"The Forgiveness of Sins and the Gift of the Holy Spirit"



Judges 10-12





The five "minor" judges at the beginning and the end of the chapter

help us see Jephthah in a proper light.



You may recall that Gideon had 70 sons-

truly a royal-sized family.

Well, after the death of Abimelech, there were many Gideon wanna-be's.

Jair had 30 sons on 30 donkeys.

-that's a sign of peace and tranquility

Ibzan had 30 sons and 30 daughters

-and his 60 alliances (marriages outside the clan) signal his importance.

Abdon had 40 sons and 30 grandsons on 70 donkeys!

-even approaching Gideon's 70 sons.



In contrast to all these prolific judges is Jephthah,

a man whose birth was less than honorable (worse even than Abimelech),

and himself only had one daughter.



But as Paul put it, God has chosen to use the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.





1. Tola and Jair

Tola means "worm" and as such is a fitting counterpoint to Abimelech.

He is not portrayed as self-aggrandizing, but a faithful judge.

He is from Issachar, but he ruled from Ephraim-near Shechem,

where Abimelech's misrule had wreaked such havoc.

Jair the Gileadite also segues forward to Jephthah,

since Jephthah was also a Gileadite!



2. The Oppression of the Ammonites and the Repentance of Israel (10:6-18)

Once again we hear the familiar story:

Israel sins, turns to follow other gods, and Yahweh hands them over to their enemies.

This time it is the Ammonites.

The Ammonites were descendants of Lot who lived east of the Jordan.

For 18 years they oppressed all the people of Israel in the transjordan,

the region of Gilead where Jair had been judge-

the region of the 2 ½ tribes who had received their inheritance

on the east side of the Jordan.

But verse 9 says that the Ammonites even crossed the Jordan to fight against

Judah, Benjamin and Ephraim.

In verses 10-16 we hear the first true repentance in the book of Judges.

In the past we heard that Israel cried out to the LORD,

but here there is an acknowledgment of sin and a plea for mercy.

(Read v10)

Now the LORD himself responds.

He had sent a messenger (the angel of the LORD) in chapter 2,

and a prophet in chapter 6,

but now we hear the voice of the LORD directly-

and it does not bring comfort:

(Read v11-14).

They had "repented" before,

and God will not settle for mere lip service.

It is not enough to say "I'm sorry,"

there must be an actual turning away from sin and toward God.

True repentance bears fruit.

Israel had cried out to him time after time,

but only for their own selfish reasons.

"Oops, our enemies are oppressing us, we'd better call on Yahweh to take care of it!"

And time after time Yahweh had been merciful,

and had sent a deliverer,

calling them to true faith,

demonstrating his marvelous deeds before their eyes.

But this time he will not.

If they want him to act, they will have to bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance.

If you want to serve another god,

then don't bother calling on me when you're in trouble!



And so Israel repented, and put away their foreign gods and served the LORD.

The meaning of the following phrase is debated:

"He became impatient over the misery of Israel."

(Literally, "he was exasperated because of troubles/efforts of Israel")

Does this mean that he was still upset with Israel?

Or does this mean that he was determined to remedy their troubles?



The ESV translation, "he became impatient over the misery of Israel,"

maintains some of that ambiguity.

God will deliver his people,

but their deliverance will come at a high price.



The ambiguity of God's attitude toward Israel is seen in the absence of the familiar phrase,

"And the LORD raised up a deliverer."

Certainly the LORD was sovereign over all the events of Judges 11,

but the absence of this phrase signals us that not all is well.

Israel is falling apart,

even as the literary structure of the Book of Judges is falling apart.



Meanwhile, the Ammonites are coming.

Israel has repented of their sins,

removed their foreign gods from them,

and now they gather at Mizpah in order to repel the Ammonites

who were encamped in Gilead.



3. Jephthah and the Ammonites (11:1-33)

Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior.

Jephthah is an interesting character.

Like Gideon, he is described as a "mighty warrior"

Like Gideon, he begins as a nobody, but winds up as a tyrant.

Both are clothed with the Spirit of the LORD in order to defeat their enemies,

but then wind up in a conflict with Ephraim after their victory.

Both wind up brutalizing not only the enemy, but also their fellow Israelites.

But Jephthah is also like Abimelech:

both are born out of proper wedlock,

both surround themselves with worthless men,

both are opportunists who negotiate themselves into leadership positions,

both slaughter their own relatives.

But unlike Abimelech,

Jephthah is also a deliverer whom Yahweh uses to save his people.



Once again, God uses the weak and foolish to accomplish his purposes.



The people of Gilead are looking for a leader-

a situation analogous to 1:1 after the death of Joshua.

And they call Jephthah back from the wilderness.

Notice that unlike Abimelech,

Jephthah does not put himself forward.

Leaders who put themselves forward are not a good thing-

they have too much ambition and pride.

That's one reason why Presbyterians do not allow men to nominate themselves for office.

There must be an external call from the church,

matched by an internal call from the Holy Spirit.

But no one may put himself forward.

He must be nominated by the congregation,

trained and certified by the elders,

and then elected by the congregation.

Here you see the call from the elders of Gilead. (v5-6).

Jephthah is a reluctant leader-like Gideon in some respects.

He recalls how they drove him out of Gilead,

and wonders whether they will prove faithful to their promise of leadership

And so the elders of Gilead swear an oath,

calling Yahweh as witness that they will be faithful.

With the memory of Abimelech and the idolatry of the men of Shechem fresh in our minds,

this is a very good start for Jephthah.

Jephthah declares his reliance upon Yahweh,

and the elders swear their oath with Yahweh as witness-as they should.

They are saying, may Yahweh judge us if we are false to our word.



It all concludes with Jephthah's installation as leader in verse 11,

where he spoke all his words before Yahweh at Mizpah.

Judges portrays him as beginning well,

doing all things in the name of Yahweh.



Having been faithfully installed as the judge and ruler of Gilead,

Jephthah then turns to the king of the Ammonites.

The ensuing dialogue reveals that the Ammonites now claimed the whole

Transjordan region (formerly the land of the Amorites).

Jephthah hoped to resolve the situation peacefully,

and so enters into negotiations with the king of the Ammonites.

Jephthah recounts the history of the encounter between Moses and the Moabites,

Ammonites, Edomites and Amorites, from Numbers 21 and Deuteronomy 1-2.

This is another encouraging aspect of Jephthah's character:

he knows his Bible.

He remembers the history of redemption,

and how God brought Israel into their inheritance.

It was Yahweh who gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel (v21).

It was Yahweh who dispossessed the Amorites (v23).

And so he concludes from this that the Ammonites have possession of what Chemosh,

their god, gave them, while Israel has what Yahweh gave them (v24).

One difficulty at this point is that Chemosh is not the god of Ammon, but of Moab!

Milkom is the god of Ammon.

Various explanations have been proposed-but most have focused on textual issues.

A better explanation is that Jephthah is trying to insult Ammon,

by saying "Chemosh-or whatever your god's name is!"



The Bible never disputes the existence of Chemosh, Baal, and the various gods of the nations.

What it disputes is their power.

Paul even says We know that "an idol has no real existence,"

and that "there is no God but one."

For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth-

as indeed there are many "gods" and many "lords"--

Yet for us there is one God, the Father,

from whom are all things and for whom we exist,

and one Lord Jesus Christ,

through whom are all things and through whom we exist." (1 Cor 8:4-6)

The gods of the nations are real, but they are not gods!

Later in 1 Corinthians 10 he identifies their sacrifices as "the table of demons."

So there is some sense in which the gods of the nations are "real,"

but it would have been more proper for Jephthah to add

that Yahweh sets the boundaries of the nations.



But in the end, Jephthah does acknowledge Yahweh as the Judge of the nations,

and appeals to him to decide the matter.



Predictably the Ammonites are not impressed by this speech.



It is only at this point that the Spirit of Yahweh comes upon Jephthah.

Only Othniel and Gideon, among the prior judges, shared this gift.

And when the Spirit of the LORD is poured out,

the people flock to the banner of the judge.

From Gilead and Manasseh the people of Israel come to him,

and he led them against the Ammonites.

But then J made a vow to the LORD (v 30-31).

The structure of the vow is typical of OT vows:

if you do what I ask, then I will do X for you.

The first part is almost exactly the same as Num 21:2,

where Israel vowed to devote to destruction the cities of the Canaanites.

But the second part is absolutely unique.

Instead of offering cities to devote to destruction,

he vows a freewill offering of whatever comes from his gate.

There is even some indication that Jephthah may have intended this as a human sacrifice.

All his previous devotion to Yahweh suddenly seems suspect.

Is he trying to manipulate God by offering a human sacrifice?



Whatever may be the case,

Yahweh gives him the victory.

He struck 20 cities and subdued the Ammonites.







4. Jephthah and His Daughter (11:29-40)



Then Jephthah came home to Mizpah.

(Read 34-35)

After a victory in battle, what happens?

Exodus 15-the women come out with tambourines and sing and dance.

Later in 1 Samuel the same thing happens after David's victories.

Here is a great victory over the Ammonites,

and yet all we see is a solitary figure-

a teenage girl dancing at the return of her father.

Whoever else may have come to greet the returning hero,

Judges zeros in on the only one that matters:

the one that came out of his house first.

And she was his only child-

Judges even adds: "beside her he had neither son nor daughter."

verse 34 invites us to consider the parallels with Genesis 22,

the offering of Isaac.

But while God had called Abraham to offer Isaac,

Jephthah takes the initiative in Judges 11.

And from that point everything goes wrong:

and while God's test of Abraham results in the confirmation of Abraham's faith,

confirmed the presence and faithfulness of God,

and resulted in the oath that assured the future of Abraham and his seed,

Jephthah's test of God results in the confirmation of J's faithlessness,

confirmed the silence and withdrawal of God,

and resulted in the abrupt end of Jephthah and his seed.

With the death of his daughter-his only child-the line of Jephthah was cut off from the earth.



Some have tried to soften the implications of verse 39 "he did with her according to his vow",

but why would you establish a custom of lamenting the fact

that a woman remained a virgin all her life?

What is remarkable is that the girl resigns herself to her fate.

(36-37)



Numbers 30, verse 2, says that "if a man vows a vow to the LORD,

or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word.

He shall do according to all that proceeds from his mouth."



So now, in a perverse act of biblicism, Jephthah will remain true to his vow.

If he had left his vow unfulfilled, then the curse would have fallen upon him.

But there was another option:

Lev. 27:1-8 provides a valuation system for what to do if a vow involves a person,

and so J could have simply paid a fine for his foolish vow.

Either he was unaware of this,

or else he was thinking and acting more like a Canaanite than an Israelite.



It is here that we what has happened to the Seed of Abraham:

even the Spirit-anointed warrior is acting more like a Canaanite than an Israelite,

offering his only child as a perverse sacrifice.



We need a king who will not be like the nations around us.





5. Jephthah and the Ephraimites

But the story isn't over yet.

Like Gideon, Jephthah makes enemies in victory!

Ephraim once again complains.

In 8:1 the Ephraimites complained that they weren't included in the battle against Midian.

Now they object to Jephthah leaving them out of the fight,

and threaten to burn his house down.



Twice now, Ephraim has been ungrateful and arrogant toward deliverers

(and they will be the center of the northern kingdom that will break away

after the time of Solomon).



Whereas Gideon sought to defuse the situation with his words in chapter 8,

Jephthah responds with pride and arrogance himself!



And so J and the men of Gilead rise up and fight with Ephraim,

quickly capturing the fords of Jordan.

Ephraim's army is cut off, and so whenever an Ephraimite tries to return home,

they ask him to say "Shibboleth"

but being unable to pronounce the "sh" they say "Sibboleth."

And so 42,000 Ephraimites are slaughtered.



Israelite has turned against Israelite,

and the unity of the nation is gone.



Again, the silence of God is deafening.

He is content to allow Israel to engage in fratricidal war

as the fitting punishment for their rebellion against him.

The people have received a leader worthy of them!

And the one people of God are reduced to a fragmented and divided people,

looking remarkably like the pagans around them.



Did you notice what is missing here?

All the previous judges have some reference to "and the land had rest/peace..."

Under Jephthah, the land did not have rest.



We see in Judges 10-12 a token of the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit,

but it is only in our Lord Jesus Christ that we receive the full and real thing.



6. Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon

The narrative concludes with three more minor judges.

Ibzan of Bethlehem-this may be either the Bethlehem in Zebulun (Josh 19:15) or Judah.

Since the author always identifies Bethlehem of Judah as being a Judahite town,

I'm inclined to see this as the one in Zebulun.

Unlike Jephthah, Ibzan has a large family

and one that is well connected through marriage.

Elon the Zebulunite

Abdon the Ephraimite-with 40 sons and 30 grandsons on 70 donkeys,

the pinnacle of peace and prosperity-

but a peace and prosperity that groans under its false pretences.