Monday, November 13, 2006

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Deal or No Deal

1:07 PM    4 comments

This is my sermon from a couple of weeks on on Judges 11, and Jephthah the Judge who made a rash vow.


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4 comments:

I've been meaning to ask you. You said that Jepthah's vow was rash and showed his pride in himself (I think?) but I wasn't sure how you determined that. I would have thought that he was crying out to God rather than proclaiming his independence. What you led you to the conclusion. The only thing I can thinkl of is Leviticus 5:4. I don't disagree with your point, I just wasn't sure how you arrived at it.

His vow was rooted more in having been influenced and shaped by the pagan culture around him than in living out his covenant relationship with God. Remember he just recounted God's covenant faithfulness, sovereignity and goodness to the Ammorite king - but when push comes to shove - he doesn't believe God's sovereign grace is enough, Jephthah has to bring something to the table, he has to offer a sacrifice.
Understanding it historical redemptive context (which is key to these biblical narritives - because these are stories, not propositional truth) is important to the exegesis. I want to quote a book that I go to a lot for insight, "Promise and Deliverance" by DeGraaf (4 vols).
"Jephthah thought that he himself had to suffer a bit if the Lord gave the victory. This suffering, which he had taken on himself of his own free weill, would serve as a kind of settlement of Israel's debt to the Lord, as if the Lord had not delivered His people out of free grace!"..."The Lord does not expect us to take suffering on ourselves to make ourselves pleasing to Him. The needed sacrifice was made by the Lord Jesus Christ. He made that sacrifice to atone completely for our sins. God will show us His full favor only because of that sacrifice. Of that sacrifice we may boast. And we will never be able to repay even the tiniest bit of our immense debt to the Lord."
That is why in the sermon, one of the key points I made was about control. Jephthah was still asserting control. And of course in the sermon, I made application to our lives today.

You did. I get ti better now, I just couldn't see the connection in the sermon. I would ask whether the concept of free grace really applies in the OT since atonement and sacrifice still had to be made for sin. I mean it does, but was it a known concept to OT people since God did command many sacrifices for many sins (i.e. Leviticus) (Can you tell where i am in my daily reading?) ;)

You are right, grace was still evident throughout the OT, it is wrapped up in his covenant faithfulness to His people. Fundamentally it was God who sealed and secured His covenant with Israel. It was God's faithfulness, grace and longsuffering that persevered even when Israel was repeatly unfaithful. Ex. 34:5-7
Deut. 7:7-8, "The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; 8but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt."

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