“DOING DEALS” WITH GOD
(Jephthah, Judges 10-­‐12) I’ve been told of monkey trappers, who bait traps with fruit. The traps are either
[DPa] gourds or coconuts, with small holes bored into them. Large enough for
monkeys to place their empty hand inside to grab the fruit . . . [DPb] but too small
for the clenched fist full of fruit to pull out.
With the hunters approaching, the monkey’s have a choice [DPc]:
CLING to the bait & die! Or let go & live!
The truth can apply to us humans, too. I’ve heard police stories, for example, of a bank
robber escaping from police pursuit by crossing a river. But unwilling to let go of his
satchel bag of stolen gold, by the time the police caught up, he had drowned. Clinging
to that bag cost him his life.
Sometimes we cling to WORDS. Some words we must cling to: marriage vows, etc.
But some vows are foolish & downright sinful. And we need to let those go, to live!!
The story of Jephthah is about a SMOOTH TALKER who tries to “do a deal” with God.
He actually thinks he can MANIPULATE God!, like the pagans do with their so-called gods.
It’s a story about both [DPa] God’s EXTRAVAGANT GRACE and our IDOLATROUS GRIP.
A 2 part-story: first of Israel, then ‘mirrored’ in Jephthah (but reversed in some areas).
1] Idolatrous Israel, in their worst state yet, has a fresh taste God’s Extravagant Grace!
2] What about Jephthah – will he learn the lesson of Extravagant Grace, and loosen his
idolatrous grip, like Israel does?
You see, Jephthah is a guy who gets everything he wants, YET ends up with nothing!
He finally gets what he ‘feels’ is most important, and will do ANYTHING to keep it –
making an utterly foolish vow that he won’t take it back, despite the harm it causes.
Why not?! Because he is CLINGING to the wrong thing! And his grip is firm.
Is Jephthah so different to us?
What about me? What about you, and your grip?
What are you ‘clinging to’ for security & significance?
What will you do to stay on top; to keep what you’ve always wanted?
Will you try to manipulate God in order to hold onto to your idol? Or let go & live?!
Main Idea: [DPb]
Ø Manipulating God NEVER works out for our good!!
Clinging to idols, ironically, means loosing the very things that really matter.
This passage tugs at every emotion under the sun:
From the tenderness of an only child, to the raw horror of pagan atrocities,
with the only hope of God’s Extravagant Grace underpinning it all.
[DPc] Chapter 10 is about Israel; Chapter 11 about Jephthah . . . .
CHAP 10 – ISRAEL LOOSENS ITS IDOLATROUS GRIP, AND IS SHOWN EXTRAVAGANT GRACE
By now, you should be able to tell me [DP] the Cycle in Judges! A,B,C,D,E . . .
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Israel commits Apostasy, turning their back on God, who gives Israel over to Bondage
to wake them up from their sin, so they Cry Out to the Lord in repentance; God then
graciously sends a Deliverer, a Judge to liberate them & give them Ease (peace &
rest in the land). Until Israel turns back again to apostasy, & the cycle repeats.
In the downhill slide, this ‘oppression’ is the worst yet (v.8):
Israel were being “CRUSHED/SHATTERED” by the Ammonites, for 18 years.
Verse 6 repeats the familiar “Israel AGAIN did evil, forsook God, worshipped . . . .”
Well . . . it says they pretty much ALL the gods of ALL the surrounding nations!
Plop an image on a coffee mug or a t-shirt, and Israel would bow down to it!!
Not just CYCLICAL, but are you getting CYNICAL? Will Israel ever learn?
Every time Israel worshiped the idols of a nation, that nation ended up oppressing
them. Idolatry leads to bondage.
You’d think that Israel would hate the gods of the nation oppressing them!
But here is Israel serving the Ammonite gods!
The human heart is the same then as now. It still assures us that what we need is
more of that idol, despite the enslavement that idol brings.1
Whether relationship, money, popularity – when an idol ‘fails’ us, we think we need more!
Ø If only I had X amount of $, then I could have peace & rest, and give some back to God
. . . When it’s that very pursuit of money that prevents peace/rest!,
and causes us to cling to it, and prevent generously using it.
Ø If only I got the Respect I deserve, then relationships will start to heal around here!
. . . When the real issue instead is my need to relate to others in a godly fashion,
earning respect. Then most people will give it to me, willingly.
Ø Even things like Entertainment can become enslaving. ‘Living for leisure’.
We just upgraded our internet plan which gave us a free trial of Netflix. If you
watch a show, the next episode automatically starts in 15 seconds. “No commercials,
so 2 episodes is almost like watching 1”. You watch another, then the next starts –
you can easily get hooked, enslaved!
Rather than saying,
“Lord help me redeem the relationship I have; help me be a good steward of the $, time I have”
Idolatrous bondage says,
“I need more friends, more money, more entertainment; I need a better, more compatible spouse”
Even a ‘GOOD thing’ becomes a ‘GOD thing’, when it is a ruling thing, when it masters us.2
But Romans 6 describes how EVERY person faces a choice [DPa]:
to be a slave to sin, or a servant of righteousness.
Here’s part of Romans 6 in a paraphrase called The Message
“You know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called
freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it’s your last free act!
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Insight from Tim Keller, Judges for You.
Paraphrase of Paul Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands.
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You can readily recall, can’t you, how at one time, the more you did just what you felt like
doing—not caring about others, not caring about God—the worse your life became and the
less freedom you had? But do you call that a free life?!
What did you get out of it? Nothing you’re proud of now.
Where did it get you? A dead end.
[So True! Thankfully there’s more DPb]:
But thank God you’ve started listening to a new Master!
One whose commands set you free to live in His freedom, expansive in holiness!
That master is Jesus. HOW do we receive the freedom from bondage He offers?
NOT by merely speaking words. That’s what Israel does in v.10, to try and curry
favour with the Lord, while they kept their idols in their homes!!
Israel is treating the God they’ve forsaken as a “genie” in a lamp, pulling Him off the
shelf, rubbing the lamp, trying to manipulate God by saying the “MAGIC WORDS”,
“ ‘We’re sorry’. – Now please get us out of trouble!”
How often are we guilty of “shelving” God, pulling Him from the shelf to “use” Him for our
purposes. ‘Rub the lamp’, or “Break glass in case of emergency”! Our kingdom, our terms.
We saw earlier in Judges, being sorry for the consequences of our sin, but not sorry for
the sin itself – is [DPa] CONFESSION without REPENTANCE, without a change of heart.
So here in 11:11-12, God rehearses the 7 times He has delivered them from 7 nations!
You’ve forsaken Me again! You’re “crying out”, but you are NOT repentant!
So God says in v. 14, “Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen!”
“I know what this cry of yours is.
It is merely a cry for help, which might just as well be addressed to the Baals as to Me’.”3
Let’s see how effective the Baals are in saving you, guiding you, enlightening you!
Then come some of the most painful words in the Bible, when God says, in v.13 [DPb]
“I will save you no more!”
Not the way things currently are in Israel. Not while they are UNREPENTANT.
Israel tried to “use” the Lord; and God said [DPb]
“No! You must be repentant. I must be your Lord.”
You cannot have My RESCUE without accepting My RULE.
We must understand Grace means, and does not mean!
1] What Grace does NOT mean. [DPa]
Grace does NOT mean you can manipulate/play games with God, treating Him lightly.
Treat God & sin lightly, and the consequences are heavy: crushing bondage.
We cannot ever “exhaust” or “empty” God’s mercy.
That’s like trying to drain the ocean!
The danger is not that a person will drain God’s mercy,
but that a person will never bring the bucket to get God’s mercy!
. . . because we’ve so hardened our own hearts, we are too calloused to repent.
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Michael Wilcox, The Message of Judges, p 108.
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[DPb] The Gospel of Grace will not save an unrepentant heart!
Jesus said, “Unless you repent, you will perish!” (Luke 13:3, 5)
You may well be aware of sins that you are getting more & more apathetic about in
your life – sinful business ethics, relational sin, sexual sin – which used to heavily
convict you, now only slightly, if at all . . . because you are growing calloused to the sin.
Beware. You are in an exceedingly dangerous place.
Without repentance, the bondage will remain and intensify!
If you are a true Christian . . .
Don’t blame God for the consequences of your idolatry – which you will feel in this life!
You need people around you to encourage you to wake up & repent.
Learn the lesson of the CYCLE of Judges!
The goal, of course, is never turning our backs on God (‘A’ – Apostasy)
But when we do stumble in sin, our goal to come to true repentance QUICKLY!
Instead of a ‘cycle’ of 18 years,
may it become 18 days. Better 18 minutes, or seconds!
When we sin, we ‘short-circuit’ the cycle with quickening repentance.
This is the Christian walk! The Christian “waltz” –
1,2,3 . . . 1,2,3 . . . Trust, Obey, oops!èRepent!...Trust, Obey, oops!èRepent!
If you are not yet a Christian.
You also need people around you to encourage you to wake up & repent,
and come to Christ as your Saviour & Lord. Don’t blame God if you don’t repent.
HELL is precisely this:
following our idolatrous desires to finally get what our idolatry deserves. Forever.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer [DPa] reflected on what counsel is needed to TRULY help one another:
“It’s not experience of LIFE, but experience of the CROSS that makes one a worthy [counsellor].
The most experienced psychologist or observer of human nature knows infinitely less of the
human heart than the simplest Christian who lives beneath the Cross of Jesus. The greatest
psychological insight, ability, and experience cannot grasp this one thing: what sin is. [DPb]
Worldly wisdom knows what distress & weakness & failure are, but it does not know the
godlessness of men. And so it also does not know that man is destroyed only by his sin and
can be healed only by forgiveness. Only the Christian knows this. In the presence of a
psychiatrist I can only be a sick man; in the presence of a Christian brother, I can dare to be a
SINNER. The psychiatrist searches my heart and yet he never plumbs its ultimate depth. The
Christian brother knows when I come to him: here is a sinner like myself, a godless man who
wants to confess & repent and yearns for God’s forgiveness. The psychiatrist views me as if
there were no God. The brother views me as I am before the judging and merciful God in the
Cross of Jesus Christ”4
This ties in with . . .
2] What Extravagant Grace DOES Mean [DPa]
When a persistently sinful, idolatrous people, genuinely repent, God’s FORGIVES & SAVES!
4
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (NY: Harper & Row, 1954), 118-19.
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Verse 16 [DPb],
“So Israel put away the foreign gods from among them and served the LORD,
and He became impatient over the misery of Israel!”
It is in God’s glorious nature, that when we are truly repentant and trust in Him alone,
our Lord abounds in loving kindness & compassion.
In verse 10, Israel cried out with empty words, & KEPT their idols.
In verse 16, Israel “got rid of the foreign gods”, DEMONSTRATING that something was
going on beneath the surface: a change in their hearts.
[DP – Not ONLY the desire for change, but willingness to change]
Our deeds do not save us! Clinging to Christ’s work, by repentant faith, this saves us.
But Genuine repentance is evidenced by deeds/fruits of a changed life, changed priorities.
[DPb] – “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (as evidenced by repentance)
The evidence/difference:
Verse 10: “We’ve sinned. Deliver us!”
Verse 15: “Do with us as You wish, Lord! Though we still beg for mercy!”
This is the genuine trust of abandonment to God:
“You are everything, Lord. You are sovereign. We are in Your hands.”
It’s Trust that is still not afraid to ask, but it asks not from a manipulative place rubbing the lamp to do our bidding, genie!
It’s asking from the place of God being the centre, and us His servants. Like those
awesome, famous words of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, being punished for not
bowing to the idol of the pagan King Nebuchadnezzar’s idol. Before being thrown into
the furnace, they said to the king [DP]:
“The God we serve is ABLE to deliver us from the fiery furnace! But even if He does not
deliver us, we want you to know that we will NOT serve your gods or worship the image of gold
you have set up!” (Daniel 3:16-18)
This is the sentiment of Israel in Judges 10, finally!
Israel learned!
Will we?
No matter the atrocity of our sin, God’s Grace is Extravagant and Inexhaustible, when
we turn to him in genuine repentance!
And I know some of you have deepening concerns for unsaved friends & family
members who appear to be heading further & further away from the Lord.
idols of Atheism, Porn addiction, serious drug addiction.
Our great hope from this passage – EVEN when it seems like repeated cycles of sin
remove all hope, and it seems like God WILL NOT save . . . if those friends or relatives
are brought to the end of themselves, and they but look up in humble repentance, they
too, will know God’s EXTRAVAGANT, INEXHAUSTIBLE Grace!
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CHAPTER
11 – JEPHTHAH: Despite EXTRAVAGANT GRACE, TIGHTENS HIS IDOLATROUS GRIP
Desperado, Diplomat, Deal-maker, Dead-beat Dad: Jephthah!
DESPERADO (11:1-3)
From Gilead [MAP], his father named Gilead! Maybe a man who “got around town”:
• Jephthah is the son of a prostitute.
• Kicked out of his house by his brothers, who do not what him to share the inheritance.
11:2, “Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob, where worthless fellows
collected around Jephthah and went out with him.”
“Worthless fellows” = bandits, outlaws.
Jephthah became their underbelly organised crime boss: an OT “Mad Max”!
Jephthah has lots of parallels with chapter 9’s Abimelech, Gideon’s illegitimate son of a
concubine, w/serious ‘family issues’, who gathered bandits & got up to absolutely no good!
What about Jephthah?
Our leaders are typically people with university prestige, strong family pedigree & no police
record! Jephthah is a criminal, a complete outcast from a deeply dysfunctional family!
Would you write off Jephthah?
Let’s see what happens . . .
DIPLOMAT (SMOOTH-TALKER)
A] Negotiating with Israel (11:4-11)
Jephthah’s Mad Max-like “experience”, shall we say, causes his hometown in a time of
threat to “reach out” and try to reconcile. Come save us! How does Jephthah reply?
“You only want me now because you’re in trouble! No thanks!”
Jephthah says, you cannot just “use” me, whom you’ve forsaken, treated atrociously!
Blatant PARALLELS between the dialogue here & Israelites’ dialogue with GOD in chap 10!
There we saw, You cannot have Jesus’ RESCUE without accepting his RULE.
Here, we see, “You cannot have Jephthah’s rescue without accepting his rule.”
Like Israel in chapter 10, Gilead in chapter 11 needs to humbly, repentantly, ask AGAIN,
and swear an oath to the Lord to make Jephthah their Judge, their leader.
The points he makes are very legitimate!
And so we see here that Jephthah is an extremely shrewd negotiator, or “diplomat.”
The result?
This complete OUTCAST and a criminal from a broken home,
finds ACCEPTANCE, APPRECIATION, INFLUENCE, RESPECT!
The ‘Outsider’ becomes an ‘Insider’! Not just any insider, THE insider – their LEADER!
And Jephthah likes it!
What outcast would not like acceptance & influence?!
How many here this morning have been told by parents, bosses, colleagues, school-mates,
“You're a loser. A failure. You'll never make anything of yourself.”
Too many, I am sure.
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So Jephthah likes the acceptance & influence & power. But how much does he like it?
To what extent will he go to CLING to his leadership, hold his GRIP on his “Insider” status?
B] Negotiates with Ammon (11:12-28)
I will only summarise the details & geography of these 17 verses, as we consider
Jephthah’s diplomacy with foreign aggressors . . .
In verse 13, [DP] the king of Ammon asserts a territorial dispute to justify his attack,
claiming this bit of land Israel now lives in formerly belonged to the Ammonites.
Jephthah REFUTES this claim along a few ‘angles’ . . .
Ø HISTORICAL Angle (vv. 13-22)
Jephthah ‘sets the record straight’.
After Israel’s exodus from Egypt, wandering in the wilderness, Israel respected
Ammon 5 as well as Edom & Moab – [DP] when none of them would Israel pass
through, Israel went around them & between them, towards Canaan.
Besides, the disputed land between the rivers was NOT inhabited by the Ammonites,
[DP] but the Amorites. Jephthah says, ‘They not only did not let us through, they
attacked us! And we won the land, fair & square!’
Ø THEOLOGICAL Angle (vv. 23-24)
‘If your war god, Chemosh, gave you victory, would you not view the land as yours?!’
The Ammonite/pagan worldview was that gods were only local deities over a certain region.
Like the reporter was researching churches around America.
He started by in the North and worked his way to the South.
In the first church he visited up in Seattle, near the Canadian border, He spots a golden
telephone on a wall and was intrigued by the sign which said “$10,000 a minute.”
He asked the pastor about the phone, who told the reporter it was direct line to Heaven.
As he continued Southward, visiting churches in San Francisco, Denver, etc., he found more
phones with the same sign.
Finally, he arrived down South in Texas, the heart of the Bible Belt. This time when he entered
a church, he sees the usual golden telephone, but the sign reads “25 cents.” Fascinated, he
asks the pastor why everywhere else in the country, the sign says “$10,000 a minute.”
The pastor, replies, “Son, you're in the South now! It's a LOCAL CALL.”
So if Chemosh, their war god, gave them victory, it would prove Chemosh is not only
sovereign over that land, but also ‘happy with’ the Ammonites, giving them victory.
• Was Jephthah accommodating to the Ammonite worldview for ‘diplomatic persuasion’?
• Or is he being persuaded by/conformed to the pagan culture around him?
. . . Let’s continue with the final angle,
“And when you approach the territory of the people of Ammon, do not harass them or contend with them, for I will not give you
any of the land of the people of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to the sons of Lot for a possession.’ (Deut 2:19)
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Ø LEGAL Angle (v.v 25-27)
[DP]
His ‘closing argument’ – Legal precedence:
‘For the past 300 years, we’ve lived here, ever since, unchallenged!!’
His ‘closing appeal’, v. 27:
The Lord, the Judge, decide this day between the people of Israel & the people of Ammon.”
Impressive Diplomacy! Jephthah quickly wins our respect!
Jephthah, at his best, Judges & leaders at their best, are concerned with vindicating God.
This is one reason Jephthah’s name is in the “Hall of Faith” in Hebrews 11.
At their BEST, judges are positive examples.
At their WORST, God uses even seriously flawed leaders, but we reap consequences!
Would you have written off Jephthah?
Don't write off anyone!
Don’t write off yourself!
Your past sins are no surprise to God
The Holy Spirit transforms/empowers. Be a tool in the hand of His extravagant grace!
Truth was told, peace pursued, but it does not always win the day.
In verse 28, the king of Ammon dismisses everything Jephthah says!
With diplomacy exhausted & war inevitable, Jephthah gathers troops/preps for battle [DP]
“The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah . . . and he went to fight against them” (11:29,32)
That’s what Judges were called to do – enforce God’s justice against evil.
DEAL-MAKER (IDLE IDOL-TALKER) 11:29-33
Did you notice Jephthah’s focus in previous section? It was on the past.
God did this, God did that.
Jephthah certainly knew His Bible/Bible history, & trusted in God’s PAST faithfulness.
But in Scripture, ‘faith’ is defined NOT as “the assurance of things past”
BUT, “the assurance of things hoped for.”6
Present assurance based on entrusting the future to God’s hands.
It’s not good enough to trust in the ‘ghost of Christmas past’ nor God of Christmas past.
We must trust in the ‘God of Christmas future’, who COMES AGAIN in faithfulness.
So in the present, Jephthah severely DOUBTS God – a struggle we have today.
We know our Bibles, God’s history, His story!
But are we trusting His hand for the rest of His story, and our chapters in it?
Ø Negotiating with God!
God was already with Jephthah. But like Barak & Gideon Jephthah does not believe it.
So, Jephthah the Diplomat, the Smooth-talker, thinks he can ‘sweet talk’ God.
‘Do a deal’/manipulate God through negotiations, treating God as pagans treat their gods.
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Hebrews 11:1
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Jephthah makes a FOOLISH VOW: a 1-sided deal God did not ask for!
What exactly does his “deal”/vow entail? Verses 30-31
Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, “IF you will give the Ammonites into my hand,
THEN whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace
from the Ammonites shall be the Lord, and I will offer it up for a BURNT OFFERING.”
“IF . . . . THEN”. Conditional obedience. Manipulating God by trying to “do a deal”.
It won’t work; never does! But it will haunt Jephthah.
Despite the manipulation, God GRACIOUSLY gives Jephthah victory (v.33), and in v. 34,
Jephthah “returned to his home” – a victorious judge!
DEADBEAT DAD (VV. 34-36)
Here in the Cycle, we expect E – Ease (“peace & rest”) should follow.
DAD’S, most of you know the feeling, coming home from a long business trip – a very
successful business trip – with a big stuffed animal in your arms to surprise your child!
Here’s Jephthah returning with everything he’d ever dreamed of!
. . . and who runs out the door first? His only child, surprising him!
His vow comes back to haunt him.
Dropping his stuffed animal, he tears his clothes and this “mighty warrior”, acts in a
cowardly way, shifting the blame to his innocent daughter! (v. 35),
“Alas, my daughter! YOU have brought me very low, and YOU have become the cause of
great trouble to me.”
These are not the words of a hero, but a self-absorbed idolater.
Verse 35 ends with a play on words . . . Jephthah’s name means “OPEN”, and he says,
“I have OPENED my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot take back my vow.”
Remarkably, his innocent daughter insists that Dad keep his word & honour God. (v.36)
This BEGS SOME QUESTIONS!! . . .
Q1] Exactly what did Jephthah promise God?
A minority of Bible scholars believe what we wish were true: Jephthah knew human
sacrifice was wrong, so he altered the fulfillment of his vow, dedicating his daughter to
Temple service. But there is nothing in the text saying he changed the terms of the vow.
And if Jephthah had promised God an animal, when his daughter came through the doors he
would never have considered the promise to have had any binding force with regard to her.7
Tragically, it is far more likely that Jephthah promised a HUMAN sacrifice to God –
expecting one of his many household servants to greet him!!
Human sacrifice?! How can we let the world so squeeze us into its image?!
Jephthah was not only desensitized by the atrocities of pagan morality around him.
He was “infected” by pagan religion & theology.
‘Human sacrifice’ was how you could manipulate, “buy off” a pagan god!
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Good insight from Tim Keller, Judges for You.
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The Phoenician peoples [DP] lived next to Israel, and an archaeological excavation
found 20,000 Urns from of a ‘sacred’ cemetery, each containing skeletal remains of 1 or 2
burned children (most under the age of 4).
Inscriptions on the urns state they were sacrificed to a Phoenician deity.
God could not have been more clear in Deuteronomy 12:30-31 [DP]
When you enter the land, take care that you are not ensnared to follow their gods, saying,
‘How did these nations SERVE their gods?’ You shall not worship the Lord your God in that
way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods – they even
BURN their sons & daughters in the fire to their gods.”
The wicked peoples you're here to replace – that's what they do.
Which is exactly what Israel is NOT to do.8
More specifically, in a BATTLE context (like Jephthah), to curry favour with their gods [DP]:
“When the king of Moab saw that the BATTLE was going against him, he took his oldest son
who was to reign in his place, and offered him for a burnt offering on the wall. (2 Kings 3:26)
Jephthah was following the practice of the very pagans who were oppressing him!
You see it is one thing to KNOW God’s word.
It is another to HONOUR God’s word.
Jephthah’s Vow was not only “rash”, with unexpected consequences.
It was also shrewdly calculated, by this pagan-influenced, smooth-talking master
manipulator!
Q2] Why does he NOT confess his sinful foolishness, break the vow & save his daughter?
Numbers 30 describes how a vow can be over-ruled by a ‘higher authority’.
Why didn’t Jephthah immediately go to a priest, to have his sinful vow ANNULLED?
Leviticus 5:4-6 adds extra details [DPb],
“If anyone utters a rash oath – to do evil or good – and he realizes his GUILT, he shall confess
his sin and bring to the Lord as his compensation for his sin, a female from the flock – lamb or
goat – as a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement for him & his sin.”
Evil intentioned vows AND well-intentioned but nonetheless stupid vows with sinful
consequences! – can be atoned for, by a substitute sacrifice.
Jephthah knows his Bible and biblical history!
He should have known atonement by substitute was possible!
2 Months went by for Jephthah to reconsider!
The Vow might have been somewhat “rash”, but the fulfilment of it was NOT!
These 2 months would have dragged out like . . . s-l-o-w m-o-t-i-o-n
But Jephthah did NOT avail himself!
The OT Mad Max became the OT Forest Gump: “Stupid is as stupid does.”
He follows through on s stupid, sinful vow. Why?!!
Jephthah feared that if he reneged on his vow . . . God would take away his leadership.
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Great wording from Phil Campbell, “Collateral Damage”.
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Your daughter’s life versus going back on a manipulative promise?
What kind of God does he think Yahweh is?!
Jephthah the outcast, grasped & polished his idol of SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE & INFLUENCE,
at the GREATEST of all costs – his only child!
He was UNREPENTANT in his Idolatrous Grip!
THIS is why he did not withdraw his vow!
Jephthah is a man who clings to the WRONG THING – with tragic consequences.
Almost too terrible to speak of, the passage leaves her execution unspoken.
Personal Consequence:
Jephthah sees his only child die, and the fault is his own.
Jephthah was born in scandal/disgrace; his daughter dies in disgrace.
It’s not Jephthah’s victory, but his sinful consequence becomes the story’s ‘climax’!
The opposite to chapter 5, Deborah’s song of praise.
This ends with Jephthah’s daughter’s song of mourning, repeated annually.
. . . The pain of ongoing consequence, lingering year after year.
National Consequence:
Chapter 12 brings NO REST at all.
As with Gideon, Jephthah faces the hostile response of the Jewish tribe of Ephraim.
Gideon responded diplomatically to Ephraim’s glory-seeking insults.
Jephthah the Diplomat doesn’t even attempt diplomacy; he brings CIVIL WAR to Israel!
Deliverance comes at a terrible price.
o 42,000 Ephraimites (fellow Israelites), killed – by Jephthah.
o His only daughter, killed – thanks to Jephthah
What won’t Jephthah do to make it to the top and stay there?!
And in the end, 12:7, he ‘makes it’: Leader not just over Gilead, but over all Israel.
Gaining everything, but having nothing!
The text itself ‘declares’ almost no moral judgments,
but instead leaves us readers shaking our heads in horror.9
APPLICATION:
There is nothing wrong with vows . . . wise vows, godly vows!
Hannah also made an “IF . . . THEN” vow to God, but a godly one.
She vowed to give back to God the desire of her heart, should God give her a son!
No idolatrous grip! Only the ‘open hand’ of gratitude for God’s grace.
And so her son Samuel became a Priest, Prophet & Judge.
Sure, make wise vows.
And if you make a stupid, sinful vow . . . repent and withdraw it!
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Insight from Barry Webb (Judges [NICOT]).
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Of course, this passage teaches us to be careful, not rash, with our words, our vows.
So that our ‘yes’ will be ‘yes’, and our ‘no’ will be ‘no.’10
But that is not the main point!
It’s this: Relationship with God by calculated manipulation brings disaster!
If you “do religion” like the Canaanites, EXPECT “Canaanite consequences”11
Do you view relationship with God as “bargaining”?
Ø God, IF you part the traffic & get me to work on time, THEN I’ll tell someone about
Jesus today.
Ø God, IF you get me enough money to pay all my bills (especially my expensive
entertainment allocation!), THEN I will contribute to the needy, to your kingdom, etc.
Ø God, IF you get me enough money to retire early, THEN I will put serious effort into
seeking first your kingdom in my retirement.
Ø God, IF give me a hot spouse, THEN, I will stop viewing porn.
Ø IF you give me good grades, a friend who listens, etc.!, THEN I will trust & follow You.
These are all things God commands anyway!
Putting “iF’s” in front of them makes your obedience conditional, negotiable . . . idolatrous.
Christ is Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all.
What price might you pay, what price are you paying now, for clinging to your idol?
Because the gracious God of the Bible has only ONE sacrifice for us: Jesus Christ,
He wants only ONE kind of sacrifice from us — the LIVING
sacrifice of offering ourselves to the lordship of Christ in every area of our lives.
And even this is NOT to manipulate/secure His favour!, but is a RESPONSE to it:
“IN VIEW OF GOD’S MERCY, offer your bodies as LIVING sacrifices.” (Romans 12:1)
THE CROSS OF CHRIST
The cross makes it clear our relationship with God is Grace-based, not ‘Performance-based’
• Performance-based: means I try to “impress” God to earn His favour.
• Grace-based: Jesus paid it all, the righteous for the unrighteous!
I know I cannot ‘impress’ God,
so I serve in worshipful gratitude for His Extravagant Grace in Christ!
You are meant to walk away from the passage assessing the motive & approach of
your relationship with God: Grace-based or performance-based?
True worship or Idol worship?
Jephthah does NOT show the people how to live under God’s rule!
Jephthah will give anything, will sacrifice anyone, to remain leader of all of Israel.
Hearing this story, does not every fibre of your being, every part of your soul long for
a deliverer who is no coward, who does not blame the innocent, but who instead says,
“If a cost is to be paid, I will pay it” (– especially if it is the deliverer’s fault!, like Jephthah!)
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James 5:2.
Tim Keller, Judges for You.
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We have far, far greater Deliverer! – Jesus who said,
“I will pay the cost!”
even though it is we who are ‘at fault’, we who blamed Him, the Innocent!
And this Jesus did on the cross, paying the cost of our sins, for rebels who trust in Him.
Jesus, too, had a stigma surrounding his birth.
Yet He saved the world that stigmatized Him!
EXTRAVAGANT GRACE!
Unlike Jephthah, who TIGHTENED HIS GRIP on his own status & glory [DP]
Christ Jesus, Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be GRASPED,
but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, born in human form,
He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
(Phil 2:6-8)
Jephthah was an Outsider who did not want to give up being an Insider – at ANY cost.
Jesus is THE Insider (glory in Heaven!) . . . emptied Himself and became an Outsider,
and Outcast nailed to a cross, to save rebels at the GREATEST cost.
God so loved the world He gave HIS ONLY Son,
That all those believing in Him, will not perish, but have eternal life!
In Christ, the future could not be in safer, wiser hands.
Find acceptance with HIM!
CLING to the right thing – the Lord & His grip of grace – for a blessed life, now & forever.
PRAYER
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Chapter 10
1] What makes God’s grace so “extravagant” in chapter 10?
From your personal experience, describe your internal struggle of forgiving – even helping! –
people who repeatedly & seriously offend you.
Have you ever “become impatient over the misery” (10:16) of those repeat-offenders? Discuss.
2] What Lesson does Israel learn in Chpt 10 about “crying out” and conditions for deliverance?
3] Have you tried “confession without repentance”? What was the outcome – internally and
circumstantially?
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Chapter 11
4] Would you have “written off” Jephthah, the Outcast?
In what practical ways do we tend to ‘write off’ others?
Have you/Do you ‘write off’ yourself?
What does Jephthah show us about God’s grace and empowerment?
5] What ‘idol’ was Jephthah’s grip firmly grasping?
How can we practically assess which we want more: God, or God’s gifts?
What are you ‘clinging to’ for security & significance? How does your life evidence this?
6] Should Jephthah have “known better” about his vow?
(what do verses 12-27 reveal about his knowledge of Bible history?)
7] Should Jephthah have reneged on his vow? Why/why not?
What “priorities” in Scripture help us asses this. (Start with Micah 6:8 and Matthew 23:23)
2 months went by, so the ‘fulfilment’ of the vow was certainly not rash!
Discuss how Time can be used either to renew our minds, or justify our sin (polish our idol).
8] As we consider our “shock” at how massively Jephthah’s thinking was conformed by the
world around him, Jephthah makes us look at ourselves & ask: “What enormous blind-spots
do I have?!”
Answer first consider our Western Culture: What are it’s typical blind-spots to be aware of?
Then answer personally: what blind-spot from your past was exposed? How was it exposed?
(what role did God’s word & wise counsel from church friends play in that ‘exposure’?)
Share a past example of a ‘price you paid’ for clinging to an idol.
9] In what ways have you caught yourself “bargaining” with God? (“If . . . then”)
10] Discuss the practical difference between Grace-based vs. Performance-based religion.
In what ways would I live differently—more radically or restfully—if I REALLY believed God
was completely committed to me, to love me and bless me and work what is best for me?
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