Breaking Badly 9: The Book of Judges

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Speaker 1: There you go. Welcome to Breaking Badly Episode nine, Jephtha and we worship the wrong God. What happens when people use the name of God but no longer know who he really is. They pray, they worship, they make promises to God, but the God they imagine looks more like the gods of their culture than the God of scripture. No mercy, no compassion, no grace. That's the tragedy we encounter in today's story. And by the way, it's very relevant. We do it today. This is the story of Jephtha. Welcome to Gospel ran podcast and Doctor Bill sinrid YouTube channel. I am your host, Doctor Bill Sinyard. We are free wherever you get good podcasts, of course on YouTube as well, so please subscribe. As always, one of the fastest ways you can help us grow is by leaving your comments below on YouTube or contacting me Bill at gospeldashapp dot com and let me know what you think. Thank you ahead of time. Also, thanks for making Gospel Podcast one of the top ten percent of the world. Thanks for listening every week. We hope that it helps to regularly hear about God's love that loves the unlovable, the unloved, the unlovely, the unworthy, the unlikely. And that's all of us, that's me, that's you. On any given day, if we were just a little bit honest, I need to pray that every day. Well, I want to get right into it. After this brief word from our sponsors, we'll be right back. By the time we've reached Judges, Chapter ten, Israel has sunk even deeper into spiritual chaos. The text tells us they serve the Bales, the Astorreths, the gods of Aram, Sidon, Moab, Ammonites, the Philistines, seven different groups of God. Seven in Hebrew storytelling represents completeness. They are all in to God's other than Yahweh. Israel spiritual collapses got a total. According to the narrative, they have fully abandoned Yahweh and Judges ten six to sixteen. Notice the repetition of the couplet, forsake and serve other gods. The opposite of that would be to worship and serve the one God. To hold that thought, we're just past the midpoint of Judges. There bed seven judges raised up by Israel's faithful God, Yahweh, Afiel Ehud Shamgard, Deborah, Gideon, Tola, and Jaere. They have not changed, and neither has God. His innate love for the unlovable, unloved, unlovely and worthy and unlikely is undeterred. He is still pursuing his people like a lover. That's really encouraging. You know, when you screw up, and wherein I screw up, God good and leave. His holy spirit remains in our inner being. He continues to make me experience the love of Christ. Hefees is three fourteen to twenty one. Anyway. To that end, God gives Israel over again, this time to two enemies simultaneously, the Ammonites of the East and the Philistines in the West. Israel has now squeezed from both sides. Eventually, eventually Israel cries out to God and they say, we've sinned against you. But God responds with something startling. He reminds them of all the times he's rescued them, and then he says something shocking, I will no longer save you. Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. In other words, if Bail is the God you want, let Bail rescue you. It's a partial repentance. I mean, God's weighing it. He goes, this is isn't real? They're saying the words I do that. Eventually the people remove some of the idols and begins serving the Lord again, but the text hints that something is still wrong. It's not heartfelt repentance. It feels more like religious bargaining. God, We're going to clean up our behavior if you just rescue us from this crisis. We promise this time we need it. It's a kind of religion that treats God like a transaction, not a relationship. You know, we might think we're different, after all, none of us are running after Baal statues. Maybe, but the truth is we still chase modern versions of these gods. For many people today, the most powerful suburban idol might be success or materialism, the approval of a boss, a raise of promotion, the thrill of public recognition. I mean, these things give us a powerful emotional hit, but they also demand constant sacrifice, time, energy, attention, security. Another powerful idol is relationships and sexuality. The longing for connection is good. God designed us for deep community. But when we expect human relationships or sexual identity to carry the full weight of our identity and fulfillment. It's become a God. We get this identity fulfillment in the presence of God. Right Remember, and like the bales of ancient Canaan, they eventually enslave us, and they become divisive and tear people down and split churches for instance. So inner Jepha, into this chaotic moment, steps a tragic figure, Jephtha. Jephtha is introduced as a gabor hi Yeel, a mighty warrior, but his story begins with rejection. Right. Remember I said God loves the unworthy. Here's Jephtha. His mother was a prostitute, His brothers drove him away. He had no inheritance, no family honor, no place in society. He grew up in shame. Eventually he fled north to a place called Tove. Ironically the name means beautiful, so the rejected man now lives in beautiful, but the wounds remain. When the Amirites attack, the leaders of Gilead panic. They look around for someone capable of leading them, but there are no warriors left, no gabor hi Eels. So you know, embarrassingly, with shame and reluctantly, they go find Jephtha and notice something, and this is kind of Israel's thing. They don't apologize, they don't repent for how they treated him. God is not a part of the negotiations other than the use of his name to seal an oath. And by the way, not at Shiloh, where that should be done in the presence of God. So it's more superstition than any sign of Yahweh loyalty. So no priest, no prayer, no offerings. They simply need him now and their offer is transactional. Lead us into battle, Jeptha, and will give you honor. And at first they offer him a military command, but Jepta negotiates for something deeper. He wants what he was denied his whole life, status, inheritance, legacy. So what are they gonna do? All right? I agree to make him head of Gilead, essentially a king like figure. So Jeptha finally gets the recognition he has always craved. But God's not involved, right, This is as secular as it gets, with God's name kind of in the mix. Before fighting, Jeptha tries diplomacy. He sends messages to the King of Amen. He carefully explains Israel's history, the territorial boundaries the treaties, he argues like a skilled international negotiator, but the Ammonite king refuses, war becomes inevitable. Then finally of the Lord comes upon Jephtha. I mean, this unworthy, unlikely, unlovable, someone who isn't use to Shiloh in the presence of God, And just as with previous judges, God empowers him for battle. Jeptha defeats the Ammonites decisively. Everything he ever wanted now just seems within his reach. Honor, power, recognition, restored legacy. But then fatal flaw, not transformed, not in the presence of God, not listening to God, not seeing God's mercy and compassion towards him, and he makes a catastrophic mistake. Before the battle, Jeptha makes a vow verse thirty. He says, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return, I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering. I mean, what was he thinking? First of all the vows unnecessary and deeply troubling. What does he think is going to come out of the door of his house? And it sounds less like the worship of Yah or an understanding of Yahweh's mercy and calling and more like the practices of pagan gods such as Molek, who demands child's sacrifice. And that's exactly what happens when Jeptha returns home. The first person to greet him as his daughter Verse thirty four, his only child, the one person who represents his future, his legacy, and in that moment, everything collapses, a house of cards and no God. Ah. Jeptha's fatal mistake was not just in making a rash fowl. The deeper tragedy is this. Jeptha did not know Yahweh. He didn't get God's love, compassion, and mercy for the unworthy people like him. The tour explicitly forbade child sacrifice. In fact, the law even provided ways to redeem foolish vows. But Jeptha never seeks counsel, He never goes to Shiloh to meet with God to seek God's mercy, He never consults with the priest. Instead, by himself isolated, he assumes that the God he serves demands this sacrifice. In other words, Jeptha worships a pagan god wearing Yahweh's name, and he wrongly thinks I made a vow the right thing to do would be to do the sacrifice. Wow right, Ah. Imagine if Jeffa had gone to Shiloh, he would have heard the story of Abraham and Isaac, how God stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son, how God provided a substitute. Ram Jepha would have discovered that God is not like the gods of Canaan. Yahweh is compassionate, his love far beyond what Jephthah has ever experienced from his people, from his family, or likely even imagines. He doesn't have words for it. So he misses the invite, don't kill your daughter, come to me and be embraced. Merciful a god who provides substitutes. But the Vowe's not so much of the problem is that Jephtha, even when his need is obvious, doesn't go to Shiloh. What kind of unbelief? What kind of pride in arrogance is that ignorance? And so the tragedy unfolds. Jephtha's story ends with a chilling sentence. Jephtha the Gileadite died and was buried in a town in Gilead. That's it. No mourning, no ceremony, no legacy, no descendants imagine an unmarked grave. The man who sought honor and legacy leaves nothing behind. Jephtha's story forces us to ask a difficult question. What version of God are you actually believing in? Is it the God revealed in scripture or a cultural version of God that looks suspiciously like the capricious idols around us, the transactional God. The tragedy of Judges is not just that Israel abandoned God, is that they redefined him. They kept the name of Yahweh, but replace his character. The real Yahweh would never demand Jephah's daughter, but one day he would do something even more astonishing. He would give his own son, not as a pagan sacrifice, but as a willing substitute, so that ignorant, arrogant, unbelieving rebels like Jephtha and people like me could finally be reconciled to him. So here's the question we must face. Which God are we following? The harsh transactional God of our imagination that looks more like our people, or the compassionate God revealed in scripture, The God who ultimately provides a substitute, The God who invites us back into his presence, the God who is still calling us to come home. What's next? I will let you know after this brief word from our sponsors. Well, I've been telling you about the book Good Enough Parent. It's getting great reviews. It's up for two awards a lot. Parenting Christian parents is very hard. Too often we believe we've messed up our kids. Let me just look at them right. So I've pulled together eighteen biblical, neuroscientifically informed, very doable tips that can help. Take two or three that work and do them right. See how it goes, and let me know. Bill at gospeldesh app dot com did you know that your kids subconscious are asking two really relevant and important questions And I think if you knew what they were, it might change things? Right? Check it out. Get copies to your church, your youth group, Bible study, your book club, other families that you know in your area. They will thank you well, thanks for listening to breaking Badly. Next time, we move to the final judge in the Book of Judges, a man famous for his strength, but whose life reveals the same tragic cycle and tragic flaw we've seen again and again. The story of Samson and what it teaches about power without transformation, away from the presence of God, take hard child of God.