Joel M Bradshaw

 30And Jephthah made a vow to the LORDand said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, 31then 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.” 32So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the LORD gave them into his hand. 33And 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.

34Then 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. 35And 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.”–Judges 11

The nations surrounding Israel in Jephthah’s day sought to divine the will of their gods. They made vows that aimed to manipulate outcomes in their favor. To pay for those vows they made massive sacrifices, even sacrificing their own children to get what they wanted.

Jephthah’s vow was rash. He communicated that he didn’t trust the very God who promised the victory. He thus felt that he had to be like every other leader and manipulate a response. Vows with God bring a person into the story where only God’s faithfulness should be.

“God did his part, but I did mine” is a lot more selfish sounding than “I depended upon God and he provided for me.”

In those days, livestock lived in the house with the family. Just like the dogs would be the first one out the door whenever my wife comes home (if we let them), Jephthah expected one of his animals like a cow. Instead it was his only child. What a tragic vow.

And Jephthah actually had a way out of this, had he cared to inquire. While it was a sin to break a vow (Numbers 30:2), God’s law provided for moments like this. Leviticus 27:1-8 would have allowed Jephthah to instead redeem his daughter rashly offered in the vow for a set price. He could have bought her back with coin. Now the rash and tragic became ignorant and stupid.

Vows look for an opportunity to manipulate an outcome with God.

Faith looks for an opportunity to depend upon God in trust.

33“Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ 34But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil. (Jesus in Matthew 5)

Is your heart more like Jephthah’s than you like to think? How quick to do you trust God?–JMB