Judges - 9
Jephthah
You would have thought that after the bad experience with Abimelech as their judge and then the settled period under the two judges Tola and Jair the Israelites would begin to see what was good for them. Tola judged them for twenty-three years and Jair for twenty-two giving them a time of peace and prosperity under the merciful hand of God. Yet, as we read in Judges chapter ten, verse six, “the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord.”
It seems as though they were determined to plunge headlong into disaster and to provoke the Lord their God shamelessly. We read in the same verse that not only did they worship Baal and Ashtoreth, the false gods of Canaan, but also the gods of Syria to the north-east; the gods of Zidon on their northern coast; the gods of Moab across the Dead Sea to the east; the gods of the Ammonites east of the Jordan; and the gods of the Philistines on their western border.
Can you see what they were doing? After all the mercy shown them by God, they were looking all around them and borrowing the worship and practices of their neighbours. It seems that the Living and True God was not good enough for them. He had become familiar, even boring, so they looked for excitement in other beliefs. They wanted easy-going standards of morality and freedom from the demands of God’s law. And so they “forsook the Lord and no longer served Him.” They turned away from all that should have marked them out as God’s people and different from the nations around them and became indistinguishable from their neighbours.
Sadly, the same happens among God’s people today. The old strict standards of God’s Word don’t look half as appealing as the current ideas of morality and behaviour. Life-styles of those around seem much more exciting. Why, out there in the world people have a great time. Their religion doesn’t cramp their style. People don’t frown on you if you don’t apply strict standards to yourself. They seem to be more understanding and live life to the full. This was just the way the Israelites of old thought and it took them further and further away from the Lord until again He had to act in judgement using the very people whose ways they sought to imitate to punish them. For eighteen years they suffered under the hands of their enemies because of their disobedience.
As God’s people today we are called upon to be holy, a people set apart for Him. We are to be a people who are different from the world around us, to have as our standards and our aims those things that are pleasing to the Lord and which are in accordance with his Word. Remember the words of Peter in his First Letter chapter four verse seventeen: “For it is time for judgement to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?”
Once again, in their extreme times of suffering, the children of Israel began to be convicted of their sin. They said to the Lord, “We have sinned. Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now.” And they put away the foreign gods among them and served the Lord. What mercy there is in the heart of our God towards His repentant people. We read in Judges chapter ten, verse sixteen, “And He could bear Israel’s misery no longer.” As Christians we have in our Lord Jesus Christ a merciful high priest who is able to sympathise with our weaknesses. Even though we suffer for our sin He is not unmindful of what we go through. We also have the promise that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us because the blood of Christ cleanses us completely.
It is in the eastern region of Gilead, across the Jordan, where tension was building with the Ammonites, that we are introduced to the next judge, a man called Jephthah. His story is told in Judges chapters eleven and twelve. He is a most unlikely character from the human standpoint. He was something of an outcast because his mother was a prostitute. Because of this his half-brothers drove him out of the family home and we are told that he moved a little way north to the land of Tob and “a group of adventurers gathered around him and followed him.”
When the Ammonites gathered to attack the Israelites the leaders of the Gileadites went to find Jephthah and bring him back as their commander. He had evidently gained a reputation as a fighting man and a leader and the elders of Israel wanted to make good use of these capabilities. It reminds us once again that the Lord chooses the despised things of this world to confound the mighty. We see how God raises up His own instruments of power, however unlikely they may be.
When God brings deliverance to His people He works in His own way, often to the surprise of those who are praying and waiting. Out of obscurity God can bring a powerful preacher, missionary or reformer to do a great work, to the confounding of God’s enemies. This was about to happen with Jephthah, son of a prostitute and sneered at by his brothers.
The elders of Gilead urged him to accept the leadership, assuring him of a welcome among the people. He was also offered the reward of headship of the Gileadites once the Ammonites were dealt with. It was to the children of Ammon that Jephthah now had to direct his attention. First of all he sought a diplomatic solution to the Ammonites’ complaint that the Israelites had taken their territory. He reminded them that it was God who had given victory to them enabling them to settle east of the Jordan. Why, then, should the Ammonites suddenly lay claim to the land after Israel had been settled there for three hundred years? Jephthah wisely sought a peaceful solution first of all, rather than confrontation. Sad to say, Jephthah’s conciliatory approach failed and the king of Ammon paid no attention to his message.
Certainly, when faced with a difficult situation we as Christians should always try the diplomatic approach first of all.. We are instructed in Romans chapter twelve verse sixteen: “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” And Paul reminds us in Second Timothy chapter two verse twenty-four that: “the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.”
In verse twenty-nine of chapter eleven, we read: “Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah.” The Lord was empowering him for the battle that lay ahead - just as He had done with Gideon many years before. It appears that, like Gideon, Jephthah worshipped the true God and the result was an overwhelming victory for God’s people, and their enemy was subdued. In verse thirty-two we read that it was the Lord who gave the Ammonites into Jephthah’s hands. Remember, as children of God in our fight against the enemy, the battle belongs to the Lord, and we can only win in the power of His Spirit who lives in us.
Sadly, it is at this point that we read that Jephthah made a rash promise to the Lord. It was not something that was required of him by Jewish law and it was certainly not demanded by God. It is a case of misplaced zeal and is a lesson to us that the best of men are only men at best. Before the battle with the Ammonites he vowed to the Lord, “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.” It was a rash vow indeed because on his victorious return from battle who should meet him, coming out of his house, but his daughter, his only child. It is not without significance that we read concerning Jephthah that he could not break his vow to the Lord, and that his daughter acknowledged this and that it was the Lord who had given the victory. Surely this is an indication that here was a godfearing family.
It is a deep mystery as to why God allowed Jephthah to fulfil his unwise vow, but in various places in the Old Testament God’s message to His people is “I never required this of you”, or “I never commanded you to do this for me.” God does not approve of all that in His sovereignty He allows. We must walk quietly and humbly before Him, keeping strictly to His Word and not straying beyond it.
Beware of making rash promises to God in the form of ‘If you will do this for me, Lord, then I will make such and such a sacrifice for you, or I will dedicate myself fully to your service.’ As the old hymn says, our walk with the Lord is simply a matter of “trust and obey for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”
Jephthah was a man who experienced the mighty power of God in his life and yet he speaks to us of the need for sanctified wisdom and good understanding, especially if we are in a position of spiritual leadership.