Rochelle Davis had surgery today,
and she's at home resting tonight, and I'm thankful she got through
that. We'll remember her. Would you turn back to Judges
11? Now, I want to remind you that
the Bible claims to be the inspired word of God. All scripture is
given by inspiration of God. And every scripture is given
to teach us the gospel. The Lord said, you search the
scriptures, in them you think you have eternal life, and there
they which testify of me. So this passage of scripture
that we just read, we know it is inspired of God and we know
it's given to teach us the gospel. Now, which of us have not read
this scripture before and felt very uncomfortable? I know I
have, I've read this passage of scripture and thought, what
is the point? Why is this in Revelation? Now, I think it's very interesting
that this event and this man is mentioned in Hebrews chapter
11, the great hall of faith. You know, there are over 3,200
names in the Bible. and only 15 of them make Hebrews
chapter 11. And Jephthah is one of them.
Now I could have thought of other men I might have picked out,
Elisha, Elijah, Hezekiah, Josiah, but God the Holy Spirit moved
the writer to the Hebrews to pick out this individual as an
example of faith, Jephthah. Verse 30 of Judges chapter 11. 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 should 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, a sacrificial offering. And there's death involved. There's
no burnt offering without death. Well, the Lord delivered the
children of Ammon into his hands. we read in verse 34. And Jephthah
came to Mizpah unto his house and behold his daughter came
out to meet him with timbrels and with dancers and she was
his only child because beside her he had neither son nor daughter.
Now, can you imagine how he felt when he saw his only daughter
coming out like this? I can't even begin to imagine
the horror he must have felt when he saw his daughter coming
out in glee, happy, proud of her father. She comes dancing
out to meet him. So thankful for the victory the
Lord had given him. Verse 35, and it came to pass
when he saw her that he rent his clothes and said, alas, my
daughter, thou has brought me very low. I don't see how she
could have brought him any lower when he thought of the vow he
made and what he was called upon to perform. Thou art one of them that trouble
me for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord and I cannot go
back. I made a vow to the Lord that
whatever comes out my front door, there going to be a burnt offering
to the Lord and I cannot go back on my vow. And what a remarkable young lady
this is. And she said unto him, my father,
This makes me think that she was a believer. I have no doubt
about that. If thou has 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, do
what you vowed to do. And she said unto her father,
let this thing be done for me. Let me alone two months. Before
I'm offered up as a burnt offering, let me alone two months that
I may go up and down upon the mountains and bewail my virginity,
I and my fellows." Now, how tempted would you be to not return? I'm sure the thought must've
entered her mind, but she returned. And he said, go, he trusted her,
go. he sent her away for two months."
Can you imagine how horrible those two months were for both
of those people, Jephthah and his daughter? This two months
of knowing what was going to happen at the end of this. "...that
I may go up and down upon the mountains and bewail my virginity,
I and my fellows." And he said go and he 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 the two months that she returned unto her father, knowing what
her end was, 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. So he took his daughter. He killed her. He put her on
an altar and he burned her up. How does that make you feel? You're supposed to feel that
way. You're supposed to feel that
way. Now, over the centuries, much
has been said about this story. Many sermons have been preached
on Jephthah's foolish and rash vow. Many have maintained that
He didn't kill her. She simply remained a virgin.
Now, I don't see how you can get that when it was a burnt
offering. A burnt offering involves death. And this young lady, I
have no doubt, was killed. That was what his vow was. Many have said that there is
a loophole in the law for this kind of vow where he could have
got out of it. And he should have got out of it. And this
was wrong for him to do this. And then some have thought, what
kind of God would require him to keep it in the first place? And why did not God stop this,
a human sacrifice? Why did not God prevent this
from happening? Well, let me answer those objections
before we look into this passage of scripture. Number one, you
can't call it a rash vow because the writer to the Hebrews calls
it an act of faith. So let's just forget this being a rash,
mistaken vow. Number two, people say, well,
he didn't kill her. What's involved in a burnt offering?
If someone is burnt in a burnt offering, they're killed. They're
placed upon an altar and set on fire. And if this is viewed as cruel
on God's part, We have assumed a position we have no right to
take. Whatever God does is right. And I have no business trying
to sit in judgment on God saying, I disagree with that. Shall not
the judge of the earth do right. And he doesn't do something.
I say this, he doesn't do something because it's right. It's right
because he does it. And in this horrifying gut wrenching
story. that you just think, how could
he do that? How could God let it happen?
We have God doing right. Now, I believe, it's pretty evident
to me, that his daughter was a believer. Certainly appears that way, doesn't
it? She loved the Lord, wanted to be, by his grace, obedient
to him. Do you know that this day that she was killed was the
best day of her life? She actually entered into the
presence of Christ sinless, saved. The best day of her life. No,
it wasn't an act of cruelty of the Lord. Precious in the sight
of the Lord is the death of his saints. With regard to the difficulty
Jephthah had in killing his daughter, as horrible as that is, was it any less difficult for
God to kill his son? I want you to think of the, I
don't even know what to say about that. But was it any less difficult
for God to kill his well-beloved son? The cross is the most God-like
thing God ever did. And in this passage of scripture,
we have such a picture of what took place in the cross when
God killed his son. I hope we will be enabled to
see this by the end of this message. Now look in verse one of Judges
chapter 11. Now Jephthah the Gileadite was
a mighty man of valor. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
mighty man of valor. And he was the son of a harlot.
Well, the Lord wasn't the son of a harlot, but he had a harlot
in his ancestry, didn't he? Rahab, we considered her a few
weeks ago. Tamar and Bathsheba are certainly
questionable in many ways, but these were the Lord's descendants. And this man, Jephthah, was the
son of an harlot. And Gilead begat 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 in our father's house, for thou art the son of a strange
woman. They didn't want him to have any of the inheritance,
so they kicked him out. I think of that scripture. He
came unto his own, and his own received him not. Jephthah is
kicked out because he is the son of a harlot. 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." Now he leaves and goes into the land of Tob and
vain men, worthless men is what the word means, immoral men,
they join themselves to him. Who is it that joins themselves
to Christ? Vain men. I think of David, remember when
he was in hiding and those 400 men came to him, and do you remember
how they were described? In debt, discontent, and distressed. These vain men joined themselves
to Jephthah and went out with him. And it came to pass, verse
four, in the process of time, You know, I love that statement,
the process of time. Every second is ordered by God. There's no empty space. Every
second is His will being done. And it came to pass in the process
of time that the children of Ammon made war against Israel. And it was so that when the children
of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to
fetch Jephthah out of the land of Tom. They have a reason now. They have heard about what a
mighty warrior he is, a mighty man of valor. They're in trouble.
They think they can't defeat the Ammonites without Jephthah's
help. So all of a sudden they become
interested in Jephthah. Let's get Jephthah back on board. Verse five or verse six. And
they said unto Jephthah, come and be our captain, that we may
fight with the children of Ammon. And Jephthah said unto the elders
of Gilead, did not you hate me and expel me out of my father's
house? And why are you coming to me now when you're in distress?
Well, can't you imagine him saying that? I'd have said the same
thing under those circumstances. Oh, you're coming for me now.
You kicked me out, but now you need me? And the elders of Gilead
said unto Jephthah, therefore we turn again to thee now that
thou mayest go with us and fight against the children of Amnon
and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead. And Jephthah
said unto the elders of Gilead, if you bring me home again to
fight against the children of Amnon and the Lord deliver them
before me, shall I be your head? Am I going to be the judge, the
leader, if the Lord uses me to do this? And the elders of Gilead, verse
10, said unto Jephthah, the Lord be witness between us, if we
do not so according to thy words, you bring us to victory and you
are our king. Then Jephthah went with the elders
of Gilead and the people made him head and captain over them.
And Jephthah uttered all his words before the Lord in Mishpah. Now in verses 12 through 13,
27, he speaks to the children of
Ammon, and there's much gospel truth in what he says, but he's
using diplomacy to see if they can avoid war. And it's glorious,
but we don't have time really to deal with that right now,
but they reject his diplomacy. Look in verse 28, how be it?
The king of the children of Ammon hearkened not unto the words
of Jephthah when she sent him. And his words of diplomacy are
rejected. 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, now don't miss this. If
thou shalt without fail. without fail deliver the children
of Israel. I need certain victory. There can't be any maybe or if
or and if thou shalt without fail deliver the children of
Israel into my hand. Now, I want you to look at how
the Lord answered his prayer in verse 32. So Jephthah passed
over into the children of Ammon to fight against them. And the
Lord delivered them into his hand and he smote them from a
roar even until Minmeth, even 20 cities under the plain of
the vineyards with a very great slaughter. He crushed them. The
Lord answered his prayer. It was a great slaughter. The
children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel. I need a salvation that's without
fail. I need the Lord to do everything
for me. He's got to do it all. If something's
left up to my strength, I'm in trouble, and you are too. I need
a salvation that is without fail. No failure on his part. You know,
I love that scripture with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ. He
shall not fail. nor be discouraged." You see,
the Lord is incapable of failure. If Jesus Christ lived for you
and died for you and was raised for you, you'll be saved without
fail. You see, salvation is what he
does. And this is what Jephthah needed,
a salvation without fail. And Jephthah, verse 30, Jephthah
vowed a vow unto the Lord and said, a vow without fail deliver
the children of Ammon into my hands. Here's what will happen.
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."
Now we've read how the Lord defeated His enemies and then in verse
34, "...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. He came home, and who's the first
person out the door? His only daughter. that he loved
so dearly, the apple of his eye. He didn't have any other children,
just this one precious girl. Can you imagine the remorse that
must have come over him when he watched his daughter coming
out with dancing and celebration over his victory? How must he have felt When he said, alas, my daughter,
thou has brought me very low and thou are one of them that
troubled me for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord. I cannot
go back. And then we have her amazing
response. What a hero. She said, whatever
you told the Lord to do, do it. Because the Lord has given you
this victory. But you let me go for two months
And she spent her last two months on the earth mourning, bewailing
of her virginity. And then she returns and Jephthah
keeps his vow. And this thing, according to
verse 40, 39 and 40, and it was a custom in Israel that the daughters
of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah, the
Gilead four days a year. This was something to be remembered. Now I don't know of a more powerful
picture of the cross than this gut-wrenching story. Jephthah is a type of the father.
His daughter is a type of the son. Now the end or the purpose
of the vow he made is to have a victory without fail. That was the purpose of this
vow. If you will, without fail, deliver my enemies into my hand. Now, the end of this vow typifies
to us a people completely delivered. Being a part of that great choir
of 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands and thousands singing worthy
is the lamb that was slain being perfectly conformed to his image.
Now, the salvation of God is a salvation without fail. I want
you to think about this. When Christ said, it is finished. Your salvation was completely
accomplished without fail. Nothing you can do to mess it
up. Nothing you can do to lose it. He accomplished it without
fail. And this is all according to
God's eternal purpose, the purpose of God. This picture, this vow,
God made a vow before the foundation of the world. He gave His Son
a people. And He said, you be responsible
for their salvation. And the Lord said, I'll do it. He became a surety for those
people. And whatever it is it takes to
save them, I'm calling upon you to do it. The Lord said in John
chapter 6, verse 39, this is the will of Him that sent me,
that of all which He hath given me, I should lose. nothing but raise it up again
at the last day and whatever it took to save those people."
Now who are these people? The elect of God. They're given
as a gift of God to the Son. He gave them to Him as His bride. He gives them so He can glorify
His Father. You see the cross glorified every
attribute of God. All this was done according,
this vow was according to the purpose of God. Now This was
Jephthah's only daughter, his only child, and how precious
she was in his sight. I only have one daughter, and
how precious she is in my sight, and that cannot be compared to
the love the father has to the son. He said, this is my beloved
son, in whom I am well pleased. John said, the father loveth
the son and hath given all things into his hand. Now, how painful
was it? And I know I don't understand
this, neither do you, neither does anybody else. But how painful
was it for the father to pour his wrath out upon his son? You see, he demonstrated That
he's no respecter of persons. When sin was found on his son,
he killed him. But he never stopped loving his
son. How precious the son is to the
father, the son of his love. He saw this precious daughter,
his only child. God gave his only begotten son. Now Jephthah's daughter's virginity
speaks of her purity. Her purity. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the only holy man to ever live. Did you know that? He's
the only man who ever kept God's holy law. He never sinned. He never sinned in thought. He
never sinned in word. He never sinned in deed. He never
sinned when he was nailed to the cross and made sin. And who
knows how horrible that was. But when he was nailed to the
cross and made sin, he didn't sin. He never sinned. I love to think how he loved
God with all of his heart and all of his soul and all of his
strength and he loved his neighbors himself. He's the only one to
ever do it. And you know what? Me and you nonstop break that
commandment, but not him. He loved God with all of his
heart, with all of his soul, with all of his strength and
his neighbors himself. He never put anything before his father.
He never had an idolatrous thought with regard to his father. Oh,
how he honored the name of his father and never took his name
in vain. How he rested. He's the only
one to rest. Oh, how he honored his mother
and his father physically. How he honored his father. He
never killed anybody. He never grew angry with somebody
in his heart with an unjust cause. No sexual sin. Of course, he
didn't commit, never went through his mind. He never lied. He never stole. He never coveted. He said, I delight to do thy
will, O God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. How he honored the law of God. What purity there is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. You see, if he's not perfect,
he can't do me and you any good. The only way he can do us any
good is if he is perfect. Now, what I notice about this
dear daughter of Jephthah is she was totally willing to do
this. She didn't have to be coerced.
She didn't have to be commanded. She was totally willing to do
this. She did it with full consent
and everything the Lord did, he did willingly, with full consent. He willingly took my sins and
my sorrows. He willingly made them his very
own. He willingly bore the burden
to Calvary and he willingly suffered and died alone. Even in Gethsemane's
garden, when he's overwhelmed with the thought, of drinking
the cup, the content being our sin, and he sweats great drops
of blood, even then, when he said, Father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not my will, but Thine be done. When he spoke of going to the
cross, he said, no man takes my life from me. I have power
to lay it down. I have power to take it up. This
commandment have I received of my father. What he did, he did
willingly. And that's the beauty of it. He was no victim. He was no martyr. He was the willing savior of
sinners. And then this dear lady, this
young lady, I imagine her to be a teenager. She had to be trustworthy. You know, she said, let me go
for two months and bewail my virginity and I
will return. And he trusted her to do that. He knew he had to keep his vow.
And here she goes off for two months. And he trusted her to
do that. Remember that scripture in Ephesians
1, 13, that we should be to the praise of his glory who first
trusted in Christ. Who's the first one to trust
Christ? The Father did. He entrusted the Lord Jesus with
my salvation, and he completely trusted him to take care of it. Oh, the faithfulness of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the one the Father trusted. And she did come back. Now, you put yourself in her
position, you probably thought, Maybe I won't come back. I don't
want this to happen to me, but she did come back demonstrating
her faithfulness and every aspect of his salvation. His faithfulness. He's faithful to do his father's
will. He's faithful to me. He faithfully saved me. He faithfully put away my sin.
Everything he does is an act of his faithfulness. Great. is thy faithfulness. She willingly returned and was
killed as a burnt offering. Now, I can't imagine the pain
that Jephthah went through when he did this, but whatever God
does is right. Trust his character. Whatever
he does is right. You may not understand that,
but trust his character. Whatever he does is right. And
I have no doubt that that little girl, in her glory that very
day, perfectly conformed to the image of Christ, so it was a
blessing to her. But this is given to give us some idea of
what was going on when Christ was nailed to that cross and
the Father was pouring his wrath out on him. How painful that must have been. But let me remind you, He, this
is from Isaiah 53, He shall see the travail of His soul and be
satisfied. God satisfied with what He did?
He satisfied with what He did? And by the grace of God, I'm
satisfied with what he did. I need no other argument. I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died
and that he died for me. What a glorious picture of the
cross. Let's pray. Lord, how we are amazed that you would give your son
a burnt offering on Calvary's tree. How we thank you for what he
accomplished by that death, burial, and resurrection, the full salvation
of his people. How we thank you for his purity,
his perfection, How we thank you for His willingness to save
sinners. How we thank you for His faithfulness. Lord, how we thank you for His
sacrifice. And Lord, how we thank you for
His resurrection. Lord, He is our salvation. Bless
this message for your glory and for our good. In Christ's name
we pray, amen.