The End of the Saga of Jephthah

Chapters 10, 11 and 12 are one narrative that all seem to flow together. Last week we read chapter 10 and the first half of chapter 11. This week, we finished chapter 11 and read all of chapter 12.

At the end of chapter 8, we read that the land was at rest. Chapter 9 was all sorts of upheaval as Abimelech tried to seize control of the land. At the end of chapter 9, Abimelech is killed and it seems like the land is at rest, even though we are not specifically told so.

Read verse 29: The "Spirit of the Lord" comes upon Jephthah. Remember, when the Spirit of the Lord came upon people in the Old Testament it was cause He was empowering them to do something special.

Read verses 30-31: Jephthah makes a vow to God. If He delivers them, he'll sacrifice the first thing that comes out of his house.



Read verses 32-33: Ammon and Israel fight. God delivers Israel.

Read verse 34: Jephthah heads home after his victory. First thing out of his house is his daughter, who is an only child. Uh oh!

Read verse 35: Jephthah is clearly upset cause he doesn't want to break his vow to the Lord. (Interestingly, it would also be a sin for him to keep his vow. Deuteronomy 12:31 says it's an abomination to sacrifice your children.)

Read verses 36-38: She tells him that he should keeps his vow, but asks for permission to go away and grieve. Jephthah says to go ahead, so she goes with some friends to the mountains for two months to grieve her virginity.

Read verse 39: She returns and is sacrificed.
Now some commentators try to argue that she was grieving her virginity because the vow was that she'd remain single and dedicated to serving the Lord. However, I think that he literally sacrificed her because his vow was that he's offer whatever came out of his house first as a burnt offering. There's really not room to argue there.

Read verse 40: It became a custom to commemorate her.

After that parenthetical story about Jephthah's vow, the story continues in Chapter 12...
Read verse 1: Yet again, the men of Ephraim are upset they weren't included.

Read verses 2-3: Jephthah reminds them that he actually did ask them and they refused, so they went with God's help.

Read verse 4: Jephthah and the Gileadites fight Ephraim.

Read verses 5-6: The Gileadites take control of the fords and kill Ephraimites that try to cross it. 42,000 are killed.

Read verse 7: Jephthah judges Israel 6 years, then dies.

Read verses 8-10: Ibzan judges Israel 7 years, then dies.

Read verses 11-12: Elon judges Israel 10 years, then dies.

Read verses 13-15: Abdon judges Israel 8 years, then dies.

Again, there's clearly not much information is given about these three men. They were judges for a number of years. Ibzann had lots of kids. Abdon had lots sons and grandsons with donkeys. That's about all we know. (Look at last week's blog for some thoughts on why these guys are mentioned.)

Application:

• Think before you speak. Do you really think Jephthah thought through that vow. More than likely it was going to be a person coming through the door to greet him. We know it was his daughter, but it just as easily could have been a servant or his wife. None of them are good options to sacrifice as a burnt offering.
• Be a man of your word. Don't make promises and then break them. Matthew 5:37 says, "let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No.'"

**All Scripture is quotes from the New American Standard.
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I'm currently teaching on the book of Judges for the youth group Sunday school class. We normally spend half our time playing a game and the other half studying the Bible. These are my lessons and some funny tidbits that happen during the course of the morning.