The Tragic Triumph of Jephthah

¹⁰ And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, saying, “We have sinned against you, because we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals.” ¹¹ And the Lord said to the people of Israel, “Did I not save you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites and from the Philistines? ¹² The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you, and you cried out to me, and I saved you out of their hand. ¹³ Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will save you no more. ¹⁴ Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress.” ¹⁵ And the people of Israel said to the Lord, “We have sinned; do to us whatever seems good to you. Only please deliver us this day.” ¹⁶ So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord, and he became impatient over the misery of Israel.

We are now halfway through our ten-week study of the book of Judges. One thing I want to be sure we all understand is how this book fits into the big picture of the Bible. In the English Bible, Judges is considered one of the Historical Books (Joshua—Esther), but it would be wrong for us to read this book as a mere recounting of Israel’s history. In fact, in the Hebrew Bible, Joshua through 2 Kings are categorized as the “former prophets,” indicating that although these books do speak of historical events, the author has produced these books with an intent to persuade. He has designed the book like a sermon “to challenge prevailing notions and effect a spiritual and moral transformation in the readers” of the book.[1]

What then is the main point of the book of Judges? In his excellent commentary on the book, Daniel Block argues that theme is “the Canaanization of Israelite society.”[2] Rather than driving the foreign nations out of the Promised Land, Israel has instead become more and more like them. Rather than being a light to the nations, Israel’s light is growing dimmer as God’s people succumb to the darkness of pagan practice and worship.

God’s people have always been in danger of this. But the problem is not the world around us. The problem is the world within us. When it comes to the calling of God’s people to be his representatives to the world, we end up being our own worst enemy. Thus the need for God to “save us from ourselves,” as we have entitled this study in Judges.

Our text this morning is Judges 10—12. The passage begins and ends with five of the six “secondary” judges we find in this book. We learn briefly about Tola and Jair in Judges 10:1-5, and of Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon in Judges 12:8-15. Not much is said about these guys, and their inclusion in the book at all seems to be simply to get the number of judges to equal 12, symbolizing the 12 tribes of Israel.

The bulk of these three chapters is spent on the fifth “primary” judge, a man named Jephthah. He did indeed deliver Israel from foreign oppression, but his story of victory is also a story of tragedy. And that’s because this is a story of quick, temporary solutions that do not deal with the deeper, root issues that got Israel into trouble in the first place. The Jephthah story highlights for us three ways in which we imitate the world and seek out its quick-fixes for our real problems. We practice confession without conversion, we seek success without submission, and we want freedom without forgiveness.

Confession Without Conversion

We begin in 10:6, where we find the familiar sin cycle begin once more: “the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.” Turning to the worship of the gods of the nations around them, they “forsook the Lord and did not serve him” (10:7). God disciplined his people by selling them into the hand of the Philistines and the Ammonites, the latter of which will be Israel’s enemy in this passage.

The Ammonite aggression began in the land “beyond the Jordan,” specifically “in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.” It was the tribe of Gad and the ½ tribe of Manasseh who would have felt this oppression the most, though in verse 9 we find the Ammonites moving across the Jordan “to fight also against Judah and against Benjamin and against the house of Ephraim.” Once again Israel finds herself in a time of crisis as the nation “was severely distressed” by the Ammonites.

Let Baal Bail You Out

And once again “the people of Israel cried out to the Lord.” But this plea for mercy is unique from the others in the book so far. The narrator gives us much more detail about Israel’s cry for help, and, for the first time, we find the nation admitting their guilt. They confessed to God, “We have sinned against you, because we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals” (10:10). This appears to be a promising response of the people. But God’s rejoinder in verses 11-14 is troubling. Basically, he reminds them of all the times he has saved them from national enemies and their cruel oppression in the past, but nothing in them has changed. They have gotten themselves into the same trouble yet again. It appears God has come to the end of his rope and is unwilling to bail the people out any more. This is exactly what he says in verse 13, “therefore I will save you no more.” He then tells the people to cry out to the gods whom they have been serving and let them provide the deliverance the people are looking for.

What do you think about this response from God? I’m sure we would admit that we would pretty much respond in this same kind of way ourselves. How many times would you be willing to help someone out when they keep getting into the same kinds of trouble? Your patience would eventually run out, wouldn’t it, even if the person was someone you loved dearly? Wouldn’t we in fact say that it is harmful to a person to continue bailing them out of difficult situations that they choose to get into over and over again? Isn’t it better to let them experience the consequences of their choices than to relieve them of the pain?

And yet, we don’t want God to be like that, at least not with us. Maybe we have spent a great deal of our time and energy worshiping the material gods of money and possessions, only to find ourselves in rapidly declining health and calling out for help to God whom we’ve ignored or only minimally engaged. What if he said to us, “Cry out to your bank account and your luxurious life to give you some relief from the incurable disease.” Or what if we have devoted our time to comfort and leisure only to hear God say, “Why don’t you let that football game this week rescue you from your fears and anxieties.” If we who profess to be followers of Jesus live our lives in concert with the way the world lives, why should we expect Jesus to ever help us with anything?

Moving Beyond Confession

“Fair enough,” the people say in verse 15. They again admit they have sinned and they even seem to accept God’s resolution, saying “do to us whatever seems good to you.” But they also beg for immediate mercy, “Only please deliver us this day.” And in verse 16 “they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord.” It appears Israel has changed.

But not all may be as it seems still. The end of verse 16 says that God “became impatient over the misery of Israel.” Has God changed his mind in response to Israel’s repentance? If so, we would expect to next read that God raised up a judge to rescue them and deliver them from their enemies. But that’s not exactly what we read next, which may suggest a different understanding of verse 16. God has clearly become exasperated, but what is the cause of this exasperation? It is the “misery” of the people, a word which may refer either to the hardship Israel was experiencing or to the hardship they were exerting. As Daniel Block points out, “the words themselves are ambiguous, but there is rejection in Yahweh’s voice,” which seems to suggest that it is Israel’s efforts—either their confession or their sacrifice—to acquire God’s deliverance that he cannot tolerate.[3] True repentance is not identified purely by the admission of guilt, nor even by acts of penitence. God does not desire us to merely admit we are sinful, nor does he desire us to make sacrifice to atone for our sins. Rather it is “a broken spirit” and “a broken and contrite heart” that God is looking for (Psa 51:16-17). And he does not see this in Israel. Their repentance is incomplete.

Success Without Submission

So what happens next is what we’ve come to expect in the story of the judges. In chapter 11 we will learn of Israel’s next deliverer, a man by the name of Jephthah.

On Your Own

But another unique component of this story is found in the way that Jephthah is introduced. As many commentators have pointed out, God disappears from the story at this point. Usually we are told that when Israel cries out for deliverance, then “the Lord raised up a deliverer for the people” (Judg 3:9, 15). God was clearly raising up Deborah and Barak and Gideon to deliver the people from their oppressions (Judg 4:4-6; 11:11-12). But here we are simply told that when the Ammonites set up camp against Israel, it was “the leaders of Gilead” who sought out the deliverer, offering to make him who would lead the people out against the Ammonites to be the solitary ruler over their tribe.

This is an important point to note in the story. God’s threat to save the people no more (Judg 10:13) appears to be carried out. He has left them to seek out their own rescuer, leaving them on their own to find their way of salvation. When God abandons us to our own selfish ends we find ourselves already under the judgment of God. Sometimes we think that this is freedom, for God to leave us alone. Let us do it ourselves, our own way. Like Frank Sinatra, we glory in our independent spirit and success. And success is exactly what many who seek out their own way achieve. Make no mistake about that. It’s not like every person who has rejected God immediately suffers for it. On the contrary, it is tempting to envy the arrogant when you see how they prosper: no struggles, healthy bodies, free from common human burdens, not plagued by human ills (Psa 73:3).

Immediate Success

So it is here, too. After coming to an agreement with the leaders of the Gileadite clan, Jephthah, “a mighty warrior” (11:1), begins to work his plan of deliverance against the Ammonites. Most of chapter 11 is taken up with a long verbal confrontation that he undertook with the king of the Ammonites (11:11-28). The Ammonite aggression was said to be over a land dispute with Israel. Jephthah proves to be mighty not only in the war of armies but also in the war of words. Nevertheless, the Ammonites refuse to heed his argument. A battle is imminent.

But the battle is not drawn out in detail. It’s recounted in just two verses (11:32-33) noting Jephthah’s decisive victory. This is good news, isn’t it? Isn’t this what the people wanted? Isn’t this a good thing?

You might even notice that verse 29 says “the Spirit of the Lord was upon Jephthah” as he went into battle and that, in verse 32, we are told that “the Lord gave” the Ammonites “into his hand.” Did God change his mind from 10:13 where he said he would save Israel no more?

Or, could it be that the deliverance that God gave to Jephthah was in fact an evidence of his judgment? Perhaps the immediate success the people found was their downfall. Maybe the cure was worse than the disease. Maybe God delivered them from the Ammonites, not as rescue but as judgment.

Jephthah’s Vow

We get a hint that this might be true when we observe that the narrator wants us to focus our attention, not on Jephthah’s military success, but on the results of that success. The story of Jephthah’s infamous vow is what the narrator highlights. “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand,” Jepthah vows to God, “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, we are told, kept his vow, even though it was his only child—a daughter—whom came to meet him. The story is tragic and horrific. What is going on here?

Some wish to soften the blow of the story a bit by suggesting that Jephthah’s vow was made with the very best intentions, thinking that it would be an animal that would come out to meet him first and he would be willing to sacrifice that animal to the Lord. But commentators point out that the wording used more naturally expects human agency.[4] Why would Jephthah even suggest making such a sacrifice to God, when God had consistently denounced human sacrifice (Deut 12:31)? There can only be one explanation. Israel’s deliverer from the Ammonites possessed the same fundamental flaw that Israel herself had.

What moved Jephthah to utter this vow was his desire to receive favor from God. Jephthah was a manipulator, and this vow is yet “another attempt to manipulate the circumstances to his own advantage.”[5] Although Jephthah talked a big game, the truth was that as he entered battle, he suddenly became interested in God and his favor. Hoping to secure a victory, he intended to strike a deal with God.

But the God of the Bible does not operate like that, and we must be careful from assuming that God granted victory to Jephthah for this reason. Rather, I think it is best to understand that although God did have mercy on his people in delivering them from the oppression of the Ammonites, the deliverance was incomplete because of the tragedies that accompanied it. Victory came at a price, a price in which Israel’s deliverer is merely another oppressor.[6]

Yes, Jephthah brought deliverance to Israel, but this deliverance came at a great cost because of the kind of deliverer that Jephthah was. His dialogue with his daughter is remarkable in the contrast it depicts between a doomed daughter and her dad. Just as remarkable as it may seem for Jephthah in any way to act in accordance with his vow, so is the response of the daughter. She accepts her fate (“do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth”), affirming the seriousness of one’s commitment to God (Num 30:1-2). After wandering the mountains for a couple of months with her friends to mourn the fact that she would never be able to be a mother, she returned to her home to be sacrificed. It seems clear that the narrator of this story wants us to see the start contrast between Jephthah and his daughter. Jephthah’s early days were spent wondering the hills with his “worthless fellows” (Judg 11:3) and his latter days weeping only for himself (v. 35); his daughter spent her early and latter days wondering the mountains with her friends, who wept with and for her. And the one who was the child of a prostitute ended up with no generational line himself. As Daniel Block observes, “With his vow Jephthah had tried to secure his present, but through it he ends up sacrificing his future.”[7]

So it is when we seek God’s help to do things our way rather than submitting to God and doing things his way. We may actually get what we wanted. And that could be the greater problem.

Freedom Without Forgiveness

But that’s not the end of the tragic story. It gets worse. It seems as though Jephthah has gone down a road of no return. Now that he has killed others, even his own daughter, he has become desensitized and ruthless. So he cannot allow himself to be mocked and subsequently show mercy, not even to his own countrymen. He wants freedom for himself without giving freedom to others.

Ephraim’s Jealousy

In chapter 12 we find Jephthah and his clan of Gileadites in a new conflict, only this time it is not against a foreign nation but against the tribe of Ephraim. The Ephraimites were angered that Jephthah did not include them in the battle against the Ammonites so that they could now share in the spoils of battle. They had made the same kind of complain against Gideon (Judg 8:1-3), but this time, they will accept on explanation. Burning with jealousy against Jephthah, they threatened to burn down his house with him inside it (12:1). Jephthah goes to defend himself. But he does so without any grace in his heart. He’s been wronged, and he will do something about it.

Jephthah tried to argue his way out of the conflict (12:2-3), but this did not work. Indeed Jephthah is moved to military battle against his fellow Israelites after they mocked him with a derogatory slur referring to his checkered past (12:4). Quickly Jephthah and his men “captured the fords of the Jordan” which cut off all escape routes for the Ephraimites who were trying to flee back to their homeland. They then identified those who were Ephraimites by the way they pronounced in their own distinct dialect a certain word. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites were slaughtered.

Jesus, Not Jephthah

Thus ends the Jephthah story. He judged Israel six years before he died. And though he provided some degree of relief for his people, it appears he and his people are unraveling, facing more and more pain among themselves because of the worldliness of their hearts. One would have to wonder if there is any hope for a nation like this.

The only hope is for Israel to recognize they cannot save themselves, that even their best deliverers from foreign hostilities only bring more problems with their deliverance. What Israel needed, what we need, is someone who can actually change us. Someone to whom we can submit. Someone who will show us mercy.

Jesus is the only Deliverer who does not bring with him even more problems. He is the only true Rescuer. The only true Judge.

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[1] Daniel I. Block, Judges, Ruth, The New American Commentary, vol. 6, ed. E. Ray Clendenen (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 52.

[2] Block, 58.

[3] Block, 349.

[4] Dale Ralph Davis, Judges: Such a Great Salvation, Focus on the Bible Commentary (Ross-shire, Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications, 2000), 145.

[5] K. Lawson Younger, Jr. Judges and Ruth, The NIV Application Commentary, ed. Terry C. Muck (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002), 262.

[6] Younger, 266.

[7] Block, 374.