Let's turn again together tonight
to Judges chapter 11 Judges chapter 11 Let's begin reading in verse 29 Judges
11 29 Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah And he passed over Gilead and
Manasseh and passed over Mizpah of Gilead and from Mizpah of
Gilead he passed over into the children of Ammon. And Jephthah
vowed a vow unto the Lord and said, if thou shalt without fail
deliver the children of Ammon into my hands, then it shall
be that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet
me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon shall surely
be the Lord's and I will offer it up for a burnt offering. So Jephthah passed over the children
of Ammon to fight against them, and the Lord delivered them into
his hands. And he smote them from Arora,
even till thou come to Meneth, even 20 cities, and into the
plain of the vineyards with a very great slaughter. And thus the
children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.
And Jephthah came to Mizpah unto his house, and behold, his daughter
came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances, and she was
his only child. Beside her he had neither son
nor daughter. And it came to pass when he saw
her that he rent his clothes. And he said, alas, my daughter,
thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that
troubled me, for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I
cannot go back. And she said unto him, My father,
if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord, do to me according
to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth. Forasmuch as
the Lord hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even
of the children of Ammon, And she said unto her father, let
this thing be done for me. Let me alone two months that
I may go up and down upon the mountains and bewail my virginity,
I and my fellows. And he said, go. And he sent
her away for two months. And she went with her companions
and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains. And it came to
pass at the end of two months that she returned unto her father
who did with her according to his vow, which he had vowed,
and she knew no man. And it was a custom in Israel
that the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter
of Jephthah, the Gileadite, four days in a year. As you know,
Jephthah was one of the judges of Israel. Verse 29 says, the
Spirit of the Lord was upon him. That's how Jephthah defeated
the enemies of Israel, the Spirit of the Lord was upon him. And
Christ our Lord, without measure, had the Spirit of the Lord upon
him to defeat his people's enemies, and aren't you thankful for that?
My, my. Again, Jephthah pictures Christ. Now it's believed that the prophet
Samuel wrote the book of Judges, although we're not told. And
as you know, and as the scriptures teach, all the prophets of the
Old Testament bear witness, give witness to the Lord Jesus Christ
in picture and type. It's no different with this passage
before us tonight. Look at verse 39 again. We're
told that when his daughter returned after two months, that Jetha
did with her according to his vow, which he had vowed. Now,
what was that vow? If the Lord gave Jetha victory
over the children of Ammon, his vow according to verse 31 was
whatsoever or whosoever. coming forth out of the doors
of my house to meet me when I return in peace, shall surely be the
Lord's, and I'll offer it up as a burnt offering." Jetham
made a promise to God of a burnt offering. This was not a vow
of thanksgiving that Jetham made, it was a vow of a burnt offering.
Now there's been much discussion by Bible scholars as to whether
or not Jetha actually offered his daughter as a burnt offering
sacrifice. Many suggest that he didn't.
But the text seems very clear to me. It says that Jetha did
with her according to the vow, which he had vowed. When we consider
the story here concerning Jephthah, we must understand first and
foremost that it's not about Jephthah, and it's not about
the Ammonites, and it's not even about Jephthah's daughter. This
is a story of redemption. This is a story of atonement. It's a picture of the successful
work of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross, who became
God's burnt offering. It's a story about the fire of
God's justice falling upon the Lord and Savior, our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ, as a vow, a covenant promise by God himself
in eternity past. It's the story of how God's holy
wrath and justice falling upon God's son, his only son, the
son whom he loved, in the room instead of elect sinners. Now
I'm interested in that because I'm a great sinner and I need
a great savior. This bow of atonement must be
offered as promised by God himself in order for any chosen sinner
to be saved. And the good news that I have
for you tonight is that it was fulfilled. Our Lord said so himself,
it's finished. And it was finished. Now in the
Old Testament, there were many offerings spoken of. the sin
offering in Leviticus chapter four, the grain offering in Leviticus
chapter two, the guilt or trespass offering, Leviticus five, the
peace offering, Leviticus three, and then there was the burnt
offering, Leviticus one. That was the offering that Jephthah
made. He vowed to God, again, whatever
cometh forth out of the doors of my house, regardless of who
it is or what it is, when I returned in peace from the children of
Baman, and He did, the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him, and
they easily, as we read, defeated the enemies of Israel, because
God did their fighting. And that's what we see over and
over again in the Old Testament Scriptures. God says, I'll fight
for you, I'll give you the victory. And that's exactly why He, had
the victory. And he says, whatever comes out
of my door shall surely be the Lord's and I'll offer it up for
a burnt offering. Now I want you to hold your place
here and turn with me to Leviticus chapter one. I want you to see
this, Leviticus chapter one, verse two. Here in Leviticus chapter one,
verse two, the Lord spake to Moses. I want you to see what
he said. The Lord spoke to Moses and said,
speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, if any man
of you bring an offering unto the Lord, you shall bring your
offering of the cattle, even of the herd and of the flock.
And if his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him
offer a male without blemish. He shall offer it of his own
voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation
before the Lord, and he shall put his hand upon the head of
the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement
for him." Atonement. What a blessed word that is.
What a blessed thing that is. Now in the following verses here
in Leviticus, God gives detailed instructions as to how this beast
was to be cut up. and offered upon the altar for
atonement. And Jephthah's vow points us
to the atonement that the Lord Jesus accomplished for His people. This is what the Lord did when
He became God's burnt offering. Turn back a few pages to Exodus
chapter 18, verse 1. We want to establish first and
foremost what this burnt offering is. A burnt offering meant death,
death for the sacrifice. It says in verse one that when
Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, who was a priest of Midian, you
remember that? He was a priest of Midian. He
heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel, his
people, and that the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt.
Look down at verse seven. It says, and Moses went out to
meet his father-in-law, and he did obeisance and kissed him,
and they asked each other of their welfare, and they came
into the tent. And Moses told his father-in-law
all that the Lord had done unto Pharaoh and to the Egyptians
for Israel's sake, and all that prevailed that had come upon
them by the way, and how the Lord delivered them. And Jethro
rejoiced for all the goodness which the Lord had done to Israel,
whom he had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians. And
Jethro said, blessed be the Lord who had delivered you out of
the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh, who
had delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.
And look what he says in verse 11. He says, now I know that
the Lord is greater than all gods. He was a priest of Midian. He's saying he's greater than
my God. He is the God. For the thing wherein they dealt
proudly, he was above them. And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law,
took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God. The burnt offering,
friends, was a sacrifice unto God to atone for sin. What Jethro
is saying here is that I've been wrong. I've been serving the
wrong God. And he made a burnt offering
sacrifice unto the Lord. That's what a burnt offering
was. It was made for the atonement of sin, for the putting away
of sin. And the Lord Jesus is our burnt
offering. For by one offering, the scripture
says, by the sacrifice of himself, he, Christ, hath, past tense,
perfected forever, them that are sanctified. And you sit here
tonight, that you that trust Christ, and you're as perfect
as Christ Himself is. And I know that's hard for us
to get our little finite minds around, but it's true nonetheless. When I stand before God, I stand
as perfect as my Lord and Savior who loved me and gave himself
for me. Now let's backtrack just a little.
Now I told you last week that I'd have more to say about the
beginning verses of Judges 11, so turn back there with me and
look at verse one. Judges 11, verse one, now Jephthah
the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, and he was the son
of a harlot, and Gilead beget Jephthah. And Gilead's wife bare
him sons, and his wife's sons grew up, and they thrust out
Jephthah and said unto him, thou shalt not inherit our father's
house, for thou art the son of a strange woman. And then Jephthah
fled from his brethren and dwelt in the land of Tob. And there
were gathered vain men to Jephthah and went out with him. And it
came to pass in the process of time that the children of Ammon
made war against Israel." Now, the children of Ammon here is
a picture of our enemy. Sin is our main enemy. Satan. and even self. You know that self is an enemy.
By nature, that old man that dwells in us is our enemy. And I found this very interesting. The word mighty there, mighty
man of valor, speaking of Jetha, it's a strengthened form or use
of the word strong. Fully translated, it would be
correct to say that Jetha was very exceedingly mighty and strong. What a picture of Christ that
is. Jetha was a warrior. We would
call him a man's man, exceedingly strong and mighty. And the Lord
equipped him much as he did Samson. But friends, I'm telling you,
there's one mightier than Samson. There's one mightier than Jephthah. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
David asked this in Psalm 24, who is the king of glory? The
Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. The Lord reigneth,
He is clothed with majesty. The Lord is clothed with strength.
Psalm 93, 1. Who is this that is glorious
in His apparel, traveling in the greatness of His strength? Isaiah 63, 1. It's the Lord Jesus
Christ. Who is this man that spoiled
principalities and powers and made a show of them openly, triumphing
over them? Colossians 2.15. You know who
it is. It's your Lord and Savior, a
mighty man of valor and strength. Who is this man that rides upon
a white horse, who wears a crown and goes forth conquering all
who oppose him? Revelation 6.2. It's the Lord
Jesus Christ. Who is this one whom when heaven
is open, Riding upon a white horse, he's called faithful and
true. And in righteousness, he does
judge and make war. You know who it is. Who is this
man whose eyes are a flame of fire and on his head are many
crowns? The man is clothed with a vesture
dipped in blood and his name is called the Word of God. It's
the Lord Jesus Christ. Who is this man that out of his
mouth goes a sharp sword that smites the nations and treads
the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God? Why,
he's the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He's Christ, our
mighty man of valor. And this Jetha is a picture of
Christ. When Jetha's half-brothers realized
that he was going to take part in the inheritance of Gilead,
they thrust him out. And when Ammon came against them,
Jephthah's brothers, we saw it last time, you remember what
they did, they went to him and they begged him to come back.
You see, when a sinner sees his need of Christ, They will beg
Him to save them. And that's exactly what these
brothers did. It's not the other way around.
Men today speak of God as a beggar, but God's not a beggar. They
portray Christ as a beggar. He's standing on the portals
of heaven, wringing His hands and saying, won't somebody just
believe me? Won't somebody let me save them? No, that's not
the Christ of the Bible. We just read about Him. There's
no beauty in our Lord that we should desire Him. But Paul said
when the commandment came and showed us our sin. And that's
exactly what he does to every believer. He shows us our sin
and he shows us our need of the Lord Jesus. And God enables them. to see that need, and Paul said
sin revived and worked death in them, and they begged Christ
to deliver them from their sin. Christ is not doing the begging.
The sinner's doing the begging. Lord, save me. Lord, help me. And what a picture this story
is. Do you see your need of Christ? Some of you do. And when you
do, you cry and you beg and you say, Lord, help me. Lord, save
me. Lord, be my commander in chief. You're the only mighty man that
can save us. You are exceedingly strong and
mighty. You see, that's what this story's
about, as all stories are in the Scriptures. They're about
Christ. Jetha had a different set of parents than his half-brothers
did, and so did our Lord and Savior. We're born of our father
Adam, but he was born of God. He was the Son of God, and he
was God the Son. He was born of a virgin, but
God was his father. And our Lord was tried and tempted
in every point as we are, but the scripture says, yet without
sin. See, he had no sin. And he went
to Tob, and we went to Tob and we found
our elder brother and we cried to him as Jethro's brother did,
won't you help us? You're the only one that can.
We see now that you're a mighty, you're exceedingly mighty and
strong. And Jethro, you remember what
he said? He said, if I come, are you gonna make me the commander
and captain? And they said, yes. And friends,
when a dead sinner comes to Christ, they see him who is all things. The scripture says, he's everything
to the believer. Isn't he everything to you? That's
right. And we see Him who by all things
are. He created all things and He's
in control of everything. He's the captain of our salvation.
Only God can make sons and daughters under glory to make the captain
of their salvation perfect through suffering. And Jetham made a
vow. And that sacrifice is a picture
of the atoning work of our Jethro, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, not
just any sacrifice is going to do. It has to be a burn offering. It has to be perfect. It must
be perfect to be accepted. That's what the scriptures teach
us. And Christ is that perfect sacrifice. Christ is that perfect
burnt offering. You know, most everyone's trying
to atone for sin. But it has to be a sacrifice
that God will accept. Or you're just wasting your time.
And that sacrifice was very costly. Now, do you believe that Jetha's
daughter was everything to him? Well, you know she was. This
was a costly sacrifice to Him. Verse 34 says that she was His
only child. Besides her, He had neither son
nor daughter. And there's no sacrifice more
costly than the one that Jetham made to fill the vow of atonement. And so it is with our Lord and
Savior, God's only begotten Son. You know, I've said this many
times, salvation and the Lord Jesus Christ is free to us, but
it was a sacrifice that was exceedingly costly to God. This is my beloved
Son. My only begotten Son, the Son
that I've loved from before eternity, if you can use that terminology.
None more costly than God the Son, who was God. And to those
of you that are parents, could there be anything more costly
than to lose your child? You know, people talk about the
ultimate sacrifice, a soldier loses his life in time of war
and what a costly sacrifice that is. But you think about his mother
or his father. and the sacrifice, what an ultimate
sacrifice it was to them. You know, I was thinking today
about those parents who sacrificed their children in the fire of
Molech. And you remember that? History
records that an idol named Molech, who had the face of a calf and
had open hands like he's trying to receive something. You know,
and they would light the idol on fire until his hands were
scorching hot, and they'd bring their children and place it on
those hands for a sacrifice. That's just unfathomable. To those of you that are parents,
why you would lay down your life in a heartbeat for your children. And that story is confirmed in
Leviticus chapter 18, verse 21, when the Lord commanded that
none in Israel should let their seed pass through the fire of
Molek. Now let me give you something to think about. Those parents
that did that, they weren't cold and calloused and heartless in
what they did. I used to think that when I read
that story. They actually had a better understanding
of deity than religious men and women do today. Now, religious
men and women today think that they can atone for their sins
by something that they themselves do for God. They think they can
offer God something that He would accept for the atonement of sins. And as horrible as it was to
sacrifice their children unto Molech, it shows that they had
a better understanding than men and women today have. You see,
they understood that the cost of appeasing their gods and their
idols was a costly sacrifice. I think about Cain and Abel.
You know, Cain brought the best work of his hand, and God rejected
it. Abel brought the blood of a lamb,
a sacrifice of a lamb, picturing Christ, and God accepted it.
In Genesis chapter 22, the Lord told Abraham, he said, take thy
son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest. I love that story,
don't you? Take him into the land of Moriah
and offer him there for what? A burnt offering. And Abraham
was willing to make that ultimate sacrifice. And you know the rest
of the story. And just as Abraham was about
to sacrifice Isaac, the scripture says he had the knife raised,
the son that he had waited so long for. God stopped him and
gave him the only hope that any sinner has. What's that hope?
God is able to provide for himself. And God will provide himself
as the ultimate sacrifice for our atonement. That being the
sacrifice of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. God's only begotten
and beloved son. For God so loved the world that
he gave. What did He give? His only begotten
Son, that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. Now, in and of ourselves, we
cannot make a sacrifice that will atone for sin. I don't know
why folks think they can. The scripture is clear. But that's
what this story is about. It's about the one, our great
burnt offering that made the sacrifice for us. And Jephthah's
vow here pictures the vow of God in the burnt offering of
his son. John wrote in 1 John 4, verse
9, and this was manifested, the love of God toward us, because
that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might
live through Him. Oh, you've never lived, sinner,
until you've lived in Christ. And herein is love, not that
we love God. People go around all the time
talking about how much they love God. It's not that we love God,
but that He loved us and did what? Sent. He sent His Son to
be the propitiation for our sins. Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1, verses
18 and 19, for as much as you know that you weren't redeemed
with corruptible things, it's silver and gold. And listen,
you can put anything there in that verse that you want to. It doesn't have to be just silver
and gold. He said, but you weren't redeemed
with corruptible things of silver and gold from your vain conversation
received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious
blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot. Yeah, whatever words you put
in there for silver and gold, you're not going to be redeemed
by anything other than Christ's precious blood. And that's what
Jephthah's daughter is all about. That's what this story is about.
It pictures the vow of atonement. This sacrifice had to be holy. This sacrifice had to be pure.
This sacrifice had to be spotless, which is represented by the fact
that Jetha's daughter was a virgin. Did you notice that? Virginity
in the scriptures is a picture of purity and holiness. Picture
in Christ who's a virgin to sin. God made him to be sin. He knew
no sin. God made him to be sin that you
and I, the sinners that we are, might be made the righteousness
of God in him. And that's the vow of atonement
that God made before the world ever was. God made Him to be
sin, that we might be made the perfect righteousness of God.
When our Lord went to the cross, and the wrath of God was poured
out on Him, the holiness of Christ is what made the sacrifice acceptable
to God. If you and I had hung on the
cross, it wouldn't have paid for one sin. But this is the
holy, pure, sinless Son of God who died in our place. A sinner
can't atone for sin. We don't have what God requires.
Our righteousness is filthy rags. Only a perfect and holy sacrifice
could atone for sin. Sinless, spotless perfection
is what God requires. We don't put our hands upon the
altar. The Lord warned against that.
Don't put your hands upon the altar. It becomes defiled the
second that we do. We don't put steps on the altar.
You know, down in Mexico, that's what man-made religion does.
They got all these steps going up to the altar. Religion has
its steps too. And you step on one, and then
another, and then on another. You pray, and you make a decision,
and you get baptized, and you join the church, and you give
tithes and offerings. It's nothing but just steps,
just walking up the steps to make a sacrifice by your own
work. Nothing. It's nothing but adding
steps to the altar of the Lord Jesus Christ, the ultimate sacrifice. And notice also here that Jephthah's
daughter was willing. Look at verse 36. And she said
unto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the
Lord, do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of your
mouth." In other words, Daddy, Father, you can't take your words
back from God. Friends, before the foundation
of the world, God Almighty spoke words promising to give His Son
a bride. God the Son spake the words to
His Father, and He said, I'll lay down my life for that bride.
No man can take my life. I will willingly go to make her
without spot and without blemish. I'll lie down on that cross."
You know, I was thinking about that the other day, just thinking
about the crucifixion of the Lord. They laid that cross or
pole or whatever you know, whatever it was, and they laid it on the
ground and he had to lay on that cross. They didn't lift him up with
a ladder after the cross was put in the ground. They nailed
him to the cross as he lay down. Isn't that an amazing thought?
He humbled himself, friends, when he became a man, but he
humbled himself any more, even more unto death, the death of
the cross. And he laid down on that cross,
and they nailed his hands and his feet to it, and then they
dropped that pole in the ground. My, my, what a picture that is.
And that's what this story, the vow of atonement, is all about. Jetha's daughter was a costly
and precious burnt offering, holy, pure, spotless, and willing. Did you notice that Jetha trusted
her? Verse 37 again, and she said
unto her father, let this thing be done to me. "'Let me alone
two months, and I may go up and down "'upon the mountains and
bewail my virginity, "'I and my fellas,' and he said, go. "'And he sent her away for two
months, "'and she went with her companions "'and bewailed her
virginity upon the mountains.'" Friends, our Heavenly Father
trusted Christ, His beloved Son, to finish the work of redemption
for us. He came in the world to seek
and to save that which was lost. You know, I was just thinking
about what I would have done in this situation. You're gonna
let me go for two months? I know you're gonna sacrifice
me unto the Lord. And you know that the friends
with her probably said, you know, we can just head right on over
that mountain and keep right on going. But she didn't. No, she didn't. And the Lord
Jesus Christ came to this world to save sinners. And every one
of you would agree that you're the chief. You'd say, I'm the
chief, I'm the worst. He came in the world to save
sinners. His word is a vow of atonement. Verse 39, and it came to pass
at the end of two months that she returned unto her father,
who did with her according to his vow, which he had vowed. When Christ's work was finished,
our Savior returned to his heavenly Father, having perfectly finished
the work according to the vow that he made his father. And
that's what this story's about. The finished work of Christ for
his elect people. His name is faithful and true. Verse 40. The daughters of Israel
went yearly to lament the daughter of Jetha, the Gileadite, four
days in a year. Now, not only was this burnt
offering acceptable to God as an atonement for sin, not only
was it costly, and it was costly, his only daughter, he had no
other child, but it's also to be remembered. That's what we
do when we meet together like we are tonight. We remember the
work that our Lord accomplished for us. And you know, numbers
are significant in the Bible. The number four here is significant.
The fourth day of creation is the day that God made the sun,
the moon, and the stars. And what causes a man or a woman
to think more of God and His salvation than when they look
into the sky and see the marvelous creation of God and the light
of the sun and the moon and the stars? And it's that same light,
that same illumination that God shines into our hearts to drive
the darkness away. Did you know that the fourth
commandment of the ten was to keep holy the Sabbath? Which was a sign and a picture
and a type of Christ who fulfilled all the law for us and rested
from His labor. This is all about Christ. This
is all about what Christ has done for sinners. It's a vow
of atonement to save us from our sin. There's four seasons
in a year. We're experiencing a new winter. Well, it's not new, but you know,
we figured that out today when we got up and went outside, it's
cold. And we have four seasons, and
in every season, did you know that word season means appointed
time? In every season, in the appointed
time, we remember the atoning, willing, and acceptable sacrifice
of our Lord Jesus for sin. And that's what this story's
about. It's a vow of atonement. It's a faithful saying and worthy
of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners. May God be pleased to make it
so for His glory, our good, and for Christ's sake. What a picture
that is.