Judges part 5 Ch 10 – 12
Tonight
we are continuing our study in the book of Judges and we will begin in chapter
10.
Judges 10:1 After
Abimelech there arose to save
This is all we know about
these 3 men mentioned here. Now one commentator suggested that perhaps the
reason some of the judges have very little said about them was because there
wasn’t much rebellion or fighting going on during their reign.
3 After him arose Jair, a Gileadite;
and he judged
Again we don’t know very
much about this judge either other than him having these 30 sons who apparently
ruled over these 30 towns. Now as we continue on we will see once again that
the children of
Judges 10:6 Then
the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the
Baals and the Ashtoreths, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of
Moab, the gods of the people of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; and
they forsook the LORD and did not serve Him.
7 So the anger of the LORD was hot against
Now you would think that the children of
Judges 10:10 And the
children of Israel cried out to the LORD, saying, "We have sinned against
You, because we have both forsaken our God and served the Baals!"
Here we see them
admitting to the fact that they had
sinned but what I want to point out is that it took them 18 years to finally
admit it. Sometimes Christians have the same stubbornness or pride about them
that they simply don’t want to admit that they have been sinning against God.
As Christians there is great need for us not to be stubborn or prideful because
it is not worth losing our soul over. If you have a sin in you life and you
know in heart of hearts that you are denying that its there you need to stop
trying to fool yourself and confess your sin to God so that it can be forgiven
before its to late. Now notice God’s response to their plea.
Judges 10:11 So the
LORD said to the children of Israel, "Did I not deliver you from
the Egyptians and from the Amorites and from the people of Ammon and from the
Philistines? 12 "Also
the Sidonians and Amalekites and Maonites oppressed you; and you cried out to
Me, and I delivered you from their hand.
13 "Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods.
Therefore I will deliver you no more. 14
"Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in
your time of distress."
God takes the time to remind his rebellious people that he had already delivered them from 7 different enemies in the past and he is sick and tired of them turning their back on him. To drive the point home he tells them to cry out to their lifeless God’s and let them deliver them. God is making it clear to them and to us that there is only one true God. Now notice their response.
Judges 10:15 And the children of Israel said to the LORD,
"We have sinned! Do to us whatever seems best to You; only deliver us this
day, we pray." 16 So
they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the LORD. And His
soul could no longer endure the misery of
Here we see there great confession to God that had sinned and then we see
that they truly repent because they put away their idols and they begin to
serve God with whole heart, mind and soul. You see this is what true repentance
is all about. Its not just saying I am
sorry because I got caught, no, it action that you put into place that shows
that you are make a change in your life. This is what Paul taught everywhere,
Acts 26:20 "but declared first to those in
You see its not enough just to say that your
sorry for a sin you must have action on your part that brings about change so
that you do not do that sin any longer and instead you should do works of
righteousness and that is exactly what the children of Israel did because they
didn’t just confess their sin to God and stop there, no they put their
repentance into action by putting away their idols and serving God and that is
what we must do today. Once we confess our sin to God we must make changes so
that we don’t do that sin again.
One think I love about this section of scripture
we are looking in Judges is that it really shows the love and the mercy of God
and we can take great comfort from this today because if God could forgive them
and deliver them from the enemies again even though they had failed him over
and over again then surely we can see that if we truly repent even if we have
messed up over and over again God will forgive us and deliver us from our sin.
Judges
At this time they did not have a leader so now they would have to wait to
see who lead them into victory over their enemy.
Judges 11:1 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of
valor, but he was the son of a harlot; and
Here we Jephthah was a mighty man but he was born from a harlot and when
Gilead’s legitimate sons were born from his wife they run Jephthah off and then
he becomes a thug who raids people.
Judges 11:4 It came to pass after a time that the people of
Ammon made war against
Now at first they didn’t want to have anything to do with them but now they
want him to command their army but Jephthah had some questions for them.
Judges 11:7 So Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead,
"Did you not hate me, and expel me from my father's house? Why have you
come to me now when you are in distress?"
8 And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "That is
why we have turned again to you now, that you may go with us and fight against
the people of Ammon, and be our head over all the inhabitants of
You see the only reason they wanted him back was because they were in
trouble and apparently they knew that he was a great warrior and that is why
they came to him. So he uses this to his advantage and makes the promise before
God that they would make him their ruler for commanding their army against
Ammon. They agree to this. Now Jephthah first tries to be diplomatic with the
King of Ammon.
Judges 11:12 Now Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the
people of Ammon, saying, "What do you have against me, that you have come
to fight against me in my land?" 13
And the king of the people of Ammon answered the messengers of Jephthah,
"Because
So first he finds out what the problem is and once he finds out what the
problem is then he sends word back to the King of Ammon and makes 4 different
arguments showing that the children of Israel has every right to the land.
1st argument.
Judges 11:14 So Jephthah again sent messengers to the king of
the people of Ammon, 15 and
said to him, "Thus says Jephthah: 'Israel did not take away the land of
Moab, nor the land of the people of Ammon;
16 'for when Israel came up from Egypt, they walked through
the wilderness as far as the Red Sea and came to Kadesh. 17 'Then
First of all as a side note I want to point out
that this section of scripture proves in part that that the first 5 books of
the Bible were already written and available for people to know what was in
them because as part of Jephthahs argument he goes over the history that is
found in these first 5 books. This does away with the theory that the first 5
books were just some fairy tale that written not that long ago.
Basically in this first argument Jephthah is
saying we didn’t take the land from you we defeated the Amorites and took it
from them.
Second argument.
Judges
Now Jephthah
is not claiming that their God Chemosh is some powerful God but what he
is doing is making a logically argument. He is saying if you claim whatever
land your God Chemosh gives you and it is yours then why cant you see that this
land is ours since our God gave it to us. Who are you to claim it for your own?
3rd Argument
Judges
Here is making a political argument that even though King of Moab claimed
to own part of this land he didn’t fight against
4th Argument
Judges
This is what we call a statue of limitations
today. He saying we have had this land for 300 years and now you want to
dispute over it, that just not right so concludes saying.
Judges
So he is saying we have done nothing wrong you have. But unfortunately the
King did not listen to the logical arguments and decided to fight against the
children of
Judges 11: 29 Then the Spirit of the LORD came
upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh, and passed through
Mizpah of Gilead; and from Mizpah of Gilead he advanced toward the
people of Ammon. 30 And
Jephthah made a vow to the LORD, and said, "If You will indeed deliver the
people of Ammon into my hands, 31
"then it will be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet
me, when I return in peace from the people of Ammon, shall surely be the
LORD's, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering." 32 So Jephthah advanced toward the
people of Ammon to fight against them, and the LORD delivered them into his
hands. 33 And he defeated
them from Aroer <a-ro'-ear> as far as Minnith -- twenty cities -- and
to Abel Keramim, with a very great slaughter. Thus the people of Ammon were
subdued before the children of
So with Gods help Jephthah defeats his enemy. Now we need to keep in mind
that he made a oath to offer up the first thing that came out of his as burnt
offering to the lord. Now I will say this offering something as a burnt
offering can either mean by fire like an animal sacrifice but it can also
caring the meaning of dedicating something entirely over to God.
Judges 11:34 When Jephthah came to his house at Mizpah, there
was his daughter, coming out to meet him with timbrels and dancing; and she was
his only child. Besides her he had neither son nor daughter. 35 And it came to pass, when he
saw her, that he tore his clothes, and said, "Alas, my daughter! You have
brought me very low! You are among those who trouble me! For I have given my
word to the LORD, and I cannot go back on it." 36 So she said to him, "My
father, if you have given your word to the LORD, do to me according to
what has gone out of your mouth, because the LORD has avenged you of your
enemies, the people of Ammon." 37
Then she said to her father, "Let this thing be done for me: let me alone
for two months, that I may go and wander on the mountains and bewail my
virginity, my friends and I." 38
So he said, "Go." And he sent her away for two months; and she
went with her friends, and bewailed her virginity on the mountains. 39 And it was so at the end of two
months that she returned to her father, and he carried out his vow with her
which he had vowed. She knew no man. And it became a custom in
Now first thing comes out of his house is his only daughter and this makes
him very sad because he knew that he would have to keep his vow. Now some
commentators and some people think that Jephethah offered his daughter as burnt
sacrifice to God. But I do not believe that is what this is teaching for
several reasons.
1. Jephthah had the spirit of God upon him and certainly would not have
been allowed to make a human sacrifice to God.
2. Jephthah had a working knowledge of God’s word and he would have know
that it was against the law of Moses to sacrifice a human.
Deuteronomy 18:10 "There shall not be found among you anyone
who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who
practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a
sorcerer,
3. Heb.
4. His daughter went into the mountains bewail her virginity and not her
impending death.
5. When it says that Jephthah fulfilled his vow then why it was it
necessary to state that she knew no man after all someone who was dead
certainly would not know a man.
The best solution that fits this is that Jephthah would dedicate his only daughter
to God and should would be a virgin for the rest of her life. This would mean
no grandkids for Jephthah. This is similar to vow that Hannan made with her son
Samuel as she dedicated him to service of God.
Now in chapter 12 the men of Ephraim were mad because Jephthah didn’t
invite them to share in victory over Ammon so then they battled one another but
the men of Ephraim lost the battle. Now some tried to escape and make it back
home but Jephthah had a plan for taking care of them to.
Judges 12:5 The Gileadites seized the fords of the
This was a pretty neat trick and we should be able to understand this
because we all know that people that come from different dialects cannot say
some words from another language correctly and they took advantage of this to
weed out the men of Ehphraim and so ends the 6 year reign of Jephthah as a
judge. I want to finish our lesson by simply reading about the next 3 judges
which little is said about.
Judges 12:8 After him, Ibzan of