Reflections on "Undoing the Victory" Judges 11: 29-40; Hebrews 10: 1-18

I was very direct in this sermon, in part because we had communion and a baptism, so I felt a little bit of time pressure.  I went straight to preaching against that text, or at least lifting up the text as a counter example for us.  I think that is fair to the text, but I am still troubled that in Hebrews Jephthah is considered a hero of the faith.  I can't figure out why he gets that distinction.

At one point, I thought about expanding the sermon to include a conversation about Jephthah's daughter and her willingness to be sacrificed.  I could have criticized Jephthah like I did, but then noted his daughter's faithfulness in allowing herself to be sacrificed (but also noted that her death was still not what God desired).

“Undoing the Victory” November 4, 2012; FPC, Troy, Judges 11: 29-40; Hebrews 10: 1-18; Judges series

Introduction: Another victorious judge.

The Spirit of the Lord has descended on Jephthah. He has defeated the Ammonites. One day, he author of the Letter to the Hebrews will declare Jephthah to be a hero of the faith.

And all I can say for Jephthah is that he is a shining example of what judge ought not to be. That his story is there for the reader to see as the counter-example.

Move 1: Jephthah does not understand that God desires salvation not death.

a. before Jephthah goes into battle he makes a vow to God that he will sacrifice the first person (actually in the Hebrew it could be first thing) who comes out of his door he will sacrifice to God.

1. Maybe he's thinking about his dog rushing out to meet him, but given that he has a wife and one child, a daughter, that seems like a pretty risky vow.

2. We are not told why he made the vow.

2. There seems to have been no request from God for the vow.
3. It reads like Jephthah is negotiating with God like he negotiated with the other kings.

c. I find it ironic that he opens negotiations with God just after the Spirit of the Lord had come to him.

1. Did he not trust God?
2. It's as if Jephthah thinks, “the Spirit of the Lord is with me,” but I”m going to hedge my bets.

2. Maybe Jephthah has an ego and he's trying to gain some of the credit for himself?

3. Perhaps Jephthah has a win at all costs attitude and if he has to sacrifice someone or something to ensure victory, than that is just the cost of doing business.
   
   
   d. He defeats the Ammonites.
   1.But in fact his daughter races out from the house to celebrate upon his return.
   2. She must be sacrificed to fulfill the vow.
   3. And so she is.
   A great victory undone by Jephthah's vow.
   
   
   Move 2: Bottom line – Jephthah Jephthah believes that God is like all the other gods.

a. If you were an Ammonite, sacrificing a child in burnt offering to the your god Molech would have been common practice.

1. So Jephthah's actions indicate he does not see the difference.
2. Somehow he thinks Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God one who rescued Israel from bondage in Egypt and led Israel through the wilderness and to the Promised Land, that this God is like any other of the foreign gods.
3. A god needing to be appeased by sacrifices, even human sacrifices.
   b. Jephthah does not know the character of God who desires salvation not sacrifice.
   1. In fact, even in the Old Testament world in which Jephthah lived there were ways to avoid an inappropriate sacrifice.
   2. Leviticus 27: 1-8 describes the process for redeeming a sacrifice. In other words, there was a price Jephthah could have paid to keep his daughter from being a sacrifice.
   3. He either did not know or did not care.
   b. But we know.
   1. We know the God who saves.
   2. We know the God that the author of Hebrews writes about – the God who sent Christ to be the sacrifice for us
   3. The God who turned the practice of sacrifice upside down by giving Christ to die for us.
   4. The God who does not demand sacrifices, but extends and desires love.
   
   
   Conclusion: the composer Handel's may be best known for his work the Messiah, but he also composed an oratorio entitled Jephtha. In that oratorio, an angel intercedes before Jephthah sacrifices his daughter. The angels sings "no vow can disannul the law of God, nor such was its intent." (The New Interpreter's Bible Vol. 2, 834).
   We know the God of whom Handel speaks.
   WE come to our Lord's Table knowing what Jephthah did not – the saving grace of God