In Judges chapter 11 we have the story of Jephthah and the first thing I want to point
out before we get into the story of Jephthah is that Jephthah is mentioned in the New Testament
very briefly but in Hebrews chapter 11 which is known as the hall of faith where you have
all these great men of faith listed and you go down through the list with Abel down through
Noah and Moses and you know all the big names but at the end he says and what shall I more
say for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Jephthah.
So in the list of guys that he doesn't have time to go through he mentions Jephthah as
being another man who did great things for God by faith.
So even though there are some negative things about Jephthah in the story here we want to
realize that he's still a man who God used greatly, he was a man of faith and the Spirit
of the Lord came upon him.
Now God throughout the Bible uses imperfect people, he uses people that have serious flaws
in their character and truth be told we all have flaws in our character.
Every single one of us is a sinner, there's not a just man upon the earth that doeth good
and sinneth not, the Bible says, there's none righteous, no not one.
Some people's sins are more grievous than others, some people have bigger problems than
others but throughout the Bible we read about people who do some pretty wrong things and
bad things because of the fact that the Bible is about real life.
Now it always cracks me up when I run into somebody out soul winning, maybe he's a Vietnam
veteran or something and he'll come at me with this thing of like you know I saw some
stuff over there and that's why I don't believe in God or that's why I don't believe the Bible.
You know what I'm talking about if you ever run into somebody like that where they've
seen some gnarly things and they lost faith in God.
But you know if you actually know the Bible the gnarlier the things you see in this world
the more you're like wow the Bible really is right on because the Bible's a gnarly book.
Now if the Bible were all sweetness and light and unicorns and rainbows and then you go
over to Vietnam and see that stuff then you'd wonder is the Bible really true because the
Bible is painting this rosy picture of the world and the world is this rough place but
let me tell you something there are some dark things in the Bible because there are some
dark things in our world and the Bible matches reality.
You know over the past few days I put out some videos about Islam and the Quran I was
responding to some things that the Muslims were saying and one of the things that the
Muslims love to point out is the Bible is so bad because you have prophets in the Bible
doing bad things.
You have David committing adultery with Bathsheba and they go down the list of negative things
done by men of God and prophets because their book, the Quran, is such a cheap cardboard
lame story.
It's not even a story, but when it tells a story, it has no storytelling ability.
One of the biggest, most obvious differences between good literature and bad literature
is that good literature has complex characters.
Bad literature is just like the bad guys are just super bad and the good guys do no wrong
and they're just perfect in every way.
It's like a cartoon or something, like a crayon, shredder, you know, I'm thinking of cartoon
characters from my childhood.
They're not very complex of a character, you know, they're just bad.
But in the Bible, even the bad guys will sometimes do good things or the good guys will do bad
things.
But isn't that how real life is?
And when I look at the Bible stories, I'm seeing reality, like I'm connecting this and
making it relevant with experiences that I've had and experiences that I'm going to have.
Whereas the Quran is just junk, you know what I mean?
It doesn't tell real stories about real life and it's really just a boring book.
Now obviously the Bible is more than just a fun read, but it is a fun read, amen?
You know, thank God if we're commanded to read the Bible every day, at least thank God
it's got some great stories, it's got some really complex characters, it's got some things
that really make you think, not just kill the infidel, burn them, everywhere you find
them, you know, it's just like, it's so one dimensional, it's not even good literature,
that's why no one outside Islam studies the Quran, whereas tons of people outside Christianity
study the Bible and consider it just for its literary value alone.
And so this is one of those complex characters, Jephthah, okay, and people with very small
brains that are very simple-minded just want to put everything in a box, well is this guy
good or bad?
Well, he's a good guy, but there's some bad stuff about him and he's a complex character,
so you might have to actually think a little harder, you know, God forbid, but you'd have
to actually analyze the story.
But here's the great thing about it, you could read this story and ten years from now we're
going to still be reading Judges 11 and it'll still be interesting and we'll be gaining
new insights, we'll be looking at it from new angles.
You know, you read the Bible five years from now, it's not going to speak to you exactly
the same as it did five years ago because it's so deep, there's so much to learn, there's
just layer upon layer of meaning.
And that's why we can read the Bible over and over again our whole lives and never get
sick of reading it.
And what a blessing that is.