Well, if you have your Bibles with you this morning, would you open up to the Old Testament, to the book of Judges? Judges chapter 11. I'm going to pick up the reading in actually Judges chapter 10, verse 17. So I'm going to read Judges 10, beginning in verse 17. I'm going to read through chapter 11, verse 9. Then we'll pick it up again in Judges 28 and read through the end, verse 40. So just follow along. and we will get the picture. Judges began reading in chapter 10, verse 17. This is God's Word written for you and for me today. Then the Ammonites were called to arms, and they encamped in Gilead. And the people of Israel came together, and they encamped at Mitzpah. And the people, the leaders of Gilead, said one to another, Who is the man who will begin to fight against the Ammonites. He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead. Now Jephthah, the Gileadite, was a mighty warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute. Gilead was the father of Jephthah, and Gilead's wife also bore him sons. And when his wife's sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, you shall not have an inheritance in our father's house, for you are the son of another woman. Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tab. And worthless fellows collected around Jephthah and went out with him. After a time, the Ammonites made war against Israel. And when the Ammonites made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah from the land of Tab. And they said to Jephthah, come and be our leader, that we may fight against the Ammonites. But Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, did you not hate me and drive me out of my father's house? Why have you come to me now when you are in distress? And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, that is why we have turned to you, that you may go with us and fight against the Ammonites and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead. Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, if you bring me home again to fight against the Ammonites and the Lord gives them over to me, I will be your head. And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, the Lord, it will be witnessed between us if we do not do as you say. So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead and the people made him head and leader over them. And Jephthah spoke all his words before the Lord at Mitzvah and pick it up in verse twenty eight. But the king of the Ammonites did not listen to the words of Jephthah that he sent to him. Then the spirit of the Lord was upon Jephthah and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh and passed on to Mitzpah of Gilead and from Mitzpah of Gilead he passed on to the Ammonites. And 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 for a burnt offering. So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them. And the Lord gave them into his hand, and he struck them from Arar to the neighborhood of Meneth, twenty cities, and as far as Abel-Karamim were the great blow. So the Ammonites were subdued before the people of Israel. Then 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 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. And she said to him, My father, you have opened your mouth to the Lord due to me according to what has gone out of your mouth. Now that the Lord has avenged you on your enemies, on the Ammonites, So she said to her father, let this thing be done for me. Leave me alone two months that I may go up and down on the mountains and weep for my virginity. I and my companions. So he said, go. Then he sent her away for two months and she departed. She and her companions and wept for her virginity on the mountains. And 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. And it became a custom in Israel that the daughters of Israel went year by year to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year. Heavenly Father, as we look into your word this morning, we ask that you would give us your spirit, that you would bless us, that you would be our teacher, that you would show us more of your son, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Well, this morning we tackle one of the most challenging passages in the Old Testament, if not the entire Bible, the story of Jephthah, his vow and his daughter. As you read your Bible, particularly as you read through the Old Testament, it is tempting to want to whitewash and to sanitize the Bible. to want to tone it down, to want to tone down the hard edges. But the Bible presents sin in all of its ugliness and vileness. The Bible presents the truth of Jeremiah 17 9 in blazing colors. The heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? At the same time, however, It is against this backdrop of such darkness and vileness. It is against this backdrop of such sin that the blazing light of the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ comes shining through. Today, we're going to look at, as I said, a challenging passage, the story of Jephthah. Jephthah is the next to last major judge in the Book of Judges. All that remains in terms of the major judges is Samson, and we'll get to him in the coming weeks. But by the time we have gotten to where we are, things in Israel are dark. They are bad. If you recall, we described the overall trajectory of judges as a downward spiral. Things are progressively moving downhill. Greater and greater sin. And we are towards the bottom as we get to Jephthah and then Samson and the chapters to follow. Now, I want us to consider this chapter, the narrative of Jephthah, along two lines, his person and his work, the person and the work of Jephthah, who he is and what he did. And we'll close our sermon by contrasting the person and work of Jephthah with the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. So first, the person of Jephthah. Who was Jephthah? Well, he arrives on the scene in Israel in the midst of an emergency, in the midst of a national crisis. Now, we need to look back at chapter 10 for a few verses to get some important context. And after the mention of two minor judges, in the first five verses of chapter 10, two minor judges are described. And after they are mentioned, we read in verse 6. Look at Judges 10, verse 6. And let this verse sink in. People of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, the gods of Syria the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, note that verse, that will become important later, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites and the gods of the Philistines. And they forsook the Lord and did not serve him. It's not just the Baals, but it is the Baals and the Asteros and the Moabites and the Ammonites and on and on and on and on. As I said, we're towards the bottom of the barrel by this point in the book of Judges. But then look at verse seven. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he sold the men to the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the Ammonites. Now, those two people groups, the Philistines and the Ammonites, they will they will be the content of the next several chapters in the book. Jephthah will deal with the Ammonites in our passage here, and then Samson, if you recall, will deal with the Philistines. And in fact, the Philistines will be a thorn in the side of Israel for quite some time. If you recall, who was Goliath? Whom David slew in 1 Samuel 17. Goliath was a Philistine. But Israel is oppressed by the Ammonites and again they cry out to the Lord in verse 10. But note the Lord's response on this occasion. Look at verse 14 of chapter 10. Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen. Let them save you in the time of your distress. So we remember the cycle. Israel is oppressed and they cry out to the Lord. And often we'll read, and the Lord raised up a deliverer. That's not what we read this time. Israel is oppressed. They are given into the hand of the Ammonites. They cry out to the Lord. But on this occasion, the Lord's response is, go see if those other gods can help you. You're worshiping the Baals and the Asherahs, the gods of the Ammonites, the gods of the Moabites. Go see if they can help you in your time of distress. Well, Israel then cries out all the more. And apparently they put away the foreign gods. All indications, however, was that this was not a genuine repentance. But it is significant what is not mentioned. Again, there's no reference to the Lord raised up a deliverer. There's no call narrative. Remember the story of Gideon. There was a rather lengthy call narrative. Gideon's fleece and the like. There was a rather lengthy narrative of the Lord raising up Gideon to be the deliverer. In the story of Samson, we'll find another lengthy call narrative. In Judges chapter 13, an entire chapter given over to the Lord's raising up Samson to be the deliverer. But here on this occasion, there is no language of the Lord raising up a deliverer to deliver his people. As one commentator, Daniel Block, puts it, through this entire episode, Yahweh's silence is deafening. Yahweh's silence is deafening. Well, what's the immediate context? The broader context is the Ammonites. They are gathering around Israel, but the immediate context comes in verses 17 and 18, which we read earlier. The Ammonites move opposite Gilead. They're surrounding Gilead, which was a town in the north of Israel, which prompts the question of verse 18. The Ammonites circle and circle the people of Israel. And then we come to verse 18. Who is the man? Who is the man who will begin to fight against the Ammonites? Who is the one who is going to deliver us on this occasion. And again, note, there is no response from the Lord. There's no, and the Lord raised up so-and-so. There is silence from the Lord. The answer will be Jephthah. Jephthah will be the one who delivers Israel from the Ammonites. But we'll see, again, there's some problems with this narrative. But who is Jephthah? What do we learn about this man, Jephthah? Well, verses 1 through 3 give us a little bit of background. Verses 1 through 3 are an interlude, a parenthesis in the main narrative. The story picks up again in verse 4. But verses 1 through 3 give us a little bit of background on this figure, Jephthah, that will come on the scene. So look back at verses 1 through 3. We learn that Jephthah was a mighty warrior. He was from Gilead. So it makes sense that they would seek him out. He was from this area. He was the son of a prostitute. Verse one, the son of a harlot. He was one rejected and driven out by his half brothers due to their greed. Verse two, his half brothers said, we don't want Jephthah taking any of our inheritance. Let's just get rid of him. And so he's driven out by his half Brothers, he is the leader of a band of worthless men. Look at verse three. He gathers around him worthless men. He is a scoundrel and the leader of scoundrels, we might say. In fact, the term for worthless men in verse three is the same term used to describe Abimelech's hit men from chapter nine, verse four. If you recall, Abimelech gathered around himself other worthless men, hit men, mercenaries to carry out his sinful deeds. The same term is used to describe the men that gather around Jephthah, worthless men. Well, the people of Gilead, in their occasion of distress, they remember Jephthah and they say, Jephthah, you're the man. They remember that he was a mighty warrior and they ask him to return and to help in battle. Now, let's pause for just a moment. Carl Truman, in his study of this passage, pauses for a moment and he asks an important question that I think is worthy of reflection. Dr. Truman asks us to think about the Gileadites and to ask this question. How do the Gileadites see their problem? How they see their problem informs the solution and the answer that they will seek, and it does not appear. Indications appear that they do not see their problem as primarily a spiritual problem. They do not see their problem as primarily a heart problem, as a moral problem, but rather primarily the Gileadites see their problem, their oppression by the Ammonites as pragmatic, as external, as secular. We might say we're being oppressed. We need a warrior. There's no word from the Lord. There's no guidance from the Lord. We have no pleading for the Lord to raise someone up. Lord, show us the man that you would have deliver us because of our sin. No, there's a pragmatic external problem and they seek a pragmatic external solution. We need a mighty warrior. We need Jephthah. He's a scoundrel, but we need him back because we know he is a mighty man in battle. How we see the problem informs how we see the solution. This is true in the world in which we live. This is abundantly true in the society in which we live. As mankind sees their problem as primarily pragmatic, as needing to live a better life, they look for a pragmatic solution, someone who can show them how to live a better life, maybe a self-help book or whatever it might be. But we know the ultimate problem is moral. It is internal. It is a sin heart problem. And thus, we need a solution where the answer is someone who can deal with that sin, who can deal with that fundamental heart problem. The Gileadites see themselves as oppressed, and they simply need a deliverer. They simply need someone to lead them into battle. Now, in Jephthah's response to the Gileadites offer, we gain more insight into his character. Look back at how Jephthah answers. And we learn that Jephthah is a negotiator. He is a conniver. As one author puts it, he is a coercive manipulator. And that will be significant later when we look at his vow to the Lord. Jephthah responds, if you want me to help you in battle, then you need to make me your king. If you want something from me, then you need to give something to me. If you want me to help you, then I need something from you. You need to give me the kingship over all of you. Now look at verse 29. It is important to note that Jephthah is presented in this story as a judge. Jephthah is presented as one of the six major judges. But again, as opposed to Othniel and Ehud and Gideon and Samson to come, there's no specific language of the Lord raising him up, as we've already discussed. Yet he is set apart by the spirit to be that deliverer, to be that warrior who will thrust off the Ammonites and lead his people in victory. But again, in these early verses, there's no mention of seeking the Lord's will. There's no call narrative. These negotiations, we might say, are strictly secular. These negotiations, this discussion that goes on is strictly secular. Jephthah, we need you. I'll come if you give me what I want. And then there's a major section in chapter 11, verses 12 to 28, which we skipped over for time's sake, in which Jephthah will send messengers to interact with the king of Ammon. Jephthah will send a party to go and interact and to deal with the king of the Ammonites. And the occasion is this, the king of Ammon, the Ammonites were seeking to take some land that belonged to Israel. And Jephthah's main argument is that land doesn't belong to you. It belongs to Israel. God gave it to Israel. It belongs to us. In fact, Jephthah is in the right. His argument is most certainly in the right. But the king of the Ammonites does not listen, and they go to battle. So that's the person of Jephthah. We'll return to him in just a few more moments. But the work of Jephthah, what does he do? How does Jephthah gain the victory? And this brings into view Jephthah's famous or rather infamous vow. Before Jephthah's victory in battle, if you note, Jephthah's victory is described rather quickly. Only two verses are given to Jephthah and Israel's victory over the Ammonites, verses 32 and 33. Jephthah wins the battle, he makes this vow. Look at this vow in verses 30 and 31. Judges 11, verses 30 and 31. And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, if you will give the Ammonites into my hand, then whatever, we could also translate that whoever, 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 for a burnt offering. The manipulator, Jephthah, the negotiator on this occasion is not coercing the Midianites, is not manipulating his own people, is not manipulating the Midianites. Rather, he is coercing God. It's critical to note how the Lord answers. There is no answer. There is no answer from the Lord to Jephthah's vow, only silence. What happens in the rest of the story? When Jephthah returns home, his only daughter is the first to come out of the house. And after a two month period of mourning, because his daughter will have no children after she is offered as a burnt offering, the line will end. The occasion of the mourning, the line of Jephthah will come to an end. Verses 37 and 38, Jephthah then offers her as a burnt offering, verse 39. Look back at verse 39. At the end of two months, it's a two month period of his daughter's mourning, she returned to her father who did with her according to his vow that he had made. She had never known a man and it became a custom in Israel that she would be celebrated four days every year. This offering that Jephthah offers is vile. It is wicked sin. It is Canaanite-like. It's pagan. I want to think for just a few moments with you about this vow. We've had to get some of the details out of the way to make sure we know where we are in the story, what's going on in this rather lengthy narrative. But we need to take just a few moments and reflect on this vow. There are some good, faithful, reformed commentators and scholars who argue that Jephthah did not offer his daughter as a literal burnt offering, but rather she was more dedicated to service in the temple. But I would suggest, brothers and sisters, that the text simply does not allow us to hold that view. So let me give you just a few thoughts regarding Jephthah's vow, Jephthah's offering his daughter on the altar. First is this, the placement of this story, the placement of the Jephthah narrative in the overall structure of the book. If you remember, we are towards the bottom of the downward spiral, then that is important. The series of judges began with Othniel, all the way back in Judges chapter 3, the first major judge, Othniel. It's a very clean, crisp cycle. Israel sins, they're given over to oppressors, they call out, the Lord raises up Othniel, leads them in victory, they enjoy peace, and so on and so on it goes. Nice and clean and crisp. And as we move along in the book, that cycle begins to break down. And that cycle is most certainly breaking down in the story of Jephthah. We are getting close to the bottom of the barrel. And as we move through the judge's narrative, the sin of God's people worsens and the cost of deliverance becomes greater. Othniel, to deliver, simply led his people into battle. Samson, The last major judge, what was the cost of deliverance for Samson? His own life. So we see the cost to deliver God's people is greater and greater and greater as the sin of God's people gets deeper and deeper and deeper. So the overall placement of this story in the book of Judges, in the structure, hints that there is great sin going on in this passage. If you go to the conclusion, if we turn to the conclusion of the Jephthah story, chapter 12, verses 1 through 7, we didn't read. In chapter 12, verses 1 through 7, things are also ugly and bad. A great civil war in Israel. There's some Israelites who come to Jephthah and they're angry because they were not summoned in the battle. And Jephthah, more or less, leads the Gileadites to slaughter thousands of his fellow Israelites, the Ephraimites. And so Jephthah is presented as a wicked sinner even in chapter 12. A second piece of evidence. The term used for burnt offering in verse 31 that Jephthah is going to offer his daughter as a burnt offering is the regular standard term used all over the Bible hundreds of times in Leviticus, and it simply means burnt offering. Doesn't mean anything else. Standard term, that means the burnt offering placed on the altar and offered up to the Lord. A third piece of evidence. This rendering of Jephthah's vow and the offering up of his daughter as a burnt offering simply fits with the plain reading of the text. Jephthah said, I'm going to offer Whoever, which also translated whatever or whoever is ambiguous, comes out of my door when I return having won the victory, I will offer up as a burnt offering. A fourth piece of evidence and a very significant piece of evidence, the exact phrase that is used in verse 31, I will offer it up for a burnt offering, that exact language and that exact phrase is used one other time in the Old Testament. Second Kings chapter three, verse twenty seven, where it describes the king of Moab in a battle offering up his children as a burn offering in order to gain the victory. The only other place that exact language is used is in reference to the king of Moab doing the same thing. And who do we read? that the Israelites had turned to at the beginning of the Jephthah narrative, the Baals, the Ashtoreths, and the god of the Moabites. And I would argue we see Jephthah imitating the sin of the Moabites in this passage. And then one fifth point. It's not exactly an argument in favor, but it's a noteworthy point. There's a parallel with Jephthah and his daughter with Abraham in the near sacrifice of his son Isaac. However, note the great differences. Whereas in Genesis 22, the Lord is intimately involved. The Lord is intimately involved at every point. Abraham, go to the place where I will show you and there Offer up your son, your only son, the son whom you love, Isaac. And Abraham, in obedience, obeys the Lord. And he's about to slay his son Isaac. But again, the Lord intervenes. Abraham, Abraham, now I know that you love me. And a substitute is provided. In contrast to the Abraham narrative, the word of God is decidedly absent throughout this story, in particular in verses 29 through So let's summarize Jephthah, the son of a prostitute, rejected by his brothers, gathers around him worthless fellows, a manipulator, lacking trust in the Lord, seeking to coerce and manipulate the Lord that he might gain the victory. And how does he gain the victory? He gains the victory by offering someone else, by offering someone else. How antithetical is Jephthah to our Lord Jesus Christ? What a contrast we see in Jephthah to our Lord Jesus Christ, to our great deliverer. Let's think for just a few moments and hang with me. Let's think for just a few moments about the person and work of our Savior. Jesus was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. Like Jephthah, he too was rejected by his brothers. John chapter 1, he came into his own and his own received him not. Jesus was despised and rejected of men, the prophet Isaiah says in Isaiah 53. Like Jephthah, he too gathered men around him. However, the lives of these men were transformed by the gospel And these men would turn the world upside down through their preaching of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. These men, the apostles, would form the very foundation of the church as they would preach the gospel of Christ. Moreover, unlike Jephthah, our Lord Jesus was no manipulator. He was no coercive leader, but rather he was what? Holy, innocent, unstained, Separate from sinners, Hebrews chapter 7, he came not in manipulation of his father, but rather he came humbly trusting his father in perfect, sinless submission and obedience to his father's will. Elder DeManna read John 6 this morning. You may be wondering, what on earth does John 6 have to do with Judges chapter 11? I came not to do my own will, Jesus says, but the will of him who sent me. Jesus came in perfect submission and humility and trust of the will of his father. He didn't come manipulating his father, as did Jephthah with this coercive vow, but he came submitting himself totally into the hands of his father. And most striking of all, What did Jesus do to gain the victory? He did not offer someone else. There was no one else. He offered himself and that offering of himself is emphasized throughout the New Testament. Philippians, chapter two, he emptied himself. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. He Himself, Peter says in 1 Peter 2, 24, He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree. While we were yet sinners, Christ Himself died for us. Could there be a greater contrast between Jephthah and our Lord Jesus Christ? What makes this text one thing that makes this passage so difficult. One of the most difficult passages in the Bible is Hebrews chapter 11. If you've read Hebrews 11 recently, you may remember that Jephthah is in Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11, 32. What do we do with that? Just a couple of thoughts as we close our time this morning. Jephthah was an Israelite. He belonged to the people of God. And we need to remember, brothers and sisters, that those who belong to the Lord can fall into great sin. Hebrews 11 is filled with sinners. It's filled with great sin. It is so easy to downplay sin. And to downplay the impact of sin even in the lives of Christians. But also, as we consider Jephthah in Hebrews 11, it should stir us along another line. And that is the wonder of God's grace. The wonder, the glory, of God's mercy and His grace. Jephthah's sin was great. There's no need to downplay his sin. It was great. But God's grace is greater. As Paul says in Romans 5.20, where sin abounds, grace super abounds. And we don't need to try to, again, rub off the hard edges. Jephthah was a great sinner. The text, I would argue, clearly indicates that Jephthah went through with his vow. At the same time, he is in Hebrews 11. God is a gracious and merciful God. His grace and mercy are beyond what we could imagine. As we tone down sin, so also we tone down God's grace and mercy. As the words of a modern hymn put it, your sins, they are many, but His mercy is more. Your sins, they are many, but His mercy is more. And then lastly, I would argue, brothers and sisters, that Hebrews 11 is not ultimately about Abraham and Moses and Jephthah and Barak and David and on and on. It is ultimately about Christ. Where does Hebrews 11 end? It ends in Hebrews 12, 1 and 2. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses and those witnesses witness first and foremost to the faithfulness of God, Jephthah was faithless and a sinner, but he belonged to a faithful God. Perhaps you're struggling with great sin this morning, likely not as great as Jephthah's, but great sin nonetheless. We belong to a faithful God whose mercy is more. Hebrews 11 drives us to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is what? He is the author and the perfecter of our faith. Jephthah was not the author and the perfecter of his faith. You are not the author and the perfecter of your own faith. Jesus Christ, the true judge, the true king, holy, harmless, separate from sinners, who offered himself. He is the author. and the perfecter and the sustainer of our faith, out of whose hands his sheep will never be taken. So this is a hard passage. There's no way around it. Some of you may disagree with what we've said. That's fine. But this passage ultimately should point us to the Lord Jesus Christ, our true judge. He is our faithful Savior. Your sins, they are many. But dear friends, if you remember nothing else, His mercy is more. His mercy is more. Praise God for his word. Let's pray together. Father, we confess this passage is challenging. There's much that we didn't understand. And we ask that all that is not said is not in accordance with your will, that you would let fall away. But that which is faithful to your word, your will, that that would be pressed deep into our hearts that we would see the ugliness of sin, the vileness of sin in your very people, Israel. Father, may that drive us to our knees. That your sins, they are many, our sins, they are many. Your mercy is more. May that encourage us as we go throughout this day. as we think about our true Judge and true King, our Lord Jesus Christ, who humbled Himself and offered Himself and bore our sins and His body on the tree. I pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen.