Jephthah-The Hammer (Part A)

In Jephthah's day, Israel chose Aaron.

He did not choose Aaron, and he's not the only one. But the apostates, they have a way of being outstanding. They will be left outstanding from heaven's gates. That is an irreducible minimum. To be against God is to be under the law, the law is God's irreducible minimum.

You cannot break a little piece of it and be okay. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Judges chapter 11, as he begins his message, Jephthah the Hammer. Chapter 11, it says, Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor.

Don't go any farther yet. Some of you may know it, but we'll get to the rest of the verse, hopefully. But that is the key to this personality, as we're considering the life and times of the people of the Bible. This man, Jephthah, that is the outstanding thing about him.

The Holy Spirit preserves this statement, a mighty man of valor. When we get to Hebrews in the New Testament, the writer of Hebrews comments on Jephthah. He speaks of Gideon and Barak and Samson, but Jephthah is right in there with them. And just taking excerpts from verse 32, it says that time would fail me to tell of Jephthah. Now it says time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Jephthah and of Samson, but time would fail us to tell about this man.

There's just so many things that come out of his life that are beneficial to us. So I'd like to talk about the times that he lived in, the man himself, his upbringing, his adversaries, and some closing thoughts on lessons we may gather from such a Bible character as this man. In those days, Israel, her leaders were called judges. They did not have kings yet. Samuel would be the last judge of Israel before the people began to whine about having a king like the other nations. We are about 300 years after Moses and about 1300 years before John the Baptist.

Now it just so happens there are some songs that we have in our culture that kind of fit some of these characters. Of Joab, you might say, if you see me walking, better step aside. A lot of men didn't.

A lot of men died. That was Joab, not number nine Cole. Just don't get in his way. A ruthless man. But that could not fit Jephthah, as strong a character as he is. You'd rather, say, kind of broad at the shoulders and narrow at the hip, and everybody knew you didn't give any lip to Jephthah. And I don't know how to countryfy Jephthah, but you didn't give any lip to this man. Not much.

And I hope that comes out as we go through this. And so again, that's our time stamp, 300 years after Moses, 13 before John the Baptist, of course the forerunner of our Lord coming at that time also. But in those days, the Israelites often found room for every kind of God, except God. Well I want to hear that, because that's how it is where I live too. They might have been 300 years after Moses, 1300 before Christ, but I'm telling you 2000 years after Christ, people make room in their hearts and in their lives for every God out there except God.

All the fake ones. Paul tried to talk to them about this in Athens. I want to speak to you about this unknown God. Of course his message would have been, and it was, he is the only God and all your other ones are frauds. And so they had room enough to spare for the vile and the vicious Canaanite gods that they loved so much. That makes them apostates who hungered and thirsted for every false idea about deity, and then served that false idea regardless of how severe it was on those in their own household all around. Unfortunately a lot of people claim the true God today, Jesus Christ, yet they make life severe for those around them in the wrong way. As the salt of the earth, we make life severe for those who are against righteousness, but not for those who share the truth.

That's the ideal, that's not always, unfortunately again, the idea. And so the God of Abraham, the God of Moses, the God of Joshua who led them into this promised land was not as much fun as the gods we discovered in this promised land. In spite of the fact that he is true and kind and gracious and strong and had proven himself countless times, that still just was not enough for the flesh to be satisfied. Israel, as with the church through the ages, struggled with truth.

Had a hard time with it. They had no problem claiming it, they just didn't want to live it. I'm not talking about struggling to live it, I mean they didn't want to live it. Again all the difference between a rank sinner as one who doesn't care.

The born again, washed in the blood believer cares when they sin. It is a big issue to them, a deciding factor I believe in one's eternal state. Those who considered themselves broad-minded enough to embrace the Canaanite gods would be, we would call liberal in their theology. Which is a euphemism for damned, for condemned, for doomed, an enemy of God. They were tolerant and broad-minded folk. They held high positions in the tribes and the villages and the land. They thought by making peace with the existing gods that somehow their life would be more peaceful.

There's no peace where there is no truth. The New Testament of course addresses this and why I'm taking the time to share it with our Wednesday night scholars of the word, is because we need to be reminded of these things so we can use them. You see you're not always being taught from the pulpit, many times you are being refitted. That's right, I forgot about that.

I'm going to use that tomorrow. That sort of atmosphere is created when the pastor stirs up a congregation with things that are very familiar to us, yet perhaps a bit out of sight. And so when Jesus says, enter by the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there are many who go in by it. He's talking about the broad-minded fool who thinks that one way of salvation is too narrow.

The one that thinks that there's a broader way, a wider way. Well we agree with that person that there is a broader and wider way but its path leads to destruction and that destruction is eternal. Truth is always narrow all the time without exception. Truth is dogmatic, it is exclusive. Two plus two equals four mathematically. In reality, true plus two does not equal four, it is four. There's no room for discussion or debate when we're using that mathematical simple equation to stress the absolute truth about the God who created the equation. And so when we say to someone, you do agree that there are absolutes in our universe that two plus two is four. So we're not using the equal because we're not talking about mathematics. We've gone beyond mathematics when we use such an illustration. Two plus two is always four.

Whether it is a bad four or good four, it be four and nothing else. No more, no less, no discussion, no debate, the statement is absolute. Error, error by contrast is broad, it is accommodating. It makes room for that which is a lie. We know that the father of lies is Satan and Satan's agenda is always without exception the destruction of the human soul.

By any means he can pull off. Error has a wide field in which to operate, but truth by nature is narrow. We have to understand this as Christians, that the message we carry is beautiful and it is narrow and that is that.

When we think that maybe God missed a beat here or there and we can fill it in for him, we are sinning. Jesus said because narrow is the gate, difficult is the way which leads to life and there are few who find it. Why don't they find it?

They don't want to find it, that's why. It's not like it's hard that I can't find the way. No, this is the way, walk in it.

No, I don't want that, it's not as much fun. This is what the life and times of the people of the Bible are the life and times of the people of the Bible. These are the characters of the Bible we're using to our benefit for us because we too are people of the Bible.

Although our names are not in the scripture, we are in the scripture. Error is always wrong, truth is always right. In Jephthah's day, Israel chose error.

He did not choose error and he's not the only one, but the apostates, they have a way of being outstanding. To be left outstanding from heaven's gates, that is an irreducible minimum. To be against God is to be under the law, the law is God's irreducible minimum.

You cannot break a little piece of it and be okay. You cannot reduce the penalty of breaking God's law, it is irreducible. So is his judgment, it is fierce and we believe it, we know it's true and we believe it by faith and faith is a miracle and it is nothing but a miracle. And aren't we glad that God has miracles, that God can perform that which is inescapable and unexplainable at the same time. We call it a, we don't, but the world has a word for that and in its proper place it's right, it's a phenomenon. But when we come to scripture, it is an act of God.

And so they had as much error as they chose to have, as do people today. And it's not a cultural war that we Christians are preoccupied with. It is a spiritual war that exceeds culture, that includes everyone, of every culture.

It reminds us that there's nothing new under the sun, that earth is a closed system, that nothing is coming into this planet unless God allows it. That makes Jephthah and all the other characters in scripture, that makes their life relevant to my life because nothing is new under the sun, I want to learn to embrace what was from God in their lives and to reject what was not. Those are the times of Jephthah as to the man, as mentioned, I think I mentioned it, at least I thought it enough, as I studied, is not a man to be fooled with, he was a counter-puncher. In other words, he didn't punch counters, but if you punched him, he'd punch you right back before you had a chance to stop him. He was not the one that provoked violence, but he dealt with it. He dealt with it as a hammer deals with a nail. If you were going to find somebody to bully, he was not the guy to find, a scrapper. There are many other titles, names, and adjectives that we could apply to Jephthah, they would all be accurate. It would be accurate to call him a hard man, that would be right, Jephthah was a hard man, that's what a hammer is, a hammer is hard too. But it would be inaccurate to call him a harsh man.

I'm now old enough to be puzzled at some aberrant behaviors, whereas maybe last week I'd be more tend to get angry with them. And how often I've sat in marital counsel sessions where the man was wrong, flat wrong, and felt that he was being handled too harshly, like Cain. Yeah, I killed my brother, but that's coming down pretty hard on me, God, aren't you? It's just so puzzling, it's the mystery of lawlessness, it wants to be the recipient of mercy, but it doesn't want to give any out.

It's a form of ego gluttony. And so yeah, Jephthah was a hard man, his harshness was from God. If I had to compile a short list of men to go with me into a tough neighborhood or through a tough mission, he'd be on the short list.

He'd be on the first list. He is an underdog in scripture, an overcomer, he is what action movies are made out of. The Rocky story and other movies like that. He is the outcast hero sought by the establishment who cast him out and now want them, want him to help them out and follow that. He didn't play by their rules, so they got rid of him. It's a little deeper than that, we'll get to that momentarily, but this is also part of the story. He was cast out through no fault of his own, and the ones who cast them out are the ones who went to bring him back when they needed him. This too shows up in many an action movie because we understand that there is an injustice taking place, but it is being overcome by the justice within the hero of the story. And we want to put our face on the shoulders of that hero. We want to be heroes for God. This man is in the Bible as a hero of faith, and I want to say just three verses about him.

I like him a lot. In fact, this is not one of the characters on the requested characters when we put out the boxes to say if you'd like to hear this pulpit address any of these characters. Jephthah was not one of them, but I felt strong compelling of the Lord to do Jephthah nonetheless. Judges 11, again, verse 1, our text, just the text of tonight's message. Now Jephthah was a Gileadite.

Let me reread that. Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor. Then in verse 35 of Judges 11, we hear him speaking. He says, I have given my word to the Lord and I cannot go back on it.

And then again, that secondary verse of our text, time would fail me to tell of Jephthah. Wouldn't you like someone to be able to say that about you in a righteous way? Man, I'd like to tell you about this person, but I don't know if I got time because God is just all over them. The Spirit flows out of them.

They're just the right person for XYZ or whatever is going on at the moment. And it is true that at times God seeks a man who is hard against wrong, and that's Jephthah. He seeks such a hard-natured man for service in the midst of greed and folly and apostasy. In other words, God is trying to do something about the wrong that is going on, and he's using such an outcast character that others might find abrasive, but he's really not abrasive. God cannot always work with pleasant folk.

He needs someone that's willing to stand up to things that others don't want righteous people to stand up to. An indomitable spirit. In other words, you will not dominate me. You will not dominate my spirit with your sin or your blasphemy or whatever. In the end, I will be worshipping the Lord. And so, his judgeship was a great service to the nation, saved countless lives of the promised land people we know as the Jews. He did not accommodate error, and he did not accommodate emotionalism. And if you do this in your own life, if you refuse to accommodate emotionalism and error, you will be labeled by someone or some group, you will be wrong. And if you're one of those people that is easily excited and lets that excitement run away with your behavior, and you're good with that, you won't like a man like Jephthah.

He's going to be rain on your parade. My own life, there are a lot of things I just flat out don't like that people have come up with. Holidays is one of them. I don't like them. I don't mind if others like them.

I don't judge them. I'm not going to let anybody force me to skip along to something that I don't have to skip to. And I made many an enemy over the year. This is why I like this guy, I think.

I can't tell you how many times I've been in an environment where someone has popped up, all the awesome dude, awesome, let's do this, let's do this, and they're all way over the top. I don't want to do that. Now they don't like you because you're not playing along.

It doesn't have to be something that is sinful, it's just something that steals your freedom. I don't want to be a person that lays a trip on people, as we used to say colloquially. I don't want to lay my burden on someone else. I don't want to be that guy. But I also don't want to be the guy someone else lays something on.

Well, we have a custom around here. And if you don't do this, what? If I don't do it, what? I don't love you, I don't love them. Birthday parties, don't even bother. Hey, we got a birthday party, want you out? Now I know it. And I've learned to like being this way.

Here's an example, I'll get back on text in a minute. There was a time when there was a baby coming that they would have a baby shower. It kind of is an appropriate name for anything with a little baby. But anyway, and all the ladies would go and be at the ladies with the baby shower and the men would have like free time.

They could go hunt, they could eat earthworms, they could do anything they wanted to do. I've noticed within the last few years somebody's trying to put an end to this. They now have a cubby hole for all the men to gather in. And they open the little window and they put in chips and soda and they close it back. Now if you like that, that's fine. But if I don't like it, don't you try to come against me. Now this is all fine with these incidental things.

There are probably people that are tuning in, they just turned this off a long time ago when I mentioned birthdays and that's it, I don't want to hear it. And that's my point. That is the very point.

We have no right to lay on other people our standards regardless of how much of a thrill we get out of it. And this man typifies this. His case is worse in that he was wronged before birth. Before he was even born, things went wrong for him. Again, Judges chapter 11 verse 1, Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, but he was the son of a harlot, and Gilead begot Jephthah. As part of his life tragedy, he was the son of a father who was unfaithful. How do you, as a man, be taught to be a man by a dad who's unfaithful?

By a dad who did not take the time, in spite of his mistake, to take steps to make it right? Because, look at verse 2 of Judges 11, Gilead's wife bore sons, and when his wife's sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, You shall have no inheritance in our father's house, for you are the son of another woman. We don't read about their names. They're not listed in Hebrews 11, but Jephthah is. So before birth he had an unfaithful father, but it gets worse for him. Not only did he have a father that trampled upon his marriage vows, but he had an unclean mother as well. Jephthah was a child of shame for something that he was not to blame for.

That didn't stop people from stoning him. Not with rocks, but in their heart, with their words. What a miserable childhood it must have been. He was a fragment of a home that never was. Now if you've been born and raised in a fine home, you can appreciate this. When I think of my childhood, what stands out to me the most is my parents' love.

More than anything. Everything else is speckled, good, bad, but that parental love was always right. My father, you know, he had a scowl when he was upset. He had a scowl when he wasn't, and he wasn't upset. He was a loving man. And I appreciate my dad and my mom more and more as time goes by. I try not to think about it too much in the pulpit.

I don't want to break down. This man, Jephthah, did not have that. It was cheated, didn't get it. You've been listening to Cross-Reference Radio, the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. Pastor Rick is teaching from God's Word each time you tune in.

As we mentioned at the beginning of today's broadcast, this teaching is available free of charge at our website. Just visit crossreferenceradio.com. That's crossreferenceradio.com. We'd also like to encourage you to subscribe to the Cross-Reference Radio podcast. Subscribing ensures that you stay current with all the latest teachings from Pastor Rick. You can do so at crossreferenceradio.com, or search for Cross-Reference Radio in your favorite podcast app store. That's all for today. Join Pastor Rick next time for more character studies right here on Cross-Reference Radio.