I remember the first time I read Judges 11, and my initial horror in reading it. I was stunned in fact battling between having read it wrong or misinterpreting because I could not grapple with the ending.
But when I began to ask the right questions, it helped me to understand.
Let’s take it from the top.
Firstly; Jephthah – the vow maker. An illegitimate child, born of a woman of ill repute to which the rest of the family was not accepting of. However, despite the family and people’s determination of his lack of worth and therefore banishes him, the Lord determined how useful and faithful he was. He would be the one that was going to defend Gilead from the children of Ammon that were making their way, aggressively, and settling into Gilead. (Brief overview…barely a synopsis. Please go read Judges Chapter 11.)
Jephthah, after being dragged back to Gilead basically lays it on the line – I fight the Ammonites, you will make me your head. And everyone nods and agrees exuberantly. Jephthah turns to the Ammonites, gives kind of a “You better cool it” warning to which they do not abide.
So, Jephthah, rumble ready, makes a vow to God before the battle.
“Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD’S, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering” (verse 31)
So, two verses later, Jephthah is declared the victor, the Lord having accepted the vow that he’s made. The children of Ammon had been given into his hands. “A great slaughter”, the verse tells us. He’s riding home victorious; and as the door opens,
“behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter.” (verse 34)
His vow to God required his daughter.
His only daughter.
He collapses to his knees, tears his clothes at the realization of what will be his burnt offering. Not just his only daughter – his only child. He laments, cries out to her about the vow he’s made to the Lord.
It’s her response that tells of a faithful and knowledgeable daughter:
“And she said unto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the LORD, do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth; forasmuch as the LORD hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon.” (verse 36).
No crying. No refusal. No questioning. Simply an understanding that what is vowed to the Lord, is owed to the Lord. A woman, young; with her entire life ahead of her is willing to ensure that her father keeps his word to the Lord.
But she makes one request of him – to let her go into the mountains to mourn her virginity.
Jephthah allows her mountain mourning, and for two months she and her companions bewail her virginity. And just as she promised, she returns so that her father can keep his vow to the Lord.
When I first read this, I was a little gut punched and surprised that the burnt offering went through. I was waiting for the Lord to give it a pass. I was waiting for a lesson to be taught to Jephthah, but the story ends so abruptly. I honestly paused and thought, “God wouldn’t.” But then remembered to seek His intention and not my interpretation. So, I start asking the right questions.
Why?
First the vow.
In Numbers 30:2, the conditions of a vow are stated;
“If a man vow a vow unto the LORD, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth”.
Jephthah makes that vow and very obviously intends to keep it. It’s the second instruction he did not adhere to.
“When thou shalt vow a vow unto the LORD thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it: for the LORD thy God will surely require it of thee; and it would be sin in thee”. (Deuteronomy 23:21)
To give oomph to the importance of immediacy, a warning is given in Ecclesiastes 5:4
“When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow.”
Jephthah delayed his payment of vow, and it made me wonder…did Jephthah miss the chance to spare his daughter – could he have given the Lord the chance to save her.
I then examined Jephthah’s own wording of his vow – the first thing to pass through the door. Jephthah didn’t offer his daughter for sacrifice – but he forgot that everything he had, was God’s. Therefore, God could ask for it. His vow was broad, the request specific.
Ecclesiastes 5:2 warns us about being rash with our mouth;
“Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.”
Jephthah offered God anything – presuming it wouldn’t really apply to everything.
But even despite Jephthah being rash in his vow, and the delay of fulfilment; in Hebrews 11:32 he is still counted as faithful.
Then the last question – was the vow even necessary?
Remember when David did the census to count his great army, putting his faith in the strength and number of his men instead of trusting in the Lord to win his battles.
It made me think – did Jephthah trust the Lord in battle? Why did he need to make a vow in the first place? Why didn’t he ask for God’s favour in the battle instead of making a vow? Was it the promise of becoming the head over Gilead against the people who mistreated and banished him influencing him? Was vindication more important?
But while Jephthah is still considered faithful, what about his daughter.
She stands before her father, learning of his vow made to God (while it doesn’t seem to be declared that the vow involved a burnt offering, it can be concluded that she did understand that the vow involved her and her future), and her response isn’t anger, it isn’t tears or betrayal, no refusal, no demand for him to take it back. Instead, her response honours her father, so that he can honour his vow to the Lord.
And essentially, she too makes a promise to her father to return in two months and does – she didn’t delay. She didn’t stay an extra month. She didn’t use the time to run away and hide. In those two months, she didn’t spend anytime coming up with some scheme, nor did she change her mind.
She kept her “vow” and returned in 2 months to let her father fulfill his vow.
Verse 40 states “the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.” (Now before you get too excited and see the word “lament” and start to generate and brew, if I could point you in the direction of what the Hebrew definition means https://blb.sc/00Effd.)
Alright. No vow making from me.
Read your bible. Know the Word.
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