Jephthah is the new leader in Israel in Judges 11. If this man was on the ballot in 2016 you would not vote for him.

He is the son of a prostitute. He is forced out of Israel. He lives on the margins of society with his gang of outlaws.

He is not educated, moral, or godly.

But he is the man God used to save his people from the Ammonites.

When the leaders of Gilead ask Jephthah to lead them to war, Jephthah accepts the opportunity and defeats the Ammonites. Actually, to be more accurate, the Lord defeated the Ammonites and used this man to accomplish his plan.

However, before he went to battle, Jephthah made a vow to the Lord. He promised that if God would give him the victory he would sacrifice to the Lord whoever came out of his house first as an act of devotion.

When he returned home from battle the first person out of his home was his daughter. His only child.

This was a wicked vow, a horrifice pledge by the leader in Israel.

So why did he do it?

For years, Jephthah traveled throughout the neighboring nations and witnessed pagan religious practices surrounding Israel. One evil practice involved sacrificing your child to your local god as an act of devotion and worship (2 Kings 3.27).

Child sacrifice was a way to gain favor with your god and show loyalty. It was a way to earn his pleasure.

Jephthah did not know the grace of God so he tried to earn God's favor with a sacrifice. The result was the murder of his daughter and the end of his family line. 

The wickedness of Jephthah reflected the sin of the people of Israel. The people continually rejected the Lord and the Lord gave them a wicked leader. To put it simply, they got what they deserved.

There are two lessons here for us:

1. God often allows people to get the ruler they deserve.

As we approach an election, we should pray for our country to return to the Word of God and follow him rather than passing cultural trends or blatant immorality. God calls us to be faithful to him not societal trends.

The names on the ballot may not impress us or motivate us. But they can reveal the character of our nation.

We should pray that our country will honor the Lord and that he will give us leaders to vote for who reflect a nation desiring to know and follow the Triune God as revealed in Scripture.

2. Do you know the God of grace?

Jephthah believed he had to do something to earn God's favor. Consequently, he wickedly sacrificed his daughter to please him.

He did not know the grace of God.

Today, you either know God as a person you have to please or as a person who is pleased with you because of the work of the Son of God on the cross on your behalf.

Scripture teaches that God is pleased with us when we look with the eyes of faith at the work of Christ that was accomplished at the cross 2,000 years ago. It is because of what happened there, in the past, that God is pleased with you. At the cross Christ paid for your sins and satisfied the wrath of God on sin. 

The sacrifice of Jephthah's only child was wicked; the sacrifice of the only Son of God reveals the righteousness and mercy of God towards you.

The Bible tells us to believe the good news of what Christ did for us and to share it in Mt. Pleasant, Charleston, and throughout the Lowcountry.