Good morning to you all. Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of this ongoing series on the book of Judges.
I'm grateful to be able to speak this morning. Last week, Zach spoke on Abimelech in Judges chapter 9.
And this morning, our task is Jephthah in chapters 10 through 12.
So that's about two and a half chapters. We'll skip along and make our way through it somewhat quickly.
Would you turn there in your Bibles, Judges chapter 10 verse 6.
You can navigate there on your phone or if you're using the Pew Bible in front of you, it's on page 249.
We're going to start in Judges 10 chapter 6.
One of the things that we've seen in this series so far is something that Mike showed us right in the very first sermon about this cycle that keeps repeating in the book.
You can see that there's, at least on this diagram, seven steps to the cycle.
And it just keeps repeating as we go through each judge.
In number four, the people cry out.
In number five, God empowers a judge and he goes out and defeats the enemy.
And then that brings relief.
And in number six, there's peace in the land.
But the problem is this pattern isn't static in the book.
Each time the judge defeats the enemy and the land goes back to rest,
the people return to their sin in a worse way than they were before.
So the sin keeps getting worse and they keep becoming more and more like the Canaanites.
And their repentance becomes less serious each time they get back around to number four.
And there are more and more innocent victims caught up in the machinery of sin and chaos.
Last week, Zach talked about the people of Shechem who are slaughtered along with countless women who are just completely innocent.
So it's not really like a wheel that just keeps rolling down the road in a static way.
It's more like a drain that is emptying.
It's like a drain that's circling.
And it just keeps getting lower and lower.
Everything is degenerating in the nation.
As we're getting to see what it looks like when people reject God and when they draw away from him.
The people of Israel are getting worse and the judges are getting worse.
The judges are personifications of the sin of the nation.
So the first judge, Othniel, pretty good guy.
Very straightforward.
He just goes out and saves Israel.
The second judge, Ehud, he saves Israel.
But it's not quite as clean because he uses deception.
And remember, he plunges the dagger into the fat king.
Then you have Barak.
He saved Israel too.
But it's even messier because now he goes to Deborah.
And he says, I'm not going if you don't go.
And she says, okay.
But then, you know, the victory is going to be given into the hands of a woman.
So it's just a little bit more messy.
Then we get to Gideon.
He lacked faith.
And that story ended up in idol worship.
And then his son Abimelech comes up.
He's not even a judge.
But he becomes the king.
And he puts himself in power.
And then he's killing not Canaanites but Israelites.
And now we come to Jephthah.
And if this pattern holds in the book, we expect Jephthah to be the worst judge yet.
And he is.
This is a story that focuses on the consequences of bad leadership among the people of God.
And maybe you're saying, oh, good.
Well, I'm not a leader.
So this doesn't have anything to do with me.
I can just sort of check out.
But leaders are not just simply those that have titles.
But those who have some kind of influence over other people.
Some leaders do have official titles like pastor, elder, deacon.
Parents are the leaders of their children.
Some leaders don't have any kind of a title.
But even kids can be leaders, right?
Every elementary school teacher knows that it only takes one kid to wreck your year.
Right?
In some ways, all of us lead at different times.
And so this story does concern all of us.
Last year, Forbes Media Company, you know, they've got a magazine and a website.
Forbes Media Company published an article titled,
Courageous Leadership Style, Is It Harming or Nurturing Your Company?
Is Your Leadership Style Harming the Company?
Or is it making it stronger?
And this is what the article says.
The leader you are has a ripple effect that radiates through your business and your employees
into the market and to your customers, vendors, and stakeholders.
It can go even further than this.
It is highly contagious.
Whether you like it or not, you are either spreading rainbows
or spreading thunderstorms, and sometimes both.
Leaders are in a position of influence to either bring great good
to the people that look up to them or great harm.
And we're going to see that Jephthah causes great harm,
and that is going to serve as an important negative example for us.
So let's look at the story of Jephthah,
and we're going to draw some conclusions at the end
about leadership in the church and in our personal lives.
The story unfolds in five scenes.
The Lord withdraws.
Number one, the Lord withdraws.
Number two, Israel recruits Jephthah.
Number three, Jephthah's war against the Ammonites.
Number four, Jephthah's evil vow.
And number five, Jephthah's war with Israelites.
Oops.
Yeah, so we're going to move pretty quickly through these
and just hit the high points.
And I'd like to ask you to just follow along with me in your Bible.
We're going to kind of announce the verses as we go.
And so here we go.
Scene number one, if you're taking notes, this is in 10, 6 to 16.
Chapter 10, verse 6 to 16.
Scene one, the Lord withdraws.
Now our passage begins in verse 6 with the most detailed description yet
of sin and idolatry among the people of Israel.
In the Othniel story, back at the very beginning,
they served the Baals and the Asherahs.
And that was bad.
But now, it says in verse 6 and 7,
they served the Baals and the Ashtaroth
and the gods of Syria and the gods of Sidon
and the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites,
the gods of the Philistines,
and they forsook the Lord and did not serve him.
So they are just covering their bases.
From the compass all the way around,
north, south, east, and west,
all the surrounding peoples are just gathering their gods in
and worshiping them and forsaking the Lord.
And now, because of their sin,
look at what it says in verses 7 and 8,
he sold them into the hand of the Philistines
and into the hand of the Ammonites,
and they crushed and oppressed the people of Israel.
For 18 years, they oppressed all the people of Israel
so that Israel was severely distressed.
18 years of military and political oppression by these enemies.
So, verse 9,
the Israelites cry out to the Lord,
and it sounds pretty good.
We have sinned against you
because we have forsaken our God and served the Baals.
That seems like pretty straightforward confession.
But surprisingly, this time,
because now we're in Judges chapter 10,
this time, the Lord does not take their repentance very seriously.
You know, as a rule in the Bible,
the Lord is so eager to show mercy and forgiveness.
He is just primed for grace.
He is a God gracious and compassionate.
It only takes a hint of repentance,
and God's like, okay, I won't punish you.
But here, he becomes angry and even sarcastic.
He says,
Did I not save you from the Egyptians
and from the Amorites,
from the Ammonites and the Philistines before?
Haven't we been here before?
We've done this before.
I am a God of mercy,
but I will not be taken advantage of.
There is a limit, right, to God's mercy.
And now that the cycle has repeated itself
one, two, three, four, five times,
he's done.
He's out.
God's going to sit this one out
and just watch
while the people continue to be afflicted.
And he says at the end of verse 13,
I will save you no more.
Go and cry out to the other gods
that you've chosen
and let them save you
in the time of your distress.
So the Israelites try to negotiate with God.
They say,
We have sinned.
Do to us whatever seems good to you.
Only deliver us this day.
Right?
That sounds good.
It sounds like they're finally submitting to him
and that this time they're really sorry.
But it's manipulative.
The problem exists
not because God isn't doing
what seems good to him,
but because he is.
This is judgment.
And then unbelievably,
in verse 16,
they remove their foreign gods.
Which means that they had not done so up until now,
even though previously they had confessed
and repented of their sin.
So in verse 10,
they confess their sin,
but they didn't actually get rid of anything
because they're doing that now.
And so it says at the end of verse 16,
and God became impatient
over the misery of Israel.
He's frustrated.
He's impatient with their half-hearted,
half-baked repentance.
He's out this time,
and they can deal with this problem on their own.
And now for the rest of the story,
with one exception,
God is absent.
So we're going to get to see
what it looks like
when people just kind of make things up as they go.
They're still being attacked by their enemies,
and so now it's time for Israel
to develop a strategic plan.
It's time to set some goals.
It's time to find the headhunter
and do some recruiting
and clarify their vision and purpose statements
and get some new leadership.
And that brings us to scene two,
which is chapter 10, verse 17 to 11.
Chapter two,
Israel recruits Jephthah.
Now the Ammonites are on the move against Israel,
so the Israelites scramble to find a leader.
In previous episodes in the book,
the Lord has raised up the deliverer, right?
He's the one that raised up Othniel
and raised up Jephthah,
but now he's checked out,
and so they're going to have to go on their own.
And so they say in verse 18,
who is the man
who will begin to fight against the Ammonites?
He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.
And in verses 1 through 3 of chapter 11,
we're introduced to Jephthah.
Number one,
we learn that he's a warrior,
so it makes sense
that he would be the one to go out
and lead the troops.
Number two,
we learn that he's the son of a prostitute,
and therefore he's not a rightful heir of the family,
and he's not really even a full member of the family.
And so his brothers drive him out of the home,
and they say in chapter 11, verse 2,
you shall not have an inheritance in our father's house,
for you are the son of another woman.
And so he runs away,
and he joins a gang of worthless fellows.
It says in verse 3,
this term worthless fellows
is the same word that describes Abimelech's hoodlums
back in chapter 9
that helped him kill his 70 brothers.
They're scoundrels.
These are worthless guys that are up to no good.
So it's probably a reflection on Jephthah
because that's who he's hanging out with.
So, so far,
nothing about Jephthah
gives us any confidence
that he is going to be the right kind of leader.
But hey,
he's a good warrior,
so he's going to get the job done,
and that's what they need.
So when the Ammonites attack,
they go to recruit him,
and this is why the background
in verses 1 through 3 of chapter 11
is important.
It tells us
that the people of Gilead
have already kicked him out
because he's a,
he's kind of a reject,
and he doesn't belong to the family,
and,
but now they come groveling to him.
Not because he's suddenly of good character,
but because they need someone
to lead them into battle.
And so he agrees,
and they make it official.
And that's scene 2.
The Lord has checked out.
They're on their own.
But instead of doing what it takes
to make things right with God,
instead of properly submitting themselves
to God and really repenting this time
to fix that relationship,
they just raise up their own deliverer
to fight for them.
And he may be a scoundrel,
and he may be surrounded by scoundrels.
He may not really be leadership material.
He's opportunistic,
and he's self-serving.
He agrees to work for them
so that he can be their boss at the end.
There's no indication
that he has any of the right motivations.
But the Ammonites are attacking,
so what do you do?
Scene 3.
Okay, here's scene 3,
chapter 11, verses 12 to 28.
Jephthah's war with the Ammonites.
In chapter 11, verse 12, it says,
Then Jephthah sent messengers
to the king of the Ammonites and said,
What do you have against me
that you have come to me
to fight against my land?
Well, this is a curious way to start
for a couple of reasons.
First of all, notice here
how he is elevating himself.
Why have you come against me?
You've come to me
to fight against my land.
That's interesting self-centeredness.
It's also strange
that he's trying to negotiate
with the enemy
instead of destroying them.
That's not typically
how things happen
in the book of Judges.
And he doesn't show any awareness
that the Ammonites have come
to attack as judgment from God
that God has sent them.
It's like he's just kind of
starting from scratch here
with these negotiations.
But he'll give peace a chance.
He'll see if he can
talk himself out of this one.
And what follows
in verses 13 to 27
is a prolonged negotiation
with multiple sets of messengers
back and forth
between the Ammonites and Jephthah.
And in verse 13,
the Ammonites say,
Well, it's a land dispute.
And then in verse 15,
Jephthah says,
We haven't taken your land.
And then in verses 16 to 22,
Jephthah recounts Israel's history
and he says in verse 26,
Look, you've had 300 years
to come and take back this land.
Don't bother me with it now.
And finally,
finally the Ammonites send word
that the negotiations are over.
They're just not going to deal.
And it says in verse 28,
But the king of the Ammonites
did not listen to the words of Jephthah
that he had sent to him.
This is all crazy.
This is not what happens
in the book of Jephthah.
The deliverer goes out
in the power of the Spirit of God
and slaughters the enemy.
And Jephthah's just sort of like
having these long negotiations
about land disputes.
And in fact,
if you count the words
in the original Hebrew,
Jephthah's negotiations
with the Ammonites
are 390 words long.
But the entire story
to this point
has only been 278 words.
So he's just talking
and talking and talking
and the messengers
go back and forth.
Jephthah is really trying
diplomacy here.
But it doesn't work.
They're coming anyway.
You know,
this is what
the headhunter
found Jephthah for.
This was his
big employment contract
to run the show.
He's a leader.
He's a big man.
He's going to get it done.
But compared to the early judges
like Othniel and Ehid,
this is pretty lame.
What is he negotiating here?
But he's going to have
to go to war.
All right, scene 4.
This is chapter 11,
verses 29 to 40.
Scene 4.
This is Jephthah's evil vow.
Here we come to kind of
the climax of the story.
In verse 29,
there's a surprise
that as Jephthah goes out
to fight against the Ammonites,
the Holy Spirit
comes to empower him.
That's a little bit
of a surprise
because it turns out
God is not entirely checked out.
This sounds a little bit more
like the pattern
in the book of Judges.
At this crucial moment,
God steps in
and he is willing
to empower Jephthah
to have victory here.
And yet,
Jephthah
can't
stop
negotiating.
He just can't
stop negotiating.
And so he makes
a vow to the Lord.
Look at verse 30.
Jephthah made a vow
to the Lord and said,
If you will give
the Ammonites
into my hand,
then whatever comes
out from the doors
of my house
to meet me
when I return
in peace from the Ammonites
shall be the Lord's
and I will offer it up
as a burnt offering.
I mean,
first of all,
he does not need
to make this vow.
We've already been told
that the Holy Spirit
is upon him
to empower him
to victory.
So this is completely
extraneous.
But he's still
trying to do things
his way.
He's still trying
to manipulate God
further
to force the issue
to try to find
a way to get God
onto his side
even more.
And so he vows
that when he gets home
from the battle,
whatever comes out
of his house,
he will kill
that thing,
that person,
that animal
and offer it up
as a burnt offering.
That does raise
the question,
what is he expecting here?
What does he think
will come out
of his house?
Well,
this is an artist's
reconstruction
from archaeology
of an ancient
Israelite home.
And you can see here
that it was very often
that the animals
did live inside the house,
you know,
cows and chickens
and goats
and things like that.
And the people
slept upstairs
and so on cool nights
the warmth
from the animal,
and probably their smells too,
would waft up
and keep the people
warm up
on the second floor.
So I suppose
it is possible
that Jephthah
is just being
completely foolish here
and he's thinking
to himself,
well,
maybe an animal
will come out
and I will,
there's a young goat
and I will sacrifice
it to the Lord.
But I actually think
that he has in mind
a person,
a member of his family
and I've got three reasons
for thinking that.
Number one,
in the structure
of the book,
we expect him
to be worse
than Abimelech
and worse
than Gideon
and those are bad guys.
Number two,
this gift to God
would have to be
extravagant
because he is trying
to force God
to help him
even though God
already said he would.
And number three,
there are other
biblical texts
and there are actually
other extra-biblical texts
that describe
exactly this,
extraordinary,
painful,
human sacrifice
as a statement
of serious devotion
to a God
to try and get that God
to do what you want him
to do.
Well, maybe you object
and you say,
well, surely not.
Surely,
Jephthah doesn't intend
human sacrifice.
Certainly,
human sacrifice
isn't in view here.
How could Jephthah
mean that?
But I think
that is exactly
the point.
Jephthah either
doesn't know
or doesn't care
what God has said
about human sacrifice
in his word.
He is being
completely reckless here.
It's a reckless vow.
He's intending here
to make God
an offer
that he can't refuse.
And this is what happens
when a leader
is not submitting
to God
and just makes things up
as he goes along.
Now,
Jephthah goes out
to war
against the Ammonites
and the narrator
doesn't care too much
about this battle.
It's not that important
to him
and so he sums
the whole thing up
in verse 33.
He struck them
from Aror
to the neighborhood
of Minith,
20 cities
and as far as
Ebo-Kerimim
with a great blow.
Okay,
all you need to know
is that Jephthah
won that battle.
All the details
are not important.
The focus here
is on what happens
when Jephthah
gets home.
It says
in verse 34,
then after the battle
Jephthah came
to his home
at Mizpah
and behold
his daughter
came out
to meet him
with tambourines
and with dances.
She was his only child.
Besides her
he had neither son
nor daughter.
And now
the great negotiator
has found himself
in a trap
of his own making.
It wasn't his second cousin
that came out
of the house.
It wasn't his uncle.
It wasn't his wife.
It was his only daughter.
And in her innocence
she comes out
of the house
singing and dancing
to celebrate
her father's victory
in battle.
And it says
in verse 35,
as soon as he saw her
he tore his clothes
and said,
Alas,
my daughter,
you have brought me
very low
and you have become
the cause of great trouble
to me
for I have opened
my mouth to the Lord
and I cannot take back
my vow.
Well,
it sounds a little bit
like he's blaming her.
You have brought me
very low.
You have become
the cause of my sorrow.
But in verse 39
it says,
At the end of two months
she returned to her father
who did with her
according to his vow
that he had made.
She had never known
a man.
So he did kill her
and he did offer her up
as a burnt offering
to the Lord
and it's important
that she had never
known a man
because that means
he did not have
a grandchild
and that means
his family line
is dead.
So it's a tragedy
but it's not just
a tragedy.
It's a tragedy
filled with irony.
She is coming out
to celebrate
her father's victory
but it only causes
her own death.
She is making music
and dancing
to celebrate
but it brings
her father grief.
Jephthah,
because he was
the son of a prostitute,
had been thrown
out of his own
family home
and now a child
has come out
of his home.
He had no share
in his father's
inheritance
and now his own
family line
has come to an end.
His daughter
will die
a virgin
and she does.
Jephthah had meant
to secure victory
in the present
but it cost him
his future.
This is what it
looks like
when leaders
wing it,
when they are
so detached
from the character
and the word
and the will
and the wisdom
of God
that they just
wing it
and they just
make it up
as they go,
it ends in
disaster,
even personal
disaster
for Jephthah.
Jephthah has
damaged himself
and his innocent
daughter has been
swept up in the mess
that he created
and has become
a victim
and unfortunately
this is not
the last one,
it's not the first,
or the last
innocent woman
in this book
that is going
to be sacrificed
as victims
by ignorant,
evil,
Israelite men
who are becoming
more and more
like the Canaanites
around them.
Scene 5,
this is the last scene,
this is in chapter 12,
1 to 7.
Jephthah's war,
not with the Ammonites,
but with the Israelites.
This story just keeps
getting crazier
and crazier.
Jephthah has just
killed his only daughter
and now he's going
to have more trouble
on his hands
because soldiers
from the neighboring
Israelite tribe
of Ephraim
are angry.
Now these are Israelites.
Look at chapter 12,
verse 1.
The men of Ephraim
said to Jephthah,
why did you cross over
to fight against
the Ammonites
and did not call us
to go with you?
We will burn your house
over you
with fire.
Interestingly,
this is another occurrence
of the word house,
right?
He had been kicked
out of his house
and his daughter
came out of his house
and now the Ephraimites
are going to burn down
his house
because they're so mad.
And look what Jephthah says
in verses 2 and 3
of chapter 12.
And as I read this,
listen to all the references
to I and me
and how self-centered he is.
Jephthah said to them
in verse 2,
I and my people
had a great dispute
with the Ammonites
and when I called you,
you did not save me
from their hand
and when I saw
that you would not save me,
I took my life
in my hand
and crossed over
against the Ammonites
and the Lord gave them
into my hand.
Why then have you
come up to me
this day
to fight against me?
Boy,
talk about a narcissist.
Everything revolves
around this guy,
right?
13 references
to himself
in two verses.
He is completely
self-centered.
It's all about
his own power.
But he's not going
to take this insult
from these neighboring
Israelites
and so he gathers
his men
and he goes to war
against the Israelites
in the Civil War
and he strategically,
he's good at this,
he strategically
cuts off their escape
and then he identifies
them by their Hebrew
accent
and kills them
and actually
the word in the
original Hebrew
is slaughter.
He slaughters them.
This is not
typical warfare.
This is not
taking a strategic
position on a hill.
This is hunting
down the Ephraimite
tribe and slaughtering
them and wiping
them out.
And in chapter 12
verse 6
it says that he
killed 42,000
of these Israelites
from Ephraim.
Now think about
the comparison
between that
and what he had
done with the
Ammonites.
With the Ammonites
he negotiates,
there's long
negotiations,
you know,
390 words.
The battle's very
simple and straightforward.
It was probably
a strategic victory.
But here,
against the Ephraimites,
short negotiations,
tempers flaring.
Jephthah wins the battle
but that's not good
enough because he
hunts them down
and slaughters them.
And the narrative,
the story concludes
in chapter 12
verse 7.
Jephthah led Israel
six years,
then Jephthah the
Gileadite died
and was buried
in a town
in Gilead.
And what's
interesting here
is it does not
say,
as it has said
earlier in the book,
that the land
had rest.
What a mess.
What an absolute
disaster
this has been.
Okay,
let's put all
this together.
We've got a lot
of moving pieces
here but let's
put this together
with six observations
and then three
aspects of application.
Okay,
we've got nine
parts to go here,
six observations
and three aspects
of application.
These are going
to go pretty quick.
First of all,
six observations
of key details
in this story.
I just want to
summarize where
we've been.
Observation number
one,
the proper application
of the book of
Judges is not
the sin and
leadership problems
in the United
States or in
your business.
Okay,
I know some of us
are thinking like,
oh,
I know politicians
like that.
No,
the proper
application of
the book of
Judges is the
church because
this is about
the people of
God and in
the Old Testament
the people of
God were in
Israel in the
covenant relationship
with the Lord and
now the people of
God are located
in the church.
So we need to be
thinking about the
church and our
own personal
spiritual lives.
Observation
number two,
the narrator is
very clear at the
beginning of the
story that God
checks out.
He wants us to
see all the
chaos and all
the selfishness
and all the
cruelty that
comes when people
just do whatever
they want without
submitting to God.
Observation
number three,
Jephthah is a
skilled leader.
He is pretty good
at what he does.
He's a warrior
and he does know
how to negotiate
and he does win
his battles.
And that blinds
the people to
his character
flaws.
See, that's the
temptation, right?
That is the central
temptation in this
story.
That the skill of
the leader and
his ability to get
things done is
what blinds people
to his character.
Observation
number four,
Jephthah is
motivated by
power.
He agrees to
lead because
they promise him
more authority.
Observation
number five,
Jephthah attempts
to solve
leadership problems
with purely
human strategies.
The fact that
God had empowered
him with his
Holy Spirit is
kind of beside the
point, isn't it?
I don't even know,
does that even
factor in?
I don't know.
purely human
strategies of
negotiating,
manipulating,
and harsh
vengeance.
Observation
number six,
the story ends
in disaster.
Jephthah has
killed his own
daughter,
his family line
is ended,
he has started
a civil war,
and he has
slaughtered 49,000
other Israelites.
You know,
when we consider
all the details
of this complex
story,
and we think
about its
relationship to
the rest of
the book of
Judges,
here is how I
would articulate
its point in
one sentence.
It's not rocket
science.
A leader of
God's people
who is not
led by God
causes great
harm.
But that's not
what leaders are
supposed to do.
Leaders are
supposed to do
the opposite
of that.
They're not
supposed to
bring great
harm,
they're supposed
to create an
environment for
flourishing and
health and
growth.
But unless the
leaders of God's
people are
themselves led
by God,
they bring
disaster and
pain and
trouble.
Now let's talk
about the
application of
this in three
aspects,
three groups,
in the church,
in the family,
in our personal
lives, three
groups, and
I'm going to
try and be
specific here
as I kind of
brainstorm this.
What does this
look like in
our lives?
Group number
one.
These are the
leaders that we
think of first
in the church.
These are the
leaders that have
official titles
like pastor,
elder, and
deacon.
God has placed
these leaders
over us for
our good.
They commit
themselves to
leading us in
our relationship
with the
Lord.
They sacrifice
their time.
They carry
our burdens.
They worry
about us.
They hear our
confession of
sin.
They visit us
when we are
sick.
They preach
and teach God's
word faithfully.
They create
opportunities for
us to grow in
our faith.
They have
incredible
potential to
strengthen our
faith and
redirect us,
and confront
us over sin
and teach us
what is right.
And I have
good news.
I have good
news.
Now that I've
stepped off the
elder team,
I can say this
without any
conflict of
interest.
We have
wonderful
pastors and
elders and
deacons at
this church.
They are the
real deal.
And I can tell
you that as
someone who's
been on the
inside.
They are
godly men
and women with
hearts that
seek after God
and we are
really, really
blessed here to
have these
people in
leadership over
us.
But if
pastors and
elders and
deacons are
not led by
God, it
is possible
to continue
in unrepentant
sin, to
lose confidence
in God's
word, to
seek after
power, to
mistreat
people, and
then to just
keep right on
going with
ministry.
You know
that's true.
You can be
the worst
person with
the worst
character, the
most godless
individual with
all of that
hidden sin, and
you can just
keep right on
rolling through
ministry.
It's very easy
to do.
There's a form
of ministry,
there's a form
of leadership,
it looks
Christian, it
sounds Christian,
but it's
lifeless and
godless.
There's no
spiritual power
in it because
no one is
actually listening
to God and
his word.
These leaders
talk about
him, they
refer to God,
all the usual
language is in
place.
On the surface
it looks like
spirit-empowered
ministry, but
they're really
just doing their
own thing.
They are leading
God's people, but
they themselves are
not being led by
God.
And here's the
catch, here's the
trick, and I think
this comes up in the
story of Jephthah,
that ministry
might thrive.
the church
might grow,
the budget
might get
bigger, they
might have to
go out and
build a new
building because
it's getting
so big.
But all of
those gifts
of leadership
and networking
and communicating
clearly are
probably leading
the people of
God toward the
wrong thing.
and the gifting
and the skills
that they have
are only making
that leader
more
effective
at doing
damage.
Like Jephthah,
he was a skilled
leader, but he
brought disaster.
Let me ask you
this question.
Let's think
hypothetically
here.
Would Jephthah's
daughter have
been better
off under the
rule of the
Ammonites or in
her father's
house?
That's an easy
answer.
Here's another
question.
If you were an
Ephraimite,
who is the
bigger threat?
The foreign
pagan Ammonites
pastor or
Jephthah?
A pastor or
someone who has
an official
position of
authority at a
church who is
not led by God
has the potential
to do incredible
damage.
God is absent.
There is no
submission to his
word, but the
leaders just keep
on leading and
the ministry just
keeps on growing
until eventually it
crashes and burns.
And we've all
heard stories like
this.
It's tragic.
All right,
number two, let's
talk about a
second group, and
that is parents.
Parents, God has
placed us in
authority over our
children for their
good.
No one has the
ability to
influence our
children like we
do.
We are ingrained
in our children's
hearts and minds in
a way that can
never be replaced
by someone else.
We have incredible
power to help them
grow and develop
and thrive.
We can teach our
kids to be good
conversationalists and
to have a variety of
interests and to do
well in school and to
eat healthy and to
play sports and to
set them up for a
successful life.
We can give them a
sense of safety and
security and a
knowledge that they're
loved, and that is
just going to give
them a great
foundation for
launching off into
life.
And we, more than
anyone else, are in
an influential
position to point
them toward Jesus.
There's a reason that
God calls himself our
father.
Because dads, we are a
daily picture of God to
our kids, and we can
help them love him.
But listen, if we are
not ourselves led by
God, we can be skilled
parents in many ways.
But then we can use the
great influence that we
have over our children to
destroy their faith.
The problem with Jephthah
was not that he was
unskilled, it's that he
was skilled, and that
was why Israel chose
him.
The problem with Jephthah
was that he was
self-centered, interested
only in power, he was
proud, and he was
harsh.
And I'm just going to
speak to myself here.
If we are not being led
by God, parents, we can
do incredible damage to
our kids.
We can teach our
children that church is
not that important by
prioritizing other things
on a regular basis.
We can teach our kids
that sins should be
hidden and ignored
rather than be models of
confession, apology, and
repentance.
We can teach our children
to be cruel toward other
people when we ourselves
laugh at what is wrong.
we can give our kids
entertainment that is dark
and violent and impure
and that will harden their
hearts to the things of God.
We can teach our kids that
God is untrustworthy and
unsafe when we are
unreliable and unfaithful
faithful and harsh and when we
mistreat them.
As parents, we are in
leadership over our kids.
That has been given to us
by God and they depend on us
and they learn from us day
after day in close quarters
and it's impossible to fake
it.
So we have to be dependent on
the Lord and to be people of
character who do things God's
way.
Finally, let's talk about a
third group of leaders and
here I'm going to cheat and
just include everyone.
Everyone has influence in
certain situations.
It doesn't matter who you
are.
There is someone who looks up
to you.
There is someone who hopes
that you will step up and
take the lead in doing what is
right.
God has given us to each
other to lead in various
capacities and at different
times and in different ways
for our good.
And in the church and in our
daily lives, we have the
opportunity, all of us, to
use that influence to benefit
other people and to point
them toward the Lord.
We have a responsibility to
use whatever influence and
resources we have to make it
easier for the people around
us and in the household of
faith to love and obey God
and to make it harder for
them to become discouraged
and to fall into sin.
We can be leaders in
protecting the vulnerable and
standing up for those who are
weak and need extra support.
Jephthah came from a difficult
background.
His mother was a
prostitute and that meant that
he was probably very poor.
He had been rejected, probably
socially, but certainly by his
family.
But he had leadership ability
and the problem was that
instead of caring for the
vulnerable and the poor, he
exploited them.
He used his influence to secure
his own power to increase his
own power no matter what it
cost the people around him.
teenagers.
There are other kids your age who
look up to you.
You have some kind of influence.
There is a popularity system.
I know about it.
We know.
There are other kids who look up
to you.
What are you doing with that
influence?
What are you doing with that
influence?
Are you leading the way to
stand up for the kid that
everyone picks on and makes
fun of?
Are you encouraging others in
your school or in your youth
group to do what is right?
Or are you using your
influence, like Jephthah, to
gain even more popularity no
matter how much the people
around you get hurt?
Actually, those are pretty good
questions for adults too.
Because every time we walk
into a room, we look around
and we say, who here is
greater than I am?
And who here is less than I
am?
And how can I angle in order
to influence, in order to
increase my influence and
power?
It's a constant temptation for
all of us.
When people look up to us, that
is a kind of power.
And we should say to the Lord,
Lord, this is a resource.
What do you want me to, who do
you want me to encourage?
Who do you want me to
protect?
Who do you want me to
confront?
Who do you want me to
organize so that we can all
serve you more effectively?
How can I use the influence
that I have, as small as it
may be, in this family of
faith and in my personal
life in order to honor you?
Or am I just using my own
influence to just gain more
power?
No matter who gets trampled in
the process.
Now, let's just finish with
this, some good news.
The Jephthah story is pretty
dark.
But God is still there.
He is there.
And as we watch the book of
Judges just disintegrate and
degenerate into moral disaster,
God is still there.
He's still there in the
background, no matter how much
Israel sins and rejects God.
In fact, it's about to get
worse.
Samson is worse than Jephthah,
and then after that, it really
gets dark.
And yet, God is always there.
And in fact, the worse things
get in the book of Judges, the
better God looks by comparison.
He is loving.
He is patient.
He is gentle.
He's forgiving.
He leads us like a kind
shepherd.
He lifts us up when we're weak
and gives us strength instead
of exploiting us.
And that is a model for us as
we discern how we can use our
influence in the lives of other
people.
God is worthy of our trust, and
it is important that we be led
by him.
And then that we lead other
people in a way that honors him
as well.
Let's pray.
Father, thinking about all these
things just reminds us again that
we need you.
We need your Holy Spirit to empower
us to do what is right, to point
out our blind spots, to help us to
see things in a new way.
We know that the story of Jephthah
is a negative example, but Lord, we
thank you that we serve a God who
leads us so well, so kindly and
gently, and has provided grace in
Jesus Christ for those times when we
have not measured up.
We know that in our church, in our
families, in our parenting, in our
ministries, we have a lot of
responsibility, and it's hard to
always get it right.
And so we pray for your help.
In Jesus' name, amen.