Jessica Ann Liberger was a 5-week-old baby girl. Jessica became ill with pneumonia. Her father, John Liberger,
was a preacher. He did not believe in
medication. He prayed for the healing of
his daughter. He believed that God would
answer prayers. He prayed day and night. He prayed fervently. Unfortunately, Jessica
died. The police found that John,
Jessica’s father was guilty of criminal negligence. He went to court and the judge found him
guilty. Instead of putting him behind
the bars, his sentence was five years of probation and community service in
hospitals. When they asked Liberger about the verdict, he said: “God is my judge. I’ll give an account to Him.”
I wonder what God’s
verdict will be on this man one day. Liberger is right.
One day he will stand in front of God’s throne as all of us will. I wonder what God will say.
I would like to talk today about people who have strong
faith yet weak theology. Today’s passage is from
the Book of Judges. We are talking about
Judge Jephthah.
These are the days when
After 20 years of neglecting God, their neighbors
attacked them from all over. Finally, the
Israelites went to God for help. They
wanted help without confessing their sin. They wanted help without destroying the gods that they worshipped for twenty years,
almost a generation. God was angry with
them. He said, “You need help,
fine. Go to your gods, they will give
you what you need.” Finally, they repented and turned to God. They destroyed all foreign gods.
We read in verse 10:16 “Then they got rid of the
foreign gods among them and served the LORD.
And he could bear
This was the situation:
Israelites were facing a strong army of the Ammonites and they wanted a
leader to run this fight. They went to Jephthah. Who is Jephthah? He is a mighty warrior. His father was Gilead a leader in
Well, God chose Jephthah as a judge who would lead
In the English sermon we
will continue examining Jephthah’s life, his
decisions and the consequences of his decisions.