Jephthah, Judge, Commander, Man of Faith

Jephthah, Judge, Commander, Man of Faith        April 1, 2017 

Who was Jephthah.  What did He do.  B.C. 1256-1250. 

Jephthah, of Manasseh’s tribe.  This tribe was renowned for its valor:  Jephthah in the East. Their inheritance was ½ tribe east of Jordan and ½ tribe west of Jordan. 9th judge of the Israelites 

Judges 11:30-31 And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD, and said, "If You will indeed deliver the people of Ammon into my hands,  (31)  then it will be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the people of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD's, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering." 

Volumes have been written on the subject of “Jephthah’s rash vow,” the question being whether, in doing to his daughter “according to his vow,” he really did offer her in sacrifice, or whether she was to remain a virgin and dedicated to God.Remember, Samuel was also. Majority thought she died. 

After forty-five years of very little warfare in Israel, the children of Ammon decided to made war against Israel”.  The “elders of Gilead” requested Jephthah to their aid, and he at once undertook the conduct of the war against Ammon and delivered Israel from the oppression of the Ammonites and then judged Israel six years.  He has been described as “a wild, daring, mountaineer, a sort of warrior Elijah.”  This is when he made a tragic vow. 

Let’s dig into this in depth, but to let you know, the Scriptures really does not answer it.  Let’s us use some common sense and Biblical principles to see what does the Scriptures really say. 

What led up to this vow by Jephthah?   

Judges 10:7-8 So the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel; and He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the people of Ammon.  (8)  From that year they harassed and oppressed the children of Israel for eighteen years—all the children of Israel who were on the other side of the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, in Gilead. 

Judges 10:15-18  And the children of Israel said to the LORD, "We have sinned! Do to us whatever seems best to You; only deliver us this day, we pray."  (16)  So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the LORD. And His soul could no longer endure the misery of Israel.  (17)  Then the people of Ammon gathered together and encamped in Gilead. And the children of Israel assembled together and encamped in Mizpah.  (18)  And the people, the leaders of Gilead, said to one another, "Who is the man who will begin the fight against the people of Ammon? He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead." 

Judges 11:1, 2  Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, but he was the son of a harlot; and Gilead begot Jephthah.  (2) Gilead's wife bore sons; and when his wife's sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out, and said to him, "You shall have no inheritance in our father's house, for you are the son of another woman." (Father died?) 

Wife second marriage, sons from first marriage.  It was all about inheritance. 

Judges 11:3-4   Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and dwelt in the land of Tob; and worthless men banded together with Jephthah and went out raiding with him.  (4)  It came to pass after a time that the people of Ammon made war against Israel. 

Tob was 80 miles to the north, near Syria.  He led a band of adventurers (“reckless persons”), brigands; a “Robin Hood” of the area.  He was known as a “man of valor” (v.1) and had no trouble gathering a following. 

Judges 11:5-7 And so it was, when the people of Ammon made war against Israel, that the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob.  

The elders sent a people 80 miles to solicit his help 

(6)  Then they said to Jephthah, "Come and be our commander, that we may fight against the people of Ammon."   

Commander: a military term; but also used a ruler.

(7)  So Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "Did you not hate me, and expel me from my father's house? Why have you come to me now when you are in distress?" 

This indicates that Jephthah’s removal was a tribal matter, not just among the family itself 

Judges 11:8-11 And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "That is why we have turned again to you now, that you may go with us and fight against the people of Ammon, and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead."  (9)  So Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "If you take me back home to fight against the people of Ammon, and the LORD delivers them to me, shall I be your head?"  (10)  And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "The LORD will be a witness between us, if we do not do according to your words." (11) Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and commander over them; and Jephthah spoke all his words before the LORD in Mizpah. 

Notice Jephthah’s emphasis that it would be the Lord’s victory, not his (v.9).  It was before the Lord that agreement was witnessed (v.11), and before the general assembly at Mizpah. 

Paul said Jephthah was a man of faith.  Man of Faith, the Faith Chapter. 

Hebrews 11:32  And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets:  (always end well) 

Jephthah was not a hothead looking for a fight; he recognized the real cost of war.  And he knew his Scriptures.  He makes an attempt at an honorable peace by showing that there is no just cause for quarrel. This was required by law to avoid war until negotiation had failed. 

Deuteronomy 20:10-19  "When you go near a city to fight against it, then proclaim an offer of peace to it.  (11)  And it shall be that if they accept your offer of peace, and open to you, then all the people who are found in it shall be placed under tribute to you, and serve you.  (12)  Now if the city will not make peace with you, but war against you, then you shall besiege it.  (13)  And when the LORD your God delivers it into your hands, you shall strike every male in it with the edge of the sword.  (14)  But the women, the little ones, the livestock, and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall plunder for yourself; and you shall eat the enemies' plunder which the LORD your God gives you.  (15)  Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations.  (16)  "But of the cities of these peoples which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive,  (17)  but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the LORD your God has commanded you,  (18)  lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations which they have done for their gods, and you sin against the LORD your God.   

Judges 11:27  Therefore I have not sinned against you, but you wronged me by fighting against me. May the LORD, the Judge, render judgment this day between the children of Israel and the people of Ammon.' " 

Jephthah’s Four Arguments: the facts of history (vv.14-22); the land grant from the Lord (vv.23-24); three centuries of occupation (vv.25-26); they were fighting against God (vv.27-28) 

Jephthah’s final argument: he hadn’t declared war on Ammon; it was Ammon that declared war on Israel.   

Judges 11:29 Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh, and passed through Mizpah of Gilead; and from Mizpah of Gilead he advanced toward the people of Ammon. 

Empowered by the Spirit of God, Jephthah called for volunteers and mustered his army. Mizpeh was the capital, his base of operations 

The Lord gave him victory over the Ammonites, and he captured 20 of their strongholds as he pursued the fleeing enemy army.  This would guarantee freedom and safety for Israel as they traveled in the territory of Gilead. The Ammonites didn’t threaten Israel for another 50 years. 

What have we learn so far, the circumstances of birth or of family are not a handicap to the person who will live by faith. 

Jephthah was installed as the captain and leader, and after an attempt at negotiation, he attacked and soundly defeated the Ammonites. However, the excitement of winning caused him to offer his famed ill-considered vow. 

Jephthah made a bargain: If God would give the Israelites victory over the Ammonites, Jephthah would sacrifice to the Lord whatever came out of his house when he arrived home in Mizpah.  God gave him victory, and Jephthah kept his promise.  

But what was his promise and how did he keep it?   

What actually happened to Jephthah’s daughter, his only child?  The more you study Jephthah’s vow, the more puzzling it becomes.  Questions to ask. 

·      How did he know who or what would come out of the door of his house?

·      What if the first thing to greet him happened to be an unclean animal that was unacceptable to God?

·      What if that person turned out to be a neighbor’s child or a visiting stranger

·      What right did Jephthah have to take either life, and thereby offer to God a sacrifice that cost him nothing?

·      He knew that God didn’t approve of, or accept, human sacrifices. 

·      The Ammonites worship put their children through the fire of Molech.

·      Where would He offer his daughter as a sacrifice? 

·      The Lord only accepted sacrifices at the Tabernacle altar.

·      Sacrifices had to be offered by the Levitical priests.

·      He would have to travel to Shiloh to fulfill his vow. 

·      It’s doubtful that a priest would offer a human sacrifice on the altar.

·      Shiloh lies in the territory of the Ephraim, who had a deadly feud.  

·      A burnt offering had to be a male, not a female. (Peace offering – both)

·      Would a Spirit-empowered man, committed to the Lord, even make such a vow? 

We know it is acceptable to God to make vows, provided they obeyed the laws governing them.  Vows were completely voluntary, but the Lord expected the vow to be fulfill.

Judges 11:30-31 And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD, and said, "If You will indeed deliver the people of Ammon into my hands,  (31)  then it will be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the people of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD's, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering." 

Two different parts, with “and” between the two parts.

When we look at many different translations, they all have the word “and” except for one, and they use the word “or”.    

Judges 11:31:  YLT:  then it hath been, that which at all cometh out from the doors of my house to meet me in my turning back in peace from the Bene-Ammon -- it hath been to Jehovah, or I have offered up for it -- a burnt-offering.' (Young's Literal Translation) 

Several authorities point out that the little word “and” (v.31), in the Hebrew is the single letter w, waw, which can either be translated “and” or “or”.  This implies that whatever met him when he returned home would be dedicated to the Lord (if a person), or sacrificed to the Lord (if an animal).

If he was met by his daughter, Jephthah would give her to the Lord to serve God at the Tabernacle. 

Exodus 38:8 He made the laver of bronze and its base of bronze, from the bronze mirrors of the serving women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. 

1 Samuel 2:22 Now Eli was very old; and he heard everything his sons did to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.  (Samuel 931-877) 

She would remain a virgin, which meant that she would not know the joys of motherhood or continue her father’s inheritance in Israel.  This would be reason enough for her and her friends to spend two months grieving.  Remember, children were the retirement for old parents.    As a side, is this where the Catholics found the example for Nuns. 

Judges 11:33 And he defeated them from Aroer as far as Minnith—twenty cities—and to Abel Keramim, with a very great slaughter. Thus the people of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel. 

Judges 11:34-36  When Jephthah came to his house at Mizpah, there was his daughter, coming out to meet him with timbrels and dancing; and she was his only child. Besides her he had neither son nor daughter.  (35)  And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he tore his clothes, and said, "Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low! You are among those who trouble me! For I have given my word to the LORD, and I cannot go back on it."  (36)  So she said to him, "My father, if you have given your word to the LORD, do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, because the LORD has avenged you of your enemies, the people of Ammon." 

Judge 11:37  Then she said to her father, "Let this thing be done for me: let me alone for two months, that I may go and wander on the mountains and bewail my virginity, my friends and I." 

Judges 11:38-40 So he said, "Go." And he sent her away for two months; and she went with her friends, and bewailed her virginity on the mountains.  (39)  And it was so at the end of two months that she returned to her father, and he carried out his vow with her which he had vowed. She knew no man. And it became a custom in Israel  (40)  that the daughters of Israel went four days each year to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite. 

Nowhere in the text does it indicate that Jephthah actually killed his daughter, nor do we find anyone bewailing her death.  The emphasis is on remaining a virgin. 

If Jephthah was going to kill his daughter, he would want her home with himself, not running around on the mountains with her girlfriends. Why would the girl lament her virginity if she expected to die?  Of what significance is virginity if you’re heading for the grave?  She would have been lamenting her impending death instead. 

What did God say that could be done about a vow. 

When Jephthah would have arrived at Shiloh, he would have learned from any priest that paying the proper amount of money could have redeemed his daughter (Lev 27:1-8).  

As a successful soldier just returning from looting the enemy, Jephthah could easily have paid the redemption price.  

What happens when a person makes a vow or an oath under the Law that Jesus gave in the Book of Leviticus, the Sacrifices.  Remember, Jesus was our Sacrifice and think about this as we go through rest of this study. 

Leviticus 5:4 'Or if a person swears, speaking thoughtlessly with his lips to do evil or to do good, whatever it is that a man may pronounce by an oath, and he is unaware of it—when he realizes it, then he shall be guilty in any of these matters. 

Leviticus 5:5 'And it shall be, when he is guilty in any of these matters, that he shall confess that he has sinned in that thing; 

Confession is commanded for the first time.  The other offerings were an open admission of guilt.  This one has to do with secret sins. 

Leviticus 5:6 and he shall bring his trespass offering to the LORD for his sin which he has committed, a female from the flock, a lamb or a kid of the goats as a sin offering. So the priest shall make atonement for him concerning his sin. 

1 John 1:9  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

Forgiveness, this is what the Passover is all about and what Jesus did for each of us.  This is a good example for us to think about this next week before the Passover Services.