Foxhole Faith | Judges 10:1-12:15

Introduction

They say there are no atheists in a foxhole. Of course, atheists take that literally and feel the need to prove it wrong. So someone created the “Atheist in Foxhole Award” for atheists in the military.

But the point of any generalization is to state a general truth. And the saying about atheists in foxholes observes that distressing circumstances cause many people who were content to ignore God suddenly to cry out to God for relief. “Make it stop” is the instinctive human response to misery. In the proverbial foxhole, that becomes a prayer: “I’ll do anything if you get me out alive.”

But the thing about foxhole faith is that it’s often insincere. It’s not always or necessarily insincere. David prays, “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes” (Psalm 119:71).

But people in distress are prone to promise all kinds of things to make the pain stop, only to renege on those promises as soon as the pressure is gone. That’s what I mean by foxhole faith—the kind of faith that starts and ends in the foxhole. The kind of faith that only looks to God for relief when the heat is turned up, but forsakes God as soon as the heat is gone.

That’s the pattern on repeat in the Book of Judges. The people provoked the LORD to anger with their idolatry (2:11–13). The LORD handed them over to their enemies who oppressed them (2:14). “In terrible distress” (2:14), the people would cry out to the LORD. The LORD would be moved to pity (2:18) and raise up judges who saved them (2:16). “But whenever the judge died, they turned back …. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways” (Judges 2:19).

At this particular moment in our country, it does seem like tens of millions of people are distressed by all kinds of trends, from economic pressures to sexual perversion. But being distressed by the distressing consequences of our collective choices is not the same thing as being converted. You don’t have to be born again to not like the effect of bad policies. What people in America need today is the gospel of Jesus Christ and true conversion, lasting and sincere repentance from sin and lasting and genuine faith in God.

Do you have foxhole faith or lasting faith that patiently endures the peaks and valleys of life? Let’s go to God’s Word. We’ll cover all of Judges 10–12, but I’m going to read portions of 10 and 11.

Judges 10:6–11:11, 11:29–40

6 The people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. And they forsook the Lord and did not serve him. 7 So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the Ammonites, 8 and they crushed and oppressed the people of Israel that year. For eighteen years they oppressed all the people of Israel who were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead. 9 And the Ammonites crossed the Jordan to fight also against Judah and against Benjamin and against the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was severely distressed. 10 And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, saying, “We have sinned against you, because we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals.” 11 And the Lord said to the people of Israel, “Did I not save you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites and from the Philistines? 12 The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you, and you cried out to me, and I saved you out of their hand. 13 Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will save you no more. 14 Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress.” 15 And the people of Israel said to the Lord, “We have sinned; do to us whatever seems good to you. Only please deliver us this day.” 16 So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord, and he became impatient over the misery of Israel. 

17 Then the Ammonites were called to arms, and they encamped in Gilead. And the people of Israel came together, and they encamped at Mizpah. 18 And the people, the leaders of Gilead, said one to another, “Who is the man who will begin to fight against the Ammonites? He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”

11:1 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute. Gilead was the father of Jephthah. 2 And Gilead’s wife also bore him sons. And when his wife’s sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, “You shall not have an inheritance in our father’s house, for you are the son of another woman.” 3 Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob, and worthless fellows collected around Jephthah and went out with him. 

4 After a time the Ammonites made war against Israel. 5 And when the Ammonites made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah from the land of Tob. 6 And they said to Jephthah, “Come and be our leader, that we may fight against the Ammonites.” 7 But Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Did you not hate me and drive me out of my father’s house? Why have you come to me now when you are in distress?” 8 And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “That is why we have turned to you now, that you may go with us and fight against the Ammonites and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.” 9 Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you bring me home again to fight against the Ammonites, and the Lord gives them over to me, I will be your head.” 10 And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The Lord will be witness between us, if we do not do as you say.” 11 So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and leader over them. And Jephthah spoke all his words before the Lord at Mizpah. 

…

29 Then the Spirit of the Lord was upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh and passed on to Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed on to the Ammonites. 30 And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, 31 then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the Lord’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.” 32 So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the Lord gave them into his hand. 33 And he struck them from Aroer to the neighborhood of Minnith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel-keramim, with a great blow. So the Ammonites were subdued before the people of Israel. 

34 Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah. And behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. She was his only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter. 35 And as soon as he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you have become the cause of great trouble to me. For I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot take back my vow.” 36 And she said to him, “My father, you have opened your mouth to the Lord; do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, now that the Lord has avenged you on your enemies, on the Ammonites.” 37 So she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: leave me alone two months, that I may go up and down on the mountains and weep for my virginity, I and my companions.” 38 So he said, “Go.” Then he sent her away for two months, and she departed, she and her companions, and wept for her virginity on the mountains. 39 And at the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow that he had made. She had never known a man, and it became a custom in Israel 40 that the daughters of Israel went year by year to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year.

Lasting Faith

If you’re not familiar with the story of Jephthah, you’re probably thinking, “What just happened?” And if you are familiar, you probably think that every time you read it. Let’s see if we can make some sense of this mess with the Spirit’s help.

The first thing I want you to see is that the story of Jephthah is full of examples of foxhole faith. It’s on display at every level—nationally, locally, and individually.

Judges 10:6 begins with that now-familiar line, “The people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.” Only this time, things are worse than they’ve ever been: They “served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. And they forsook the LORD and did not serve him.” The gods of seven nations are listed, indicating full and complete apostasy. They are worshiping any and every god they can find, except the LORD.

And once again, “The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them” into the hands of their enemies—this time the Philistines to the west and the Ammonites to the east, “and they crushed and oppressed the people of Israel that year” and for eighteen years (10:7–8). The result was that “Israel was severely distressed” (10:9). And what do distressed people do? “The people of Israel cried out to the Lord, saying, ‘We have sinned against you’” (10:10).

Up to this point, the pattern in Judges is that when Israel cries out to the LORD, the LORD raises up a deliverer. But not this time. This time, God’s response is jarring: “I will save you no more. Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress” (10:13–14). God is patient and longsuffering and merciful, but he is not fooled by false repentance or foxhole faith. If you prefer other gods when life is easy, then rely on those gods when life is hard.

Foxhole faith is also evident in the people of Gilead, a region on the far side of the Jordan River. When the enemy encamps against them, the leaders of Gilead ask each other, “Who is the man who will begin to fight against the Ammonites? He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead” (10:18). They are so desperate for deliverance that they are ready to pledge their subservience and allegiance to the first strongman who will step up and save them. When no deliverer emerges, the leaders of Gilead send for Jephthah (11:5). He was a mighty warrior (11:10), but a kind of outlaw who led a band of men who had nothing to lose (11:3). The irony is that the leaders of Gilead once despised and rejected Jephthah because he was the son of a prostitute (11:1–2). Jephthah was skeptical and said, “Did you not hate me and drive me out of my father’s house? Why have you come to me now when you are in distress?” (v. 7). Jephthah can tell this is a foxhole situation, and the leaders of Gilead don’t deny it:  “That is why we have turned to you now, that you may go with us and fight against the Ammonites and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead” (Judges 11:8).

Later, this attitude seems to be evident even in Jephthah himself. Verse 29 says the Spirit of the LORD was upon Jephthah and he mustered his troops. We expect the narrative to move straight to the action—to the details of the battle. Instead, 11:30–31 says, “And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD and said, ‘If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the LORD’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.’” Jephthah was already empowered by the Holy Spirit and his victory was assured. Therefore, his vow seems unnecessary, except as an expression of bargaining with the LORD: I’ll give you anything if you will bring me back alive.

To be clear, it’s not wrong to cry out to the LORD in distress and trouble. It is wrong to only cry out to the Lord in trouble and forget him otherwise. He is God at all times.

In this story, fleeting foxhole faith is set against the backdrop of the everlasting God. He is the God of the present, God of the past, and God of the future.

Lasting faith is the only right response to the everlasting God. And that is the antidote to foxhole faith. How can you persevere in genuine faith throughout all your days? By submitting to and relying on the God who holds the past, present, and future.

He Is the God of the Present

God is always sovereign over present circumstances. The story of Jephthah is bookended (purposefully) by two short lists of secondary judges. Chapter 10 begins by briefly mentioning two of them: Tola and Jair.

“And [Tola] judged Israel twenty-three years. Then he died and was buried at Shamir. After him arose Jair the Gileadite, who judged Israel twenty-two years” (Judges 10:2–3).

Chapter 12 ends with Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon, who judged for seven, ten, and eight years respectively (12:8–14). To us, the length of their administrations reads like trivia. But to those men and the people who lived in those days, those years and months and days were not trivial; they were as real and meaningful as this day. And though the details are left out, God was present there in those days and considered it worth mentioning.

God is also present with his people in their affliction and sovereign over the duration of their judgment. Judges 10:8 says, “And they crushed and oppressed the people of Israel that year. For eighteen years they oppressed all the people of Israel who were beyond the Jordan ….”

In response to Israel’s abysmal apostasy, God said, “You have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will save you no more.” (Judges 10:13). However, God does save Israel yet again. Judges 11:29, 32–33 says, “Then the Spirit of the LORD was upon Jephthah …. So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the LORD gave them into his hand. And he [i.e., the LORD] struck them … with a great blow.” 

How are we to understand this apparent contradiction? James B. Jordan writes, “God’s threats and promises of wrath are always to be taken in a covenantal context of human sin, and God can and does ‘change His mind’ when He grants repentance and salvation to men.” That is, God’s threats are not idle threats. They are true statements of what will indeed happen if people persist in their sin. But the fact that God deals covenantally with people means that God is present in the present, observing how people respond to him and acting accordingly.

Judges 10:16 is key: “So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the LORD, and he became impatient over the misery of Israel.” The NRSV says, “He could no longer bear to see Israel suffer.” God is not aloof and far removed from his people and their afflictions. He is so near and so aware that He himself is affected. And there comes a point when God can take it no more.

The infinite and omnipotent God is not limited by anyone or anything besides his own nature. Because God is truth, he cannot lie. Because God is good, he cannot do evil. And because God is merciful, he cannot let the objects of his covenant faithfulness suffer indefinitely. The length of your affliction is limited because of the character of God.

Notice the text does not say that it was Israel’s repentance that moved God to act. It says that God became impatient over their misery. You must never think that God saves you because of your commitment to change, your sincerity, your resolution to clean up your own life. God saves because of his compassion and mercy and not because of your piety.

Knowing that God is with you always and that he sovereignly limits all your afflictions gives hope. N. D. Wilson gives this great illustration in Death by Living. Athletes can push their bodies to new limits with the presence of a good coach shouting, “Only two more laps! Finish strong!” Imagine running until your lungs burn and your legs are like rubber and the coach shouts, “Keep going! It will never end!” 

What we really need in the midst of suffering is knowing that there is a finish line. Without that hope, we would all quit. Without that hope, life would be hell. 

If you are in Christ, then God is always present with you in all your suffering. And there is a limit to how much he can take.

He Is the God of the Past

The story of Jephthah underscores the fact that history matters. More specifically, what matters is acknowledging the God of history and living today in light of his redemptive work in history.

When Israel cried out to God in their distress, the LORD answered with a bullet point summary of his work on their behalf in history: “And the LORD said to the people of Israel, “Did I not [in the past] save you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites and from the Philistines? The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you, and you cried out to me, and I saved you out of their hand” (Judges 10:11–12).

Just as the narrator shows the depth of apostasy by listing the gods of seven nations, so God shows the fullness of his past faithfulness by listing seven nations from whom he has already delivered his people. But Israel has failed to respond to God in lasting faith: “Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods” (10:13).

When Jephthah engages in a series of diplomatic back-and-forths with the king of the Ammonites, their exchange centers on the facts of history and their interpretation (11:12–28). When Jephthah asks, “What do you have against me, that you have come to me to fight against my land?” (11:12), the Ammonite king replies with some revisionist history: “Because Israel on coming up from Egypt took away my land …” (Judges 11:13). The Ammonite king is twisting history to claim a right to the land. The enemies of God love to rewrite history, starting when the serpent in the Garden asked Eve, “Did God actually say …?”

Jephthah is impressive in his response. First, Jephthah sets the record straight on history. He is not intimidated by the Ammonite king and refutes him with the facts. The land originally belonged to neither Israel nor Ammon, but to the Amorites (vv. 21, 23). And when God brought Israel out of Egypt, they did not take anyone’s land. What really happened was that Israel asked for permission to pass through the land, but the king of the Amorites responded by attacking Israel. Israel successfully defended itself and found itself in possession of the land.

Next, Jephthah shows that history is to be read theologically. History involves not only the actions of men and nations, but the works of God. “And the LORD, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they defeated them. So Israel took possession of all the land …. So then the LORD, the God of Israel, dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel; and are you to take possession of them?” (Judges 11:21, 23). Yahweh is the Creator of the world and the nations that inhabit it. No one owns the land forever, but God gives it to whomever he wills. So Jephthah suggests a theological solution: “Will you not possess what Chemosh your god gives you to possess? And all that the LORD our God has dispossessed before us, we will possess” (Judges 11:24).

Third, Jephthah reminds the Ammonite king what happened to the last king who tried to oppose Israel. That story is found in Numbers 22–25, where Balak the king of Moab didn’t dare to fight with Israel, but hired a man named Balaam to curse Israel. Every time Balaam opened his mouth, he blessed Israel instead. So Jephthah sends a warning from history: This has been tried before by men better than you and you would do well to learn from their folly.

Finally, Jephthah essentially argues that the statute of limitations has expired. Israel has inhabited this land for 300 years. Why is this the first time we’re hearing your complaint?

Jephthah rests his case: “I therefore have not sinned against you, and you do me wrong by making war on me. The LORD, the Judge, decide this day between the people of Israel and the people of Ammon” (Judges 11:27). Jephthah’s language is moral and judicial, and he makes his appeal to God the Judge. You see, history is not neutral. The actions of nations can be either moral or immoral, just or unjust. And getting history right matters because moral claims are grounded in the account and interpretation of history.

God is the God of history, as Paul says in Acts 17: “And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God …” (Acts 17:26–27). Lasting faith is the result of remembering God’s sovereignty over history.  

He Is the God of the Future

I think this is the main point of the scene involving Jephthah’s daughter. This is a troubling scene, and the question commentators debate is whether or not Jephthah literally sacrificed his daughter. The most widely held view is that he did, and that does seem to me to be the most straightforward reading. There is another interpretation, however, that maintains that Jephthah devoted his daughter to the Lord through service in the tabernacle where she remained childless. That is certainly the more agreeable position.

But that’s not the main question, and I don’t believe it ultimately affects the point. Either way, Scripture does not condone human sacrifice. God commanded Israel, “You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD.” (Leviticus 18:21). We know from Judges 10 that the people of Israel worshiped foreign gods, which really included child sacrifice, as the prophet Jeremiah describes: “They built the high places of Baal …, to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech, though I did not command them, nor did it enter into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.” (Jeremiah 32:35).

Also, Scripture teaches that vows to commit sin must not be fulfilled. According to the Mosaic Law (Lev 5:4–6), the sin was committed when the vow was made. The way to make it right was not to fulfill the vow, but to confess the sin of making a rash vow, and then bring a sin offering: “a female from the flock, a lamb or a goat.” Jephthah ought to have sacrificed that offering to the Lord, not his daughter.

Certainly the thought that Jephthah sacrificed his daughter is unthinkable, isn’t it? Or is it? We live in what we like to think of as a civilized society—educated, technologically advanced, governed by decent moral order and social norms. Yet in our society—in our own city—there is a culturally acceptable, socially respectable way to sacrifice your child. Until the Dobbs decision in 2022, all you had to do was go to the Planned Parenthood on 41st & Sertoma, or to a reputable medical facility like Sanford Health. Perhaps it shouldn’t be so hard for us to imagine a society that would permit such a thing, so long as it was done in the right place and the right way for the right reasons.

But this story is primarily about the future and who controls it. There is a key phrase repeated by both Jephthah and his daughter. Jephthah declares, “Alas, my daughter! … I have opened my mouth to the LORD” (11:35). And she responds, “My father, you have opened your mouth to the LORD” (v. 36).

Every episode in this story involves Jephthahs’ words. With the leaders of Gilead, he negotiated his way into a position of power. He proved himself a diplomatic negotiator with the king of Ammon.

Barry Webb writes, “Jephthah … is a skillful negotiator; he is good at opening his mouth. What has precipitated the crisis with his daughter is that he has opened his mouth to Yahweh. That is, he has tried to conduct his relationship with God in the same way he has conducted his relationships with men. He has debased religion (a vow, an offering) into a bribe.”

It seems the aim of Jephthah’s vow was to establish the future of his name and his house. However, the effect of Jephthah’s vow was the exact opposite. Whether he literally sacrificed his daughter or devoted her to serve the Lord and remain unmarried, the result was the same: Jephthah had no descendants. The narrator camps out on the daughter’s lament, which is focused on the fact that she would never marry and bear children (11:37, 38).

I referred earlier to the intentional position of Jephthah between several judges whose stories are not elaborated. One of the most striking details is how many children they had compared to Jephthah. Jair “had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys, and they had thirty cities” (10:4). Ibzan “had thirty sons, and thirty daughters he gave in marriage outside his clan, and thirty daughters he brought in from outside for his sons” (12:9). And Abdon “had forty sons and thirty grandsons” (12:14). But Jephthah’s tragic childlessness is highlighted through redundancy in 11:34, which literally says, “Now [there was] only she, an only [child]; he had no one else, neither son nor daughter.”

Jephthah saw an opportunity to make a name for himself, but God had other plans. God alone controls the future, no matter what man does. And one day God would provide a King to sit on the throne forever, but it would be the King of God’s own choosing.

Conclusion

Like Jephthah, he would be one “despised and rejected by men” (Isa 53:3). And like Jephthah’s daughter, Isaiah 53:8 says, “By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?”

Whether because of zeal, folly, ignorance, or all of the above, Jephthah’s victory cost him his only child, which leaves us disturbed. And do we consider it a light thing that our deliverance cost God the life of his one and only Son?

The eternal Son of God willingly offered his life for you—not so you could cry out to him only when you’re in distress—but in order to be your King and Savior forever. Lasting faith is the only right response to the everlasting God. Submit to Jesus and rely on Jesus today, tomorrow, and forever.