July 31, 2021 - Dr. Jon Akin

Series: Judges

Speaker: Dr. Jon Akin

 

Be willing to offer all you have as gratitude for God’s love not bargaining to get it.

 

1. Be convinced of God’s great love for you!

 

Pattern:

1) God raises up savior

2) Israel rejects him

3) Gentiles accept him

4) He saves Israel

 

2. So be willing to offer God all you have out of gratitude NOT bargain

 

2 Options:

1) Human Sacrifice

2) Tabernacle Dedication

 

Jephthah’s response to the Ammonites in 11:12-28 shows that he is well-versed in the Pentateuch so vowing a human sacrifice would be strange for him given how strongly it’s denounced in the Pentateuch.

 

He is empowered by the Lord’s Spirit right before he makes the vow (11:29).

 

The loss of his daughter’s virginity is the emphasis when the vow is carried out not her death (11:38ff.).

 

2 Kings 3:27 shows that the Bible is willing to describe child sacrifice, which it does not here.

 

Jephthah is commended in both the OT (in the same list as Samuel; 1 Sam 12: 11) & the NT (Heb 11:32-34).

 

Vows for victory in battle are legitimate things that God responds positively to in the OT (Numbers 21:-3).

 

There is a provision in the Pentateuch to cancel out rash vows (Lev 5:4-5) & certainly someone who could rehearse the minutia of Pentateuch history would know this & rescue his only child from death.

 

Animals didn’t stay in the house in the ancient world, so it’s dumb to think that Jephthah thought an animal would come out to “greet” him

 

Judges 10:6-16 ESV

6 The people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. And they forsook the Lord and did not serve him. 7So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the Ammonites, 8and they crushed and oppressed the people of Israel that year. For eighteen years they oppressed all the people of Israel who were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead. 9And the Ammonites crossed the Jordan to fight also against Judah and against Benjamin and against the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was severely distressed. 10And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, saying, “We have sinned against you, because we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals.” 11And the Lord said to the people of Israel, “Did I not save you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites and from the Philistines? 12The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you, and you cried out to me, and I saved you out of their hand. 13Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will save you no more. 14Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress.” 15And the people of Israel said to the Lord, “We have sinned; do to us whatever seems good to you. Only please deliver us this day.” 16So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord, and he became impatient over the misery of Israel.

 

Judges 10:11-17 ESV

11And the Lord said to the people of Israel, “Did I not save you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites and from the Philistines? 12The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you, and you cried out to me, and I saved you out of their hand. 13Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will save you no more. 14Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress.” 15And the people of Israel said to the Lord, “We have sinned; do to us whatever seems good to you. Only please deliver us this day.” 16So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord, and he became impatient over the misery of Israel. 17Then the Ammonites were called to arms, and they encamped in Gilead. And the people of Israel came together, and they encamped at Mizpah.

 

Judges 11:29-40 ESV

29 Then the Spirit of the Lord was upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh and passed on to Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed on to the Ammonites. 30And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, 31then 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.” 32So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the Lord gave them into his hand. 33And he struck them from Aroer to the neighborhood of Minnith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel-keramim, with a great blow. So the Ammonites were subdued before the people of Israel. 34Then 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. 35And 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.” 36And she said to him, “My father, you have opened your mouth to the Lord; do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, now that the Lord has avenged you on your enemies, on the Ammonites.” 37So she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: leave me alone two months, that I may go up and down on the mountains and weep for my virginity, I and my companions.” 38So he said, “Go.” Then he sent her away for two months, and she departed, she and her companions, and wept for her virginity on the mountains. 39And at the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow that he had made. She had never known a man, and it became a custom in Israel 40that the daughters of Israel went year by year to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year.