Cross Your Heart and Hope to Die

This false assumption, by the way, produces manipulative believers, because God now becomes someone that you can manipulate, you can bribe, you can coerce.

If you can give him enough of a benefit package, he'll be on your team. That is what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that God is sovereign. That means God is not for sale, but it also means that God is absolutely trustworthy. He will keep his word.

He can't be encouraged to do what's right, because it is his character to do what's right. I'm glad you've joined us today. This is Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey.

We're continuing through a vintage wisdom series from Judges. Has it ever occurred to you that what you believe determines how you behave? Your actions flow from your heart and mind. So what you believe about God affects everything about you. The decisions you make, as well as your attitude in life, are impacted by your beliefs.

That can go two ways. They can be glorious or tragic, and we'll see that in the life of Jephthah. Stephen called today's lesson, Cross Your Heart and Hope to Die. Has it ever occurred to you with full impact that what you believe determines how you behave? Solomon said something like that in the book of Proverbs when he said, As a man thinks in his heart that is what he believes, so is he. That is, that's how he behaves.

Let me illustrate that. For a person who worries about just about everything, and I use him as an illustration because none of us can identify it, so none of us are convicted. A person who worries about just about everything is in reality a person with a very small view of God.

You see, Paul links the two together when he said to stop worrying, be anxious for nothing. Why? How? Well, by prayer and supplication let your worries be made known unto God, as if in his mind that should settle it.

And it should. Let me take this a step deeper. Truth, what you believe, will eventually determine experience.

Here's a fellow that falls out of the tenth floor of a building, and as he passes each window down you can hear him saying, It's okay, I'm doing wonderfully. He may mean it, but eventually the truth will catch up to his experience. As a matter of fact, eventually the truth will shape his experience. What you believe, the truth in your heart shapes your experience, your attitude.

And what you believe about God determines how you live, how you act, how you feel, for the most part. The evils in our society, by the way, the experiences that we are reading about and seeing are because they have abandoned the truth. You have sat, as I'm sure, along with millions of other Americans that you have watched, the newscasts of people killing and stealing, overturning property, thievery. I'll never forget looking at a newspaper picture of three women in their mid-thirties. It looked they were running down the sidewalk and they were holding onto so much clothing.

It took all three of them to carry it. But the shocking thing was that all three of them were laughing. I read of one lady who was there in her car, she pulled up, her entire family was in this store stealing. A reporter came up to her and knocked on the glass, she rolled it down and he said, What are you doing? She said, Well, all my family is inside getting what they want. And he said, Well, how can you do that? And she said, Stop stealing. There's nobody in the store.

It's all free. Now we could give her a book about her experience. That is why it's wrong to steal, thievery, the penalty. The problem is there's a root difficulty and the root problem is that she doesn't know that God's in the store. If she understood that, that truth would affect her experience.

Now let's bring it in a little closer. The problem is, here we've got this in the church, we are so busy focusing on our experiences that we have abandoned our beliefs, the truth of who God is. We are chock full of seminars and discussions and books that tell us how to have this and how to be that and how to fix that and how to experience Christianity. And in the process we have abandoned what we are to believe about God.

Ultimately that determines that. In the process, we have forgotten who God is. We are people running around looking for the best kind of Kleenex to help our nose because we have a cold.

We have forgotten that it takes an internal work to fix the cold. We need to spend less time exploring our experiences and more time exploring God. And ladies and gentlemen, that book in your hand is intended by God to introduce you to himself.

How he acts, how he thinks, how he responds, what he does. And when you and I come to know him, that shapes the way we live. Now so often God wraps deep truths into the lives of people and so often he teaches us how to do it right by showing us somebody who did it wrong. So I want to take you back to the story of a man who was about to make a decision because he does not understand God.

He has great zeal but little understanding of the character of God. Judges chapter 11 verse 29. And I'm going to read from verse 29 through to the end of the chapter.

Verse 29. Now the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah so that he passed through Gilead and Manasseh and then he passed through Mizpah of Gilead and from Mizpah of Gilead he went on to the sons of Ammon. And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, If thou wilt indeed give the sons of Ammon into my hand, then it shall be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the sons of Ammon, it shall be the Lord's.

And I will offer it up as a burnt offering. So Jephthah crossed over to the sons of Ammon to fight against them and the Lord gave them into his hand. And he struck them with a very great slaughter from Ararar to the entrance of Minoth, twenty cities, and as far as Abel, Keramim.

So the sons of Ammon were subdued before the sons of Israel. Now when Jephthah came to his house at Mizpah, behold, his daughter was coming out to meet him with tambourines and with dancing. Now she was his one and only child.

Besides her he had neither son nor daughter. And it came about when he saw her that he tore his clothes and said, Alas, my daughter, you have brought me very low and you are among those who trouble me, for I have given my word to the Lord and I cannot take it back. She said to him, My father, you have given your word to the Lord, do to me as you've said, since the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the sons of Ammon. And she said to her, Father, let this thing be done to me. Let me alone two months that I may go to the mountains and weep because of my virginity. I and my companions, in other words, she's not going to have a husband, not going to have children.

Then he said, Go. He sent her away for two months and she left with her companions and wept on the mountains because of her virginity. And it came about at the end of two months that she returned to her father, who did to her according to the vow which he had made, and she had no relations with a man.

Thus it became a custom in Israel that the daughters of Israel went yearly to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year. Now before I dive into the vow itself and how it relates to his lack of understanding, I know you want me to answer this question. Did Jephthah sacrifice his daughter to God? And I know because you are a very demanding audience that you demand an answer.

And I want you to know you've made my life miserable for the last few weeks. I walk into my study and the first thing that hits me, did Jephthah kill his daughter? Because I knew I had to face you as we study the book of Judges. So, here's the answer and you will write it down.

You're going to take notes on this section. Let me say right up front, I do not believe that Jephthah sacrificed his daughter to God. Now I know some of you scholars are going to disagree.

I read every commentary possible and you do have some good company and you are entitled to your opinion. But for those of you who will believe with me the truth, here's the first reason that he didn't. Number one, God would have judged Jephthah for violating the law. Now I didn't say God would not have blessed him because God blesses us even when we sin. He will bless Samson who lived an immoral life as a judge. I said that God would have judged Jephthah for violating the law and the law was very clear. You do not sacrifice humans. That's what the pagan Canaanites did. You say, well, maybe Jephthah didn't know the law.

I granted that very fact. He grew up in the kind of home that didn't teach him the law. He was kicked out.

He was a gang leader in the land of Tob. But during the two-month delay while he is waiting for his daughter to come back, some priest surely, some person surely would have said, by the way, Jephthah, the law teaches you don't make human sacrifice. Second point, the tragedy in this passage seems to be, as you read it, to be the loss of future children, not the loss of Jephthah's daughter's life. Look at verse 34 again. When Jephthah came to his house at Mizpah, behold, his daughter was coming out to meet him with tambourines and with dancing. Now she was his one and only child, emphasized there by the author.

Here's the point. She was his only hope of having grandchildren and great-grandchildren. In other words, when Jephthah dies, the influence of his name dies. It's over.

And in this day and time, the clan was all important. It seems to be the emphasis as well with the middle part of verse 37. Look. She said to her father, let this thing be done for me. Let me alone two months that I may go to the mountains and weep because I'm about to die. Uh-uh.

Let me weep because of my virginity. Third point. The normal expression for human sacrifice is avoided in this passage when the time arrives for Jephthah to perform the sacrifice. Look with me again at that summary verse, verse 39. And it came about at the end of two months that she returned to her father who did to her according to the vow which he had made and she was burned as a sacrifice on... No. And she had no relations with a man.

That's the summary. One commentator writes these words. Jephthah could have vowed that in case of victory, he would dedicate to God for tabernacle service one member of his household. The fact that it turned out to be his daughter rather than a servant was tragic for him and probably a surprise. Indeed, she was his only child.

He could never expect to see grandchildren and he would seldom, if ever, see her again. Another commentator adds these words. Nothing indicates that Jephthah literally sacrificed his daughter on the altar when it came time. The origin of the Hebrew word olah, or burnt offering, literally means to ascend. It actually refers more to the smoke ascending before God than it does the actual sacrifice.

In time it came to be used for burnt sacrifice. There is nothing in the narrative to prevent us from concluding a spiritual sense that Jephthah's daughter went across the Jordan Valley and ascended the other side to Shiloh where she spent her life serving the Lord in the temple. One more point and we'll leave this fascinating discussion forever.

Number four. The daughters of Israel went yearly to visit with Jephthah's daughter. All the discussion that I read most ignored, it seemed, verse 40.

Look at that verse with me. It says, and the daughters of Israel went yearly to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah. The key word in the Hebrew text is the word commemorate.

You could render that they went to talk with. They went to praise. They went to honor. We have every reason to believe then that women from her village every year made a trip to Shiloh and they praised this woman for her dedication to the tabernacle. And why? So she could keep the integrity of her father's promise.

She was so honored. Now enough of that. Why the vow? Why make this kind of vow that will so impact people? I submit to you that it's because he didn't understand God very well. And I will give you from this text two false assumptions that Jephthah made in the process of making the wrong decision. And I will apply it to the lives of you and me because we often do things because we do not know what he expects.

We don't know him very well. False assumption number one. Here's what Jephthah made. God cannot be trusted when under fire. By the way, this false assumption produces rebellion because in reality, if we don't trust God, we'll be the ones abandoning him under fire.

Let me pause here long enough to say this. Our view of God, I'm no psychological expert, but our view of God is shaped initially by those in authority over us, especially fathers. Perhaps the weightiest, most critical concern of a father is shaping by the way that you live and talk and respond and act their little view of the highest authority, who is God. Let me say after saying that that none of us have any excuse, by the way, for not having a biblical advantage or vantage point of God.

All of us are told to go to the Word and independently of background, you and I can't know God. But fathers can throw some obstacles in the way that we have to get around in our pursuit of God. I know my father was not a perfect man. He is not perfect today. In fact, he wouldn't want to be used as an example, but some things happened that marked me that have created in my young mind an impression of God that had been very valuable.

How he responded under fire is one of those. I could trust his character. I remember one time on the mission field with him. His mission field was the streets of downtown Norfolk.

As an older senior in high school, we were passing out invitations to fellows on the weekend to come to the service center. And while we were out there on the street Friday night, this guy came up to my father and by appearances, he was either a dealer or a pimp. And my father began talking to him about Christ and this guy without any warning leaned back and slapped my father across his face as hard as he could.

And I'm thinking it's two to one. My father stood there and looked at him and then kind of folded his arms and he said, sir, do you feel better now? You see, I've never had in my mind an image of God reacting in anger.

But wait a second. What about Jephthah's father? You remember him? The upstanding man in the community we studied last session? Gilead, his name Boar, the tribal name. His father had failed morally and had conceived Jephthah out of wedlock with that harlot. He had enough character to bring Jephthah into the home and to raise him, but he never stood up for the boy.

And so the brothers would hurl insults and made life impossible. And one day the elders, the other spiritual authority came to visit and said, Gilead, that boy is an embarrassment. Send him away.

Gilead responded to that kind of pressure and he did what was wrong. Under fire, Jephthah looks at his father and his father turns his back. His mother abandons him.

The elders hate him and he leaves. So he's going to have a difficult time understanding that God won't betray him when under pressure. When the heat's on, is God going to stick by? He made the false assumption that God would, so he comes out with his promise. And it's a plea as I read it. Oh God, don't abandon me. And he makes this foolish vow as a result. False assumption number two follows closely on the heels of that.

It is this. God can be coerced into keeping his word. Now chapter 10 made it very clear that God would give the sons of Ammon to the Israelites. And chapter 11, verse 1, the very first phrase said, the Spirit of God came upon Jephthah for power and leadership.

It was clear. This was God's design. But because he couldn't trust them, he now tries to bribe him. Look at verse 30 again. If, circle that in your mind, if thou wilt indeed, in other words, if you keep your word, Lord, if you will indeed give the sons of Ammon into my hand, then it shall be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the sons of Ammon, it shall be yours. Just this vow, ladies and gentlemen, was a shallow attempt to obligate God to keep his word. I know you like sacrifices. So if you keep your word, I'll give you a special one.

Are you impressed? This false assumption, by the way, produces manipulative believers. Because God now becomes someone that you can manipulate, you can bribe, you can coerce into doing what you do, and he will respond.

If you can give him enough of a benefit package, he'll be on your team. Ladies and gentlemen, what this means is that God is for sale, and his word can be bought by the person who's giving him back the most impressive benefit. That isn't what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that God is sovereign.

That means God is not for sale, but it also means that God is absolutely trustworthy. He will keep his word. He can't be encouraged to do what's right, because it is his character to do what's right. Nor can he be coerced to do what's wrong. He can never do what's wrong.

You've seen or heard little kids out on the playground. In fact, I can remember doing it myself. You know, you make a promise to some kid, and the kid doesn't believe you. He says, you promise? You say, oh, I promise, I promise. He says, you really, really, really promise? I do.

I promise. Cross my heart and hope to die and stick a needle in my eye. When a kid says that, by the way, that is a very profound contract, because there's nothing worse than the thought of a needle in your eye.

What's happening? One doesn't trust the other. And so they're trying to get out of him some kind of obligation, some type of promise. How do you and I act toward God with the way we give money, with the way we have devotions, with the way we represent him? Is it to impress him into giving us what we want? Ladies and gentlemen, I just say right out, we need to be reintroduced to the character of God. And we live in a society, a Christian society, that is so focused on the experience that they are abandoning the truth, and the truth is what sets us free. Oh, to have the curiosity of a little kid all over again.

You know, some of you shared with me things your kids have said. What's God like? Where does he live? What's it like in heaven? Do we know the answers to that? No, not really. We've quit asking the questions. Why?

Well, we're going there, because we don't really recognize the fact that what happens there impacts the way we live here. I was alone with one of my six-year-old boys. He was very close to his grandfather, who is now in heaven. And just out of the blue, he says, Daddy, is there going to be paper in heaven? I knew that was a loaded question, so I thought about five seconds and I came back with, well, I'd like to think there's going to be paper in heaven.

Why? And he said, because Papa was such a good drawer. When I get to heaven, I want him to draw me some pictures. Do we color in heaven?

Would it make a difference with the way we color on earth? You better believe it, because truth determines experience. What you believe determines how you behave. This must have been my week for questions, because when his twin brother there in the house said, Dad, is God married? I responded this time with great theological certainty, and I said, No, son, God is not married. Why not, Dad?

Go ask your mother. No, I didn't say that. I tried in a futile attempt to answer that question.

Does that make a difference? How we know and what we know shapes my attitude today. If he is big enough, if he is majestic enough, then whatever comes along my path, he's big enough to handle, and I can trust him. Let me read you in closing the words of an eight-year-old boy who wrote tremendous theology. In fact, he wrote some things that you and I need to rediscover all over again. Here's what he writes, rather humorous at times.

With simplicity, he writes these words. One of God's main jobs is making people. He makes these to put in place of the ones that die so there will be enough people to take care of the things here on earth. He doesn't make grown-ups, just babies.

I think that's because they're smaller and easier to make. That way, he doesn't have to take up his valuable time teaching them to talk and walk. He can just leave that up to moms and dads. You shouldn't always think of what God can do for you. I figured God put me here and he can take me back any time he wants, and I think it works out pretty good. God sees everything, hears everything, and he is everywhere, which keeps him pretty busy.

If you don't believe in God, you will be very lonely because your parents can't go everywhere with you. They like to camp, but God can't. It's good to know he's around when you're scared of the dark or when you can't swim very good and you get thrown in the deep water by the big kids. That's what I believe about God. What's your God like?

Is he the God of the Bible who is sovereign and trustworthy and powerful and loving and wise? Are you struggling with discouragement? Are you trying to avoid the penalty of some temptation? Are you going through the deep waters of some trial?

Let me suggest something over the next week. Rather than focusing on the experience, go back to this book and be reintroduced to God. Read passages that deal with his character, with his sovereignty, with his wisdom, with his power, with his love. The bigger your God, the smaller your trial. The more majestic your God, the greater your security, the deeper your joy. Oh, we need to reacquaint ourselves, ladies and gentlemen, with who God is, and that truth, as it affects our experience, will indeed set us free. Because the truth, Christ said, will set us free. That lesson was called Cross Your Heart and Hope to Die.

It comes from Steven Davies' Vintage Wisdom series from Judges. If Steven sounded a little different to you, that's because he preached this series back in 1992. But the truth of God's Word is just as relevant and powerful today as ever. We have several more lessons to go in this series, and we'll bring you those in the days ahead. In addition to equipping you with these daily Bible lessons, we also have a magazine that we publish. Steven deals with a different topic each month and helps you better understand what the Bible says and how it applies directly to your life. For example, some past topics have included things such as advice for how fathers can leave a godly legacy, what the Bible teaches about the coming rapture of the church and the tribulation. The magazine also includes a journal you can use to record your thoughts and prayers as you listen to the wisdom journey or wisdom for the heart. Each issue also includes a devotional guide for that month. Steven's son, Seth, writes devotionals that are theologically rich and filled with practical insight for your life. We call the magazine Heart to Heart, and we'd like to send you the next three issues as our gift to you. You can sign up for it online at wisdomonline.org or call us right now at 866-48-bible. Join us back here next time for more wisdom for the heart.