Gtcotr/050221
Hebrews 11 NKJV
32 ¶ And what more shall I
say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and
Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets:
33 who through faith subdued
kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
34 quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
Time would fail me this morning to tell the stories of all six of these men plus the prophets. I imagine we would get pretty hungry before I finished that message. However, we do have just enough time today for me to tell you about one of these men. Which one?
Well I’m guessing many of you already know about Gideon and Samson, David, and Samuel, even Barak who fought with Deborah. Remember, God delivered Sisera into the hands of a woman named Jael who drove a tent peg through his head in her tent? Good times!
However, I don’t imagine many of us are as familiar with a man named Jephthah who was one of the Judges of Israel along about 100 to 150 years before King David’s time. So, while you find the account in Judges chapter 11, let me catch us up on the story.
The
Account of Jephthah …
·
Jephthah
was the son of a harlot and a man named Gilead.
·
His
half-brothers disowned and disinherited him and ran him away.
·
Jephthah
became the leader of some idle, poor, unemployed questionable sorts of men.
o They raided the
Ammonite enemies of Israel.
o They didn’t take from
their own people.
·
The
King and the people of Ammon made war against Israel, specifically the
Gileadites.
·
The
Elders of Gilead called upon Jephthah to be their commander and save them from
the Ammonites.
·
Jephthah
questioned the elders and then agreed to fight against the Ammonites. If, he
said, God delivers you, will you disown me again? They said no. Rather, he
would become their ruler.
·
Jephthah
asked the King of Ammon why he was coming against Israel. He replied it was
because they were living in the land which had historically belonged to the
people of Ammon.
·
Jephthah
sent a message to the King of Ammon detailing the more than 300-year history of
the two nations and how it is common for any nation to possess the land and
rule the people they capture in war. Even Ammon would do the same.
· The King of Ammon did not listen to reason but rather prepared for war.
This is where the story takes a strange turn. Let’s read a few verses to set the stage and then we will discuss the sad twist.
Judges 11 NKJV
1 ¶ Now Jephthah the
Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, but he was the son of a harlot; and
Gilead begot Jephthah.
2 Gilead’s wife bore sons;
and when his wife’s sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out, and said to him,
“You shall have no inheritance in our father’s house, for you are the
son of another woman.”
3 Then Jephthah fled from his
brothers and dwelt in the land of Tob; and worthless men banded together with
Jephthah and went out raiding with him.
4
¶ It came to pass after a time that the people
of Ammon made war against Israel.
5 And so it was, when the people of Ammon made
war against Israel, that the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the
land of Tob.
6 Then they said to Jephthah, “Come and be our
commander, that we may fight against the people of Ammon.”
7 So Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead,
“Did you not hate me, and expel me from my father’s house? Why have you come to
me now when you are in distress?”
8 And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah,
“That is why we have turned again to you now, that you may go with us and fight
against the people of Ammon, and be our head over all the inhabitants of
Gilead.”
9 So Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you take me back home to fight against the people of Ammon, and the LORD delivers them to me, shall I be your head?”
Jephthah did not expect he could deliver Israel from the Ammonites unless the Lord God Jehovah was with him. He had no confidence in his own abilities and wasn’t even sure God would do it through him at this point.
Jephthah asked the same question of the elders of Gilead that Christ asks men who seek salvation today: “If I save you, will you let me rule you?” Or will you only take the salvation and deliverance and then cast me aside?
10 And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah,
“The LORD will be a witness between us, if we do not do according to your
words.”
11 Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and commander over them; and Jephthah spoke all his words before the LORD in Mizpah.
Jephthah sent a message to the King of Ammon and tried to settle the matter with diplomacy. But the King refused to agree and made war with Israel.
The scriptures tell us that Jephthah was evidently called by God and went forward in faith. After all, he is included in the faith chapter as one of the heroes of faith. However, even heroes make mistakes. Jephthah made one critical error from which he could not recover, and I don’t know why he did it.
It seems, even after the Spirit of the LORD was upon Jephthah and after he was advancing on the enemy, he either felt insecure or perhaps prideful in the face of his men or over-zealous for the victory he felt he was sure to have … Again, I don’t know why he did it, but he did … he made a reckless vow. Let’s read:
29 ¶ Then the Spirit of the
LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh, and passed
through Mizpah of Gilead; and from Mizpah of Gilead he advanced toward
the people of Ammon.
30 And Jephthah made a vow to
the LORD, and said, “If You will indeed deliver the people of Ammon into my
hands,
31 “then it will be that
whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace
from the people of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD’S, and I will offer it up as
a burnt offering.”
32 So Jephthah advanced toward the people of Ammon to fight against them, and the LORD delivered them into his hands.
Of course he was destined to win. The Spirit of the Lord was on Jephthah and He was fighting the enemies of God and the Israelites. However …
34 When Jephthah came to his
house at Mizpah, there was his daughter, coming out to meet him with timbrels
and dancing; and she was his only child. Besides her he had neither son
nor daughter.
35 And it came to pass, when
he saw her, that he tore his clothes, and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have
brought me very low! You are among those who trouble me! For I have given my
word to the LORD, and I cannot go back on it.”
36 So she said to him, “My father, if you have given your word to the LORD, do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, because the LORD has avenged you of your enemies, the people of Ammon.”
His daughter asked her father to give her 2 months in which to walk the mountains with her friends to bemoan her virginity. When the two months were concluded, she returned, and Jephthah carried out his vow to the Lord and sacrificed his daughter.
For generations she was remembered each year by young virgins who lamented her death for four days.
Her name, according to the ancient Jewish Philosopher Philo, was Seila.
What
can we learn from Jephthah who was an evident man of faith?
1.
No person should be blamed for what their
parents did.
a. It wasn’t Jephthah’s
fault he was born to a harlot.
b. Your past should not
determine your future.
c. Don’t worry … If
you’re really as right and as good as you think you are, others will see it in
time.
2.
We can’t bargain with God.
a. He already has
everything. We have nothing to offer …
b. But if we make a vow,
we need to keep it.
c. Just don’t make hasty
vows out of fear or insecurity.
d. God is good and will
be good to you because He is good, not because you are.
3.
You are most likely more in the will of God
right now than you give yourself credit for.
a. Jephthah was going to
win anyway.
b. The Spirit of the Lord
was already on Jephthah before he made his hasty vow.
c. Perhaps you too are
being used by God right now and are on your way to a great victory because of
God’s will and the power of the Holy Spirit and not because of your vow.
4.
Our trust should be in God and not in our
sacrifice.
a. We do not have a performance-based
victory in Christ.
b. We have faith-based
victory in Christ.
c. This is the victory
that overcomes the world, even our faith. (1 John 5:4)
d. Offerings should be motivated by love, not by demand or duty.
The account of Jephthah and Seila troubled me for many years. I could not see any value in the story and kept trying to imagine the will of God above the actions of Jephthah and Seila. Fortunately, I had an old Jewish acquaintance, a very learned man, a professor at the Hebrew University in Haifa, Israel, who became a good friend of mine. He visited me in my home, and I visited him in his. He preached here in our church and I was invited to lecture at the University in Israel where he sat on the board. His name was Joseph Ginat, and I miss him dearly as we spent a great deal of time together over the period of a few years just prior to his death.
Joseph was one of the foremost authorities on Israeli-Arab affairs and even invited me to accompany him to the home of the President of Israel to discuss the mutual benefits of Israeli-Christian relationships. At any rate, Joseph gave me quite an education in a lot of areas of life.
During one of our discussions Joseph asked me what I thought about this passage in Judges 11. I told him I wasn’t sure what to think. He shared how the eastern and western world’s see many things differently. In the west it seems unimaginable that God would require or even allow such a sacrifice. However, in the middle east the focus is not so much on God but on the commitment of Jephthah and his daughter to the God they believed in and served. Also, one of the more impressive elements of the story is how the daughter honored and submitted to the father so he would not lose face with his followers, himself, and his God.
Joseph said that no middle eastern person would respect someone who would not keep their vow to their God or garner the respect of their children. Either the person or their God was weak. Who would want to serve a God who would not be revered or who would not be worthy of such a sacrifice? At any rate, I came away from that conversation with new considerations.
Do others in other cultures see the God we serve as worthy of our sacrifices and worth us keeping our vows? Who would want to serve a God who was not worthy or follow a person who did not keep their word to their God?
How long has it been since you have offered any sacrifice to the Lord? Not because you are afraid or insecure about His love, power, or protection, but just because you love Him and value all He has sacrificed for you? What sacrifice could you offer Him that would be pleasing to Him?
·
Prayer
·
Praise
(Hebrews 13:15)
· Service
You see … If it does not cost you something, perhaps it means nothing to either you or God.
