Remarks on Jephthah. Abridged from "Lectures on the Book of Judges," by Samuel Ridout.

Jephthah had made a vow that if the Lord should give the children of Ammon into his hand, whatever came out of his house, he would offer it up for a burnt offering to the Lord.

I have never been quite able, though I would be glad to do so, to think that the stern, self-righteous, self-opinionated man-and there is no tyranny like the tyranny of a self-righteous conscience, there is no suffering like the suffering inflicted upon oneself under the goadings of a legal conscience-that a man of Jephthah's makeup, who a little later on could take the fords of Jordan, and with a good conscience cut the throats of forty-two thousand of his fellow-Israelites, was a man too tenderhearted to do, just what he said he would do, to his daughter, offer her up as a burnt offering to the Lord.

What is frequently taken as the explanation of this, is that he dedicated his daughter to perpetual virginity. But it seems to me that Jephthah's whole character was such that he was perfectly capable of carrying out such a vow. He knew about Abraham. How a distorted conscience might very easily make a wrong use of God's commandment to Abraham, might forget that God arrested Abraham's hand, so that he did not do what He told him to do. A morbid, self-righteous conscience, and one who had all the time felt the galling character of his brethren's scorn of him; one who was self-occupied and self-centered to a good degree personally, was not above having a wrong conception of such a thing as this.

The man, apparently, reduced everything to a dead level. He had his sword drawn, and as he had slain the Ammonites, he would slay his daughter, if he promised God to do it. As he had slain his daughter, he would take the fords of Jordan and slay the Ephraimites.

Need I interpret that for us? Need I speak of that spirit which, alas, we have seen so much of, which makes no discrimination; which, as the epistle of Jude says, does not make a difference of some, saving them with fear? Have we not seen something of treating foe and friend alike? Have we not seen too much of that, of treating the people of God just exactly as we would treat the enemies of God?

A hard and fast use of Scripture makes no discrimination at all. Here is one who loves Christ, whose heart is filled with love to Him, one who desires to please Him. Am I to treat such an one in the same way that I would a teacher of blasphemy, one who brings in all kinds of false doctrine as to the Person of the Lord? Are Ammonite and Ephraimite to be the same? And is the same judgment to be meted out to both? Surely not, brethren.

I can deal with Ephraim, as I surely should, but it is quite another thing for me to take the fords of Jordan, and compel everyone that goes through those fords to say just thus and so. To compel him to say Shibboleth, and if he cannot quite say it, to cut him off. "Shibboleth" is the flood, that which divides. It refers to that stream which divided Gilead from Ephraim. So if those of Ephraim cannot quite pronounce as to what divides, to treat them simply to the sword, that surely is faithfulness gone mad; it ceases to be faithfulness, and comes to be destruction. And I think, dear brethren, that just as we had in Abimelech (Judges 9) the failure of man's rule when he is seeking his own aggrandizement, so in Jephthah we have the like failure of man's rule when the conscience is under the power of legalism. It is harshness and sternness without a bit of light to relieve it. It is simply the claim of an ascetic. Because it is unhappy itself, it will make everything and everybody around it unhappy; and this is all the sadder when it opens up the Scripture, with which it has dealt out judgment to heretics, and applies that Scripture relentlessly to those who may not see eye to eye with itself.

Here again you can find in the history of the Church much that would answer to Jephthah. I am sure, as we speak of Roman Catholic persecutions of the people of God and are horror-struck at them, we must not forget Protestant persecutions of the people of God. We must not forget the hard, harsh laws of those who fled to America for religious liberty, because they wanted freedom of conscience to worship God, and yet who made laws of such a character that some of the best people in the colonies, such as Roger Williams and others, were banished, under their edict, to the Indians.

If we are going to exercise rule for God. there has got to be something more than a half view of Scripture. Jephthah seemed to think that God wanted him to do what was unpleasant to do, simply because it was unpleasant. That is the reason why he would slay his daughter-or banish her from his home; the principle is the same, whichever interpretation we take-and, once get a taste of blood, and forty-two thousand of his brethren cannot quench the taste.

Is it not solemn, and is it not a fact, that in the history of the Church, those who have met and overthrown heresy, are those who have then crossed swords with their brethren, and fought to the very knife, over things that were not a vital question of truth?

You remember how Luther, who delivered God's people from the errors and heresies of Rome, turned round and contended with his brethren about the real Presence in the Lord's Supper, and would not under any consideration yield a single point. We can apply these things; yes, brethren, we can apply them today, and if we are going to do better than Jephthah, we must beware of just this morbid conscientiousness which is really that of an undelivered soul in the bonds of legalism, which presses upon the people of God that which is not His test, that which after all simply divides the people of God from one another, and does not divide them from their enemies.

I have not forgotten, in speaking of Jephthah's harshness, that there is need of faithfulness amongst the people of God. We find the remedy in Jephthah's successors. After his death Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel. The meaning of "Ibzan" is probably "purity," from a root meaning "to be white." That is the remedy for harshness and relentlessness. The wisdom which cometh from above is first pure, and there can be no peace without purity. In contrast to Jephthah, Ibzan has thirty sons and thirty daughters. This seems to intimate the growth and multiplication of that which stands for God. Here is a judge who, instead of slaying his brethren and his one daughter, who, instead of putting an end to any hope of growth of the principles for which he stood, gathers in, and is able in that way to multiply his family. He is thus able to carry out in increased measure the principles for which he stands, and those are the principles of purity. There is nothing mentioned of his rule except this.

After him you have Elon the Zebulonite, who judged Israel for ten years. Zebulon is the tribe that speaks of abiding in communion with God. And Elon, the "strong," shows how after purity comes strength, and in that way prosperity. There must be strength in the government of the people of God. Indifference to the will of God cannot be thought of.

The last judge mentioned in this connection is Abdon, the son of Hillel, the Pirathonite, "service, the son of praise"-service that springs out of a heart filled with praise. He dwells in a place that speaks of redemption and deliverance. That is not a Jephthah. It is not one who has but one rule by which he measures people, and if they do not come up to it cuts them off. But if you have the spirit of service, of which we have already been speaking, and that which is the only spirit of rule and service, there will be love that flows out of a heart filled with praise. And where there is that, where God's people are overflowing with praise, dwelling in His house, and so still praising Him, there will be service to their brethren, and there will be the government of God's house, which will be maintained, not by violence, but in the power and strength of purity. Let us remember, then, these things as that which is the antidote to Jephthah's harshness. The antidote to sternness is not carelessness. Oh, that we might learn that in our souls, that the reaction from sternness has this threefold characteristic-purity, strength and service. Let us hold fast to the purity of God's truth; let us be firm where His truth is in question, and then in the service of praise, a heart filled with praise, we shall find that it is not necessary to be Jephthah’s in order to stand fast for God.