Well, I invite you to turn with me to Judges 11, Judges 11, which deals, of course, with the judge Jephthah, and we really begin reading about him already in chapter 10, verse 6, kind of giving the background there leading up to chapter 11 and the story of Jephthah. We'll read the chapter together. Our consideration tonight is, for the most part, verses 12 through 40, although our first point basically deals with the background found in the first 28 verses. Hear now the Word of God, beginning at verse 1 of Judges 11. Jephthah, the Gileadite, was a mighty warrior. His father was Gilead. His mother was a prostitute. Gilead's wife also bore him sons, and when they were grown up, they drove Jephthah away. You are not going to get any inheritance in our family, they said, because you are the son of another woman. So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where a group of adventurers gathered around him and followed him. Sometime later, when the Ammonites made war on Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob. Come, they said, be our commander so we can fight the Ammonites. Jephthah said to them, Didn't you hate me and drive me from my father's house? Why do you come to me now when you're in trouble? The elders of Gilead said to him, Nevertheless, we are turning to you now. Come with us to fight the Ammonites, and you will be our head over all who live in Gilead. Jephthah answered, Suppose you take me back to fight the Ammonites and the Lord gives them to me, will I really be your head? The elders of Gilead replied, The Lord is our witness. We will certainly do as you say. So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and commander over them. And he repeated all his words before the Lord at Mizpah. Then Jephthah sent messengers to the Ammonite king with the question, What do you have against us that you have attacked our country? The king of the Ammonites answered Jephthah's messengers, When Israel came up out of Egypt, they took away my land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, all the way to the Jordan. Now give it back peaceably. Jephthah sent back messengers to the Ammonite king, saying, This is what Jephthah says. Israel did not take the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites, but when they came up out of Egypt, Israel went through the desert to the Red Sea and on to Kadesh. Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, Give us permission to go through your country. But the king of Edom would not listen. They sent also to the king of Moab, and he refused. So Israel stayed at Kadesh. Beloved, you see what he's doing here? He's giving a history lesson, saying, You say this, but this is the truth of the matter. Next they traveled through the desert, skirted the lands of Edom and Moab, passed along the eastern side of the country of Moab, and camped on the other side of the Arnon. They did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was its border. Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon, and said to him, Let us pass through your country to our own place. Sihon, however, did not trust Israel to pass through his territory. He mustered all his men and encamped at Jehaz and fought with Israel. Then the Lord, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his men into Israel's hands, and they defeated them. Israel took over all the land of the Amorites who lived in that country, capturing all of it from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the desert to the Jordan. Now, since the Lord, the God of Israel, has driven the Amorites out before His people Israel, what right have you to take it over? Will you not take what your God, Chemosh, gives you? Likewise, whatever the Lord our God has given us, we will possess. Are you better than Balak, son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever quarrel with Israel or fight with them? For three hundred years Israel occupied Heshbon, Aror, the surrounding settlements, and all the towns along the Arnon. Why didn't you retake them during that time? I have not wronged you, but you are doing me wrong by waging war against me. Let the Lord, the judge, decide the dispute this day between the Israelites and the Ammonites. The king of Ammon, however, paid no attention to the message Jephthah sent him. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mitzpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites. And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord, If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord's, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering. Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into his hands. He devastated twenty towns from Aror to the vicinity of Mineth, as far as Abel-Kerimim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon. When Jephthah returned to his home in Mitzpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of tambourines? She was an only child. Except for her, he had neither son nor daughter. When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, O my daughter, you have made me miserable and wretched because I have made a vow to the Lord that I cannot break. My father, she replied, you have given your word to the Lord. Do to me just as you promised, now that the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. But grant me this one request, she said. Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends because I will never marry. You may go, he said. And he let her go for two months. She and the girls went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. After the two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed, and she was a virgin. From this comes the Israelite custom that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah, the Gileadite. Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, every man has his price. No doubt you have heard that saying at some point in time. If someone wants something of or from someone else bad enough, sooner or later the one who wants will find the right price for the other one to give up of himself or his possessions. Every man has his price. Everyone, it is assumed, has a certain threshold at which once that threshold is passed, all move into the I can be bought category. And so often, because this is how man operates, many assume it works the same with God. That God has His price at which man can buy His grace. This was the case with the judge Jephthah. Now we need to remember that Jephthah is listed with the heroes of faith in Hebrews chapter 11. He is held before the church as a hero of faith, as a faithful man. Yet, if one remembers anything about Jephthah, that probably is not it. We remember his vow. We remember his daughter. And we remember our ideas of how he carried out his vow against his daughter. Yes, Jephthah was a faithful man by the grace of God. He was an instrument of God for deliverance. Yet, just like the other judges, Jephthah had feet of clay. He was a sinful man. He was not a perfect Savior, and his actions cast a dark shadow over God's deliverance of his oppressed people. We want to consider tonight deliverance darkened by Jephthah's vow. And notice, first of all, the prelude to the vow. Secondly, the proclamation of the vow. And finally, the problem with the vow. Now, the text begins by giving us a kind of verbal map of Jephthah's route of attack. But again, the prelude of his vow includes his calling and his first duties as Israel's leader. As we know by now from our study of the book of Judges, the reason for the need of a deliverer was clear. Israel had backslidden yet again. Ecclesiastes 1 verse 9 says, There is nothing new under the sun. And that applies in full force to the book of Judges. And now in chapters 10 and 11, we find an interesting parallel between God and Jephthah. Now, first of all, remember Jephthah's beginning. He was the son of a man named Gilead and an unnamed prostitute. He was an illegitimate child. He was an outcast, both socially and physically. Someone like him received no part of the inheritance, and in Jephthah's case, his stepbrothers made sure of that. He was forced to run away from his brothers, maybe because his life was in danger. And then Scripture tells us that a group of adventurers, or as another translation says, worthless fellows, gathered around him and they would go out on raids. So apparently Jephthah became some sort of a bandit for a time and obviously made a name for himself. Jephthah, God's appointed leader, was despised and rejected by men. In that way alone, he bears resemblance to the eternal Savior, Jesus Christ. But again, the problem here wasn't his military ability because 11 verse 1 says he was a mighty warrior. His problem for being rejected was his mother. She was a prostitute. But before we read of Jephthah in chapter 11, we are reminded even before that of Israel's continued downfall in chapter 10. As we said a moment ago, Israel had fallen back into the same den of iniquity as before. We might call it prostitution with the Baals. And chapter 10 focuses on true repentance. In chapter 10, verse 10, Israel cries out to the Lord for help, but we read there that the Lord isn't satisfied. He reminds them that He had delivered them from the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, the Sidonians, the Amalekites, and the Mayonites, but they kept on backsliding. And then in verse 14 of chapter 10, the Lord says to them, Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Don't come to me. Go to them. You've made your choice. Let them save you when you are in trouble. You see, congregation, the lesson there is that repentance is not only to be for sin, but also from sin. There is to be a change. There's always a change of direction, we might say, involved in true repentance and conversion. Boys and girls, for example. True conversion, in your case, might involve that you do not keep on picking on a classmate in school or you do not keep on being selfish at the playground or being a bully in the playground young people for you true repentance might mean that you stop disrespecting your parents that you no longer ignore their rules true repentance and conversion includes a change that includes fleeing running away from sin turning, going in the opposite direction from sin. You see, Israel had to do more than sound sorry. Give lip service. The idols had to go. This they did. And the Lord raises up Jephthah. But again, notice the parallels before the Lord raises up Jephthah. The people cast out the Lord by their idolatry. Jephthah is also cast out. In their distress, they beg the Lord to help them. They do the same with Jephthah as we read in verse 6 of chapter 11. Come, they said, be our commander so we can fight the Ammonites. Both the Lord and Jephthah know that they are being used. Again, the Lord says, go get help from the gods you have chosen. And Jephthah says, wait a minute. You hate me. You chase me away. And now just because you're in trouble, you want me back? And another parallel is that in chapter 10, they put away their idols for the Lord And then in chapter 11, they promise Jephthah leadership over all who live in Gilead. Both times they turn back to the one rejected. In these parallels between the Lord and Jephthah, we see that indeed, as Jesus said, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. In Acts 2, Peter preaches that Israel, including those standing there that day listening to his sermon, When Israel put Christ to death and then He calls them to repent, they must call upon the One they had rejected, turn back to the One who was rejected. And beloved, we too are called by God's grace to call upon the One we have rejected by our sin, and that's Jesus Christ. Because there is no deliverance apart from Him. But we need to notice that for all that Jephthah had been subject to, he was a God-fearing man. When discussing the leadership position with the elders of Gilead during his interview, we might say, Jephthah makes it clear that if they win, it will not be their doing, it will not be his doing, it will be the Lord's work. We also read in chapter 11, verse 11, that after he was made leader, he repeated all his words before the Lord. When trying to come to a peaceful agreement with the king of the Ammonites, Jephthah made it clear that the Lord had given the land they possessed. And finally, in chapter 11, verse 27, Jephthah professes that not him, but the Lord would judge between the sons of Israel and the sons of Ammon. You see, beloved, the prelude to Jephthah's vow, the testimony of Scripture, shows us that as the Word of God says in Hebrews 11, that Jephthah was a faithful, God-fearing man. Knowing this, however, and knowing what is to come, we begin to see the dark cloud that is coming in His vow. He is not the perfect deliverer. He, like all the others before Him, is not sufficient. In the second place, notice the proclamation of His vow. As we read, the Ammonites wanted no part of a peaceful agreement. War was inevitable. The Spirit of the Lord, we read, came upon Jephthah as he leads the troops to the front lines. And then for some reason, and we really don't know why, Jephthah makes a vow to the Lord in verses 30 and 31. If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord's. And I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering. This is Jephthah's vow. He promises to give something to God in return for victory over the enemy. And now by the very fact that Scripture pays very little attention to the actual victory that was given to Jephthah and Israel, it's obvious that this vow and the fulfillment of it here are to teach us something. But what is that? Again, we know from the pages of Scripture the outcome. After the victory, who comes out to meet Jephthah I? His one and only child, a daughter. As she comes down the front steps of the house and walks down the sidewalk toward Jephthah, Jephthah's vow came flooding back to him. He tears his clothes and is grieved and wonders, what have I done? And the text says that for two months, his daughter, with her companions, with her girlfriends, goes to the mountains to weep because of her virginity. She will never marry. And when she returned, Jephthah did to her as he had vowed. Those are the facts, congregation. But what do they mean? Where is the focus to be in this narrative? We need to understand that there has been ever so much discussion among biblical scholars already among the early church fathers as to whether or not Jephthah actually killed and sacrificed his daughter as a burnt offering. There are basically two main schools of thought, as you can imagine. One saying, yes, he did. And the other saying, no, he didn't. There's absolutely no agreement, not even among Reformed scholars. You read the commentaries, one says he did, the next one says he didn't. One says he did, the next one says he didn't, and so on and so forth. And they all have their reasons for it. Yet, no one seems to want to take a firm position. And that's why I stand before you tonight rather scared and nervous as well. It's a very difficult passage. But there is agreement on certain points. There is agreement that in Jephthah's vow itself, he intended some kind of human sacrifice. It is agreed among the scholars that when comparing Scripture with Scripture, Jephthah's phrase, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me, that the idea included in that phrase when found in other places in Scripture is never used in Scripture in reference to anything but a person. And therefore, some Bible versions translate whatever comes out of my house as whoever comes out of my house. Also, it is agreed that sacrificial animals which were to be without blemish, bulls, goats, sheep, would not be coming out of the house. In addition, it was customary that a victory celebration parade would meet the victors. We see that today, don't we? Most often with some sort of a ticker tape parade for a championship sports team. So the scriptural evidence seems to point to Jephthah as knowingly offering to the Lord a human being. But then the question again is, Did he or didn't he actually, literally, offer her as a bloody sacrifice on the altar? Those who say, yes, he did, say he did, because that's what Scripture says. And it's true, a purely literal reading gives that impression. First of all, Jephthah promises a burnt offering, and burnt means burnt, doesn't it? Also, we know that Jephthah had a rather rough upbringing, And he was well acquainted with the pagan Canaanite practice of human sacrifice to the idol Moloch. And no doubt he was influenced by these pagan tribes. And look how distraught he was when his daughter was the first to come out to meet him. And those are some of the main reasons used to support those who say, yes, he did. But then there are those who say that, no, he didn't. For a number of reasons as well. In Israel, there was a deeply rooted idea of a metaphorical sacrifice of persons, of people, to Jehovah. For example, the Levites, we recall, and all the firstborn of Israel were consecrated, set apart to the Lord, according to Numbers 3. Remember, the Lord said, the firstborn are mine. And then He took the Levites in place of all of the firstborn. But God also gave a provision for redeeming or buying them back, according to Leviticus 27. If a vow was made to offer a person, that person could be purchased back for a sum of money. In Numbers 8, the Levites were consecrated to the Lord by the laying on of hands by the children of Israel. And in that same chapter, the Levites substituted for themselves two bulls. They would lay their hands on the bowls and consecrate them to the Lord as a sin offering and a burnt offering. And with regard to people, the term burnt offering was used as a metaphor for a whole or a complete offering or sacrifice. And therefore, those who say that Jephthah did not literally sacrifice his daughter remind us that Scripture, specifically God's law, spoke against human sacrifices. They were an abomination in the eyes of the Lord. And by the character of Jephthah, which we have already established, he would not stoop so low as to violate in the worst way the law of God. Besides, if this sacrifice was to be carried out properly, it would have had to have been done by the Levites at Shiloh where the tabernacle was located. And the Levites would have never consented to perform such a sacrifice which God had forbidden. Beloved, this school of thought holds that Jephthah fulfilled his vow by the fact that she knew no man, that she never married, she remained a virgin, and he dedicated her life to the Lord as a spiritual burnt offering in lifelong chastity and possibly even lifelong seclusion. She He was wholly, completely offered to the Lord in some sort of service to Him. Again, as I said a moment ago, it's difficult as you study this because those who say that He did fulfill His vow by taking her life, they hold Him up as a faithful man because He fulfilled His vow even in the midst of committing such a heinous sin at that point. Of course, the others say that he then, he's upheld because he fulfilled his vow, of course. But he did it in this other way. But we need to understand that with both of these schools of thought, there's much speculation, much insinuation. But I believe, and it's my position, shakily as it might be, that there is more scriptural evidence in favor of the view that says, no, Jephthah didn't really kill his daughter. But he dedicated her life as a life of seclusion, as a virgin to God. And you might say, okay, that's your opinion. I don't agree with that. That's okay. We've spent all this time discussing this and we're no further than when we started. So what good is talking about these two positions? And I readily admit that I could be wrong. But I believe that because of the difficulty here, I believe that God in His wisdom did not make it clear to us. Because that's not where the focus is to be found. That's not the focus of the narrative. This dilemma leads us to realize that the point of this account will not be found in trying to establish how Jephthah kept his vow or what happened to his daughter. The point is to be found in the making of the vow and in the vow itself. And that's where we find the problem with Jephthah's vow. The point that the Lord was driving home to Israel and to us was that Jephthah should not have made that vow in the first place. It was indeed a rash vow. It was a foolish vow. Not because of the way in which it might have been carried out. But even before that, he was reckless when he made it. Now first of all, he didn't have to make a vow. It was no sin not to make a vow to the Lord. Obviously, there was more danger of sinning by making a vow and by keeping or not keeping that vow. And beloved, as the third commandment makes clear, the nature of a vow or oath is that a vow is not to be taken lightly. It's a serious matter that was to be specific in nature. It was to be pleasing and acceptable and glorifying to God as well as spiritually edifying to the one making that vow as all of our speech should be. The first thing we need to learn and be reminded of. All of our speech should be characterized that way. But if you think about it, Jephthah's vow didn't fit that at all. Jeremiah says a vow was to be taken in truth, righteousness, and justice. A vow was to express one's complete dependence upon God. Jephthah's vow was reckless. Whatever comes out of my house. He didn't give any regard to the specific rights, privileges, or circumstances of those who could be affected by it. It was open-handed. It was thoughtless. The one who made the vow must be sure that he would be able to pay it. And if keeping the vow was more sinful than making the vow, it should not be kept. Just as Herod, when he promised his stepdaughter anything she wanted for dancing before his party friends, and she asked for the head of John the Baptist on the platter, he should not have kept that vow. Jephthah basically told God, you decide what you want. Name your price. We know that Samuel's mother Hannah made a similar vow, but hers was completely proper and pleasing to the Lord, and she specifically gave back by God's grace what the Lord had first given to her. Jephthah, we know, his, we know, was to be a vow of gratitude for God's salvation and provision. That was what it was supposed to be. Vows of gratitude were normally made after the event. In this case, after the deliverance. But Jephthah makes his before. And most of all, Jephthah's motive was wrong. Jephthah was sincere, but that wasn't enough. He was trying to strike a bargain with God. There was bribery here. Lord, if You will help us win this battle, you can have anything you want. No price is too high to pay. Just name it. Jephthah tries to bargain with God to wheel and deal with God, to use God, to manipulate His Creator. He tried to buy God's deliverance, to purchase His saving grace. He was a faithful man, but when it came to his vow, his heart was not right. Now again, many say that it was a sin for Jephthah to keep his vow, and as we have shown based on the two schools of thought, this may or may not be true. Again, we don't know for sure. But we do know that it was not necessarily the content of his vow that was sinful, but the nature of it. It was rash, reckless. It was a thoughtless vow. You see, Scripture records as we read that the Spirit of God of the Lord was upon him. He would have won the battle without making the rash vow. He did not need, as it were, to help God along by making a vain promise and trying to entice God. And in reality, Jephthah took the Lord's name in vain by treating God as less than He is. His foolish vow demonstrated a low opinion of the one whose help he was seeking. Beloved, the deliverance God gave was darkened by Jephthah's rash vow. It was darkened by the fact that Jephthah thought that he could earn God's grace. He thought that he could give something of his own that was of equal value to the grace of God. And in Jephthah, we see that when you try to buy salvation, it indeed costs you something. but it earns you nothing. What did it cost Jephthah? It cost him his family. His one and only daughter who remained unmarried, a virgin. Jephthah's name, his heritage, his household would be lost with his daughter whether he kept the vow by taking her life or whether he kept it by not taking her life. You see, he had just been restored in his extended family. They had received him back. But now his immediate family would be cut off from among his brothers. And in that culture that was a very sad fate, his family line would disappear. The psalmist says in Psalm 40, Sacrifice and offering you did not desire. Burnt offering and sin offering you did not require. What does God require? The psalmist says in Psalm 51, The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. These, O God, you will not despise. God requires a heart of devotion dedicated to Him. As the gems reminded us from Micah 6, verse 8, it says, What does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? But Jephthah was walking arrogantly when he made that vow. Beloved, Jephthah promised a burnt offering to the Lord. That, too, was the wrong kind of offering. A burnt offering was a sin offering. He should have offered a thank offering. There was only one who could be an acceptable sin offering. Not his daughter, not a bull or a sheep or a goat. That was the lesson of Abraham and Isaac. Remember, Abraham had that knife up ready to strike Isaac. God would provide the perfect sacrifice in His Son. Indeed, there was a price that needed to be paid to God for sin. Jephthah's sinful making of a vow cast a dark shadow over the deliverance God brought. But Jesus Christ, as He stood under oath before Pilate, took away the darkness and shone a bright light on the eternal deliverance to come as He professed to be the Son of God. Many, including some of us, no doubt, have tried to bargain with God at some time and in some way. God, if you will get me out of this jam, I'll do anything for you. You name it. I'll do it. But you see, God didn't need anything that Jephthah could possibly give him. And he doesn't need what you or I could give him. Nothing of us can repay even a little bit of our debt. However, we need every bit of Christ's sacrifice. Beloved, the grace of God is free to believers. Paul says, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. God's grace is free to you and me as Christians, but it costs Him a great price, His one and only Son. You see, Jephthah indeed gave a sacrifice to God much more than he ever could have expected. His family name, his inheritance, was cut off from the land. In essence, He gave His life. In fact, He gave until it hurt. But His offering didn't change the outcome of the battle. The message here is not put your money where your mouth is. But it's watch your mouth. God indeed requires truth in the inner parts. Outward obedience, lip service is not enough. It must be from a heart devoted to God. Israel's heart, you know, was often devoted to others, which is why she always got in trouble. God gave the life of His Son to redeem the lives of His people. And our lives, congregation, belong to Him and are to be lived in truth and love. Even though that may contradict the world's way of living, true life is only in truth. in the truth of jesus christ the truth of jesus christ we are to demonstrate in our everyday life whatever situation we find ourselves in the truth of jesus christ that the world needs we talked about in that word book of special revelation the truth of jesus christ that we are called to demonstrate and speak to the world as we deal with each other in our daily life as we deal with our co-workers in whatever situation of life we participate in in the contracts that we make truth in the inner parts let your yes be yes and your no be no beloved you can't bargain with God he won't allow it he will not be mocked you can't make a deal with him for one thing you have nothing to give the Bible says that a cattle on a thousand hills are his you cannot I cannot earn God's saving grace. If you're trying to, you're only increasing your debt to Him more and more and casting a dark shadow over the perfect deliverance of our Lord Jesus Christ. And judgment on one who acts in this way will become more and more severe because you have a wrong understanding of God's grace. Even if you or I do all the right things and say all the right things, that won't do it. You must have a converted heart by God's grace. And you must understand that God's grace is exactly that. First of all, it's His. And secondly, it is freely given to His own. You see, God requires from you and me the new heart that He first gave to us. As Christians, we have the comfort that God's price has been paid for us and our response is to be a response of gratitude. And Paul beautifully explains the nature of this response in Romans 12 when he says that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And also, as we have considered with Psalm 19, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. People of God, we must know and understand what a great price has been paid for us. And then we must be moved to confess in truth What a great Savior. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, as we bow before You at the close of this sermon, we thank You and praise You for Your truth revealed to us in Jesus Christ, recorded on the page of Scripture, placed in our hearts by the power of Your Holy Spirit. Father, we pray that you would give us a greater understanding of who you are more and more and who we are as we come before you. We pray, Father, that indeed we would be people who speak the truth in love. That our yes may be yes and our no may be no. That each word we speak would have the force and the power of an oath recognizing, O Lord, that you are the one who witnesses each and every word that we say. And we strive to use our mouths in a way that is pleasing to You and for the advancement of Your kingdom. Father, hear our prayer for Jesus' sake and in His name alone. Amen.