirit, a person can make a stupid promise, and two is that even under the influence of the Holy Spirit, Jeppta thinks he can bargain with God to get what he wants. This can't be a how to for praying rightly, and yet here it is in the Bible without one word of commentary. In fact, God gives Jepta the victory he thinks he's bargained for, so his impulsive vow stands, and what comes out the door to greet him is his only child, his virgin daughter. There's a lot of speculation about whether or not fulfilling this vow actually included killing his daughter and burning her on an altar, which is what Jeppta promised. Some say the Hebrew conjunction and can also be translated or, which changes the vow entirely to mean he can burn her or dedicate her, in which case she'd spend her life serving at the temple and never marrying. There are links to a commentary and podcast transcript covering this point in the written post. Regardless of what happens to his daughter, either way it's awful, but it's not the point I'm making. Jepptha was foolish to make the vow. He's also foolish to try to weasel what he wants out of God by making a big bold promise rather than simply asking God for his help. I'm guessing Jeppta doesn't know God very well yet, since he chooses bargaining instead of simply asking. He must not know how God delights to help his people. Maybe he hasn't been paying attention to the teaching at the temple, and maybe it's because he's been hanging out with those friends of his on the street corner, but still, he's included in the heroes hall of fame in Hebrews eleven with the likes of Noah, Abraham, and Moses, whose quote, lives of faith were exemplary, end quote, and this impressive list includes Jephtha. He was also given a clear and decisive victory over Ephraim, a tribe of nearby Israelite brothers who threatened to burn down his house because he didn't include them in the fighting against Ammon, or in dividing the battle spoils. How can Jephtha be God's man of the hour? I don't know, but I do know that during the time of Judges, Israel had no king, and quote, everyone did as he saw fit, end quote. They ignored the king of kings alive and still with them. The tribes of Israel had been in the promised land for about three hundred years by then, and they've mingled and married with the natives just as God said not to do. They've nearly lost their identity as his particular, holy, and set apart people. They've adopted the lifestyles, the idol worship, and even the manner of speaking of their non believing neighbors. There are many things that happen in the stories of Judges and in the Bible in general not to emulate. Just because a story is written in scripture doesn't mean it's one to revere in all its particulars. Jepptha's is just such a story, and so is the story of Gideon whose story came before Jepta, as is Samson whose story comes next. Both of these men were mixed bags of faith and unbelief, just like Jeppta. God chooses who he uses, and often who he chooses is the unsavory, unprincipled, unlikely person, so that everyone watching knows that God is the one who alone has done the good things that get done through them. God is the one of power and glory, not Gideon or Jephtha or Samson. He's the one who takes a cowardly runt of the litter, who is Gideon, an overzealous bastard son, who is Jephtha, and an arrogant, hard hearted son of a gun who is Samson, and uses them for his purposes, making good things happen for Israel through them, because God is God and there is no other. It's a fact I keep noting, and most especially in the book of Judges, because it's full of so few people who ever do anything righteous that God is always the hero of every Bible story. He's the hero of every human story too, and this is comforting in a day when the morality of our culture and its people continues to decline, when politicians, celebrities, and other leaders keep turning out to be raunchy, when my own heart keeps coming up cold morning after morning. None of these are heroes to look up to, and this is actually good news because it reminds me that God is only and always my hero. And because God is always my hero, he's always worthy of my worship. No matter the culture I live in, I have everything I need in him. You can be sure there's a happy ending coming because this hero will always win, and so will those who love him. The New Testament passage is John one to twenty eight. From the very beginning Jesus was with God. He was there making everything that's been created. Even so the world he made didn't recognize him when he came, even his own people didn't want him. But whoever did want him, he made to be their truest selves, their child of God selves. These folks are ones God gives birth to, not by blood or flesh or sex, but by his spirit. Moses gave us the black and white basics of how to live God's way, but Jesus gives us the amplified version full of light and color, quote, and endless knowing and understanding, end quote. No one has ever seen God, but Jesus has made him plain as day. The apostle John and the rest of Jesus' disciples saw the glory of Jesus, quote, the one of a kind glory, like Father, like Son, generous inside and out, true from start to finish. This is why John writes his book to share Jesus with us, and Jesus in turn shares the Father with us. You can be sure there's a happy ending coming because Jesus is God, died to bring you to Himself, and He's sworn He's coming back for you. From Psalm ninety-eight. As if right on cue, this Psalm says we celebrate and sing a brand new song because God sets things right, sets everyone and everything right. His salvation plan is breathtaking, saving everyone who wants in, quote, the whole earth comes to attention, end quote, to marvel over it and praise him. And all creation sings and trills over it too. The fish of the sea give it a round of applause, and everything on land joins in. The waves shout and the mountains too, giving God high fives because, quote, He'll put the world right and everyone in it, end quote. God saves people from sin, he also saves them to live with him forever. We don't have to be afraid of what's ahead, of what's on the news, of who our leaders are, of how the economy is doing, because our God rules. It's not naive to believe it, it's actually brilliant because it's true. Isn't it interesting that both the psalm before this one and the one after begin with, quote, God rules, end quote. And this one sandwiched in between begins with quote, sing to God, end quote. Because God rules, we don't have to worry. We can even sing. You can be sure there's a happy ending coming because God promises it to you. Prayer. God, I've been looking for a happy ending all of my life. I'm so glad it's all true. Keep me singing while I wait for you. In Jesus' name, so be it. From Proverbs 14, 12 to 13. There's a way of living that leads nowhere but to heart wreck and heartbreak. It may look like a good time, but it's a bumpy ride to a dead end. Steer clear. Passages in Judges, John, Psalms, and Proverbs are selected for today in the yearly Bible. This is Eve de Bartleaban Roebuck.