this is a very difficult passage to preach, although maybe no more difficult than some of the other passages in Judges. No one came out of worship angry at how I approached the text, which I found very interesting, particularly since I preached that the story of Jephthah's daughter is told as a counter-example. Not only is this approach difficult for me as one who believes Scripture is God's inspired word, but it also goes against what the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews says about Jephthah.
I also find this passage difficult as a father/parent. I cringe when I read the story of Abraham taking Isaac to be sacrificed, but in that instance, God provides an alternative sacrifice. In this case, Jephthah finds no alternative sacrifice. I mention in the sermon the daughter willingly accepting to be sacrificed since Jephthah made the vow, but I did not say that it sounds a lot like something a victim would say. for the life of me, I cannot understand why Jephthah did not find an alternative response, particularly since he was given time (while his daughter went away) which could have been used to find a better way of living out his vow. I cannot believe that the lesson of the story is Jephthah's faithfulness, which is proven by his willingness to do the unspeakable because he had made a promise to God. Of course, when I suggest that God sacrifices God's only son Christ so that we do not have to make human sacrifices anymore, it seems as if God's example is exactly the one Jephthah followed. Maybe the lesson, which I did not preach about, is that Jephthah thought he was God and that he had the right to decide matters of life and death for his daughter. I'll have to ponder that thought for the next time I preach this text (if there is a next time).
I commend the following blog entry by Ian Paul - https://www.psephizo.com/biblical-studies/can-we-preach-on-the-texts-of-terror/ . It does not speak specifically to this story in Judges but does tackle a similar story. of course, the Phyllis Trible book, Texts of Terror, which I mention in the sermon below is a powerful book that addresses some difficult issues in the biblical text.
“Here Come the Judges: Jephthah” August 1, 2021; Judges 11: 1-11; Judges 11: 29-40 Summer Judges series; SAPC, Denton
Judges 11: 1-11 Now Jephthah the Gileadite, the son of a prostitute, was a mighty warrior. Gilead was the father of Jephthah. 2 Gilead’s wife also bore him sons; and when his wife’s sons grew up, they drove Jephthah away, saying to him, “You shall not inherit anything in our father’s house; for you are the son of another woman.” 3 Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob. Outlaws collected around Jephthah and went raiding with him.
4 After a time the Ammonites made war against Israel. 5 And when the Ammonites made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah from the land of Tob. 6 They said to Jephthah, “Come and be our commander, so that we may fight with the Ammonites.” 7 But Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Are you not the very ones who rejected me and drove me out of my father’s house? So why do you come to me now when you are in trouble?” 8 The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “Nevertheless, we have now turned back to you, so that you may go with us and fight with the Ammonites, and become head over us, over all the inhabitants of Gilead.” 9 Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you bring me home again to fight with the Ammonites, and the Lord gives them over to me, I will be your head.” 10 And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The Lord will be witness between us; we will surely do as you say.” 11 So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and commander over them; and Jephthah spoke all his words before the Lord at Mizpah.
11: 29-40 Then the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh. He passed on to Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed on to the Ammonites. 30 And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord, and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, 31 then whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return victorious from the Ammonites, shall be the Lord’s, to be offered up by me as a burnt offering.” 32 So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them; and the Lord gave them into his hand. 33 He inflicted a massive defeat on them from Aroer to the neighborhood of Minnith, twenty towns, and as far as Abel-keramim. So the Ammonites were subdued before the people of Israel.
34 Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah; and there was his daughter coming out to meet him with timbrels and with dancing. She was his only child; he had no son or daughter except her. 35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes, and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low; 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.” 36 She said to him, “My father, if 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 given you vengeance against your enemies, the Ammonites.” 37 And she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: Grant me two months, so that I may go and wander[b] on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, my companions and I.” 38 “Go,” he said and sent her away for two months. So she departed, she and her companions, and bewailed her virginity on the mountains. 39 At the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to the vow he had made. She had never slept with a man. So there arose an Israelite custom that 40 for four days every year the daughters of Israel would go out to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.
Introduction: After the peaceful prosperity of Israel under the judges Tola and Jair that we heard about last week, Israel predictably does evil. Things go bad.
Just as predictably, Israel again cries out to God for help. If we were to go back to chapter 10 and read the exchange, we would discover that God pushes back a bit. God points out their actions and questions whether they have truly repented, whether they really want to be God’s people. In fact, God tells them, “Hey, if you like those other gods so well, ask them to save you.”
Ultimately, however, God can “no longer bear to see Israel suffer.” (10:16)
move 1: So Judge Jephthah appears.
a. Another judge called into action to save Israel on God’s behalf.
1. Jephthah has identifiable gifts, gifts that will help him save Israel, but he is an outcast.
2. When I say outcast, I mean literally, cast out by his family, sent away, all because his mother is a prosititute.
b. But, in the midst of a crisis, the Israelites decide they can overlook their moral judgment and invite Jephthah to lead them.
1. Funny how crisis can change your perspective.
2. Jephthah bargains with the leaders.
3. he even mentions Yahweh.
4. They strike a bargain, although it would appear that the final agreement is all about Jephthah and no mention of God.
c. Jephthah defeats the Ammonites.
1. he is the next victorious judge.
2. One day, the author of the Letter to the Hebrews will declare Jephthah to be a hero of the faith.
3. And all I can say for Jephthah is that he is a shining example of what a judge ought not to be. That his story is there for the reader to see as the counter-example.
Here’s why.
Move 2: 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 who comes out of his door.
1. Actually, in Hebrew his vow does not stipulate to whether it is the first person, slave, animal, just whatever, or whoever “comes forth” first.
2. Perhaps Jephthah’s imagining a scene where the dog comes racing out to meet him.
3. In retrospect, it’s a pretty risky vow given that he has a wife and one child, a daughter, who are anxiously waiting to welcome him home.
3. Not sure why he even makes the vow.
4. We certainly are not told why he made the vow.
5. There seems to have been no request from God for the vow.
6. It reads like Jephthah is negotiating with God like he negotiated with the other kings.
7. Maybe Jephthah is so full of himself he forgets that he is not God’s negotiating partners.
c. Ironically, Jephthah opens negotiations with God just after the Spirit of the Lord had come to him.
- Did he not trust God?
- It's as if Jephthah thinks, “I know you are the Lord of all creation, but just in case, I’m going to make you an offer you cannot refuse.
d. Maybe Jephthah has an ego and he's trying to gain some of the credit for himself?
1. “See, I’m the one who cut the deal with God. I’m the one who won the victory over the Ammonites. It’s all about me.”
2. Perhaps Jephthah has a win-at-all-costs attitude and if he has to sacrifice someone or something to ensure victory then that is just the cost of doing business.
d. He does defeat the Ammonites.
1. He returns home victoriously.
2. His daughter races out from the house to celebrate his return.
3. Uh-oh - remember the vow to sacrifice the first person to come forth when he returns.
4. she must be sacrificed, right?
e. Does Jephthah turn to God and ask for mercy and to be let out of his vow?
1. Does he cry out, “God, you are a God of life, so let me skip my vow.”
2. Or, “God, in your mercy save my daughter from my foolishness.”
3. or even, “God take me instead of my daughter.”
4. No, instead he blames his daughter.
5. He shouts at his daughter, “you have brought me low…”
6. It must be her fault that he now has to sacrifice her (Texts of Terror: Literary-Feminist Readings of Biblical Narratives, Phyllis Trible, 101-102.
f. In the face of her reckless father who has not trusted God and has made a vow which now calls for her sacrifice, Jephthah’s unnamed daughter faithfully calls on her father to do what he has promised.
1. So he does. He sacrifices his daughter.
2. A great victory undone by Jephthah's vow.
3. and every year the daughters of Israel gather for four days of tears and lamenting.
Move 2: Bottom line – Jephthah believes that God is like all the other gods.
- If you were an Ammonite, sacrificing a child in burnt offering to your god Molech would have been common practice.
- So Jephthah's actions indicate he does not see the difference.
- 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.
- 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.
- In fact, even in the Old Testament world in which Jephthah lived there were ways to avoid an inappropriate sacrifice.
- 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.
- 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.
5. Sometimes when I hear people talk about God and associate God with actions that show forth injustice or people justify their hatred and violence by turning to God, or people hide from pointing out racism in the name of God, I want to shout: that is not the God we know in Christ Jesus.
that is not the God who saved Israel again and again and comes to us with salvation and love.
Conclusion: Jephthah forgot who God was and what God desires.
We tell his story as a reminder that we do not forget who God is what God desires.
the composer Handel 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 sing "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
