Scripture Reading : Judges 11 : 29-39

Scripture Reading : Judges 11 : 29-39

Purushamedha/Yajna:   Sacrifice as act of  deconstructing God's willingness to save people.

Introduction:

When my father was one month year old , he was very sick and my grandparents have no hope about my father will be alive. But my grand mother, she had suffered a lot, she was always taking my father on her lap because my father's head was continuously bleeding . This time was very unbearable pain for my grandparents especially my grandmother. One day she took my father to Church and She prayed to God, " If you heal my son I will give you " .  After two months my father' head was slowly stop bleeding and he was heal. In the year 1969 when my father got a job (Head Master) my grandfather was so happy but my grandmother was not. She had made a vow like Jepthah's to the Lord. Finally she told my father about her vow. My father also  agree to sacrifice his job like Jepthah's daughter. My father he left his job and join Theological College in the year of 1970 , in Jonsen  Theological College , Kotpad in Odisha.   This was told by my grand mother , she is no more but I am thankful to God. This event is closely near in the Jepthah's daughter . Based on this my father life experience  I would like to entitle my Sermon is  Purushamedha Yajna: Sacriice as act of  deconstructing God's willingness to save people.

Context:

The book of Judges was written between 1051 B.C. and 1004 B.C., after Saul become king but therefore David had captured Jerusalem. Given its emphasis on the importance of righteous leadership and its traditionally close association with Ruth, it was likely composed very early during David's reign.

It has been seen as an apologetic for Israel's monarchy, an explanation for Israel's failure to experience abundant blessing in the land, a polemic against pre-monarchical idolatry, etc. The consequences of that idolatry, however, were not limited to Israel's political misfortunes. Yahweh and the people on the problem of pardon for sin and confession of sin, where the confession does not seem to be enough for pardon : it is necessary to eliminate the strange gods and their cult. The people oppressed by their enemies, they cry out to the Lord who raises up a judge for them. This does not happen to them. The Lord refuses to raise up a judge for Israel and only grows impatient at the end, through without raising up anyone. Israel's sin lay in serving the Baals , the Ashtaroth and the foreign gods; their cry to Yahweh is not only a cry from oppression but leads directly into an acknowledgment of sin, and it is to this that Yahweh responds in indignation.

Background :

The modification in our understanding of the nature of the early monarchy conforms perfectly with the picture of the essential nature of the tribal society which here emerge: it is an independent social structure . A hierarchical structure, such as the monarchy state requires , means a complete break with the social , political, and economic   principle on which tribal society based. In Jephthah there is also a leader who, at the head of his military band, supplied a precedent for later effort to forge Israel into a single monarchic state.

It was strictly hierarchical with a clear distinction between  rule and ruled. The king, with the nobles and professional soldiers, was supported by taxes levied on an increasingly impoverished subject population, whose alternative to severe impositions were either slavery or rejection of the system. This was a system whose gradual decline had clear economic causes but which nevertheless preserved until well into the Israel period. The role of kinship in these societies is a secondary or considerably weakened. Positions of influence and authority would be filled by the king from family, while basic to the rural village community was the individual family. Religion was both polytheistic and thoroughly anthropomorphic in its mythological expression. The Israel lived in tribal societies free from the power of a centralized government and yet subject to threats of anarchy and extinction.

Sacrifice has been one of the central events in all religion. Sacrifice is the tokens of praise and present to God. Burnt offering  a sacrifice was totally burnt. It means "that which goes up (in smoke)". In this read passage sacrifice is honouring of Yahweh also meant acts of sacrifice involving human beings. The offering of sacrifice was understood as a human response to God's summons. It also as act of deconstructing God's willingness to save people.

 On the basis of this theme , Firstly...

1. Sacrifice as Gift  (29-33 VV)

A Gileadite mighty warrior Jephthah, being born of a prostitute (Sex worker). He had been rejected by his sibling not any family shame or humiliation but with the existence of temple prostitutes (Sex-workers) and polygamy it would be fairly common for children of different mother to be in the same household. He does not receive any divine call at a single moment.  During a conflict between his family members and the Ammonites, he crosses over into Ammonite territory and makes a vow to Yahweh. His making of the vow is an act of unfaithfulness. Jephthah desires to bind God rather than embrace the gift of the Spirit.  It is clear that Jephthah's vow is accepted by Yahweh, because he defeats the Ammonites in a "very great slaughter", but to fulfil his promise when his only daughter emerges from his house to greet him.

The first words of Judges (11:29 ) "the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah ," as it describe his victorious over the Ammonites. Yet verse (11: 30) says " And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord." This raises the question of whether the Spirit led Jephthah to make the vow. The text does not explicitly say that the Spirit prompted Jephthah's vow. In fact, throughout Judges , it is evident that the empowering of the Spirit not prevent one from making foolish and sinful decisions. The Hebrew word hayywotse esher to mean "whoever" or " whatever", and indeed the participle is used elsewhere of both inanimate objects (Num.21:13;32:24) and persons (Jer 5:6;21:9). Likewise, the infinitive liqrathi  mean "to meet" can refer to both animal and people(Judg. 14:5; Job. 39:21). Yet when liqrathi and hayyotse are used together, the phase always refers to persons. This vow as rash, manipulative, self-interest or faithless.  

Jephthah thus takes a risk of vow; few people apart from his daughter and possibly his wife could have come out from his house to meet him. His vow begins with pressuring language ; If you will give..., it's may suggest that Jephthah is pushing the bargaining mode of discourse to its limit. The chosen savior, endowed with the spirit of Yahweh, is nevertheless unsure of divine help and insecure about his future among those who had once rejected him. Therefore , he implores the deity, If you will give...,this means his words is doubt, not faith; it is control , not courage.

 In Verse 32-33 . The Spirit of Yahweh is a gift to Jephthah what he wanted in the way he wanted it. The idea of gift prompts those sacrifice made in time of great adversity or frustration and also of profound hope. Life is above all a gift, whether in the midst of abundance or in difficulties.  To be led by the Spirit is always to be led into activity and into the battle for God. Whatever our strength and weakness, the secret of our usefulness is our availability to our God. Jephthah was a mighty warrior . Because of his tragic family life, he had become strong to survive.  Burnt offering , The word olah means "an actual sacrifice literally burnt on an altar. The Lord gave Israel a stunning victory a stunning over Ammon, and the Israel was able to capture twenty cities. These included Aroer, at Reuben's southern border just north of the Arnon, and Abel -Keramim .

One day of my Childhood when I was taking bath with my friends in a pond, while I was taking bath unknowingly went into the deep in the pond. And I was about to drowned and there is no hope to live. Just I raised my hand up and cry to God, “If I die , send my dead body to my home, if not then give me life”. At that movement God heard my cry and miraculously saved me through an unknown friend. I was not favour with my parents and relative because I was not good person, not good in education and other things, they looked me like a destroyer of all things, even my schoolmates and friends were was rejected me like Jephthah was rejected by his family and tribes .

Today we as a Called out community  also doing   same ,  we may be strong in  one side but other side what we are? Jephthah had been rejected by people but accepted by God. The God delight to do that. We would have seen that God could use in Jephthah , an illegitimate outcast with violence and survival. But the God took him into his agent. No one is so "worthless " that God cannot use him or her for his glory! Our past may not be dishonourable as Jephthah nor our gifts so unusual, but the God who used Jephthah will use us as we trust Him. God uses the least that have been rejected one. We as a called out community how much we are care for the people who were born like Jephthas, how much we concern about them. Jesus also rejected by His own people, we may also be rejected by the family, church, and society but God has chosen weak and least in the world to shame the strong. (1Cor.1:27). We despair of our own usefulness before the Lord because of fame, money, position, power. We put so much value in the impressive things of the world. Consequently, we end up trusting things and  missing the blessing of the Lord. In this sense Jephthah is a stunning rebuke to all who complain or make excuses for lack of service or who fail to look to the Lord in sheer, unadulterated dependence.

2. Sacrifice as Communion: (34-39b)

Verse 34.                                                                                                                                      

Jephthas victory over the Ammonites leads him predictably to the threshold of his own home:"Jephthah came to Mizpah, to his home" (11:34a) this statement recalls Jephthah 's vow , and so it evokes anticipation, even anxiety. Just at that moment  his daughter came to meet him with timbrels (tuppim) and dancing (meholot). Jephthah's daughter came through the door in true Israelite fashion to acknowledge the victor. But the joy of victory was short-lived for Japhthah.  His daughter is his sacrifice ; she must die for his unfaithfulness. She comes alone, and no words of a song appear on her lips. She was his only child, besides her he had neither son nor daughter. The daughter of the mighty warrior Japhthah is nameless. Her father is of illegitimate birth; her mother is never mentioned; her grandmother was a harlot(Sex-worker) and her grandfather cannot be identified . So the girl emerges as an isolated figure in the tradition of Israel as well as in this particular passage. With timbrels and with dances it appears to have been an ancient custom for women to go forth to meet returning conquerors with musical instruments, songs, and dances.

Verse 35- The joy of the victory was suddenly turned to sorrow when Jephthah saw his daughter and remembered his vow. When he saw her, he tore his cloths...It is a gesture of despair , grief, and mourning. He mourns for himself , not for  his daughter. He cries "Alas, My daughter..." the word "alas" is an expression of pain . It is same as crying "Oh".  You have brought me very low (hakraa hikrateni) it's  for purpose of religious reverence, or from feebleness and exhaustion, especially when overcome in battle. You have become the cause of great trouble to me... She had innocently and involuntarily become a source of unspeakable distress to him. Her joy alone has changed the day, and lost the comfort of that victory which she enjoyed to see won. His exultation was changed to humiliation and grief. His daughter had done to him what Ammonites could not.  Faithfulness to an unfaithful vow has condemned its victim; father and daughter are split apart in deed and destiny.   

Verse 36- My father, if you have open your mouth..., do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth..., this is a bitter and terrible cry broke out from her mouth  as well as her father. This is also model of adoption. Her generous self-devotion , therefore is still entitle to our highest commendation.

Verse 37- I may go and wander, on the mountain and bewail my virginity, my companions and I ..., She is righteous , She is noble . An oath has been given to God and she will do her duty. She goes into the mountains for a time, her garden of Gethsemane, and bewail the bitter cup of her virginity. She want to live , to experience life. But she bends her will . The daughter of Jephthah obeyed the will  of the Lord Almighty , the one who kills and makes alive, the one who wounds and heals (Deut. 32:29). This is the time used for slacking, relaxing, losing one's hold upon any things. Bewail my virginity , To a woman of Israel child bearing was everything . Yet for her this was to be denied .

Verse 38-39.

The mountains as a solitary place. She crying the loss of opportunity to bear children, she is showing that she takes such communal responsibility seriously. She might have two months to prepare herself for her new vocation and to get herself for her new vocation and to get herself for her new calling, to bewail the fact that she would never be a mother.

In this passage we can see two different ways for sacrifice. The first one is that Jephthah offered his daughter as a human sacrifice or second one is that He offered his daughter as a living sacrifice. "To present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship". (Rom. 12:1). Jephtha's daughter as not only having value of atonement but foreshadowing the crucifixion of Jesus. Sacrifice is in places like this that the economic readjustments are imposed and they do not give life but take it away from the poorest sectors. This is where injustice is administered under the pretext that economic practice has nothing to do with social justice but is meant to generate wealth. To confront this dominant scheme is to make a sacrifice. To affirm life we have to offer life like Jephthas's daughter. What St. Paul wrote to the Romans is consistent with the words of Jesus:...unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.(Jh.12:24).

A child is born out of wedlock and deceit resulting in rejection by his father's family. This occurs everyday in modern society. Growing up the son of a prostitute would not be an easy life. The probability that this child would grow up experiencing such things as a lack of food, shelter, love, and guidance far outweighs the possibility of anything else. This man, unsure of his identity , struggling to simply survive , is suddenly approached with the opportunity of acceptance , power , and financial prosperity.

Theological Reflection:

The sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter is the story of a father who gives up his only child for the sake of the people Israel. Does not her story call us to Christ? Does not sacrifice of this daughter remind us of the sacrifice of God's Son? Does not her self-sacrifice  tell us  of the sacrifice of our parents. A father sacrifices his only child for the sake of the people and for the sake of a promise. The child obeys willingly, but laments the duty. Are not Jephthah and his daughter closer to Jesus . In the Christ , this sacrifice of daughter by father is taken up, assumed by the flesh , recapitulated , communicated to divinity. The communion experienced cannot exclude God. When the community comes together, whether to celebrate a joy or share a sorrow, God is invisibly present. Human sacrifice is never accepted to God. It is condemned throughout the Old Testament ( Leviticus 18:21, 20:2-5; Deuteronomy 12:13, 18:10; Exodus 20:13). The relationship between God and the Israelites  seems to be much like that of a parent who continually has to rescue his child from her own wrong doing.

Conclusion:

Jephthah's actions  and his daughter sacrifice should speak to us today. We should also be a people of our word. When we tell someone we will do something , we should do it. When we tell someone we will be somewhere at a given time, we should be there. Jephthah's daughter advanced God's reign because in her youth and innocence , she showed us how much we need Jesus. In the same way, child victims of exploitation are never "just" victim. Their lives and deaths are never in vain so long as there are friends who will acknowledge them, be changed by their memories, and use their lives point to our desperate need for hope in Christ. This is the truth of the reign of God expressed in flesh and blood, that God has chosen the weakest, the lowest, and the most despised to reveal Godself , to show divine power.

We are called to develop an intimate and wonderful relationship with God. Our relationship must be constant and not conditional . We must be close to God both during our good and bad times of our lives. In looking at the life of Jephthah , we can see how human nature works . Jephthah was an unwanted man in his family and the entire community . We must have a close relationship with God to the point that God is the center of our lives.

I would like to  conclude my sermon with this quotation  said by a famous person Kyndall Rae  " Lament is one of the ways you refuse to give up on justice... Lament is a form of radical honesty that entrusts our woundedness  and the world's brokenness to a God we expect to listen and Care.