Oct 22, 2017 |Thread

Jephthah

10.22.17 | Thread

Jephthah

Tony Pyle

Judges 10-11

People seek fulfillment through various means. However, for most, if not all, people tend to remain unsatisfied no matter how much their desires are fulfilled. What could truly satisfy mankind and their desires? Pastor Tony Pyle explains how this was the case for the Israelites. Through their pursuit of satisfying their desires, at times they turned to God, but then forgot about Him and turned to idols. For us today, God provides us with Himself through the person of Jesus Christ, where we can remain fulfilled and satisfied in Him forever.

Judges 10-11

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The Israelites did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. They worshiped the Baals and abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed other gods from the surrounding peoples and bowed down to them. They angered the Lordfor they abandoned him and worshiped Baal and the Ashtoreths.

The Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and he handed them over to marauders who raided them. He sold them to the enemies around them, and they could no longer resist their enemies. Whenever the Israelites went out, the Lord was against them and brought disaster on them, just as he had promised and sworn to them. So they suffered greatly.

The Lord raised up judges, who saved them from the power of their marauders, but they did not listen to their judges. Instead, they prostituted themselves with other gods, bowing down to them. They quickly turned from the way of their fathers, who had walked in obedience to the Lord’s commands. They did not do as their fathers did. Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for the Israelites, the Lord was with him and saved the people from the power of their enemies while the judge was still alive. The Lord was moved to pity whenever they groaned because of those who were oppressing and afflicting them.

Judges 2:11-18 CSB

 

Then the Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They worshiped the Baals and the Ashtoreths, the gods of Aram, Sidon, and Moab, and the gods of the Ammonites and the Philistines. They abandoned the Lord and did not worship him. So the Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and he sold them to the Philistines and the Ammonites. They shattered and crushed the Israelites that year, and for eighteen years they did the same to all the Israelites who were on the other side of the Jordan in the land of the Amorites in Gilead. The Ammonites also crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah, Benjamin, and the house of Ephraim. Israel was greatly oppressed, so they cried out to the Lord, saying, “We have sinned against you. We have abandoned our God and worshiped the Baals.”

Judges 10:6-10 CSB

 

The Lord said to the Israelites, “When the Egyptians,Amorites, Ammonites, Philistines, Sidonians, Amalekites, and Maonites oppressed you, and you cried out to me, did I not deliver you from them? But you have abandoned me and worshiped other gods. Therefore, I will not deliver you again. Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them deliver you whenever you are oppressed.”

Judges 10:11-14 CSB

 

But the Israelites said, “We have sinned. Deal with us as you see fit; only rescue us today!” So they got rid of the foreign gods among them and worshiped the Lord, and he became weary of Israel’s misery.

Judges 10:15-16 CSB

 

Jephthah the Gileadite was a valiant warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute, and Gilead was his father. Gilead’s wife bore him sons, and when they grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, “You will have no inheritance in our father’s family, because you are the son of another woman.” So Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob. Then some worthless men joined Jephthah and went on raids with him.

Judges 11:1-3 CSB

 

I have not sinned against you, but you are doing me wrong by fighting against me. Let the Lord who is the judge decide today between the Israelites and the Ammonites.” But the king of the Ammonites would not listen to Jephthah’s message that he sent him.

The Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah, who traveled through Gilead and Manasseh, and then through Mizpah of Gilead. He crossed over to the Ammonites from Mizpah of Gilead.

Judges 11:27-29 CSB

Jephthah made this vow to the Lord: “If you in fact hand over the Ammonites to me, whoever comes out the doors of my house to greet me when I return safely from the Ammonites will belong to the Lord, and I will offer that person as a burnt offering.”

Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the Lord handed them over to him. He defeated twenty of their cities with a great slaughter from Aroer all the way to the entrance of Minnith and to Abel-keramim. So the Ammonites were subdued before the Israelites.

When Jephthah went to his home in Mizpah, there was his daughter, coming out to meet him with tambourines and dancing! She was his only child; he had no other son or daughter besides her. When he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “No! Not my daughter! You have devastated me! You have brought great misery on me. I have given my word to the Lord and cannot take it back.”

Judges 11:30-35 CSB

 

Or if someone swears rashly to do what is good or evil—concerning anything a person may speak rashly in an oath—without being aware of it, but later recognizes it, he incurs guilt in such an instance.

If someone incurs guilt in one of these cases, he is to confess he has committed that sin. He must bring his penalty for guilt for the sin he has committed to the Lord: a female lamb or goat from the flock as a sin offering. In this way the priest will make atonement on his behalf for his sin.

Leviticus 5:4-6 CSB

At the end of two months, she returned to her father, and he kept the vow he had made about her.

Judges 11:39 CSB

Sin Is Powerful

Then the Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They worshiped the Baals and the Ashtoreths,

Judges 10:6 CSB

 

From one man he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live.

Acts 17:26 CSB

 

He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

Acts 17:27 CSB

 

Sin is powerful. There is a solution.

In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever seemed right to him.

Judges 21:25 CSB

Youth