Are you one of those people who like to know what the people who disagree with you are saying? I do sometimes. I think it is important to have your perspective challenged and to learn what you can from others. Sometimes I get to see the other perspective even when I do not want to. For example, when I am on YouTube, they think I like to see what the latest things are that people like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris are saying. Once I got videos recommended from this group of atheists in Austin, Texas. It was a radio show where people would call in and try to convert them. They welcomed it but I found this kind of bogus. But I listened to a few episodes and I found something interesting. It seemed that when the leader’s back was to the wall over some arguments that he could not refute, he resorted to an argument of disgust toward God and the Bible specifically mentioning the story in Judges 11:29-40. I heard him do this more than once. Here is the offending part of scripture:

Judges 11:29-40 (NIV)29 Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites.30 And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord: “If you give the Ammonites into my hands,31 whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.” 32 Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into his hands. 33 He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon. 34 When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of timbrels! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. 35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, “Oh no, my daughter! You have brought me down and I am devastated. I have made a vow to the Lord that I cannot break.” 36 “My father,” she replied, “you have given your word to the Lord. Do to me just as you promised, now that the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. 37 But grant me this one request,” she said. “Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry.” 38 “You may go,” he said. And he let her go for two months. She and her friends went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. 39 After the two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin. From this comes the Israelite tradition 40 that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

Now, the leader of this group was right, this is a sad, disturbing story. However, God has made it CLEAR that He hates human sacrifice (Deuteronomy 12:31; 18:10). Yet it happened. Was that God’s fault? No. It was Jephthah’s fault. It was his sin to make the promise and his sin to follow through with it. However, the point of this message is NOT to criticize this guy but to ask ourselves: Are we guilty of being angry with God for something that someone else did? I know it is hard to see the difference for a lot of people. I have heard many preachers say, “Seeing you is as close to a church as some people will ever get”. Some people may never see the inside of a church but they will see your life. For me, that is a scary truth. I know that I have been known to say things that I wish I could take back, like I am sure Jephthah did. I have been known to have severe problems with road rage. And God knows, I have many other problems. If my life was the only witness that a person like Matt ever saw, I could not blame him for hating God and hating the Church. God help him if he could see inside my head sometimes. But I know that I am not Jesus. I am not perfect, none of us are. To some extent, those who look to the lives of believers for their ONLY view of God are ALWAYS going to be sorely disappointed. We must all know people who claim to be devout who have done awful, hurtful things to us. Maybe it was the case that at the time they thought they were trying to help us. Maybe we did know they were “trying” to do good but did not actually do something good or even just made things worse. Maybe they believed that their devotion made it okay to be prejudice against other people.

We need to learn to see the difference between ourselves, other human beings and the One Above All. Thinking about those Catholic priests who have abused children, let us remember that that is NOT God, that is sin (Matthew 18:6). When thinking about your Christian co-worker who stole your idea, that is NOT God, that is sin (Proverbs 10:2), When driving down Touhy avenue in Chicago and having a person in a black wide-brimmed hat with with a white shirt almost spit on you, that is NOT God, that is sin (John 13:34-35). Seeing in the news, Muslims burn to death a Jordanian pilot, that is NOT God, that is sin (Exodus 20:13). We need to see the difference between man’s sin and God’s love and provision for us. How do we do this? By learning and studying and knowing the Word of God, also, by listening to our lives, even by listening to wise counsel from other people. But we need to remember that men are sinful and we are all full of the capacity for evil. They do not know the spirit that God has given you or the course that the Lord has given you to run. We must not forsake gathering together and learning from one another. But we must learn to put all of people’s advice and teaching under the Word of God.