Judges 11 - Jephthah's Vow

INTRODUCTION

I invite you to open your Bible with me this morning to the book of Judges, chapter 11.

Since we read this chapter during our Old Testament reading this morning, I will review only some select verses:

Verses 30-31, and 34-40.

[Read Judges 11:30-31, 34-40]

This is the third sermon in our current series I have called “Difficult Passages”.

And this passage certainly qualifies.

One commentator said that this story is the greatest problem in the book of Judges -

And that’s saying something.

The story is disturbing,

But I think what’s more disturbing for me is that Jephthah is named in the book of Hebrews as one of our forerunners in faith:

Hebrews 11:32–33 “And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions...”

This is the same chapter where the writer talks of the faith of Noah, the faith of Abraham, and the others.

How could Jephthah be included among such heroes of faith?

I assure you that if you study further, you will find commentators with whom I disagree, and some I agree with.

There is no concensus among Christian or even Jewish writers on what we should take from this story.

Some focus on keeping your word;

Some focus on foolishness, and when to admit you have been foolish.

Some focus not on Jephthah, but on his unnamed daughter, who bore such simple trust and obedience.

There are some, more modern, commentators, who try to change the story, from Jephthah’s killing of his daughter to some sort of house arrest for life.

All because this great tragedy bothers us deeply.

It challenges our idea of what we should know about our heroes,

And what disqualifies them from being heroes.

Nowadays, we are quick to “cancel” someone for an offhand comment made decades ago,

So it’s hard not to be repulsed and offended by this great general, who was used by God as a judge of Israel,

And then made such an evil and tragic choice.

We ask, “Shouldn’t that BE unpardonable?”

And yet we still allow for Noah’s drunkenness,

David’s adultery and murder,

Abraham’s lying,

Jacob’s scheming,

Elijah’s cowardice,

Moses’s pride,

Solomon’s lusts,

Jeremiah’s fear:

And the list goes on.

I’m not minimizing the sin of Jephthah, or of any of these others;

On the contrary, I am pointing out the first thing we learn from this story:

God uses flawed people.

FLAWED PEOPLE

God doesn’t approve of our flaws, sins and perverse, warped nature,

But He uses sinful people all the time to accomplish His holy ends, His sovereign decree.

And it is out of that very pool of sinful humanity He calls His people into holiness and righteousness through Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ died for the ungodly.

That is the good news of the gospel -

Not that you were good enough for the kingdom,

But that God loved YOU and rescued you from sin and perversity, bringing you into His holy kingdom.

1 Corinthians 6:9–11 “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

I read that for years, and got to that sentence “And such were some of you.”

And I would think: “WHEW! I sure am glad I’M not one of those!”

Of course, pharisaical hypocrites don’t inherit the kingdom of God, either,

So that was probably NOT a good thing to think.

Because the GOOD news is YOU WERE WASHED. YOU WERE MADE HOLY.

YOU WERE JUSTIFIED.

No matter what you are guilty of, God forgives that sin in you because Jesus PAID for that sin in His people.

I don’t mention this to excuse Jephthah - nothing of the sort.

But to point out that he is JUST AS RELIANT on the blood of Jesus Christ to pay for his sin as I am.

And I am just as reliant on the grace of God in Jesus Christ as he is.

Yes, he showed faith, faith in the only true God.

And yes, he was an utter fool, over and over again.

He was a fool for making the vow in the first place.

He was a fool for enforcing the vow upon himself.

He was a fool for not repenting of the sin and repenting of his foolishness.

And he was a sinful fool for carrying out this barbarity.

And God used that fool, before and after his vow, to accomplish His holy will.

That should make all ministers of the gospel a bit more humble:

God uses even fools to accomplish His holy ends.

Is someone led to Christ by the words I preach?

I would be an utter fool to believe it was my eloquence or logic that saved them.

They are dead in their sins - am I capable of giving them life?

Of course not!

The greatest prayer I can pray, and that you can pray for me,

Is that I speak accurately of the things of God as revealed in the Scriptures,

But more importantly that the Spirit of God will give LIFE through those words to all who hear.

The bottom line on this: He doesn’t call us for our strength or wisdom or knowledge, but to use our faithfulness that He grants to us.

HEROES ARE PEOPLE

That brings us to the second point: be very careful about heroes.

Earlier I pointed out that Jephthah is found in that listing commonly called “heroes of faith” in the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews.

But many believers take that to mean that these are people we should emulate,

People we should copy.

Bible studies with names like “Be a Daniel” and the like encourage a sort of hero worship of the saints of old.

But the Bible has only ONE hero - our Lord Jesus Christ.

He is the only one worthy of emulation,

The only one worthy to build our life around.

No doubt, 1 Corinthians 11:1 is running through your head, where the apostle Paul says:

Be imitators of me...

But the whole verse is:

“Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”

In as much as I am imitating Christ, imitate me.

And even in this, it is a summary statement about being understanding of weaker brothers.

And since I am weaker than Christ, and He deals with me in an understanding way,

So you may learn that from me as well.

Nobody in the book of Judges, indeed nobody except for Jesus Himself, deserves to be imitated.

But especially in the book of Judges - it’s a Rogues gallery of people whose stories are told for our instruction.

We learn from their faith, and we learn from their failures.

We see the things that agree with God’s commands, and we see things that violate deeply His commands.

Some examples:

Who has heard the term “putting out a fleece”?

It comes from that judge, Gideon, who put out a fleece of a sheep to confirm the word of God.

Twice.

This wasn’t because he had great faith;

It was because his faith was paltry.

An ANGEL APPEARED to him, and told him that the Lord was with him.

And he tested the angel to see if he was real.

Then the fleece test - twice.

And just because God allowed these tests doesn’t make them right, certainly not something to copy.

Fleeces are a poor substitute for faith.

And I am fairly certain no parent here today would want their son to grow up like Samson.

Set apart by God before he was born -

And doing everything he possibly could to disqualify himself.

The point of these examples is not to demonstrate good ways to be disciples;

The point is found over and over in the book:

Judges 21:25 “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

Remember, these are the leaders of Israel after they have MOSTLY conquered the Promised Land under Joshua;

Mostly, because they didn't do it completely.

They stopped before they got rid of ALL the false gods and evil influences.

And that is the environment these judges were born into.

These judges were born into Israel, but an Israel that in just a generation after seeing the miraculous works of God in the conquest of Canaan,

Had abandoned the true God for idols they found in the nations around them.

We even see Jephthah, in his negotiation with the Ammonites (descendents of Lot), when he said:

Judges 11:23–24 “So then the Lord, the God of Israel, dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel; and are you to take possession of them? Will you not possess what Chemosh your god gives you to possess? And all that the Lord our God has dispossessed before us, we will possess.”

This judge, called by God to this role, seems to acknowledge a false god, Chemosh, as having some power or authority.

How quickly the people of God had forgotten that Yahweh, the one true God, is the God over everything.

It is He who raises nations;

He who determines their boundaries.

They had forgotten the words of Moses:

Psalm 90:1–2 “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”

Deuteronomy 4:35–39 “To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him. Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire. And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, driving out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day, know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.”

Deuteronomy 32:39 ““ ‘See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.”

This judge was called by God to preserve His people, not because Israel was faithful or good;

He was called to preserve God’s people because God had PROMISED the Messiah would come from this people.

Everything God did with these scoundrels was to a single purpose: to bring forth Jesus Christ in the fulness of time.

Step-by-step, promise by promise, God was revealing more and more about the Christ who was to come.

Until that day, long after Israel had ceased being a self-governing nation, the Christ, the Promised Seed of the woman,

Was born under the Law to redeem those who were under the Law.

He was born to this preserved people who didn’t deserve God’s grace

To deliver salvation to multitudes who likewise don’t deserve God’s grace.

That whoever believes Him, trusts Him, has eternal life in Him.

The blood of Jesus Christ cleansing him or her of all sin.

We may well take lessons from Jephthah’s failures:

1. Don’t make rash vows. Guard your words, even spoken in haste.

2. Know that repentance is available for your foolishness.

3. God is never bound by your words; you are bound by His.

Jephthah was NEVER obliged to carry out his vow by God;

Because God knew immediately of his foolishness.

And God knew the reason he made that foolish vow: his faith failed.

God had called him to drive out the Ammonite invaders;

This was crystal clear.

The Spirit of God was upon him (v.29) - Jephthah KNEW God would give him the victory.

But instead of setting a fleece out like Gideon, he thought to bribe God, to put God into his debt.

The way men would do for idols - appease God with a trinket in exchange for victory.

But this was a victory God ALWAYS intended Jephthah to obtain.

In His sovereign decree, Jephthah was going to emerge victorious.

You, too, may be led to bargain when your fear grows stronger than your faith.

When the storms of life grow louder than the quiet peace that Christ brings.

God doesn’t seek your bargain - He has brought these storms to you to build your faith.

You cannot buy God’s favor;

You have nothing to exchange for His mercy.

But you always have access to your Heavenly Father, who stands ready to comfort you in your time of need.

It is the height of faith to run to Him in your time of need.

To seek His refuge in the time of trouble.

Jepthah didn’t do that.

He bargained like God was false.

He hedged the word of God with an offer of his own making.

And in the end, it turned a victory celebration into mourning,

And it destroyed an innocent girl for nothing.

There’s nothing positive in this story;

Only cautions and warnings to us who live in a world that does what is right in its own eyes.

Every day, babies, innocents, are murdered by clinics and pills;

And evil people in this world celebrate the slaughter.

Would they celebrate the “choice” that Jephthah made as well?

The “choice” that cost a life just as precious as those they destroy with glee?

Jephthah’s failure speaks to us today, warning us to come out from the worldly things around us.

To learn and love God’s Law, that protector of good and sentinel of innocence.

To keep ourselves from being captured by the spirit of the age, drawn into speaking like them and thinking like them,

To renew our minds through the word of God, read, considered, and implanted in our hearts.