Alright, good morning everyone. Returning to Judges chapter 11. Judges chapter 11 and today we
are looking at Jephthah's vow. Jephthah's vow and his daughter.
Now Jephthah is going to war against the enemy of Israel,
the Ammonites. And he's going to war as their
head, as their leader. He's leading their army against
the enemy of Israel. And on his way, he makes a vow. And the scriptures record for
us that vow. So look there at verse 30. And Jephthah vowed a vow unto
the Lord, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children
of Ammon into mine 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. or as a burnt offering. I have a literal translation
Bible at home and I looked at that and that translator added
in instead, instead of a burnt offering. And so the Lord delivers
Ammon into his hand and we're told that there's a great slaughter.
They took care of the Ammonites. They beat them handily. And it
says now in verse 34, And Jephthah came to Misbe 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 said, Alas, my daughter,
thou hast brought me very low. And thou art one of them that
trouble me, for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I
cannot go back. Now, first of all, the scriptures
give us a proper warning against making vows. against just making
vows to the Lord. I'll quote from Ecclesiastes
5 verse 2, but there's a few other verses relative to a vow. But verse 2 says, be not rash
with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything
before the Lord. For God is in heaven, and thou
upon earth, therefore let thy words be few. Now Jephthah made
a vow, and he cannot go back on his word. He made this vow
to the Lord, and he's not going to go back on his word. It just so happens that the Jews
had just made a vow to him, saying to him, if you lead us into battle
against the Ammonites, we give you our word that you're going
to be our head. We're going to receive you back.
We're not going to drive you away as we did before, because
his mother was a harlot that their father Gilead had slept
with. And he was the child of Gilead, the half-brother of these
others. And they thrust him from their
presence. But now they wanted him, because
he is a warrior. He's a mighty man. He's a good
warrior. And they went and found him and
said, hey, come back. We need your help. And he said,
well, and they said, if you come and lead us, you're going to
be our head. And he said, all right. Give me your word. They said
yes, we're giving you our word before the Lord and so they kept
their word and He made a vow to the Lord and the Lord kept
his word To give him the victory and so now he must keep his word
now when I read this passage I thought of Psalm 15 and which
speaks of the righteous man, the righteous man. And we know
who the righteous man is, the Lord Jesus Christ. There's none
righteous like him. In fact, he's all our righteousness. We have nothing to boast in but
the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's the righteous man. And
we're told in verse four of that Psalm, he sweareth to his own
hurt and changeth not. Brethren, we are greatly blessed
of the Lord who promised, who vowed to redeem his people, though
they fell in sin, though we fell in Adam, though we rebelled against
God and did our own things, walked in our own way, doing what pleased
us without any regard for the Lord. Though we did that, our
Lord still fulfilled His own word to redeem His people, sending
His darling Son, sending Him in the flesh, sparing Him not.
When it came time, though we spit in His face and plucked
out His beard and were just awful to the Lord, even His own disciples
abandoned Him and left Him and fled from him and yet the Lord
faithfully fulfilled his word of promise to us and continues
to fulfill that word to each of his children in their appointed
hour and sending them the Holy Spirit along with his gospel
word and bringing it home to our hearts with power. We are
greatly blessed because our God is faithful to his word. He's faithful to you, his children. Now, as one studies this passage,
you realize that there's an understanding, there's a difference in understanding
of how it is that Jephthah fulfilled this vow regarding his daughter. What did he actually do in fulfilling
this vow? And as we read it, we'll look
at it, but as we read it, you'll see that the language is vague. There's a certain vagueness to
what is actually done to fulfill this vow. And so it's like a
mystery. It's like a mystery that's hidden
from our understanding. And in that very mystery, in
that vagueness, there's a beauty in it. Because it speaks to the
gospel, which in itself is a mystery to us, until the Lord reveal
it and make it known. We think we understand the things
of God. We read his word. We think we
have a good understanding of what it's saying. But as the
Lord, A, gives us life first in himself by his glory and power,
and then grows us in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and
Savior, we begin to understand more and more it's all of him. It's all of Christ. And we fall
more and more in love with our Savior who gave Himself for us
and who blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus our Lord. We thank Him and we rejoice in
Him. So there's a beauty in this vagueness
that in and of itself speaks to the Gospel. and blesses our
hearts. So we know, one thing we know
is who does this passage speak of? Who does this passage speak
of? Well, one thing we know is from
what our Lord said when he spoke to the Jews and he said, search
the scriptures. You search the scriptures because
in them you think you have eternal life. You think they're telling
you what you need to do and what steps to take in order to obtain
for yourselves a righteousness with God and to get yourselves
life. But, These scriptures that you're
reading, understand this, they are they which testify of me. They speak of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You know, sometimes when we have
a problem to solve, every once in a while, especially in school
you see this, every once in a while you're given the answer to the
problem. But you don't know how they got,
how to solve the problem, you just know the answer. But when
you know the answer, Then you can reverse engineer. Then you
can work it back and say, well, I know what the end point is,
and therefore, how does this problem fit into that answer? How do I get to that? How do
I arrive at that end point just by knowing the answer? Well,
the answer is Christ. It's Christ. It's speaking of
Christ. And so therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ is teaching
us. He's in this passage, and he's revealing himself, or is
revealing the glory of his salvation for his people and what he does
for us in mercy and in grace and in kindness. That's what
he's teaching us here from this scripture. And so we reverse
it back and we get a better understanding of what the Lord is actually
teaching us, because we know of whom it speaks. It speaks
of Christ. It speaks of his grace and mercy
for his people. And so our risen Savior said
to his disciples, after he rose from the dead in Luke 24, verse
44 and 45, he said, these are the words which I spake unto
you while I was yet with you. that all things must be fulfilled
which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets
and in the Psalms concerning me." Right? In the law, the books
of the prophets, the books of the history, all wrote concerning
me. Then opened he their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures. And that's what the
Lord does for you as people. He opens our understanding. We can be just like those Jews
who heard Christ and did not come to Him, and know the Scriptures
inside and out, the letter of the law of them, and still not
know Him who is the very life and salvation of His people.
But to you who believe the promise of God, it's because He's given
you an understanding. however small it might be like
a mustard seed, but he's given you an understanding, he's given
you faith to behold, he is all my salvation. He's everything
that the Lord my God has given to me to deliver my soul from
death. And what a blessed view that
is, what a blessed view. And so while we may see through
a glass darkly, and while at this time I may know in part
One thing I do know is that this speaks of Christ and it's a comfort
to you that believe Him and trust Him and are blessed of Him. Now understand that there's two
interpretations of what Jephthah did to fulfill his vow. The first is that he slew his
daughter. He slew her as a burnt offering. He offered her up as a burnt
offering. And to be honest, I thought that
my whole life. When I read it, that seems to
be the immediate interpretation of it, and there are Many people
who do believe that, who do think that that's what he did. But
admittedly, that does seem contrary that the Lord our God would receive
that offering of a human, of a person being offered to him
as a burnt offering in this sense. As we know, he told Abraham,
sacrifice your son, but he delivered. Isaac from being slain and Abraham
received him as it were from the dead because he was going
to be slain and he receives him as from the dead and it was a
picture it's a picture of Christ and so we certainly understand
that it could be it could be that he he offered his daughter
up as a burnt offering but the other thought is that her father
did not put her to death as a burnt offering but rather kept her
as a virgin kept her from being married off and bearing children
and having a family and enjoying those things, but kept her as
a virgin dedicated to the service of the Lord. And that he would
perhaps confirm that dedication with a burnt offering, right?
Confirming it or in lieu of a burnt offering, he dedicated, he kept
his wife back from doing what she would do and dedicated her
whole life to the Lord. She didn't marry and she didn't
bear any children. And so it's possible that when
he made this vow, perhaps he thought a servant might exit
that door. There's always servants coming
and going. Maybe it would be a child of a servant. And rather
than getting the manpower and labor of that servant, who was
born in his house, whom he owned and could do with what he wanted,
he thought, I'll purpose, I'll dedicate that soul to the Lord. I'll let that one be dedicated
to the Lord. But as we see, the Lord purposed,
no, this is going to touch you deeply. This is going to to touch
you very deeply in your own heart. It's going to be your daughter.
And you think about that as though he dedicated his own daughter
to the service of the Lord. As I understand it, who compiled
the book of Judges? It was Samuel. Samuel is the
one who compiled the book of Judges. As I understand, Samuel
put these accounts together into a book in the history and recorded
this for us. And I would imagine how comforted
he was with this account, given the fact that his mother, Hannah,
dedicated him to the Lord. So that when he was weaned as
a child, probably around four or five, she brought him to the
temple in Shiloh where Eli was the head priest and she dedicated
him to the Lord just as she vowed many years earlier she vowed
because she was married to a man who loved her and he was also
married to another woman there was two wives and Hannah could
not have children but the other woman had children and because
she was bearing fruit left and right she was persecuting Hannah. She was despising Hannah. And
Hannah was burdened with that, persecuted by that. In 1 Samuel,
you can read that, and she went to the Lord and vowed a vow,
saying, Lord, if you will give me this child, I'll dedicate
him to you. He'll be your child if you would
open my womb. And the Lord opened her womb,
and she dedicated Samuel, and then she went on to have other
children. too, but the only one that she dedicated to the Lord
was Samuel. And how Samuel must have been comforted to see how
much this father loved his daughter and yet fulfilled his vow in
dedicating him to the Lord. And what a comfort that would
be. Now, let's read this passage and with that understanding that
maybe he dedicated her, he kept her as a virgin. Let's just read
it, verse 36 through 40. 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. for as much
as the Lord hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even
of the children of Ammon. And so he tells her, and this
is her response in verse 37, 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 be well my virginity,
I and my fellows. Now putting her to death would
certainly put her in perpetual virginity. She would never have
ever married a man or ever, ever lost her virginity. She wouldn't
have born any children. And so it certainly lends itself
to that, that that could be, but it also, we see how she was,
she could have just as easily been dedicated to the Lord here.
What he's saying is I'm dedicating you to the Lord. You're not going
to, to serve your husband, you're going to serve the Lord the rest
of the days of your life. And he said, verse 38, go. And
he sent her away 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, there's the vagueness
in it, which he had vowed and she knew no man. That's emphasized again and again
and again. She knew no man. In other words, she's being dedicated
to the Lord by Jephthah as though she is the burnt offering. He's
thinking, if I could give you anything, Lord, I'm going to
give you equivalent of a burn offering though instead of sacrificing
a bull to you I'm going to give you someone a soul that exits
my door and I'm going to dedicate that one to you. And it was a
custom in Israel verse 40 that the daughters of Israel went
yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four
days in a year. Now if you have a King James
Bible with the margin in it look at your margin there and what
does the margin say at verse 40? It says, to talk with, to
talk with, meaning the daughters of Israel went yearly to talk
with the daughter of Jephthah, the Gileadite, four days in a
year. Now, I personally think it's
the latter translation, that he dedicated her to the Lord,
she never married, never had children, and that he didn't
sacrifice her as a burnt offering. That being said, both interpretations
reveal a blessed gospel truth. And that's where I think the
vagary comes in, that we see the mystery, we see the blessing
of God in the gospel of what he's done for us, his children. So if Jephthah's daughter was
put to death, then she honored her father's vow. She went willingly honoring her
father's vow, honoring her Lord. It serves here as a picture of
Christ who honored his father's promise to redeem a people with
his own life, shedding his own blood to fulfill the promise,
the word of God to his people that he would redeem us from
sin, that he would lay down his life, his own son's life, which
is precious to him, for your life. And we see how the Lord
indeed fulfilled that blessing of the gospel, that gospel blessing
to us, his people, in sending a son and sparing not a son who
laid down his life willingly to fulfill all the word of God,
to his people who promised us in the garden that he would bruise
the serpent's head by the seed of the woman which was conceived
in Mary's womb by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost according to
promise. This is the father's vow. It's
throughout scripture. I'll quote the one from Jeremiah
31, 33, but this shall be the covenant that I will make with
the house of Israel. After those days, sayeth the
Lord, I will put my law and their inward parts and write it in
their hearts and will be their God. And they shall be my people. You don't no longer be a dead
letter law. but it'll be living faith within
you, whereby you walk in agreement with God, loving and believing
your God. And so, to ratify that new covenant,
Christ laid down His life. He shed His blood. It was cemented,
it was established in the very blood of Christ by His own death
for His people, whereby He secured our redemption. And so we see
that beautiful, beautiful picture there, if indeed he did put her
to death. And again, it's left vague. It's
left vague for that purpose, so that we see what Christ has
done for us. Now, if Jephthah didn't put her
to death physically, but kept her a virgin, then we also have
several pictures of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. How
so? Well first, it's a picture of
the great faith and confidence which your God works in you,
the Spirit of God brings forth this life in you, his people,
whereby you believe, you lay aside all your works and the
confidence that the natural man has in what he or she does to
save himself, to behold, to believe, to trust, My Lord, you've said
that you're all my life, that you're my righteousness, that
you're my salvation. Lord, I believe. Lord, I believe. That's not from the flesh. That's
from the Spirit of God working mightily in you. Now, we don't
think of it in this way now, but there was a time when godly
women rejoiced to bear a son. They rejoiced to bear a son because
they said, This might be the promised seed. This one might
be the one of whom the Lord spoke in the garden when he said, I
shall redeem my people. by the seed of woman. And so
they rejoiced when they became pregnant. Think about what Eve
said, what she exclaimed when she bare Cain. She said, I have
gotten a man from the Lord. She was excited because she thought
this is it, the resolution to all the pain and the suffering
that we have caused with our own sin. When Adam fell, and
I with Adam fell. and we in Adam fell. She thought
this was the resolution, but now Jephthah's daughter was laying
that hope aside that she would be the one to bear that child
in order to entrusting the father, in believing her father, in honoring
the vow of her father. She trusted, though I don't bear
the fruit of this flesh, yet I believe. I still believe that
my God shall bring forth all that he has promised. And so,
like Jephthah's daughter, what we see in this is that we, of
this flesh, of this very flesh, we, this flesh doesn't bring
forth spiritual fruit unto the praise and glory of God. What's
wrought in you, that faith, that hope, that love for your God,
is wrought in you by the Spirit of God. and he's given you that
faith so that you've laid that hope aside that you're going
to fulfill the law by your works in favor of the promise of God
fulfilled unto you in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn over
to Romans 7. Let's see this in Romans 7, and
we'll go to verse 4 through 6. And then keep your finger here,
because we're going to then flip over to Galatians. in a bit. Romans 7 verse 4 Paul says, Wherefore, my brethren,
ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that
ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from
the dead. that we should bring forth fruit
unto God. For when we were in the flesh,
the motions of sins which were by the law did work in our members
to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from
the law, that being dead, wherein we were held, that we should
serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter."
You know, when I think of Jephthah's daughter, bemoaning her virginity
on the mountains for two months. It's a brief time. It's two months.
Her whole life she's going to live dedicated to the Lord. And
you never hear of her complaining about it afterwards, but for
that two months she bewailed her virginity. To my own shame,
it reminds me of what I am in the flesh and how we behold others
in the life, in this world, doing the things that they do without
regard and without care or worry about it. And they go and live
their lives doing their things. But it's a brief, brief life. Our life is but a vapor, a vapor. Even if we live to 80 or 90 years
old, it's a vapor. It's like two months in the grand
scheme of eternity. eternity and though in this flesh
we're weak and sorrowful and we cry and whine and complain
about our lot in life about things and yet we at the end of this
according to the promise of God have the inheritance of our husband
of our faithful God and Savior we have everything brethren everything
in in the Lord and so yeah we We bewail things for a time,
for a time, but by the grace of God, he keeps us looking to
Christ. And he blesses us and is far better, a far better inheritance
to us than the fruit, the dead fruit that this flesh brings
forth. and can bring forth. And so we rejoice in his blessings. That's the first thing. Second,
according to her father's vow under the law, she died under
the law and lived unto her God the rest of the days of her life. And in this sense, we see the
church again. Turn over to Galatians 2. Galatians
2, verse 19 and 20. So it's after the Corinthians
there. For I through the law, Paul says, am dead to the law
that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. the life which
I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God
who loved me and gave himself for me." So in that sense, Jephthah's
daughter, she died to the natural things in this life that she
might live unto the Lord and serve Him all the days of her
life. Turn over to Galatians 6, Galatians 6 verse 14. Here again, he says, but God
forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto
the world. And so our Lord has delivered
us from the wrath of God, which cometh upon the inhabitants of
the earth, that we might have our inheritance and our habitation
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And now third, the church is
the first fruits unto God by the Lord Jesus Christ. We, the
church, are a chaste virgin of the Lord. We're His bride. We're
His virgin bride. Paul told the church at Corinth,
I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste
virgin to Christ. A chaste virgin to Christ. And
so we read in Revelation 14, Verse 4-5 These are they which
were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are
they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed
from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. And
in their mouth was found no guile, for they are without fault before
the throne of God." And the reason, brethren, why there's no fault
in us, we are faultless before the throne of God, there's no
stain of sin, because Christ's blood has purged the stain of
our sin from His people. He's made us pure, spotless,
holy, without blemish, in his righteousness. He's everything
to us, brethren. And so in this obscure account
concerning Jephthah's vow, which is purposely, I believe, vague
in its details, we see a picture of the mystery revealed in the
face of the Lord Jesus Christ. We've been delivered from the
ways of this world, the course of this world, under the prince
of the power of the air, and our spiritual death, being dead
in trespasses and sins, because our God has given us our all
in the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll close with Colossians 3,
verse 3 and 4, where we're reminded that we are dead. our life is
hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." I
pray the Lord bless that word to your hearts. That's the vow
of Jephthah. I pray you bless it. Amen. Let's
close in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your grace and your mercy. Lord, we confess our own
weakness in understanding every point of Your Word, and there's
things that are dark to us, and things that we don't understand.
But Lord, we bless Your name. We're so thankful, Lord, that
in it, in either interpretation, we still see Christ. We see the
Lord. We see how we are blessed in
Christ. what he has done for us and what
he has worked and wrought in us, Lord, for the glory of your
grace. And we're comforted to know that
it all speaks of you. It all speaks of the many spiritual
blessings which you give to your church. And Lord, we're thankful
for that. We're thankful for the peace
that we have in Christ. Even if there are differences
in understanding of certain points, Lord, we're so thankful. in Christ
there is great and wonderful blessings to be seen to be understood
to be received of the grace of God for Christ's sake and Lord
we ask that you bless this word to our hearts that you teach
us that you would grow us in the grace and knowledge of our
Lord and Savior bless your people bless this flock Lord, establish
this work. Cause your word to dwell powerfully
in our hearts. Cause your Son, Jesus Christ,
to dwell powerfully in our hearts by faith. Lord, bless us to walk
by faith with our God in agreement with him. It's in Christ Jesus'
name we pray and give thanks. Amen.