JEPHTHAH had his name called from behind him. It was by several voices.
‘Jephthah… Jephthah… Jephthah…!’
The former warrior turned to see where he lay broken on the mat in his cave house. It was his four new friends calling.
The rain had just stopped pouring over that side of Tob; and so Jephthah’s friends were easily jolted awake by his moans and sobs.
‘What happened? Why are you sobbing?’ one of the men asked impatiently. Then the other three poured in with similar questions.
‘Are you all right, Jeph? What happened?’
‘Why’re you crying, Jephthah?’
‘Come on, tell us; we’re here for you!’
Jephthah raised his gaze and looked at the men for a while.
These were the men he’d rather call strangers. And these same men cared for him beyond the norms, he reasoned.
Right there he sat himself up and faced them. He wiped off the tears with his cover spread and decided to tell the friends everything about him.
There’s no point putting on my guards with these gentlemen. They just dote on this stranger as me as though I was their brother!
So Jephthah made to call his friends and address them. But just then he saw that he couldn’t recall anyone’s name.
No, he couldn’t even guess at that instant what their names sounded like. Yet he wouldn’t be that clueless to ask it right there.
He swallowed a moment and then began telling the gentlemen about who he was as well as what he’d gone through.
He told the strangers about his family back in Israel; his contested place in the family and in the army, and how he fell from valor to squalor.
And there he lingered to tell them about the God of Israel whom he failed.
Jephthah told them about the God of his fathers… the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
He spoke to them of His great wonders, then told them how He raised him from nothing to becoming a conqueror of wars.
And then the man let them know how he became so haughty and self-reliant that he fell from the height that God placed him.
That moment when he got there Jephthah broke down crying. And before the ex-champion knew it, his friends were down with him sobbing.
‘Oh no, if you were this favoured by your great God, why did you break His heart… Jephthah, Jephthah!’
‘Ah it hurts we don’t know how to beg Him for you! I wish we know He’d forgive your betrayal, oh no!’
‘We wish He can take us for Himself, too! But we’re mere commoners in Tob! I wish He’ll take you back, Jephthah!’
The men cried, speaking those words severally. Then all of a sudden, as though on a calculated cue, everything went silent.
The sobbing, the sniffing, the talking.
Everything went still.
Then the next moment, one of Jephthah’s friends fell to the ground in a sudden daze and he began to speak words that were never his own.
Aloud he declared: ‘Hear the word of YAHWEH, the Holy One of Israel:
‘“I was sought by those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me.
‘“And indeed I said, ‘Here I am, here I am,’ to a people not called by my name.
‘“For before you called, I have answered; and while you are still speaking I have heard.”
‘So hear the word of YAHWEH, you who tremble at His word. Indeed, Jephthah on whom His Spirit rests:
“Your brothers hated you, and cast you out for my name’s sake.
‘“They mocked you and said, ‘Let YAH show His greatness and save you, so that we may see you rejoice.’
‘“But they shall be ashamed.
‘“For just as the new heavens and the new earth that I make will remain, so your descendants and your name will endure for ever.
“For I, the Lord, will perform it.”
Right then everyone fell on their faces and trembled at that giant wonder. Even the young man who spoke knew it wasn’t anything he could explain.
There and then the wanderers saw that God had stepped into their midst.
They knew their lives would change from now.
Copyright © April 2022 by Kayode & Tola Olla
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