JUDGES CHAPTER 10-11, “The Story Of Jephthah And Some Do-nothing Judges”

By

Jim Bomkamp

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1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. In our last study, we looked at chapter 9 and the story of the conspiracy of Abimilech, the son of Gideon through his concubine from the city of Shechem.

1.1.1. We saw in that study how that Abimilech’s actions were really the result of having a neglectful and unloving father in Gideon.

1.1.1.1. Abimilech was an illegitimate son born of a woman that was not a wife but just a slave. She provided sex just as a convenience for her master, not because she was any kind of a help mate or partner for Gideon

1.1.1.2. Gideon apparently never acted like a father to Abimilech, and never gave Abimilech the love he longed for from his father, the love that a father is obliged to give to sons and daughters.

1.1.1.3. Gideon apparently also was very neglectful and never trained up his son in the ways of the Lord.

1.1.1.4. By his parental neglect as well as giving Abimilech a name which means, “son of a king,” Gideon created in his son a heart that was egotistical, greedy, lawless, and ambitious and which desired all of the wrong things in life, including power and wealth to be obtained at any cost.

1.1.2. We saw that Abimilech desired to be king of Israel, after his father rejected the offer to be king. Abimilech then mounted an insurrection, one which was really against the Lord (who was to be their king remember) so that he could be made king. We saw in that chapter that Abimilech killed off the rest of 70 Gideon’s sons, with the exception of Jotham, and then that he declared himself to be king.

1.1.3. We observed and interpreted the first of the parables that are found in the Old Testament.

1.1.4. We saw justice in this study in that Abimilech was treated just as he had done to others, and, the men of the city of Shechem were also judged by the Lord.

1.2. In our study today, we are going to look at chapters 10-11, and we will see some “do-nothing” judges as well as this man Jepthah who delivered the sons of Israel from the sons of Ammon who had been oppressing them.

1.2.1. Here in this chapter of Judges we see some who functioned as judges who were not known for any great deeds that they had done for Israel. In fact, some of the men who were judges are remembered only for having an extravagant lifestyle. I’ve called all of these “do-nothing” judges.

1.2.2. We will see this man Jephthah who was called by the Lord to be a judge of the children of Israel even though he had several smears against his name:

1.2.2.1. He was an illegitimate son of a prostitute.

1.2.2.2. He had been run out of his own home by his half-brothers.

1.2.2.3. He had gathered together around him some men who were “worthless fellows.”

1.2.3. Jephthah is called by the children of Israel to be the leader and head over them so that they might be able to go out and conquer their oppressors, the Ammonites.

1.2.4. We will see the rash and foolish vow that Jephthah makes to the Lord if He will will give him victory over the Ammonites, Israel’s oppressor.

2. VS 10:1-2 - “¹ Now after Abimelech died, Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, arose to save Israel; and he lived in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. ² He judged Israel twenty-three years. Then he died and was buried in Shamir.” - Tola judges Israel

2.1. We see in these verses that though Tola functioned as a judge of Israel, and did so for 23 years, that there were no great deeds that he performed for Israel.

2.2. We could take the position that since no bad things were written about him that he served faithfully as a judge and took his calling as a judge before the Lord seriously, but it seems like in 23 years of service he would have been known for some great deed he had done.

3. VS 10:3-5 - “³ After him, Jair the Gileadite arose and judged Israel twenty-two years. ⁴ He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys, and they had thirty cities in the land of Gilead that are called Havvoth-jair to this day. ⁵ And Jair died and was buried in Kamon.” - Jair the Gileadite judged Israel

3.1. We see in these verses that though Jair served as a judged for 22 years that the only thing that he was known for was that he had 30 sons who each rode on 30 donkeys and had 30 cities of their own.

3.2. This man Jair is really known not for what he did for Israel as a judge but for his own decadence:

3.2.1. If he had 30 sons, he must have accumulated many wives to himself as was the custom of the kings and the rich.

3.2.2. Donkeys were only afforded by the rich class of people. Therefore, for this man to have 30 sons who rode on 30 donkeys would be like saying today that this man had 30 sons who all drove Corvette Stingrays. This would be to say that this man Jair used his influence and wealth primarily for spoiling his sons.

3.2.3. J. Vernon McGee has written the following about this man Jair, the judge, and his legacy, “In Jair’s story I can see three things: (1) prosperity without purpose; 2) affluence without influence; (3) prestige without power.

3.2.3.1. We as Christians must all take our calling by the Lord very solemnly and very seriously.

3.2.3.2. In the scriptures we read about the slothful and lazy person, and there are verses saying things like, “Awake O sluggard.” We Christians must not be slothful or lazy in our obedience to the Lord and fulfilling our calling before the Lord. However, there are many Christians who like these “do-nothing” judges are really spiritually asleep and never really do much of anything for the Lord in ministry, never really know God’s calling for their life, etc. To the slothful sluggard Christian who is spiritually asleep Jesus said the following words in Rev. 3:15-16, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I would that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.”

3.3. The New Bible Dictionary references Gilead, where Jair was from, as referring to the whole Trans-jordan land occupied by the three tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh.

4. VS 10:6-14 - “⁶ Then the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the sons of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; thus they forsook the Lord and did not serve Him. ⁷ The anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the sons of Ammon. ⁸ They afflicted and crushed the sons of Israel that year; for eighteen years they afflicted all the sons of Israel who were beyond the Jordan in Gilead in the land of the Amorites. ⁹ The sons of Ammon crossed the Jordan to fight also against Judah, Benjamin, and the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was greatly distressed. ¹⁰ Then the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord, saying, “We have sinned against You, for indeed, we have forsaken our God and served the Baals.” ¹¹ The Lord said to the sons of Israel, “Did I not deliver you from the Egyptians, the Amorites, the sons of Ammon, and the Philistines? ¹² “Also when the Sidonians, the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you, you cried out to Me, and I delivered you from their hands. ¹³ “Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods; therefore I will no longer deliver you. ¹⁴ “Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your distress.”” - Israel plummets further into apostasy than ever and we see that when they cry out to the Lord that He refuses to hear their cries

4.1. These verses show us that for the sons of Israel that their continuous cycle of falling away from the Lord was not always symmetrical, for in reality it appears that each time that the children of Israel fell away from the Lord that they went further astray.

4.2. Here we see that the children of Israel served the Baals and the Astaroth, and all of the gods of the nations that they had defeated when under Joshua they conquered stronghold cities of the land of Canaan. What a foolish thing it was to now serve the gods who could not defend the nations from the Lord when Israel had conquered the land of Canaan under Joshua!

4.3. Just as Israel was getting worse in their backsliding, the Christians need to realize that our old sinful nature is not really getting any better. The flesh never gets better with age, it never gets cleaned up. Paul wrote about this in Eph. 4:22, saying, “²² that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit.” Whenever we begin to walk in the flesh, we are opening the flood gates to the power of sin and the influence of the Devil that can cause us to commit horrible sins. We Christians are still capable of committing sins just like the people of this world, and will commit those same kinds of acts if we do not allow the Lord to crucify our old sinful nature. Our old nature is “continually” being corrupted Paul writes here.

4.3.1. The only thing that our old sinful nature is good for is putting to death! Don’t try to dress it up. Don’t try to put make up on it. Don’t try to give it a bath. Just kill it!

4.3.2. If we are wise we will realize the folly of allowing sin to rule in us even one minute of our life.

4.3.3. We Christians need to apply Romans 6:11-13 to our lives and constantly acknowledge, believe, and act upon the fact that our old nature has been crucified with Christ and that Christ is making us dead to sin but alive to God, “¹¹ Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. ¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, ¹³ and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”

4.4. Because the children of Israel had fallen so far away from the Lord He gave them into the hands of Ammon and the Philistines. For eighteen long years these two nations afflicted the children of Israel.

4.5. The Lord decided this time when the children of Israel turned back to Him to not hear them. The Lord wanted the children of Israel to learn from their backslidings, and really after seeing time and again the devastation that always occurred whenever they turned away from the Lord, and how also that the Lord was always able and willing to raise up a deliverer to rescue them from their oppressors, the children of Israel should have learned the folly of turning away from the Lord. But, they hadn’t.

4.6. The Lord tells the children of Israel here when they cry out to Him to call instead upon their new gods to deliver them from the Ammonites and Philistines, their oppressors.

5. VS 10:15-18 - “¹⁵ The sons of Israel said to the Lord, “We have sinned, do to us whatever seems good to You; only please deliver us this day.” ¹⁶ So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord; and He could bear the misery of Israel no longer. ¹⁷ Then the sons of Ammon were summoned and they camped in Gilead. And the sons of Israel gathered together and camped in Mizpah. ¹⁸ The people, the leaders of Gilead, said to one another, “Who is the man who will begin to fight against the sons of Ammon? He shall become head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”” - Israel finally repented of their sins and threw themselves at the Lord’s mercy

5.1. The Lord was waiting for the children of Israel to truly repent of their sins before He would deliver them. They had previously cried out to the Lord when they had become sorrowful of the consequences of their sins, however they had not come to the place of being sorrowful for doing them in the first place. There is a big difference in the two.

5.2. In 2 Cor. 7:9-11, the apostle Paul wrote about how the sorrow for wrong that the world has is not the godly sorrow that leads to genuine repentence that we as God’s people ought to have over our sins, “⁹ I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. ¹⁰ For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. ¹¹ For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what avenging of wrong! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter.”

5.2.1. Many times we as Christians are like the children of Israel. We may have sorrow because of our sins and not being where the Lord wants us to be in our spiritual walk, but we are not willing to repent of those sins. It is a lack of genuine repentance that keeps the Lord from really using our lives in a great way and doing the great things that He wants to do in our lives. We need to genuinely repent of our sins when the Holy Spirit makes us aware that we have sin in our life.

5.2.2. This reminds me of when I once heard Stanley Voke, an English preacher, preach at our church. He told us there that people often will come up to him after a service and tell him what a great message it was that he preached, or how much they enjoyed his message. He said that he will then ask them, “Well then what is it that you are going to repent of? What have you determined now that is going to change in your life as a result of this message?”

5.3. Notice in these verses that once the children of Israel had come to genuine repentence that the Lord could not bear their misery any longer, He had to act on their behalf now and deliver them.

5.3.1. We Christians need to realize that when we finally have come to that place of being genuinely repentant of our sins and of having committed our way fully to the Lord, that the Lord is then going to bless us and do a mighty and glorious work through our lives. But, until we get to that point He is waiting to do that work.

5.4. The problem that the children of Israel now had was that they were prepared in heart to go to battle against their oppressors, and the Lord was committed to delivering them, however they did not have a general among them who could rally them together and lead their armies. They now begin to search for a leader for them.

6. VS 11:1-3 - “¹ Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a valiant warrior, but he was the son of a harlot. And Gilead was the father of Jephthah. ² Gilead’s wife 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.” ³ So Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob; and worthless fellows gathered themselves about Jephthah, and they went out with him.” - Here we are introduced to the man to be the next judge of Israel, Jephthah

6.1. In the scriptures we see that the Lord has no respect for the opinions of people when He chooses His leaders. His leaders are often the off scouring of the earth, men whom the world would never chosen for leaders.

6.2. This man Jephthah was illegitimate, the son of a common prostitute. However, his father had tried to do the right and honorable thing concerning him, he had brought this son into his home and attempted to be a father to him and raise him.

6.3. Raising Jephthah had gone OK, however when the other sons of the man got older they eventually drove Jephthah out of the house. Jephthah then fled to the land of Gilead, in the Trans-jordan area.

6.4. Jephthah then gathered to himself a group of ‘worthless fellows’ and they formed a little community there in Gilead.

6.5. Jephthah however was the Lord’s choice for a leader. He was a man who knew the Lord’s power and about how the Lord had delivered the children of Israel in times past. He also had some knowledge of God’s word. In fact, we see that of all of the judges of Israel in the book of Judges that Jephthah used the Name of the Lord the most.

6.6. Jephthah used his limitations and misfortune in life for good as he drew near to the Lord for protection and help and he sought to know God and His word.

6.6.1. We can learn something from this man Jephthah. Christians often tend to think that being called and used by the Lord requires a certain parentage or environment and that their lot is to sit on the sidelines and watch others who are called and used by the Lord. However, we can learn from Jephthah that there is no human limitation which should keep any man or woman from being used by the Lord.

6.6.2. When we look at the men whom God used in the scriptures, we see that often they had terrible things that they had done in their past which haunted them and could have caused them to sit on the sidelines and not allow the Lord to use them, and yet they didn’t allow those things that they had done to keep them from being used by God.

6.6.2.1. Moses murdered the Egyptian soldier and fled for his life.

6.6.2.2. David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then in order to cover it up had her husband Uriah killed.

6.6.2.3. Saul had persecuted Christians to the death before his conversion.

6.6.3. God can use all of our misfortune for good and use our lives greatly if we will submit ourselves to the Lord and just simply be available for Him to use us.

7. VS 11:4-11 - “⁴ It came about after a while that the sons of Ammon fought against Israel. ⁵ When the sons of Ammon fought against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob; ⁶ and they said to Jephthah, “Come and be our chief that we may fight against the sons of Ammon.” ⁷ Then Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Did you not hate me and drive me from my father’s house? So why have you come to me now when you are in trouble?” ⁸ The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “For this reason we have now returned to you, that you may go with us and fight with the sons of Ammon and become head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.” ⁹ So Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you take me back to fight against the sons of Ammon and the Lord gives them up to me, will I become your head?” ¹⁰ The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The Lord is witness between us; surely we will do as you have said.” ¹¹ Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them; and Jephthah spoke all his words before the Lord at Mizpah.” - The sons of Israel come to Jephthah in Gilead seeking him to be their general so that they can go up against their oppressors

7.1. It is quite remarkable here that this man Jephthah, with all of the marks against him, had shown so many godly and leadership qualities that the sons of Israel send their elders to him in his exile in Gilead to convince him to come and be their general as they go up to overthrow Ammon and the Philistines who had been oppressing them.

7.2. The sons of Israel must have been desperate for a leader if they were willing to humble themselves to the extent of coming to find a leader in this son of a prostitute exiled by his own family.

7.3. Jephthah makes it difficult for the sons of Israel to gain his services. He requires that they make him their head over them. They are both so impressed with Jephthah’s abilities as well as desperate for a leader that they are willing to let him be head over them.

8. VS 11:12-28 - “¹² Now Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the sons of Ammon, saying, “What is between you and me, that you have come to me to fight against my land?” ¹³ The king of the sons of Ammon said to the messengers of Jephthah, “Because Israel took away my land when they came up from Egypt, from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok and the Jordan; therefore, return them peaceably now.” ¹⁴ But Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the sons of Ammon, ¹⁵ and they said to him, “Thus says Jephthah, ‘Israel did not take away the land of Moab nor the land of the sons of Ammon. ¹⁶ ‘For when they came up from Egypt, and Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh, ¹⁷ then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, “Please let us pass through your land,” but the king of Edom would not listen. And they also sent to the king of Moab, but he would not consent. So Israel remained at Kadesh. ¹⁸ ‘Then they went through the wilderness and around the land of Edom and the land of Moab, and came to the east side of the land of Moab, and they camped beyond the Arnon; but they did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab. ¹⁹ ‘And Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon, and Israel said to him, “Please let us pass through your land to our place.” ²⁰ ‘But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory; so Sihon gathered all his people and camped in Jahaz and fought with Israel. ²¹ ‘The Lord, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they defeated them; so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country. ²² ‘So they possessed all the territory of the Amorites, from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok, and from the wilderness as far as the Jordan. ²³ ‘Since now the Lord, the God of Israel, drove out the Amorites from before His people Israel, are you then to possess it? ²⁴ ‘Do you not possess what Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whatever the Lord our God has driven out before us, we will possess it. ²⁵ ‘Now are you any better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever strive with Israel, or did he ever fight against them? ²⁶ ‘While Israel lived in Heshbon and its villages, and in Aroer and its villages, and in all the cities that are on the banks of the Arnon, three hundred years, why did you not recover them within that time? ²⁷ ‘I therefore have not sinned against you, but you are doing me wrong by making war against me; may the Lord, the Judge, judge today between the sons of Israel and the sons of Ammon.’ ” ²⁸ But the king of the sons of Ammon disregarded the message which Jephthah sent him.” - Jephthah attempts diplomacy with the sons of Ammon to get them to leave the sons of Israel alone and quit oppressing them

8.1. The first thing that Jephthah does after assuming leadership over Israel is to send messengers to the king of Ammon to find out why they were oppressing Israel. The king of Ammon sends back to Jephthah word that the problem is because Israel had taken their land in the Trans-jordan area.

8.2. Jephthah sends a reply explaining the way in which the children of Israel ended up with that land, and why they should possess it now:

8.2.1. First of all, they obtained the land when they were coming out of Egypt and the kings of Edom and Moab would not let them travel through their lands, and then when they came to the land of the Ammonites and requested permission to travel through their land that Sihon, the king of the Ammonites, didn’t trust the children of Israel and thus he brought his army up against Israel to fight against them. However, Sihon and the Ammonites lost that battle and thus Israel gained the territory of the Ammonites. It was the God of Israel who gave Israel the land of the Ammonites because the god of the Ammonites, Chemosh, was not powerful enough to give them the victory.

8.2.2. Secondly, since the children of Israel had owned the land now for 300 years there was going to be no going back in time to when the Ammonites possessed the land.

8.2.3. Jephthah finally tells the messengers of the king of Ammon that Ammon is now in the wrong for they are the ones oppressing Israel and trying to start a war now.

8.3. The king of Ammon however totally disregarded Jephthah’s diplomatic message trying to diffuse the situation. War was imminent now.

9. VS 11:29-40 - “²⁹ Now the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, so that he passed through Gilead and Manasseh; then he passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he went on to the sons of Ammon. ³⁰ Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, “If You will indeed give the sons of Ammon into my hand, ³¹ then it shall be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the sons of Ammon, it shall be the Lord’s, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.” ³² So Jephthah crossed over to the sons of Ammon to fight against them; and the Lord gave them into his hand. ³³ He struck them with a very great slaughter from Aroer to the entrance of Minnith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel-keramim. So the sons of Ammon were subdued before the sons of Israel. ³⁴ When Jephthah came to his house at Mizpah, behold, his daughter was coming out to meet him with tambourines and with dancing. Now she was his one and only child; besides her he had no son or daughter. ³⁵ When he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you are among those who trouble me; for I have given my word to the Lord, and I cannot take it back.” ³⁶ So she said to him, “My father, you have given your word to the Lord; do to me as you have said, since the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the sons of Ammon.” ³⁷ She said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me; let me alone two months, that I may go to the mountains and weep because of my virginity, I and my companions.” ³⁸ Then he said, “Go.” So he sent her away for two months; and she left with her companions, and wept on the mountains because of her virginity. ³⁹ At the end of two months she returned to her father, who did to her according to the vow which he had made; and she had no relations with a man. Thus it became a custom in Israel, ⁴⁰ that the daughters of Israel went yearly to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year.” - Jephthah makes a vow to the Lord if the Lord will give him victory over the Ammonites, and after the victory he has to make good on his vow

9.1. We see here that the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah as he traveled through the Trans-jordan area and surveyed the land contemplating a war with the sons of Ammon. The Spirit’s coming upon Jephthah was primarily to give him the courage to rally the sons of Israel together to go up against he sons of Ammon in battle.

9.2. Even though the Spirit came upon Jephthah and strengthened him, Jephthah didn’t understand that the battle for which he was going to trust the Lord for victory was actually the Lord’s battle to be fought. Jephthah didn’t understand that he was called because the Lord was fulfilling His own purposes in delivering the Israelites from their oppressors. Jephthah didn’t need to try to bribe the Lord with a vow in order to gain the victory, the Lord was planning to give him the victory all along because it was the Lord who had called him as a judge and who would go before him so that he might have victory in the battle.

9.2.1. Before we get too critical of this man Jepthah for making this vow, we Christians ought to realize that we too sometimes are guilty of not realizing that the battles we are facing are actually His battles and that we have been called to fulfill our part of that battle plan. Each of us as members of the body of Christ have a function (or ministry) that we are to fulfill as part of the Lord’s big plan for our church, city, nation, and world.

9.2.2. I think that pastors sometimes forget this very fact that we are just part of God’s plan and purposes. We are going to have victory and be used by the Lord as part of His perfect will, and all will occur in His perfect timing.

9.2.2.1. The Lord always has a much bigger plan for our lives and ministries than we understand or realize that He has for us.

9.3. The big debate amongst Bible commentators is about whether or not Jephthah actually made a human sacrifice of his daughter after this vow. The traditional view of this is that Jephthah actually did sacrifice his daughter. However, in recent years there has been some significant arguments given as to why it is unlikely that Jephthah did actually sacrifice his daughter, including:

9.3.1. The wording here of the text of Jephthah’s vow can be translated in such a way that Jephthah was saying that he would either dedicate to the Lord whatever came out of his tent or offer it as a burnt offering, “If You will indeed give the sons of Ammon into my hand, ³¹ then it shall be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the sons of Ammon, it shall be the Lord’s, OR I will offer it up as a burnt offering.”

9.3.2. Jephthah’s name is found in Hebrews chapter 11’s “Hall of Faith” (Heb. 11:32) and it would be odd if his name were there and yet he had committed such a heinous act as a human sacrifice, even if in doing so he was keeping his vow to the Lord.

9.3.3. There is not one word in the scriptures about Jephthah’s human sacrifice.

9.3.4. When the text here says in verse 39 that Jephthah kept this vow, notice that it says that this meant that his daughter had no relations with a man, for he: ‘did to her according to the vow which he had made; and she had no relations with a man.’

9.3.5. Jephthah knew God’s word well enough to know that it was an abomination to the Lord to offer a human sacrifice, and thus Jephthah would have known that the Lord could never have been pleased with this vow.

9.3.6. Sacrifices were to be offered in the tabernacle located in Shiloh and surely the priests would have talked Jephthah out of offering a human sacrifice since to do so would have defiled the sanctuary of God.

9.3.7. Etc., etc., etc.

9.4. This was a rash vow though for Jephthah to have made, and he made this vow because though he did understand much about the scriptures, he didn’t have a great grasp of the scriptures and of the Lord’s plans for mankind.

9.4.1. What if a neighbor had been visiting Jephthah’s tent and walked out upon his return, he couldn’t have kept this vow in this case?

9.4.2. Or, what if some unclean animal had come out upon his return, he surely couldn’t have kept this vow in this case either and offered up on unclean animal for sacrifice?

9.5. We Christians also may not have a “great” grasp of the scriptures. Though we may not really be infants in our understanding and spiritual growth, we can be adolescents in them. Pressing on to greater maturity in our understanding of the scripture and our spiritual growth is so important because just as happened to Jephthah with this rash vow, adolescent Christians can make rash decisions based upon their yet imperfect understanding of scripture and the state of their spiritual maturity in Christ.

9.6. Jephthah had only one child, this daughter, and therefore Jephthah’s sorrow is over the fact not that he would now have to kill his only daughter but that his name would end with himself for he had offered his daughter to the Lord, and thus she could never marry or have children.

9.7. We have to admire this man Jephthah for keeping his vow to the Lord. The scriptures warn us of the solemnity of making vows to the Lord, for if we make a vow to the Lord He expects us to keep it. It is better not to make a vow than to make it and then not keep it.

9.8. We also have to admire this daughter of Jephthah’s who encourages him to keep his vow that he had made concerning her even though to do so meant that she would never have children (the greatest curse that a woman in Israel could endure).

9.9. Notice in verse 40 that it says that because this daughter of Jepthah’s encouraged her father to keep this vow he had made in regard to dedicating her to the Lord, that the daughters of Israel yearly commemorated what this daughter had done.

10. CONCLUSION:

10.1. Lets learn some things from this judge, Jephthah:

10.1.1. Lets refuse to allow our past sins and falling short hinder us from fulfilling the Lord’s calling and plans for our lives.

10.1.2. Like Jephthah lets be people who are committed to keeping our vows that we make to the Lord, even if it hurts to do so.

10.1.3. Like Jephthah lets be people who seek to know the word of God and the great things that the Lord has done in the lives of His people.

10.1.4. Many judges never really were motivated to take their calling seriously from the Lord, and thus they never really did anything notable in their life. Lets follow Jephthah’s lead and take our calling by the Lord seriously and seek to do all that God has intended for our lives.

10.1.4.1. Lets not be content to be lazy and slothful Christians.

10.1.5. Lets press on to maturity in our understanding of the scriptures and of God’s purposes for mankind.

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