Jephthah
Judges 11
June 16, 2024
Back in 2010, just before Father’s Day, the July/August edition of The Atlantic hit the stands with this
blazing cover story: The End of Men.
That was 14 short years ago, and among the articles in the magazine was this one - - - -
Are Father’s Necessary?: A paternal contribution may not be as necessary as we think. After looking at the “lack of evidence” supporting the importance of dads, and “evidence” suggesting the opposite, the author concluded: “The bad news for Dad is that despite the common perception, there’s nothing objectively essential about his contribution. The good news is, we’ve gotten used to him.”
Happy Father’s Day!
The good news is that a few years later, The Atlantic came out with another series of articles affirming the importance and unique roles of dads.
Over the last several years research has backed up a more positive view of dads, so whew! Dads do matter.
WOW!! I thought I was being replaced as a totally unnecessary piece of equipment. Maybe to be put in a garage sale, hoping the price wouldn’t be too low.
Today’s message isn’t so much about why dads are important, but what does it mean to be a biblical man. That’s a loaded question! And depending on who you ask, the answers will greatly vary. Today’s message is NOT going to answer that question. But the goal of this message is to get us thinking about what does it mean to be a biblical man, a man of the Word and thus - - - - a man of God.
Far too often I believe we miss the boat when it comes to teaching our sons and daughters what it means to be a man or women of God. Not that we mess up, but we’re often flying by the seat of our pants and hope like crazy that we did the right thing . . . and that our kids or those we care for, turn out somewhat normal ---- inspite of us.
I’m also not here today to tell you, you’re doing it all wrong. I’m in the same boat as you. But I want to affirm the men and at the same time, You do matter. You make a difference in this world. So, I affirm each man here.
And the hope is that by the end of our time you’re going to want to say yes, to being better equipped to be a more Godly man.
In the end, I believe it will lead to greater spiritual growth, which then changes the world because you become a different man.
Your spouse and kids will be different, your friends and coworkers will change. In fact, the world will see Christ in you and then the world will change.
To do this, we’re going to look at a really strange and controversial story from the Bible. It’s a story about a man who did something outside of the bounds of the character and nature of God. A man who didn’t have a great upbringing, who rose to stardom, but it didn’t end all that well.
AND, the crazy part of this story is that it didn’t need to happen, if only he knew one thing. And that’s the clincher! I’m not going to read the entire story, but I’m going to read some scripture and summarize it as best as I move along.
The story is found in Judges 11-12. And I’m sure you have not heard many messages on a guy named JEPTHAH. His story starts in Judges 11. Here’s our intro to Jepthah - - - -
1 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute. Gilead was the father of Jephthah.
2 And Gilead's wife also 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 Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob,
and worthless fellows collected around Jephthah and went out with him. - Judges 11:1-3
There’s never an excuse for not following God’s ways, but this guy had a lot going against him! There’s the stigma of his mother’s profession, his father had another wife who also had sons. The other sons didn’t like the bad image Jepthah gave to the family, and they didn’t want to share their inheritance, so they drove him out.
One additional comment I want to make on this and I’m reading into the silence of the scripture - - - - where was the father!? What did Gilead do? The people were named after him. It seems like he did nothing.
He didn’t step in and stop whatever was going on. He was honorable enough to care for Jepthah, but not to do what the father should be doing for his child! Just a side note.
After moving to the land of Tob, Jepthah met up with some worthless fellows and they traveled together. But catch what was said in verse 1, because it’s easy to miss - - - -
Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior
Ah! So, he did have something going for him. He was strong and wasn’t afraid of a fight. Even though Jephtah left his home, he was a mighty warrior.
On the downside, he didn’t have the best of buddies. He hung out with what the Bible describes as worthless or vain men who were empty on the inside.
That’s the guy we’re talking about this morning.
If you’re not familiar with the book of Judges ---- it’s a story of cycles. The people of Israel would sin and fall away from God. Then they would repent and seek God when an oppressor came against them. God would forgive them and send a Judge to lead them. They would have victory over their enemies, have peace, and then fall back into sin and the cycle would start again.
It actually sounds kind of familiar!
The Ammonites were preparing to attack the people of Gilead. Battles like this took a lot of time because of all the travel and provisions that went with an army. So, you often knew they were coming.
The people of Gilead were afraid for their lives and land. So, what do they do? They go to that guy they ran off. They plead with Jepthah . . . and the end result is - - - -
11 Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and leader over them. - Judges 11:11
Jepthah is now their leader. He’s going to take an army and fight the Ammonites. But before that happens, Jepthah seeks to make peace with them. That’s not a bad idea. Lots of lives will be saved if that happens. He and their king go back and forth in their correspondence, but there’s a problem with the way Jepthah is approaching this.
He tells the Ammonite king - - - -
24 Will you not possess what Chemosh your god gives you to possess?
And all that the Lord our God has dispossessed before us, we will possess.
The simple point I want to make with this statement is that it appears Jepthah is equating the god of the Ammonites with the God of Israel. And that’s never going to work. In essence, he was saying, what your god gives you, take, and what our God gives us we will take. Then we can live peaceably with one another.
That’s a huge mistake in his thinking. There is no god, like our God. There is no other Creator and Redeemer than our God. We can’t ever lose sight of that. They had the view that all gods were equal, and that’s never the case.
But the king of the Ammonites said, NO! Let’s go to war. So go to war they did. But before they go to war - - - -
30 Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand,
31 then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the Lord's,
and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.”
That’s a pretty noble statement, but kind of rash. They go to war and Israel defeats the Ammonites. There’s a great celebration and Jepthah’s on his way home and this is what happens next - - - -
34 Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah.
And behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances.
She was his only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter.
35 And as soon as he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Alas, my daughter!
You have brought me very low, and you have become the cause of great trouble to me.
For I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot take back my vow.”
Now, the story becomes controversial at this point, because many people question what really happened and the usage of the Hebrew. His daughter went off to the mountains for 2 months to grieve for what was happening and to spend time with God and others. Then after that period of time, the Bible tells us - - - -
39 And at the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow that he had made.
The Law of Moses expressly prohibited any Israelite from practicing human sacrifice, emphasizing it’s something “the Lord hates” (Deuteronomy 12:29-31). Unfortunately, the hard truth is that it appears she was sacrificed . . . . whether our modern sensibilities like it or not.
Some people say God would never allow that! But sadly, that was a common occurrence. Some say, she was dedicated to God and was to be His servant. But, that shouldn’t cause grief, that should be a joy. And the Bible says, Jetphah did what he said he would do. And the phrase in Hebrew refers to a sacrifice.
So, that’s the story of Jepthah. Ultimately, I believe he did what he said he would do. But did he have to? That’s the question. Could he have broken his vow? Would God have punished him if he changed his mind? He assumed it would be a cow or a goat or a slave that he would see, not his daughter.
Have you ever made a rash decision? Or entered into an agreement a little hastily? Maybe you made a promise you realized you couldn’t keep. You said something too quickly and it was the wrong thing to say, and now you want to take it back, but it came out of your mouth.
Well, that’s Jepthah’s situation. Do you break the vow you made with God? Or do you deal with the consequences? I mean, the consequences in this situation are brutal! He would have to sacrifice his daughter.
In verse 35, Jepthah said, I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot take back my vow.
Yet . . . . there was a way out! Most people don’t realize it. There was a biblical way out!
Amazigly, I believe God prepared for this very moment in history. In Leviticus 27 - - - -
1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, if anyone makes a special vow to the Lord involving the valuation of persons,
5 If the person is from 5 years old to 20 years old, the valuation shall be for a male 20 shekels, and for a female 10 shekels.
8 And if someone is too poor to pay the valuation, then he shall be made to stand before the priest,
and the priest shall value him; the priest shall value him according to what the vower can afford. - Leviticus 27
Isn’t that amazing? Jepthah had an out! Even if he couldn’t afford to pay the 10 shekels, the priest would have determined an appropriate amount for him to pay and then his daughter would have lived!
So, on this Father’s Day, what’s the point, other than Jepthah made a huge mistake?
You see, if Jepthah knew God’s word, if he had consulted with people who knew God’s word, he would hopefully have had a different ending to the story. But that didn’t happen.
Jepthah surrounded himself with worthless men. Men who were warriors, but men who didn’t have great character. They were men you’d love to fight for you, but not have your daughter bring home.
Here’s the question for us, really for the men, but this extends to the women as well - - - -
Who’s your support group? Who is helping you? Who is carrying you when you need to be carried? Who is listening to you and loving you? Who is helping you to grow as a man of God?
Lots of men would probably not have good answers for most of those questions. We tend to do things in alone and in silence. We have lots of pride and don’t have those male friends we can confide in.
We tend to go at life alone, not that our spouses can’t support us, they do, but the last time I checked, they weren’t wired like a man. They don’t think like a man.
Thank God for that! He created women . . . with their unique gifts, talents, personalities and nature.
Men . . . are you reading the Word, knowing who God is calling you to be? Do you know what it means to be a MAN OF GOD? Or are you flying by the seat of your pants, hoping like crazy that once in a while you get it right?
Lots of questions and no answers! I can’t answer for you, but I can help you. I can offer you something we have not done.
We are starting a men’s ministry. I’m starting it. I’m not taking NO for an answer. If 1 man shows up, then that’s 1 more man than before. If 20 show up, then that’s more power and impact that’s going to take place in this world.
I want us to be MEN of the Word, so we can be MEN of the world. We need to know the Word, Jepthah didn’t, and it was costly and destructive.
How many decisions do we make that are costly, not by ending a life, but with poor decisions.
So, the hope and that’s the point of this message. I don’t want Jepthah’s, I don’t want to surround myself, nor have you surround yourself with worthless and empty friends.
So, today, I’m calling on the men of FBC to make a statement. I want you at this very moment, yes, it’s rash, yes, not much time to think, but hopefully as I’ve been talking - - - - there’s a burning in your heart, maybe even a hole, that says, I want more.
I want to be that man of God, God is calling me to be. To be a man who God uniquely created. I want that!
I want you to take a stand against who the world is calling you to be and be the person God is calling you to be.
We’ve put up a QR code on the screen and that’s a link to a website called
BETTERMAN.COM
That’s what we’re going to use. I’ve met with and spoken with their National Director. It’s an intense ministry. Weekly videos and workbooks. And the videos are 30 or more minutes long. You can watch from home, you can download the workbooks for free. If you need a paper copy, we can print them for you, as long as we don’t sell them, which we won’t.
I need you to sign up. It doesn’t take long to do it, but if we want to show the world who Jesus is, then we need to be men of Jesus.
And, it’s all free.
You see . . . . . . here’s the thing that struck me. And I might step on a few toes, but I’m stepping on mine first.
Who taught you to be a man of God? Who taught you ladies to be a women of God?
We had promise keepers for me and Women of Faith, but those aren’t big anymore.
I never with any intentionality took Joshua or Zachary aside and said let me teach you and show you what a man of God looks like. We tried to teach them to have respect and love and all the stuff that goes along with that, but we hope all people have respect and love.
So, what makes us different?
That’s the crux of it. I’ve never done a series of sermons designed specifically for men or women. So, how do you know what a biblical man looks like, other then trying to figure it out on your own?
Do you have a support group of men you can share your thoughts and wants and needs and fears and sins with?
Is there anyone can you simply talk to who will listen and not judge you?
I told you at the beginning, lots of questions and no answers. WELL . . . . .
The answer that I have is this ministry as a starter.
Our group will be meeting at church. Hopefully when it’s nice out, it will be around the fire pit by the playground. You’ll watch the videos on your own, work on the worksheets and then we’ll talk and learn and grow. And of course, have snacks. In the next few weeks, this is going to start. Even if you miss a week, you can still do this on your own. The hope is that you discover more about who God is calling you to be and others will see something different in you . . . and that will change the world.
There’s lots more to talk about with BETTERMAN, but I want you to sign up!
And yet, the amazing thing about the story of Jepthah is that he is in the Hebrews 11 Hall of Fame of Faith. So, inspite of himself, he still did good. And I believe the great news is that he found forgiveness from God. If he didn’t, I really don’t believe he would be in that list.
So, that tells us just a little more about who our God is. It’s that amazing grace which God offers us. It’s always available . . . to me and you . . . free of charge!
Let’s pray.
