7. Judges 10:1-12:15

A few years ago when the kids were younger Morag and I were in the habit of going to the cinema once a year. To be honest we don’t go much more frequently than that these days…but once a year it was at Christmas time. After the massive box office success of the Lord of the Rings fims… the same studio put ou The Hobbit…s three films. There were a few problems with this - the Hobbit did not need (in my opinion) to be made into three films…they were just (it seemed to me) cashing in pn a three film franchise to maximise profits! The second issue was that they made it all so DARK.

Unlike the Lord of the Rings the Hobbit, it mseems to me, is a book for young children - it doesn’t have the same sense of darkness and forboding.… BUT the directors or the Hollywood producers decided that three films… long films…quite dark films…ould make more cash and so that’d what we got. They released them each Christmas… and so (for three years) our one trip to the cinema was dominated by the Hobbit - not because we loved them but well…you’ve seen the first one so you’ve go to see it through. We are the kind of suckers who make Hollywood their millions....

One story that IS very dark though.… and increasingy dark and foreboading…s the book of Judges.

We have seen now, for a number of weeks the kind of awful, tragic, repeated cycle or pattern which the book follows…

God’s people disobey him and worship other Gods - the idols of the pagan nations around.

God, in his justice, gives them over to judgement- the consequences of their actions and so they end up being oppressed by those self same pagan nations...

The people cry out in repentence for the Lord’s help.… and he raises up a warrior judge - to defeat their enemies and rescue the people...

The land is at peace again… BUT OF COURSE that only serves to begin the cycle again…ecause in their comfort the people become complacent - and off they go after other God’s all over again.

The book is a cycle....

Actually I don’t think that’s quite the right phrase the book is not JUST a cycle… it’s a SPIRAL - a downward spiral where each cycle gets worse and worse and darker and darker. If Hollywood got their hands on the book of Judges it would be more than three movies… and it would be very justifiably DARK… an 18 rating at very least.

We have both of those issues to contend with tonight - the section before us is very long - although the main storyline is fairly simple.

The section is also very dark… awful… tragic.

But against that dark background we will, I hope, see the brightness and wonder of the Gospel of Jesus shining all the more brightly.

Our section kicks off with two new judges…. these are (thankfully) unremarkable… we’re told very little about Tola and Jair (there at the start of ch 10)… most significantly we’re NOT told that Israel descend into further sin…

But it isn’t long before that unwelcome theme returns.

And with that we reach our first heading….

1. God’s Rule Rejected

The heading should really be ‘God’s rule rejected… AGAIN’. That’s how we begin this phase of the story - there in chapter 10 verse 6….

Judges 10:6 NIV

6 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. They served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites and the gods of the Philistines.

Here we go again…. God has belssed them with Judges to rule and save… God has bourght them peace and relief from their enemies… but the xycle of disobedience just begins again.

But this time it’s worse… we get a FULLER, LONGER description about the Baals and the Ashtoreths and so on… the point it being made that the disobedience is not just repeating, it’s getting worse.

And so the inevitable consequences follow… these too are worse than before…

Read on (end of v6)…

Judges 10:6–9 NIV

6 …And because the Israelites forsook the Lord and no longer served him, 7 he became angry with them. He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites, 8 who that year shattered and crushed them. For eighteen years they oppressed all the Israelites on the east side of the Jordan in Gilead, the land of the Amorites. 9 The Ammonites also crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah, Benjamin and Ephraim; Israel was in great distress.

They chose to reject God… God rejects them.

They chose Pagan idols… God gives them over to pagan oppressors.

And so we reach point 2…

2. God’s Mercy Required

See how they continue? - you now the pattern, the cycle by now… v10…

Judges 10:10 NIV

10 Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord, “We have sinned against you, forsaking our God and serving the Baals.”

Israel come to their senses… or at least we coudl say…. they don’t like being oppressed and so they cry out to God. But the Lord is no fool.. he won’t be mocked… he has noticed the repeating pattern that never seems to change (every bit as much as you and I have as we read). And so he replies….

Judges 10:11–14 NIV

11 The Lord replied, “When the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, 12 the Sidonians, the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you and you cried to me for help, did I not save you from their hands? 13 But you have forsaken me and served other gods, so I will no longer save you. 14 Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble!”

God will not be mocked…. and his grace cannot just be trampled over by those who want to use him and abuse him.

One commentator I read this week described this is “Bomb Shelter Theology”…. in times of distress, when the bombs of life rain down, peopel will pray and turn to God and ask for help….. but the moment the sun is shining again they forget him - in fact worse - they openly disobey him. Then when the bombs fall again they’re back to pleading for mercy.

God is not a cosmic vending machine so you might just press the right buttons and get the forgiveness and help you need…. he won’t be mocked like that.

Now, YES, we are (as followers of Jesus) the recipients of God’s wonderful grace… and we ARE (as followers of Jesus) to live lives of ongoing repentence. But we must be VERY aware we do not fall into this same trap….

if the grace which saves us is not also changing us….

if we want mercy from God whilst we just carry on in sin…

if we want to want to have Jesus as saviour but refuse to follow him as Lord…

Well then we will find ourselves on the wrong side of him… and he will say to us (as he says to these Israelites) - “go cry out to the (so called) gods you have chosen….”

God is just, and holy, and won’t be mocked like that.

PAUSE - BREAK OFF

Read on now - v15

Judges 10:15–16 NIV

15 But the Israelites said to the Lord, “We have sinned. Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now.” 16 Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them and served the Lord. And he could bear Israel’s misery no longer.

Is there a real change in Israel? Maybe…. maybe to some extent….

The fact that God shows them favour is much more to do with him - he is moved y their misery - what love! (despite the people’s faithlessness).

So God will respond - in his great grace - once again. And he will raise up a saviour - once again.

So….. cue our saviour…. cue our next Judge…. surely Israel will welcome him with open arms.

Well, not exactly.

We reach out third point tonight.

3. God’s Saviour Rejected

Read on now from the start of chapter 11… who is this savioru God will raise up? Well, like so many who went before him, he’s an unlikey character…. (v1)

Judges 11:1–2 NIV

1 Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior. His father was Gilead; his mother was a prostitute. 2 Gilead’s wife also bore him sons, and when they were grown up, they drove Jephthah away. “You are not going to get any inheritance in our family,” they said, “because you are the son of another woman.”

So here’s the deal (and, remember this is Judges, so the story is pretty murky from the outset). This guy Gilead has a bunch of sons but at least one of them (the son called JEPHTHAH) is born, not to his wife, but to a Prostitute…

As a result, despite the fact that JEPHTHAH is a mighty warrior… his brothers reject him and Japhthah flees away - v3

Judges 11:3 NIV

3 So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where a gang of scoundrels gathered around him and followed him.

Ever the leader Jephthah gathers a gang of scoundrels. Which I guess makes the point that Jephthah is NOT blameless…. everyone in this story is morally compromised. This is Judges!

Just note (by the way) that we’re going to see some parallels between the Lord god and Jephthah - thats going to become a theme later on…. but don’t think that makes Jephthah a perfect guy - he is not… he is compromised and sinful and foolish too (as we will also see).

But anyway, for now this brings us to point four… we’ve seen God’s saviour (Jephthah) has been REJECTED but now we (and the people of Israel too) will see that…..

4. God’s Saviour Required

That’s point 4.

So his brothers have sent Jephthah packing - they diodn’t like his lineage. But now… to make a long story short… Jephthah’s people get caught up in the oppression that the Lord has allowed (remember - they have disobeyed and God subjects them to the attacks of their enemies).

So Japhthah’s people the Gilieadites - and the Isrealites more generally come under attack from the Ammonites….

And so, knowing that Jephthah is a mighty warrior… the elders of Gilead come crawling back (so to speak) to Jephthah - the one they’ve rejected - NOW asking for his help… and NOW wanting him to fight for them.

And here we see the first remarkable parallel - a deliberate parallel I’m sure which is set up between the Lord God and Jephthah…

The people reject God… the people reject Jephthah…

The people realise their error and come back to God asking for his help…. likewise they come back to Jephthah NEEDING the very one they have rejected.

Just as the Lord has said to the people - ‘why are you coming to me for help? - you’ve rejected me!!?’ so now Jephthah responds… v7

Judges 11:7–9 NIV

7 Jephthah said to them, “Didn’t you hate me and drive me from my father’s house? Why do you come to me now, when you’re in trouble?” 8 The elders of Gilead said to him, “Nevertheless, we are turning to you now; come with us to fight the Ammonites, and you will be head over all of us who live in Gilead.” 9 Jephthah answered, “Suppose you take me back to fight the Ammonites and the Lord gives them to me—will I really be your head?”

Do you see? it’s the same issue - the people say they turn back to God, and need his help, and will follow him as their King - but will they really?

Likewise with Jephthah - they way the people treat him is like a flesh and blood worked example - of how they are really treating God.

But like the Lord… Jephthah takes on the task of helping the people.

Again - to make a long story short - he begins by going to engage direct with the Ammonite King (that’s v12) so ask him why he’s attacked - maybe this thing can be dealt with with a conversation rather than war…

No chance of that I’m afraid… the Ammonite king ascerts that the Israelites have taken his land (that’s v12)… Jephthah engages him in a history lesson (that’s v15-22) but to no avail, the King ignores Jephthah, the king clearly wants war so now war it will be, Jephthah will have to fight for the Lord and for his people. And so it is v29…. that

Judges 11:29 NIV

29 Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites.

Jephthah is desperate to win - that is understandable

Jephthah knows he is dependent on the Lord in order to win - that is very wise

BUt then Jephthah put’s these two things together and does something very foolish. Jephthah makes a vow… look at v30

Judges 11:30–31 NIV

30 And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord: “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, 31 whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”

Desperate foolish words. Perhaps in the heat of battle, or in the fear of the oncoming certainty of battle we might all say foolish things. But foolish it is. It’s worth noting God does not command Jephthah to make this vow - the Lord has already given him his empowering Holy Spirit. The vow (and the tragedy that follows is Jephthah’s doing. Back to that in a moment… for now there’s a battle to fight and the enemy is no slouch. Read on - v32

Judges 11:32–33 NIV

32 Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into his hands. 33 He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon.

This was a mighty battle… although it gets recounted in just two verses. GOD gives Jepthah victory…. but there’s a tragic sting in the tale. That’s our final point today…

5. A Tragic Salvation for the Foolish and Proud

What follows is so desperately sad - here we are in the world of Judges… this is messed up life in a nation which has departed from the Lord…. this is life in the darkness.

v34…

Judges 11:34–35 NIV

34 When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of timbrels! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. 35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, “Oh no, my daughter! You have brought me down and I am devastated. I have made a vow to the Lord that I cannot break.”

Jephthah has vowed to sacrifice whatever comes through the door and what comes through the door is his only child.

Again, let’s be clear… God does not command him to make this vow, it is a vow he should not have made.

In fact… it is very pointed that God;s people are commanded they must NOT sacrifice their children… they have been told this is LEviticus chapter 18 and in chapter 20… and in Deuteronomy 12 and Deuteronomy 18… in doing so they are to be DIFFERENT from the pagan nations around… dreadfully, child sacrifice WAS practiced by the pagan nations - Israel was to be different.

So he shouldn’t have made the vow… and, having made the vow, much less kept the vow…

Again to make a long story short, that is what he does.

He speaks a foolish WORD he makes a foolish VOW… and In his foolish vow, the price of salvation becomes the death of his firstborn.

PAUSE

We’ll come back to that… for now see how this dark section ends… with more sin and bloodshed.

You’d think the people of Israel would be pleased with Jephthah who has won this battle… but here in the murky darkness of Judges it isn’t that simple…

Cast your eye down and you’ll see that chapter 12 opens with one tribe - the tribe of Ephraim FURIOUS with Jephthah because when he wen’t into battle he didn’t call on them to help.

THEY (it seems) are not happy that a victory has been won without them being the centre of attention and getting ll the credit… They are so enraged they threaten to kill Jephthah…

Jephthah, as you might imagine, ,doesn’t take this lying down… and so there’s a war - a civil war between Jephthah’s people and the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh…

Again, to make a long story short Jephthah’s people come out on top and they take a strategic river crossing - pick it up in chapter 12 verse 5

Judges 12:5–6 NIV

The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim, and whenever a survivor of Ephraim said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead asked him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he replied, “No,” they said, “All right, say ‘Shibboleth.’ ” If he said, “Sibboleth,” because he could not pronounce the word correctly, they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites were killed at that time.

It’s almost comical… if it weren’t so deadly. Clearly, because of regional accents the men of Ephraim struggle to say the sound ‘SH’… they say Sibboleth, not Shibboleth.

The problem here is pride… the EPhraimites cannot stand for God's kingdom to make progress unless they are in the centre of the action getting the credit.

By the way that’s a lesson for us too today… we’re happy to pray for God to send revival and bring church growth… as long as it’s in our church, or on our patch… is that how we think? What if we pray for church revival but God sends it down the road in another congregation… do we have a case of spiritual pride like Ephraim.

PAUSE - BREAK OFF

So what do we have - two groups who speak foolish words… the foolish vow of Jephthah and the foolish pride of EPhraim.

What a mess of darkness and sin these chapters are…

And yet…. Despite his compromise - do you remember that we said Jephthah himself points us to the Lord (not perfectly of course, he is a deeply flawed man) - he points us to the Lord truly, if not perfectly.

We’ve seen that already, of course, that Israel rejected Jephthah just as they rejected God… and then (in need) they came back to the Lord and back to Jephthah - we’ve seen these parallels… but there is a deeper parallel still.

Salvation came at the cost of Jephthah’s only child - his firstborn.

And here in the mess and the muck of the sin-spoiled world that is the book of judges… is a reminder that the ultimate Judge - the ultimate Saviour is the Lord Jesus Christ.

God did not make a foolish vow… he make a gracious plan… in all eternity past the Father the Son and the Spirit KNEW what it would cost to save sin spoiled people like us…

And it would cost the Father the life of his firstborn. His own son would indeed be given as a sacrifice.

He would bleed and die on the altar of the cross to pay for foolish and proud people - like Jephthah, like his fellow Gileadites, like the proud EPhraimites… like you, and like me.

Let’s pray