Dr MJ du Plessis Reformed Church Bellville 6 August 2006 (morning) Scripture NIV

REFORMED CHURCH BELLVILLE: SUNDAY 6 AUGUST 2006: MORNING SERVICE

Sing before: Psalm: 145:5+11

Let us commence this meeting with God by declaring openly to one another and to God:

Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Beloved grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, through the mighty working of God the Holy Spirit.
Amen

Psalm of praise: Hymn 1-1:3

Confession of faith: Nicene

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. Who, or us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was Incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the living and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.
And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets.
And we believe one holy catholic* and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and we look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.

After the reading of the Law we confess our guilt and pray for forgiveness and a new life before God with Psalm 4:2.
Law
Psalm: 4:2

Prayer:

Doxology
Worship
Confession of sins
Forgiveness
Gratitude
Prayer for the need of the congregation for the church, the authorities and the sinful world and appeal to God's promises.
General prayer
Enlightenment from the Holy Spirit for the sake of the ministry of the Word.

Amen

Hymn: 1-2:2+3
Scripture: Hebrews 11
Text: Hebrews 11:32

"… Jephthah …"

One refuses to believe one's eyes on reading this name for it is so out of place.

This is a long list of heroes of the faith and all the great deeds they accomplished in their faith.
And suddenly one reads the name Jephthah among them.

Jephthah! The impression one gains of Jephthah and his life on reading the Book of Judges (Judges 11-12) is not so positive that one would easily include him in this list of heroes.

Jephthah's mother was a prostitute.
His father was Gilead who took him into his family.
Gilead's wife also bore him children and these sons drove Jephthah away.

Jephthah grew up as an unwanted child.

The effect this had on his development we can only guess.
Especially when he was chased away by Gilead's other children so that he should not inherit anything from his father!

From that day Jephthah lived in exile and started a career outside the law.

Away from so-called "pious people" he settled in the land of Tob, which is somewhere in Syria.
Here a band of people gathered round him.
The Bible calls them "vain men" or "adventurers".
In fact they were the dregs of society – people with a poor reputation.
Jephthah and his band of adventurers robbed and stole to make a living.

They were a band of robbers of the kind Jesus spoke of in the parable of the Good Samaritan.

The robbers assaulted and robbed the traveler and left him for dead on the road.
Likewise Jephthah and his band roamed pillaging and robbing people.

Times changed in Israel.

A day arrived when they needed this robber captain to save the people from destruction.
The Philistines came from the west and from the east the Ammonites were advancing.
Caught between these two mighty foes Israel could be squashed and destroyed.

In those days no leader was to be found among the pious Israelites.

The only leader they could think of was Jephthah!
The man they had driven out!
The man born from a prostitute who now lives a life of violence!

We are now shown another side of Jephthah.

The elders come to him on a worldly mission.
They need a mighty and forceful leader.
No one says that the Lord called Jephthah.
Jephthah himself does not consider it a call to save his people.

To Jephthah this is the opportunity of his life!

He is willing to command them but only on condition that he becomes the head of God's people.
This reward the elders must confirm to him with an oath before the Lord.

Jephthah demands this oath not because he is so pious but because he knows that an Israelite will not go back on a promise secured by an oath.

For him the Name of the Lord was only a means of assuring that he would reach the top.
In this way the most worldly negotiation is confirmed in the Name of the Lord!

Jephthah accepts the offer because of his self interest, not because he is driven by his love of God or his love for his people.

We also see Jephthah's ability.

He is a brilliant diplomat.
He goes to the negotiating table.
He negotiates with the enemy.
But these negotiations fail.

We are then shown Jephthah's lack of faith and his heathen ideas.

He ends his talks with the words that the Israelites will defend the land the Lord the God of Israel gave them just as the Amorites will defend the land they received from their god, Chemosh.
He speaks of the Lord and an idol in the same breath.

One theologian puts it mildly:

A true prophet of God would have put this differently!
It goes to prove that Jephthah was thinking like a heathen when he considered the idols Chemosh and Milkom to be as powerful as God.

That is why we are taken aback when we read in the Epistle to the Hebrews: "I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets …".

Is Jephthah then counted among the prophets? But Jephthah did something even worse.

Before attacking the Amorites he prayed to the Lord.
He thoughtlessly makes a vow.
Like a pagan he promised God a human sacrifice.
The first person coming out of his house to meet him after the battle with Ammon shall belong to God.
That person shall be sacrificed.

Jephthah definitely was not considering an animal, such as a dog, would come out of the house. A dog was unclean and could therefore not be sacrificed. Perhaps he was thinking of a slave – but a slave remains a human sacrifice.

Jephthah is victorious and we experience with him the terrible moments when the Hand of God is on you because of your sins.

His daughter comes out of his house to meet him!
She is his only child – the only one who could continue his family!
In those days it was a terrible shame not to have any progeny!

Jephthah stands there alone – wretched in his misery.

He must sacrifice his only child.
He will die without progeny.
His family will stop with him – no progeny to remember their valiant forefather.
That is a high price to pay for reaching the top!

For Jephathah's daughter it was as hard. She requests a period of two months to weep because she will never marry.

She wishes to weep because she will never bear a child.
According to the custom of those days her life would have been useless.
It was believed in those days that a woman's purpose in life was to bear children.
So Paul writes that a woman will be saved by the children she bears.

The sorrowful end of Jephthah's thoughtless vow is related in Judges 11:39.

"After the two months, she returned to her father and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin. From this comes the Israelite custom …".

Consider Jephthah:

He is totally destroyed by his ambition.
His entire progeny destroyed through his thoughtlessness and false belief.

See what he did:

Firstly, he tried to satisfy the Lord with a hidden agenda.
Secondly, the abhorrence of the human sacrifice.
Thirdly, the injustice done to his daughter.

We would call him inhuman. An unbeliever. An Antichrist for doing so many wrongs that displeased the Lord.

Yet the name of this man is listed with that of the saints! How is this possible?

It is possible – because the Lord uses each of us in our sinfulness.
Because it is not founded on our own merit we all may hope for mercy.

Happily this not all that we know of Jephthah.

He led Israel for six years.
The Bible is silent about these six years.
Which means that during these years Jephthah lived a good life.

Jephthah was also a man true to his word. His promises he kept whatever the price, as is proved by the sacrifice of his daughter.

We may therefore assume that this sacrifice brought him to repentance.
Therefore it was possible for a period of six years to follow in which Jephthah as a person disappeared into the background and the kingdom of God could take pride of place.
In this period Jephthah learned what a vocation meant and was he able to fulfill his calling enthusiastically.

Jephthah's daughter is an example of Christ in that she, although innocent, had to sacrifice her life for another person's thoughtless sin.

She had to die so that her father could come to repent as Christ had to die so that many people could repent.

But Jephthah too is a type of Christ:

As with Christ he had to bear the shame of being an illegitimate child.
Like the Lord Jesus Christ, he was rejected by his brothers and relatives.
Like the Lord Jesus Christ he had to flee his country to save his life.

But, because Christ is far more than any person who before Him was a foreshadowing of Him, His ministry also rises far above their work.

Jephthah's daughter is sacrificed for his sins, but Christ sacrifices Himself – not for His own sins but for our sins.
It is precisely this sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ that made possible the words of Hebrews 11:32, namely, that the name of Jephthah is written among those of the saints.
The Lord Jesus Christ died also for the thoughtless recklessness of people like Jephthah.
The Lord Jesus Christ opens the door to the sanctuary of God for him too.

The comfort in this man's life is that in his weakness and sinfulness he was employed by God in His service.

Also that his unrighteousness was forgiven.
Hence we too may believe that our names will appear on the list of those who shall inherit the life eternal.
As Jephthah's name appears there because of the power of Christ so too yours and mine.

Amen

Closing prayer
Closing Psalm: Psalm 138:2+4

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Amen

Dr MJ du Plessis
Reformed Church Bellville
6 August 2006 (morning)
Scripture NIV