Well, let's turn over to Judges chapter 11 for the reading of God's word in connection with the preaching of that word. And then we'll also have opportunity after that reading of scripture to look at question 101 from Lord's Day 37 in our catechism. So here we are in Judges 11, beginning in verse 29. It says to us here in God's Word, Judges 11, beginning in verse 29. Then the Spirit of the Lord was upon Jephthah. And he passed through Gilead and Manasseh, and passed on to Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah 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 Aror to the neighborhood of Minut, twenty cities, and as far as Abel-Karamim with a 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. Do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, now that the Lord has avenged you on your enemies, 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. So there we have Judges 11, 29 to 40. Let's look in the back of our Psalter hymnal on page 51. Lord's Day 37. Just question 101 this morning. I'll read the question and together we will say the answer. So question 101 asks us, but may we swear an oath in God's name if we do it reverently? Yes, when the government demands it or when necessity requires it, in order to maintain and promote truth and trustworthiness for God's glory and our neighbor's good. Such oaths are approved in God's Word and were rightly used by Old and New Testament believers. So there we have question 101 in Lord's Day 37. Well, let's come to the Lord in prayer then and ask for his blessing as we look at his word together. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank You, O God, not only for psalms that we can sing. We thank You, Father, not only for laws which counsel us and guide us by Your Spirit. We thank You, not only, Father, for the Gospels which tell us the earthly ministry of our blessed Lord. And we thank You not only for the letters written to the churches which are there to encourage us and address us particularly as believers in christ but we thank you as well father for the narratives of the old testament indeed you have been pleased to give us stories and so we ask father that as narratives are preached whether this morning or at future dates in the life and ministry of churches that you would add your blessing to them that they would be that they would be under the ministry of that word which you have appointed for us, and that they would come to us, O God, not simply with the words of men, but they would come to us as indeed they are, the words of the living God. So teach us and train us, we pray, and help us, Father, to understand your word each and every day, for we call upon you asking all of this for Jesus' sake. Amen. Well, beloved congregation of Christ, maybe you're already asking the question to yourself. What's the deal with Jephthah's vow anyway? It's been said that the more you study Jephthah's vow, the more puzzling it becomes. Just out of curiosity, I did a Google search this past week and typed in those words, Jephthah's vow. 35,200 results came up in 0.34 seconds. Mind-boggling sort of information at your fingertips, so to speak. There were articles by Answers in Genesis, you know that group. There were articles by the Gospel Coalition. There were articles by Jewish scholars and by other Christian writers, and just a multitude of things to look at. through a few pages and pulled up some of the articles just to get a sense of what is out there in the public domain. Really no shortage of information on Jephthah's vow available. And there's widespread disagreement virtually among all of those who have something to say about Jephthah's vow. It reminded me a little bit as I thought through things this week, whenever the day was Monday night, whenever the first game of the World Series was at the bottom of the first inning, maybe you watched the game, the Royals were up to bat, and the very first pitch in the bottom of the first inning was hit by the batter out deep into left center field and the Mets outfielder couldn't quite make a play on the ball, and it sort of ricocheted off of his leg and went all the way out of bounds down the left field line there, and the runner ended up circling the bases and scoring. And there was a discussion the next day. It was officially ruled as an inside-the-park home run. But there were enough analysts who said, actually, that probably should have been ruled as a double And the outfielder made an error, and as a result of that, the runner was able to advance home. So even on a play like that, there was difference of opinion as to actually what happened and how it should be officially scored. Well, I would say with Judges 11, 29 to 40, it's a similar situation. The material is there for everybody to see, but some are of the opinion that it should be scored like this. Others are of the opinion that it should be understood this way. This has been the subject of no small amount of discussion over the centuries by Jewish and Christian scholars alike. Jephthah's vow on the one hand has been called everything from unadvised, to rash, to manipulative, to terrible, to appalling, to stupid, and even de Groff with Promise and Deliverance says it was useless, senseless, and aimless. Most interpreters argue that way, that Jephthah made a rash vow and ended up paying for it dearly by having to offer his only child, a daughter, as a literal burnt offering to the Lord. In fact, it wasn't, as far as I was able to determine, it wasn't until the 12th century just several hundred years ago, that an alternative interpretation came forth from two Jewish rabbis, one of them very well-known in particular, suggesting that what actually happened here was that Jephthah made a noble vow, and that rather than offering his daughter as a burnt offering to the Lord, which would not have been appropriate and which would not have been accepted by God, what Jephthah did was consecrate her then for lifelong service to the Lord. Evangelical pastors like Warren Wiersbe argue that way. And even in the Dutch Reformed community, Dr. David Murray, professor of Old Testament at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids argues that way as well. That's the angle that we're going to take in the sermon this morning. that Jephthah made a noble vow and that he consecrated his daughter according to that vow into the Lord's service for the rest of her life rather than offering her as a burnt sacrifice or a burnt offering. So let's keep some of this in mind as we come to our passage this morning. You can see the theme and points in hand if you have one of the inserts. Israel's judge makes a vow to Yahweh and keeps it. And to understand this puzzling passage, and admittedly it's a puzzling passage, let's ask these two questions. Let's ask, first of all, just what exactly did Jephthah vow? And then let's ask secondly, and I would say maybe most importantly, let's ask why did his daughter agree to go along with it? So, as things open up in that first question, just what exactly did Jephthah vow? I would say Jephthah vowed in his vow to the Lord, if you look at the vow itself in verses 30 and 31, he vowed either to consecrate something to the Lord or to offer a burnt offering in light of a victory over the Ammonites if God was pleased to give that. And so, I would say the background of Jephthah's vow is the glory of God in the victory of the Ammonites and in the vow he makes subsequently. If you look at the passage, it opens up in verse 29 and the very first thing it says, is that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Jephthah. Now, in terms of the literary context and the narrative that we have in the passage, that's the stage that is set for Jephthah's vow. As the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him, he makes a movement across the countryside. And the very next thing we read is that he makes this vow. His vow is cast in the traditional form of, if then, right? If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, then. whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, and it goes from there. And maybe the wrinkle here is in verse 31 with the word and. If you look at the passage with me, and I hate to get detailed like this in a sermon, but if you look at the verse, the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the Lord's, it says here and I will offer it up as a burnt offering. I would submit to you that word and should be or understood as or. I will offer it up as a burnt offering. So that there's a twofold angle on the vow that Jephthah makes. If then I will do this or I will do that. It's called a disjunctive vav and it's very common in Hebrew narrative to have options set over and against each other like that. So it's not a stretch. that we recognize that word and as meaning or. And then look at verses 32 and 33, God's providence, no less. The Lord gives the Ammonites into Jephthah's hand with a great blow, it tells us. And then verses 34 and 35, Jephthah comes home, his daughter, To the victor goes the spoils, his only child, a daughter, she comes out to greet him with his ceremony and celebration, tambourines and dancing. He offers a lamentation because he recognizes that the if-then vow, the either-or vow, has implications for her. And he makes mention of that vow that he had made to the Lord, something he says at the end of verse 35 that he cannot take back. And then look at verses 39 and 40 on the other page. After the two-month excursion that she requested from her father for her and her companions to go up into the mountains, Jephthah did according to the vow that he had made. A custom is established in Israel, that the daughters of Israel, they go, it says, to lament. And I would submit to you that that's a lamentation of remembrance and a lamentation of commemoration regarding Jephthah's daughter and her part in all of this. Four days each year, this sort of a ceremony and ordinance takes place. In terms of the context, how the passage opens up with the spirit of the Lord being upon Jephthah, as I would suggest, he utters this vow. The custom of the times, it was not uncommon for God's people to make oaths and vows prior to going into battle or prior to serving God. Deuteronomy 10, for example, suggests that kind of thing plays a part in the life of the people. The providence of God who heard that vow and then in terms of the narrative responds by giving the Ammonites into Jephthah's hand. The cost incurred by Jephthah and his family. Not that his only child dies and loses her life in a human sacrifice, but that his only child remains husbandless and childless and the line of the family and the inheritance which would unfold from there comes to an end. as well as the custom that's established in verse 39 and 40. I would suggest all of those things together. favor the interpretation that Jephthah makes a noble vow and sets his daughter apart for service. In fact, if you look at Hebrews chapter 11 verse 32, Jephthah is mentioned along with Gideon and Barak and Samson and David and Samuel and the prophets as those who walked by faith and served the Lord. In fact, David Murray, who I mentioned earlier, he calls this Jephthah's perfect vow and argues quite extensively, much more extensively than I can argue this morning, that Jephthah, in fact, does something faith-filled and noble here. And maybe just pause for a minute and think through biblically another vow like this that was made. Think of Hannah, boys and girls, young people. In 1 Samuel chapter 1, Hannah made a similar kind of vow to the Lord, that if God would give her a son, then she would set that son apart to serve God. And that son, of course, was Samuel. And that's exactly what we see, I would say, a parallel situation with Hannah and Jephthah in that connection. Or maybe even historically. I know from Hadassah that the first graders and I'm sure other classes learned this past week about the Reformers and Martin Luther and the 95 Theses and Reformation Day. Well, on July 2nd, 1505, So that's 12 years prior to the nailing of the 95 Theses on the door of Wittenberg. Martin Luther was riding on horseback through the German countryside and a great thunderstorm rose up around him and a bolt of lightning struck very near him. And Luther, at that point, being a good Catholic, at that point, cried out to Saint Anna, who was reportedly, in Roman Catholic lore, the mother of Mary and the patron saint of women and of mothers, and oddly enough, of horseback riders. Luther cried out and made a vow. that if God preserved him from this storm, he would then enter into the ministry. Now, whatever we might want to say about Luther's vow and the rashness of it, Luther came to see that vow himself as binding, something God used in his life to compel him into the ministry. So, biblically and historically, you have similar vows in different ways with what we have here in Judges chapter 11. So, maybe to bring things down to earth, there was always a proper place for God's people to make and take vows. And you know what? There still is a proper place for God's people, you and me, to make and take vows. That's what Lord's Day 37 in connection with the third commandment is all about. It doesn't show the wear and tear or the barnacles of time on our catechism, but it's an opportunity for us to consider particularly the way in which the third commandment was designed to live among us as God's people. That we might take noble vows in the sight of the Lord and seek Him for grace and guidance to live up to those vows. Think about the vows that we take. Listen, think about the vows that we take in the course of our lives. Some vows involve public life. If you're a witness in a trial, then you will swear before you take the stand to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. If you hold office in the government, then you will be under some kind of obligation by way of oath. If you serve in the military or in the law enforcement, there are oaths and vows that are associated with that kind of service that pertains to the public life. All of that has a Judeo-Christian background to it. Think of the vows that we all have taken in terms of family life. There's marriage vows that are taken before God and His people. There are baptismal vows we saw just last week that the parents themselves take to raise their little ones in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And in Form 3 anyways, the congregation responds as well to take that vow to help with their prayers and encouragement to help the covenant community. be an aid to these parents who take those vows. And even think of vows that we have in terms of the religious life of a congregation. Baptismal vows aren't just family vows, but they're primarily ecclesiastical vows. There's profession of faith vows. How many of us have stood right up here? and answered yes to those four questions in the form for public profession of faith. That's a vow. That's an oath. That's a promise that you have made in the sight of God and His people, that you believe in and belong to Jesus Christ, and that you will receive the discipline and encouragement and counsel of the elders along the way of your life, that they might be a blessing of God, of Christ to you. Think of men who hold ecclesiastical office, whether pastors or elders or deacons. There's a vow involved in those men taking up that opportunity to serve. And what's important in all of those vows that all of us recognize, many of us are involved in them. All of us, in terms of the baptismal vows, are involved in these things, whether we had been baptized or have children who were baptized. Vows are to be upheld. They are to be taken freely. They are only to be taken lawfully and we must remember to fight to keep the vows we have taken. And so along those lines, let me close out this first point just by, if you're taking notes, to give you five Fs to help you avoid getting five Fs when it comes to the vows that you've made and taken. In the first place, maybe what is most key in taking vows is to make and take your vows in the fear of the Lord. Recognizing that even if there is a horizontal element to the vows you have taken in the sight of others, that above all else, first and foremost, your vows are made and taken in the sight of God, in the fear of the Lord. In the second place, make and take your vows in good faith. Not under compulsion, but willingly. Not with uncertainty about the situation you're getting into, but with a full view of what lies ahead of you so that there are no questions, there are no considerations that are unaware, but you enter into the vow willingly and knowingly in good faith. In the third place, make and take your vows in order to further the kingdom of God, recognizing that your vows that you take as a husband, as a wife, as a professing member of Christ's church, even vows as a witness in the courtroom or as a military member or a law enforcement officer, those vows taken upon the lips of Christian people ultimately are designed to enable us to serve Christ and to serve God and to further and advance the kingdom of God. Make and take your vows forthly with a recognition of the future implications. Future implications. If you're a parent who takes baptismal vows, there may very well come a point in time where you get down the line in the life of your children, that you are frustrated with the way things have unfolded. But the thing that drives you forward in humble dependence upon God is that you have taken a vow to raise these little ones in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. If you are a husband or a wife, who gets down the line in your marriage, and you realize that this is no storybook that you have stepped into, and that there actually are difficulties and trials along the way of your marriage, I would suggest to you that the main thing to keep before you, rather than crumpling up that marriage and throwing it away, is to remember the vows that have been taken in the sight of God, and to recognize that the future of your marriage, in large part, will be carried out and accomplished by remembering the vows you have taken in God's sight. Now, marriages are always a two-way street. I recognize the complexities and complications of it. But in the fifth place, remember fervency of heart that's required to keep the vows you take. Fervency of heart is another way of talking about the life of gratitude. There's a real desire to maintain the vows that have been made. A real desire to own up to what has been promised. And a real desire to do that wholeheartedly and happily as God is looked to as the one who supplies and gives grace along the way. I would submit to you that this is the guilt, grace, and gratitude model of the Christian life when it comes to making and taking vows. So on the one hand, as you hear that gospel call, it says, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Well, then hear that gospel call to offer yourself as a living sacrifice to God, holy and well-pleasing in His sight, which is your reasonable service. Because both sides of that coin, on the one hand, call us to a real repentance and a true faith, and on the other hand, to a life of sincerity and simplicity and of faith before the Lord as we seek by His grace to live up to the word that we have spoken. So as we continue then, we ask that question, just what exactly did Jephthah vow? And I think that's clear enough at this point. But maybe the key question in understanding chapter 11, verses 29 to 40, correctly is to ask that question, why did Jephthah's daughter agree to go along with it? Maybe that's the key question to ask in this narrative. I would say that she agreed to go along with what her father asked of her because she understood that the vow he made resulted in her consecration for a lifetime of service to the Lord. rather than the vow he made resulting in her death as a human sacrifice under the category of a burnt offering. Look at verse 34, Jephthah's daughter came out to meet him. This is the way that the passage introduces her to us. She welcomes him. She displays the love that she has for her father. And we're told, like with Isaac and Abraham, that she is her father's only child. She says in verses 36 and 37 that her father's vow is acknowledged. I would suggest he is acknowledging the vow he's made as valid. She accepts the terms of the vow as they come to her, recognizing God's hand of providence and of sovereignty in all of this. Not only the vow that was made, but the victory that followed from it. And she simply asks, Before her consecration of lifelong service to the Lord begins, she simply asks for a two-month window for her and her companions to go up into the mountains to mourn what? Not to mourn her impending death, but to mourn her virginity, because she's going to remain husbandless and therefore childless. So Jephthah agrees to what she requests. He sends her away. Again, the details of why she and her companions are going up into the mountains are told to us. And when she comes back at the appointed time, notice the, I want to say vague, not in a bad way, but the vague language of the passage Jephthah did according to his vow. It doesn't say, that he offered her up as a burnt offering. It doesn't say that she was put to death, but it says Jephthah fulfilled the vow he had spoken. And then with the end of the passage in verse 39b, she had never known a man. And it became a custom in Israel that the daughters of Israel went year by year, again, to lament by way of commemoration the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year. Even some Jewish commentators have suggested that four day window was a bit of a reprieve that Jephthah's daughter got each year to join her companions in this commemoration or lamentation of the vow that he had made and her involvement in it. But what is key, I would suggest at the end of the passage, isn't the fact that we're told she lost her life, but rather that she remained a virgin and that some sort of a custom was established. So I guess I would simply ask these questions when we ask the first question here, why did Jephthah's daughter agree to go along with it? I would say, what's more likely? That in a context like this, Jephthah's daughter willingly gives herself to participate in some kind of a human sacrifice under the guise of worshiping the Lord? Or is it more likely that she understood this consecration aspect to the vow that her father made, and she willingly takes that burden upon herself to serve God in light of what her father had said? I would say what makes more sense to lament this commemoration of the whole episode involving Jephthah and his daughter's involvement, or to lament by way of commemoration a pagan sacrifice that involved a human being being offered up in this way to the Lord. In my opinion, and I would say the way to understand the passage, is that to see the burnt offering aspect as the result of Jephthah's vow, that doesn't pass the smell test because it just doesn't seem right, and it doesn't pass the eye test because it just doesn't look right in light of what we're told in the verses. But maybe you sit there this morning and you say to yourself, so what? So what about this weird passage in Judges chapter 11 that nobody apparently seems to agree on? I mean you make some comments about vows and the importance of them in our lives, and now what in the world do you say about Jephthah's daughter as a second point? How does any of that come home to us as a congregation and the lives that God has given to us to live? Well, I would suggest to you that the last part of the passage, 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. That last part of the passage teaches us at least three things. First of all, we can learn from Jephthah's daughter about the beauty and the importance of honoring your parents. Her respect for her father is easy to see in this passage. Her love for her father is clear to see. And boys and girls, young people, in that connection, Jephthah's daughter, I would submit to you, is an example for you to follow, having respect and love for your father, but for your parents, both of them. Listen, boys and girls, young people, Your parents too have taken vows upon their lips that involve the way they treat you. Have taken vows upon their lips that mold and shape the way they raise you in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And your calling as a child in the covenant community is to show respect to your parents and love to your parents and do all you can by God's grace to support them in the fulfilling of the vows they have made with regard to you. And believe. that God will take care of you as you entrust yourselves into your parents' guidance and direction. Like the way our catechism phrases things in the fifth commandment. We show all honor, love, and faithfulness to our parents and to those in authority over us, da da da, since we know that it pleases God to govern us by their hand. And in the second place, with the end of the passage here, we can learn from Jephthah's daughter, about what it means to have reverence to the Lord. Not just regard for her father, but I would submit to you that what underlies everything that Jephthah's daughter does here is her reverence to the Lord. Verse 36 shows us that she takes very seriously the words that her father has spoken in the sight of God. Verse 36 shows us that Jephthah's daughter recognizes not just the providence of God in having given the Ammonites into her father's hand, but that she recognizes in that the sovereignty of God in her life as well. And she humbly and piously and patiently prepares for the future life that now pertains to her as far as what verse 37 tells to us. The third commandment, I would suggest, is in view with all of what she thinks in this connection. And that goes for all of us too. Our lives, right? As we recognize God's providence and God's sovereignty, our lives too are at His disposal. Our lives too unfold according to His plan. And when we remember that, and when we seek to recognize that each day, We continue in prayer, we continue in meditation, and we continue in reflection, asking God to guide us and direct us in all of our service, no matter what it is, and no matter where it takes us, that we may praise and uphold the name of the Lord with the lives He has given to us. And maybe you wonder how the gospel fits in all of this. Well, I would suggest to you that one way Again, picking up on the language of the end of our passage there, one thing we can learn from this vow in connection with our Lord Jesus Christ, is that Jesus too came to earth to render his service in light of a vow that had been made. In light of the counsel and decree of God from all eternity past, that his son be the appointed redeemer of his elect is the background and backdrop for our Lord's coming. Jesus came, in the words of Psalm 40, just as it was written of me, to do your will, O God. He came, he says, to do the Father's will, which was his meat and drink. It says in the scriptures, he came to destroy the works of the devil. It said he came to save and to raise up, not one of which will be lost, all of those that God had given to him. Christ came to earth in light of a solemn oath and vow that had been sworn not only about him, but that he himself took upon his own lips for us, you and me, and for our salvation so that we might be saved. Anytime we hear of vows, let's move beyond the horizontal element and see that vertical view with the vows that pertain to the Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation He has accomplished for us. Let's hear that Word. Let's rejoice in that Word. Let's believe that Word. And in light of our Savior's faithfulness to us, let's be girded in the loins of our heart. for a week of service, of happiness and holiness in the days which yet lie ahead. You hear, you know, you believe. Now go, Monday through Saturday, and live in faithfulness, depending upon God for grace and for guidance all throughout the course of the week. Amen. Well, let's pray, shall we? Heavenly Father, we ask Lord for your blessing upon your word. We pray that you would work through the weaknesses and shortcomings of the delivery, that it might come to us with clarity, but that even more so it may come to us with the unction and power of your spirit behind us. So Father, impress these things upon us, we pray. Teach us and train us by them, and enliven our hearts, we ask, by that gospel promise. We call upon you, earnestly seeking and begging all of this from your hand. In Jesus' name, amen.