Good morning. You may be seated. This is time for our children to go to your Sunday school classes and learn about the Lord.
May God bless you as you go to Sunday school.
The last several weeks we have been looking at the question, can God use me?
Is there really a place for me? Can I be used?
And so we have looked at various people who are in some ways oddballs.
They don't exactly fit a typical group of people.
We saw that Ehud was a left-handed judge in a society dominated by right-handed people.
Deborah was a woman in a society dominated by men.
Again, Gideon is mostly a coward who needs constantly to be assured that he's okay, that God is going to be with him.
And he keeps requesting for signs that God would assure him.
And today we look at Jephthah in Judges chapter 11 and 12.
Jephthah is a very interesting judge.
There are two judges that I think are extremely interesting.
Jephthah happens to be one of them.
The life of Jephthah is in chapters 11 and 12.
And it is looking at two incidents.
But the two incidents are connected with each other.
So they're not just two separate, unrelated incidents.
There is an overarching theme which we will see.
So let's begin first by looking at Jephthah.
And let's turn in your Bibles, please, to the book of Judges chapter 11.
If you look at your bulletin, you will also see that on the back I try to help you follow what I'm trying to say.
So Jephthah, in verse 1, Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior.
His father was Gilead.
His mother was a prostitute.
Gilead's wife, Gilead's legitimate wife, also bore him sons.
And when they were grown up, they drove Jephthah away.
You're not going to get any inheritance in our family, they said, because you are the son of another woman.
So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tov,
where a group of adventurers gathered around him and followed him.
The problem with Jephthah is many.
First of all, his mother is a prostitute.
So he is clearly an outsider in Israel.
He would never be treated with honor or dignity or respect or anything like that.
Socially, he's an outcast.
So he has no family.
And his half-brothers, who have the same father but don't have the same mother, drove him away.
You're not going to get any inheritance in our family.
And so he left to the land of Tov.
Jephthah has no family, no country, and no future.
When we look at that incident, it echoes some things.
When we think about brothers getting rid of their brother, perhaps you might recall Genesis and the story of Joseph.
But in the case of Joseph, it's not because he was illegitimate.
In the case of Joseph, it was because his brothers were jealous of him.
They suspected he's going to be the leader in the family, and they didn't want him to be.
And so they got rid of him.
So Joseph is expelled by his family and sold as a slave to Egypt.
And unless God had intervened, that would have been the end of Joseph, a slave unknown somewhere in Egypt with no record and nothing.
But God intervened.
So Joseph reminds us of that situation.
But so does David.
What we have in David is something similar to this.
Saul is jealous of this young man who is becoming popular with the masses.
And so David marries Saul's daughter.
But as Saul's jealousy increases, David's life is in danger.
He becomes a fugitive.
And about 400 people join him in his fugitive.
So this is starting to echo the life of David.
But just as Joseph ended on a great note, and David ended on a great note, Jephthah does not.
And we'll have to figure out why.
When they seem to be on the same path, heading in the same direction, Jephthah is not.
In any case, Jephthah is expelled from his country.
And he is a vagabond.
He is like Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest.
And Israel is in danger.
They want a leader.
They want a leader to help them.
So they come to him, not because they love him, not because they care about him, but because they need him as a warrior.
And he doesn't trust them.
And so he makes them take an oath.
That is the first oath.
That is a preview of other things to happen.
And so, in any case, they said, you know, if you lead us, we'll make you the leader and the commander.
And Jephthah doesn't believe them, doesn't trust them, but he decides to do it.
Because Israel is at war, this brings us to the second issue.
But before we go to the second issue, I want you to think about that.
What happens to people who feel that their family doesn't love them, that they're not accepted?
I hope none of you has experienced that.
I really hope so.
I hope you all come from healthy families where your parents love you, where they cherish you, where they esteem you, where they would do anything for you.
I really hope that that is the case.
And, of course, rejection goes in various degrees.
Rejection is not just one event.
It's a spectrum.
I can speak from my own life.
We grew up in an average family in Lebanon.
We are not, by any stretch of the imagination, wealthy.
We are actually fairly poor.
And my father became convinced that the way to come out of poverty is through education.
And so he wanted to make sure that all of us went to good schools, got a good education, and were able to improve our state in life.
For that reason, and because in education I was extremely competitive and could compete very hard and do very, very well in college and in school,
I was sent to America to get a Western education, which is a lot better than Middle Eastern education,
and hopefully that would open doors.
My father wanted me to be a medical doctor.
There are 14 cousins of us.
Eight are medical doctors.
And my father thought that I was the smartest of them all, but that's, of course, only his opinion.
My uncle wouldn't agree with him.
So he wanted me to worship, to study medicine.
His daily urging was, become a doctor, make a lot of money.
Become a doctor, make a lot of money.
In many ways, money was my father's God.
In many ways, that was.
And so he thought, if I come to America, I'd become a doctor, I'd make a lot of money.
And I'm sure I would have.
I have two cousins who are doctors, and both of them, either one of them, makes four times more than I make as a professor.
Four times.
Sometimes I think to myself, why didn't I listen to my father?
You know, I wouldn't be driving Toyotas, I'd be driving Rose Voices.
I wouldn't be living in Kenosha, I'd be living in Beverly Hills.
So when my father found out that I'm interested in questions about truth and reality and wanted to major in philosophy, he was really, really disappointed in me.
He thought I was wasting my time and wasting my life and wasting my talents, asking questions, what's ultimate reality?
How do we know what we know?
And all these fascinating questions in epistemology.
After I became a Christian and decided that God was calling me to be a professor, he was even more disappointed in me.
His advice to me was, become a doctor, make as much money as you can, and then tithe to the church.
And that's all your relationship with God.
My relationship with God would have been reduced to tithing.
You know, I write God a check and our account is fulfilled.
He couldn't understand that I would desire God in a more deeper way than that.
But God has his own sense of humor.
When my father was 70 years old, he became very sick.
For the first time in his life he had ever been sick.
The nurse that took care of him was a Christian.
And what I had failed for about 20 years to do, she succeeded.
She led him to the Lord at the age of 70.
I remember when he was on his deathbed, he said to me,
Samir, I'm sorry, I never told you I loved you.
And that was true.
I don't remember ever once being told that he loved me.
So, I am not sold into slavery into Egypt, but I think I know a little bit about rejection.
And I think for that reason I esteem my heavenly father a lot more than if I had wonderful uncles and aunts.
And then that maybe God's love wouldn't mean that much to me.
But it means a lot to me.
Because God loves me at a time that I didn't think anybody else in our family did.
So, Jephthah is in a similar but far worse situation.
He has no position of honor.
His mother is a prostitute.
He's in exile from his country.
And he has no future.
But he does have a daughter.
He does have one daughter.
No sons.
Just one daughter.
So, he wants to go to battle.
And he takes a vow.
And the vow is rather stupid.
So, look at chapter 11, verse 29.
Then the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah.
He crossed Gilead and Manasseh.
Passed through Mizpah of Gilead.
And from there he advanced against the Ammonites.
Ammonites would be modern day Jordan.
And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord.
If you give the Ammonites into my hands.
If I have victory.
Whatever comes out of the door of my house.
To meet me.
When I return in triumph.
From the Ammonites.
Will be the Lord's.
And I will sacrifice it.
As a burn offering.
Whoever first comes out.
Do dogs know how to come out.
And greet you when you've had victory.
Do dogs know that.
I wonder.
Whether he was thinking about a human being.
Or whether he was just saying.
You know, whoever comes out, comes out.
But he makes this foolish vow.
Whoever comes out first.
Will be offered as a sacrifice.
He does have the victory.
And his daughter comes out.
So, he has no family.
He has no country.
He has no future.
He does have a daughter.
And guess what he has just finished doing?
Putting himself in a situation to lose his daughter.
The problem here is that this is a vow.
And it is a foolish vow.
Nobody should make these kinds of vows.
But there are vows in the scriptures.
And maybe we should look at a couple of those vows.
Just to figure out whether we as Christians should make vows.
Or whether we should avoid it like a plague.
Take a look at Genesis chapter 28.
This is an interesting passage.
I'll keep you up thinking about it.
Genesis 28.
Look at Genesis 28 verses 20 through 22.
So, chapter 28 verses 20 through 22.
Then Jacob made a vow saying,
If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey.
And I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear.
So that I may return safely to my father's house.
Then the Lord will be my God.
If God does these things for me, he will be my God.
I want you to just to think for a minute.
And I'm not going to give you the answer.
Is he pledging or is he bargaining?
Think about it.
Is he making a deal with God?
Or is he pledging?
It depends on, I suppose, how you choose to interpret it.
A much more nobler vow is in 1 Samuel chapter 9.
That is the vow of Hannah.
So, in 1 Samuel chapter 9.
1 Samuel chapter 9.
1, 9.
Once they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh,
Hannah stood up.
Now Eli the priest was sitting on the chair by the doorpost of the Lord's temple.
In bitterness of soul, Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord.
And she made a vow saying,
O Lord Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant's misery and remember me
and not forget your servant but give her a son,
then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life.
And no razor will ever be used on his head.
It's obvious that Jacob is asking God for things for himself.
Here she is asking for things for herself.
But she's not going to keep the child and benefit and enjoy him, etc.
She's going to give him back to God.
But it is a vow.
We have another stupid vow.
King Saul.
1 Samuel 14.
He is having victory.
They are in a battle.
And in 1 Samuel 14, 24.
1 Samuel 14, 24.
Now the men of Israel were in distress that day
because Saul had bound the people under an oath,
saying,
Cursed be any man who eats food
before evening comes,
before I have avenged myself on my enemies.
So none of the troops tasted food.
So they are fighting hard
and they're not eating
because Saul made a vow
that they wouldn't eat until the victory came.
And so here they were,
tired, exhausted,
fatigued,
fighting hard,
but they can't eat.
His own son had not heard about that.
He wasn't aware that such a vow had been made
and so he finds honey and he eats it.
And his father wants to kill him.
Even though he didn't know about the vow,
but Saul was going to kill Jonathan.
And then of course,
another vow is in Mark chapter 6,
verse 22.
It is the vow of Herod Antipas.
When Salome danced in front before him,
he gave her that foolish vow,
I'll give you anything you want to
up to half of my kingdom.
And she said,
give me the head of John the Baptist.
And he didn't want to,
but he had made a vow
in front of his officers
and didn't want to embarrass himself.
So there are vows,
and some of them good
and some of them awful.
Some result in the better
and some result in the worse.
How are we to think of Japheth's vow?
Let me suggest a couple options.
Turn to Micah chapter 6, verse 6.
Micah 6, 6 is a very important passage.
It really is extremely important.
In many, many Jewish circles,
it is considered the summary
of the ethical statements
of the Old Testament.
Jesus quotes it
and calls two of the commandments
the most important.
You can see that in Matthew 23, 23.
But in Micah chapter 6, verse 8,
Micah knows that he has sinned against God
and he's asking himself,
what does God want me to do?
How do I know
that I have done enough?
Let's say in an outburst of anger
you insulted your wife
and then you want to be reconciled
with her.
What's enough?
Chocolate?
Flowers?
Chocolate and flowers?
Chocolate, flowers, and eating out?
How do you know
that you've done enough?
So Micah is thinking about
something similar
in Micah 6, 6.
With what shall I come before the Lord
and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him
with burnt offerings?
With a calf one year old?
A calf one year old
would be more expensive
than burnt offerings.
Will the Lord be pleased
with thousands of rams?
Ten thousand rivers of oil?
And then he's thinking,
what's the most expensive thing
I've got?
My child.
Shall I offer my firstborn
for my transgression,
the fruit of my body
for the sin of my soul?
He is contemplating,
maybe I should sacrifice
my own child.
Of course,
had he done that,
he would have compounded
the situation with murder
on top of whatever else
he had done.
And then he receives the answer,
he has showed you,
O man,
what is good.
And what does the Lord
require of you?
To act justly,
to love mercy,
and to walk with your God.
So,
maybe,
maybe Jephthah
is the kind of person
who is
so sensitive
that he is willing
to admit
to anything
you accuse him of.
That whether he did it
or not,
he's willing to admit it.
Part of the plot
of Brother Skarmazov.
Or,
maybe,
he is thinking,
my sin
is so big,
little sin,
little punishment,
medium-sized sin,
medium-sized punishment,
big sin,
big punishment,
humongous sin,
humongous punishment,
therefore,
the life of my son.
I don't know.
We're not told
what was going on
in Jephthah's mind.
And I don't know
whether he was bargaining
with God or not.
But in any case,
he makes the vow.
You need to realize,
first of all,
that if he wanted
to keep his vow,
no priest in Israel
would allow him.
human sacrifices
would not have been
permitted in Israel.
Maybe he would have
to take her alone
to his own altar
and kill her there.
But to take her
to a priest
and ask the priest
to offer her
as a sacrifice
would be completely
forbidden.
The second thing
I want you to know
that the worst king
in Israel
is Ahaz.
And Ahaz's sin
is that he embraced
the worship
of Assyrian gods.
And Assyrian gods
is idolatry.
I mean,
it is bad enough
because it's idolatry.
But what is worse
about Assyrian gods
is that you offered
humans.
So the darkest moment
in Israel's history
was Ahaz sacrificing
his own sons,
as 2 Chronicles records,
sacrificing his own sons
to the Assyrian gods.
So I don't think
he would have been able
to sacrifice her
legitimately.
Maybe illegitimately,
yes,
but not legitimately.
And the third thing
is that there is something
very interesting
going on.
She realizes
that he took an oath
and that he had taken
an oath before God
and so she says,
in fact,
give me some time
so I can go
to the mountains.
And he does give her
some time,
but the interesting thing
that that passage says
is that she was
mourning her virginity.
She was sad
because she wasn't
going to have children.
I would have thought
she would have been sad
for the loss of her life.
I would have thought
that she would be mourning
that she is going to die
in a month from now
rather than
to say sad,
I'll never have children
in my life.
I suspect,
although we do not have
any evidence,
the text is very ambiguous,
I suspect
what happened
is that,
like Hannah,
he had to dedicate her
to the service of God
in the tabernacle
and what's so bad
about that
is that you could
never marry
and since he is
the son of a prostitute
and he doesn't have
any sons,
what has happened
to his family line?
That's the end.
But in any case,
what we have here
is a man
who makes
a very foolish vow
who should know better
than to make vows
like that.
But there is
another problem
and the problem
is in
Judges chapter 12,
his other problem.
Look at chapter 12.
Perhaps the first
three verses.
The men of Ephraim
called out
their forces,
crossed over to Zaphon
and said to Jephthah,
why did you go
to fight the Ammonites
without calling us
to go with you?
We're going to burn
down your house
over your head.
What is happening
is that he went to war
without asking them
to come with him?
The dictum of war
is what?
To the victor
belongs the spoils.
Those who fight
in battle
get to take
the spoils of war.
So if you didn't
fight in the battle,
guess what you don't
get to get?
The spoils of war.
So they're asking him,
they're upset with him,
why didn't you
take us with you?
This way we would
get something as well.
You deprived us
of an opportunity
to make some wealth
here.
and he answers
them by saying,
well,
you didn't help me,
et cetera, et cetera.
And then take a look
at the end
of verse 6,
toward the end
of the 6.
42,000 Ephraimites
were killed
at that time.
Because of his
harsh answer,
Israel went
into a civil war.
and in that
civil war,
between him
and his allies
and them,
because of that
civil war,
42,000 people
were killed.
That many
were hurt
because
of the way
he handled
that situation.
the irony
of it
is chapter 8.
So take a look
at chapter 8.
The same
situation,
the same
exact situation,
but with a
different judge.
Now,
the Ephraimites
asked Gideon,
why have you
treated us
like this?
Why didn't you
call us
when you went
to fight Midian?
You know,
you didn't take us
with you to war,
we didn't make
any profit.
So,
just as they
were challenging
Jephthah
later on,
they're challenging
Gideon
right now.
Why didn't
you call us
when we went
to fight Midian?
And they
criticized him
sharply.
But he
answered them,
what have I
accomplished
compared to you?
Aren't the
gleanings
of Ephraim's
grapes
better than
the full
grape harvest
of Abiezar?
I'd have
to explain
that.
God
gave
Ghorab
and Ziv,
the Midianite
leaders,
into your
hands?
What was
I able
to do
compared
to you?
At this,
their resentment
against him
subsided.
to put it
in simple
English,
they said,
why didn't
you take
us to
war?
Don't
you realize
that we
lost
benefits,
et cetera,
et cetera?
And he
says,
what did
I
accomplish?
So,
I defeated
them.
But look
at my
accomplishments.
My
accomplishments
compared to
you
is like
nothing.
You could
accomplish
more
in coma
than I
could
accomplish
in 10
years.
I can't
even begin
to compare
to you.
I can't
even start
to look
at myself
and yours.
You are
that much
better.
You're
that much
skilled.
You're
that much
everything.
And so,
they
relented.
And the
resentment
was gone.
So,
one
answer
resulted
in resentment
but it
was averted.
Another
answer
resulted
in a
civil war
that took
42,000
voices.
Maybe
the point
is Proverbs
15,
verse 1.
Please
take a
look at
Proverbs
15,
verse 1.
A gentle
answer
turns away
wrath
but a
harsh word
stirs up
anger.
Verse 18,
a hot
tempered
man
stirs up
dissension
but a
patient
man
calms
a
quarrel.
Jephthah
never
became a
second
David
or a
first
David
because
of the
ways he
used
words.
In
one
case,
he
takes a
foolish
vow.
in
another
case,
he
stirs
up
wrath
and
anger
and
civil
war.
We
all,
all of
us,
should
listen
seriously
to
Proverbs
15,
1.
A
gentle
answer
turns
away
wrath
but a
harsh
word
stirs
up
anger.
I
am
sure
that
in
this
church
some
will
agree
with
the
elders,
some
will
disagree
with
elders,
et cetera,
et cetera.
It
doesn't
matter
what
you
think.
I
mean,
it
does
matter,
of
course
it
matters,
but
what
I
mean,
it
doesn't
matter
in
relationship
to
this.
We
need
to
be
gentle
and
kind
with
each
other.
We
need
to
use
gentle
words
and
kindness
rather
than
harsh
words.
James
talks
about
the
power
of
the
tongue.
He
compares
it
to
the
rudder
of
a
ship.
The
ship
is
huge
and
it
takes
the
winds
to
move
it,
but
it's
the
rudder
that
directs
its
direction.
You
push
it
this
way,
the
ship
turns
like
this,
you
push
it
that
way,
the
ship
takes
like
that.
It's
a
simple
rudder
that
directs
the
whole
ship.
The
tongue
is
also
compared
to
matches.
They
start
fire and
they
can
burn
down
whole
forests.
Those
of us
who
lived
in
California
or
are
keeping
up
with
the
news
in
California
know
of
the
fires
taking
place
in
California.
Tongues
can
change
direction
of
things.
Tongues
can
burn
whole
forests.
So
I
would
encourage
all
of
us
to
opt
for
a
gentle
answer
rather
than
a
harsh
word.
Let's
try not
to
start
a
fire.
Let's
try
to be
kind
and
gracious.
Not
to
end
up
with
a
civil
war
but
to
deal
in
a
kind
way
that
you
can
move
resentment.
One
last
thing
you
should
look
at
you
should
notice
in
Jephthah's
narrative
is this
with
every
judge
it
says
the
land
had
rest
after
his
victory.
No
rest
is
mentioned
here.
No
rest.
A
civil
war
it's
one
thing
if you
attack
Egyptians
it's
one
thing
if you
attack
the
Greeks
or
the
Phoenicians
or
the
Amorites
but
when
you
attack
your
own
family
and
you
cause
a
civil
war
that's
another
story.
Let's have a word of
prayer.
Thank you
father that you
use people
who are
not
accepted
in society
people
who are
seen as
illegitimate
as
inferior
as
having no
position
or no
right to
anything
thank you
that that's
not how
you deal
with us.
none
of us
was saved
because
we're
good.
None
of us
was saved
because
we're
noble.
None
of us
was saved
because
we deserved
it.
We
were all
saved
because
your
grace
extended
to us
and reached
us.
We
have no
business
boasting
about
anything
we have
accomplished.
We
have
accomplished
nothing.
It
is
your
grace
and
your
Holy
Spirit
that
works
in our
lives.
And so
we are
grateful
for that.
We
thank you
that it
is not
on the
basis
of
merits
but
it
is
on the
basis
of
your
enormous
generosity
and
love.
So
we
are
filled
with
gratitude
for
your
salvation.
I
pray
Father
for
this
congregation
that
even
as
we
learn
to
love
you
and
to
continue
to
grow
in
loving
you
we
would
also
be
able
to
continue
to
grow
and
loving
and
caring
about
each
other
whether
we
agree
or
don't
agree
whether
we
see
things
the
same
way
or
not
whether
we
are
Republicans
or
Democrats
whether
we
are
Europeans
or
Asians
or
Arabs
I
pray
I
pray
rather
than
the
example
of
Jephthah
we
would
follow
the
example
of
Gideon
and
so
we
commit
ourselves
to
you
Lord
Father
in
Jesus
name
Amen
Thank you.