With
a bit more understanding of Jephthah behind us (see previous blog), we can now
move forward and tackle some of the theological questions that plague us as we
attempt to swallow this unbelievable story.
The
broad question that I want to answer is, “what is the purpose of this story in
the canon of Scripture?”
On
the surface, this slice of history seems to cause more questions than it
answers. So let’s unpack some of the peripheral questions first in order to make
headway to the foundational question at hand.
Did
God accept Jephthah’s vow and sacrifice? No. If
we look later into Israel’s history we see a young wise king by the name of
Josiah trying to turn Israel back to God.
In his attempts to reform Israel, we read in 2 Kings 23:10 that he defiles
Topheth. Topheth was right outside of
Jerusalem and had an altar that was used to offer sacrifices to the false god
called Molech (which we talked about last time). 2 Kings says he defiled this altar “so that
no one might burn their son or daughter as an offering to Molech”. Somehow, possibly by the hand of Jephthah,
this altar was erected and used for such sacrifices in the land of Israel. The reason Josiah would have defiled the
altar, making it unusable for any sacrifice, would have been because he knew
that God would not have accepted these sacrifices; not by Jephthah, and not by
anyone else in the land of Israel.
Listen
to Jeremiah’s words as he is the mouth piece of God to the Israelites, “They
built the high places of Baal in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to offer up
their sons and daughters to Molech, though I did not command them, nor did it
enter into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to
sin. (Jeremiah 32:35)”.
It
is clear that Jephthah’s act of sacrificing his daughter was an abomination in
God’s sight.
But,
one may argue that Jephthah made a vow and he should have kept it, especially
since God did deliver the Ammonites into his hand.
I
want you to note two things about this.
The first is, God planned to use Jephthah to defeat the Ammonites
regardless of Jephthah’s vow. Judges
11:29 says that the Spirit of God came upon Jephthah. This happened before Jephthah ever made his
vow. We see another incident of the
Spirit of God coming on a Judge, and when He did come upon him, that Judge
defeated the enemies of Israel (Judges 3:10).
God was already moving in Jephthah to defeat the Ammonites, and thus his
vow was irrational and impulsive.
Secondly,
according to God, a man was not held to his word if the vow he made to God was
sinful. Leviticus 5:4-5 says, “or if
anyone utters with his lips a rash oath to do evil or to do good, any sort of
rash oath that people swear, and it is hidden from him, when he comes to know
it, and he realizes his guilt in any of these; 5 when he realizes his guilt in any of these and
confesses the sin he has committed…”
Jephthah
truly believed that his oath was honoring to God and that is why he fulfilled
it. But if Jephthah came to the
knowledge that his oath was sinful, he was required by God to turn from it and
confess his sin to God. He was not held
captive by his words, rather he was led astray by ignorance of the law of God.
The
moment Jephthah saw his daughter and was torn by the oath he made to God, he
should have confessed his sin to God and made atonement for it through an
animal sacrifice and a contrite heart and he would have saved his daughter’s
life.
Jephthah’s
downfall was that he had a weak knowledge of the Word of God, and allowed the
practices of the world to infiltrate his worship to God. It serves us as a
reminder, especially in a world where evil is becoming more rampant and
tolerated, that the Word of God acts as our guide in how to worship God, to direct us through the confusion of a
world drifting farther and farther away from God.
But,
this story is not all doom and gloom. There has to be a specific reason this story
is found in the Word of God. And that
reason applies to us today. This story
reveals to us the overwhelming love of our Father in Heaven. For it is on the backdrop of sin that God’s
grace and mercy become more real to us.
What I am about to show you may surprise you, as it did it me.
I
was reading through the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11 the other day and guess
whose name was in it? No, not mine (mine
is in the Book of Life!), that’s right, Jephthah’s!
Hebrews
11:32-33 “And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon,
Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and
Samuel and the prophets— 33 who
through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped
the mouths of lions,”
What? I
almost screamed “are you kidding me!” when I read it. But that’s right, by faith Jephthah led
Israel, and he defeated the Ammonites. And later in Hebrews, it says, he was
commended for his faith. Commendation
literally means to be spoken well of by God.
This mean Jephthah was spoken well of by God because of his faith, not
because of what he did do or didn’t do, but because he had faith in God. Jephthah did a terrible thing, but yet God
accepted him as righteous because of his faith.
Incredible! I
need a breather for a minute as I am still processing this.
Is there any sin that is too heinous that God would not
forgive? If there is, I would imagine it
would be killing your own daughter. But
God says no. Rather, one is justified by
faith alone and not by what he or she does.
What Jephthah did was absolutely horrible, but his
sinful act was not beyond the reach of the grace of God. Jephthah found favor in God’s eyes because of
his faith (Hebrews 11:6) and God was pleased with him because of that.
Jephthah is a picture of God’s unfathomable mercy on
a fallen person. God’s love is so deep
and so wide, that we can’t even begin to fathom it. I believe Jephthah is in the Bible to remind
us of the greatness of God’s love and mercy that can cover a multitude of sins.
You may feel as if you have done something so
terrible in your life that God cannot forgive you. It may seem to you that your
faith has been fatally wounded by a sin that is so atrocious, that no one in
this world will ever accept you.
Let me encourage you to let the story of Jephthah
serve as a reminder of God’s mercy and forgiveness. You are declared righteous because of your
faith in Jesus Christ, not because of what you have done or how good you can
be. You can boldly approach God and take
hold of forgiveness and that will set you free from the bondage of the guilt
that has followed you through life.
On the other hand, there is only one incident of a
child sacrifice that was acceptable to God the Father, and that was Him sending
his beloved Son to die as a sacrifice for you on the cross. His love for you caused him to do what Jephthah
should have never done, but was acceptable for God to do. That is because his
Son, Jesus, is the perfect Lamb of God who was and is able to atone for your
sins.
I have labored to bring you the best answers I could
find about the confusion surrounding Judges 11. Regardless if my interpretation
of Jephthah is completely accurate in it’s details, this story is a beautiful
picture of God’s faithfulness to those who are his children. If sacrificing your own daughter isn’t enough
to thwart God’s love for you, then what is?
