WHEN the elders of Gilead arrived at Tob’s royal court to see Jephthah, they were first made to report themselves to the king of that land.
The king was gracious to both Jephthah and his people that day. For after he heard the elders state their case, he invited the young man to meet with his people and decide himself.
The monarch provided the people a large room to convene in. There those search party waited for their former champion while he attended to the king.
Now when Jephthah eventually appeared in front of his townspeople, the men broke down in tears and fell on their knees in apology.
Jephthah couldn’t take that humbling sight at all. He halted at the door; then turned back and shut the door after him.
The youngest two of that search troupe simply jumped to their feet and ran after the man immediately. When they open the door and saw him backing away, they called after him in an anxious chase.
‘Please, don’t go… don’t go. We’re very sorry for sending you away; please don’t go, please!’
Jephthah halted and turned to glance at the two men.
‘Exiling me is not the problem now,’ he stated. ‘Get those old men falling on their knees to stand up. That’s what is sending me away; I can’t stand that sight!’
‘Oh… okay!’ the young two retorted. Then one of them added a quick word. ‘We’ll do that right away, but please come back to us… please!’
Jephthah simply folded his arms now without replying anything. Then the men knew it was time to get the elders up on their seat as fast as possible; so they ran back inside to tell them to get up and sit.
Right after, one of those two ran back to get Jephthah. And just as he opened the doors, he met him at the doorstep coming inside.
He bowed several times in a fit of excitement. ‘Ah thank you, thank you, thank you!’
But Jephthah only came inside and stood, his arms folded again in a daunting stance. And his voice was a little shaky when he spoke next.
‘Wipe off your eyes and say what you’ve come for! Why did you leave my father’s side to come for a bastard here?’
The first man who spoke had a sledge hit the hero’s chest with his stirring words. He was an old scribe with snow white hair.
‘Your father is down with old age and bad health, son; and his days on the earth are numbered.
‘Yet your father is sicker for this fact – that he was the one who sent his own son away. And we’re all on his side asking you back home, my son.’
Jephthah turned his gaze away, pressed his lips together and clenched his fist firmly in a desperate effort to fight back the tears.
But another old man picked up just then. It was with words more moving than the first man.
‘We were too shortsighted to send you away, Jephthah! Neither your father nor us could see that we’d come to need you desperately. We also couldn’t see that we would regret trading you!
‘Ah Jephthah, we suffered for our act of thoughtlessness and betrayal! We suffered and died on the battlefield as well as in our homes.
‘Even your right-hand four who betrayed you died at the hand of Xarxus’s hired killers. They were the first that Xarxus killed when we sent you away.’
Jephthah was shocked at those last words.
He turned to the speaker to mutter a word, but tears were almost dropping from his eyes right there. And so, he turned his gaze away immediately and shook his head in pity.
The speaker ended his words after a pause. ‘Now we have nowhere else to go than to come to you for rescue, Jephthah!
‘Indeed, the God of our fathers promised never to help us except only by the hand of the same Jephthah we had rejected!’
Right there, a heavy stream of tears coursed down the former warrior’s face. He just shook his head and bowed it too.
The first man picked up now, the man with the snowy hair. Jephthah wiped his tears as the man began; and he turned to look at him.
‘We know all of Gilead has hurt you, son. You do not know that every year we afflict ourselves so much for banishing you from us!
‘Yet not for us who are never worthy of you, Jephthah! Not for us, nor for our sakes; but for the sake of the God of Abraham and Israel, please come back to us and defend your nation from this tyrant!
‘If it was for your father Gilead that you defended the border walls, you know you wouldn’t have wrought those great feats on your own.
‘Didn’t you foresee that he might waver and betray you in the matters concerning inheritance? Didn’t you see he might someday choose your brother over you? Of course you somehow knew all the while!
‘So, if it was for Gilead you fought the battles against the aliens, you wouldn’t have slaughtered unconquerable giants, my son.
‘But you fought for God who made your father rule in the land.
‘And this time again we ask of you to come back and fight for God! Come back to us in Gilead and defend even Israel in the name of the living God!’
Right there Jephthah dropped his folded arms, lowered himself to a seat and broke down in tears.
He cried and shook with tears. And the elders cried with him.
Indeed, those words had sliced through the warrior’s chest, his big icy chest. And the warm words had melted his rock-hard stance.
Yet after the emotional outpour, there was one thing the young man wanted done, if he’d be returning to that place he once called home.
But that wish would shake Gilead to her very roots.
And Jephthah was set to demand it still.
Comments
Post a Comment