Jephthah
Heroes of the Faith • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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And what more can I say? Time is too short for me to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets,
The author of Hebrews tells us here that he could not write about all the people of faith, but he gave us a list of more flawed people that had extraordinary faith.
It reminds me of a family that sat down to a meal with their grandpa and dad, an old farmer. The farmer was asked to ask the blessing on the breakfast of biscuits and gravy. They bowed their heads as the elderly farmer prayed:
“Lord, I don’t like the taste of flour. It would choke me if I tried to eat it by itself. I can’t imagine trying to eat a chunk of lard by itself. Baking powder is the nastiest tasting stuff if I ate a spoonful of it. Salt wouldn’t satisfy my hunger at all. But if I mix all these things together, they make the best biscuits I have ever eaten. So, I thank you for the flour, the lard, the baking powder, and the salt. But I thank you even more that you have brought them together to make this wonderful blessing of biscuits and gravy. Lord, as we sit together at this table, we are all going through different circumstances in our lives right now. But you have brought us together as a blended family. So, I ask that you help us to keep our faith in the circumstances of our lives that have brought us together at this moment.
Tonight we will discuss what I call circumstantial faith. The reason I call it this is because we tend to let the circumstances drive our faith, when it all actuality, it should be our faith driving us through our circumstances. When we let our circumstances drive our faith, we tend to be rash, argumentative, and horrified by the consequences by our actions. The opposite is true when we allow our faith to drive us through our circumstances. We feel hope, we give grace, we show mercy and portray a sense of peace that goes beyond ourselves.
I believe there are two kinds of people: thermostat people and thermometer people. A thermometer simply reflects the climate of the room. If the room is cold, it’s cold. If the room is hot, it’s hot. But a thermostat can change the climate of the room. By adjusting its setting, a thermostat can change a cold room into one that is warm, or a hot room into one that is cool. A peacemaker can change the whole climate of a room when he or she walks in. Have you ever seen that happen? Have you ever been in a room where everybody is negative, complaining and argumentative? Then a peacemaking person walks in and says something that makes people think, “Gee, I never thought of it like that.” The whole climate changes. God desires peacemakers in his church, in the workplace and in the world.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
Jephthah was a man of circumstantial faith. There are points where he allowed what was going on around him to drive him, and his actions had consequences. Circumstantial faith comes with warnings we must pay attention too. The first is...
Do Not Let Things Outside Your Control Dictate Your Faith
Jephthah had it pretty rough.
Jephthah the Gileadite was a valiant warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute, and Gilead was his father.
Jephthah was what you might call an unplanned pregnancy—a surprise. Jephthah’s father, Gilead, was a fairly prominent member of society—in fact, the town was actually named after him because he and his family were its pioneers and chief residents. So, you can imagine the scandal that must have broken out as result of this little incident.
On the bright side, at least Gilead did the right thing—he acknowledged the boy and raised him in his own house as his own son. Gilead may have been an adulterer, but at least he was a responsible and caring father. The other members of Gilead’s household, however, weren’t quite as open and accepting. Understandably, Jephthah almost certainly reminded Gilead’s wife of his adulterous affair and Jephthah certainly didn’t win the approval of his half brothers and sisters either.
Gilead’s wife bore him sons, and when they grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, “You will have no inheritance in our father’s family, because you are the son of another woman.”
Now, honestly, Jephthah wasn’t to blame for his birth. He had no say over who his mother was. But because of the sins of his father, Jephthah became an outsider, rejected by the very people who should have given him unconditional love and acceptance. Unfortunately, there are a far too many people in this world who know how Jephthah must have felt. One thing we all need to understand is that Jephthah, though unanticipated by his parents, was not an accident—and neither are you! Rick Warren has well said, “While there are illegitimate parents, there are no illegitimate children.”
Your birth was no mistake or mishap, and your life is no fluke of nature. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did. He was not at all surprised by your birth. In fact, he expected it.
Long before you were conceived by your parents, you were conceived in the mind of God. He thought of you first. It is not fate, nor chance, nor luck, nor coincidence that you are breathing at this moment. You are alive because God wanted to create you!
God never makes mistakes and he never does anything accidentally.
My bones were not hidden from you
when I was made in secret,
when I was formed in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw me when I was formless;
all my days were written in your book and planned
before a single one of them began.
Like Jephthah, you are who you are for a reason. You’re a part of God’s intricate plan. But God’s plan for Jephthah’s life would not come to fruition until many years later.
Something completely out of his control caused Jephthah to be vengeful and angry.
So Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob. Then some worthless men joined Jephthah and went on raids with him.
We can sit back and arm chair christian quarterback and say, He should have been better, but we do the exact same thing in our lives. When things that are not within our control, like our past, current issues and future issues, we get angry, frustrated, vengeful. we start to gather what I call yes people around…You know what I am talking about, you start going off about things you can’t control and they go “Yes Girl”.
We forget that God is in control of it all. He gives you the free will to either choose to trust Him or sit a fret over things you can’t control. Which will you choose? Do Not Let Things Outside Your Control Dictate Your Faith
Do Not Miss Out On The Role Christ Has For You
Though living apart from the rest of society, Jephthah developed quite a reputation as a “mighty man of valor” or a “great warrior.”
Apparently, Jephthah’s reputation and prowess as a warrior attracted other rejects and lowlifes who followed him into the desert. Jephthah led his band of misfits on raids of enemy territory, taking what they needed and living almost like outlaws in the old west. As his following grew and word spread of their daring adventures, Jephthah caught the attention of the elders of his old hometown.
When the Ammonites made war with Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob. They said to him, “Come, be our commander, and let’s fight the Ammonites.”
Jephthah was understandably hesitant and perhaps a bit sarcastic in his reply. And don’t cast judgement on him cause we do the same and we justify it by saying…Oh I forgive but I don’t forget. Like it is some kind of threat. Honestly, if you forgive and don’t forget…did you really forgive?
Jephthah replied to the elders of Gilead, “Didn’t you hate me and drive me out of my father’s family? Why then have you come to me now when you’re in trouble?”
They answered Jephthah, “That’s true. But now we turn to you. Come with us, fight the Ammonites, and you will become leader of all the inhabitants of Gilead.”
So after getting their word that he will be given total discretion, Jephthah accepts their offer and is appointed Gilead’s new commander-in-chief. It’s Jephthah’s leadership style, though, that really sets him apart from any of Israel’s previous commanding officers.
Upon taking control of Israel’s army, Jephthah sends a letter to the king of the Ammonites saying, “What have you got against Israel? Why have you come to attack our land?”
the Ammonite king replied, “When the Israelites came out of Egypt, they stole my land from the Arnon River to the Jabbok River and all the way to the Jordan. Now then, give back the land peaceably”
Jephthah then crafted a well thought out and through rejoinder to the king’s demands. His answer contained three primary responses. First, he says that when Israel first came to the borders of the Ammonite king, they requested permission to cross his land. The king at the time, however, refused their request and mounted his troupes for battle. In other words, the Ammonites were the ones who started the fight that resulted in the loss of their land, not the Israelites. Furthermore, Jephthah says that God gave Israel the victory and the land. “You keep whatever your god Chemosh gives you, and we will keep whatever the LORD our God gives us” he said. Finally, Jephthah points out that the Israelites have inhabited the land now for over three hundred years, yet none of the previous Ammonite kings have made any claim on the land until now.
Unfortunately, Jephthah’s arguments fell on deaf ears, but the point is—Jephthah wasn’t looking to pick a fight. He was very diplomatic and peaceful in his approach. He would have much rather settled their differences without war if at all possible. Although Jephthah was a mighty warrior, he was peacemaker at heart.
Warrior, Peacemaker. What we need to do is know what role we supposed to be in. I am standing here today telling you, I mess this up all the time. I try so hard to be the pastor yall ask me to be, but I need to try harder at being the pastor Christ has called me to be.
Each and every one of you have a role you need to fill. My question to you is…are you filling it for your selfish ambitions or for God’s glory?
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.
So we have seen two warnings we need to pay attention to about circumstantial faith. Things outside your control and not being in the role Christ has called you to.
The final warning is
Never Bargain With God
God is not some cosmic vending to put something in to get what you want....oh a new house…that is 12 weeks of straight prayer and going to church every Sunday and tithing more than I do…then it will come. It does not work that way. Your self perceived penance does not produce glorified blessings.
I have to warn you, do not make a vow to the Lord you can not keep. It can and will come back to bite you.
The Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah, who traveled through Gilead and Manasseh, and then through Mizpah of Gilead. He crossed over to the Ammonites from Mizpah of Gilead. Jephthah made this vow to the Lord: “If you in fact hand over the Ammonites to me, whoever comes out the doors of my house to greet me when I return safely from the Ammonites will belong to the Lord, and I will offer that person as a burnt offering.”
Remember, Jephthah wasn’t commissioned by God to lead this army; he was commissioned by the elders of Gilead. Jephthah obviously had faith in God, but he needed to know that God was in this with him—which, of course, he was. God heard Jephthah’s prayer and promise and he gave Jephthah a devastating victory over the Ammonites.
Now, after the battle was won and Jephthah had returned home, he remembered his promise to the Lord and his heart sank into his stomach when who should come bouncing out to greet him but his own daughter.
When Jephthah went to his home in Mizpah, there was his daughter, coming out to meet him with tambourines and dancing! She was his only child; he had no other son or daughter besides her. When he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “No! Not my daughter! You have devastated me! You have brought great misery on me. I have given my word to the Lord and cannot take it back.”
Then she said to him, “My father, you have given your word to the Lord. Do to me as you have said, for the Lord brought vengeance on your enemies, the Ammonites.”
Now did Jephthah sacrifice his daughter. No. But how did he make right with his vow. He had to consecrate his daughter to the Lord. Meaning she had to remain a virgin and work strictly for the Lord the rest of her life. And since she was an only child, that meant his bloodline stopped with her.
God always expects his people to be men and women of their word.
But let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes,’ and your ‘no’ mean ‘no.’ Anything more than this is from the evil one.
The bible is very clear on making vows to the Lord.
“If you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not be slow to keep it, because he will require it of you, and it will be counted against you as sin. But if you refrain from making a vow, it will not be counted against you as sin. Be careful to do whatever comes from your lips, because you have freely vowed what you promised to the Lord your God.
I certainly don’t recommend making open ended promises—especially to God! But it is important that we always keep the promises we make. If you say, “I’ll be there,” then be there. If you say, “I’ll do it,” then do it. God wants men and women of character and nothing demonstrates our character more than our ability to keep our word.
We should avoid circumstantial faith.
