Jephthah

For my devotions yesterday and today I read about the story of Jephthah in the book of Judges. This story is very tragic in what happens to his only child, his daughter. I never really paid too much attention to this story, just figuring it was one of the gruesome stories of the book of Judges. Then two years ago almost to the day I was up in Chicago at Moody’s Pastor Conference. I heard one of the most amazing preachers in the world, Haddon Robinson. The passage he preached on was the story of Jephthah in Judges. At that particular time we were going through the book of Judges in our teen Bible study at church, so I was pumped. Where else to get better material than from one of the best expository preachers of our time? For the duration of the 38 minutes and 10 seconds he preached it was obvious that everyone in the packed auditorium was waiting for his next word. For those of you who don’t know the story of Jephthah, here is a quick run down: He was born of a prostitute and kicked out of his house by his brothers because he was illegitimate. He went to the land of Tob and led a group of scoundrels and thugs. He was a mighty warrior and knew how to handle a sword. Israel was in the thick of apostasy and had been worshiping idols and had been sold into the hands of Philistines and the Ammonites. The elders of Gilead (Jephthah’s father) went to Jephthah and asked him to lead the armies of Israel to defeat the Ammonites. He ended up leading them victoriously, but before he started, he made a vow to God,
“If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the LORD’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.” Jephthah led the Israelites to victory and on his way home, his only child, his daughter, ran out of the house to meet him. Jephthah, who was shunned at a young age and basically raised himself in a foreign land, did not fully understand the grace of God. He didn’t know that God did not honor human sacrifice. He went ahead and sacrificed his daughter.

The message of Robinson’s sermon was that faith without theology is dangerous. Jephthah had faith in God, but he lacked the theology, the understanding of who God is. Did God honor Jephthah for his faith? Did he accept the sacrifice of his daughter? I am pretty sure he didn’t accept it as a pleasant aroma. But if you look in Hebrews 11:32 where the writer is going through a list of the Old Testament Saints who made it to the Hall of Faith, Jephthah is mentioned. Why? Because he had faith. God did not honor the sacrifice of his daughter, but He did honor Jephthah’s faith.

So what can we learn from this story? When we have faith in God, we need to have the theology to back that faith up. God will still honor our faith if it is true, but it can be dangerous without theology and may have consequences on this earth. Jephthah was basically kicked out of Israel and spent the majority of his life in Tob. He didn’t know much about God What he knew was that God was real and He had led Israel out of Egypt. But he didn’t know all there was to know about God. We have the Word of God at our hands, so we probably can’t get away with sacrificing our children. We can’t pull the “I didn’t know” card when he have the answers in front of us. It is like school. When the teacher has given us the material, we are responsible for reading and memorizing it so we can take the test. We can’t say the dog ate my homework and get away with it. True faith in Christ will get us to Heaven, our theology and what we do with our faith decides our rewards when we get there.