Jephthah’s story begins in chapter 10, “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. They served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines.” God allows the Ammonites to conquer Israel and make life miserable for them. It helps to know a little something about these gods that may help us understand Jephthah’s vow a bit better.
Baal’s the most powerful of the Canaanite gods. Baal defeated the other gods, such as the god of the sea and the god of storms, and the Canaanites believed he even defeated death. This was repeated each year when he returned from the underworld and brought rain to renew the earth’s fertility. Asherah is Baal’s mistress and was worshiped near trees and poles. Baal worshipers tried to satisfy him by offering sacrifices, usually sheep and bulls. During times of crisis, however, Baal’s followers sacrificed their children, usually the firstborn. Another important god is Chemosh, a war god who demanded child sacrifice. These are the gods Israel’s now worshipping.
Jephthah’s introduced as a mighty warrior, echoing back to the first judge, Othniel, a mighty warrior and faithful follower of God. Jephthah’s father is Gilead but his mother’s a prostitute. His brothers want nothing to do with him and throw him out, echoes now of Abimelek. Jephthah gathers a gang of scoundrels and becomes so good at fighting that the elders of Gilead ask Jephthah to save them from the Ammonites. They ask him to be their commander and tell Jephthah that if they win, they’ll make him head over them all. Jephthah agrees, but makes them repeat this promise at Mizpah before the Lord.
Jephthah’s smart. He realises that diplomacy’s a lot safer than fighting and he sends the Ammonite king a message, asking why they attacked Israel. The reply comes back saying that it used to be the Ammonites’ land 300 years ago and they want it back. Jephthah gives the king a history lesson. Israel never fought Ammon for the land; they stayed out of their land when they were wandering through the desert. But the Amorite King Sihon fought Israel and the Lord gave Israel their land. Jephthah makes this a god-level fight. God gave us the land, he says. If you think the land should be yours, let Chemosh give it back. The king of Ammon ignores Jephthah; the nations aren’t afraid of Israel’s God like they were in the time of Rahab.
“The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah.” God never gives up on Israel and gives Jephthah his Spirit to go up against Israel’s enemies; God remains faithful to his covenant with his people even if his people keep turning back to idols. Jephthah doesn’t quite trust the Lord’s Spirit to stay with him, so he makes a deal with God. “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.” Jephthah tries to buy God’s favour, he doesn’t trust that God’s love is unconditional, he doesn’t trust God’s commitment to his covenants with Israel to be their God with Israel his people. He doesn’t realize that he doesn’t have to buy the Lord’s favour. Israel’s forgotten that God desires a relationship rooted in trust and faith; not in fear or manipulation.
God blesses Jephthah and the Ammonites are chased from Israel back into their own country to lick their wounds and reflect on the power of Israel’s God. There’s no doubt about whose God is the God of gods! Jephthah and the army head home to enjoy peace with family and friends. As they travel down the road to Jephthah’s home, there’s singing, laughter, and likely loud boasting. Our only question is, “What’s going to be the first thing to greet Jephthah as he returns home?”
Now the story takes a horrible twist. They approach Jephthah’s home and “who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of tambourines! She was an only child. Except for her, Jephthah had neither son nor daughter.” Immediately Jephthah remembers his rash impulsive vow to manipulate the Lord into helping him. He’s heartbroken as he tells his daughter what he’s done. Jephthah’s daughter’s sacrificial faith shines through, “My father, you have given your word to the Lord. Do to me now as you promised, now that the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. But grant me this one request, give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry.” How can her father say no to her request? After the two months, she returns and Jephthah did to her as he had vowed.
God has never desired human sacrifice; he speaks strongly against human sacrifice in Deuteronomy 12, “You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.” Israel’s becoming more like the nations around them then they realize, embracing their values and ways over the ways God gave them to shape them into his people with his values and ethics. Would God allow Jephthah to go through with such a gruesome sacrifice after all the times God told Israel never to do such repulsive nauseating things. This is something pagans do, not followers of God.
God’s the giver and protector of life, which is why we so strongly support the Pregnancy Center and want to help women and families to have their children instead of an abortion. Yet even Jephthah’s daughter urges her father to honour his vow to God because God has saved Israel. She has a twisted picture of who God is; she doesn’t understand God’s grace. How can she when her father doesn’t. She’s worried about God’s wrath against her father, not understanding that God has no desire to see her sacrificed to him.
Jephthah’s daughter is willing to be
sacrificed to save her father.
Jephthah’s daughter dies because her father doesn’t understand his own God.
Jephthah’s been so influenced by the cultures of the nations around him, that
he doesn’t understand grace anymore. It’s a sad commentary on Israel at that
time about how much they’ve been influenced by the cultures and nations around
them. Trusting in God alone was too big a step for them to make.
Jesus died on the cross to show us just how great God’s grace is, how committed Jesus is to each of you. We get God’s wrath at sin because he’s a just and righteous God. His unconditional love and grace feel harder to understand because we live in a world where sin and brokenness is all around us, a world where many of us have experienced betrayals and hurt from friends and loved ones, a world where we’re told that we’re only accepted for what we bring to a relationship, not simply because of who we are. You’re precious simply because you’re created in the image of God who gave us life through his own breath.
This is why Jesus spends so much time teaching about and showing grace to the people he walked with during his time here on earth. People need to see grace in action before they can trust Jesus’ words. This is why the stories of the Samaritan woman at the well and Jesus’ willingness to treat her as someone with value, the story of the woman caught in adultery and Jesus’ question asking “Who here is without sin” and then protecting her before telling her to leave her life of sin because he cares about her, and then of when Jesus invites himself to Zacchaeus’ house, a hated tax collector and thief, are so important for us to know. Jesus shows us that God is a God of grace, a God we can trust in, a God we don’t have to make deals with. Jesus isn’t forced to go to the cross, he chooses to go for us simply because he chooses us for his own.
In spite of Jephthah’s failings and
weaknesses, he shows up in the list of the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11 as
one whose weakness was turned into strength; and who
became powerful and routed foreign armies, another sign of God’s grace.
Jephthah, raised in a culture that has moved far from God, still looks to God for
his blessing. His faith may have been only the size of a mustard seed, yet God
sends his Spirit on Jephthah to help him save his people. God uses him to save
Israel. God accepts him, weaknesses and all. We can trust that God is a God of
grace who has chosen us and never gives up on us, even in our times of doubt,
even in our sin. Jesus loves us so much that he calls us to leave our lives of
sin, to leave our other gods behind; to trust in his way, trust in him, giving
us his Spirit to help us become more like him.
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