JEPHTHAH = REJECTION – VICTORY – AND DISASTER - ALL IN THE ONE CUP - PART 1
There is a lot of scripture in this message. I have put that in the message for SERMONCENTRAL as it is easier to read in text.
THE INTRODUCTION – LEADERLESS IN A DISMAL TIME
{{Judges 10:17-18 Then the sons of Ammon were summoned, and they camped in Gilead and the sons of Israel gathered together, and camped in Mizpah, and 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.”}}
The Ammonites were a wicked people who worshipped the god Moloch to whom children were sacrificed in the fire. They resulted from an incestuous relationship between Lot and his daughters when the daughters made Lot drunk, and Lot’s daughters had sex with their father. One produced the Ammonites and the other produced the Moabites.
The Ammonites were the enemy of Israel and the enemy was too powerful, and the people quaked, and the people lost heart entirely. Why were they leaderless? This story is set in the times of the Judges, a very sad period of 400 years when the people constantly sinned and God allowed enemies to overtake them. When they cried to God He sent a deliverer (a Judge). During those years the people gave lip service to the judge but never truly repented to follow God.
Israel lived in corruption and we don’t have to think too hard to know the reason why. Before the nation entered the land of Canaan they were given strict instructions by God that ALL the evil in the land had to be removed including the totally reprobate people. God knew what would happen if that was not done, and at the start under Joshua they started well, but after a while they could not be bothered with the will of God and they left the wicked people of the land and all their horrible idolatry and sin and demonic practices.
Very soon, the Israelites adopted all those satanic practices and made them theirs and thus they polluted the land.
Disobedience or incomplete obedience will always reap the reward of defeat. That is why the people were powerless, leaderless and slaves of sin. The Judge turned them around and they followed the Judge but they did not follow the Lord. The same thing happened in Josiah’s time. He was a brilliant king, a most godly man and brought in reforms throughout the land more than any other king had done. However the people merely gave lip service and did not follow God with their whole hearts, so as soon as Josiah died, they were back into their idolatrous worship and were just one step away from destruction.
Man left to his own devices can not help himself, so unless God enters the scene, all he has to look forward to is disaster. In Israel’s case, God time after time intervened with a deliverer to rescue the nation. Of course in the fullness of time a Deliverer came into the world to die for the sins of the world.
THE PEOPLE’S INSINCERITY IN PRETENCE
We see this frequent scenario playing out yet again - {{Judges 10:9-16 The sons of Ammon crossed the Jordan to fight also against Judah, Benjamin, and the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was greatly distressed. Judg. 10:10 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,” Judg 10:11 and 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? Judg. 10:12 Also when the Sidonians, the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you, you cried out to Me, and I delivered you from their hands, Judg. 10:13 YET YOU HAVE FORSAKEN ME AND SERVED OTHER GODS. Therefore I will deliver you no more. Judg 10:14 Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen. Let them deliver you in the time of your distress.” Judg 10:15 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,” Judg 10:16 so they put away the foreign gods from among them, and served the LORD; and He could bear the misery of Israel no longer.”}}
The Lord felt compassion towards His earthly people and raised up a judge for them. The judges were always the deliverers. The people were faithful to the judge and followed him either until God gave the victory, or until the particular judge died. Then they could not wait to return to their idolatry.
Why would that be? It is because the heart of man is so sinful – “desperately sick” “desperately wicked”. Without true conversion man just gets worse and worse. Christians should take note also. There is a subtle tendency for Christians to play with sin. They repent and find themselves doing the same evil again. This cycle is a disaster. There needs to be those who overcome sin. God has given us the resources. Carnal Christians are happy like pigs to keep returning to the mud. This dishonours the Saviour and calls into question the person’s true salvation.
THE PROVISION OF GOD – JEPHTHAH IS INTRODUCED AND DRIVEN OUT
Judges 11:1-2 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a valiant warrior, BUT he was the son of a harlot and Gilead was the father of Jephthah. Judg 11:2 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.”
I capitalised the “BUT” in verse 1 just for emphasis but it is important. People are always trying to find “BUTS” against other people. It is the most used word of rejection in the English language.
Not so much in our society today, but certainly so, even in the recent past, one of illegitimate birth had no rights. That person was an outcast and despised. He was often rejected, called names like bastard in scorn, and despised, as the Jews despised the Samaritans. There is so much hypocrisy here.
Gilead the father was a disgrace. He loved his lust with the harlot but rejected the product of that union. As head of the household he had a huge responsibility to his son, Jephthah, but he refused to implement that. Such hypocrisy! Men went to prostitutes but they despised them, and if caught, they would want to stone the woman, never the man. Where was the man in the Gospels when the Pharisees brought a woman to Jesus to be stoned for adultery? There was no man of course, because too many men are hypocrites and the man was probably a sinful Pharisee anyway.
God is so gracious to people. Rahab was a harlot and became accepted. Ruth came from a people despised who were never allowed to enter the people of Israel. In fact she was a Moabite, the enemies of Israel. Bathsheba was raped, but entered Israel as a queen. Tamar pretended to be a prostitute and enticed her father-in-law Judah into a sexual union. Tamar, Rahab, Ruth were all in David’s line and Bathsheba was his queen. All four women are mentioned in the genealogy of Joseph (presumed in the father’s line, that of Jesus) in Matthew chapter 1. God is so gracious.
Gilead’s own failure gave birth to Jephthah, but it was not Jephthah’s fault. The boy had no decision making in his parentage, and as a result, he was rejected by his own brothers and by society. Were Gilead’s sons correct? They were half correct, but half wrong. Inheritance was from the paternal side, but Jephthah was illegitimate and that was problematic for rights of ownership. The legitimate sons would oppose it. One might argue the case of Ishmael and Isaac where Isaac became the rightful heir but Ishmael was the first born. The Law of Moses also placed a prohibition on ones like Jephthah – {{Deuteronomy 23:2 “No one of illegitimate birth shall enter the assembly of the LORD. None of his descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall enter the assembly of the LORD.”}}
How difficult it must have been for Jephthah growing up in a situation of rejection, feeling he was not a proper son, and the time came when he was driven out. Feelings of worthlessness and self-esteem usually accompany such a situation. To make matters worse, that Deuteronomy verse applied. Jephthah was not allowed to enter the assembly of the Lord’s people. To many of us, and myself included, that seems unfair because the fault was not his but his father’s, but it is God’s command, not man’s, so there is a reason for it we need to examine further. Not now though.
One application I could make is that in the Christian situation, one of illegitimate birth can not enter the Body of Christ, the Church, His Household. I am NOT speaking of natural birth but of spiritual birth, that of being born again that new birth Jesus explained to Nicodemus. Those who are not really born again but pretend to be Christians, have no part in the Assembly of God’s people. It must be a birthright, the new birth.
{{Judges 11:3 “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.”}}
Problems beget problems. Jephthah had a problem not of his own making, and went out as an outcast and a reject. In those cases others who are rejects and outcasts will come together, but unfortunately those who joined Jephthah were worthless fellows. The name Jephthah is from “yepta” – Hebrew) and means to open.
Verse 3 uses the word “brothers” even though they were half brothers. The relationship to the father could not be broken. Why did worthless fellows attach themselves to him, the real reason? Were they in need of leadership and saw it in Jephthah? We don’t know but the end of this verse suggests that Jephthah led raids, and probably into enemy territory, maybe even that of the Ammonites, for we read in verse 4 that this nation was the enemy. In any case Jephthah radiated leadership.
These worthless fellows – in what way were they worthless? Were they of criminal intent or similar to the louts and hoons of today that hang around drinking and smoking and making trouble? None of this suggests to us anything about Jephthah’s character as nothing is said. I tend to think, if nothing is said, then Jephthah was not evil, nor could he be described as worthless. That does not always mean a person is a godly man. It just means he is not grossly evil.
THOSE OF GILEAD COME WITH TAILS BETWEEN THEIR LEGS
{{Judges 11:4-6 It came about after a while that the sons of Ammon fought against Israel, Judg 11:5 and it happened when the sons of Ammon fought against Israel that the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob, Judg 11:6 and they said to Jephthah, “Come, and be our chief that we may fight against the sons of Ammon.”}}
A little time passed and then Israel was under attack from the Ammonites who were the descendants of that sinful incest between Lot and his daughters looked at earlier. May I say something here. The bible comes under attack because of this story with Lot and other stories also, as if Christians are tarred with some evil and sinful brush just because they believe the bible, and hold to its veracity and inerrancy. The fact is that God will not hide away the sin of man even if it is distasteful to some. The sinful union with Lot resulted in both the Ammonites and Moabites. After all, this is the condition of the human heart and the heart is exposed before God. He does not erect fences to hide man’s deep sins. The world can criticise the bible that has an openness about sin, but the sins of the world are hidden, and many times worse. They will be exposed, but at the right time. However at the great white throne all the very blackest sins of history, hidden from anyone, will all be revealed.
The world is quick to condemn God, and the bible, and Christians who follow the bible. I am revising this message to expand it into two parts and some horrible thing has just emerged in the last two days in Australia (October 2022). A Christian was appointed to a leading position with a well known football club in Melbourne, Australia, and that man is a Christian whose Anglican church does not accept homosexuality or abortion as a way of life legitimate before God. As a result he was sacked by the Essendon Football Club, (AFL) (if you like, given an impossible ultimatum) and the most vile attack has been made on him and on Christians by the Premier of Victoria. The Premier – Dan Andrews – is in my opinion, the most wicked man ever to hold any political position in Australia. He is a huge hater of Christians and has persecuted them. The Christian man, Thorburn was sacked because of his personal Christian belief.
(Most of the following material has come from The Age Newspaper Melbourne). [[Andrews said, "When it comes to rampant homophobia, when I lead the pride march every year, I do that with a sense of genuine concern, support and commitment.]] (That march is the homosexual march in Victoria).
Speaking against Thorburn Andrews said - [[Yesterday, Andrews described the position as "absolutely appalling". Those sort of attitudes are simply wrong and to dress that up as anything other than bigotry is just obviously false."]]
[[This is how serious it is in Australia - Essendon president David Barham said, “Thorburn was given the option between retaining his position with the AFL club or the church, and he chose the church.”]]
This is the man, Thorburn, who was sacked, and said this ? [[“Today it became clear to me that my personal Christian faith is not tolerated or permitted in the public square, at least by some and perhaps by many,” he said. “People should be able to hold different views on complex personal and moral matters, and be able to live and work together, even with those differences, and always with respect.”]]
Andrews believes all Christians whose faith means something, are bigoted and he has no time for them. He believes their positions on matters to be “absolutely appalling”. That man, God will judge, and swift will be the judgement. Did you notice what the President of Essendon said – Thorburn was forced to make the choice; the Club OR the church. That is no different from what the early Christians faced – sacrifice to Caesar, or be thrown to the wild beasts. Andrews, although Premier and leader of the Australian Labor Party, is one the bible would describe as a “worthless fellow” – Judges 11:3. As I follow these happenings in Australia for the past few years, the homosexual lobby in Australia which is very strong, has declared war on Christians. Some of you will know of Israel Folau who suffered a similar fate.
Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Maybe it could be said, “lovers of pleasure and great haters of God.”
THESE HYPOCRITES AT GILEAD EXPOSED
Back to Judges 11:4-6. I don’t think it was a ready approach to Jephthah for him to lead the people in war. The pride of the human heart will hold out as long as it can before it admits it is powerless in a certain situation, and in this case, to approach a man who was already badly treated by his family, and probably by the community and elders, it must smack of a move of desperation. Jephthah must have made a name for himself and had a recognition in Israel for his exploits. It said in verse 1 that he was a valiant warrior, so in Tob he had gained a reputation as a deliverer and as a leader.
No doubt the elders were not really interested in the man himself, or his wellbeing, but only in their own welfare (and necks). In normal circumstances they would not have given him the time of day, but desperation makes them cover their offensiveness with a smiling and welcoming face, with their tails between their legs. Hypocrites. It is just as revealing that the first words were, “Come, and be our chief,” the carrot they here hoping would make him accept their problem. Pride of place is being offered to the one they needed. Let us not be false with our dealings one with the other, and be straight, and honest, and not manipulative, or use pride or flattery as a means to an end. Call good, good and evil, evil.
We continue in the NEXT PART to see a really horrifying thing.
End of PART 1.
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
