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At this, because he said, “I am the Bread that came down from heaven,” the Jews started arguing over him: “Isn’t this the son of Joseph? Don’t we know his father? Don’t we know his mother? How can he now say, ‘I came down out of heaven’ and expect anyone to believe him?”

^43-46 Jesus said, “Don’t bicker among yourselves over me. You’re not in charge here. The Father who sent me is in charge. He draws people to me—that’s the only way you’ll ever come. Only then do I do my work, putting people , setting them on their feet, ready for the End. This is what the prophets meant when they wrote, ‘And then they will all be personally taught by God.’ Anyone who has spent any time at all listening to the Father, really listening and therefore learning, comes to me to be taught personally—to see it with his own eyes, hear it with his own ears, from me, since I have it firsthand from the Father. No one has seen the Father except the One who has his Being alongside the Father—and you can see me. (The Message)

When Jilly and I pray for those within our circles to come to know Christ, we often ask that God will bring Christians around them who will impress them, and impact them – that they will be an influence on their lives. This is certainly one significant way that the Lord may work, but it isn’t His only way. Who can say how He will work? He has so many ways to reach the human heart. One thing is for sure though, He is able to draw to Himself all those whom He is calling. We can be confident of this. F.B. Meyer writes: ‘Notice that every soul which is taught of God will recognise Christ, v.45!’

I came down from heaven not to follow my own agenda but to accomplish the will of the One who sent me.

^39-40 “This, in a nutshell, is that will: that everything handed over to me by the Father be completed—not a single detail missed—and at the wrap-up of time I have everything and everyone put together, upright and whole. This is what my Father wants: that anyone who sees the Son and trusts who he is and what he does and then aligns with him will enter real life, eternal life. My part is to put them on their feet alive and whole at the completion of time.” (The Message)

There can be no doubt that Jesus brings positive good into people’s lives, in time, and for etenity.

Why then do they run from Christianity and Christ? Why is it that some take evasive action with their first sense that a believer is about to share their faith. How many times do we witness this? We see the shutters come down; we hear the click of the lock as the door of a life is being barred and bolted. We can even feel anger, and lots of suspicion.

What’s the problem?

I don’t suppose there is just one simple answer. Many factors may be at play. But here is one thing I definitely feel is happening: people believe Jesus is going to ruin their lives, whereas He makes those who come to Him and believe in Him whole, alive and complete.

But as someone said, ‘The devil is always telling us it is dangerous to get too near to God!’

Every person the Father gives me eventually comes running to me. And once that person is with me, I hold on and don’t let go. I came down from heaven not to follow my own agenda but to accomplish the will of the One who sent me. (The Message)

All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. (King James Version

I remember reading a book in which the author said that,when David Livingstone was battling with loneliness in the jungles of central Africa, he recorded the above verse in his diary, saying, ‘That is the word of a Gentleman of the most strict and sacred honour. He would never break His word.

But in trying to locate the quote, I discovered that he said it about another verse. Ted Camp quotes him as saying:

“Shall I tell you what supported me through all those years of exile among a people whose language I could not understand and whose attitude towards me was uncertain and often hostile? It was this statement from the Lord Jesus Christ, ”Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” He said, “It is the word of a Gentleman of the most strict and sacred honour, so there’s an end of it!”

So Livingstone said it, but not about today’s reading. However, his statement surely applies to every promise Jesus made. John 6:37 is ‘the word of a Gentleman.’

 They waffled: “Why don’t you give us a clue about who you are, just a hint of what’s going on? When we see what’s up, we’ll commit ourselves. Show us what you can do. Moses fed our ancestors with bread in the desert. It says so in the Scriptures: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

^32-33 Jesus responded, “The real significance of that Scripture is not that Moses gave you bread from heaven but that my Father is right now offering you bread from heaven, the real bread. The Bread of God came down out of heaven and is giving life to the world.”

³⁴ They jumped at that: “Master, give us this bread, now and forever!”

^35-38 Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life. The person who aligns with me hungers no more and thirsts no more, ever. I have told you this explicitly because even though you have seen me in action, you don’t really believe me.  (The Message)

How obtuse we can be! Weren’t these people seeking Jesus out because they had seen something different in Him? Hadn’t Jesus already told them that He carried God the Father’s ”seal of approval” ? (27) But the truth was they didn’t really see and so they didn’t really believe. Sometimes the desire for a ‘sign’ may be just camouflage to hide behind.

The Jews in New Testament times believed that when the Messiah came, He would send them ‘manna’ from heaven. Jesus told them that He actually is the true food from God –”the Bread of Life”. Only He Himself can satisfy the gnawing hunger in the human heart. Bread was the main food in the Middle East in those times. It speaks of a basic necessity. We need Jesus; and He can satisfy our deepest longingsol0

Tom Hale explains:

‘We must understand that the bread of life is the same as the living water mentioned in John 4:10-11. We must understand that to ”eat” this bread and to ”drink” this water means to believe in Jesus. It means to receive Jesus into our life. Just as we take food and drink into our stomachs, so we take Christ into our hearts through faith.’

An old hymn expresses the truth of this passage very well:

1 O Christ, in thee my soul hath found,
and found in thee alone,
the peace, the joy I sought so long,
the bliss till now unknown.

Refrain:
Now none but Christ can satisfy,
none other name for me!
There’s love and life and lasting joy,
Christ Jesus, found in thee.

2 I sighed for rest and happiness,
I yearned for them, not thee;
but while I passed my Saviour by,
his love laid hold on me.

3 I tried the broken cisterns, ah!
But how the waters failed;
even as I stooped to drink they fled,
and mocked me as I wailed.

4 The pleasures lost I sadly mourned,
but never wept for thee,
till grace the sightless eyes received,
thy loveliness to see. (Frances Bevan)

 Jesus answered, “You’ve come looking for me not because you saw God in my actions but because I fed you, filled your stomachs—and for free.

²⁷ “Don’t waste your energy striving for perishable food like that. Work for the food that sticks with you, food that nourishes your lasting life, food the Son of Man provides. He and what he does are guaranteed by God the Father to last.”

²⁸ To that they said, “Well, what do we do then to get in on God’s works?”

²⁹ Jesus said, “Sign on with the One that God has sent. That kind of a commitment gets you in on God’s works.” (The Message)

Jesus recognised that the crowd was seeking Him out of self-interest. He had given them a free meal, and they wanted more. He saw through their apparent clamour for Him to its motivation.

All that this world has to offer can be described as ‘perishable goods’. Nothing of it lasts and it isn’t satisfying. I am reminded of the famous C.S.Lewis quote from ‘Mere Christianity’:

“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”

In the NIV, verses 27-29 read:

‘²⁷ Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”

Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”

Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

We know that we are not saved by works, but by faith. Jesus, here, refers to faith/belief as the ”work of God”. It is both a duty and a gift; and because it is a gift we cannot boast (Eph.2:8-10)

When they found him back across the sea, they said, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” (The Message)

Many years ago, I gave a series of lectures on John’s Gospel at the Regent’s Bible College, which was then situated in Nantwich, Cheshire. In my preparations, I remember reading one fine commentator, who said about this verse, ‘We know the more pertinent question should be, ‘How did you get here?’ Had He not walked some of the way on water?!

May we never lose the wonder of Jesus.

‘Thanks be to thee, our Lord Jesus Christ,
for all the benefits which thou hast given me,
for all the pains and insults which thou hast borne for me.
O merciful Redeemer, Friend and Brother,
may I know thee more clearly,
love thee more dearly,
and follow thee more nearly.’ (Attributed to Richard of Chichester,1197 – 1253)

 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. (NIV)

There is no doubt that Jephthah was a hero of faith, and he appears in the Hebrews 11 ‘Hall of fame’. However, I am reminded of the saying that ‘The best of men are men at best.’ We are all fallen, complex and a complete mixture. Reading this passage me reminded me of Ecclesiastes 5:2a:

”Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God.”

It is not wrong to make a ‘vow’ to God, but it is a very serious thing to do. In Jephthah’s case, it seems to be an attempt to ‘bribe’, to ‘manipulate’ God: ‘If you do this, I’ll do that.’ So this was a blot on his copy book of faith. It showed a lack of trust in God.

Jephthah’s words were also rash, reckless and irresponsible. Surely he should have realised that ”whatever” (31) came out of his house might well be a human being. (See James 3:1-12)

I find Tom Hale’s words helpful and balanced:

‘Should Jephthah have broken his vow? Yes, of course. The Lord had already made provision for releasing certain people from vows rashly made (Numbers 30:5,8)…There can be no question that Jephthah had real faith in God – and his daughter even more so. In spite of our faith, we humans make terrible mistakes and commit terrible sins; yet God is ready to forgive us. Today, three thousand years later, Jephthah and his daughter are with God in heaven – because of their faith (Hebrews 11:32, 39-40). What seemed so horrible and final back then – physical death, no heirs – now appears much different in the light of eternity. And the deep message of the story is that Jephthah and his daughter submitted themselves to God in faith – regardless of the cost – and God has abundantly rewarded them for doing so.’

(It should be noted, however, that some Bible scholars do not believe that Jephthah actually sacrificed his daughter, but rather dedicated her to the Lord’s service as a perpetual virgin. In the Old Testament, women did serve at the entrance to the tabernacle: Ex.38:8; 1 Sam.2:22. Also the law concerning vows permitted substitution when dedicating humans to the Lord: Lv.27:1-8. Warren Wiersbe makes the point that there would surely not be an annual commemoration,v.40, had something so terrible as human sacrifice been involved. I have huge sympathy with this viewpoint, but it is admittedly a difficult passage. It remains correct, I think, to point out how deeply flawed the best of us are, and to entrust ourselves to God’s mercy and grace, without which we are utterly lost.)

 Then Jephthah sent messengers to the Ammonite king with the question: “What do you have against me that you have attacked my country?”

¹³ The king of the Ammonites answered Jephthah’s messengers, “When Israel came up out of Egypt, they took away my land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, all the way to the Jordan. Now give it back peaceably.”

¹⁴ Jephthah sent back messengers to the Ammonite king, ¹⁵ saying:

“This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites. ¹⁶ But when they came up out of Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea and on to Kadesh. ¹⁷ Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Give us permission to go through your country,’ but the king of Edom would not listen. They sent also to the king of Moab, and he refused. So Israel stayed at Kadesh.

¹⁸ “Next they traveled through the wilderness, skirted the lands of Edom and Moab, passed along the eastern side of the country of Moab, and camped on the other side of the Arnon. They did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was its border.

¹⁹ “Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon, and said to him, ‘Let us pass through your country to our own place.’ ²⁰ Sihon, however, did not trust Israel to pass through his territory. He mustered all his troops and encamped at Jahaz and fought with Israel.

²¹ “Then the Lord, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and his whole army into Israel’s hands, and they defeated them. Israel took over all the land of the Amorites who lived in that country, ²² capturing all of it from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the desert to the Jordan.

²³ “Now since the Lord, the God of Israel, has driven the Amorites out before his people Israel, what right have you to take it over? ²⁴ Will you not take what your god Chemosh gives you? Likewise, whatever the Lord our God has given us, we will possess. ²⁵ Are you any better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever quarrel with Israel or fight with them? ²⁶ For three hundred years Israel occupied Heshbon, Aroer, the surrounding settlements and all the towns along the Arnon. Why didn’t you retake them during that time? ²⁷ I have not wronged you, but you are doing me wrong by waging war against me. Let the Lord, the Judge, decide the dispute this day between the Israelites and the Ammonites.”

²⁸ The king of Ammon, however, paid no attention to the message Jephthah sent him.(NIV)

Initially, Jephthah tried diplomacy. What stands out for me in this section is that Jephthah knew his Bible (or as much of it as he had), and he had a good grasp on history. This is significant, living, as we do, in an age of misinformation. We may not know the full extent of it, but we suspect there is a lot of it, and it’s not always easy to discern the ‘wood’ of truth amid the ‘trees’ of information (or misinformation). Jephthah was able to bring clear thinking to the ferment. He could both correct wrong understanding, and draw sound logical conclusions from both his knowledge of history and God’s Word.

Warren Wiersbe points out how God-centred Jephthah is in his understanding. (Look out for examples of this elsewhere in the chapter). He knew that ‘history is His-story.’

Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior. His father was Gilead; his mother was a prostitute. ² Gilead’s wife also bore him sons, and when they were grown up, they drove Jephthah away. “You are not going to get any inheritance in our family,” they said, “because you are the son of another woman.” ³ So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where a gang of scoundrels gathered around him and followed him.

⁴ Some time later, when the Ammonites were fighting against Israel, ⁵ the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob. ⁶ “Come,” they said, “be our commander, so we can fight the Ammonites.”

⁷ Jephthah said to them, “Didn’t you hate me and drive me from my father’s house? Why do you come to me now, when you’re in trouble?”

⁸ The elders of Gilead said to him, “Nevertheless, we are turning to you now; come with us to fight the Ammonites, and you will be head over all of us who live in Gilead.”

⁹ Jephthah answered, “Suppose you take me back to fight the Ammonites and the Lord gives them to me—will I really be your head?”

¹⁰ The elders of Gilead replied, “The Lord is our witness; we will certainly do as you say.” ¹¹ So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and commander over them. And he repeated all his words before the Lord in Mizpah. (NIV)

Although Jephthah responded to an appeal to be the leader, verse 29 shows that he truly was one of the ‘Judges’. Unlike Abimelech, he wasn’t an imposter. He was called and empowered by God.

But consider Jephthah’s background. He did not get off to a good start. He was the illegitimate son of a prostitute (for which he could take no blame). But he was rejected by his brothers, who did not want him to have any part in the inheritance. He was banished. But, over the years, he had a band of fighting men gather around him, and he gained a reputation as a military leader. So, when a crisis arrived, ”the elders of Gilead” sought his help, giving him a promise that he would be their leader. Jephthah was unwanted, until he was wanted!

‘No person should be blamed for the circumstances surrounding his or her birth. Why permit the things you cannot control to burden your life? Learn to accept them, and the Lord will work out His purposes in His own time (Ps.139:13-16). Opposition will one day give way to opportunity.’ Warren W. Wiersbe

‘What a beautiful suggestion of our Lord! He came to his own and they crucified him. He comes to us and we at first refuse him. But his love never faileth. Being reviled, he blesses; being persecuted, he endures; being defamed, he entreats, 1 Cor.4:12.’ F.B.Meyer