Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

We have been working our way through the book of Judges and one of the things that really stands out is how corrupted the Israelites are.

Even the judges—the delivers God chooses to rescue the Israelites from their enemies--are often terribly flawed people, and their flaws cause all sorts of problems.

This is such a contrast to children’s book versions of the Judges, which often try to minimise or ignore the sins of the judges.

But it’s not just children’s books, but adult Bible studies, too.

In fact, some people bend over backwards to be able to understand the judges as essentially good people.

But that is missing the whole point of this admittedly difficult book.

The point of Judges is that nothing good can come of human freedom when it is exercised apart from God.

This confusion over the source of evil in our society is still with us today.

School Shooting

You might have heard about yet another school shooting in the USA during the past week.

The reaction to that was pretty much the same as it always is in the USA—partisan and ineffectual.

Democrat Senator Chris Murphy had this to say.

[Video] “This only happens in this country!

...”

His claims are quite inaccurate—Australian schools have lock-down protocols and drills despite our low number of shootings.

And this map shows that America is not alone in having school shootings (although, at 288 deaths so far this year it is vastly worse than the rest of the world—the next worst is Mexico with 8 deaths).

Senator Murphy points out that it is “our choice to let it continue.”

He is, of course, correct in this.

But I wonder if he understands which particular choices are letting it continue.

One of my Christian (and gun loving) friends in America posted this photo with the caption, “My daughter attends MSA in Palmetto, Fl.

This is who stands at our 1 entry to the school all day.

Retired combat veteran.

Trained to head straight for gunfire.

Who has survived being shot at in intense situations.

You may not like it, but I promise TODAY when I drop her off I have a tad bit more reassurance knowing her completely gated, guarded school has him.

We don’t need to debate.”

I’m not sure that this was the choice Senator Murphy was talking about.

And it’s certainly not the choice I would make, personally.

Here’s a map of the world’s gun ownership.

The USA is at the top of the list again.

Perhaps there is some correlation here.

But the correlation between gun ownership and school shootings is not very close, because the USA has 120 guns per 100 people (yes, that’s more than one gun each) and 288 school shooting deaths but Canada (for example) has 35 guns per 100 people (about a third as many guns) and only 2 school shootings (140 times less).

Clearly there is something deeper in US culture that is contributing to this horrible scourge of murders.

And yet neither side seems interested in exploring that.

Actually, I believe the fact that neither side seems capable of exploring the deeper problem is a part of the deeper problem.

Do you know any other deep causes people desperately want to avoid thinking about?

[Wait for answers]

Finally, repentance

Fortunately, once in a while, people do realise what they’ve done wrong.

In Judges so far, the Israelites have merely be begging God to help them, completely ignoring their own contributions to the problems they face.

But now, in chapter 10, we finally read something different.

This sounds hopeful, right?

The Israelites have confessed that they abandoned God and indulged in idolatry, and they’ve got rid of their idols.

We should get a good story out of this, right?

Sadly, no.

Instead, we find the Israelites (at least those east of the Jordan in Gilead) doing things without consulting God at all, as usual.

“If we can find someone...”

When you abandon God, desperation follows, and eventually you’ll settle for rescue from anyone, no matter what the cost.

Jephthah’s story

The story that follows has lengthy negotiations between the Israelites east of the Jordan and a man called Jephthah, who has been living as a bandit after being kicked out of his family home because his mother was a prostitute.

Sounds like a perfect leader, right?

Eventually Jephthah strikes a bargain to be their ruler in return for leading them into battle.

Jephthah starts his rule with an even lengthier negotiation between Jephthah and the Ammonites, which ends this way:

There are some striking things about this passage.

First, all that talk (and I’ve spared you from it today, but I suggest you read it at home, it’s in Judges 11) led nowhere.

There was still a brutal battle.

But when you read these negotiations in the historical context, you’ll find that Jephthah wasn’t actually being diplomatic.

Rather, he seems to have been baiting the Ammonites.

He exaggerated the length of time Israel had inhabited the land, he played down the Ammonites’ claim to the land, and he even mixed up their god with the god of Moab!

It reminds me of the way that people in the culture wars talk past each other today, trying to push each other’s buttons rather than communicate.

That never ends well.

Second, God’s spirit took control of Jephthah, despite Jephthah’s shady past and belligerent present.

Yet again we see God using a deeply flawed man for his purposes.

Third, despite the presence of God’s spirit, Jephthah, like Gideon, can’t quite bring himself to trust the Lord, and so he strikes a bargain with God: whoever comes out of his house first on his return he will sacrifice to God.

This ominous bargain is completely at odds with what we have see so far of God’s character.

The CEV translation we’re using uses the pronoun “whoever,” making it clear that Jephthah was probably thinking of a person, not an animal.

Indeed the very next words describe the terrible outcome of this vow.

Jephthah’s sacrifice

It’s tempting to see Jephthah’s faithfulness to his vow as courage and integrity.

In fact, if you Google Jephthah, you’ll find a number of articles that promote this idea.

But the Biblical perspective is that there are more important things than personal courage or integrity.

Human life is one of those.

For a start, God forbade human sacrifice.

Indeed, human life is so important, that God’s law, given to Moses, insists that humans cannot be the payment of a vow.

If someone makes a vow on a person, then it is money that is devoted to God, not the person’s life.

We read in Leviticus:

Leviticus 27:1–7 (CEV)

1 The Lord told Moses 2 to say to the community of Israel:

If you ever want to free someone who has been promised to me, 3 you may do so by paying the following amounts, weighed according to the official standards:

fifty pieces of silver for men ages twenty to sixty,

and thirty pieces for women;

twenty pieces of silver for young men ages five to twenty,

and ten pieces for young women;

fifteen pieces of silver for men ages sixty and above

and ten pieces for women;

five pieces of silver for boys ages one month to five years,

and three pieces for girls.

So, if Jephthah had been faithful to God, rather than his own twisted sense of personal integrity, he could have maintained his vow by paying ten pieces of silver to free his only daughter.

God does not desire human sacrifice.

But Jephthah is too proud, too ignorant, and trapped in a society that has lost its way, and so he and his daughter are doomed to this terrible fate.

It is worth comparing Jephthah with Abraham here, especially since you might be wondering about God’s view on human sacrifice, given his request that Abraham sacrifice Isaac.

Remember that both Abraham and Jephthah were facing the sacrifice of their only child, through whom their family would continue.

Let’s walk through the differences.

Jephthah failed to trust God’s promise, which is why he made a bargain with God resulting in his sacrifice.

Abraham trusted God’s promise, so when God tested Abraham by demanding the sacrifice of his son, Abraham obeyed without question.

Jephthah’s concern when he saw his daughter and realised that she was the price of his vow was with his own pride and his own loss.

Abraham’s concern was with obeying God.

Jephthah should have known that God does not want human sacrifice, since the law of Moses was so explicit about this.

Abraham did not have the law of Moses, and yet he knew that God would not let Isaac remain dead.

God was not involved in Jephthah’s sacrifice, because Jephthah was disobeying God both by what he was doing (sacrificing his child) and not doing (exchanging her for ten pieces of silver).