I want to talk to you about something we all have. Some of us have more than others. There are those who are crippled by them, others can rise above them and continue to live with confidence. But all of us have them.
What am I talking about? Flaws and Failures. Our imperfections, our mistakes.
Flaws are the imperfections – the weaknesses we are born with, bad experiences we had, unfortunate backgrounds we come from. These are not what we would have chosen. We had no choice. They were not under our control.
Failures are the mistakes we made/make in life. Wrong and foolish choices. We struggle and we suffer the consequences because we made wrong decisions. I want you to know this morning, that flaws and failures in life don’t have to define us.
We don’t have to stay victims of the past, nor victims of our flaws and failures. In Christ, we are a new creation. God is the One who made us and is capable of remaking us. He can make everything new.
If our flaws and our failures don’t define us, what does? Faith does. Our faith in Jesus Christ. Our faith in God changes everything.
That’s what we can learn from Jephthah, the 8th judge in Judges 11.
Read Judges 11:1-11
His past is something Jephthah cannot change. His birth. His background. He is an illegitimate child. Born to a prostitute. His father sinned and he was the result.
- Although his father Gilead brought him home, he wasn’t really ever part of the family. Gilead’s wife and her sons rejected him. They said, “You are not going to get any inheritance in our family.”
- And this was likely said because their father Gilead has died. No one left to defend him. No one in the family can now speak out for him. So, the sons drove Jephthah away.
Jephthah is an outcast; He is a despised man. Not just to the family, but also to society as well. That explains why he ended up with a “gang of scoundrels.”
Jephthah has an unfavorable past, something that he couldn’t change, something that is beyond his control. But that doesn’t define him. Neither does our past define us.
The truth is, we all come to God with a past. But, In Christ, God redeems our past. He doesn’t take away the past, undo the past, or ignore the past; He REDEEMS the past. He takes our brokenness and does something with it.
Truth is: God uses our past to prepare us, refine us, teach us, and mold us into who we are today in Christ.
Look at what happened to Jephthah. After some time, the elders of Gilead come looking for him. This is a picture of the grace of God. Favor comes upon Jephthah because God was gracious to him. God’s grace reaches out to him.
- It really doesn’t matter where we come from, what we have done, or who we used to be. What does matter is if we are someone who truly trusts in God? Because God redeems our lives, including our past, present, and future.
So, what is the main issue here? What’s the context of this dispute? Vs12-13 Then Jephthah sent messengers to the Ammonite king with the question: “What do you have against me that you have attacked my country?” 13 The king of the Ammonites answered Jephthah’s messengers, “When Israel came up out of Egypt, they took away my land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, all the way to the Jordan. Now give it back peaceably.” Jephthah wrote a message to the king of Ammonites before the battle, hoping to get a diplomatic solution to this.
Judges 11:23-24,27 “Now since the Lord, the God of Israel, has driven the Amorites out before his people Israel, what right have you to take it over? 24 Will you not take what your god Chemosh gives you? Likewise, whatever the Lord our God has given us, we will possess.” Vs 27 I have not wronged you, but you are doing me wrong by waging war against me. Let the Lord, the Judge, decide the dispute this day between the Israelites and the Ammonites.”
Jephthah’s argument: Ammon should be satisfied with the land that their god had given them and should not contest the land Jehovah God had given Israel. Jephthah believes in God’s plan and will for Israel!
Vs28 The king of Ammon, however, paid no attention to the message Jephthah sent him. As he prepares for the fight, Jephthah makes a foolish mistake. he made a rash vow to God. It was uncalled for and unnecessary.
Let’s read Judges 11:29-40.
There is no need to bribe God for His help. God was with him, (Vs29 Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah) but Jephthah made a foolish vow, a vow which the Law warned against.
Deuteronomy 23:21-23 “If you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not be slow to pay it, for the Lord your God will certainly demand it of you and you will be guilty of sin. 22 But if you refrain from making a vow, you will not be guilty. 23 Whatever your lips utter you must be sure to do because you made your vow freely to the Lord your God with your own mouth.”
Jephthah vowed: Vs31 “Whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”
Jephthah kept his promise to God! He offered his daughter to the Lord.
Bible scholars are divided at this point—some maintain that Jephthah sacrificed his daughter, while others say she was given to the Levitical priests to serve in a religious vocation. My position is that she went to serve at the Tabernacle. Here’s my line of reasoning:
- Everything in Jephthah’s life was already dedicated to God.
- Human sacrifice was an abomination specifically forbidden by the Law (Lev 18..Deut 12) and condemned as a pagan practice.
- No Jewish priest would have ever approved or participated in it.
Jephthah knew that either an animal or person would meet him when he returned from battle. If an animal appeared, it would be sacrificed as a burnt offering, and if a person came out, he or she would be dedicated to God for life-long service at the Tabernacle.
Jephthah set apart his daughter for the Lord’s service, which was in line with Jewish practice. (Lev 27) There were many unmarried females at the Tabernacle who assisted with the logistics of worship. (Samuel)
Jephthah’s sorrow came because his lineage would end with his only child, a significant loss. Her sadness centers on the fact that “she would never marry” and “she was a virgin and would have no relations with a man”, which shows that rather than being slain she was being devoted to an unmarried, celibate life.
The fact that Jephthah won a great victory over the Ammonites further proves that human sacrifice was never being considered—God would not have given Jephthah success in battle if he had intended to sacrifice a human being.
Lastly, it was Jephthah’s FAITH in God that defined him. His name is mentioned among the men of faith in: Hebrews 11:32 And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets:
Although scholars disagree about Jephthah’s vow, they all agree that it was unnecessary—God would have given Jephthah the victory regardless of his vow.
We need to be careful here not to get so caught up in the vow that we miss the big picture:
Considering his background, Jephthah could’ve resigned himself to obscurity, assuming, “People like me never amount to much.” Yet God called him to be a Judge.
I want you to know this morning: “No one can make you feel inferior without your permission.” If we are truly seeking God’s will in our lives, then God is working in and through us, and we can be sure He is pleased with the work He is doing.
We are made in His image, and God doesn’t make junk!
Paul writes, I Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me was not without effect. If Jephthah felt he had nothing to offer, he wouldn’t have attempted much in life. If we see ourselves as unqualified, unworthy, or a 2nd class citizen we will tend to back away from the challenges God puts before us.
God redeems our past, uses our flaws and teaches us through our failures.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. Some we have control over some we don’t. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, we never lose our value in God’s eyes. To Him, dirty or clean, crumpled or creased, we are still priceless.” To Him, we will always hold our value!
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