JUDGE JEPHTHAH

0. Introduction

a) The Israelites began a series of cycles of sinning, worshiping idols, being punished, crying out for help, being rescued by a judge sent from God, obeying God for a while, then falling back into idolatry. They were conquered by Syria, Moab, Canaan, Midian, Ammon, and Philistia. They even faced the threat of civil war. Just as God sent help to the people when they cried out to him, he will deliver us when we call on him.

b) Judge Jephthah
(Text: Judges 11:29-40; Years of judging: 6)

i) ²⁹ Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites. ³⁰ And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord: “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, ³¹ whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”

³² Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into his hands. ³³ He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon. 

³⁴ When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of timbrels! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. ³⁵ When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, “Oh no, my daughter! You have brought me down and I am devastated. I have made a vow to the Lord that I cannot break.” 

³⁶ “My father,” she replied, “you have given your word to the Lord. Do to me just as you promised, now that the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. ³⁷ But grant me this one request,” she said. “Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry.” 

³⁸ “You may go,” he said. And he let her go for two months. She and her friends went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. ³⁹ After the two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin. From this comes the Israelite tradition ⁴⁰ that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite. (Judges 11:29-40 NIV)

1. What is the text all about?

a) Over the years, Israel had many judges to lead them. But Jephthah recognized the Lord as the people's true Judge, the only One who could really lead them and help them conquer the invading enemies.

b) The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah as he did with many of the Old Testament judges, kings, and prophets. Generally when the Spirit came upon a person in the Old Testament, he empowered the person for a specific task or mission. Sometimes this special empowering did not produce an accompanying moral transformation.

c) In God's law, a vow was a promise to God that should not be broken. It carried as much force as a written contract. Many people made vows in biblical times. Some, like Jephthah's, were very foolish.

d) When Jephthah made his vow, did he stop to consider that a person, not a sheep or goat, might come out to meet him? Scholars are divided over the issue. Those who say Jephthah was considering human sacrifice use the following arguments:

@1. He was from an area where heathen religion and human sacrifice were common. In his eyes, it may not have seemed like a sin.

@2. Jephthah may not have had a background in religious law. Perhaps, he was ignorant of God's command against human sacrifice.

e) Those who say Jephthah could not have been thinking about human sacrifice point to other evidence:

@1. As leader of the people, Jephthah must have been familiar with God's law; human sacrifice was clearly forbidden.

#1) ²¹ “‘Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molek, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord. (Leviticus 18:21 NIV)

#2) ¹The Lord said to Moses, ² “Say to the Israelites: ‘Any Israelite or any foreigner residing in Israel who sacrifices any of his children to Molek is to be put to death. The members of the community are to stone him. ³ I myself will set my face against him and will cut him off from his people; for by sacrificing his children to Molek, he has defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name. ⁴ If the members of the community close their eyes when that man sacrifices one of his children to Molek and if they fail to put him to death, ⁵ I myself will set my face against him and his family and will cut them off from their people together with all who follow him in prostituting themselves to Molek. (Leviticus 20:1-5 NIV)

@2. No legitimate priest would have helped Jephthah carry out his vow if a person was to be the sacrifice.

f) Whatever Jephthah had in mind when he made the vow, did he or did he not sacrifice his daughter?
 Some think he did, because his vow was to make a burnt offering. Some think he did not, and they offer several reasons:

@1. If the girl was to die, she would not have spent her last 2 months in the hills.

@2. God would not have honored a vow based on a wicked practice.

@3. Joshua 11:9 says that she never married, not that she died, implying that she was set apart for service to God, not killed.

g) Jephthah's rash vow brought him unspeakable grief. In the heat of emotion or personal turmoil it is easy to make foolish promises to God. These promises may sound very spiritual when we make them, but they may produce only guilt and frustration when we are forced to fulfill them. Making spiritual "deals" only brings disappointment. God does not want promises for the future, but obedience for today.

2. Memorable act (s)

a) Judge Jephthah made a rash vow, defeated the Ammonites, and later battled jealous Ephraim.