Jepthah "The Mighty Man of Valor" - Shahe Gergian

Our reading this afternoon will come from the Book of Judges,

the 11th chapter and there will read the first two verses to

introduce our study. And again, the scriptures will

be up here on the screen and there from the new King James

version Judges chapter 11 verses 1 and 2.

Judges 11:1

There we read. Now, jeptha the Gilead, I was a

mighty man of Valor, but he was the son of a harlot and Gilead

begat jeptha Gilead, is wife bore Sons.

And when his wife Sons grew up, they drove Jep the out and said

to him, you shall have no inheritance in our father's

house for you are the son of another woman.

Perhaps there's been an occasion where you've been reading

through your Old Testament and you've come across this

midsection of the Book of Judges and you've read about this man

jeptha, and some of the decisions that he made and maybe

you've been uncertain as to exactly what happens in this

story. Want to spend a little time this

afternoon talking about this judge, who the Bible calls a

mighty man of Valor. After the death of the

deliverer, Moses god ordained, Joshua son of nun as Israel's

leader. Joshua was primarily a military

commander. He first demonstrated his

prowess for General Ling and exodus 17 when he led Israel's

fighting man against an attack from the amalekites.

Joshua's rain as Israel's leader proved to be one of the

highlights in the history of this new nation.

Other than an embarrassing defeat at AI, which was the

result of sin in the camp. The Hebrews charged through the

land of Canaan, conquering, and settling.

The scripture even says that Israel, served the Lord, all the

days of Joshua and all the days of the elders, who outlived

Joshua who had known all the works of the Lord which he had

done for Israel. Joshua 24:31 even.

Joshua 24:31

Joshua had led the Israelites to Great victories and Canaan there

remain. Many parts of the land, which

were still inhabited by various Heathen, non-hebrew groups.

The first chapter of Judges records, where some of these

areas were located, where the conquest had not really been

complete. And since there was no central

power or United Army as there was under Joshua, each

individual tribe was responsible for subduing.

Their Amy's and fully conquering their territory.

However, what generally transpired was the heathens

would be left alone and eventually Israel would enter

into idolatry now. This may seem pretty difficult

to believe considering the Israelites had seen God perform.

Such wondrous and marvelous works on their behalf but I

think it's probably a lot more simple than maybe we give it

credit for imagine that you are an Israelite living on your new

piece of Land. And you're a farmer and

everything you have is right there on your farm and whatever

you grow. That's what you live on.

If you can't grow it, you don't have it.

If you have a bad year, there's no Walmart to go to, to find

relief. That's all you have.

That's your livelihood. And let's say, one particular

year, you had a terrible year on the farm.

I mean you had no rain you had all kinds of locusts and bugs

and your best animals broke their legs, and you just had a

miserable. Horrible miserable year on the

farm and just up the road maybe a mile or so was some Canaanite

who lived up there and his farm seemed to flourish all the rain

skipped you but they showered him.

The bugs skipped in and showered, you and his animals

were healthy and thriving and productive.

And so, you look up at your neighbor and you say, what am I

doing wrong? And what is he doing, right?

Well, maybe I need to Worshiping the gods, he worships.

Maybe I need to be serving the idols he serves, and that's

exactly what they would do. After a time of idolatry, God

would send a punishment upon the people.

Usually, this came in the formula, he then Army that

raided Israel for their food stores and livestock, or maybe

even sometimes a heathen Army would come and retake the land

that the Israelites had already conquered.

And so after this, What happened?

The Israelites would repent and they would pray for God to

deliver them and then God would raise up a judge.

The judge was not a king he or she.

As in the case of Deborah was usually a military leader who

would gather some troops together and drive out the

opposing people. Some of the judges helped in

settling disputes but generally a judge was a fighter and very

little is known about most of the judges especially about

their upbringing. And history before they became a

judge. But there is one judge about

what you great deal is known. And his name is jephthah.

The background to the narrative is told at the end of Judges

Judges 10 · chapter mention

chapter 10, Israel has sinned against God.

And as a punishment, God allowed the Israelites to be oppressed

by the Heathen ammonites. The Israelites were suffering

badly, and their suffering brought them to their senses.

And so, they decided to return to God, we read in Judges

Judges 10 · chapter mention

chapter 10, beginning in verse 15 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. So they put away the foreign

Gods from among them and serve the Lord.

And his soul could no longer endure.

The misery of Israel, then the people of Ammon gathered

together and encamped in Gilead and the children of Israel

assembled together in a captain mizpah.

And the people, the leaders of Gilead said to one.

Another who is A man who will begin the fight against the

people of Ammon? He shall be head over all the

inhabitants of Gilead. The Israelites needed a leader.

This is a pretty famous scene that's found several times in

the Old Testament. You have one Army, camped along

one Ridge, and maybe there's a valley in the middle and another

Army, camped along another Ridge and there's taunting going back

and forth. This is reminiscent of day.

David and Goliath on the Israelites, and the Philistines.

And the Israelites are looking around for somebody who can

start the fight, somebody who is capable and qualified to lead

them into battle, against those, who would oppose them.

Now, immediately after this, we're introduced to jeptha and

were told that jephthah is a mighty man of Valor, but jeptha

was not initially considered for the job because of his

background. You see his father was Gilead,

Region is called Gilead. So his father is likely the

ancient patriarch of this region, but his mother was a

harlot. His mother was a harlot.

And so jeptha was rejected, he was rejected by his own family,

his stepmother and half Brothers looked down on him and treated

him, cruelly even telling him. You shall have no inheritance in

our father's house for your the son of another woman, judges 11

and verse To. And so Jep, the was GIF driven

away from his father's house and from his homeland.

And what difficulty, this would have been for Jeff.

The, as a young man to be cast out, and cast aside by her own

family to be left, to be have to survive on your own without help

or a Jep the suffered, he had a difficult childhood, he had a

difficult time as a young man. He surely felt worthless about

himself, but what's so wonderful and amazing about about the

scripture. Is that these are the exact type

of people that God picks up and uses in his surface of the

people that are no one would think twice about the people

that no one would take a Second Glance to even look upon.

These are the people that God uses to accomplish incredible

things. And so we read in judges 11

beginning in verse 6, that they said to jeptha, The come and be

our commander that we may fight against the people of Ammon.

So Jep the 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're in distress and the Elders of Gilead said to Jeff,

the this is why we've turned again to you now that you may go

with us and fight against the people of Ammon and be our head

over all All the inhabitants of Gilead, you may come from

difficult and painful circumstances, a, you may have

had a difficult childhood. You may have faced obstacles and

heartaches that no one should have to face in life.

And if that's you, then you're like jeptha, who had to endure

things because of who he was from birth, not because of what

he did in life, Jeff does life teaches us that the The outcast

of this world can rise above their circumstances to do.

Great works for the Lord and so Jeff, the takes this charge and

it begins by negotiating. A plea deal with the ammonites

The Plea, concludes, and judges 11 27 and 28.

When Jeff. The says, therefore I'm not

sinned against you. He is negotiating with the king

of the ammonites, I'm not sinned against you, but you wrong Me by

finding a It's me. I love this part.

May the Lord, the judge render judgment this day, between the

children of Israel and the people of Ammon.

However, the king of the people of Ammon did not heed the words

with jeptha sent him. I love this part because Jeff

the realizes that this isn't about him.

This isn't about him. This isn't even about Israel.

He says this is about the Lord and the Lord has given judgment

and will give it again. May the Lord, the judge render

judgment concerning this matter. And so Jeff the weights, he puts

this in the hands of the Lord and it's not until verse 29,

when the spirit of the Lord comes upon him.

By the way, there are 12 judges in the Book of Judges and only

four of them are ever said, to have the spirit of the Lord Came

Upon them, the spirit of the Lord Came Upon jeptha.

You pass through Gilead and Manasseh and passed through

mizpah of Gilead and from mizpah of Gilead.

He Advanced toward the people of Ammon jeptha in these verses

shows a wonderful quality of waiting.

With patients on the Lord waiting with patients on the

Lord as the psalmist says, to rest in the Lord and wait

patiently for him. This wasn't about Jeptha wasn't

about Israel. It was about the Lord.

Now we come to a problem. Now we come to a crisis and now

we come to the greatest mistake jeptha ever made when he entered

hastily into a vow. And we read about this in Judges

Judges 11 · chapter mention

chapter 11 and verses 30 and 31 and Jeff the made a vow to the

Lord and said If you will indeed deliver, the people of Ammon

into my hands, 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 jephthah's vow will be the focus

of the remainder of our sermon tonight because it's been used

by Skeptics and critics of the Bible as cannon fodder.

Otter against the morality of the scriptures.

And so it deserves our attention shortly after this Val was made

Jep the advanced, his soldiers against the ammonites and was

victorious. In defeating them when he

returned home from his Conquest. His Joy, turned sour, when he

came to his house at mizpah. There was his daughter.

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 and it came to pass when he saw her that he tore his

clothes and said of last, my daughter, you have brought me

very low. You are among those who trouble

me for. I've given my word to the Lord,

and I cannot go back on it and a few verses later, the Bible

simply says, Jeff the carried out his vow with her, which he

had vowed, The question is, did jeptha offer his daughter as a

burnt sacrifice to the Lord? The accusation is.

How could someone possibly uphold the Bible as a guide for

moral living when it allows and condones Human Sacrifice child,

sacrifice at that. Therefore the The Skeptics and

critics say, the Bible must be ignored because it's an immoral

book, but we want to consider this issue tonight and there are

several things that we need to address and so we'll take them

one at a time and the first one I know will thrill your heart.

And that is that I've come all this way to talk about grammar.

Now if you don't like grammar, I'm sorry you'll have to just

bear with this. The Lord could have chosen any

way to reveal his will to us and he chose language and words and

so sometimes that means we have to talk a little about grammar.

And the first thing that we want to discuss is that the text of

the scripture itself, does not demand a sacrifice.

You'll notice that nowhere in the chapter, does it say

anything, like and Jep the offered his daughter as a burnt

offering? And Jeff, the sacrifices

daughter upon the altar no, such sentence or anything similar to

that is found anywhere in the chapter.

But also we need to pay a little attention to Jeff.

This vow itself in verse 31 Jep, the said 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 now, Now in

the Hebrew language, you have this little letter here and this

letter is called a. Wow it's a w.

It's a w. And this little letter right

here is the common conjunction in the Hebrew language on

English we have a lot of conjunctions and but or so all

of those are conjunctions words that combine different concepts

or different actions or different ideas together but in

Hebrew. You really only have this one

conjunction, and so, if you have a fever sentence, like will take

a couple of Hebrew verbs here. This is Amar, it means he said

and this is halak and it means he walked.

Okay. So we have two actions here,

Amar and halak he said he walked.

Well if we want to combine those two together, let's say one

person is doing the saying and the walking all we would do is

to come over here right here and put this little letter right

there. That's it.

And once we've added this little letter right here, well we can

translate that as all these different possibilities, he

walked. And he said, he walked then, he

said he walked or he said but he said so he said in fact, the

wow, conjunction right here can be translated into words that

aren't even. Usually conjunctions.

In English, like the word, then to denote on going.

Action. Okay, let me give an example in

Genesis 13 and verse 9. When Abram and lot are going to

separate from one. Another Abram says, is not the

whole land before you please separate from me.

If you go to the left that I will go to the right.

Or if you go to the right, then I'll go to the left and this

word, or right here is the same exact Word as and appears that

little wild conjunction. The only way to know how to

translate this. Conjunction is the context.

That's the only way to know. So in Genesis 39, it's easy.

Abraham is giving two options. If you go this way, I'll go this

way. Or if you go this way, I'll go

this way. And that's how it's easy to know

if it's an or. But what about this one right

here? Could Jep the be saying whatever

comes out to meet me. Shall surely be the Lord's?

Or I will offer it up as a burnt offering?

That would be a perfectly acceptable translation.

In fact, Young's literal translation of the Bible gives

that exact rendering. Not that jeptha is combining the

two actions, but that he's saying, I'll do one or the other

whatever comes out to meet me, shall surely.

Surely be the Lord's or I will offer it up as a burnt offering.

That's our first point. The text does not demand a

sacrifice Jep, the could be giving two different options.

But now we go to number two, and we have to note that human

sacrifice. Is forbidden in the law of

Moses. Human Sacrifice is explicitly

condemned in the law of Moses. Look, it's three scriptures with

me, Deuteronomy 18, 9, and 10. When you come into the land

which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn

to follow the Abominations of those Nations.

There shall not be found among found among you anyone who makes

his son or daughter pass through the fire.

Now, this phrase passed through the fire is a common Hebrew

idiom to describe Human Sacrifice child sacrifice.

It was a common practice amongst the worshippers of Molech and

God is so disgusted. By this particular sin that in

Leviticus chapter 20, he applies the death penalty to it.

Leviticus 20 · chapter mention

When the Bible says the Lord spoke to Moses saying again, you

shall say to the children of Israel, whoever the children of

Israel or of the strangers who dwell in the in Israel, who

gives any of his descendants to Molech.

He shall surely be put to death. Death, the people of the land

shall Stone him with stones and one more scripture Deuteronomy,

12, 29 to 32 read this one. Now, when the Lord your God cuts

off from before you, the nations, would you go to

dispossess and you displace them and dwell in their land?

Take heed to yourself that you're not ensnared to follow

them after they're destroyed from before you.

And that you do not inquire after their gods.

Saying how did these nations serve their gods?

I will do. Likewise, you shall not Worship

the Lord your God in that way, for every Abomination to the

Lord, which he hates, they've done to their gods.

For they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to

their gods, whatever, I command, you be careful to observe it.

You shall not add to it nor take away from it.

This was a death-penalty offense.

You sacrifice a human being, you die.

That's what the law of Moses taught.

Does this sound like what we know about jephthah?

Did you know that jephthah's mentioned in the roll-call of

faith in Hebrews chapter 11? Right here.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Verses 3234, what more shall I say for the time would fail me

to tell of Gideon and Barack and Samson and jeptha there.

He is also of David and Samuel, and the prophets, who through

faith subdued kingdoms work righteousness obtained, promises

stopped. The mouths of lions, quenched,

the violence of fire escaped, the edge of the sword out of

weakness were made. Strong became Valiant and battle

turned to flight the armies of the aliens.

In fact, after jeptha did what he did with his daughter, the

Bible says he reigned as judge for another six years.

God blessed him for what he did. Does that sound like someone who

violated the law of Moses committing a death-penalty

offense? Okay, let's go on to number

three. Number three, the third thing we

have to talk about is the focus of the passage, the focus of the

passage. Now when Jeff the arrived home,

he met his daughter and he explained to her The Vow that he

had made. She told him that a vow, is a

sacred thing, and he has to keep his word.

He has to keep his oath to the Lord, but she made one request.

Look at a request in verses. 37. And 38, 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 be.

Well, my virginity, my friends, and I and he said go and he sent

her away for two months, and she went with her friends and

bewailed her virginity on the mountains.

Bewail my virginity. This girl doesn't have her

priorities at all in order. She is worried about her

father's about to murder her and offer her as a burnt sacrifice.

And all she can think about is her virginity.

She wants to go spend the last two months of her life, crying

about it with their friends on the mountain.

Look what happens next in verse 39?

And it was so at the end of the two months that she returned to

her father and he carried out his vow with her, which he had

vowed. She knew no, man.

Why is that explanatory Clause added to the end of verse 30?

Of course. She knew no, man, she was dead.

If the sacrifice view is true. Why did the writer?

Why did the Holy Spirit fill the need to add these four words to

the end of verse, 39 know a sacrifice doesn't make sense.

Something else is going on here. Something else is going on, one

more issue to consider. And for this, we look to the

last part of the chapter verses 39 and 40.

Thus, it became a custom in Israel, that the daughters of

Israel went yearly to commemorate the daughter of

jeptha the Gilead. Eat for days in the year.

Now, this is from The New American Standard Version.

If you're reading the King James or the new King James, it

doesn't say commemorate. It says lament says lament and

that's a bad translation. So bad translation, this word is

used 39 times in the Old Testament and this is the only

time it's ever translated lament in the new King James or King

James Bible. The word is tuna.

It means to rehearse or to celebrate.

And so what we have here is instead of shock and outcry and

disgust and horror that a judge a leader in Israel would kill

his daughter. In Gross violation of the law,

of Moses. Instead of outcry, there was an

annual party. There was an annual celebration.

To commemorate what occurred on this time of four Day?

Festival held every year. And so, to review the language

of the text does not demand a sacrifice, Human Sacrifice,

especially child sacrifice was explicitly condemn to the law of

Moses and jephthah's. Praised as a hero of faith in

Hebrews 11. Instead of emphasizing her

impending death, there's a focus on her virginity and there was

an annual celebration in Israel. Commemorating this girl Human

Sacrifice, doesn't fit the context.

It doesn't fit. Look at what Alfred edersheim

the noted scholar, remarked on all these grounds.

He said, on all these grounds, it's utter contrary to the whole

Old Testament, the known piety of jeptha, the blessing

following upon him, his mention in the Epistle of the Hebrews,

but especially the language of the narrative itself.

We feel bound to reject the idea of any human sacrifice.

And to that I say, Amen. So, what happened?

What happened? If she wasn't sacrificed, what

happened if we take jephthah's vowed to be whoever or whatever

comes out to meet me, shall surely be the Lord's?

Or I will offer it up as a burnt offering and he chose the first

option. He dedicated his daughter to the

Lord. How did that work?

Well, the text really just doesn't say but the text seems

to imply that in some way she was dedicated as a Perpetual

virgin in service to God. Now I don't know this to be the

case, this next thing of what I'm going to tell you so you

take it for what it is. But I have a theory.

I have a theory and accidents 39.

And again, in first Samuel to, there are two times in the Old

Testament were Mentions that women served at the door of the

Tabernacle. When the Tabernacle was being

built and X is 39, that's mentioned.

And in first Samuel to during the days of Samuel that's

mentioned, again, women served at the door of the Tabernacle.

We don't know what these women did perhaps, they greeted

worshippers who had traveled a great distance to bring their

offering to the Tabernacle, perhaps they helped us

intermediaries between the worshippers and the Reese.

Maybe they provided food and drink and they watch the feet of

the weary Travelers, whatever. They did these women served at

the Tabernacle and it seems that, that was the dedication of

their life. Maybe that's how jephthah's

daughter was dedicated to the Lord.

Perhaps, that's how she was dedicated in full-time service

to the Lord. Now some people will ask, why

was Jeff the so upset when his daughter, if he wasn't going to

kill her. Why was he so upset?

When she came out to meet him? We'll remember.

We're dealing with an ancient culture and we're dealing with

the people who lived on the continuation of the family line.

Nine children were everything to the Israelites because they that

meant that the family continued and God's blessings continued to

Future generations. And what did it say about this

girl? She was his only child besides

her, he had neither Sons nor daughters, that means that if

she didn't marry and produce children, his family line is

extinguished. His name is blotted out.

Shout from Israel, and his land is given to someone else.

And so he's upset about that. He weeps about that.

Well, in conclusion this afternoon, maybe we can make a

very quick couple of applications.

I think there are a lot of great lessons in this incident and the

first one is maybe the most obvious of all and that is The

Narrative of Jeff, the warns against the danger of making a

hasty decision. This is a problem we have today

in the world. Young people, especially our

hasty. To make life decisions.

They have repercussions for years to come.

We live in a society of great busyness where we're running

from one errand to another from work to home and back to work

again, doing all that we can and the short amount of time that we

have, sometimes we get so busy and so crazy that we make

decisions without thinking them through Jeff, the teaches us

that there are times we have to step back and think about the

consequences of our actions. But number two, and maybe most

importantly, of all the narrative, object--, the teaches

that sometimes. Our happiness.

Sometimes even a child's happiness must be set aside to

serve the Lord. Faithfulness is more important

than happiness. If Jeff does daughter, was like

any other young girl I've ever known.

She thought about her future. She thought about her future.

She thought about finding a boy that she lie.

She thought about getting married.

She thought about having children and raising the family.

She thought about her future. And she was willing to set all

of that aside. Because of a commitment, her

father made for her. Jep, the must have been some

kind of father. And his daughter must have been

some kind of girl. To say yes, Dad, I'll set it all

aside so that you can keep your word to the Lord.

Faithfulness is more important than happiness.

And sometimes there are things in life that we really want that

we have to give up to serve the Lord.

This girl was willing to do it. She said, Dad Give me two months

to be upset about it. And I'll come back and do what I

need to do. And she did.

She did and that is incredible to me.

That's incredible to me. Now, it's not just young people.

All of us from time to time are faced with decisions as to

whether we're going to choose faithfulness or happiness,

whether we're going to do what's right or what we want to do,

when we're going to serve the Lord or serve ourselves.

We face those kinds of decisions all the time.

Jeff does life teaches us that faithfulness always Trump's

happiness? We thank you for listening to

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