Judges 10-12

What’s Happening?

Israel is descending deeper and deeper into darkness. Jephthah’s leadership is marked by the ominous silence of God. Israel prays, but God refuses to answer (Judges 10:13). Even though Israel makes a show of shelving their idols, God refuses to raise up a new deliverer (Judges 10:16). Instead, Israel debates among themselves who will lead them (Judges 10:18). They eventually land on the son of a prostitute, Jephthah. Armed with a reputation as a warrior and a bandit (Judges 11:3, 6), Jephthah agrees to defeat the Ammonites in exchange for the right to rule over Israel (Judges 11:9).

Israel agrees and Jephthah immediately proves himself a gifted diplomat and wordsmith. Israel’s enemies, the Ammonites, claim Israel initiated an aggressive takeover of Ammonite land and want it back (Judges 11:13). But full of political savvy, Jephthah diplomatically explains Israel’s innocence (Judges 11:17-18). Cunningly, Jephthah reminds the king of Amnon that it was Israel who was attacked unprovoked and won the land in fair combat (Judges 11:20-21). Jephthah’s words prove Israel is innocent of aggression and rightfully rules the land (Judges 11:27).

But the king of the Ammonites refuses Jephthah’s diplomacy and prepares for war (Judges 11:28). As Jephthah marches toward the battle he tries to manipulate God. He gives God his word that he will offer a costly sacrifice if God gives him victory (Judges 11:30-31). But God remains silent and Jephthah’s words end up coming back to haunt him. Jephthah’s only child is killed because of his foolish “word” to the Lord (Judges 11:35).

Jephthah’s final act as “deliverer” is to spark a civil war with Ephraim and slaughter 42,000 of them (Judges 12:6). As Jephthah dies we see another break in God’s pattern; there is no peace after Jephthah’s deliverance (Judges 12:7).

Where is the Gospel?

God is silent during Jephthah’s rule. Israel has pushed so hard after other gods that God finally gives them what they want—leaders and idols shaped in their own image (Judges 10:13–14). Jephthah’s foolish vow, his manipulative words, and his tragic follow-through become a living portrait of a people abandoned to the silence they created. When Jephthah cries out, heaven does not answer. His words recoil back on him, and Israel reaps the fruit of its own idolatry.

And many of us know something of that silence. When God feels absent, we are tempted—like Jephthah—to bargain, to negotiate, to make promises out of fear. But Jephthah’s story is not the pattern God intends for us. The real pattern is revealed at the cross.

Those who saw Jesus on the cross thought God was silent toward him. When Jesus cried out the words of Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46), the crowd heard abandonment. But Jesus was not quoting despair—he was invoking all of Psalm 22. That Psalm begins in darkness but ends in unshakable confidence that God does not hide his face and will answer the sufferer (Psalm 22:24). Jesus enters the deepest silence, not by God forsaking him, but by him entering the sin and death silence of our fallen humanity.

And God does answer him.

He answers Jesus’ cry when he raises him from the dead. What looked like divine silence becomes divine vindication. What appeared like abandonment becomes enthronement. Jephthah speaks into a void and hears nothing; Jesus speaks into the void and the Father speaks back through resurrection power.

If you want hope in the silence, look to the One to whom God was not silent. The resurrection is proof that God hears the cries of the righteous—and in Jesus, we become the righteous. His answered prayer becomes the guarantee that God will answer ours. His vindication becomes our confidence that silence will not have the last word.

See for Yourself

May the Holy Spirit open your eyes to see the God who sometimes allows silence to expose false hopes. And may you see Jesus—the one whose cry was heard, whose resurrection broke the silence, and whose voice assures you that God will not turn His face away.