Last Monday, I began working on Samson and planned to skip Jepthah. There are sevral challenging stories in the Bible, but this one is between a father and daughter.
Judges 11:29-40 (NASB) 29 Now the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, so that he passed through Gilead and Manasseh; then he passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he went on to the sons of Ammon. 30 Jephthah made a vow to the LORD and said, "If You will indeed give the sons of Ammon into my hand, 31 then it shall be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the sons of Ammon, it shall be the LORD'S, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering." ... 34 When Jephthah came to his house at Mizpah, behold, his daughter was coming out to meet him with tambourines and with dancing. Now she was his one and only child; besides her he had no son or daughter. 35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, "Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you are among those who trouble me; for I have given my word to the LORD, and I cannot take it back." 36 So she said to him, "My father, you have given your word to the LORD; do to me as you have said, since the LORD has avenged you of your enemies, the sons of Ammon." 37 She said to her father, "Let this thing be done for me; let me alone two months, that I may go to the mountains and weep because of my virginity, I and my companions." 38 Then he said, "Go." So he sent her away for two months; and she left with her companions, and wept on the mountains because of her virginity. 39 At the end of two months she returned to her father, who did to her according to the vow which he had made; and she had no relations with a man. Thus it became a custom in Israel, 40 that the daughters of Israel went yearly to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year.
There is just so much wrong in this story...to go from having the Spirit of the Lord upon himself to sacrificing his daughter to the pagan god of the very enemy he had just defeated. After travelling for years on a job, I know who was always the first to greet me when I came home...two girls running to the door and gripping me as tight as they could. Certainly, as a wandering rebel, he had been greeted at the door on numerous occasions by a loving daughter. He knew exactly what kind of deal he was making when he made his vow. Add to that Leviticus 27 shows how he could have paid 10 pieces of silver to redeem her, and my hot head gets the best of me.
So there is my dilemma, in one way, I want to sing the praises of God's chosen deliverer, in another, I want to render him as an obsolete foolish jerk. It's hard to deny the Bible touches our human emotions, and I can honestly say mine were touched. Over the course of 40 or so years, I have seen many sacrifice their family for something. I have seen people with the hand of God on their life turn away from God. The sad relaity I have seen is that there is nothing good from such things, so what do we do?
Our best response is to stay near the cross of Christ. Take up our cross daily (Luke 9:23), crucify the sinful nature, (Romans 6:6), and allow Christ to live through us (Galatians 2:20). Tough message, tough words, but what a gracious God.
No comments:
Post a Comment