Ignorance is bliss?

When I was a college student, I once took a world literature class where we read novels from all kinds of authors from Leo Tolstoy to Yasunari Kawabata. It was a really interesting class, but there was one thing kind of annoying about it.

Our professor was really big on vocabulary. And so he told us, “If you’re reading one of these books, and you don’t know the meaning of a word, look it up.”

Now honestly, how often do you do that? If you’re like me, I don’t want to bother actually looking up a word in the dictionary. I just make my best guess from the context and move on. Who cares about every little word the author wrote?

But then our professor started giving us vocabulary quizzes at the start of each class. And he would intentionally choose words from our assigned reading that he thought we probably wouldn’t know.

Of course, none of us did very well on that first quiz. So our professor told us, “I warned you. If you don’t know a word, look it up!”

I used to think ignorance was bliss, but it sure wasn’t bliss in his class.

Now you can argue that it’s really not so important to understand every single word in War and Peace or Snow Country. But how about God’s Word? How important is it to know and understand what God has said?

Yet for many Christians, they don’t place a whole lot of importance on it. Some hardly read their Bibles at all. Others read it, but when they come to a difficult passage, instead of seeking to understand it, they just skip it and let it go by just as easily as the words I didn’t understand in my literature class.

But can I make a gentle suggestion? Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to God’s word. It is vitally important for us to know what God has said, to understand it, and most importantly, to practice it. Because if we don’t, we can make an incredible mess of our lives. That was something that a man named Jephthah learned in the book of Judges. Let’s take a look at Judges 11.

We’re looking at a very dark time in Israel’s history. It was about 300 years after the time of Moses and Joshua. And throughout the book of Judges, you see them going through a repeating pattern. The Israelites would turn their backs on God and he would deliver them into the hands of their enemies. They would cry for help, and God in his mercy would deliver them by raising up judges to lead Israel. For a while, things would be good, but after the judge died, they would often turn their backs on God again and start the cycle all over again.

But this wasn’t a cycle where they’d always return exactly back to where they’d started. This was a downward spiral. Each time they turned their backs on God, their spiritual state got worse and worse and worse. The main theme that sums up the whole book can be found in the final verse of Judges.

In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever seemed right to him. (Judges 21:25)

That’s our world today, isn’t it? People don’t recognize God as King in their lives and as a result do whatever seems right to them. That was what Israel was like in the book of Judges. And now we are nearing the bottom of this downward spiral. Again, the people turned their backs on God. They started worshiping just about any and every god from the nations around them. The only God they didn’t worship was the one true God. (Judges 10:6)

So God handed them over to two groups of people, the Ammonites and the Philistines. The Ammonites were especially making their lives miserable, so again they cried out to God. To their utter shock, though, God essentially said, “Hey, you gave yourselves to these other gods. Let them save you. I’m not going to save you.” (Judges 10:7-8, 10-14)

So in their despair, they got rid of their idols they’d been worshiping, they turned back to worshiping the Lord, and by the end of chapter 10, it says that God became weary of Israel’s misery. (Judges 10:16)

Enter a man named Jephthah.

Jephthah, according to chapter 11, was the son of a prostitute. And despite the circumstances of his birth, it seems his father intended him to share in the family inheritance. But when Jephthah’s father died, his brothers said, “Forget that. You’re getting nothing. Get out of here.” And so he leaves Israel and basically lives as some kind of bandit or renegade leading other bandits and renegades.

That said, he had the reputation of a mighty warrior. (Judges 11:1-3)

And because of that reputation, now his people came back to him and said, “Help us. Be our commander in our fight against the enemy.”

To which Jephthah said, “You guys kicked me out. And now you want me to help you? You only want me back because you’re in trouble.”

Sound familiar? It’s very similar to how the Israelites had been treating God: totally rejecting him and only coming back to him when they needed his help.

At any rate, Jephthah made an agreement with the leaders saying, “Okay, I’ll help you. But if we win, you have to agree that I’ll be your leader.” The Israelites agreed, and so they and Jephthah went before God to ratify their agreement.

And so we come to verse 29. Let’s take a look.

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. (Judges 11:29)

It says that the Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah. That’s a phrase you often see in the Old Testament. But I think it’s important to know that the main purpose for the Spirit of the Lord coming on someone was to achieve God’s purposes. In this case, it was to help the Israelites against the Ammonites. But just because the Spirit came on someone did not mean that they were necessarily more spiritual or righteous than others. That was definitely true with Jephthah. He truly is a complicated figure in the Bible. When the author of Hebrews in the New Testament writes about the great people of faith in the Old Testament, he actually includes Jephthah. But look at what happens next.

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.” (Judges 11:30-31)

What in the world is going on here? Jephthah, this man of faith, is making a vow to make a human sacrifice?

Truth be told, Bible scholars, especially in the last century or so, are very mixed about what Jephthah was promising. Some point to the fact that while this English and Japanese translation specifically talk about offering a person as a burnt offering, it can also be translated as whatever comes out of my house, I will offer it as a burnt offering.

Back in those days, there were many two-story houses where the animals lived in their own sections of the house on the bottom floor. So theoretically, Jephthah could have been pointing to animal sacrifice.

Other scholars point out that Jephthah’s vow can be translated, “whatever comes out of my house to greet me will belong to the Lord or I will offer it as a burnt offering.” In other words, if it was an animal that could be sacrificed, he would offer it, but if it were a person or an animal unsuitable for sacrifice it would be given to the Lord for other purposes.

So it’s possible Jephthah was thinking, “If a person comes out, I’ll give him for lifetime service in the tabernacle to help the priests.”

I would like to believe that’s what Jephthah was saying. And as we’ll see later, there are reasons to believe that’s what he meant. But there are also reasons to believe he actually meant to sacrifice the first person coming out of his house.

For one thing, that was the practice of the nations around Israel, including the Ammonites who were attacking them. Considering that the Israelites had started worshiping the Ammonite gods (Judges 10:6), it’s very possible their way of thinking had infected Jephthah. Culture is a very powerful thing. He may have thought, “Well, the Ammonites are probably sacrificing people to their gods to win this war. I need to do the same.”

Second, remember the times in Israel. If this were the time of Moses or Joshua, I’d tell you there’s no way Jephthah would vow to perform a human sacrifice. But they were long dead. Everyone did as they thought was right. Not as God commanded, but as they personally thought was right. And one thing that becomes very clear in this passage is that while Jephthah had some idea of what God’s law said, there were some huge gaps in that knowledge.

Many Christians today are the same way. They kind of know what the Bible says. But there are huge gaps in that knowledge. So what happened to Jephthah? Well in short, he led the Israelites into battle, and the Bible tells us he won a great victory. But look at what happened when he returned home. Verse 34.

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.” (34-36)

In a lot of ways, this story is a twisted version of the story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22. In both stories, a father goes to sacrifice their only child. In both stories, the child goes willingly. But in Abraham’s case, just as he lifted up his knife to kill his son, God told him no. Instead, God provided a ram to sacrifice in Isaac’s place. God tested Abraham’s faith that day, but he also showed that he was very different from the gods of other nations. Their gods required great sacrifices from their people. But our God provides the great sacrifice himself.

And God would do it again roughly 2000 years later, providing his only Son Jesus as a sacrifice on the cross to pay for our sin. We don’t pay the terrible price for our sins so that we can be reconciled to God. He does.

But Jephthah fundamentally misunderstood God’s character. Not only that, he was also totally ignorant of God’s commands. What commands? God had specifically commanded the people, “You are not to sacrifice your children like the other nations do. Such a thing is utterly detestable to me.” He would later tell one of his prophets, “It didn’t even enter my mind to ask this of you.” (Deuteronomy 12:31, Jeremiah 32:35)

More, there was a law dealing with rash vows like Jephthah’s. God had said, “If you make any vow to do evil, and you realize later just how evil your vow was, go to the priest and offer a sacrifice, and you will be forgiven.” And it was no great sacrifice God required. Normally it was just a lamb or goat. But if a person was poor, even an offering of fine flour was acceptable. (Leviticus 5:4-13)

But Jephthah was apparently totally unaware of what God had commanded. Now as I said before, some people think that Jephthah didn’t really kill his daughter. One reason is that the author never outright says it. Instead the author merely says in verse 39 that Jephthah kept the vow he had made about her. The author doesn’t say how he kept it.

Another reason is that there’s a lot of emphasis in this chapter on his daughter never getting married and having children. I mean, if she was truly offered as a human sacrifice, shouldn’t the focus be on something different? Like dying for instance? But it would make perfect sense if she were instead going to be permanently celibate in service to the Lord at the tabernacle.

But there’s one question that popped in my head as I studied this that I’d never thought of before. If all Jephthah was doing was offering her in permanent service to the Lord, why is the author so vague about it? Especially when by being vague anybody reading this would naturally think that Jephthah killed her. That makes no sense. But if Jephthah did kill her, I can see the author struggling to actually write those words on paper because it was so repugnant to him. He couldn’t bring himself to write such terrible words, and so he simply says, “Jephthah did as he vowed.”

So what do we get from all this? Let me ask you something. Hearing this story, how do you feel? What are you thinking? I’m sad. Angry too. Sad for the daughter. Angry that Jephthah was so ignorant about who God is and what he had commanded.

Now some of you might say, “Well, why didn’t God stop Jephthah like he stopped Abraham?” There are two huge differences. Number one, in order to test Abraham’s faith, God himself initially commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. God never gave any such command to Jephthah. Second, there was no law clearly laying out what God thought about child sacrifice in Abraham’s day. In Jephthah’s day, though, that law had been out for over 300 years. Jephthah should have known better. His sin was his responsibility, not God’s. We’re all ultimately responsible for our own sins. We can’t blame God for not stopping us from doing things we should know are wrong.

Here’s the truth we need to imprint on our brains: when it comes to God and his word, ignorance is not bliss. It’s death. One of the prophets in the Old Testament named Hosea said this.

…the Lord has a case against the inhabitants of the land: There is no truth, no faithful love, and no knowledge of God in the land! Cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and adultery are rampant; one act of bloodshed follows another. For this reason the land mourns, and everyone who lives in it languishes…My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. (Hosea 4:2-3, 6)

There is danger in a lack of knowledge. Lack of knowledge of who God is. His character. His will. His commands. What he desires of us. What happens when we don’t know these things? We start becoming like Jephthah and the Israelites. We start following the “wisdom” of our culture. We start doing what we think is right. But ultimately that leads to disaster. Just look at the world today.

I don’t know about you, but reading this story makes me want to know what God has really said. I don’t want to be ignorant of who he is and what his will is. Unfortunately, though, too many Christians are content to continue in their ignorance. Why? Sometimes, they don’t want to know. Because if they know, they have to do something about it.

For example, Jesus told the disciples many times that he was going to Jerusalem, that he was going to be crucified, and raised again. Mark tells us that the disciples didn’t understand what he was talking about and were afraid to ask. (Mark 9:32)

Why? Because if they knew, they would have to change their own ideas of what God’s kingdom was about and what it meant that Jesus was the Messiah. And they didn’t want to do that. They wanted to keep their own ideas and ambitions.

How about you? Are you afraid to ask what God has said because you might have to change your way of thinking? Your way of living? For example, what does God say about sleeping with your girlfriend or boyfriend? Do you know? Do you want to know? What does God say about hard issues like divorce? Or abortion? Or LGBTQ issues? Do you know? Do you want to know?

And what does God say about the grace and healing available to those whose lives have been broken as a result of these kinds of things? The grace and healing that even a guy like Jephthah could receive to the point where he’s now listed among the Bible’s great people of faith. Do you know? Do you want to know? You see, ignorance can not only break our lives, it can also prevent us from knowing the grace and healing God offers us.

There is no bliss in ignorance. But there is true joy in knowing God’s word and living it out, moment to moment, day to day. Because his word gives us life.

Now, sometimes we are ignorant simply because we are young as Christians. We just don’t know the Bible so well yet. That’s okay. That’s why it’s so important to start reading it. The Crossroad Bible reading plan is a good way to start. And if you’re reading the Bible as a young Christian and you’re struggling to understand a lot of it, don’t get discouraged. For now, the important thing is to put into practice what you do understand. Because as we practice what we do understand, God starts giving us more understanding on other things he’s said. (Luke 8:18)

That said, if you’re still skipping over the exact same sections of the Bible you were skipping five to ten years ago because you don’t understand them, there’s something wrong. You should be pursuing understanding. You should be wanting to know God more. You should be wanting to understand his words more.

So if you have questions about what a scripture means, ask. Ask your friend who’s been a Christian longer than you. Ask your plant group leader. Ask me, Pastor Fumi, Hide, or one of the other leaders at church. Seek understanding.

Do you know what one of the biggest differences was between Jesus’ disciples and the huge crowds that followed him around? Whenever Jesus finished preaching to the crowds, the disciples would always come to him later and say, “What did you mean? We don’t understand.” The crowd, on the other hand, was always content to go home in their ignorance (Mark 4:10,34). Which do you want to be? A disciple? Or just one of the crowd?

I want to be a disciple. So even now, I’m seeking answers. There are still passages I wrestle with, including today’s story. Everyone wrestles with hard parts of the Bible. Even the apostle Peter said, “You know, brother Paul says some things that are hard to understand.” (2 Peter 3:15-16)

No kidding!

And honestly, like Pastor Fumi said last week, there are times when we ultimately have to say, “知らんけど (i.e., I don’t know) because the Bible just isn’t clear on certain things.

But what the Bible is clear on, I want to know.

How about you? Do you want to know? Or are you still afraid to ask because of what you might find out? Or like me in my college literature course, do you think it’s just not worth your time to find out? That kind of heart will lead to the kind of disaster Jephthah fell into.

Can I tell you my heart’s cry having read this story? “God, I want to know you. I want to know your ways. Ignorance is death. But I believe you’re good and your ways lead to life.”

What is your heart saying now? And what is God telling you to do about it?