HEB 11:32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about
Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets

This week at the side room, the various supporting leaders arrived early, and we were talking about the latest developments in the Singaporean church scene. I told Dr Tong that the newspaper reported that a certain church has a fountain that cost more than half a million Singaporean dollars. Dr Tong quickly said that this is nothing, because his frequent travels meant that he spent millions just for airport tax. He followed up quickly by saying that the only difference is that his is in Indonesian rupiah... ha ha. The contrast between the Tong ministry and other high-powered ministries cannot be more stark. In the Tong ministry, the main drive is to save money, so much so that Dr Tong would choose to travel for a few more inconvenient hours(taking a longer flight, transiting at odd locations, etc) just to save a few hundred dollars. While in Singapore for the Hebrews expository preaching, he does not even stay in a hotel, choosing to stay in a room at the Pathseeker with a comfort level that surely cannot match a hotel, again primarily to save cost.

This week's lesson started with Dr Tong reading the various passages from Judges 11. Usually, Dr Tong expects the audience to have a good grasp of the Old Testament and does not read from it at length, but Jephthah was not too well-known, so he took some time to read the relevant passages. Dr Tong said that among all the judges, Jephthah had the hardest life, and the most difficult circumstances.

Jephthah's father was named Gilead, the same name as the place of his birth. His father had a wife and sons, but had an illicit relationship with a prostitute, resulting in the birth of Jephthah. Although this was a great humiliation, Gilead was a responsible man in that he brought Jephthah home to raise him. This created alot of domestic problems of course. Although Gilead had fulfilled a certain portion of his responsibility, his wife and other sons would never have accepted Jephthah, and one can imagine the amount of problems Jephthah had to go through while growing up.

Jephthah's other half-brothers drove him away, possibly because Gilead their father had died, and they had other relatives to support them (possibly the elders of Gilead). Jephthah fled, but his fleeing was possibly not due to fear, but due to tolerance, since verse 1 already declared him to be a mighty warrior. This means that he could fight off his brothers easily, but he chose not to do so. The fact that other robbers joined him further testified to his leadership qualities.

Dr Tong said that this background of Jephthah caused him to think about several important issues relating to social status and interpersonal relationship:

1. When a person is born of a bad background, from parents of ill repute, does he still have basic human rights?
2. What is the effect of one's background on one's life?
3. How should a society treat such people?
4. When and how does a person turn towards evil?
Why do good families produce bad children, and vice versa? Can we forgive people who commit suicide because they were born and raised in adverse situations? What about those that murder others because they were brought up badly?

Jephthah could have been the leader of a gang of robbers, and could have turned evil easily when he was chased out of his home. But that was not the will of God. Dr Tong reminded all that we ought not to think narrowly about others and judge them by their circumstances. When Jesus Christ encountered the blind man in John 9:1, the Bible says that Jesus saw a man who was born blind. Dr Tong emphasized that Christ first saw a man, and then his physical defects; while the rest of us would see a blind man, focusing on other's physical or emotional problems immediately. We need to see beyond the physical or emotional, and into the basic humanity, as all are made in the image of God.

Dr Tong said that it is important for us to understand ourselves in the light of us being made in the image of God, and therefore know how to love ourselves first before we could love others. He affirmed that Biblical order cannot possibly be wrong, in that the Bible tells us to love others as we love ourselves; in other words, we must first love ourselves before we can love others. A murderer kills not because he hates others, but because he hates himself.

There are 4 types of human responses:
1. Everyone else is OK except me
2. Everyone else is NOT OK except me
3. Everyone else is OK, so am I
4. Everyone else is NOT OK, I am also not OK

In case 1, the person has serious inferiority complex. In case 2, the person has serious ego problems and wants to take the place of God. In case 3, there is no accountability to the truth. In case 4, one can be so pessimistic about everything that suicide-murder could be the result. No one can escape from these forms of behaviour. Jephthah's case was especially bad in that he was the son of a prostitute, so how could he find strength to rise above that?

We need to note what Jesus Christ said in the case of the blind person. The disciples asked if it was the blind man's sins or his parents' that caused him to suffer, as if there were only two possibilities. Christ answered that it was neither, but that the glory of God may be displayed in his life (John 9:3). Dr Tong said that this is the best answer possible, for it affirmed that a human being is valuable in itself, and that the strength of God can be manifested in our weakness. When a person is able to breakthrough his physical or circumstantial difficulties, he would be able to see the glory of God.

The experiences of Jephthah showed that sometimes, the LORD allows for a person to go through great humiliation and difficulties before allowing great things to happen. God intervenes in the midst of our difficulties and gives us breakthrough. In the midst of Jephthah's exile, the Ammonites assaulted the Israelites, causing the elders of Gilead to go seek for Jephthah's protection and leadership. These elders were hypocritical and Jephthah knew that, and questioned them. Only when they asked the LORD to be their witness did Jephthah agreed.

Here, Jephthah displayed his greatness in that he did not mind his previous humiliation and was willing to help his own people. He also honoured the LORD, and based his judgment on whether the LORD was the witness. He was able to transcend his past humiliation, his background, his poor social status, and rise to the occasion by relying on the LORD. Dr Tong emphasized that one should not be bothered by past failures, past humiliation, past difficulties, but should look actively forward to the LORD for new grace. The son of a prostitute became the saviour of his nation.

Jephthah was also a man of strategy, in that he went into action by first sending a messenger to negotiate with the Ammonites. He had a level head and had wisdom. Dr Tong said one needs both wisdom and courage, like Jephthah. One without another would be disastrous. The balance is difficult to maintain. Dr Tong illustrated this by telling a humourous story of how he once taught 800 odd young delinquents in a prison. These people were intelligent, but had no wisdom. He preached to the young people by first telling them that they must be intelligent. He was intelligent as well, but the difference is that their intelligence brought them to prison, while his did not. He got all of them to understand that all are sinners, from the prison guard to the prisoners. Dr Tong reminded all that the only way we can really reach others is to be like them and understand them truly.

During the negotiation, we can see also that Jephthah was a person who studied history, and pointed out that the Israelites had the land for more than 300 years. Again, he displayed his greatness in faith by concluding that the LORD would be the final judge (Judges 11:27) over the dispute. He knew what was just. The just cause is so important that by ignoring it, the USA lost the war in Vietnam. Dr Tong affirmed that the power of the mind is greater than the power of the tongue, which in turn is greater than the power of the fist.

The last portion was in relation with the difficult passage on the burnt offering of Jephthah, who vowed that anything that came out of his home first would be offered as a burnt offering to the LORD. The difficulty was that his only daughter was the person that came out. Many Bible commentaries said that Jephthah's daughter remained a virgin for the rest of her life, rather actually being offered up as burnt offering (which would have required her to be slaughtered first, and then burnt) since it would have been inconceivable that God wanted a human sacrifice. Dr Tong however, believes that Jephthah did sacrifice his daughter, based on the strength of the last verse (11:40), for if the daughter simply remained a virgin, there would be nothing to mourn about (since there must be many women who remained virgins as well in any generation). There is a third explanation is that some people like Handel believed that an Abraham-Isaac like solution occurred, but there is no biblical basis to this, and again, it would not answer verse 40 if the daughter did survive.

Dr Tong observed that:
1. The Judges is a book of historical records. The fact that Jephthah offered his daughter up did not indicate acceptance by God; simply that he did it. This is the same as Samson having performed a suicide-murder; it is a historical fact, but this did not mean that God was pleased with it.
2. Jephthah lived in an era without prophets, without men of law, without kings. He was surrounded by pagan beliefs and practices, and so must have been influenced by their practices, and so made a vow similar to what the pagans must have done routinely, without realising his great mistake.

Jephthah's daughter's obedience validated his success as a father in educating his daughter. Again, this indicates that one should not despise someone from a humble beginning, for the son of a prostitute was able to bring up a daughter who understood the importance of a vow to the LORD, and honoured that vow as well (although she could have easily found many other excuses to escape).

Dr Tong affirmed that Jephthah's example shows us that it is entirely possible for one to want to offer great things to the LORD, but offer it based on the wrong understanding of doctrine. Without a correct understanding of the truth of God, one could be fervent about the wrong things, and giving alot to the wrong cause.

The session closed with Dr Tong calling on all to forget their past failures and humiliation, and strain forward in faith towards God's grace and goodness.

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Disclaimer: This summary does NOT represent the official position of STEMI (Stephen Tong Evangelistic Ministry International), and is the personal opinion of the author, expressed without prejudice. Expressed opinions are meant for academic discussions only.