WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.440 We are in a series called the Gospel according to Judges. 00:00:04.440 --> 00:00:07.600 So we're working our way through each of the Judges in the book of Judges. 00:00:07.600 --> 00:00:08.599 It's a cycle. 00:00:08.599 --> 00:00:12.480 And tonight we look at the Judge Jephthah. 00:00:12.480 --> 00:00:19.600 As we move toward the end of the Judges, Jephthah shows up in chapter 10, chapter 11, and chapter 12. 00:00:19.600 --> 00:00:22.000 And we read just from chapter 11. 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:26.199 John Calvin, the great reformer, he never preached on Judges. 00:00:26.199 --> 00:00:27.400 He never preached through Judges. 00:00:27.399 --> 00:00:31.000 And he preached almost the whole Bible, but never through Judges. 00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:34.199 And you know, you read a passage like Jephthah, and it's hardgoing. 00:00:34.199 --> 00:00:38.000 You read about the tragic vow that Jephthah makes at the very end. 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:41.799 And you start to see, well, maybe I could get what John never tried. 00:00:41.799 --> 00:00:49.399 This passage is tricky because of the tragic vow that shows up at the very end of Jephthah's life. 00:00:49.399 --> 00:00:50.399 And it's a passage. 00:00:50.399 --> 00:00:54.200 It's a narrative story that's got a lot of paradox in it. 00:00:54.200 --> 00:00:55.000 So paradox. 00:00:55.000 --> 00:00:55.599 What's a paradox? 00:00:55.600 --> 00:01:02.200 A paradox is a seeming contradiction, two things that seem to bump together in friction and tension, 00:01:02.200 --> 00:01:04.500 but actually have a way of working themselves out. 00:01:04.500 --> 00:01:06.700 And this passage is full of that. 00:01:06.700 --> 00:01:08.200 And so let's think about it. 00:01:08.200 --> 00:01:10.799 Four brief things tonight. 00:01:10.799 --> 00:01:19.799 Let's look at what the book, the author teaches us about the end, what happens in idolatry, about God's paradox, 00:01:19.799 --> 00:01:24.599 the paradox of the outlaw king, and then finally the real sacrifice 00:01:24.599 --> 00:01:26.599 that set the heart of this passage. 00:01:26.599 --> 00:01:33.299 So first, very briefly, two minutes to think about the end of idolatry, what happens in idolatry. 00:01:33.299 --> 00:01:37.599 And the reason I want to be so brief is because this is really just to say that this story, 00:01:37.599 --> 00:01:43.500 like every other story we've looked at, communicates the whole message of the book of Judges. 00:01:43.500 --> 00:01:49.599 Judges in the cycle, the 12-fold cycle, says to us the same things over and over again. 00:01:49.599 --> 00:01:51.299 And so we can say this very quickly. 00:01:51.299 --> 00:01:55.899 But if you have a Bible, you just back up a chapter from what we read to chapter 10. 00:01:55.899 --> 00:02:02.299 And in verse 6 and chapter 10, we learn that the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, 00:02:02.299 --> 00:02:05.099 and they served the bells and the asheroth again. 00:02:05.099 --> 00:02:10.099 So idols, gods that are not the real God, they're bowing down before false gods, 00:02:10.099 --> 00:02:14.099 and it lists five different types of gods there that they worshiped. 00:02:14.099 --> 00:02:15.800 So this is new in the book of Judges. 00:02:15.800 --> 00:02:19.699 We haven't seen a list like this of so many different gods. 00:02:19.699 --> 00:02:27.500 And then we learn that at every stage, the God that they served, the people, who's that God it was. 00:02:27.500 --> 00:02:31.099 So for instance, the God of Philistia is the God Dagon. 00:02:31.099 --> 00:02:36.899 And when they bowed down in the south to the God Dagon, they became oppressed by the Philistines. 00:02:36.899 --> 00:02:39.599 In the north, they served the God Kamosh. 00:02:39.599 --> 00:02:42.699 And the God is Kamosh is the God of Moab and Ammon. 00:02:42.699 --> 00:02:48.399 And so when they did that, they became slaves oppressed by the Ammonites and the Moabites. 00:02:48.400 --> 00:02:54.099 And this is just communicating the very plain and simple message across the whole book of Judges. 00:02:54.099 --> 00:03:00.599 And that's that idolatry, our idolatry, any human idolatry always leads to enslavement. 00:03:00.599 --> 00:03:05.500 That the gods in our lives that we serve will oppress us. 00:03:05.500 --> 00:03:07.500 They will enslave us. 00:03:07.500 --> 00:03:11.500 It's a consistent thing throughout the book of Judges and throughout the whole Bible. 00:03:11.500 --> 00:03:17.700 And so it says that God sold them, He gave them over to the hands of their oppressors because of the gods they worshiped. 00:03:17.699 --> 00:03:23.500 And so just to move on from this point, because we've made it every single week to make it real life for us, 00:03:23.500 --> 00:03:29.599 whatever we love, whatever we love more than God, whatever idols that we are chasing in our life 00:03:29.599 --> 00:03:35.199 and putting our trust in will become our oppressors, will master us. 00:03:35.199 --> 00:03:41.299 And so if you worship money in your life, money will possess you. 00:03:41.299 --> 00:03:42.500 It will take over your heart. 00:03:42.500 --> 00:03:43.500 It will take over your life. 00:03:43.500 --> 00:03:44.699 It will take over your soul. 00:03:44.699 --> 00:03:47.899 It will demand from you all your emotions. 00:03:47.899 --> 00:03:48.699 It will oppress you. 00:03:48.699 --> 00:03:49.699 Our idols oppress us. 00:03:49.699 --> 00:03:53.399 Whatever you treasure will become your ultimate master. 00:03:53.399 --> 00:03:55.399 And we all have an ultimate master. 00:03:55.399 --> 00:03:58.000 And that's the message of the book of Judges in short. 00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:01.199 Secondly, when it comes to this story, it's all about paradox. 00:04:01.199 --> 00:04:04.799 And so first week or second, we learn about God's paradox here. 00:04:04.799 --> 00:04:08.799 So again, in chapter 10, this is background to Jephthah, but it's really important. 00:04:08.799 --> 00:04:14.299 The paradox that shows up in chapter 10, and I'll show it to you because we didn't read it. 00:04:14.300 --> 00:04:20.300 The people are under the oppression of the Ammonites, and they cry out for help to God 00:04:20.300 --> 00:04:23.300 after years and years of being enslaved to Ammon. 00:04:23.300 --> 00:04:29.600 And God gives two replies, and these two replies seem to be contradictory. 00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:31.699 They seem to bump up against one another. 00:04:31.699 --> 00:04:38.199 And you can see them after 18 years of slavery in verses 11 to 14 of chapter 10. 00:04:38.199 --> 00:04:41.000 The Lord said to the people of Israel, when they cried out, 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:45.600 did I not save you from the Egyptians and the Amorites and the Ammonites, the Sidonians? 00:04:45.600 --> 00:04:48.199 And if you come down all the way to verse 14, he says, 00:04:48.199 --> 00:04:53.399 go and cry to the gods whom you've chosen to worship, let them save you. 00:04:53.399 --> 00:04:57.000 So the first thing God does is when they say, Lord, please save us. 00:04:57.000 --> 00:05:01.399 He says, why don't you go and ask the gods that you're worshiping to save you? 00:05:01.399 --> 00:05:03.100 And he says, I'm not going to. 00:05:03.100 --> 00:05:04.500 I'm not going to save you. 00:05:04.500 --> 00:05:06.300 Why? 00:05:06.300 --> 00:05:07.600 Why does he do that? 00:05:07.600 --> 00:05:12.400 And when they've cried out in the previous cycles of judges, he has come to rescue them. 00:05:12.400 --> 00:05:18.800 And now they cry out and he says, go ask the gods that you're bowing down before right now to save you. 00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:20.100 And there's a couple of answers. 00:05:20.100 --> 00:05:25.700 But one of the first things to say about this is that they are worshiping the God of Ammon, 00:05:25.700 --> 00:05:27.700 which is why they're oppressed by the Ammonites. 00:05:27.700 --> 00:05:33.700 And the God of Ammon we learn in the Old Testament in multiple places is the God called Kamosh, 00:05:33.700 --> 00:05:36.300 also known by another name, Molech. 00:05:36.300 --> 00:05:38.500 When the Moabites worship him, he's called Molech. 00:05:38.500 --> 00:05:41.000 When the Ammonites worship him, he's called Kamosh. 00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:48.400 And we learn in the Book of Kings that Kamosh and Molech were gods that were worshiped by way of human sacrifice. 00:05:48.400 --> 00:05:52.199 And so in the Book of Kings, worshipping Molech or Kamosh, 00:05:52.199 --> 00:05:56.400 the Book of Kings refers to as the abomination of Moab over and over again. 00:05:56.400 --> 00:06:01.000 This very horrific act of ritual worship. 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:07.100 And so it's very possible that the Israelites have been engaged in something like this. 00:06:07.100 --> 00:06:13.000 And God is saying, you're crying out to me while you're bowing before Kamosh. 00:06:13.000 --> 00:06:16.100 And we learn here that God is holy. 00:06:16.100 --> 00:06:23.800 And our God, the true, the absolute God, the God who created all that is good is a God that demands justice. 00:06:23.800 --> 00:06:29.899 And you remember when Moses went up to the top of the mountain on Sinai and encountered the burning bush, 00:06:29.899 --> 00:06:32.599 God said, Moses, Moses, come to me. 00:06:32.599 --> 00:06:36.399 And as soon as Moses took that step forward, he said, stop right there. 00:06:36.399 --> 00:06:37.599 Take your shoes off. 00:06:37.599 --> 00:06:40.799 This place is holy and you're not worthy. 00:06:40.799 --> 00:06:46.599 And we learn that every single human being tries to approach God and we do so in a way where we do not meet the demands of justice. 00:06:46.599 --> 00:06:48.399 We are not who God made us to be. 00:06:48.399 --> 00:06:53.899 And boy, God is saying, you cry out to me while you're worshiping Molech. Kamosh. 00:06:53.899 --> 00:06:58.500 And so he says, go cry out and see if those gods will save you, will help you. 00:06:58.500 --> 00:07:05.000 Now, this is where the paradox comes in because the second thing God says is in verse 16, he says, 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:08.100 the people said to the Lord, we've sinned. 00:07:08.100 --> 00:07:09.500 This time they say, we have sinned. 00:07:09.500 --> 00:07:11.500 Sorry, this is in verse 15. 00:07:11.500 --> 00:07:15.899 And due to us, whatever the Lord, whatever seems good to you. 00:07:15.899 --> 00:07:20.899 Now, the first time it says they cried out for help and he said, go cry out to the gods you're worshiping. 00:07:20.899 --> 00:07:26.399 The second time they said, we have sinned, Lord, you do to us whatever you think is right. 00:07:26.399 --> 00:07:29.299 And God says, now I'll save you. 00:07:29.299 --> 00:07:32.500 And you see, at first you say, why is God, has he changed his mind? 00:07:32.500 --> 00:07:34.799 Is this emotions on God's part? 00:07:34.799 --> 00:07:40.000 And not only also one of the commentators, Michael Wilcock, this is what he says. 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:47.500 He says, the first cry of Israel is one of recognition, recognition that they were being oppressed, 00:07:47.500 --> 00:07:52.000 that they were suffering, but recognition is not the same as repentance. 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:56.000 As we see from the Lord's reply, go and cry to the gods whom you have chosen. 00:07:56.000 --> 00:08:00.000 It's as though God was saying to them, I know what your cry is about. 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:05.300 It's merely a cry for help, which might just as well be addressed to any God. 00:08:05.300 --> 00:08:08.300 You just want out of this situation. 00:08:08.300 --> 00:08:10.699 But in the second time, it's very different. 00:08:10.699 --> 00:08:15.399 You see, he's saying, first, God will not be used as a puppet. 00:08:15.399 --> 00:08:16.600 That's what he's saying. 00:08:16.600 --> 00:08:19.100 God is not a get out of circumstances free. 00:08:19.100 --> 00:08:20.300 God, he's absolute. 00:08:20.300 --> 00:08:24.100 He's just, he can't just be cried for to pull you out of a bad circumstance. 00:08:24.100 --> 00:08:31.500 And instead, in verse 16, Michael Wilcock says, God could tolerate their misery no longer. 00:08:31.500 --> 00:08:32.300 Why? 00:08:32.300 --> 00:08:36.300 Because they cried out and said, we are sinners, Lord, due to us. 00:08:36.300 --> 00:08:37.500 What is right? 00:08:37.500 --> 00:08:39.300 They cried out for justice. 00:08:39.300 --> 00:08:40.399 They cried out in repentance. 00:08:40.399 --> 00:08:47.300 And so he says this, well, God's holiness and his demand for obedience to his command, his demand for 00:08:47.300 --> 00:08:53.300 obedience to his commands override his promises to Israel, or will his gracious promises mean 00:08:53.299 --> 00:08:55.599 that he will somehow overlook their sin? 00:08:55.599 --> 00:08:56.099 Now here it is. 00:08:56.099 --> 00:08:59.299 Here's the heart, the tension, the paradox of the passage. 00:08:59.299 --> 00:09:06.500 As much as theologians may want to establish the priority of God's law over God's love, 00:09:06.500 --> 00:09:13.500 or God's love over God's law, the book of judges will not settle this question. 00:09:13.500 --> 00:09:20.099 Is God going to demand justice of Israel, his law, the God of justice, or is he going to show mercy to them? 00:09:20.100 --> 00:09:24.100 And what Michael Wilcock says is when you read across the book of judges, you realize judges 00:09:24.100 --> 00:09:27.200 recognize this tension but never solves it. 00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:30.200 Is God a God of justice or a God of mercy? 00:09:30.200 --> 00:09:33.899 And the answer that you get is yes, but how? 00:09:33.899 --> 00:09:34.899 Yes, but how? 00:09:34.899 --> 00:09:37.800 And the answer is you have to wait. 00:09:37.800 --> 00:09:41.399 The book of judges never fully tells you. 00:09:41.399 --> 00:09:44.500 Now third, that means we have to look at for the judge. 00:09:44.500 --> 00:09:51.100 And then we enter chapter 11 and we read about Jephthah, the outlaw king. 00:09:51.100 --> 00:09:52.399 Who will save Israel? 00:09:52.399 --> 00:09:54.600 This guy, Jephthah, will save Israel. 00:09:54.600 --> 00:09:58.799 And he is a paradox in himself. 00:09:58.799 --> 00:10:03.399 One of the reasons for that is that throughout the book of judges so far, when God raised up a deliverer, 00:10:03.399 --> 00:10:10.100 a mighty savior, a deemer, which is what the word judge really means, it says that the spirit moved 00:10:10.100 --> 00:10:11.100 to raise up a deliverer. 00:10:11.100 --> 00:10:15.800 The Holy Spirit came down and raised up a judge to save Israel, but that is not at all what happens 00:10:15.800 --> 00:10:18.200 when you come to the Jephthah story. 00:10:18.200 --> 00:10:21.700 This is the one time we don't see that happening at the beginning of the passage. 00:10:21.700 --> 00:10:25.600 There's no mention of the spirit coming to help at the beginning. 00:10:25.600 --> 00:10:31.600 And so on the one hand, Jephthah here is, we're told a mighty warrior, we'll look at his resume in just a moment, 00:10:31.600 --> 00:10:34.100 it says, but he was the son of a prostitute. 00:10:34.100 --> 00:10:36.200 And we learn later that he was an outlaw. 00:10:36.200 --> 00:10:41.300 He was some type of leader of an organized crime unit in the mountains. 00:10:41.300 --> 00:10:42.800 That was who he was. 00:10:42.800 --> 00:10:47.100 And the men of Gilead call him to be their leader, to be their judge. 00:10:47.100 --> 00:10:52.200 And in most ways, when you look at Jephthah's resume and you say, this guy was not a good man, 00:10:52.200 --> 00:10:57.600 not a good person, he was living a wildlife, a life of organized crime. 00:10:57.600 --> 00:11:01.400 And then you turn to Hebrews 11 in the New Testament. 00:11:01.399 --> 00:11:07.199 And it says, by faith, Jephthah saved Israel and conquered kingdoms. 00:11:07.199 --> 00:11:10.000 And so on the one hand, you read about Jephthah and you say, this is an outlaw. 00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:13.199 This is a man that's leading an organized crime unit. 00:11:13.199 --> 00:11:19.399 On the other hand, the New Testament says, and by faith, his faith, God used him to conquer kingdoms. 00:11:19.399 --> 00:11:20.699 What's going on? 00:11:20.699 --> 00:11:24.100 And the tension, the paradox here in the book of Judges. 00:11:24.100 --> 00:11:27.500 And one of the ways to get at that is to look for a second at his CV. 00:11:27.500 --> 00:11:28.899 We all have a CV. 00:11:28.899 --> 00:11:30.500 We all have a resume. 00:11:30.500 --> 00:11:36.399 We all have marketable skills that we like to put on paper and just look for a second at Jephthah's. 00:11:36.399 --> 00:11:39.799 He's sort of an Achilles figure in this passage. 00:11:39.799 --> 00:11:45.299 It says, very first verse, Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior. 00:11:45.299 --> 00:11:50.600 This guy did not lose a fight, but he was the son of a prostitute. 00:11:50.600 --> 00:11:57.000 And the reason that it's mentioning that is because Deuteronomy 23.2 says that the son of a prostitute 00:11:57.000 --> 00:12:04.200 or the child of forbidden marriage cannot be a citizen of the people of Israel. 00:12:04.200 --> 00:12:10.000 That person cannot even enter the holy assembly, the temple, God's temple, Deuteronomy 23.2 says. 00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:14.700 And the Gileadite men want to make him king of Israel. 00:12:14.700 --> 00:12:18.399 So he's not even allowed to be a citizen and they say, we want you to be our king. 00:12:18.399 --> 00:12:18.799 Right. 00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:21.700 And then here there's something a little tricky in verse two. 00:12:21.700 --> 00:12:26.600 It says in verse one, I should say, it says Gilead was the father of Jephthah. 00:12:26.600 --> 00:12:28.399 And Gilead's wife bore many sons. 00:12:28.399 --> 00:12:32.100 And so what's happened here is Jephthah is a son of Gilead. 00:12:32.100 --> 00:12:36.200 But Gilead, while it sounds like a specific person here, it's not. 00:12:36.200 --> 00:12:38.500 It's talking about Gilead the tribe. 00:12:38.500 --> 00:12:43.000 So Gilead is a tribe, one of the half tribes of Israel. 00:12:43.000 --> 00:12:45.500 And he's a son of Gilead. 00:12:45.500 --> 00:12:48.200 And he's part of the brothers of Gilead. 00:12:48.200 --> 00:12:50.700 And his dad, his father is Gilead. 00:12:50.700 --> 00:12:53.600 And what that means is nobody knows who his dad is. 00:12:53.600 --> 00:12:54.800 That's what it's saying. 00:12:54.799 --> 00:12:59.399 So it's very likely the case that he was born in a brothel, something like that. 00:12:59.399 --> 00:13:04.799 One of the ways to translate the word worthless, he was worthless or part of worthless fellows, 00:13:04.799 --> 00:13:06.899 is impoverished as well. 00:13:06.899 --> 00:13:08.699 So he's poor. 00:13:08.699 --> 00:13:09.599 He's very strong. 00:13:09.599 --> 00:13:11.899 He's very powerful, but he's poor. 00:13:11.899 --> 00:13:15.299 And he's the child of a dad that nobody knows. 00:13:15.299 --> 00:13:17.099 Nobody knows who his parents are. 00:13:17.099 --> 00:13:18.699 And so he's probably living on the streets. 00:13:18.699 --> 00:13:24.500 He's probably somebody that he is clearly somebody that the men of Gilead hated. 00:13:24.500 --> 00:13:27.000 And so what they do is the men of Gilead gather up and they say, 00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:29.200 we've got to get this guy out of our territory. 00:13:29.200 --> 00:13:30.899 He's dangerous. 00:13:30.899 --> 00:13:32.500 He's riffraff. 00:13:32.500 --> 00:13:36.600 And so they send him away and he lives in the land of Tove. 00:13:36.600 --> 00:13:40.799 And when they send him to the land of Tove, it says he becomes the commander of an outlaw, 00:13:40.799 --> 00:13:46.299 a company of worthless fellows, as the old translation puts it. 00:13:46.299 --> 00:13:51.899 It's talking about some type of organized crime living in the mountains, something like that. 00:13:51.899 --> 00:13:59.000 Now, let's take just two minutes for a quick story. 00:13:59.000 --> 00:14:03.100 When you go to seminary, they teach you don't tell unrelated stories in a sermon 00:14:03.100 --> 00:14:06.000 that don't help you further the point of your sermon. 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:07.000 And this is sort of that. 00:14:07.000 --> 00:14:10.000 So not a good way to start the story, but it's just worth it. 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:12.199 Okay, it's worth it. 00:14:12.199 --> 00:14:17.199 Because in the end of the first century, the apostle John, 00:14:17.199 --> 00:14:20.199 we have writings from the second century about this story. 00:14:20.200 --> 00:14:24.200 The apostle John, by tradition, he settled in Ephesus. 00:14:24.200 --> 00:14:26.200 This is the one who wrote the Gospel of John, 00:14:26.200 --> 00:14:29.600 wrote the book of Revelation, and he was preaching in Smyrna, 00:14:29.600 --> 00:14:32.200 probably in the 80s or early 90s. 00:14:32.200 --> 00:14:36.800 And he noticed a boy in the congregation he was preaching in. 00:14:36.800 --> 00:14:40.700 And he turned to the minister there and he said, 00:14:40.700 --> 00:14:41.700 I'm leaving. 00:14:41.700 --> 00:14:42.700 John was traveling. 00:14:42.700 --> 00:14:47.100 He says, I'm entrusting you with this youth in the presence of the entire church. 00:14:47.100 --> 00:14:50.399 And I call you to witness before Jesus Christ. 00:14:50.399 --> 00:14:53.800 So John had led this young man to faith in Christ. 00:14:53.800 --> 00:14:55.000 He had discipled him. 00:14:55.000 --> 00:15:00.600 And as he's leaving Smyrna, he says, I give this young man's life to you, the pastor. 00:15:00.600 --> 00:15:02.740 And John leaves for many years. 00:15:02.740 --> 00:15:07.159 And he comes back some years later after the young man was baptized. 00:15:07.159 --> 00:15:09.240 He was raised in that local church. 00:15:09.240 --> 00:15:13.500 But in the meantime, the young man had left the faith, left the church, 00:15:13.500 --> 00:15:19.000 and gone out to live in the mountains in an organized crime unit amongst outlaws. 00:15:19.000 --> 00:15:22.799 And John comes back, we're told, in some of the writings we have from the early church, 00:15:22.799 --> 00:15:26.000 years later, and he meets with the pastor and he says, 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:27.600 where's the boy? 00:15:27.600 --> 00:15:32.000 Where's the young man that I had discipled and ministered to? 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:36.899 And the man tells us, we're told in the text that we have this from the second century, 00:15:36.899 --> 00:15:39.600 that the pastor said he's dead. 00:15:39.600 --> 00:15:41.399 And he said, you know, explain to me more. 00:15:41.399 --> 00:15:42.100 How did he die? 00:15:42.100 --> 00:15:43.600 All these sorts of things. 00:15:43.600 --> 00:15:48.000 And the guy tells him, well, no, he's not physically dead, but he's left the faith. 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:49.800 And he's living in the caves. 00:15:49.800 --> 00:15:51.500 He's very dangerous. 00:15:51.500 --> 00:15:57.700 And John says, return to me the pledge with which Jesus Christ and I entrusted you 00:15:57.700 --> 00:16:00.200 to care for the soul of this man. 00:16:00.200 --> 00:16:04.100 He, and then he says, what kind of father are you to him? 00:16:04.100 --> 00:16:06.300 Go and get me my horse. 00:16:06.300 --> 00:16:10.000 So John got on his horse and he went out into the mountains. 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:14.100 He was captured by the outlaws and he said to the outlaws, take me to your leader. 00:16:14.100 --> 00:16:19.799 And they beat him and they knelt him before and he looked up and the leader, 00:16:19.799 --> 00:16:24.500 the outlaw king of this little gang was the young man that he had brought to faith. 00:16:24.500 --> 00:16:31.299 And we're told in the second century writings that this young man dropped his sword and ran. 00:16:31.299 --> 00:16:34.299 And John called out for him and said, why are you running? 00:16:34.299 --> 00:16:37.000 I'm an unarmed old man. 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:40.299 I would die for your soul just as Christ died for me. 00:16:40.299 --> 00:16:46.000 I've been sent by Christ to claim you and the young man stopped and he wept and he asked Christ 00:16:46.000 --> 00:16:49.500 and he asked John his teacher to forgive him. 00:16:49.500 --> 00:16:53.399 Now, the Jephthah story is the exact opposite. 00:16:53.399 --> 00:16:54.799 So it does relate. 00:16:54.799 --> 00:16:57.500 It's the exact opposite. 00:16:57.500 --> 00:17:02.500 John, the apostle John went to go capture the soul of an outlaw king and bring him back to faith. 00:17:02.500 --> 00:17:06.099 The Gileadite men created an outlaw king. 00:17:06.099 --> 00:17:09.599 They looked at a poor impoverished man who was born in a brothel and said, 00:17:09.599 --> 00:17:10.599 we don't want you around here. 00:17:10.599 --> 00:17:13.099 We don't want this riffraff and they kicked him out of the land. 00:17:13.099 --> 00:17:18.599 And he became even more a mighty man, a man of crime, but a man of deep and great strength. 00:17:18.599 --> 00:17:22.899 And so when they wanted free from the Ammonites, they said, we know where we can turn. 00:17:22.899 --> 00:17:29.399 The Gileadite men who had once hated him said, we will go bring him back because we know he does not lose a fight. 00:17:29.399 --> 00:17:35.699 And so they go and they get Jephthah and they say, if you can defeat the Ammonites, we will make you king. 00:17:35.700 --> 00:17:41.700 Even though we hate you, even though you're not meant to be a citizen in every way, we will make you our king. 00:17:41.700 --> 00:17:43.500 And so that's exactly what happens. 00:17:43.500 --> 00:17:49.200 And we skipped over the text where Jephthah writes a letter to the Ammonites and says, 00:17:49.200 --> 00:17:51.799 leave the land or I'm going to come and fight you. 00:17:51.799 --> 00:17:59.799 And we pick back up in verse 29 and we learn exactly that Jephthah did by the power of the spirit defeat the Ammonites. 00:17:59.799 --> 00:18:00.799 And God used him. 00:18:00.799 --> 00:18:05.799 And Hebrews 11 says by faith he saved Israel, he conquered kingdoms. 00:18:05.799 --> 00:18:08.899 What is the story of Jephthah about? 00:18:08.899 --> 00:18:12.599 What is the paradox of the Jephthah narrative? 00:18:12.599 --> 00:18:15.299 He's got no right to be king. 00:18:15.299 --> 00:18:16.500 He's an outlaw. 00:18:16.500 --> 00:18:18.599 He's villainous. 00:18:18.599 --> 00:18:21.299 He's not called initially by God, not at all. 00:18:21.299 --> 00:18:25.799 He's called by evil men, evil men who even hated him. 00:18:25.799 --> 00:18:28.299 And then there's Hebrews one. 00:18:28.299 --> 00:18:32.799 He was full of the spirit and he judged, he redeemed, he saved Israel. 00:18:32.799 --> 00:18:39.799 And the meaning, I think of the Jephthah story as this, when the Holy Spirit comes down into a person's life and gets a hold of them, 00:18:39.799 --> 00:18:47.599 he can use very, very bent sticks and very, very, very broken reeds to do great things. 00:18:47.599 --> 00:18:54.799 He can take people who have very difficult pasts, very difficult and use them mightily, powerfully. 00:18:54.799 --> 00:18:57.299 Right? And so that might be true for some of you tonight. 00:18:57.299 --> 00:18:59.500 You're full of regret, maybe. 00:18:59.500 --> 00:19:01.599 You've got a tough past. 00:19:01.599 --> 00:19:05.399 And maybe right now you're walking through a season of deep sin and you say, 00:19:05.399 --> 00:19:07.000 could God really love me? 00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:08.299 Could God really use me? 00:19:08.299 --> 00:19:14.200 And the Jephthah story is here to say God takes bent reeds, bent sticks, broken reeds, 00:19:14.200 --> 00:19:17.200 and he sends the Holy Spirit into their life and he uses them. 00:19:17.200 --> 00:19:18.000 He uses them mightily. 00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:20.899 You know, just think about Jephthah. 00:19:20.899 --> 00:19:22.599 He was a poor man. 00:19:22.599 --> 00:19:27.000 He was despised and rejected by men. 00:19:27.000 --> 00:19:32.599 He was born among his own, but his own people did not know him, not really. 00:19:32.599 --> 00:19:33.599 They despised him. 00:19:33.599 --> 00:19:34.799 They rejected them. 00:19:34.799 --> 00:19:39.000 He was rejected by the every man Gileadite, every single one of his brothers. 00:19:39.000 --> 00:19:40.500 They hated him. 00:19:40.500 --> 00:19:42.000 They wanted him to die. 00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:45.599 And he saved Gilead through his marginality. 00:19:45.599 --> 00:19:50.000 It was the very fact of his marginality by which he was able to save. 00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:56.000 And they rejected him, so the Holy Spirit came and used him to save them through that rejection. 00:19:56.000 --> 00:20:01.000 And that means that every single judge in the book of Judges is a broken stick and a bent reed 00:20:01.000 --> 00:20:08.000 and every single one of them points to Jesus Christ, who is despised and rejected by men. 00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:12.500 And yet God used him powerfully to save the Spirit. 00:20:12.500 --> 00:20:18.400 The Holy Spirit can take in any one of our lives a troubled past, patterns of sin, 00:20:18.400 --> 00:20:25.000 and turn it around by the Holy Spirit and God's grace and use it powerfully in other people's lives. 00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:31.000 And many people have talked about this before, but there's a place in Romans 12 where God tells us, 00:20:31.000 --> 00:20:38.000 Paul tells us that when the Holy Spirit comes into your life, he will break a hard heart, 00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:44.000 an outlaw's heart, and turn a person who once hated God and people, 00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:48.000 and they will become a person who weeps with the weeping. 00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:49.000 He does that. 00:20:49.000 --> 00:20:55.000 And there's nobody better to minister to the imprisoned than a person who's been through that. 00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:59.000 There's nobody better to minister to an orphan than a person who's experienced that. 00:20:59.000 --> 00:21:05.000 There's nobody better to weep with the weeping than a person who has known deep, great sorrows and troubles. 00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.000 God uses bent reeds in really powerful ways. 00:21:09.000 --> 00:21:13.000 Lastly, that leads us to the real sacrifice. 00:21:13.000 --> 00:21:16.000 What do we do finally with this paradox? 00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:23.000 Hebrews 11 and this outlaw king and this vow, the vow that he makes. 00:21:23.000 --> 00:21:26.000 So, Jeb the at the very end of the passage says, 00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:33.000 Lord, if you will use me to save Israel from Gilead from Ammon, 00:21:33.000 --> 00:21:40.000 when I come home, I will sacrifice the very first thing that walks out of the door of my home. 00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:46.000 And so, the Lord does give Jeb the victory over Ammon, and he comes home, 00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:49.000 and it's his daughter that comes out of the door. 00:21:49.000 --> 00:21:54.000 And so, we have here what's been referred to historically as the tragic vow of Jeb the. 00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:58.000 And commentators are split on how to talk about it, how to interpret it. 00:21:58.000 --> 00:22:00.000 And it's in verse 30. 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:06.000 It seems like he's vowing to commit a human sacrifice to the Lord here. 00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:11.000 And a number of people say different things. Darrell Bock, who's a really hopeful commentator, 00:22:11.000 --> 00:22:17.000 but he says God is essentially out of the picture here entirely at the end of Jeb the story. 00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:23.000 One of my favorite preachers says, Jeb the's problem is that he doesn't know scripture. 00:22:23.000 --> 00:22:26.000 And so, he's willing to give God anything. 00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:31.000 But is that what's going on? Is that really the case here? 00:22:31.000 --> 00:22:37.000 The section that we did not read in chapter 11, verses 12 down to 28, 00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:45.000 is Jeb the writing a letter to the king of Ammon recounting the deeds, the history of the book of Numbers. 00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.000 And so, one of the first things we have to say is Jeb the knows the law, 00:22:49.000 --> 00:22:55.000 because he quotes the law multiple times in this little letter that he writes to the king of Ammon. 00:22:55.000 --> 00:23:02.000 So, it can't be that he doesn't know what God thinks about something like a human sacrifice. 00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:09.000 The second thing I think to mention is in verse 29, we read that Jeb the was anointed by the Holy Spirit. 00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:15.000 The Holy Spirit came upon Jeb the, and then in verse 30, he made a vow to the Lord. 00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:20.000 And one of the difficulties I think of saying, this is just a rash vow, 00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:25.000 is the fact that in verse 29, it says the Spirit fell upon Jeb the, and in verse 30, it says, 00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:27.000 and he vowed to the Lord. 00:23:27.000 --> 00:23:32.000 And so, what's the relationship between the Holy Spirit and verse 29 and the vow in verse 30? 00:23:32.000 --> 00:23:36.000 That's the second thing to think about. Perhaps the vow is not so tragic, 00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:40.000 but is being led or opened up to a bigger purpose. 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:45.000 The third thing, just a few little details I want to point out and we'll close, 00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:48.000 is that the vow itself in verse 30 is ambiguous. 00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:52.000 And so, this is another boring detail like this morning, but it's actually important. 00:23:52.000 --> 00:24:00.000 In verse 30, the vow that he makes about offering the first thing that comes out of his door as a sacrifice, 00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:03.000 is it about an animal? 00:24:03.000 --> 00:24:05.000 So, somebody said, well, he was hoping a lamb. 00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:08.000 He was hoping something like an animal would come out. 00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:12.000 But the Hebrews strongly suggests or implies that it could say, 00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:18.000 whoever comes out of my door, not whatever, not a thing, but a who. 00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:21.000 That's possible, at least, to say. 00:24:21.000 --> 00:24:24.000 But Robert Alter, even more importantly, he's probably the most important, 00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:27.000 the best Hebrew translator in all the world right now. 00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:34.000 He says, it's very unlikely that any suggestion of an actual human sacrifice is being made in this passage. 00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:40.000 And the reason for that is because when the ESV translates it, like many other passages, 00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:47.000 a burnt offering, the very little Hebrew is just, I will sacrifice the sacrifice that comes out of my door. 00:24:47.000 --> 00:24:50.000 And sometimes we translate that burnt offering, sometimes not. 00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:52.000 It's ambiguous. It doesn't have to be a burnt offering. 00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:55.000 It's just a gift. I will sacrifice the sacrifice. 00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:58.000 It's a common word sometimes for burnt offering. 00:24:58.000 --> 00:25:04.000 The fourth thing is, as soon as he makes the rash vow after that, the Lord gives him victory. 00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:11.000 So he makes this vow about a sacrifice, potentially of his own daughter, but then the Lord gives him the victory. 00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:18.000 And that's not typically the logic in the book of Judges, that in the midst of idolatry, the Lord does not give victory to the judge. 00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:20.000 So that's interesting. 00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:27.000 And then fifth, we learn here that he is willing, when he comes back and he says, I will keep this vow. 00:25:27.000 --> 00:25:31.000 And his daughter says, Dad, you should keep the vow. 00:25:31.000 --> 00:25:33.000 She tells him that. 00:25:33.000 --> 00:25:42.000 And we learn that both he and her are willing to lose what is most precious to them for the sake of the vow, for the sake of the promise. 00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:47.000 For him, we're told three times, this is his only child. 00:25:47.000 --> 00:25:51.000 And his only child says, yes, you should keep the vow you've made. 00:25:51.000 --> 00:25:56.000 And then lastly, in verse 36 and 38, what is it that she is weeping over? 00:25:56.000 --> 00:26:00.000 She says, Father, before this happens, give me two months to go and weep. 00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:07.000 And what does she say? She doesn't say weep for my life, which if you're going to die, that's probably what you're going to cry over. 00:26:07.000 --> 00:26:10.000 She says, I weep for my virginity. 00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:18.000 And then the very last verse the passage tells us, the last couple, is that she never knew a man or never got married in Hebrew. 00:26:18.000 --> 00:26:23.000 And so the whole tenor of the text is about her not ever being able to get married. 00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:26.000 She weeps over her virginity for two months. 00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:27.000 What's going on here? 00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:32.000 And the commentators are split about it, and this is what I'm offering you is definitely a minority reading. 00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:39.000 But I think actually the details lead us to see something different than a sacrifice in the traditional way of reading this. 00:26:39.000 --> 00:26:52.000 And actually what's happening possibly is that in Exodus 38 and 1 Samuel 2, we learn about a group of women who were dedicated to the service of the tabernacle and temple. 00:26:52.000 --> 00:26:59.000 And he would go as young women and serve minister at the temple alongside the priest. 00:26:59.000 --> 00:27:03.000 And they would stand at the threshold of the door, the place that people would come in. 00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:07.000 And Jeb that makes the vow, the next thing that comes out of the threshold of my door. 00:27:07.000 --> 00:27:15.000 And I think that he's saying that he's going to give her to the Lord for all of her days to serve at the temple to remain unmarried. 00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:18.000 Which is why she goes out and weeps for her virginity. 00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:20.000 She cries, I'll never marry. 00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:24.000 He's giving her away to the temple to the service of the Lord all of her days. 00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:34.000 And instead of being a sacrifice in the sense that it's often taken, she is a sacrifice, but she's a sacrifice that remains alive and is ultimately a symbol. 00:27:34.000 --> 00:27:37.000 A symbol of what? And here's the last thing. 00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:42.000 He makes a vow about that which will come through his threshold. 00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:49.000 And the thing that comes through his doorway, his threshold, is his firstborn, his only child. 00:27:49.000 --> 00:27:58.000 And you might remember in the Passover story, the story of the Exodus, that the angel of death came down upon the land. 00:27:58.000 --> 00:28:07.000 The people of Israel and Egypt, it didn't matter what ethnicity you were, the angel of death was coming and the angel of death was coming for the firstborn of every household. 00:28:07.000 --> 00:28:12.000 And what did you need to do if you were going to be saved from death? 00:28:12.000 --> 00:28:22.000 You need to sacrifice a lamb and spread the blood of the lamb over the threshold of the door so that the firstborn would not have to become a sacrifice. 00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:26.000 You see, she is the firstborn who walks through the threshold. 00:28:26.000 --> 00:28:29.000 And then where does she go? She goes to the threshold of the temple. 00:28:29.000 --> 00:28:34.000 And what's the point of this service, these women who would serve at the threshold of the temple? 00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:48.000 A lot of commentators will say this ministry was about being a person who would never marry a maiden in the old language in order to say the bride is waiting for her groom to come. 00:28:48.000 --> 00:28:58.000 You see, she stands at the threshold of the temple and says, if you want to come and meet the Lord, the real way to do that, she's a symbol as you look for the true groom that has yet to come. 00:28:58.000 --> 00:29:07.000 She's a woman waiting and saying, there's someone coming who will really show you the temple, who will really show you the presence of God. 00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:23.000 You see, she's pointing us to a lamb whose blood would be slain and placed upon the threshold to a groom that would open the true doorway to allow the bride to actually enter into God's presence. 00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:30.000 That was the symbol, that was the sign, that's what she was pointing to. And in the New Testament, we have the paradox, right? 00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:35.000 Is God full of justice? Is he going to punish idolaters or is he full of mercy? 00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:44.000 And when Jesus Christ comes, he says, I am the door. I am the threshold. I am the way. I am the lamb of God who takes away the Son of the world. 00:29:44.000 --> 00:29:52.000 I think she was pointing to Christ. She was a symbol, a sacrifice, the true sacrifice, the one who was ultimately going to come. 00:29:52.000 --> 00:30:05.000 And Jesus Christ says, if anybody enters into God's presence by Him, by Him as the door, the real threshold, they will be saved and they will find pasture forever. 00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:16.000 May the better than Jephthah, the true judge, Jesus Christ, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, be our ultimate hope this week. 00:30:16.000 --> 00:30:22.000 Let us pray. Father, we thank You that You preach the gospel to us throughout the whole of the Bible. 00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:34.000 And we thank You for the beauty of Your Word and how it speaks of the true firstborn, the lamb of God, the door Himself, the great groom. 00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:40.000 And we thank You, Lord, for the hope that we have in that judge, Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. 00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:46.000 I pray tonight that You would just set our eyes back on Jesus, which is what this book does, in the midst of our idols. 00:30:46.000 --> 00:31:02.000 And I do pray tonight that every single one of us would walk away from this place knowing I am a bent, I'm a broken stick, I'm a bent reed, and yet Jesus uses me by the power of the Spirit like He used Jephthah. 00:31:02.000 --> 00:31:08.000 So give us power, gospel power as we go out from this place into the city this week to serve. 00:31:08.000 --> 00:31:10.000 And I pray this in Christ's name. Amen.