Wednesday, January 16, 2008
By Faith... the Judges, Part 58 of 62
TEXT: "What more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets" (Hebrews 11:32).
IDEA: It is important to have a great faith, but it’s dangerous if you have an inadequate theology.
PURPOSE: To help listeners understand that faith can be dangerous if it is misdirected.
We have been talking about one of the most enigmatic characters in the Bible.
What do you know about his faith?
What do you know about him that seems to contradict that faith?
I. Jephthah had faith, but he didn’t know very much about the God he had faith in.
What do you know about the spiritual environment of the nation and community as he was growing up?
He spent his adolescent years and his young manhood in the land of Tob. How did he get there?
He was 40 miles or more away from Israel. How much do you think he learned about God in those estranged years in Tob?
How much do you think a citizen of the United States knows much that is accurate about God?
We have Bibles in the bookstores, churches in our towns and cities, radio and television programs and an unending string of preachers. Yet what accurate knowledge do most Americans possess about God?
Not much, if you believe the surveys about our population. Not much if you analyze the fluff and nonsense that passes for religion on the media.
II. The question, “What did Jephthah know about God” takes a sharper focus as he is about to enter battle and he bargains with God.
Read Judges 11:30. Do you think that prayer has never been uttered before by thousands of soldiers ready to enter battle?
What was Jephthah vowing? He was going to offer God a human sacrifice.
People have tried to soften that by saying that perhaps it could be an animal. There are two difficulties with that:
Animals were not kept indoors in Israel. Therefore it would have been odd indeed.
It would have been a mockery to offer any animal. He made an extraordinary vow. If he meant an animal, he would have offered the choicest one, not any animal.
III. Why would Jephthah make such a vow when the Old Testament law clearly forbids such an offering (Leviticus 18:21, 20:2-5, Deuteronomy 12:31, 18:10)?
Jephthah didn’t know the Law. Remember the times in which he lived. The people of Israel had spurned Jehovah and had taken their lead from the example of pagan religions. Those religions approved and often required human sacrifice.
Jephthah with all his zeal had a wrong understanding of God. He thought he had to strike a bargain with God instead of simply trusting God, he felt he had to wrestle with God by paying a terrible price. Do you think there are Christians who believe that they need to bargain with God?
