Judges 10-12

Today’s passage: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=judges%2010-12&version=NIV

First of all, I just want to take a minute to congratulate you! I am so happy that you have stuck with us on this journey of love through the Word of God. We are now one forth of the way through the text! For me, this is my first time reading the Bible through and there are many passages that I’ve never studied or read before. Today’s passage is one of them, and I have to admit that I found it to be a little ummm…disturbing. The majority of today’s passage focuses on Jephthah’s battle and his vow regarding his daughter. In Judges 11:30-31, Jephthah vows to the Lord “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." What’s disturbing about this vow is that in verse 34 we find that it is his daughter who comes out of the house to meet him and in verse 39 we find that Jephthah “did to her as he vowed”.

There is much debate as to whether or not Jephthah actually literally sacrificed his daughter as a burnt offering. The conclusion I came to is this – it doesn’t matter whether he did or did not.

Here’s what we know – God never asked for Jephthah’s daughter and would never approve of her as a sacrifice. The laws of sacrifice to our Lord at that time required a male animal sacrifice: Leviticus 20:18-19, "Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites and say to them: 'If any of you—either an Israelite or an alien living in Israel—presents a gift for a burnt offering to the LORD, either to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering, 19 you must present a male without defect from the cattle, sheep or goats in order that it may be accepted on your behalf.” Other pagan religions did practice human sacrifice, but in Leviticus 18:21, God commands that anyone who does so should be put to death. Also, in Deuteronomy 12:31, we learn “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.” God found the practice of human sacrifice to be detestable.

So, my point is, if Jephthah in fact literally offered his daughter as a burnt sacrifice, God did not approve of it. In fact, he would have hated it. As to why God did not intervene and prevent the sacrifice, I don’t know. The text doesn’t say. But based on what we know about God from the text that we’ve already read, we know that there are consequences for disobedience and sin and that God is the perfect and just judge. God made his covenant promises with Israel and God fully intended to keep them in spite of Jephthah’s unfortunate vow.

The lesson we can learn is this – when we make a vow to God, it should not be to solicit a blessing, but to show thanks and praise Him. Vows aren’t supposed to be negotiations with God, but a form of worship. Vows to God should be prayerfully considered and should line up with his truths and promises. Most importantly, if we make a vow to God, we should not break our word, but do everything we said. Whatever promises we make, we should be fully prepared to carry out.

Please feel free to post comments or questions on the blog!!

If you’d like to read more, I can suggest two articles:

http://bible.org/seriespage/jephthah-words-matter-judges-101-1215 - Bob Deffinbaugh defends a literal translation of the burnt offering

http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/print/2320 Dave Miller gives evidence for a figurative translation of the burnt offering.

Today’s post submitted by Kelly Coxe