THROW AWAY THE JAW BONE

(5-minute read)

Sticking to what works involves much less risks than switching to a different way of doing things. Does this sound familiar? Something that once worked to get us out of a sticky situation now becomes the normative way for us to get out of any new situation that makes us uncomfortable. In the process, we miss out on the adventure, learning and growth that comes from experiencing life with greater spontaneity. 

Among believers, this is observable whenever we turn evangelistic rallies into places of healing and forget that healing can take place wherever we activate our faith and pray for those in need. Being overly attached to what works is also obvious when after experiencing a personal breakthrough in a certain way, we keep recreating those scenarios to overcome different problems.

The truth is: God can use anything and anyone as a means to achieve His desired end - even the jawbone of a donkey carcass. Judges 15:15 (NIV) tells us that Samson had used a discarded jawbone to slay a thousand men. For context, Samson was the only son of an infertile woman who had met an angel of God who told her that she was pregnant with a son who would ‘launch the deliverance from Philistine oppression’. The child would be consecrated to the Lord as a Nazarite from the moment he was born. But as it turned out, Samson also had a propensity for rash and reckless behaviour! (Judges 13:2-5 MSG). Indeed, Samson was not what you would call a typical hero compared to other biblical characters. He was a controversial character who lived a life of conflict. However, in the closing scenes of his chaotic life, God eventually used Samson to deliver the Israelites from the Philistines. Indeed, Scripture tells us that ‘he killed many more when he died than while he lived’. (Judges 16:30 NIV).

Yet, what was striking about Samson was the unconventional ways that he dealt with problems, and although he had achieved much success because of he was endowed with supernatural power from God, he never grew attached to any one method or approach to problems. As such, he left us with 3 important lessons about trusting God over attachment to methods.

1. IT IS GOD, NOT THE JAWBONE

Let’s continue from when Samson killed a thousand men with a single jawbone. You would think that anyone with such phenomenal success would instantly let the object take pride of place in their living room or outside their front door for all people to see. Maybe produce miniature versions so that others would carry them around to remind them that God was on their side, too. But instead, the jawbone that Samson used ended up in the trash as soon as he was done with it. He literally threw it away (Judges 15:16-17 NIV). 

Not once did Samson call himself the jawbone warrior because he knew that the jawbone that he used had no special power on its own. He did not attach himself or his success to the tool he used but he attributed everything – resources, challenges, people, his strength and weaknesses - to God. For different reasons, we can rigidly hold onto something that had worked for us before regardless of how ineffective they are in improving our situations and relationships in life. 

What is your jawbone?

2. DO NOT DESPISE THE JAWBONE

If you asked God for a well-manicured garden and saw a pile of dirt, would you see the genesis of your garden in that pile of dirt? At a life-threatening moment when over a thousand Philistines came to seize him, Samson (who had supernaturally broken free from being tied up and had no weapon on hand to use) spotted the discarded jawbone of a donkey close by. Without hesitating to consider if he even knew how to use an unprocessed jawbone for hand-to-hand combat, he picked up the jawbone and slayed a thousand attackers. 

This tells us that God can give us an ability to see something we would normally not consider as a resource to show us that He – and not the tool we use - is our ultimate source of victory. The point here is that we should not be too quick to dismiss or despise something because it is unconventional and seems alien to us. How would you respond to a stutterer praying for you to have success in an important business pitch? Or a young child praying for you to conceive? 

Look, if young David had thought the ordinary slingshot was too unsophisticated for his debut as a giant slayer, ‘David and Goliath’ would have been a different story today (1 Sam 17:49-50). If the disciples had thought that their five loaves of bread and two fish were too meagre to be brought to Jesus, they would have gone down quite differently in the account of Jesus feeding the five thousand in Matthew 14:15-21. In each instance, they did not let what they wished they had stop them from doing what they could do with what they had. As a result, wherever ‘David and Goliath’ or ‘five loaves and two fish’ are mentioned today, people know instantly that they refer to the great disproportionality of input (resource) versus output (outcome). 

3. DO NOT GET STUCK WITH THE JAWBONE

It is easy to get stuck with what worked for us before and rely on tradition to guide our decisions. Because, what’s familiar and predictable reduces discomfort even if it may not always be the most effective or innovative approach in changing circumstances. The irony is that, such thinking is not found in the Bible at all!

Look at how Moses parted the Red Sea with outstretched arms and how his successor, Joshua, led the Israelites and priests across the River Jordan (Exodus 14:21-22, Joshua 3:15-17). Look at how God required Naaman to dip himself in the polluted waters of Jordan River seven times before he was healed, and how ten lepers in the days of Jesus received healing at a distance only by the voice of the Lord (2 Kings 5:10-12, Luke 17:12-1).

Jawbones are tools that have little intrinsic value and on their own, do nothing to improve our lives and relationships. Holding onto jawbones creates in us a mental and spiritual rigidity that over time, restricts God’s power and His Word working in our lives. 

It is time to throw away the jawbone.

This is a summary and reflection based on a virtual BIR Session held on 27 July 2024.