A Painful Sacrifice: Jephthah's Vow (Judges 11:29-40)

Judges 11:29–40 ESV

29 Then the Spirit of the Lord was upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh and passed on to Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed on to the Ammonites. 30 And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, 31 then 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.” 32 So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the Lord gave them into his hand. 33 And 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. 34 Then 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. 35 And 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.” 36 And she said to him, “My father, you have opened your mouth to the Lord; do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, now that the Lord has avenged you on your enemies, on the Ammonites.” 37 So she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: leave me alone two months, that I may go up and down on the mountains and weep for my virginity, I and my companions.” 38 So he said, “Go.” Then he sent her away for two months, and she departed, she and her companions, and wept for her virginity on the mountains. 39 And at the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow that he had made. She had never known a man, and it became a custom in Israel 40 that the daughters of Israel went year by year to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year.

*Pray*

Introduction: story of sacrifice

God Anointed Jephthah for His own sake (vv.29-30)

Is Jephthah an Infanticidal Killer, or a Fool?

Killer?

He clearly declares that he will sacrifice WHOMever comes out of his house

יּוֹצֵ֗א - Verb, Qal, Participle, Masculine, Singular, active “what/who goes out”. (vv.31-32)

So what is the sacrifice?

It would have been extremely shocking for the author of Judges to brush over something as serious as human sacrifice. Even Baal worship didn’t require this. It’s culturally and biblically unacceptable to commemorate child sacrifice.

Secondly, the daughter goes to the mountains to mourn her virginity, which is a much different word than “youth” in Hebrew. It doesn’t make sense in the story for her to leave her family during the last months of her life, but it does make sense if she’s never going to leave their household.

The word עֹולָה does not involve the idea of burning, like our word burnt-offering, but simply that of going up upon the altar, or of complete surrender to the Lord. עֹולָה is a whole offering, as distinguished from the other sacrifices, of which only a part was given up to the Lord. When a virgin, therefore, was set apart as a spiritual עֹולָה, it followed, as a matter of course, that henceforth she belonged entirely to the Lord: that is to say, was to remain a virgin for the remainder of her days.1 1 Keil, C. F., & Delitzsch, F. (1996). Commentary on the Old Testament (Vol. 2, pp. 284–285). Peabody, MA: Hendrickson.

Clearly, vows made to God needed to be fulfilled (Num. 30:2)

Was he a fool?

Ecclesiastes 5:2 ESV

2 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.

It would be easy to principalize this passage make it a lesson about wisdom, that is not the point.

Jephthah understood the concept of giving God his best (v.36)

We may see this as a violation of the daughter’s rights, but this is really a story of God and Jephthah (1 Sam. 1:11)

Leaving her unmarried meant the end of his bloodline for God’s sake.

We misunderstand Jephthah because we misunderstand the Gospel.

We tend to principalize the Bible because it’s easy, and we tend to judge others at face value because it’s natural.

Not a religiously motivated killer

Not a fool who stupidly gave up what’s valuable.

A hero of faith (Heb. 11:32)

“He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose”

- Jim Eliot, Oct. 28, 1949.

The Gospel:

Jephthah is a father who gave up what was dearest to him because of a promise, even going so far as to end his bloodline by giving up his only child. So is God.

Jephthah’s daughter obeyed her father, and went up on a mountain to mourn the cost of the vow that she deeply desired for her father to keep. So did Jesus.

Part of the reason the Holy Spirit came upon Jephthah was so he could carry out something that seemed impossible. He still does.

Until you learn to what it cost God to keep his promise to you, you’ll never learn that the value of giving up everything for Christ is far more greater than the cost, and you’ll never experience the fullness of His love.

Questions:

1. What was confusing about this week’s reading?

2. Where do you see the Gospel in this week’s reading?

3. What have you actually given up for God, and what are you willing give up for God?