Confusing Times
Judges 11-12
May 2, 2004

            There is no clean, neat, I-dotting, t-crossing story in this portion of Judges.  We're met with confusing, troubling issues.  Perhaps this is something of the medicine that we need to cure the vanity of American cultural Christianity.  Let me amplify what I mean.  It seems that much of the evangelical world lives in a make-believe Christian world.  Everyone lives happily ever after, regardless of the setting.  To unruffled our neat, packaged ideas of God, the gospel, and the Christian faith will not do.  Many will avoid reading or listening to anything that will disrupt their comfortable lives.  They say they believe that God is sovereign but refuse to consider what this sovereignty means.  They claim to believe in the gospel but know little of the meaning and implications of the gospel, and then recoil when the gospel is applied. 

            We like to think that Bible stories present lovely pictures of happy, satisfied people.  But instead, we have the most realistic pictures presented to us.  We see man in his sinfulness, weakness, and folly, whose only hope can be found in the God of sovereign grace. 

Jephthah is just such a story.  He had an ignoble beginning, the offspring of infidelity.  He was rejected by his brothers (or half-brothers) because of his mother being a harlot.  He leaves home and "worthless fellows" join him to form a brigand.  Once he is finally accepted, he opens his mouth and makes a most foolish vow, resulting in the death of his daughter, contrary to the laws of God.  Though he was given a great victory over his enemies he finds no satisfaction in it because of his own personal tragedy.  To top it off, he is unable to reconcile a neighboring tribe and so instigates a slaughter of his kin in Israel.  In spite of this, Jephthah finds his way into the "Hall of Faith" in Hebrews 11 (32). 

In spite of the failures, tragedies, and great errors, God was pleased to use Jephthah to accomplish His purpose in Israel.  We see again that He is a God of grace who bestows upon unworthy creatures His kindness.  And we see that in spite of God's gracious favor, men can still act in the most reprehensible ways.  God is not reduced to a cookie-cutter pattern of action, nor is man who is used by God squeezed into the same mold.

I. An unlikely instrument with God

            It is somewhat easy to pre-judge an individual and what he can accomplish.  Certain positions and pedigrees appeal to the flesh as being greater and more useful for service to God.  But God is pleased to do what we do not naturally expect!  Cf. I Corinthians 1:26-29

1.      Rejected by men, vv. 1-2

How else can we explain Jephthah?  E.g. Erasmus was the illegitimate son of a priest and a physician's daughter; William Carey had neither education, notoriety nor family connections in England; Spurgeon was raised for several years by his grandparents because his parents were too impoverished to care for him.  What the world despises makes no difference to the sovereign Lord.

2.      That no man would boast, vv. 3-11

Though rejected, Jephthah was being prepared for leadership and as a deliverer for the ones who rejected him.  We must recognize this much about him:

-         He made the most of his dire situation

-         He showed no bitterness of rancorous spirit when invited to return

-         He was willing to lay down his life to serve even those who had rejected him

-         He understood that the source of victory would be the Lord (11:9)

-         He willingly spoke of the Lord among his relatives (11:10-11)

Application:

            Too often we despair of our own usefulness before the Lord because of fame, money, position, power.  We put so much value in the impressive things of the world.  Consequently, we end up trusting things and missing the blessing of the Lord.  In this sense Jephthah is a stunning rebuke to all who complain or make excuses for lack of service or who fail to look to the Lord in sheer, unadulterated dependence.

II. A concern for truth

            Again, we find Jephthah taking the high road, this time in dialogue with the Ammonites.

1.      The question, vv. 12-13

His question points out that the Ammonites were picking a fight, taking advantage of Israel's weakness.  The king's response was not true, as Jephthah will show.  Nevertheless, it was his pretense for intimidation and fighting.  Most are not concerned about what is true and right; they just want their way.  We must come to terms with this as we address situations.  As Ralph Davis comments, "The Ammonite was in no mood to be confused by the facts" (145).  I hope you do not call this cynical.  Instead, it is an unfortunate reality that shows up in business, politics, national and international issues, and even in churches.  It serves to remind us of the fallenness of men that can only be transformed by the light of divine truth - the gospel taking root in the life.

2.      Stating the truth, vv. 14-28

Jephthah demonstrates justice in his position by staying with the truth.  The Ammorites were kin to Israel, descendants of Lot's son Ben-Ammi from the incestuous relationship with his youngest daughter.  The Moabites descended from Lot through the incestuous relationship with his older daughter.  So both groups were distant cousins of Israel, and for this reason, they gave care during the Exodus not to transgress their lands.

But the Amorites were not kinfolk.  They were part of the native dwellers of ancient Palestine often used to describe at least a portion of the Canaanites.  When Sihon, King of the Amorites, attacked Israel unprovoked, the Lord gave them into Israel's hands including their lands (Numbers 21:21ff).  Jephthah's point, though Ammon bordered this territory at the wilderness, was that Ammon never held this land as possession.  They were claiming something that did not belong to them.  On top of this, Israel had lived there for 300 years without Ammon even making the slightest attempt to take possession.

In the midst of his reasoned argument he gives testimony to the Lord (v. 21), and then drives home the distinction between them in v. 24.  Not even Moab tried to possess their land - v. 25.  Finally, he leaves it in the Lord's hands to judge what is right - v 27.

III. Triumph to tragedy, vv. 29-40

            While Jephthah has shined up to this point, he does something so unnecessary, so rash, so foolish, that it robs him of any satisfaction in triumph.

1.      A fateful vow, vv. 29-33

Was it not enough that the Spirit of the Lord came upon him so that his ability to rally troops gave clear evidence of God's hand?  The issue he faced was trusting the Lord.  Arthur Cundall (TDOT, 146), "he showed his lack of appreciation of the character and requirements of the Lord, and also a lack of confidence in the divine enablement by seeking to secure the favor of God by his rash vow."  Here he sought to bargain with God as though the Lord needed whatever he offered in sacrifice.  He treated the Lord in virtually a superstitious way.  A vow of service or obedience is one thing but he added to it a dimension that reeked of the superstitions of Canaan.  Perhaps the years of Israel's waywardness was taking a toll in Jephthah's well-meaning vow.  Vows are not wrong.  But they are to be taken seriously, Ecclesiastes 5:4-5.  Some attempt to tone this down by saying he thought an animal would emerge first from his house:

(1)   God had prescribed acceptable sacrifices - sheep, goats, bulls, birds

(2)   Jephthah likely had many servants and thought that one of them was expendable for his vow

(3)   Cundall states that the language of v. 31 "must refer to an intended human sacrifice" (146)

(4)   We cannot attribute more piety to Jephthah than the text reveals.  He knew much about Yahweh, "But that does not mean Jephthah observed the law he knew" (Davis 148).  Plus his companionship with "worthless fellows" "hardly enhanced social graces or nourished personal ethics," as Davis states (148).

(5)   Yet he made a vow - which he intended to keep

2.      A dance of death, vv. 34-40

Jephthah's daughter came through the door in true Israelite fashion to acknowledge the victor.  But the joy of victory was short-lived for Jephthah.  There are some strange happenings here but useful lessons.

(1)   Be careful what you vow.  God is not manipulated by grandiose vows.  He is the sovereign Lord who calls for our obedience and trust.

(2)   Human sacrifice is never acceptable to God.  It is condemned throughout the Old Testament (e.g. Leviticus 18:21, 20:2-5; Deuteronomy 12:31, 18:10; Exodus 20:13).  The sanctity of human life should have overridden his foolish vow (Wilcock, BST, 120).  But he chose the path of death for one who should not have died.

(3)   Yet we must acknowledge on the other hand a sense of honor and integrity when it came to a vow.  Both Jephthah and his daughter put this above their own comfort.  In a day that treats vows tritely - from marriage to business to public office - it would do us well to have this same spirit shown in this tragic setting.  It is ironic that in an act that the Lord forbids, we still learn a lesson of the deepest honor.

(4)   It is also commendable that his daughter holds this sense of honoring a vow with a most charitable spirit (v. 36).  Michael Wilcock expresses it well:  "What he did (the sacrifice of his daughter) is a thing all Scripture condemns; why he did it (in order to keep his word) is a thing all Scripture commends" (120).

IV. A tragic footnote, 12:1-6

1.      Pride goes before a fall

Ephraim was at it again, boasting of being the biggest, baddest and the best!  They had not lifted a finger to help Gilead for 18 years.  Now they feel their pride crushed over this "nobody" leading an insignificant group in victory.  Pride cannot accept the sovereign work of God.  Jephthah gave testimony - v. 3 - but it was not enough.  He shot straight while Gideon appeased them (8:1-3).  Pride always battles against the reality of our own weak, sinful flesh. 

2.      The cost of pride, vv. 4-6

This is where an accent proved costly.  It was a tell-tale on the Ephraimites so that eventually 42,000 died.

 

            Confusing times, indeed!  Israel's chaotic ways of pursuing their own way against the Lord left the pockmarks of rebellion in their own people.  Jephthah delivered the Gileadites from Ammon, but his own lack of trust and his mindset that thought God could be manipulated and controlled by his vow ended up costing him.  Ephraim's pride left them in a tragic shape so that they never regained their position of dominance after this.  What do we learn?

(1)   Fragmented spirituality laced with doses of the world can never profit us or honor the Lord.

(2)   Vows must be made thoughtfully, without any hint of manipulating the Lord, but only out of love and devotion to Him.  He is not in the bargaining business.

(3)   We must esteem honor and integrity even to our own hurt.

(4)   We must beware of pride that lurks about us to destroy.

(5)   God uses even weak, unesteemed instruments to accomplish His purposes.

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