Judges 11:4-5, 29-37
Pray
Well I certainly picked out another one of those pick me up stories for you this morning, now didn’t I.
“Hey what’d you talk about in church today?”
“Oh the usual...a guy killing his daughter for God.”
“Your pastor is kind of a fruitcake isn’t he?”
“Yeah.”
Which I don’t appreciate you telling people by the way. It’s better not to ruin the surprise for when they actually get to meet me.
But today’s Scripture is another one of those Scriptures that leaves you scratching your head thinking, “what in the world.”
And it’s also another one of those Scriptures that it is vital to understand everything about it before coming to any conclusion.
Because on the surface it looks like a cut and dry case.
Jepthath is fighting a war against the Ammonites, and he needs God’s help to win it.
So Jepthath makes a bargain with God.
He says, “hey God, if you give me this victory...then I’ll sacrifice to you the first thing that comes out of my house.”
Jepthath wins the victory, goes home to celebrate...and low and behold his daughter comes running out of his house first to greet him.
Jepthath is horrified, but he knows what he has to do...so he sacrifices her to God just like he promised.
Cut and dry. Guy makes a deal with God, God accepts the deal in exchange for the life of his daughter.
And by all appearances...God is the bad guy.
And I’m sure that a lot of people have read this section of Scripture and come off with that exact conclusion.
But you’ve got to go back a little bit further, and think it through a little better before you can come to an accurate conclusion.
Now we won’t get into the whole back story of Jepthath, but here’s what you need to know.
He has been made the leader of Israel’s army, and what he says goes.
And he is battling against their enemies of this moment, the Ammonites.
And they’ve exchange pleasantries, and the time for words has ended.
So Jephthath is about to lead his troops into battle, and what happens.
Verse 29 says, “Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites.”
Now this is a very important phrase for you to recognize. “Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him.”
Have you ever heard of that phrase before?
You hear this phrase used in the life of Samson.
In the Scripture, right before Samson was about to have a major victory...the Spirit of the Lord came on him.
It happened before he ripped the lion apart with his bare hands. It happened before he defeated an entire army with the jaw bone of a donkey.
It came over Gideon before he defeated an entire army with just 100 men.
Every place that the Spirit of the Lord came over someone before battle, what happened? (they won)
And not only did they win, but they had decisive victories.
So the Spirit of the Lord comes over Jepthath. And Jepthath just like everybody else could feel this.
And he knows that God has just promised to grant him victory.
So what does Jepthath do in immediate response to this promise?
God gives Jepthath the sign that he will be victorious, so does he respond by going right into battle, does he respond by telling his troops that God has guaranteed them victory?
He can feel God's Spirit in him giving him victory and Jepthath responds by saying this “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, (which he knows is going to happen) 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.”
Is there something wrong with this picture, or is it just me?
It’s like going to a car dealership to buy a car.
And they want 10,000 for it. So you tell them that they’ll give you 7,500.
Surprisingly they say yes, and ask you to come inside to sign the paperwork.
And your response to them is, “fine you drive a hard bargain...I’ll give you 12,000.”
If this sounds like you at a car dealership...then boy do I have a car you need to look at.
Nobody in their right mind is going to offer more for what they’ve already been given.
If you have it, then it’s yours. You don’t need to make any deals.
God’s filling of Jepthath with His Spirit sealed the deal.
It was God’s promise that Jepthath would be successful in this battle.
But God’s promise wasn’t enough. He didn’t trust that God would do what He said.
So because of Jepthath’s lack of trust in God’s promises, he tries to sweeten the pot.
Folks, this year I had the pleasure of seeing 7 or 8 rainbows, and I love rainbows.
Do you know what that rainbow means? (God will never again destroy the earth by flood)
Do you get nervous for the earth every time it starts to rain? Do you run through the house and start screaming, “hurry honey, you’ve got to build that boat fast, here it comes!”
Why not? Because God keeps His promises.
And if Jepthath would have understood and accepted that fact, then there wouldn’t have been any problems.
Jepthath would have won, and his daughter would have remained alive.
But Jepthath was the promises of people and the promises of God confused.
You see, we’re not good at keeping promises, because most of the time we shouldn’t be making them in the first place.
A policeman caught a nasty little boy with a penknife in one hand and a squirrel in the other.
"Now listen here," the policeman said, "Whatever yo do to that poor, defenseless creature I promise you, I will do the same exact thing to you."
"In that case," said the boy, "I'm gonna kiss it's butt and let it go"
We’re not very good at making promises.
Sometimes we make impulse promises that we really didn’t think through.
Sometimes we spout off things that we promise to do, only to come up with an excuse later of why that promise no longer applies.
And then sometimes we make promises in the spur of the moment, that we shouldn’t keep...but that we’re too dumb to break.
For instance let’s look at Jepthath again.
Since he doesn’t trust God he spurts out the first promise that comes to his mind.
“God if you grant me victory I’ll...kill the first thing that walks out my front door.”
Now think about this for a minute.
What scenario could have possibly been going through his mind that would make this a good deal?
Who or what was he hoping would step out that door first?
The family dog, the deliveryman, if I were a betting man I would guess he was picturing his mother in law walking out...”I’m sorry Mom, but a deal is a deal.”
But seriously, what about this comes off as being a good idea? “I'll sacrifice whatever walks out of my door first.”
And what part of this would be something that God would appreciate?
Is God a big fan of human sacrifice? Does He often ask for people to kill their kids?
He tested Abraham’s faith by asking him to do it, but did He let him go through with it?
No, why not.
Because God finds it detestable. He hates it.
So not only did this nimwhit make a dumb promise, but he even promised God something that He hates.
So by no means was it this terrible deal that got Jepthath the victory, God had already given him victory in spite of his stupidity.
So Jepthath wins the battle, and comes home...and to his horror it’s not his mother in law that comes walking out the door, it’s his daughter.
But a promise is a promise, so he goes ahead and kills her after letting her think about it for 2 months...he’s a nice guy like that.
And he had to do what he had to do. There was no way he was breaking his part of the deal, so you can’t get down on him for that...right?
I mean what was he supposed to do?
How about admit that he was an idiot?
How about coming to his senses that this was the worst deal that never needed to be made, and wasn't made because God would never agree to it?
And in the end, an innocent girl died, because of stupidity.
Folks, there are so many things that we can learn from this unfortunate story.
First, God sometimes works in spite of us.
The Israelite army was successful against their enemies, not because of Jepthath’s awesome leadership, but in spite of it.
Sometimes good things will happen in your life, but these do not automatically mean that you were in the right.
It may mean that God did good in spite of your mistakes.
So don’t use the fact that things may have turned out okay to justify how they went down.
The end does not justify the means.
Secondly, remember God always keeps His promises.
If he says He won’t flood the world, then He won’t do it.
If He promises to guide you and protect you, then He’ll do it.
Take Him at His word, because He always comes through.
And when you take him at his word the third one should be easy.
Thirdly, you don’t bargain with God.
God is not looking for you to make Him promises so that you can get what you want.
He doesn’t barter goods, this isn’t a flea market.
God wants your service, not your stuff.
And finally, don’t be too proud to admit that you made a mistake.
Everybody messes up...but it takes somebody special to actually admit to it.
Our problems always get worse when we are too stubborn to admit that we are the cause of them.
God will always forgive you, but you’ve first got to admit that you’re wrong.
Don’t make the same mistakes that Jepthath made.
And if you do, don’t blame God when stuff goes wrong.
