Judges 11:7

"Handfuls of Purpose"

For All Gleaners

"Why are ye come unto me now when ye are in distress? " Judges 11:7 .

A proper inquiry to address to all applicants. A rebuke is implied in the terms of the question. The men had not come before. Up to this time they had disowned Jephthah; now in distress they wished to make use of him. Circumstances test friendships and the reality and unselfishness of appeals. God is always exposed to this kind of prayer. Why thus ill-treat and dishonour God in the very act, as we suppose, of recognising his existence and goodness? God does not ask us why we have come to him, but why we have come to him in distress; the coming itself is right, but the time namely, the time of distress may give peculiar significance to our approach. This is a great hold which God has upon the human race. The time of distress comes in every life, and in that hour men ask the greatest questions, and are, as it were, forced into the exercise of prayer. When pain seizes the body, or when difficulty perplexes the circumstances, when severe family affliction clouds the house, when death has sent its forecast into the heart of the family, then men may begin to cry out for the living God. God interrogates us, as Jephthah interrogated the elders of Gilead. Our answer must often be one of pitiful humiliation. God does not intend to disown us or repel us by asking the question; his purpose is to make us acquainted with ourselves, and to show us how complex is the structure and action of human motives. Selfishness cannot pray. Selfishness can beg, implore, intreat, whine, and make tragical appeals; but selfishness cannot get near enough to God to commune with him, or in the true sense to ask a favour at his hands. The prayers of the wicked are an abomination unto the Lord. If the prayer of our selfishness is answered, it is not because it is a selfish prayer, but because of God's infinite graciousness.