Judges 11 Despised and Rejected

[0:00] In Judges chapter 11 today, we've been doing a redemptive historical working through the book of Judges and seeing how it foreshadows Christ and Christ's kingdom through typology, types, shadows, copies.

[0:13] And as such, we have seen that as Israel entered the promised land, the land of Canaan, and settled into Canaan, they started off with a fairly good start but began to compromise with the conquest.

[0:28] And as such, they began to embrace the paganism of the land, of the inhabitants, of the culture. And having embraced the paganism, they embraced other religions, false religions, false gods.

[0:45] They forsook God. They forgot God. And they worshipped false gods. Now, if you recall, there was a covenant relation between the people of Israel and God.

[0:58] And it was for the nation of Israel. And it was for temporal blessings, should they obey. And for threats or sanctions, should they disobey.

[1:11] And this was a different covenant than the new covenant, the covenant of grace, the covenant of Christ's kingdom. So they forsook the Lord and they worshipped false gods.

[1:22] So as such, when this happened, God raised up oppression as they were going away from God so that the oppression would cause them to turn and come back towards him.

[1:35] But as we have seen, their turning was not turning from sin. They weren't delivered from sin. They did not repent from sin. But they wanted God to deliver them from the oppression so that they would be free and use their freedom to continue to sin.

[1:50] So this cycle that we see occurring in the book of Judges, first we see that of Othniel. And Othniel's name means the Lion of God. And he was from the tribe of Judah.

[2:01] And the oppressive enemy, which was oppressing them, was King Cushon Rishathayim. Kids, that's a fun name to pronounce. You should practice saying that the whole drive home and see what your parents think.

[2:15] But Cushon Rishathayim, his name means double evil. So here, the Lion of Judah defeated the double evil oppressive enemy to bring liberty to God's people.

[2:30] And what happened next is the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord again. So the Lord raised up another oppressive enemy to cause the people to return to him.

[2:42] The next cycle, the next oppressive enemy, was that of Eglon. Eglon, as the text told us, was a very fat king. His name meant round or calf.

[2:54] He was the fattened calf prepared for slaughter. And God's left-handed assassin had a special message from God for the king, which meant the defeat of the evil oppressive enemy, the liberty of God's people.

[3:06] And the next cycle, as Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord again, we see Shamgar and his ox goad.

[3:18] Now, Shamgar, the name means sword. And this sword, God used through the function of the ox goad, which functions to prick the beast of burden under the yoke of bondage, to persuade it in the way in which it is to go, and brought, of course, liberty to God's people.

[3:41] Then next, we see Barak. And Barak was the next deliverer. Excuse me. The next deliverer who saved the people.

[3:54] And the oppressive enemy was Jabin, who was an enemy with a grudge. And the commander of the army was Sisera. And Barak delivered Israel.

[4:07] But before that, we see God's revelation of the deliverance coming through Deborah. And Deborah, as we see in her song, functioned as a mother to Israel.

[4:18] And this triggers our memory to think back of Eve. And Eve, who functions as a mother, in the curse, we see that it is through the seed of the woman would come the skull-crushing seed of the woman.

[4:33] The Messiah would come through the seed of the woman. Now, with this defeat, the glory didn't go to Barak. The glory went to a woman, which was Jael, who crushed the skull of Sisera with a spike, with a tent peg, which was bloodied.

[4:50] And the text tells us that she was most blessed among women, which reminds us of someone yet to come, namely Mary, who was most blessed among women.

[5:01] Through her, who came the Messiah, the skull-crushing seed of the woman, who crushed the skull of the serpent of the enemy. And there was bloodied spikes by him taking the sins of his people and them being nailed to the cross to pay the punishment in our place.

[5:15] After this, the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord again. And they cried out to the Lord. And our next cycle of deliverer brings us to Gideon.

[5:29] Gideon, who was weak and timid and afraid. And Gideon, who basically described himself to God as though God was scraping the bottle of the barrel to use him to deliver Israel.

[5:44] But God gave the enemy into his hand. And the 300 and the power of God is made perfect in human weakness through this. And then we see the use.

[5:56] There was, remember, an army of at least 135,000 enemy against these 300. And the youth, they had their trumpets, which they trumpeted, and their jars of clay.

[6:11] And inside the jars of clay were these torches. And so the trumpet and the breaking of the jars of the clay and unleashing the light to shine forth. And they're declaring out the sword of the Lord and of Gideon.

[6:24] And likewise, the church trumpets the gospel through we who are jars of clay and through which the light of the gospel shines forth. God's power is shown in human weakness.

[6:38] God's power is made perfect in human weakness. And that brings us now to chapter 11, where we have another cycle of judges. This account starts a little bit earlier in chapter 10.

[6:53] We'll read chapter 11, but we'll reach back to a particular verse to help understand the context of what's going on. But for now, we will read chapter 11. Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, but he was the son of a harlot.

[7:11] And Gilead begot Jephthah. Gilead's wife bore sons. And when his wife's sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, You shall have no inheritance in our father's house, for you are the son of another woman.

[7:26] Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and dwelt in the land of Tob. And worthless men banded together with Jephthah and went out raiding with him. It came to pass after a time that the people of Ammon made war against Israel.

[7:42] And so it was when the people of Ammon made war against Israel that the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob. Then they said to Jephthah, Come and be our commander that we may fight against the people of Ammon.

[7:58] So Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, Did you not hate me and expel me from my father's house? Why have you come to me now when you are in distress?

[8:09] And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, That is why we have turned again to you now, that you may go with us and fight against the people of Ammon and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.

[8:22] So Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, If you take me back home to fight against the people of Ammon and the Lord delivers them to me, shall I be your head?

[8:33] And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, The Lord will be a witness between us if we do not do according to your words. Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead and the people made him head and commander over them.

[8:48] And Jephthah spoke all his words before the Lord in Mizpah. Now Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the people of Ammon, saying, What do you have against me that you have come to fight against me and my land?

[9:02] And the king of the people of Ammon answered the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land when they came up out of Egypt from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok and to the Jordan, now therefore restore those lands peaceably.

[9:20] So Jephthah again sent messengers to the king of the people of Ammon and said to him, Thus says Jephthah, Israel did not take away the land of Moab nor the land of the people of Ammon.

[9:32] For when Israel came up from Egypt, they walked through the wilderness as far as the Red Sea and came to Kadesh. Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, Please let me pass through your land.

[9:45] But the king of Edom would not heed. And in like manner, they sent to the king of Moab. But he would not consent. So they went along through the wilderness and bypassed the land of Edom and the land of Moab, came to the east side of the land of Moab and camped on the other side of the Arnon.

[10:04] But they did not enter the border of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab. Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, king of Heshbon.

[10:14] And Israel said to him, Please let us pass through your land into our place. But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory. So Sihon gathered all his people together and camped at Jehaz and fought against Israel.

[10:29] And the Lord God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel. And they defeated them. Thus Israel gained possession of all the land of the Amorites who inhabited the country.

[10:42] They took possession of all the territory of the Amorites from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the wilderness to the Jordan. Now the Lord God of Israel has dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel.

[10:57] Should you then possess it? Will you not possess whatever Shemash, your God, gives you to possess? So whatever the Lord of God takes possession of before us, we will possess.

[11:10] And now, are you any better than Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever strive against Israel? Did he ever fight against them? While Israel dwelt in Heshbon and its villages, in Eru and its villages, and in all the cities along the banks of the Arnon for 300 years, why did you not recover them within that time?

[11:33] Therefore, I have not sinned against you, but you wronged me by fighting against me. May the Lord, the judge, render judgment this day between the children of Israel and the people of Amon.

[11:47] However, the king of the people of Amon did not heed the words which Jephthah sent him. Then the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh, and passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead, he advanced toward the people of Amon.

[12:07] And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, If you will indeed deliver the people of Amon into my hands, then it will be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the people of Amon, shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.

[12:25] So Jephthah advanced toward the people of Amon to fight against them, and the Lord delivered them into his hands. And he defeated them from Aror, as far as Mineth, twenty cities, and to Abel-Keramim, with a very great slaughter.

[12:41] Thus the people of Amon were subdued before the children of Israel. When Jephthah came to his house at Mizpah, there was his daughter, coming out to meet him with timbrels and dancing.

[12:53] And she was his only child. Besides her, he had neither son nor daughter. And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he tore his clothes and said, Alas, my daughter, you have brought me very low.

[13:06] You are among those who trouble me, for I have given my word to the Lord, and I cannot go back on it. So she said to him, My father, if you have given your word to the Lord, do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, because the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, and the people of Amon.

[13:29] Then she said to her father, Let this thing be done for me. Let me alone for two months, that I may go and wander on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, my friends and I.

[13:41] So he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months, and she went with her friends, and bewailed her virginity on the mountains. And it was so, at the end of two months, that she returned to her father, and he carried out his vow with her, which he had vowed.

[13:59] She knew no man. And it became a custom in Israel, that the daughters of Israel went four days each year, to lament the daughter of Jephthah, the Gileadite.

[14:10] Great God, we thank you for your word, that we have before us, supernatural revelation, your infallible word. And Lord, as we seek to hear from you through your word, and to understand texts, which contain difficult things, we pray that you would illuminate it to us by your spirit, that you would make your word effectual, that you would lead us into all truth.

[14:36] We pray that you would help us, and that you would enlighten our minds, as we contemplate the things of your word. We pray that you would forgive us of all of our sins today. We pray that you would help us to truly focus on you, on your word.

[14:50] We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. In this chapter, of the next cycle of deliverers, what's going on in this chapter, what we see here, is this.

[15:05] is that this deliverer was rejected by his own, he saved his people from oppression, and he suffered bitter sorrow.

[15:17] So again, this deliverer was rejected by his own, he saved his people from oppression, and he suffered bitter sorrow. So we will divide this into three different ways.

[15:28] First of all, the deliverer, second of all, the vow, and third, unspeakable sorrow. First of all, the deliverer. So the cycle continues yet again.

[15:42] It seems like each time we have a look in Judges, the cycle is coming back around, and it begins yet again. We find that Israel is in need of salvation. The people are in need of salvation.

[15:54] And it starts off, if you'll flip back to Judges 10, verse 6, you probably know what it's going to say before I even read it. 10, verse 6, Then the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord.

[16:10] Here we have it again. People are doing evil in the sight of the Lord. They have forsaken God, and they have worshipped false gods. It's not only apostasy here. It's not only fast-paced apostasy.

[16:23] We find that next generations are so quick to apostatize. But what we see here is as the cycle continues, it's like a downward spiral that they're going further and further into Canaanization, further and further into paganization, more and more like the pagan culture in the land in which they live in, instead of according to God's commands which he has given them.

[16:49] We see here in verse 10 that in this cycle it is intense apostasy. It's not just that they worship the Baals, but notice what it says in verse 6.

[17:02] Then the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the people of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and they forsook the Lord and did not serve him.

[17:20] This is intense apostasy. We can see that as the cycle continues, they're going deeper and deeper into apostasy and forsaking the Lord and in worshiping many other false gods as opposed to just God.

[17:34] So God sends oppression. The Lord sends oppression in order to turn them to him. So we see this occurring in chapter 10 in verse 7 which says, So the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the people of Ammon.

[17:58] From that year they harassed and oppressed the children of Israel for 18 years, all the children of Israel who were on the other side of the Jordan in the land of the Amorites in Gilead. Moreover, the people of Ammon crossed over the Jordan to fight against Judah also.

[18:12] Against Benjamin and against the house of Ephraim so that Israel was severely distressed. The children of Israel cried out to the Lord saying, We have sinned against you because we have both forsaken our God and served the Baals.

[18:28] So you can see that the oppression comes from God and it does cause them to turn from pursuing their idolatry to God.

[18:39] But as we notice in the cycle as it continually cycles is that they're not delivered from their sins. They don't repent of their sins. Merely they turn to God to be liberated from oppression.

[18:53] So in verse 10 we see they cry out to the Lord and in verse 13 the Lord's response is that he rejects their plea. They cry out to the Lord and he rejects it. And basically what's going on here in God's response is that the people didn't want God before.

[19:11] They rejected God. They didn't want him before. They thrust him out and now they want his help. Now they want his help now that they're being oppressed and God rejects their plea.

[19:24] So what they do next is they go to Jephthah and they plead with Jephthah for help. So let's take a look at who Jephthah is. Jephthah is today's Old Testament deliverer.

[19:37] Jephthah is a very unlikely and unexpected deliverer. This is a common theme we're seeing with the delivers. We see that Jephthah is a son of a harlot that is of a prostitute.

[19:49] And there are many details which our text doesn't necessarily say about Canaanization but the Canaanization involved taking on of the immorality and the false religions of the nations around them which included a number of things including their their idols which were pornographic and having temple prostitutes and what they believed is the the gods of the nations Baal and the Ashereth being the gods presumed pagan gods of storm gods and of fertility and they believed that by engaging in immorality particularly with these temple prostitutes would then excite the the Baals and Ashereths to then do likewise which would cause fertility of the land and of the people which of course is very contrary to God's commands God's holy standard and God's law.

[20:43] So that's why we can see that they then forsook the Lord and forgot the Lord because God's commands and God's holy standard was getting in the way of the foreign immorality and idolatry and their practices.

[20:56] So all that to say increase the number of prostitution you're going to the result is going to be sons of prostitutes sons of harlots. So we shouldn't be all that surprised to see that there is the fruit of such activity of prostitution.

[21:13] So Jephthah was the son of a prostitute Jephthah was also a Gileadite he was the son of Gilead and as we read he was originally rejected by his own he was rejected by his brothers and they thrust him out that he would have no inheritance with them because he was the son of a prostitute they cast him out they rejected him.

[21:39] So just as they went to the Lord whom they had rejected and cast out now they go to Jephthah whom they had rejected and cast out they didn't want Jephthah before they rejected him they thrust him out but now that they need help now they go to him to see if he will help them.

[22:00] So they entered in negotiations for Jephthah to be a ruling leader over them as well as a military commander and Jephthah as far as being a deliverer goes was faithful Jephthah was faithful so Jephthah engages in discussions with the oppressive king of king Amon and Amon if you recall his delivery with his messengers bring to deliver the message to Jephthah is that the king tries gaslighting Jephthah he probably thinks who is this guy he's he's a son of a prostitute his own didn't want them they cast him out he spent his life with worthless fellows and raiding and marauding what does he know surely I can pull the wool over his eyes but what the king doesn't know is that Jephthah is very versed in his history and in his religion and

[23:00] King Amon is not able to pull the wool over his eyes so Jephthah's reply is he calls him out on his lies he not only presents an assertion you notice sometimes when there's arguments perhaps someone will present maybe you see this on social media or politics someone will present an assertion as though it's a fact without actually giving supporting information to argue and demonstrate why it's true and then the other person is to give their assertion and support it with the facts to support their argument sometimes this is overlooked and there's just an assertion this is true no this is true no this is true what goes on here is Jephthah is not only versed in history and knowledge but he knows how to properly argue he gives his counter assertion and he presents the truth to back up his assertion which not only proves Amon to be wrong but also proves why he is right and then we see what follows in 11 verse 29 what do we see occurring the spirit spirit came upon

[24:11] Jephthah what occurs in this victory is spirit empowered now keep your finger here because we're going to come back to this spot but quickly flip over to Luke we're going to briefly take a glimpse to give you a hint of what's to come in the narrative Luke 4 verse 18 so with Jephthah as we have read in other deliverers is that the spirit of the Lord came upon them notice what Luke 4 18 speaks of Jesus the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor he has sent me to heal the broken hearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and recover the sight of the blind to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the acceptable year of the

[25:12] Lord we see much imagery of oppression of being in bonds of being captive of being under the yoke or the bondage of slavery to sin and we see much imagery of being blinded or in darkness and there's a lot of that foreshadowed in the Old Testament when through types and shadows of Christ being the deliverer of Christ and of his kingdom delivering his people from a state of blindness darkness bondage oppression yoke of slavery but back to our text before we get too far ahead of ourselves in 11 verse 29 the spirit came upon Jephthah and then what occurs next is that this deliverer marshals the troops and they go out to battle in verse 32 we see that they go out to battle and the result this is important so the spirit came upon Jephthah and the result of them going out to battle is that God gives the enemy into the deliverer's hand the victory belongs to the Lord

[26:17] God gives the enemy into the deliverer's hand and it is a decisive victory look at verses 32 and 33 again so Jephthah advanced toward the people of Ammon to fight against them and the Lord delivered them into his hands and he defeated them from error as far as mineth twenty cities and to abel caramim with a very great slaughter thus the people of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel which brings us to our second point our next point so the spirit empowered victory given to Jephthah meets the he sets he set for his vow fulfillment so our second point is the vow and this is a very difficult and troubling part of the text which we come to is that Jephthah makes a vow to God now vows weren't entirely uncommon particularly in this time they were not unusual at all we see this in

[27:23] Numbers 30 Psalm 22 Ecclesiastes 5 and the vows when they made these vows when they were made in the right place according to scripture they were expressions of zeal or devotion to God so it was not uncommon to make a vow to God out of an expression of zeal and devotion to God but this vow is very uncommon this is no ordinary vow what Jephthah had made now if you notice in the vow Jephthah's ambiguous wording puts all the inhabitants of his house at risk he doesn't specify if he said the first bull that belongs to my property that will be I will offer as a burnt offering then it would be specific and we would know but it's very ambiguous he doesn't know what will be the first thing and his ambiguous wording as such puts all the inhabitants of his house at risk by saying whatever so what exactly did

[28:23] Jephthah have in mind when he made this vow when it was ambiguous when he said whatever comes out of my house what exactly did he have in mind so first before we narrow that down let's look a little bit at the context of the times in which this occurred now in the Old Testament and in this covenant with Israel a whole burnt offering in Levitical law would require an animal so according to Levitical law a whole burnt offering was to be an animal so perhaps the first thought to come to mind it wouldn't be completely out of place for a second to think well maybe he did have an animal in mind because that is what a whole burnt offering was to be if it would be pleasing to the Lord some it has been surmised that perhaps he was thinking about a goat or a chicken or his mother-in-law which I of course would not say such a thing especially with the wonderful mother-in-law that I have but Israelite law and piety demonstrated an intense abhorrence against human sacrifices against child sacrifices which were made in the pagan nations around them that was the culture the pagan culture in the land in which they settled in which they took in which they failed to drive out for example to cause one's sons or daughter to pass through the fire to Moloch which is absolutely horrific so the nations the culture the Canaanites did practice child sacrifices that was the culture and the land in which they settled and failed to drive out and as the

[30:13] Canaanization cycle increases in a downward spiral we see more and more influence coming from the culture towards them their religious practices and their lifestyle what exactly did Jephthah have in mind when he made this vow when he said whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me so let's ask up questions would a chicken for example let's say a chicken came out of his house to meet him would a chicken be an appropriate offering for such a victory not likely would a bull be coming out of the doors of his house and would a bull be coming to meet him again it's quite unlikely I don't have any pet bulls in my house and if I did they probably wouldn't be too eager to meet me when I came home so it's it's unlikely then that he had in mind according to the text according to what he vowed he said whatever comes out the doors of my house to meet me it doesn't quite seem fitting to think of a chicken or a goat or a bull perhaps the perpetual downward spiral of canonization was more severe than we would like to think perhaps it was more severe than what we would like to believe this shows the severity of canonization it shows the severity of pagan syncretistic effects syncretism is to try to amalgamate multiple religions but this shows the severity of pagan syncretistic effects and the corruption which it causes perhaps he did indeed have in mind a human sacrifice embracing the wickedness of the nation around him to everyone's horror as we read in the text that whatever that comes out the door of his house to meet him was his daughter and as we read on it was his only child it was his daughter that came out to meet him so there's a couple things obviously what is obvious is horrific about it but what's further troubling is that this vow wasn't even necessary

[32:32] God is not to be bargained! if you see what he did is he attempted to manipulate God as though God was just like the pagan gods as though God was a God of like nature of like passions as though he could manipulate God where he says God I'll give you this if you give me that but God is not to be bargained in such a way nor can God be manipulated God is not to be bargained with the way in which he did it was wrong and the vow was not necessary now what we see occurring with Jephthah and his daughter from here on in is an inversion of Genesis 22 Genesis 22 is the account of Abraham and his son there's many similarities but the details are an inversion here's exactly what I mean so remember Genesis 22 God tested Abraham by telling him to sacrifice his son here

[33:35] God did not tell Jephthah to sacrifice his only child it wasn't his son it was his daughter Abraham went with his son onto Mount Moriah Jephthah's daughter went into the mountains but Jephthah did not go with her he did not show that tenderness towards her Abraham demonstrated faith in God in his command and he was going to obey but God stopped it God would not allow it to happen because such a thing is an abomination human sacrifices so God intervened with Abraham God was silent with Jephthah and with Abraham God provided a ram in the thicket as a substitutionary sacrifice with the count of Jephthah a substitutionary sacrifice still remains so to everyone's horror it was his daughter we see similarities to Genesis 22 with Abraham and his son

[34:36] Isaac his only son Isaac Abraham was interrupted by God but God was silent towards Jephthah Daniel Block at this point in his commentary he says although the present story ends with the death of the young girl her father is the tragic figure presenting a pathetic picture of stupidity brutality ambition and self centeredness when we read this we need to remember what we read in Judges is narrative it's not normative it's not normative and it's not direction for us of what we are to do nor was it direction for Israel Israel was not directed to sacrifice their children rather is a narrative and the narrative is there to tell us something specific and it shows the paganized condition of the people of Israel and the paganized condition of Jephthah through the canonization which occurred they'd failed to drive out the evil they'd failed to drive out the worship of false gods they'd failed to drive out the immoral lifestyles the temple prostitution and the altars and the idols which brings us to our third point

[35:53] Jephthah is a deliverer who suffered unspeakable sorrow so our third point is unspeakable sorrow now reading different commentaries some take an interpretation of Jephthah's fulfillment of his vow as being their position is that Jephthah consecrated his daughter for a lifetime of celibate religious service where do they get this where does this idea come from it is from the part of the text where it says bewail her virginity and that after she knew no man so there is a view that thinks that Jephthah did not sacrifice his daughter but consecrated her for a lifetime of celibate religious service now

[36:53] Jephthah there is a conundrum Jephthah had a conundrum to deal with he made a vow to God and making a vow to God is not something that is to be taken lightly but what's further complicating and troubling of Jephthah's conundrum is that Levitical law provided him with an out Levitical law provides the option to redeem somebody by substituting it with a monetary payment the context of it is that if somebody was vowed if another person was vowed for a lifetime of religious service then that person could be redeemed by paying a particular monetary price to redeem them from that to buy that other person back and while the end result is slightly different Levitical law did provide him with an alternative option furthermore

[37:54] Levitical law at this time forbids child sacrifice Deuteronomy 18.10 says when you come into the land which the Lord your God has given you Canaan you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations there shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire or one who practices witchcraft or a soothsayer or one who interprets omens or a sorcerer or one who conjures spells or a medium or a spiritist or one who calls up the dead for all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you you shall be blameless before the Lord your God for these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners but as for you the Lord your God has not appointed such for you

[38:56] Jephthah had been canaanized he had become a product of pagan culture his vow was syncretistic his vow wasn't biblically oriented he vowed to God in the manner of the pagan religions which Israel had embraced it was syncretistic in that he vowed to God but he vowed in a manner in which pagan religions would vow he embraced he took that of his culture which was forbidden by God and brought that into worship of God so back to the conundrum did he offer his only daughter as a burnt sacrifice or did she live out her life in celibacy a couple of things one of them that is very important to notice in all of judges we don't grasp the depth of this and just verse sorry chapter 11 but if we were to read judges all the way through before we read 11 there is something that we would see that is occurring we would see the canonization of

[40:07] Israel throughout judges gets worse and worse and worse and worse and it starts off well when they start off settling particularly with the view of women it starts off well if you remember with Caleb and his daughter he wanted the best for her daughter and that ended up being Othniel who was faithful and battle tested so Caleb out of respect for his daughter wanted the best man for her which ended up being Othniel and Othniel was a faithful man and the dialogue which occurs we see both female propriety with respect towards male headship and fatherhood as well as human dignity treating Caleb's daughter with dignity being made in the image of God so it starts off well but then we see as the canonization occurs throughout judges their view and their treatment of women declines significantly progressive cycles of embracing pagan religion and lifestyle and if you recall what that pagan religion and lifestyle involved it was objectifying women with temple prostitution and with considering seeing them as merely personal property for the purpose of carnal sinful gratification and polygamy as they embrace these things there are consequences to the canonization its influence has a very far reach and it reaches a low point at the end of the book of judges it reaches a low point where we see an echo of Sodom and Gomorrah

[41:50] Sodom and Gomorrah was a very wicked place where there were foreigners who were traveling through who were men and the men of the city mobbed together and they wanted to engage in homosexual relations by raping these men and God ends up God stops it and God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah he shows judgment against them and we see an echo of that in the book of Judges at the end where the canonization reaches a low point we see an echo where a Levite is passing through the children of Benjamin the Benjamite and he's staying with his host and the men of the city mob together and what occurs is they want to gang rape this man and the host so we see much wickedness already the effects the downward spiral of sin we see it even further particularly in their perspective of women how it has decreased significantly is what the host does he says

[42:59] I have a virgin young daughter take her and do with her whatever you want this is horrible you imagine being that daughter you be like dad what are you doing they did not have that biblical view of human dignity seeing women as made in the image of God so it reaches this low point with the far reaching influences of canaanization the very people of Benjamin and their uncontrollable lusts and urges so the host offers over his young virgin daughter for them to do what they will but that wasn't wicked enough for them so they take this Levite so remember Levites are supposed to be the ones who do God's will and protect the nation from evil the Levite has with him his concubine so that in itself also shows us the canaanization of Israel because a concubine was a mistress it was somebody who wasn't his wife but it was polygamy so already we see here more influences so this

[44:07] Levite having a concubine they take his concubine and they rape her either to the point of death or near death and then as we read on in the morning he wakes up and he has absolutely no compassion for this woman and he says get up we're on our way and ends up cutting her up and sending her out to show what has been done so we see a horrific low point and from starting off well of a biblical view of women to to this there is a drastic downward spiral of canaanization with the influence of the pagan religion and immorality that has influenced their very thinking which influences their thoughts now this vow which Jephthah had made it was not an act of faith and piety it was a demonstration of paganization and an attempt to bargain with God to bargain with God as though

[45:16] God was a pagan God of his culture so again back to the question did he offer his daughter as a burnt sacrifice or did he live her life in celibacy a part of us probably wants to give Jephthah the benefit of the doubt as though maybe he thought the way that we think but we have to put it in its context and that their very way of thinking was deeply influenced by canaanization the evil that they were supposed to drive out but failed to do so so with that in mind did he offer his daughter as a burnt sacrifice the next point is what the text says the text is very brief and very to the point and he carried out his vow with her which he had vowed what did he vow to do it says he carried out his vow with her which he had vowed to to read that literally would be that he did what he had vowed to do that he he offered her as a sacrifice furthermore the levitical law leviticus 1 verse 4 speaks of burnt offering his vow says he did he carried out his vow with her which he had vowed that vow was to offer her as a whole burnt offering a whole burnt offering it was of course to be an animal and it was a transfer of the sins of the people onto that people or sorry onto that animal on their behalf to make atonement so burnt offering was a transfer of sins for atonement so that would be heavy on the minds of the people of Israel perhaps

[47:05] Jephthah with his history remember after his brothers rejected him and drove him out he surrounded himself with worthless fellows and they were marauding they were raiding they were doing sinful things so perhaps Jephthah with his history of marauding with worthless fellows was convicted of a life of sin and felt his need for propitiation and Levitical law burnt offerings was the transfer of sins to be accepted to make atonement but remember can we barter with God for forgiveness and favor we cannot barter with God there is nothing about God's favor God's grace God's forgiveness that we can earn that we can deserve that we can manipulate there is no works we can do it is by grace and by grace alone through faith pagan thinking had infiltrated Israel so to come back to the text why was there two months to be well if she had the counter argument the argument that he had consecrated her for a lifetime of celibacy if that were the case if we weren't to take the text literally then why would it mention her bewailing her virginity the fact that that is in there it's quite significant and we might not grasp the depths of the meaning of it that they would understand that but by

[48:35] Jephthah's vow by sacrificing his daughter he would thereby render his daughter childless and then being childless brought great grief and shame and for a woman to go her life without having children and dying without children was seen as shame the grief and shame of not having children which typically would be associated with being barren so being barren was something of grief and shame so that being said put this on the back burner for later but pay attention when the bible speaks about not being able to have children about women not being able to have children but back to our text furthermore Jephthah's daughter was an only child so what does that mean for Jephthah if Jephthah's daughter did not know a man she bewailed her virginity she did not know a man she was his only child

[49:39] Jephthah's lineage ends here his future is wiped out for the sake of temporal peace how many times does out of an act of sin does the temporal the moment take precedence over future peace Jephthah Jephthah's future is wiped out for the sake of temporal peace but notice about Jephthah's daughter about her demeanor in all of this his daughter demonstrated great faith and was submissive even to death Israel's behavior in all of this is not normative it's narrative biblical male headship in the home egalitarians will try to look to judges to argue against biblical male headship in the home but male headship in the home functions in a way that points to Christ it's not only

[50:39] God's commands but it does something much more than what may be immediately apparent in that it points towards Christ it it functions in a way that points to Christ and such that the father or the husband does not sacrifice the well-being of the household but by sacrificing personal advantage for the well-being of the household this is biblical male headship biblical fatherhood so you can see that this is not what Jephthah did this is not normative it's narrative back to Jephthah though he did a lot of bad there's a lot of bad about him and as we see types in the Old Testament and how they're types of Christ or of the deliverer to come sometimes it may be difficult when we get hung up on these horrific things that they do but we need to Jephthah did have faith we know this because in

[51:47] Hebrews 1132 and it's called the hall of faith he's listed there it says and what more shall I say for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah also of David and Samuel and the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms worked righteousness obtained!

[52:06] promises stopped the mouths of lions quenched the violence of fire escaped the edge of the sword out of the weakness were made strong became valiant in battle turned to flight the armies of the aliens we need to understand Jephthah in his right place he's not the messiah he's not the skull crushing seed of the woman but he does point to Christ and to Christ kingdom and the fact that when we read such horrific things which brings all of us much encouragement Jephthah was a flawed deliverer he wasn't the skull crushing seed of the woman but he had faith and this is a great demonstration of the mercy and grace of God excuse me not only on the unlikely and unexpected the mercy and grace of God not only on the unlikely and expected not only on those despised and rejected not only of those who have spent worthless fellows even those who have faith and make a majorly horrific decision that haunts them the rest of their life

[53:18] David committed adultery and murder Peter denied the Lord three times but their evil deeds did not void the grace that they did not earn or deserve to begin with your past is not too sinful for the astonishing grace and mercy of the glorious gospel of our flawless deliver the Lord Jesus Christ so in conclusion there are some comparisons to make here Jephthah was a savior of Israel as a savior of Israel is recorded as having faith Jephthah was flawed indeed Jephthah was not intended to be seen as the flawless savior but a type of the one to come Jephthah as such foreshadows Christ and all of scripture if you recall all of scripture testifies of him all of scripture testifies of Christ the account of Jephthah testifies of

[54:19] Christ and his kingdom it foreshadows Christ so some comparisons some similarities some inversions Jephthah if you remember Jephthah was the son of sexual immorality he was the son of a harlot Jephthah was the son of sexual immorality Jesus was falsely accused of being born in immorality Jephthah was rejected by his own Jesus was rejected by his own Jephthah was in the company of unsavory fellows who made him more like them Jesus was in the company of unsavory fellows but he made them more like him Jephthah's victory won peace for the kingdom of Israel in the promised land Jesus victory won peace for the kingdom of Christ in the promised new creation land in the account of Jephthah his only child was sacrificed what Jephthah inflicted upon his daughter

[55:21] God the father inflicted on his own son Jephthah's daughter went willingly Jesus went willingly not Jesus going willingly it wasn't out of an unexpected surprise but according to the eternal and immutable divine will in the covenant of redemption that before the creation of the world before the foundation of the world before time again the pre-temporal intra-trinitarian agreement that the son would be the mediator between God and sinful mankind and this is exactly why the eternal son of God assumed human nature God cannot die cannot suffer God cannot be acted upon by his creation God's creation is an antecedent to him that they are the cause of God God is the cause of his creation God by his very essence cannot die he cannot change he cannot suffer he cannot die which is why the second person of the trinity or the word took to himself a body that is he assumed our nature that in our nature he suffered and he died he suffered by paying the penalty which we owe by our sins and his death on the cross that penalty that punishment was nailed to the cross to be as a substitute as the lamb of

[56:50] God who was slain to take away the sins of the world that we would have forgiveness God is holy and God doesn't change us being holy so God doesn't step away from being holy he does not change but rather his holy standard his righteous requirements divine justice is satisfied by God's wrath on Christ as a substitute for his people which is absolutely wonderful because there's nothing God does not know there is no sin of God's people that he was not aware of that was not paid for in full once for all on the cross and just as we didn't delight God to win our salvation we didn't manipulate God to get his favor but it is entirely by grace that we didn't deserve to begin with so also our sin is not remain unpaid the eternal son of

[57:54] God assumed human nature to perfect obedience also in his life and to pay the ransom price for propitiation in his death by our sins being nailed on the cross the penalty paid for we have forgiveness and by Christ's perfect righteousness accredited to our account we have the righteousness required to be in a right standing before a holy and just God now the count of Jephthah it results in unspeakable sorrow Jesus endured unspeakable sorrow that his people may have inexpressible joy in an unshakable kingdom without grief without sin without tears without death and without sorrow so here's the so what moment of it all people are sinful people are prone to wonder people have disobeyed God they have done what is evil in the sight of God and the penalty of sin the wages of sin is death and that is eternal torment in hell and there's a sin problem that sinful mankind cannot fix which is why the son of

[59:05] God assumed our nature in the person of Jesus Christ with the divine nature united with the human nature in which he fixed that sin problem that we could not fix we could not earn by our works by our deeds by manipulation a right standing before God so it is only by faith in Christ that we can be in a right standing before God so the so what moment of it all is that if we try to stand self represented before God according to an attempt to bargain with God or to manipulate God as though he was a God of the pagan culture or to appeal our own works or our own righteousness that we will stand condemned and we will stand still under the condemnation of our sins!

[59:53] It is only in Christ it is only forgiveness by being covered in the blood of Christ and with Christ's righteousness imputed to us that we can be in a right standing before God and that Jesus is received by faith look to the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved so where are you today have you despised and rejected Christ the only deliverer who can bring reconciliation with God and eternal peace in a glorious new creation world without end if you have despised and know that you cannot be in a right standing before God on your own turn today embrace the Lord Jesus Christ rest on Christ alone for salvation receive Christ believe in the Lord and you will be saved let's pray our great God we thank you for your word we thank you how all of scripture testifies of Christ and we thank you for as we see in the New Testament the light comes on and we see the glorious gospel of Christ and

[60:54] Christ kingdom and we thank you that these promises and these types and shadows we find fulfilled in Christ we thank you for your work of redemption we thank you that you redeem lost sinners we thank you that on the Lord's day we gather together with other believers and we sit under your word where you!

[61:10] are in our midst and you speak to us and you reveal your will to us by your word and spirit in a particular way I pray that you would indeed make your word effectual to all who hear it I pray that you would help us as we go through this week to continue to contemplate on your word on your excellencies on your wondrous works on your glorious gospel that we would be filled with wonder and awe and that we would indeed be worshipful people if there are those here today Lord who do not know you who have not received Christ as the only deliverer who can bring reconciliation we pray that you would advance your kingdom that you would shine light in darkness we pray these things in Jesus name Amen we'll stand