Sometimes we fail because of who we follow
Judges 10: 6 Then the sons of Israel again did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the sons of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; thus they forsook Yahweh and did not serve Him. 7 So the anger of Yahweh burned against Israel, and He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the sons of Ammon.
10 And the sons of Israel cried out to Yahweh, saying, “We have sinned against You, for indeed, we have forsaken our God and served the Baals.” 11 Then Yahweh said to the sons of Israel, “Did I not save you from the Egyptians, the Amorites, the sons of Ammon, and the Philistines? 12 Also the Sidonians, the Amalekites, and the Maonites oppressed you. And you cried out to Me, and I saved you from their hand. 13 Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods; therefore I will no longer save you. 14 Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress.” 15 Then the sons of Israel said to Yahweh, “We have sinned, so You, do to us whatever seems good in Your eyes; only please deliver us this day.” 16 So they removed the foreign gods from among them and served Yahweh; and [e]He could bear the trouble of Israel no longer.
We started last week by looking at failure through following bad leadership; and we were looking at three kinds of leaders; self-promoting leaders, leaders of the moment, and seriously flawed leaders. Abimelech was a self-promoting leader, so the lesson last week was to look over those that you consider following spiritually, and consider what they say, who they are, and what they do.
This week, I am going to try and put the sermon into a positive light, even though the passage basically presents negatives. The positive light is built around a new title; How to become the leader God smiles on.
There are all kinds of leaders in Scripture; self-promoting, God-called, God led, good examples, humble, virtuous, corrupt, violent and sometimes foul. But from all of them we can learn lessons. We can learn what to do, and what not to do.
And we’ve all had both kinds in our lives haven’t we? I’m sure, if we wanted to take the time today, we could sit around and talk about the lessons we’ve learned from leaders, good and bad. Some of us have had parents who were our good examples for parenting, for marriage, for work, and faith, and life. Others of us have had the opposite.
But life’s lessons are like eating fresh caught fish. You dig around on your plate to find the meat, but when you encounter a bone, you push it to the side. Ultimately, the choice is ours as to whether we will learn from both the good and bad, and choose to follow the good example, or the bad example.
So, today, we return to Scripture to consider the judges who led Israel. So, get out your fork, and prepare to separate meat from bone.
Prayer
What did we learn last week? We learned to avoid certain leaders; power-hungry, sex-obsessed, violent leaders. And we learned that instead we should look for servant-hearted, self-denying, gentile leaders.
Well, this week, we want to make it personal “How to become a leader that God Smiles on.” Here are the points; Begin with genuine repentance, eat the meat from your past don’t just gnaw on the bones, be content with the lot God gave you, lean on God rather than trying to use God, know and stand on God’s Word, learn the difference between your dumb ideas and God’s wisdom, be gracious and forgiving when possible.
Setting
Other judges
I had originally planned on spending a little time on the two judges before, Tola, and Jair, and the three judges after Jephthah; Izban, Elon, and Abdon. But time constraints are not going to allow it.
Suffice it to say that they were just leaders of the moment. The best of them were individuals we know little about, the worst had similar qualities to bad leaders; polygamous and power hungry. But that brings us to Jephthah. I summarized Jephthah as an example of a “seriously flawed leader.” Our first point in “How to be a leader that God smiles on” is
Begin with genuine repentance
But before we get to our first point in becoming a good and Godly leader, let’s look at the setting for this story.
The setting is that Israel walked back into idolatry; the worship of other gods.
Judges 10: 6 Then the Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They worshiped the Baals and the Ashtoreths, the gods of Aram, Sidon, and Moab, and the gods of the Ammonites and the Philistines. They abandoned the Lord and did not worship him.
Now the first thing I noticed about this was the sheer quantity of idolatrous gods they start following this time. We have the Baals, the Ashtoreths, the gods of Aram, Sidon, and Moab, and the gods of the Ammonites and the Philistines.
It sounds like they have decided to follow them all this time. I did a little research to determine which gods we are talking about here.
Israel turned from the Lord to a wide range of foreign gods, including Baal and Ashtoreth, worshiped by the Canaanites; Hadad, worshiped by the Arameans (Syrians); Astarte, worshiped by the Sidonians (Phoenicians); Chemosh, worshiped by the Moabites; Molech, worshiped by the Ammonites; and Dagon, worshiped by the Philistines. This shows that Israel had adopted the gods of nearly every surrounding people group, embracing a broad and corrupt mixture of pagan worship.
And it really shows how far they have spiraled downward. I don’t think this means that every person followed every one of these gods. For times in the concluding chapters of the book of Judges we have a statement like this;
Judges 17:6 — “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.”
Everybody was just doing their own thing. There was no national identity around Yahweh their God. There was no sense that they had a special calling; The national motto was, “You do you, boo.”
Personally, I think that’s where we are in our country today.
7 So the Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and he sold them to the Philistines and the Ammonites. 8 They shattered and crushed the Israelites that year, and for eighteen years they did the same to all the Israelites who were on the other side of the Jordan in the land of the Amorites in Gilead. 9 The Ammonites also crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah, Benjamin, and the house of Ephraim. Israel was greatly oppressed,
Now, there are a couple of notes here. First, I noticed that this time they don’t have one oppressor, they have two;
The Philistines lived along the southwestern coastal plain of Israel, in cities like Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, and Gath. From there, they would push eastward inland, moving up through the Shephelah (low hill country) into the territory of Judah, Dan, and Ephraim.
The Ammonites lived east of the Jordan River, in what is today modern Jordan, with their capital at Rabbah (later Philadelphia, now Amman). Their attacks first targeted the Israelites living in Gilead, which was already on the eastern side of the Jordan.
They are getting attacked from East and West at the same time. The second thing I noticed was that part of the gods they had begun to worship were the gods of these two peoples; the Philistines and the Ammonites. A lot of good it did them. Again, this shows how low they have gone. God sold them to two powers this time, not just one.
10 so they cried out to the Lord, saying, “We have sinned against you. We have abandoned our God and worshiped the Baals.”
This is a familiar pattern. But something unfamiliar happens next. They cry out, “We have sinned.” Save us Lord.
11 The Lord said to the Israelites, “When the Egyptians, Amorites, Ammonites, Philistines, 12 Sidonians, Amalekites, and Maonites[c] oppressed you, and you cried out to me, did I not deliver you from them? 13 But you have abandoned me and worshiped other gods. Therefore, I will not deliver you again. 14 Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them deliver you whenever you are oppressed.”
Whoa. God said no. The bank of Yahweh is closed. I’m done saving you. You keep going back to the lovers who beat you. Let them save you. This is as harsh a statement as any we have heard from God in Scripture thus far.
And I think that in this moment we ought to pause. There’s an unlisted lesson here. What is the lesson? That God knows the difference between sorry for what I’ve done, and sorry I got caught. He knows the difference between genuine repentance which is a heartfelt desire to change and be a different person, and false repentance which is a cry to God to get me out of the mess I’ve made so I can go back to the sins that got me in the mess to begin with.
God says “no.”
But, even as the number of gods that they are worshipping is unprecedented, and even as God saying “no” is unprecedented, so is the following verses.
15 But the Israelites said, “We have sinned. Deal with us as you see fit; only rescue us today!” 16 So they got rid of the foreign gods among them and worshiped the Lord, and he became weary of Israel’s misery.
Do you know what they did? They genuinely repented. If you are going to have God smile on you, you begin with genuine repentance. What do I mean that it is genuine repentance? Genuine repentance has these three elements; An admission of sin, “We have sinned.” a submission to consequences “Deal with us as you see fit.” and evidence of real change. “they got rid of the foreign gods among them and worshiped the Lord.”
Isn’t that true from what you know about people and about yourself. We’ve all known people who did us wrong. We’ve had circumstances where they got caught. They told us they are sorry. But we knew it wasn’t genuine repentance because it was missing something. They wouldn’t admit they were wrong, they were more worried about the effect and consequences for themselves than about the offense, or we saw no evidence that they were changing or willing to change their behavior.
We’ve all seen it in others, and if we are honest, sometimes we’ve seen in it ourselves, especially reagarding our relationship with God. It’s so easy to say, “I’m sorry” to God and expect that nothing bad will come of our behavior. It’s harder to pray a prayer like this;
Lord, I come before You humbly and honestly. I confess that I have sinned against You. I have not walked in Your ways, and I have chosen my own path instead of Yours. I do not excuse it, and I do not shift the blame. I acknowledge that what I have done is wrong in Your sight.
Lord, I also submit myself to You completely. You are just and righteous in all that You do. However You choose to deal with me, I accept it. Whether You bring discipline, correction, or consequences, I trust that You are right. I place myself fully in Your hands.
And Lord, I ask You to change me. I do not want to continue in these same sins. Help me to turn away from them. Give me the strength to remove from my life the things that lead me away from You. Help me to pursue what is right, to obey Your Word, and to worship You alone with a sincere heart.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. I turn from my sin, and I turn toward You.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Genuine repentance is our first point. The second is eat the meat from your past don’t just gnaw on the bones.
17 The Ammonites were called together, and they camped in Gilead. So, the Israelites assembled and camped at Mizpah.
So, Israel has repented. But these two oppressors are still oppressing. Israel has surrendered themselves to God’s discipline, but they have asked God to save them from the oppressors. It is a similar circumstance to another Bible story. Remember the story where King David sinned by taking a census of the people so he could know his military might?
But after it was done, David realized his sin and prayed that God would take away his iniquity. Well, the prophet Gad came to David with a message from God. God would bring punishment in one of three forms; either 7 years of famine, 3 months fleeing before his enemies, or 3 days of pestilence from God. Remember what David said?
2 Samuel 24:14 “I am in great distress. Let us now fall into the hand of Yahweh, for His compassions are abundant. But do not let me fall into the hand of man.”
He was saying, “I’d rather fall into God’s hands than the hands of men.” That’s what the nation of Israel had said. “Lord, do to us whatever you will, but save us from the enemy”
So, the Ammonites have descended on the land again with their armies. And Israel, without an answer from God, has gathered their armies at Mizpah. But note, they really don’t know what to do. In the past, when God delivered them, God’s Spirit would come on a person, who would then call the people up, and lead them into battle.
But here, nobody is stepping up. God’s Spirit isn’t raising anyone. So, the leaders of Gilead get together.
18 The rulers[d] of Gilead said to one another, “Which man will begin the fight against the Ammonites? He will be the leader of all the inhabitants of Gilead.”
They have no one. And notice that they don’t go to God and ask, “who should lead?” They ask each other. And the person who comes to mind is Jephthah.
11 Jephthah the Gileadite was a valiant warrior,
Apparently, he had proven to be a courageous and skillful fighter in previous conflicts. But then his resume gets thinner.
but he was the son of a prostitute, and Gilead was his father.
This is not a great qualification for leadership. Now he couldn’t help that. But what it meant was that his home life was far less than ideal. His father had visited a prostitute, and he was the result. And apparently, he was raised with the rest of the family until the father died because of the next verses.
2 Gilead’s wife bore him sons, and when they grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, “You will have no inheritance in our father’s family, because you are the son of another woman.”
Now, he is likely an adult at this time. He leaves his father’s family and flees Gilead to the northeast land of Tob. It is a frontier area that is closer to the land dominated by the Ammonites.
So, what is the point we are to understand out of all of that. Jephthah had a checkered background. His home was built on “family values.” We don’t know if he had any relationship with his prostitute mother. His father had been unfaithful. His brothers threw him out of the house. He had to leave home because of the family drama. So, what’s the point in terms of God smiling on him?
At some point, all of us must make a decision. We are handed a plate of fresh cooked fish. Fresh cooked fish is a mix of good and bad. We’ve all got good and bad in our upbringing. We’ve all had things that were handed to us that are out of our control. But if you are handed a plate a fish, you take your fork, and pull out the meat to eat. You don’t sit there and gnaw on the bones. Or complain all day about the bones.
But that’s exactly what many do. They take their seedy past, or the bad parenting that they received, and they either repeat the same patterns themselves, or they make it their complaining mantra; “My life would have been so much better, if only...”
That’s not how you receive the smile of God. Eat the meat. Take what was good, and apply it to your life, throw the bones away. Well, what did Jephthah do?
3 So Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob. Then some worthless men joined Jephthah and went on raids with him.
Was this a good choice on the part of Jephthah, or a bad one? It’s hard to say definitively. Could he have chosen a better place to live than the land of Tob? Tob was probably shaped by the same kind of mixed pagan environment found in the surrounding regions, especially the worship patterns connected to the Ammonites and other neighboring peoples, rather than by faithful worship of the Lord. At the very least, it appears to have been a place where a rejected man like Jephthah could gather “worthless fellows.”
It also says that they went on raids with him. Now this could mean more than one thing. Raids could be a good thing. For example, David did something similar when he was hiding in the wilderness from King Saul. A band of men gathered to him, and he “raided” Israel’s enemies.
But since the men Jephthah gathered are called “worthless” men, it is also possible that they were little more than road bandits. It is even possible that they robbed Israelites.
But all we can say definitively is that he is in an area and a position where he can be easily influenced by evil and ungodly people. So, what happens next. What happens next leaves us with the next lesson on how to have God smile on you.
be content with the lot God gave you
4 Some time later, the Ammonites fought against Israel.
We are back to that moment in the story where Israel is faced with a force of Ammonites invading, they gather to war, but they have no leader.
5 When the Ammonites made war with Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob. 6 They said to him, “Come, be our commander, and let’s fight the Ammonites.”
They think of Jephthah. Probably because he had a former reputation as a valiant warrior in battle. Also, I think they are aware of where he is and what he has been doing since he left home. They had to have some idea where he was, or else they couldn’t have sent him a message. And I think that his time spent “raiding” would have been known as well. That’s part of the reason they want him. He’s a mercenary.
7 Jephthah replied to the elders of Gilead, “Didn’t you hate me and drive me out of my father’s family? Why then have you come to me now when you’re in trouble?” 8 They answered Jephthah, “That’s true. But now we turn to you. Come with us, fight the Ammonites, and you will become leader of all the inhabitants of Gilead.”
They basically make him an offer. If you will help us win this military victory, you may return as our leader.
I think there is a lesson here. be content with the lot God gave you
Why are they offering him this position after the war is over? It is not because they now see a statesman in him. It’s not that they recognize him to be governor material. They are just using that position as an inducement for him to lead the army against Ammon. And Jephthah should have recognized that this was just a temptation to become powerful.
Epistle to the Romans 12😊 “For I say… to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.”
Proverbs 30:21-23 Legacy Standard Bible
21 Under three things the earth quakes, And under four, it cannot bear up: 22 Under a slave when he becomes king, And a wicked fool when he is satisfied with food, 23 Under [a]an unloved woman when she gets a husband, And a servant-girl when she supplants her mistress.
This was a temptation to power. And we, when we are offered leadership, or have the opportunity to step into those places, I think we need to take the advice of Scripture concerning a different temptation.
Proverbs 23 When you sit down to dine with a ruler, Understand well [a]what is before you, 2 So you should put a knife to your throat If you are a man of appetite. 3 Do not desire his delicacies, For it is bread of falsehood.
Learn contentment at whatever level you find yourself, then if God elevates you, be warned of the temptation of power.
9 So Jephthah said to them, “If you are bringing me back to fight the Ammonites and the Lord gives them to me, I will be your leader.”
This is better understood as a question, if I do this, “will I be your leader?”
10 The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The Lord is our witness if we don’t do as you say.” 11 So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead. The people made him their leader and commander,
We’ve been talking about how much of a flawed leader Jephthah is. Some of it was out of his control. But now he begins making decisions for himself. And his actions point to a man who is seriously flawed.
We just saw how he took the bait regarding becoming the leader of Gilead. And this says a lot about his relationship to God as well. He doesn’t consult with God. What we find is that he dictates to God.
11 So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead. The people made him their leader and commander, and Jephthah repeated all his terms in the presence of the Lord at Mizpah.
What is happening here is likely Jephthah’s proclaiming the terms of their agreement out loud, to God, in their presence, as a way of binding them to their words.
This is not Jephthah going to God in prayer asking for guidance. It is Jephthah saying, “God, you heard what they said, now you hold them to it. And if they break their word, get ‘em.”
There’s a lesson here as well. lean on God rather than trying to use God.
The only impression we get of Jephthah is that in his personal walk, he views God as a tool to accomplish what he wants. He wants to be elevated in power, and he calls on God to validate the terms of the agreement he struck. Later we find him trying to manipulate God again.
But that is not something God smiles on.
Isaiah 1:13–15 “Bring no more vain offerings… I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly… even though you make many prayers, I will not listen.”
Amos 5:21–24 “I hate, I despise your feasts… Even though you offer me your burnt offerings… I will not accept them… But let justice roll down like waters…”
Instead of manipulating God, we should lean on Him.
Psalm 51:16-17 Legacy Standard Bible 16 For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
A broken and a [a]contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
Trust in Him with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.
We often try to manipulate God. Bend His will to our own with good behavior, religious activity, bargaining; I’ll do this if you’ll do that.
The next lesson for gaining God’s approval is to know and stand on God’s Word.