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Why Words Matter in the Kingdom of God

In a world where casual promises and offhand comments are common, Scripture calls believers to a higher standard. On this episode of The Jaime Luce Podcast, Jaime delivers a soul-stirring message from Judges 11 about the weight of our words—especially the words we speak to God.

This isn’t spiritual milk. It’s meat. And if you’re ready to grow in faith and character, you’ll want to chew slowly on what’s here.

Jephthah’s Vow: A Biblical Warning and Revelation

In Judges 11, we meet Jephthah, a mighty warrior rejected by his family but later called back to lead Israel in battle. Before going to war, he makes a vow to God: “Whatever comes out of the door of my house… I will offer it as a burnt offering.” Tragically, it’s his daughter who comes out to greet him.

Many ask: Did Jephthah sacrifice her? Jaime explains that most scholars agree he did not—rather, his daughter was consecrated to lifelong service to the Lord, forfeiting marriage and children. Still, the story underscores a sobering truth: vows to God are no light matter.

God Takes Promises Seriously—So Should We

Throughout Scripture, we see repeated warnings:

• “When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow.” —Ecclesiastes 5:4

• “Let your yes be yes and your no, no.” —Matthew 5:37

• “Do not lie to the Holy Spirit.” —Acts 5 (Ananias & Sapphira)

God listens. And He expects us to follow through on the things we say, especially when we speak them in faith or desperation.

A Personal Testimony: When a Vow Changed Everything

Jaime shares a powerful story from her own life. Her husband, feeling the weight of financial responsibility, once prayed, “Lord, if You double my income, I’ll double my tithe.” He forgot about it—but God didn’t.

By year’s end, his income had doubled. And one night in prayer, God reminded him of the vow he made. With repentance and obedience, they gave what was promised—down to the penny. Not only did God forgive them, but He restored their finances within three months and used their offering to meet a need in their church.

God honors our words—do we?

Life and Death Are in the Power of the Tongue

Proverbs 18:21 declares it plainly: “The tongue has the power of life and death.” The words we speak over ourselves, our circumstances, and our future carry immense spiritual weight.

Jaime shares the example of Jesse Itzler and Navy SEAL Chad Wright. Itzler, a marathon runner, could never break 38 miles—until Wright trained him to never give voice to pain, only power: “I feel outstanding. I never get tired.”

Their mindset and declarations carried him all the way to 100 miles. While not a vow to God, this modern story illustrates a timeless truth: what we speak, we walk in.

How to Honor God With Your Words

Here are three takeaways to practice today:

1. Think before you speak. Don’t commit to anything you haven’t counted the cost of.

2. Speak life, not death. Your declarations shape your perspective and your outcomes.

3. Follow through on your promises. If you’ve made a vow to the Lord, ask for grace to fulfill it.

Scripture References

• Judges 11 & 21

• Ecclesiastes 5:4–8

• Deuteronomy 23:23

• Numbers 30:2

• Matthew 5:33–37

• Proverbs 18:21

• Acts 5:1–10

Where to Dive In:

Consecrate Your Mouth

Let your mouth be consecrated, not casual. As Jaime reminded us, faith comes by hearing—and what you hear most often is your own voice.

The good news? God is merciful. He doesn’t shame us, but He will correct us and restore us when we honor Him with the words of our mouths.

Full Transcript

This transcript is auto-generated and not perfect. We hope it blesses you.

00:09 – Jaime Luce (Host)
Welcome to the Jaime Luce podcast. Thank you for taking time today to take your dive into the Word of God. That’s what we care so much about is getting to know our Savior, knowing Him in His character, who he is and what he’s ordained and spoken over our lives. And I have something today that might seem, I don’t know a little. It might be a little controversial, it might be a little abrasive. It may, it may poke a little bit, but I hope that you are strong enough in your desire to learn of God, that you are able to chew on the tougher things, that you can eat meat and not just drink the milk of the word. I know we enjoy the milk, we love the milk. It makes us feel good, but it’s the protein of the meat that makes us grow and if we’re not careful we can become very weak and somewhat like an emaciated is that the right word form of a Christian? Someone who lacks substance, someone who lacks true knowledge of the word, someone who lacks real character in the word. And I think what I have today for you is something that will build you. It will encourage you. I’ve got some encouraging things in here. It will encourage you. But this is a workout today. This is one of those things that we’re going to build some muscles today, if you’re willing to do that with me. This is one of those things that we’re going to build some muscles today, if you’re willing to do that with me.

01:49
And we’re in Judges, chapter 11. And we’ll start with the story of a man named Jephthah. You may or may not be familiar with this passage, and in this passage itself there are some controversial things said. Controversial things said, but I believe that there are hints in Scripture and, through study of the different theologians who have been careful to do the background work and the history to know what this means, I think they’re pretty obvious. But just so that you know that most scholars will attest to the things that I’m going to say, I’m not just throwing this out there on my own. I want to give you a personal story. I want to tell you about a story that I heard recently that I will share the link with for you so that you can hear that for yourself, as well as multiple scriptures to go with this.

02:41
But have you ever been in a situation that you got yourself into? Or, even if you didn’t, you could have found yourself in a situation that you did not choose, but in it you were talking to the Lord, whether it be seriously or whether it be flippantly, and saying God, if you ever get me out of this, dot, dot, dot dot. You fill in the blank. I think all of us, at some point or another, have done that. When it’s there, there is a correlation that I want to show us that it matters what words you say and it most definitely matters the things that you utter to God, the promises that you make God, the promises that you make people.

03:39
The words you speak matter. You speak matter and God is listening. He’s listening and there are consequences to the words we speak. I’m sure that you have heard similar things. It’s all throughout Scripture.

04:00
But it matters what we say. Even if you look at Peter, you know he would quickly obey God, jump out in faith, and then he’d turn around and stick his foot in his mouth and say something and the Lord had to rebuke him. So the words we speak matter. God did rebuke him and he rebuked him very strongly. We won’t be going over that today, but it matters. It matters what we say, and I want to, I want you to take seriously. I hope that you will truly chew on this. Like I said, this is meat today. I hope you will chew on this. This is a. This truth will not only be something to help guide what you say, but it will also build your faith. Because when you understand the power of your words and you understand that when you speak the word, when you utter something to God, the knowledge that he is ever present in the time of need or trouble, that he hears and answers prayers, that he knows what you have need of even before you ask this God that we serve is present and he’s listening. He’s not just listening to the people that you might see on TV or famous Christian people. He’s listening to you. You are his son or daughter and you matter to him, and it matters the relationship we have with him and it matters the things that we say to him.

05:44
So let’s go ahead and start with the passage in Judges 11. Let me give you a little background before I start in with this. Well, let me read you the first couple verses and then I’ll cut out and give you a summary and then we’ll jump back in. But Judges 11, verse 1 says Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute. Gilead was the father of Jephthah, so Gilead’s, his dad and Gilead’s wife also bore him sons. So he had a wife who had sons, but he went and saw a prostitute and she bore him a son. And when his wife’s sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him you shall not have an inheritance in our father’s house, for you are the son of another woman.

06:49
Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob and worthless fellows collected around Jephthah and went out with him. Now that term went out with him, went out. You hear this a lot when speaking about the kings. They go out and they come in. At one point King David is told that he can no longer go out. Moses wanted to know. He said I’m sorry, joshua wanted to be able to lead them in and out, moses to take them in and out. That term is a military term and that means to go to war, to go into battle.

07:30
So what the scripture is saying? These men, these worthless fellows? They basically were probably people who were just, you know, ragamuffins. They liked to fight, they liked to stir up trouble, but they gathered to Jephthah because he was a great warrior and they wanted to fight. So they came and joined themselves to him. Now, these are worthless men, but we saw the same kind of thing happen, not with worthless men, but with those who were considered the down and outers, david, when he was running from Saul. Scripture says that his mighty men, those men who gathered themselves to him, these guys who could fight, they were scrappy, they were born and raised on the street, so to speak, but they were the ones who had lost everything, who were down and out, who were down on their luck. Bad things that happened, whatever it didn’t. The scripture didn’t call them worthless, but it’s the same kind of scenario here and they bind themselves to someone because they need a leader. And Jephthah was a mighty warrior, they saw him as a leader, and these men came and gathered themselves and followed him to go out and come in. Now there came a time.

08:46
These next several scriptures in chapter 11, speak about when the Ammonites are now coming against Gilead, coming against the people of Gilead’s home it was against Israel, but Gilead’s family’s feeling it and they decide we need our brother, the mighty warrior, the one we kicked out and said who has no part in us. We need him because we need a mighty warrior to defeat these Ammonites, to get us free from them. And so they gather together the leaders and they go to Jephthah and they say we want you to come and be head and leader over us and we want you to help us defeat the Ammonites. And Jephthah’s like why would you call me now? You got rid of me, you didn’t want me. And he’s pointing out the error in their hearts and showing them what kind of people they are. But he says this is really important.

09:44
Let’s look at verse um. Oh, let’s start at nine. Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead if you bring me home again to fight against the Ammonites and the Lord gives them over to me, I will be your head, me, I will be your head. And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah the Lord will be witness between us if we do not do as you say. So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead and the people made him head and leader over them and Jephthah spoke all his words before the Lord at Mizpah.

10:28
Now it goes on to say that Jephthah goes out to make war, basically with the Ammonites, and he is preparing, he’s got the armies behind him. He knows that he has asked the Lord to intervene on his behalf and if we jump down to verse 29, it says this then the spirit of the Lord was upon Jephthah and he passed to the Lord and said a vow. When we get married, we take vows. We are making a covenant. We are saying I am holding myself to this. We’re making a very deep and enduring promise, something that we intend to keep, and we should be people who very carefully, very carefully, say yeah, I promise, I promise, I promise I’ll do this.

11:40
How many parents are guilty of saying, okay, this weekend, kids, we’ll go to such and such, and then the weekend comes and we’re too tired. Something came up, you know, we’re just not feeling it now, whatever, and the poor kids are disappointed. We need to learn to be careful with what we say. You know it used to be common to say that, the Lord willing, we will do such and such. You even see that in scripture, paul even says that, if you’re someone who has family from the South, they may have had sayings like Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, or you know something to that effect. And they were. What they were saying was this is my intent, but they’re not making a vow. They’re saying there could be something that stops this. They were leaving room for there to be a possibility that this doesn’t take place. They’re not making a vow, but when they make a vow that’s different.

12:44
And it says in verse 30, and Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the Lord’s and I will offer it up for a burnt offering. So Jephthah crossed over the Ammonites to fight against them and the Lord gave them into his hand and he struck them from Aror I don’t know how to say that to the neighborhood of Menef, 20 cities and as far as Abel Karamim, with a great blow. So the Ammonites were subdued before the people of Israel. Then, verse 34, jephthah came to his home at Mizpah and behold, pay attention his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. She was his only child. Besides her, he had neither son nor daughter, and as soon as he saw her he tore his clothes and said Alas, my daughter, you have brought me very low and you have become the cause of great trouble to me, for I have opened my mouth to the Lord and I cannot take back my vow. Okay, we’ll keep reading Verse 36. And she said to him my father, you have opened your mouth to the Lord. Do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, now that the Lord has avenged you of your enemies on the Ammonites. So she said to her father Let this thing be done to me, leave me alone two months that I may go up and down on the mountains and weep for my virginity, I and my companions. So he said, go. Then he sent her away for two months and she departed, she and her companions, and wept for her virginity on the mountains, on the mountains, and at the end of two months she returned to her father who did with her according to his vow that he had made. She had never known a man. Now, if you’re paying attention here, it is said three times, twice that she’s a virgin, third time saying she has not known a man.

15:56
Now I know we read just a little few verses earlier that he promised to offer as a sacrifice whatever came out of his house. First I want to address this. First of all this is a man who obviously understood how things work with God because he was careful to speak before the Lord. He did this intentionally when they asked him to be head over them that this was between the Lord. He’s listening to this. He made a vow to the Lord. He taught his children or his child because she said you’ve opened your mouth to the Lord, you need to keep your vow. So they understood the importance, the weightiness, the irrevocable vow and process of making a vow to the Lord, what that meant for their life. It’s either you are blessed because you have obeyed or you received the curse that comes on you for disobeying and not fulfilling a vow.

16:59
So the question becomes did Jephthah sacrifice and offer his daughter as a burnt offering? The answer, according to most scholars, is no, absolutely not For one. If Jephthah understood the depth of this knowledge about the Lord, he also would know that God would never condone such a thing. You would never offer as a sacrifice a person. He always, of course, accepted burnt offerings. If they were of an animal that you would offer up, it would be a sweet savor to the Lord. You could offer up meal offerings. You know there were wave offerings, thank offerings so many different offerings and you would come and you would bring a burnt sacrifice or you would pour out a drink offering all of these things. He said he would offer a burnt sacrifice, a of these things. He said he would offer a burnt sacrifice, a burnt offering, but he said he would offer it to the Lord.

17:50
So what scholars believe he did? Because the scripture clearly keeps talking about her virginity and that she did not know a man, and this was the thing that people then would go and mourn over. This understanding is that, somewhat like Samuel, how Samuel was given to the Lord and he was no longer with his family. He no longer could live his life as a regular child of Israel. He was now living and serving God in their town. His life was given to service in the tabernacle.

18:24
Well, for Jephthah’s daughter, the belief is that he caused her to go. She could never marry nor have children. She couldn’t live her life the way she had intended or the way that she had dreamed. Instead, her life was now to be given in service to the Lord and that was where she would stay. She would never marry and because of that circumstance, then he would also give a burnt offering to the Lord a sacrifice, a burnt offering. So he would have given an offering and given his daughter to the service of the Lord.

18:56
So I hope that that helps us when we read that so we aren’t so. Oh, how awful. This is terrible because it can be really, really shocking when you’re reading that and think is that true? God would never have condoned it, nor would he have honored it, even if Jephthah had offered her not knowing. If he didn’t know, god would never have accepted a human sacrifice ever. That is not the God we serve. He is against human sacrifice. It was one of the reasons that he constantly wanted the children of Israel to conquer these enemy nations. Because they did such things. They were an abomination. The things they did were terrible.

19:33
So this was never Jephthah’s intent. He assumed an animal would come running out of the house. He assumed something that he could offer to God would come running out of the house and he probably had a dog. If you’ve ever opened, the dogs know that you’re home before people know they are at the door. The minute the door opens, that dog runs out. People then generally follow. It’s normally that dog. That’s the first thing that comes out. I’m sure he thought a lamb, a goat or some kind of animal was going to come running out of the house and he was ready to offer of his household, to offer what belonged to him to the Lord as a sacrifice. He did not think that his daughter would come walking out. So I just want you to understand that. But you have to understand the validity and the seriousness of the words he spoke and uttered to God. Now it’s very clearly said he made a vow.

20:30
But I want us to think about this. I want to tell you a personal story of how this happened in our life, and it was through my husband, and he didn’t use the words vow, but these were the words that he uttered to the Lord in a prayer and this happened. We had moved into a new home. The Lord had blessed us with a new home. We had just had another child, so we had a full house and a brand new mortgage and my husband had been at his job now for a little while and God was blessing that job, but he was feeling the weight and the responsibility of having to pay these bills and care for this family. I’m sure if you were somebody who pays bills, you get it the minute you add just another thing. It’s a weight that we carry, unless you, of course. You know, if we saved and paid with cash, we wouldn’t have that issue, but we had a mortgage. So anyway, the weight is there and his custom was to after we all went to bed at night. That’s when the house was actually really quiet, versus the morning hours with school and different things. So his prayer time was at night and he went into the office that he would pray in and after us we all went to bed and that’s where he would spend his time with the Lord. And one night, as he was in prayer, it was about 10pm and this story if you want the whole story, it’s in my book. You Don’t Need Money, you Just Need God. You can get a hold of that Many testimonies in there.

22:09
But this particular one, he is praying. This is on his mind. Everything about the finances is on his mind, about the responsibility, about work and doing well at work. All of that’s on his mind. And, as his custom is to pour out his heart to the Lord, whatever’s on his mind, he said to the Lord without even thinking about it Lord, if you’ll double my income, I will double my tithe. And now there’s no such thing as a double tithe. Tithe literally means tenth. So if you double it, it’s no longer a tenth. I get that. I know that, I’ve said that before, but some people get confused by that. What he simply was saying I’ll double what I give you, I’ll double the amount that I give you. You’ll not only get the tenth, I will give you 20%. If you will double my income, I will give you 20%. And he prayed that prayer not even knowing if that was a legal prayer. He was never somebody who ever asked for money. He never prayed and asked God for money. He always asked God for opportunities. Give me opportunities that I could work. I’ll work it. If you’ll bring me the open door, lord, I’ll walk through it. I’ll work it. And that was his heart. But this night it just came up out of his mouth and he said as he prayed it, he realized he felt almost the pleasure of the Lord. He felt the acceptance of that prayer. He knew the Lord was listening and he felt like the Lord would honor that prayer. Well, life was busy, life went on. The months start to really roll by and as they’re rolling by, more business and more business is coming in. By the time we get to the end of that year, our income had doubled. It had fully doubled in less than one year.

24:01
January goes by, february goes by, march goes by and Joel is sitting again in that same prayer room in his chair praying to the Lord. And as he’s praying, his eyes fall on a scripture. And the scripture basically said it would have been better for you never to make that vow to me than to make it and to break it. And immediately Joel remembers the prayer. He had completely forgotten about it, completely forgotten about it. It wasn’t intentional, but he had forgotten about it. God had not forgotten and God was reminding him through his word you made a vow to me and I honored it. You did not.

24:49
And boy, when that, when he read that he said it was like a lightning bolt hit him and it went deep into his soul, deep into his spirit, and he groaned and began to cry out to God. He just bawled, I mean, he just fell apart and cried to the Lord for hours. And at one o’clock in the morning he comes out of that prayer, closet to the room where I was asleep, and wakes me up and says Jaime, I’ve got to tell you what I’ve done. And he began to speak about the prayer he had prayed and what God had been doing all that year. And it’s now March, and we both cried. We knew what the power of what God had done and we hadn’t done what God had expected us to do and what not. That he only expected. But we said we would do it. We made that promise to the Lord. We uttered those words before the Lord. We uttered the words before the Lord, just like the scripture said. And so the very next day Joel said okay, I will get it all together. He calculated what that would be. He drained every account that we had. We maxed out and took all the cash we could on every credit card that we had to come up with what we needed to double that tithe for the year. And that next Sunday, with a very humble and contrite heart, my husband put that check into the offering and said Lord, you did what you promised to do and I didn’t. And I’d like to make it right today and I give to you what I owe you, please forgive me. And he put it in the offering.

26:38
That following Wednesday was our church’s annual business meeting and we went and our pastor was normally a very conservative man and he came in and he was, he had like a jump in his step. He’s like hallelujah, praise the Lord. And this just wasn’t like him to be so expressive. And he said we’re in the black. He was so excited. He said until Sunday we were in the red, but Sunday God did a miracle and we’re in the black. And he told us the exact amount that God had provided and that that was the exact amount that they needed. And God provided it. And, folks, that exact amount was the exact amount that we gave that double tithe.

27:32
And when we did, we knew. When he said those words, our hearts were so full of joy. We knew at that moment thank you, lord, for forgiving us. And not only was it your good pleasure to answer us and to bless us, but your purpose is always so much bigger than us and the church needed that and we were the ones to be able to provide it. I mean the joy that that gave our hearts, knowing that God was so good to us, and we honestly thought you know, this is going to take it’ll probably take the next year to get back into a right place, because we drained every account and we’re going to have to pay all these credit cards back and they have high interest rates and you’re going to have to. I mean, we didn’t. You know you don’t use them for that reason. And do you know that God was so faithful to us that in three months time and I really believed it was three months, because our sin of not paying what we owed at the end of the year was three months overdue? And I really believe that the Lord, in his grace to us, was giving us a picture of saying I forgave you, of those three months, kind of how, when Peter denied the Lord three times and he asked him then three times Peter, do you love me? That’s really what I felt was going on. And that in three months time me, that’s really what I felt was going on. And that in three months time the Lord had given it all back. We were so blessed. The next three months everything was replenished and put back all of it in three months he not only accepted our prayer and then forgave us of our sin, but blessed us.

29:17
Folks, the words you speak before the Lord, they matter. They matter. He’s listening and he cares about you. I want you to look at Matthew 5, verse 37. Matthew 5, verse 37. Matthew 5, verse 37 says Jesus said just say a simple yes I will or no, I won’t. Anything beyond this is from the evil one. What’s the lesson in this scripture? Be a person of your word. Be somebody who says what you mean and mean what you say. Don’t be deceptive with your mouth. Don’t be deceptive with your mouth. In other words, be a person of your word. Don’t make empty promises.

30:18
This single character trait holds great power and we tend to justify our failures to do what we’ve committed to do very easily. We almost brush them off entirely. We just say things and we think it just doesn’t matter. I was just kidding, oh, I really. I didn’t mean to say that. We dismiss our words as if they don’t matter, as if they don’t have power. We aren’t careful to choose our words. We just flippantly, out of whatever mood we’re in, say whatever we want to say. We’ll even make jokes like uh-oh, did my inner dialogue escape me? And we will say things we should not say and we have, as Christians, got to be careful about what we say. This is a huge mistake we make to not value the words we speak, this very character trait of being a person of our word has the power to bless our life or to curse it. The words we speak matter. They have power.

31:35
I want you to look at Ecclesiastes, chapter 5. I’m going to read to you verses 4 through 8. This is the passage that my husband read the night that he realized he had not fulfilled the vow he made to the Lord. When you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying it, for he takes no delight in fools. Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than you should vow and not pay.

32:14
Do not let your speech cause you to sin and do not say in the presence of the messenger of God that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry on account of your voice and destroy the work of your hands? I mean, can you imagine what my husband was feeling at the point that he read this scripture? He’s saying you promised to make a vow and it was to pay money and you should have paid that money on time. It’s like dealing with the fool. He takes no pleasure in dealing with fools. I mean, this is strong language. And he says you have sinned if you have not done what you have said. It’s sin. It’s not a mistake, it’s sin. We have to call it what it is, and God will destroy the work of your hands. That’s the work, that’s everything that he had been blessed with. Now, god will curse the work of his hands. He won’t be able to be blessed by the work of his hands. Folks, this was huge.

33:13
This was a very personal word and this is how the word can become rhema. You can be reading the word and it’s literally telling you what happened to these people in these scriptures that we read in the time that they took place, in the cultures that they took place. But there are times when that very word, god, is speaking to your heart, to you. That’s the rhema word. It’s alive, it’s living and active. It is still powerful today. It still affects us today. It still leads and guides us. It still teaches us principles and knowledge that we need and who our God is and how he operates and how to be blessed and how to avoid being cursed in this life, that things just don’t work out, that we don’t end up with holes in our pockets, as the scripture says.

34:02
This act of making a vow is scripturally serious business, serious business. I want you to read Deuteronomy 23, 23. Deuteronomy 23, 23. It it says this you shall be careful to perform what goes out from your lips, just as you have voluntarily vowed. It’s like nobody made you sit there and make that vow. You voluntarily did it, that you voluntarily vowed to the Lord, your God, what you have promised. You shall be careful to perform what goes out from your lips, just as you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord, your God, what you have promised. Then, numbers, chapter 30, verse 2.

34:52
If a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath to bind himself with a binding obligation, an obligation, he shall not violate his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. Matthew, chapter 5, 33. Matthew, chapter 5, 33. Again, you have heard that the ancients were told you shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord. Okay, I’ve got two more to give you that are really powerful, and I got to try to get them to you without having to read the whole thing. Let’s do well, let’s stay in Judges right now. Go to chapter. I believe it’s 19. Yes, judges 19. I’m not going to read this whole passage because it’s long, but it’s about a Levite, okay, someone who understands the things of God, or should.

36:09
Now, this is during the time of Judges and over and over again, you will see this phrase that in those days, in fact, chapter 19, verse 1 says this in those days when there was no king in Israel, and then it will say the people did what was right in their own eyes, in fact, in chapter, what was right in their own eyes In fact in chapter. Is it 20? It might be in chapter 20 or 21. It says it multiple times and, in fact, this is the last Judges. 21 is the last chapter of Judges and the very last word of this book. Is this the last words of this book? In those days, there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes and that’s important that the book ends with that, because they’re letting you know everything you just read.

37:13
We can tend to sometimes, if you’re not somebody who studies the word or reads the entire thing, the whole context, the whole book of Judges, to understand the precepts and the things that are being shared. You could read a scripture and think well, they did that in the Bible, so it’s okay for me to do that and not know that what you actually did is the part where they’re saying what they did was against the Lord or was completely an abomination. And you can’t do that. But you’d have to read the whole thing to know that. Context is very, very important and in the book of Judges, through the entire thing, you see this phrase multiple times, over and over again, to remind us this is what the people were doing, but they were all doing what was right in their own eyes. This isn’t necessarily what God says is okay. Just because this was God’s people, just because it was Israel, it doesn’t mean they were doing it right. In fact, they were serving many other gods. They were doing crazy things.

38:14
This particular story in chapter 19 is about a Levite who has a concubine so she leaves him. It says she was unfaithful to him and that she left him. But she didn’t leave him and go to another man. She went back to her father’s house. So I’m not sure what caused her to be unfaithful and caused her to go back to her father’s house, but she went back to her father’s house. But she went back to her father’s house and after a time the Levite traveled and he brought his donkeys and brought stuff. And the scripture very specifically says he went to go speak gently to her. He wanted to convince her to come back with him. So he wasn’t going back angry with her, he was going back trying to woo her back.

38:55
And when he gets to her father’s home the father is very happy to see him and he tries to convince him to stay. Just keep staying, keep staying, just keep staying. And he said you know, he’s going to rise early in the morning and take his concubine and leave. And the father-in-law would say, no, just stay, eat something with me a little bit, rest a little this morning. And then he’d say the day is pretty spent, let’s just enjoy ourselves, have a good dinner, stay the night one more night. He does this over and over and over again. Finally, one evening the father-in-law tries to convince him to stay one more night and the Levi says no, that’s it. Tonight we’re really leaving, we’re going right now.

39:37
So he takes his servant, he takes his concubine, he takes his donkeys and all this stuff and he starts to head out and he purposely says I will only stay in a city that is a city that belongs to Israel. I’m not going to stay. There were closer cities easier places. They could have stayed on the way home. That didn’t belong to Israel. These were other nations, these were other groups of people. And he said, no, I’m not going to do that, I’m not staying with them, I will stay with God’s people. I want to make sure I’m in a place that I can stay with God’s people.

40:19
He gets to the city, he stays with God’s people and, as he’s, no one offers him which it was customary for if you came into a city, that someone would invite you to stay in their home. They would bring you into the home so you didn’t have to stay outside all night because they would close the gates of the city. Well, he’s out there in the square and this old man comes in from taking care of his fields and he realizes who are these people who are in the square and he asks them where are you from? Where are you going? They explain and he says well, come to my home, cause they said no one will take us into their home. He says come to my home. And so he feeds them and the animals are being fed and they’re in his home and a knock comes at the door and it’s the men of the city who are demanding that he bring the man that’s in the house out to them so they can take advantage of him sexually. So they’re wanting to have homosexual relations with this man, to abuse this man and take advantage of this man.

41:11
And the man who lives in the home says you can’t do this thing, this is a terrible abomination, you can’t do this. And he even says here, take my servant girl and take his concubine, we’ll give them to you instead, but don’t do this terrible thing, don’t participate in these kind of acts. This is not what God would have you do. And the man literally puts his concubine outside, thinking that they’ll have their way with her, which that in itself I’m thinking my gosh, that’s horrible all in itself. And this is a Levite who’s supposed to know better. I just the thought of that is horrendous.

41:53
But they put them out there and this poor concubine is literally assaulted all night long. When day breaks she is trying to crawl back to the threshold of the door. The man doesn’t even notice she’s not in the house at this point. He had slept and forgot about it. Gets up to leave and sees her at the doorpost and says get up, we’re going to go now. And she doesn’t respond. She’s dead. She’s dead. They’ve killed her. He puts her on his donkey and travels home. When he gets home, this again is appalling. If you have children who are listening to this, please, you may need to pause and let them go somewhere else.

42:41
But this man begins to cut her body up into 12 different pieces and sends a piece to each tribe in Israel, and when each tribe gets this body part, they are all appalled and every one of them is saying this has never happened in Israel. What is this? Why has this happened? What is going on? And so troubling to everyone who receives this that literally all the heads, thousands and thousands and thousands of people come. I want to say that it was in the hundred thousands, but I’d have to go back and reread it.

43:28
Okay, here it is, chapter 20, verse 10. And we will take oh, I’m sorry, that’s who will go out to fight. Anyway, all these thousands of people come to hear and find out what has gone on. When Jephthah not Jephthah, sorry when the Levite begins to explain what took place when he came into this city, all of the people who had come said this is an outrage and we are going to war, even though this is against our own brothers and this is the first time this was of the tribe of Benjamin and Gibeah where this took place, and they all decided they are going to go to war against their own brothers, which, before the time of the judges, this would never have. God never wanted fighting amongst the brethren. They were to fight for one another, not fight against each other. And yet this is so disturbing and the things that had been done in amongst their own people were so disturbing, they knew it had to be dealt with.

44:40
So they go to the Lord and ask the Lord the most likely cast lots, should we go up against our brother? And the answer came back yes, go against him. And they ask who goes first? It says the tribe of Judah goes first. So Judah goes first and I think like 20-something thousand of them were killed that day and died in that battle. And so they come back before the Lord, weeping Lord, do we go again? Do we try again? We’ve lost so many. Do we go again? God said go again. They go again and they lose another multi-thousands of people and they come before the Lord and they weep before the Lord and they don’t understand, say God, do we go again or do we just leave it alone? We know that this is troublesome. These are our brothers, and God says no, go, this time, I’ll give them into your hand. And they go and they fight against them and they win, and they pursue them and there’s a group who goes to a particular area, who escape. Everybody else is destroyed, and after that takes place and those people who are hiding in this particular place have been there for like four months or something to that effect the people of Israel are now mourning before the Lord and saying God, what do we do?

46:08
What do we do? Because we took a vow, and this is what I want to read to you. Let me find it In chapter 21,. Let’s start with verse 1. And now the men of Israel had sworn. So they took a vow at Mizpah no one of us shall give his daughter in marriage to Benjamin to anybody of the tribe of Benjamin. And the people came to Bethel and sat there until evening, before God, and they lifted up their voices and wept bitterly and they said O Lord, the God of Israel, why has this happened in Israel, that today there should be one tribe lacking in Israel? They understood how devastating this was.

47:10
And the next day the people rose early and built there an altar and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. And the people of Israel said which of all the tribes of Israel did not come up with the assembly of Israel or with the assembly to the Lord, for they had taken a great oath concerning him? Who did not come up to the Lord, to Mizpah, saying we shall surely be put to death? And the people of Israel had compassion for Benjamin, their brother, and said One tribe is cut off from Israel this day. What shall we do for wives, for those who are left, since we have sworn by the Lord that we will not give them any of our daughters for wives? So they’re saying there’s a dilemma. We care about this tribe, we care, we don’t want it to be lost forever. They had to pay the consequence and we had to destroy this evil thing. But we don’t want to wipe them out and we’ve taken all of the.

48:25
Normally they would intermarry between tribes and they’re saying they have no more women and children left. Only these men, who were warriors, who escaped, are alive. But we have to be able to. They have to have wives and we swore we wouldn’t give them our daughters as wives. So what are we going to do? We have compassion on them, lord. How are we going to answer this? We’ve made a vow.

48:44
They understood they could not break that vow. So they asked the Lord I’d read to you which tribe, when we all went to war and made this vow with God, which tribe didn’t come up. Which of us never came up and made this vow? Because if we can find a group of us who didn’t make this vow, then they could give their wives. So they do. They find the group that didn’t come up, they take them and they have them give their wives. But there weren’t enough. There weren’t enough wives. So then, let’s see. Which verse should I give you? Um, let’s start at 16.

49:23
Then the elders of the congregation said what shall we do for wives, for those who are left, since the women are destroyed out of Benjamin? And they said there must be an inheritance for the survivors of Benjamin that a tribe not be blotted out from Israel, which is what I just had told you about. I’ll skip down to verse 20. And they commanded the people of Benjamin, saying go and lie in ambush in the vineyards and watch If the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in their dances because there was a feast that was always held at this time of year and the girls would come out and dance. He’s telling them hide in the vineyards those of you who need wives go hide in the vineyards. And then when the girls come out to dance, you go, take them as your wife, go, take them as your wives. And that way we don’t approve, we’re not offering our daughters and no one is breaking a vow. I mean they are literally coming up with every possible conceivable idea to enable God to still have the tribe of Benjamin be their brothers and to help them procreate and propagate their line for perpetuity. They’re doing their best, but they knew they could not break their vow. I mean they are taking extreme measures.

50:47
Folks, even this group of people, who are so far from the ways of God, understood and did not forget how intensely important, how seriously vital it was that if you make a promise to the Lord, if you utter a prayer, a vow to the Lord, a promise you’re going to make to the Lord, you cannot not fulfill that vow. You just cannot negate that vow period. I’ve read you several serious scriptures to back this up. But these people who were not all following the laws of God and doing it right and with all the things that they let go of all the laws, they let go of all the craziness that they had accepted and following and offering sacrifices to other gods. If you read the whole thing, you’ll see they would serve other gods. There was idolatry, all kinds of stuff going on, but they knew you don’t break a vow. That must tell us how vitally important it is that if you would not follow the other laws of God but this one, you’re not going to break. How important this really is. It’s really important to be a person of your word, really really important.

52:09
Proverbs 18, 21 says Proverbs 18, 21 says life and death are in the power of the tongue. Now, if we really believed that, we would be much more careful about the things we say, much more careful. But we know that this word is truth. We know this word is not a lie. The power of life and death is in the tongue, in the tongue In Acts, chapter 5, let’s go there Acts, chapter 5. I’m going to show you that the power of life and death is in the tongue and how important this was, very vital.

53:22
Okay, this is the story. I call them stories. They’re true, they’re their true life of ananias and sapphira, and it says this. I’m going to read to you verses 1 through 10 but a man named ananias, with his wife sapphira, sold a piece of property. Now, before, before I go on, I should probably tell you in context the verses right before this are talking about Barnabas, who had sold a piece of property, and this is when the church was binding together.

53:47
The church was brand new and, because of the persecution around them, if any of them had need, they would sell literally their stuff so that they could meet one another’s needs, so that all of them had enough. Everybody had their needs met. Everybody was taken care of. You would notice it during the missionary journeys that Paul would take. He would talk about the poverty that so many were dealing with in Jerusalem and there would be offerings that would be brought back to be able to meet the needs. It was necessary, and it’s still the way of the church, for us to care about what our fellow Christians are dealing with and to if we can meet their needs. It’s not up to the government. So many like to leave it up to the government, the church, maybe the world’s stuff, but not the church. We’re supposed to be caring for one another. But anyway, barnabas had just sold a piece of property and he brought the proceeds of that and laid it at the disciples’ feet so that they could do with it whatever needed to be done.

54:51
Let’s read verse 1 again. But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property and, with his wife’s knowledge, he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet. Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? So if he’s lying, peter is saying okay, the Holy Spirit is showing me that you sold the property for such and such, and you’re telling us basically that you sold it for such and such, but you’ve lied about that. You’ve held some back. Let’s read on.

55:46
While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own, like you didn’t have to sell it? It was yours, that was your decision. No one forced you to sell it. It was yours, that was your decision. No one forced you to sell it. And after it was sold, was it not all yours? Was it not at your disposal. He’s saying all the money was yours anyway. You didn’t have to bring any of it. You didn’t have to do anything. You could have sold it and kept all the proceeds. It was yours. Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man, but to God.

56:24
Okay, now they came and they’re talking to man. They’re saying out of their mouths that they did something and they’re telling it to the disciples, but Peter’s saying no, you’re saying it to God, not to man, because those men are filled with the Holy Spirit. When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. Your tongue has the power of life and death. When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last, and great fear came upon all who heard of it. The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.

57:08
After an interval of about three hours, his wife came in not knowing what had happened, and Peter said to her tell me whether you sold the land for so much. So he is specifically saying he’s giving her an opportunity. Did you sell it for this amount or did you sell it for this amount? And she said yes, for so much. And Peter said to her how is it that you have agreed together? You and your husband agreed to this together. You conspired together to test the spirit of the Lord. Behold the feet of those who have buried your husband turn the page. Sorry, have buried your husband, are at the door and they will carry you out. Are at the door and they will carry you out. Immediately. She fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in, they found her dead and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband and great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.

58:34
Peter is making it clear when we say that we are doing something but we do not fulfill what we are saying, we are breaking a vow before the Lord and we need to know the power of those words. If you don’t know if you can fulfill something, if you don’t know for sure that you’re going to be able to do something, don’t commit to it. Don’t say you can, you will. Don’t do anything that you know God hasn’t spoken to you about and that you aren’t in agreement with the Holy Spirit to speak truth. Let truth come out of your mouth. Okay, I have.

59:27
I wanted to give this to you and I want I know this is really heavy, so hang tight with me I wanted to give you a really encouraging story Now. I told you the encouragement of what God did for my husband and I, even though we had blown it, and he was so merciful to forgive us and we made it right, but I had come across my well, not me. So my husband’s, or nephew on my husband’s side, is a minister and I believe it’s in Ohio and he is a runner. He likes to run, run marathons and things, and he came across a video about this particular runner and he shared it as he preached, and shared it with his mom, who, of course, is my husband’s sister. She shared it with my husband and I said I need that video, send that to me. So it’s made its way to me and I will link it for you. So if you want to watch it, you can watch it.

01:00:27
But I’m going to give you the summary, the synopsis of this video, and this is the story of a man named Jesse Itzler. He is a marathon runner and he was wanting to prepare to participate in this run. That it goes in circles and every circle is so many miles and it’s you go around this circle. I believe it’s like every four or so miles there’s you can take a short little rest and you keep going, and they call it the last man standing, because this race can literally last for days and people are running through the night and they’re going. You know, whatever this course is, and you have to run 100 miles, 100 miles. And he was preparing for this run and during his preparation he would always get to the 30, I think it was 38 miles that he could run, or was it 48? Hi, my name is Jaime Luce. That he could run, or was it 48?

01:01:48
Right now, the economy is going crazy. Gas prices are soaring, there’s wars and rumors of wars. We’ve got everything hitting us all at once, with interest rates rising. You need to know what to do and so many times we think we need the money. But you don’t need money. I’m telling you, the answer is you need God, and that’s exactly what we want to teach you through this book. We’ll give you practical ways to know what to do and how to do it, so that you get answers now. You can find my book on Amazon. You can also go to JaimeLuce.com. You can also find this book at youdontneedmoneyyoujustneedgodcom. This book is available today. Oh, here, I took the notes. Okay, 38 miles.

01:02:33
He was able to run 38 miles during his practice in preparation for the big 100 mile, but he could never break 38 miles. And he got word that he had heard this story of a guy who had only ever ran five miles that was the longest he’d ever run but that there was this guy named Chad Wright. Chad Wright, who was a Navy SEAL, who went and helped the guy be able to run the hundred miles, simply by constantly saying that he could, that he never gets, we never give up, I don’t quit, I never give up, I never quit, I never quit. And that by just saying this he was able to complete the run. And this guy, jesse, says now, this man is a Navy SEAL, decorated, you know, and he’s on a very famous person’s podcast. He says so, I doubt he’s lying. So he thought, okay, I’m going to, you know, take my chances. And he calls the man. He calls Chad Wright, and he gets him on the phone and he says hey, I heard about how you helped a guy who’d only ever run five miles, run the hundred mile and I’ve been running 38 miles and I cannot get past the 38 miles. Can you help me? And this man, chad, says Jesse, I can help you do that in two days. I can help you run a hundred miles in two days.

01:04:07
So he shows up at his house and he’s sitting across the table and he he’s. It’s funny how he tells it, because he’s just sitting at the table staring at him and his friends call Jesse and they’re like hey, what kind of advice did he give you? You’ve changed what you’re eating or you know what’s the secret sauce. And he says he hasn’t said anything, he’s just stroking his long beard. You know, he’s like it’s kind of creeping me out out. He hasn’t said anything to me, like he just laughs at me. He just strokes his beard and laughs at me.

01:04:36
Well, later that night they go to dinner and at dinner he finally speaks to him and he says all right, jesse, this is how it’s going to happen tomorrow morning we’re going to get up at 0, 4500, whatever, I don’t know. 500 in the morning goes, but at 4 45 we’re going to get up so 15 minutes that I’m going to tell you what the game plan is before we go out. So he gets them up the next morning there at 445. And he says to him today we’re going to do three things. Number one we are never going to give voice to our pain. He goes. What do I mean by that? He goes yeah, I know you’re going to get tired. Yeah, I know it’s going to hurt. Yeah, I know things are going to feel this way or that way. He goes, but words have power. So we’re never going to say that. In fact, I’m going to say to you, jesse, how do you feel? And every time I say to you, jesse, how do you feel You’re going to say outstanding, how do you feel, jesse, outstanding? No, how do you feel, jesse, I feel outstanding. He says and that’s what we’re going to do. Every time I ask you, how do you feel, you’re going to tell me you feel outstanding, okay. Number two you are not going to die in this chair. We never die in the chair. He goes. What do I mean by that? He says we’re going to go out there and we’re going to give it everything we’ve got, everything we’ve got. And if we fail, that’s okay, but we’re going to give it everything we’ve got, because what we’re not going to do is quit and then come back here and not do it. We’re not dying in this chair. We don’t ever give up. We’re going out there Now, whether we succeed or fail out there, that’s okay, but we never give up. And number three we’re going to be grateful, jesse. We’re going to be grateful. He said, regardless of what you feel, regardless of what happens, regardless of any circumstance. We’re going to be grateful. You know why? Because you’re here, because you’re doing it, because we’re able to do this, because we can, we can do this. So we’re going to be grateful for everything that we can be grateful for Everything you can think of. You’re going to be grateful for that day. Okay, that’s what we’re going to do. So they go out on this run and they’re practicing and they’re knocking it down and they’re doing great. And he realizes okay, we’re doing great, we passed that 38 miles, we’re doing awesome.

01:07:03
Comes time for the big race and it’s a month later, 30 days have passed, and Jesse says, or Chad says all right, jesse, I’m going to run with you, we’re going to do it a hundred miles. He hadn’t run a hundred miles, he just he’s passed his 38 miles. They did it. So now they show up for the day of the race and they’re running and they’re doing great, but at mile 74, mile 74, jesse says I feel like I’m going to die. My body is just done. I’ve got hypothermia, I’ve got broken toenails in my shoes, cutting my feet up. I’m at my end, I am at pure exhaustion. And Chad can see it and he knows it. And he says all right, jesse, this is what we’re going to do At the next I don’t know how many more miles it was next mile or two you’re going to stop at the rest stop.

01:08:01
I’m going to let you rest for just a minute, but you know what we’re going to do.

01:08:04
He goes. There’s this thing, man. I got to tell you he goes. It’s a miracle, jesse, I never get tired. I never get tired. It’s a miracle, I never get tired, he goes. So when we stop at the rest stop, we’re going to tell whoever’s there to help us about the miracle of Chad and Jesse that we never get tired. Are you ready?

01:08:31
So they barely make it to the rest and when they do, they give him some soup, they give him some electrolytes, and as he’s taking that in and taking that rest for a moment, all of a sudden, jesse turns to the lady and says you know, I got to tell you there’s a miracle about Chad and Jesse man, we just never get tired. We just never get tired. And right then Chad touches Jesse’s shoulder and says all right, let’s go. All of a sudden, mile 80, mile 82, mile 84. Jesse, how are you feeling? I feel outstanding? No, how do you feel Outstanding, jesse? Are you tired? I never get tired. Mile 88. Mile 90. Jesse, how do you feel I feel outstanding, jesse? How do you feel I feel outstanding? Jesse? You tired? No, I never get tired. I never get tired. Chad, mile 90, 92, 95, 98, mile 100.

01:09:38
They did it, they finished the race and it was because he knew the power of his words. What you say matters. Now I know that this story is not the story of a vow, but the power behind the words you speak, behind Proverbs 18 that I shared with you I think it was 18, 1821, that life and death are in the power of your tongue. I wanted you to understand the power of your words, that this same man, jesse Itzler, is actually now a very wealthy entrepreneur and while his business was starting, he would sleep. He said 18 couches, 18 different couches of friends that he slept on during this process and he had a partner and he would go into the office every day and he would say we’re millionaires, man, they just haven’t paid us. Yet he had learned the power of his tongue. He learned the power of his words. Why? Because the words you speak.

01:10:51
How does faith come? Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. So you need to make a practice of consecrating your mouth, that the words you speak and utter before God you take very seriously, that you understand the strength and the power behind those words and that if God has said it, if it’s in this word and you need this word to come to pass for you the way that my husband needed the word of God to come to pass for us and our family, for our finances, and God honored those words. God honored those words and folks. He’ll honor them for you. But the key to understanding the power is knowing will you honor your words? God honors his, but there’s consequence to that honoring. There’s consequence to the words you speak. Choose your words wisely. Choose your words wisely.

01:12:00
Let me pray for you. Heavenly Father, thank you that you are a God so near, a Father so present, always listening to what we need, always right beside us, willing to help us, willing to guide us, willing to impart to us, willing to make the way. God, I pray today that you would take this little message and burn the truth into our spirits, into our hearts, about the power of our words. Life and death are in the power of the tongue. May we be careful what we utter to you and to one another. May we be people who honor our own words, that we are people who reflect a God who honors his.

01:12:53
I ask you today, lord, if there is anybody watching this today, listening to this today, who has a need, and they’ve offered up a vow to you that you would help them, lord, by doing what only you can do, and that they would be faithful to do what they’ve promised to do before you, that you would strengthen them, enable them, make sure that they have what they have need of. You said that you will, you provide for us what we have need of, and you have not changed your mind. You are a good God, a good Father, and when we ask for bread, you don’t give us a stone. We don’t have to be afraid of you, god, but we do need to make sure that we are honoring you with our lips. Give us that check in our spirit. Give us that knowing that we would have a guard over our hearts and our mouths and that we would be those who honor you and honor each other. And it’s in your precious name that we pray Amen.

01:13:57
Thank you for taking time to truly chew on the meat today. This is a pleasure for me to dive into the word with you. I would love to hear from you. You can contact me at mail at JaimeLuce.com, the easy way to get all of the information. Anything that’s out there previous episodes you can get ahold of my book if you’d like to get ahold of that. Any blogs that I’ve written, that’s at JaimeLuce.com. J-a-i-m-e-l-u-c-e. Again, I’d love to hear from you. If you have prayer requests or praise reports, please send them along. Please send them along. I’d love to you know either pray for you or thank God with you, and it’s been my pleasure to spend time with you today. I hope to join you next week as well. Until then, be blessed.