Judges 10 | Can One Be Both Wise and Foolish

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

As with Scripture, so much of music is in the interpretation.

Did y'all notice how in that last verse our team interpreted that last verse for us triumphantly, causing us to focus on what Christ has done for us?

Isn't that fabulous?

I love that.

Thank you, team.

Appreciate that.

We have been walking the last few weeks on the knife's edge, living in the middle.

As the Apostle John wrote, commanding us to not get caught up in the ways of the world, to not love the world or the things in the world, but instead to have our focus on Christ.

But we've been seeing in the book of Judges how that is easier said than done.

That so often as God's people, we walk and live in the middle.

So easy to take one step one way towards the world, to let the love for the world guide who we are, what we do, and how we react to the things in the world.

This morning I want to focus on Judges 10, Judges chapter 10, and its mind-boggling, sensational story of the foolishness of living in the middle.

Judges 10 · chapter mention

But this story has an astonishing conclusion that may be more mind-boggling than the historical account itself.

The sad account of Judges chapter 10 of the Jewish Savior Judge Jephthah reveals how living in the middle often draws God's people to be more and more like the world, which is dangerously foolish.

Judges 10 · chapter mention

Through Jephthah, we learn that divided allegiances don't make us more like Christ, but more like the world, resulting in tragic consequences.

As we've seen recently, those living in the middle with one foot in the world, one foot in love with the world, and one foot desperately trying to maintain obedience to Christ, those kinds of people generally do whatever they need to do, maybe even subconsciously, to maintain the status quo.

We like to have what's in the world, and we want to be in obedience to Christ, and so we maintain that status quo.

What Jeptha shows us is that when we do that, we so easily drift into attempting to manipulate God for our own benefit.

That's the picture of Jephthah.

But it's worse than that.

These chapters, and I hope you've read them ahead of time, chapters 10, 11, and into chapter twelve, are the history of a disinherited, manipulative man who lived in the middle.

He possessed faith in God while living foolishly.

And his foolishness led to a rash vow, resulting in the sacrificial death of his only child, his daughter.

We pick up the account in Judges chapter 10 and verse 6.

Judges 10 · chapter mention

The passage begins with Israel.

And so we notice a series of principles here that follow God's people who live in the middle.

The first 12 verses set the stage for the story of Jephthah, and sadly it's nothing new.

It begins, the people of Israel, again, Judges chapter 10 and verse 6, the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh and served the Baals and the Ashtarith, 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 Yahweh and did not serve him.

Judges 10 · chapter mention

God's people inevitably become like the world they love.

So what happens if you live in the middle between two worlds?

It is impossible to maintain a perfect middle.

So if we fall in love with a world and we become like that world, which one is it?

Notice what it says here in verse six.

Israel again did what was evil.

This is repetition.

It's the repetition of this sinful rejection and the abandonment of their saving God.

And in that abandonment, they replace God by serving other gods.

There's disagreement here among scholars as to what's going on.

Are the Baals and the Ashtarith a summary of the gods of the nations?

Or are they separate from the gods of the nations?

We can't be for sure on that, but there is something in the way the story's written, the history is written, that helps us picture exactly what our historian wants us to pick up.

If you count them, you'll need two hands.

Because there are seven gods here: Baal, Ashtarath, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines.

If you hold your finger here and you flip back a couple of chapters to chapter seven, we have a parallel that helps us understand what's going on.

That's not right.

It's not chapter seven.

I put the wrong chapter down.

Now these are the nations that Yahweh left to test Israel by them.

That is, all in Israel who had not experienced the wars in Canaan.

These are the nations, the five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites who lived in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal Hermon as far as Lebo Hamath.

These were for the testing of Israel to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of Yahweh, which he had commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.

So the people of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and their daughters they took to themselves for wives, and their own daughters they gave to their sons and served their gods.

What our historian wants us to see in this list of gods in verse, chapter 10 in verse 6, is that God's people have become like the Canaanites.

The nations and the number of nations parallel the nations and the number of gods.

And we're only 10 chapters into the book of Judges.

This living in the middle has caused them to become like the world they inhabit.

And as a result, in verse 7, it tells us that the Lord their God sold them into the hand of their oppressors, the Ammonites.

And that's kind of a slap in the face because the Ammonites are their relatives.

If you look back to your Old Testament history in the book of Genesis, you'll find that the Ammonites are the descendants of Lot, Abraham's nephew.

God sold them into the hands of their relatives for discipline, on the first hand, to cause them to return to him, and then for judgment for their sinful abandonment of his covenant with them.

And notice the extent, verse 7.

He sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the Ammonites, and they crushed and oppressed the people of Israel that year.

This was primarily an issue for the tribes on the east side of the Jordan.

Kind of difficult to see here, but on the image on the screen there, it's on the right hand side of the Jordan River.

You'll see at the very top of the image a Sea of Galilee, and near the bottom the Dead Sea.

And that portion on the right hand side is what during the time of the Judges was known as Gilead.

Then that yellow portion is the land of Emmon.

Below that is the land of Moab.

To the far left, off the picture is the Philistines.

God's people are caught in the middle.

That's kind of what happens when you live in the middle.

You get caught between two worlds.

They were oppressed, crushed by their own relatives.

After 18 years, the people cry out to God.

Verse 8.

For 18 years they were oppressed.

Verse 10, the people of Israel cried out to Yahweh, saying, We've sinned against you because we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals.

It took them eighteen years of living their own way before they thought about the Lord.

And finally they say, you know, it's our own fault.

We've left our God and we've served other gods.

But God, interestingly, is fed up with their words.

Look at verse 11.

And Yahweh said to the people, Did I not save you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites and from the Ammonites and from the Philistines?

The Sidonians also and the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you?

And you cried to me and I saved you out of their hand.

Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods.

Therefore I will save you no more.

Can you imagine going to the Lord your God and saying, God, please save me?

And him responding, Yeah, no.

Sorry.

No.

I will save you no more.

God's grace had reached its limit with Israel's sin from living in the middle.

This was the belief of the time.

The pagan belief, especially.

Religious thought was driven by manipulation.

If you worshiped and served a particular God, you would do everything you could to appease that God.

So if you worshiped Baal, you would do everything you could within the parameters of Baal worship to appease Baal so that he would be happy with you and answer your prayer.

He would give you the desires of your heart.

So in other words, you twist a demon's arm, if demons have arms.

You do whatever you can to make them happy so that they do something for you.

If you worshiped and served a particular God, then that God was considered to be obligated to respond to your acts of worship.

But God says, uh-uh, that's not the way I play.

If you want to play by your rules, then do so.

Go to your gods that you've been serving and let them help you, since that's how you think things work.

Verse 14, go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen.

There's a little play on words there.

Who chose Israel?

God did.

Who has Israel chosen?

The other gods.

Listen, you've not chosen me, you've chosen somebody else.

Go and let them make you happy.

Friends, living in the middle messes with our hearts and minds and leads us to believe that God is not in control, that he is not sovereign, and he does not act in the details of life.

Put differently, living in the middle leads us to believe that we can manipulate God for our own ends.

But the people respond, verse 15, oh no, no, no, no.

We've sinned, God.

We've sinned, so do whatever seems good to you.

Only please deliver us this day.

Then our historian tells us in verse 16 they put away their foreign gods and served Yahweh.

And then this strange phrase, and he became impatient over the misery of Israel.

If you really want to get into the nitty-gritty details, there's a fascinating debate as to what's really going on here.

What is God impatient with?

At first glance, it seems as though God seems sorry for his people.

He looks at their situation and he notices their misery.

For 18 years they've been oppressed by the Ammonites, and now he sees that they're serving him, and he's tired of disciplining them, and now he's ready to extend mercy, right?

At first glance, that's kind of what it seems like, but I would submit to you that that is not what's happening here.

Rather, the Lord is exasperated.

He's frustrated and fed up with Israel's shallow attempts at repentance and their manipulative efforts to get what they want.

Okay, God, you want us to be done with the gods of Baal and Ashth and the gods of the world.

Okay, we'll pack those away and put them in a box and we'll come and serve you right now.

Well, what happens then when they get what they want?

The box comes out of storage and they open up the box and they're the idols.

They put on a show of being genuine worshippers, and as a result, they mocked his grace.

What does it say in verse 6?

The people of Israel again don't forget the repetition.

Happens again and again and again all throughout the book, right?

This is the pattern of people living in the middle.

We belong to God, but we love the world.

We get ourselves in trouble and we turn back to God until we get what we want, and then we turn back to the world, and then when we turn back to God, and then we turn back to the world.

And now God says enough's enough.

Grace gives way to discipline.

God will not be manipulated by his people.

He will let them have what they want.

He will give them a savior of their own desires.

It's a lot like Christians living in the middle.

We want to live our lives as we desire without prioritizing the things of God.

Until we need Him, that is.

Then when we need God, then we begin to go to church regularly.

We pray and we study, we read our Bibles, but that kind of religion is one that attempts to keep one foot squarely in two different worlds.

It's an attempt, in other words, at divine manipulation.

God, give me what I want, but I'm going to keep my foot over here in the world.

We want God to help us, but we are unwilling to leave the love of the world behind.

Israel corrected their actions by putting away their idols and their gods, but their hearts remained far from him.

Are we any different when we attempt to manipulate God by appearing to give repentance and generate repentance, but it's disingenuous or incomplete?

But what if?

What if our treasure truly was in heaven?

If our treasure is truly in heaven, will we not be transformed to be like our heavenly world?

Because God's people become like the world they love.

The last few verses of chapter ten intensify Israel's dire situation.

The enemy Ammonites have gathered for war against leaderless Israelites.

And what we see here is this devastating principle that God will give his people their heart's desire.

Yes, sometimes he will give you exactly what you want.

And that will be a terrible thing.

God gives his people their hearts' desires.

Now, Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior.

But he was the son of a prostitute.

Gilead was the father of Jephtha, 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.

Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob, and worthless fellows collected around Jephthah and went out with him.

So this is all background.

Here's what you need to know about Jeptha.

He's likely the oldest of his father's children, and that means he is set to inherit a double portion of the inheritance and to continue to be the family leader.

The problem is that he has a different mother, a prostitute.

When his half-brothers grow up, they decide they don't want this guy around and they don't want him to be the leader of the family, they don't want him to inherit, so they kick him out along with all of the community's leaders, the elders of the community, they all kick him out.

He becomes a gang leader, gathering worthless empty men around him.

But sometimes what a biblical writer does not say can be very important.

Verse 4.

After a time the Ammonites made war.

And when the Ammonites made war, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephtha from the land of Tob, and they said to Jephthah, Come, be our leader, that we may fight against the Ammonites.

Jephthah said, Don't you hate me?

Didn't you drive me out of my father's house?

Why do you come to me now when you're in distress?

And they said, Well, that's why we've turned to you, that you may go with us and fight against the Ammonites and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.

Jephthah said, If you bring me home again to fight against the Ammonites, and Yahweh gives them over to me, I will be your head.

And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Yahweh will be witness between us if we do not do as you say.

And he went with them and they made him head and leader over all the people.

Sometimes what a biblical writer does not say is extremely important.

There's a very big difference between Jephtha and Gideon.

Do you remember the story of Gideon?

Gideon was in his wine press threshing out grain to hide it from the Midianites.

And what happened?

God appears to him and speaks to him.

God commissions Gideon, but nothing like that is reported for Jephthah.

What is represented is that this is a man centered choice for leadership.

It's not a divine choice.

It's an action that prepares us for a similar choice later in Israel's.

History with the people's choice of a tall man named Saul as their very first king.

As with Saul, God gave the people what they wanted in Jepta.

They wanted a mighty man.

They wanted a rescue from a human enemy.

And so a mighty man was someone who could rescue them.

He was not a man chosen by God, but someone the people would desire with the qualities that appealed to them.

And as you read through the book of Judges, each successive judge becomes less qualified to lead God's people.

We see them closer and closer to full-blown worldliness, not living in the middle, but living in the world.

They no longer live with the Canaanites in the land of the Canaanites, but they have become the Canaanites.

This is true even for the Savior judges that God uses.

But God is merciful and he uses these sinful Savior judges to rescue his people.

Sometimes scripture shows us that God takes a person, the most unlikely of persons, and uses them for his purposes and his glory, much like Gideon.

This is not one of those types.

No, Jephthah teaches us that God sometimes gives us exactly what we want.

And we suffer as a result.

Notice how this happens.

The Ammonites go out to war against Israel.

The elders try to get Jephthah to lead them to war for the lowest price possible.

They know he can do it, so they go to him and say, Come and be our leader, come and lead our warriors, be our commander.

Notice that nothing is said about restoring his position to his family.

Nothing is said about restoring his position to the community.

It's just come and lead our people, come and lead our warriors, fight for us.

They merely offer him a job based on his abilities.

Just as Israel wants God on their side for what he can do for them, the elders of Gilead desire Jephthah for what he can do for them.

They're attempting to manipulate Jephthah for their own ends.

And by doing that, they were trying to manipulate God.

You see, these manipulating actions ignore God's rightful rule.

And they show God's people attempting to usurp God's position.

Never do you see Israel in this account going to God and saying, God, who should lead us?

Who are you giving us as a savior judge?

They ought to be seeking God's will, not someone they believe will be able to fight well.

In other words, they are religious and political opportunists.

And sadly, we are no different when we go through life without consulting the Lord through prayer and the wisdom of his word.

That's the danger of living in the middle.

I love how Jepta responds.

Verse 7.

My paraphrase is, are you out of your minds?

Are you out of your minds after what you did to me?

There's no good reason for the disinherited Jephthah to come and help them.

Why would you do that?

And since they can't get him for the rock-bottom prices, they go all in.

Notice the change in words.

First they want him to come and be their leader, to be their commander.

Now they change it and they say, come and be our head.

Jepta gets what he wants.

And verse 9.

If this all happens and Yahweh gives them over to me, I will be your head.

Jeptah gets what he wants.

He gets restoration, and not just restoration, but headship, rulership over his family, and even beyond his family to all of the peoples in Gilead.

The elders came seeking to manipulate him and to use him, but he turns the tables on them and uses them.

The manipulators appointed a manipulator as the head of these Jewish tribes.

They attempted to manipulate Jephtha in the same way that they worked with their God, and in the end they get exactly what they want: a manipulator to lead them.

Oh, but it gets better.

Look at verse 11.

So Jephtha went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and leader over them, and Jephthah spoke all these words before Yahweh at Mizpah.

He makes a show of religiosity.

He's living in the middle.

Yes, I will be your head.

Oh, but we we have to do this with Yahweh.

We can't go without touching base with God, right?

But notice that he does this at Mizpah.

There's no tabernacle that we know of at Mizpah.

There's no priest at Mizpah.

This is for show.

Just like Israel putting away their gods, Jephthah performs a religious act for the sake of his military, so they're going to trust him and follow him as their leader.

It's yet another step of manipulation.

But don't we do the same?

Don't we put on a good show for people when the one we should really be concerned about is ignored?

At this point in time, we see Israel fully ingrained into the worldview around them.

They become masters of manipulation for their own end.

And God gives them what they want.

You see, Bretons, Israel's living in the middle led to the appointment of a savior judge who's a religious manipulator.

And as the new leader, Jephthah now begins correspondence with the enemy leader.

And he attempts a negotiation based on his view of the region's religious history.

This is very typical for the time period.

And what Jeptah says about Israel is true.

You can look at this in verses 12, 13, 14, 15.

He goes on and he recounts Israel's history in verses 18 and following.

And what Jeptah says about Israel's history is true.

They never touched Ammonite land, they never entered Moabite or Edomite lands when they came out of Egypt and came into the promised land.

As for the Ammonites, they, Sihon came out of, came out against Israel, but Israel defeated him and took over his land.

Therefore, the claim of the Ammonite king is illegitimate.

I was never in your land, Israel was never in your land.

You have no right to come and say that you possess, that you need or you own what we possess.

But this is where Jephtha begins to manipulate his religious information.

Let's look carefully at this.

Verse 13, the king of the Yamanites answered the messengers of Jeptah.

Israel, on coming out from Egypt, took away my land from the Arnon to the Jabak and to the Jordan.

Now therefore restore it peaceably.

Great.

We can end all this conflagration by you just giving back my land.

Jephthah says, uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh.

Verse 15.

Israel did not take away the land of Moab or the Ammonites.

That didn't happen.

We went by the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh, verse 17.

We sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, please let us go through your land, but he wouldn't listen.

We sent also to the king of Moab, he would not consent, so we stayed at Kadesh.

Verse 18.

We journeyed through the wilderness and went around the land of Edom and around the land of Moab and arrived on the east side of Moab and camped on the other side of the Arnon.

They did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was the boundary.

We asked Sion to let us pass through verse 20.

He did not trust us.

So we gathered everybody together and encamped against Israel and fought with them.

Verse 21, and Yahweh, the God of Israel, gave Sion and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they defeated them.

So Israel took possession of the land of the Amorites who inhabited that country.

They took possession of all the territory of the Ammonites, from the Arnon to the Jabbak and from the wilderness to the Jordan.

So then, Yahweh, the God of Israel, dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel.

And are you to take possession of them?

Notice what's happening here.

We are people of Yahweh, and Yahweh gave us this land.

Are you telling us that you own it?

Our God gave it to us, therefore it's ours.

If you are Ammonites, then you possess what your God Baal gives you.

Our God gave us this land, you possess what your God gave you.

Verse 24, will you not possess what Chemosh your God gives you to possess?

And all that Yahweh our God has dispossessed before us, we will possess.

Are you any better than Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab?

Did he ever contend against Israel, or did he ever go to war with them?

Well, Israel lived in Hejban in its villages, and Aroer in its villages, and in all the cities that are on the banks of the Arnon, for three hundred years.

Why did you not deliver them within that time?

Listen, why are you doing this now when you've had three hundred years to do it?

I therefore have not sinned against you, and you do me wrong by making war on me.

Yahweh, the judge, decide this day between the people of Israel and the people of Ammon.

But the king of the Ammonites did not listen to the words of Jephthah.

That all sounds like great interaction, military interaction, negotiation back and forth, but there are at least four significant problems here.

Number one is that Jeptah equates faith in his God with the practices of pagan gods.

He makes them as though they act in the same way.

That's living in the middle.

God is no longer in Jeptah's mind viewed as distinct, as holy, as righteous in a separate, but as another one of the pantheon of gods in that region.

And so just like Moab or Ammon has to accept what their God gives them, Yahweh gives to Israel, and they accept it.

There's no distinction between Yahweh and the other gods in Jepta's mind.

The second problem is that Jeptah puts God in a box.

He equates him to a regional demon rather than an omnipotent, omnipresent sovereign.

God has become the God of the universe who upholds all things by his power, and he's become this little God who can be manipulated for their own ends.

A third problem is found in Deuteronomy chapter 2, verse 19, that states that Yahweh gave the Ammonites their land to possess.

Deuteronomy 2:19

Yahweh did.

But Jephthah says, No, Chimash, your God, gave you your land.

Jephthah's in gross theological error, a problem that arises when the world's ways begin to influence our thinking about God's word.

When we begin to let the world's ways of thinking influence our thinking, we begin to see scripture differently, we begin to interpret it differently, we begin to ignore portions of it.

And there's a fourth potential problem.

Chemosh was not the god of the Yamanites.

We know this historically.

We have historical artifacts that reveal this.

Chemosh was not the god of the Ammonites, but the god of the Moabites.

The god of the Ammonites was Milcom or Molech.

He's the chief god of the Ammonites.

Interestingly, the Ammonites worshipped Milcom through child sacrifice.

So what is happening here?

We can only imagine how the Ammonite king felt when he was told to just accept what Chimash had given him.

I don't even worship that God.

That's not my God.

That's somebody else's God.

Why should I accept what he gives me?

So Jephtha is either mixed up in his history or he's deliberately taunting and manipulative.

Christians often mix up their theology or use it as a bully pulpit.

Sometimes that comes from ignorance.

Sometimes we just don't know our Bible well enough.

We don't read and study it enough.

Other times it comes from thinking about Scripture as the world thinks.

We view God's word through the lens of the world rather than the other way around.

And as a result, people think that we are ignorant, or worse, that we are abusive Biblicists taunting those around us.

This is Jeptha.

Friends, people who live in the middle are tempted to exploit the origin of their calling.

Jepta presents Yahweh as his sole motivation.

Of course, that's true when viewed from God's sovereign direction of all events.

But it's empty words from the mouth of Jeptha.

God doesn't issue a direct calling of this judge anywhere.

Jephthah is a religious person who talks well, but is never in church to worship, never hears the word of God in fellowship with the saints.

It's just empty talk.

But in chapter 11, verse 29, we do find God directly at work.

Chapter 11, verse 29 says, Then the Spirit of Yahweh was upon Jeptah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh and passed on to Mizbah of Gilead, and he passed on to the Ammonites.

And Jeptah made a vow to Yahweh and said, If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be Yahweh's.

And I will offer it up for a burnt offering.

God is clearly at work in verse 29.

And the rest of the account, God is in the background.

But here we see that God used Jephtha to judge his people.

For at least a portion of the time, Jephthah functioned under the control of the Holy Spirit.

Remember, God told Gideon that he would have success.

God promised Gideon victory that Gideon had difficulty trusting in.

There's no such thing happening here.

What does Jephtha do?

He bribes God.

He bribes him.

He tries to manipulate him.

God, if you will give me success, then I will give you a burnt offering.

The first thing that comes out of my home when I come home in victory.

He attempts to manipulate God as if he were a pagan God.

How often do we do that?

How often do we say to God, God, I'm one of your children.

I believe in you.

Shouldn't you do something?

God, I promise that if you act in this way, I'll do this.

In case you haven't realized it yet.

It's time that you realize that Jephthah is a man who cares only for himself.

He's in it for himself.

Victory would most likely bring Jephthah restoration to his family, or if not restoration to his family, at least headship over his family, and unequaled leadership in these tribes of Israel.

He wants what belongs to him and more.

And to get it, Jephthah reveals the foolishness and the cost of living in the middle.

He says, God, you do this and I'll do this.

Here's the bargain.

Here's the parameters.

God, I've successfully negotiated with the enemy.

Now I'm going to successfully negotiate with you.

And his negotiation reveals the depth of his foolishness.

It's interesting that Proverbs chapter 12, verse 23 says, the heart of fools proclaims folly.

Proverbs 12:23

Well, what does that have to do with Jephthah?

Well, we look over in Proverbs chapter 14, verse 16, and we read that one who is wise is cautious and turns away from evil.

Proverbs 14:16

But a fool is reckless and careless.

How could Jephtha have any control over what came out of his home first?

None.

But that's what manipulators become.

They believe that everything is in their control.

And sooner or later, God's people who live in the middle think that they can control everything about their lives living in the middle.

That's just foolishness.

It's reckless and careless.

Now God gives the victory to Israel.

Jephthah leads these Jewish people to victory over their enemies, the Ammonites.

God brought peace through his mercy and his grace and his faithfulness to his covenant, but he would not be manipulated by Jephthah or Israel, nor will he be manipulated by you or me.

Verse 34, Jephtha came to his home at Mizpah, and behold, his dog came out to meet him.

No.

His goat.

His sheep.

No, his daughter.

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.

Jephtha's foolishness highlights his daughter's innocence.

But the father and the daughter suffer the consequences of his foolishness.

Friends, sometimes our foolishness and our living in the middle will have disastrous effects on others.

We cannot, we must not say, oh, it won't hurt anybody.

That kind of thinking develops from living in the middle and looking at life through the world's eyes.

Because we think we can manipulate everything.

Jephthah delivers the Israelites from bondage and oppression from the Ammonites, people who do sacrifice their children to the gods in appeasement and manipulation.

Jephthah is shown to be no different than the Canaanites when he follows through on sacrificing his daughter to Yahweh.

Because of his ignorance and his foolishness.

Father and daughter both pay the price.

She would never have the chance to marry and have a family.

Ironically, Jephthah foolishly stole from his daughter what he longed for.

A place in the family.

This story is about living in the middle, about belonging to God yet living in the ways of the world.

And the results of continually living in the middle are generationally disastrous.

Who will stop the downward spiral?

Maybe it's Samson.

You can chuckle at that one.

What do we do with this?

What do we do with this?

Let me share some implied truths that I think must impact us.

Number one, living in the middle generates foolishness, not wisdom.

Living in the middle generates foolishness, not wisdom.

We think that as long as we stay in touch with God, maybe we go to church once in a while, maybe we do this, maybe we do this, and we think that that will lead us to wisdom and we'll be okay, but in the end it generates foolishness.

Number two, living in the middle often brings unwanted consequences.

Specifically, this account reveals that God's people shift from the middle and they become more like the world.

And when we do that, God also shifts.

Eventually, his grace to his people turns to discipline by giving his people what they want.

It's as if God says, okay, that's what you want.

Here you go.

Have fun.

See if it's all it's wrapped up to be.

Living in the middle generates foolishness, not wisdom.

Living in the middle brings unwanted consequences.

Number three, God desires wise followers, not foolish talkers.

There's a reason.

The greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, and with all of your strength.

Because when he is first, when you fear him and trust him with all of your being, you are led to wisdom and to understanding, not to rash foolishness.

Let me leave you with this last one.

An implied truth that must impact us from the story of Jephthah is God's astonishing grace.

Jephthah is remembered not only for his foolishness, but for his faith.

You say, huh?

Yeah.

It's true.

Hebrews chapter 11.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Hebrews chapter 11.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

If you don't know what Hebrews chapter 11 is, then this is going to be even more astonishing.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Hebrews chapter 11 is what we call the Hall of Fame of faith.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Describes us what living and walking by faith looks like.

And it's full of people who we might say have lived in the middle.

And after going through the great people of the faith like Abraham and the people of Israel like Moses across the Red Sea, we get to verse 32 of Hebrews chapter 11, and it says, And what more shall I say?

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, of Barak, of Samson, of Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms.

Friends, Jephthah's compromise with the world isn't mentioned.

Neither is there a comment on his rash vow or his fulfillment of it.

What is remembered here is his faith.

That's just astounding.

That tells us that we can ride the roller coaster of life with its valleys of sin and its mountaintops of faith, with the hope that he who called us to himself will keep us safe in Christ until the end.

He calls us to that hope when we set aside the sin that so easily entangles us and we run with endurance the race that is set before us with our eyes on Jesus.

Yes, Jephtha's story is full of sadness and folly, and so is yours, and so is mine.

Because we live in the middle.

I love the way that John Calvin said it.

He said, Thus in all the saints, something reprehensible is always found.

Yet faith, though halting and imperfect, is still approved by God.

There is, therefore, no reason why the faults we labor under should break us down or dishearten us, provided we by faith go on in the race of our calling.

So I think there are two outcomes here, depending on where you stand.

Some of you may need a swift kick in the pants to get out of the middle.

I say that with all the love in my heart.

Get out of the middle.

Don't love the world or the things in the world, John says.

Some of us need that.

We need to be reminded.

Run with endurance the race that is set before you.

Get out of the middle.

There's another group of people that may feel hopeless, hopelessly caught in the middle.

If that is you, my friends, you need to hope in Christ.

Because ultimately there is no wisdom found in you.

There was wisdom found in Jepta when he lived by faith.

And there is wisdom found in each of God's people when we look to Christ as our wisdom.

Let him be your wisdom as you trust in him to the end of your days.

And you too might hear the words that Jephthah heard.

Well done, good and faithful servant.

That's not because of what Jephthah did.

It's because where Jephthah's faith resided.

Put your faith in Christ as your wisdom, and all your foolishness will one day be redeemed.

Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus, we confess that we are too foolish.

Oh Lord, we we rest in our own ways, our own strength far too often.

We think that we are wise and smart and we are we are creative, whatever words that we want to put to it, but in the end we just are manipulative fools.

Oh Lord Jesus, be our wisdom.

Would you come and take us in your hands?

Cause our faith to be strengthened so that we might look to you.

That you would be the author and the perfecter of our faith.

That you would strengthen us to run with endurance the race that you have set before us.

That you, in the end, would be our wisdom.

We ask this to the praise of your glorious grace.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.