Behind the story of Jephthah: When life is cheap

Behind the Story: God at work in a broken world  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  39:23
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When Gilead, Eastern Israel, became desparate, they sought help from the bandit Jephthah to lead them in the battle against their enemies. In return, he would be their ruler. But does great skill in battle make for a great leader? Join us as we discover the tragic consequences of promoting bad character.

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Introduction

We have been working our way through the book of Judges and one of the things that really stands out is how corrupted the Israelites are. Even the judges—the delivers God chooses to rescue the Israelites from their enemies--are often terribly flawed people, and their flaws cause all sorts of problems.
This is such a contrast to children’s book versions of the Judges, which often try to minimise or ignore the sins of the judges. But it’s not just children’s books, but adult Bible studies, too. In fact, some people bend over backwards to be able to understand the judges as essentially good people. But that is missing the whole point of this admittedly difficult book.
The point of Judges is that nothing good can come of human freedom when it is exercised apart from God. This confusion over the source of evil in our society is still with us today.

School Shooting

You might have heard about yet another school shooting in the USA during the past week. The reaction to that was pretty much the same as it always is in the USA—partisan and ineffectual.
Democrat Senator Chris Murphy had this to say.
[Video] “This only happens in this country! ...”
His claims are quite inaccurate—Australian schools have lock-down protocols and drills despite our low number of shootings.
And this map shows that America is not alone in having school shootings (although, at 288 deaths so far this year it is vastly worse than the rest of the world—the next worst is Mexico with 8 deaths).
Senator Murphy points out that it is “our choice to let it continue.” He is, of course, correct in this. But I wonder if he understands which particular choices are letting it continue.
One of my Christian (and gun loving) friends in America posted this photo with the caption, “My daughter attends MSA in Palmetto, Fl. This is who stands at our 1 entry to the school all day. Retired combat veteran. Trained to head straight for gunfire. Who has survived being shot at in intense situations. You may not like it, but I promise TODAY when I drop her off I have a tad bit more reassurance knowing her completely gated, guarded school has him. We don’t need to debate.”
I’m not sure that this was the choice Senator Murphy was talking about. And it’s certainly not the choice I would make, personally.
Here’s a map of the world’s gun ownership. The USA is at the top of the list again. Perhaps there is some correlation here. But the correlation between gun ownership and school shootings is not very close, because the USA has 120 guns per 100 people (yes, that’s more than one gun each) and 288 school shooting deaths but Canada (for example) has 35 guns per 100 people (about a third as many guns) and only 2 school shootings (140 times less).
Clearly there is something deeper in US culture that is contributing to this horrible scourge of murders. And yet neither side seems interested in exploring that. Actually, I believe the fact that neither side seems capable of exploring the deeper problem is a part of the deeper problem.
Do you know any other deep causes people desperately want to avoid thinking about? [Wait for answers]

Finally, repentance

Fortunately, once in a while, people do realise what they’ve done wrong. In Judges so far, the Israelites have merely be begging God to help them, completely ignoring their own contributions to the problems they face. But now, in chapter 10, we finally read something different.
Judges 10:6–10 CEV
6 Before long, the Israelites began disobeying the Lord by worshiping Baal, Astarte, and gods from Syria, Sidon, Moab, Ammon, and Philistia. 7 The Lord was angry at Israel and decided to let Philistia and Ammon conquer them. 8 So the same year that Jair died, Israel’s army was crushed by these two nations. For eighteen years, Ammon was cruel to the Israelites who lived in Gilead, the region east of the Jordan River that had once belonged to the Amorites. 9 Then the Ammonites began crossing the Jordan and attacking the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim. Life was miserable for the Israelites. 10 They begged the Lord for help and confessed, “We were unfaithful to you, our Lord. We stopped worshiping you and started worshiping idols of Baal.”
Judges 10:16 CEV
16 Then the Israelites got rid of the idols of the foreign gods, and they began worshiping only the Lord. Finally, there came a time when the Lord could no longer stand to see them suffer.
This sounds hopeful, right? The Israelites have confessed that they abandoned God and indulged in idolatry, and they’ve got rid of their idols. We should get a good story out of this, right?
Sadly, no.
Instead, we find the Israelites (at least those east of the Jordan in Gilead) doing things without consulting God at all, as usual.
Judges 10:17–18 CEV
17 The rulers of Ammon called their soldiers together and led them to Gilead, where they set up camp. The Israelites gathered at Mizpah and set up camp there. 18 The leaders of Gilead asked each other, “Who can lead an attack on the Ammonites?” Then they agreed, “If we can find someone who can lead the attack, we’ll make him the ruler of Gilead.”
“If we can find someone...”
When you abandon God, desperation follows, and eventually you’ll settle for rescue from anyone, no matter what the cost.

Jephthah’s story

The story that follows has lengthy negotiations between the Israelites east of the Jordan and a man called Jephthah, who has been living as a bandit after being kicked out of his family home because his mother was a prostitute. Sounds like a perfect leader, right? Eventually Jephthah strikes a bargain to be their ruler in return for leading them into battle.
Jephthah starts his rule with an even lengthier negotiation between Jephthah and the Ammonites, which ends this way:
Judges 11:28–33 CEV
28 But the king of Ammon paid no attention to Jephthah’s message. 29 Then the Lord’s Spirit took control of Jephthah, and Jephthah went through Gilead and Manasseh, raising an army. Finally, he arrived at Mizpah in Gilead, where 30 he promised the Lord, “If you will let me defeat the Ammonites 31 and come home safely, I will sacrifice to you whoever comes out to meet me first.” 32 From Mizpah, Jephthah attacked the Ammonites, and the Lord helped him defeat them. 33 Jephthah and his army destroyed the twenty towns between Aroer and Minnith, and others as far as Abel-Keramim. After that, the Ammonites could not invade Israel any more.
There are some striking things about this passage.
First, all that talk (and I’ve spared you from it today, but I suggest you read it at home, it’s in Judges 11) led nowhere. There was still a brutal battle. But when you read these negotiations in the historical context, you’ll find that Jephthah wasn’t actually being diplomatic. Rather, he seems to have been baiting the Ammonites. He exaggerated the length of time Israel had inhabited the land, he played down the Ammonites’ claim to the land, and he even mixed up their god with the god of Moab! It reminds me of the way that people in the culture wars talk past each other today, trying to push each other’s buttons rather than communicate. That never ends well.
Second, God’s spirit took control of Jephthah, despite Jephthah’s shady past and belligerent present. Yet again we see God using a deeply flawed man for his purposes.
Third, despite the presence of God’s spirit, Jephthah, like Gideon, can’t quite bring himself to trust the Lord, and so he strikes a bargain with God: whoever comes out of his house first on his return he will sacrifice to God. This ominous bargain is completely at odds with what we have see so far of God’s character. The CEV translation we’re using uses the pronoun “whoever,” making it clear that Jephthah was probably thinking of a person, not an animal.
Indeed the very next words describe the terrible outcome of this vow.
Judges 11:34–40 CEV
34 When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, the first one to meet him was his daughter. She was playing a tambourine and dancing to celebrate his victory, and she was his only child. 35 “Oh!” Jephthah cried. Then he tore his clothes in sorrow and said to his daughter, “I made a sacred promise to the Lord, and I must keep it. Your coming out to meet me has broken my heart.” 36 “Father,” she said, “you made a sacred promise to the Lord, and he let you defeat the Ammonites. Now, you must do what you promised, even if it means I must die. 37 But first, please let me spend two months, wandering in the hill country with my friends. We will cry together, because I can never get married and have children.” 38 “Yes, you may have two months,” Jephthah said. She and some other girls left, and for two months they wandered in the hill country, crying because she could never get married and have children. 39 Then she went back to her father. He did what he had promised, and she never got married. That’s why 40 every year, Israelite girls walk around for four days, weeping for Jephthah’s daughter.

Jephthah’s sacrifice

It’s tempting to see Jephthah’s faithfulness to his vow as courage and integrity. In fact, if you Google Jephthah, you’ll find a number of articles that promote this idea.
But the Biblical perspective is that there are more important things than personal courage or integrity. Human life is one of those.
For a start, God forbade human sacrifice.
Leviticus 18:21 CEV
21 Don’t sacrifice your children on the altar fires to the god Molech. I am the Lord your God, and that would disgrace me.
Indeed, human life is so important, that God’s law, given to Moses, insists that humans cannot be the payment of a vow. If someone makes a vow on a person, then it is money that is devoted to God, not the person’s life. We read in Leviticus:
Leviticus 27:1–7 (CEV)
1 The Lord told Moses 2 to say to the community of Israel:
If you ever want to free someone who has been promised to me, 3 you may do so by paying the following amounts, weighed according to the official standards:
fifty pieces of silver for men ages twenty to sixty,
and thirty pieces for women;
twenty pieces of silver for young men ages five to twenty,
and ten pieces for young women;
fifteen pieces of silver for men ages sixty and above
and ten pieces for women;
five pieces of silver for boys ages one month to five years,
and three pieces for girls.
So, if Jephthah had been faithful to God, rather than his own twisted sense of personal integrity, he could have maintained his vow by paying ten pieces of silver to free his only daughter. God does not desire human sacrifice. But Jephthah is too proud, too ignorant, and trapped in a society that has lost its way, and so he and his daughter are doomed to this terrible fate.
It is worth comparing Jephthah with Abraham here, especially since you might be wondering about God’s view on human sacrifice, given his request that Abraham sacrifice Isaac. Remember that both Abraham and Jephthah were facing the sacrifice of their only child, through whom their family would continue.
Let’s walk through the differences.
Jephthah failed to trust God’s promise, which is why he made a bargain with God resulting in his sacrifice. Abraham trusted God’s promise, so when God tested Abraham by demanding the sacrifice of his son, Abraham obeyed without question.
Judges 11:35 CEV
35 “Oh!” Jephthah cried. Then he tore his clothes in sorrow and said to his daughter, “I made a sacred promise to the Lord, and I must keep it. Your coming out to meet me has broken my heart.”
Jephthah’s concern when he saw his daughter and realised that she was the price of his vow was with his own pride and his own loss. Abraham’s concern was with obeying God.
Hebrews 11:17–19 CEV
17 Abraham had been promised that Isaac, his only son, would continue his family. But when Abraham was tested, he had faith and was willing to sacrifice Isaac, 19 because he was sure that God could raise people to life. This was just like getting Isaac back from death.
Jephthah should have known that God does not want human sacrifice, since the law of Moses was so explicit about this. Abraham did not have the law of Moses, and yet he knew that God would not let Isaac remain dead.
God was not involved in Jephthah’s sacrifice, because Jephthah was disobeying God both by what he was doing (sacrificing his child) and not doing (exchanging her for ten pieces of silver). But God intervened in Abraham’s sacrifice because Abraham was obeying him, and God did not actually desire Isaac’s life, but rather Abraham’s obedience.
And finally, Jephthah’s family ends with his sacrifice, but Abraham’s sacrifice (potentially of Isaac, but ultimately of a God-provided ram) establishes his family.

Epilogue

It’s worth noting how Jephtha’s story ends. Some time after his defeat of the Ammonites and the sacrifice of his daughter, the Ephraimites--that is the members of the half-tribe of Ephraim who lived on the western side of the Jordan—came to Jephthah and accused him of excluding them from the battle with Ammon. (They were undoubtedly miffed at missing out on the loot.)
Jephthah’s inflammatory, polarising response led to a war that ended with 42,000 Ephraimites dead. So Jephthah killed a lot of Israel’s enemies, but he also killed a lot of Israelites. Not a great record for a leader.

What can we learn?

So what can we learn from this?
Obviously one lesson is that choosing a skilled leader with a bad character is a big mistake. Jephthah was good at killing people. Unfortunately he wasn’t so good at not killing people. By the end of his rule he had killed Israel’s enemies, Israel’s sons, and his only daughter. That’s not leadership, that’s slaughter.
Obviously that lesson applies to the modern workplace. A company with a skilled leader of poor character is going to do lots of damage to everyone, think Facebook and Zuckerberg. It applies even on a small scale. A team leader who is skilled but rude and short with people is going to be a worse team leader than one who is less skilled but more caring.
In short, character trumps competence.
But I think the biggest lesson we can learn is that God cares about individuals. I know that the story told here, with tens of thousands of deaths, is a strange way to reveal that. But think about it. There is one character in this story who is presented as noble and good—Jephthah’s innocent daughter. Yet her life is cut short because of Jephthah’s obsession with killing people and his lack of trust in God. In presenting this young woman in such a winsome way, the author of Judges is demonstrating how the ugliness of self-rule, apart from God, destroys everything, even the most innocent and precious.
You could say that Judges is like an anti-war war movie.
So as we go home today, and as we wake up every day, we need to be asking ourselves: what is my character like? Am I valuing my competence over my character? Does it worry me more when people question my competence or my character? Am I bulldozing down the beautiful as well as the bad? Or do I love my neighbours more than my reputation? Is human life more precious to me than some abstract principle? Am I listening to God, obeying him, trusting him, and giving him a chance to rescue people through my life?
Let’s be like Abraham and not like Jephthah.
Let’s pray,
Lord, it’s so easy to put principle before people. We see it everywhere, in gun lobbies, in identity politics, in every form of human self-rule. It is only when we follow the voice of our loving shepherd, our Messiah Jesus, that we can truly care for people more than we do for ideas or things. Help us to hear your voice and to obey.
In Jesus precious name,
Amen.
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