18 April 2015

Jephthah and His Daughter

Our introduction to Jephthah in scripture is he was a mighty man of valour, but this fact is largely overlooked.  He was a son of a harlot, and for a season was cast out of his family but later asked to return.  Like the elders of his hometown, it is high time for the church to receive Jephthah back again as the man of faith he was.  It seems most references to him in sermons are negative, and he is touted as the poster boy of rashness, a power-hungry or even ignorant man whose folly outweighs any virtue.  It is ironic God does not say one negative thing about Jephthah in the Bible.  In fact, the exact opposite is true.  After discussing the faith of Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and Rahab, the writer of Hebrews wrote in Hebrews 11:32-34:  And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: 33 who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.” 

Of all the righteous men and women who could have been listed in what is often called the “Hall of Faith,” Jephthah was one selected by the Holy Spirit.  We human beings tend to focus on outward faults, but God looks upon the heart of faith in God which is accounted by Him as righteousness.  There is much to be learned from the mistakes of others, but to relegate Jephthah to a byword when God provides him as a prime example of faith is a massive error.  Through Jephthah and especially his daughter we are blessed with a foreshadowing of Jesus which greatly challenges and enriches us, all for the glory of God.

Jephthah was a man of Gilead called by men to be their captain.  He came to terms with the elders who sought his leadership and Judges 11:11 reads, “Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and commander over them; and Jephthah spoke all his words before the LORD in Mizpah.”  Whatever Jephthah said, he spoke in the hearing of the LORD.  Regardless of what men may contrive of Jephthah’s motives – for who among us knows fully his own heart and it is not written – the Spirit of God came upon Jephthah (Judges 11:29).  Judges 11:30-31 says, “And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD, and said, "If You will indeed deliver the people of Ammon into my hands, 31 then it will be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the people of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD'S, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering."  The verse begins with a connecting word which continues the thought.  The Spirit came upon Jephthah, and he made a vow.  There was a clear connection between the two.  It was common for people to keep their prized animals in their homes, so this was not as strange as you might think.

Was Jephthah rash to make such a vow?  I don’t know.  But what happened after God did grant Jephthah the victory is the part everyone remembers.  After he returned from the slaughter of the enemy, his one and only child – his precious daughter - came out to greet him celebrating and dancing with her tambourine.  When he saw her, he immediately tore his clothes and cried out in anguish:  “Alas my daughter!  I have given God my word and I cannot go back on it!”  The daughter of Jephthah (her name is not provided us in scripture) did not scold Jephthah or charge him with wrong.  Judges 11:36-38 says, “So she said to him, "My father, if you have given your word to the LORD, do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, because the LORD has avenged you of your enemies, the people of Ammon." 37 Then she said to her father, "Let this thing be done for me: let me alone for two months, that I may go and wander on the mountains and bewail my virginity, my friends and I." 38 So he said, "Go." And he sent her away for two months; and she went with her friends, and bewailed her virginity on the mountains.”

Before the LORD Jephthah promised to offer up the first thing which came out of his house as a burnt offering to the LORD, never expecting it to be his only child whom I suspect was in her teen years.  She said, “If you have given your word to the LORD, do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth.”  God had fulfilled His part in the matter, and she urged her father to do to her according to his promise.  There are tears in my eyes as I consider the faith and love of this young woman.  It is one thing to say such a thing, but the revelations in the next verse blows me away.  Judges 11:39-40 says, “And it was so at the end of two months that she returned to her father, and he carried out his vow with her which he had vowed. She knew no man. And it became a custom in Israel 40 that the daughters of Israel went four days each year to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.”

Jephthah’s daughter came back.  Let that sink into your soul.  She could have run, knowing what awaited her.  Even as Isaac was bound by Abraham on the altar on Mt. Moriah, and Abraham took up the killing knife, her father would do to her.  But this time there would be no voice from heaven, no ram caught in the thicket.  Two months earlier she said, “Do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth.”  Did you see the difference in verse 39?  After she returned, “he carried out his vow with her which he had vowed.”  Dear friends, they did it together.  He did not do anything “to” her; Jephthah kept his vow before the LORD “with” her.  I wept many tears when I understood this.  I see the man sobbing, weeping at his loss as she waited bound.  Perhaps as his resolve faltered at the prospect of offering his only daughter as a sacrifice, she with gleaming eyes guided the knife to the spot.  He had given his word to God, and it must be finished.  God had not commanded human sacrifice, and the death of any human being is not God’s will.  But this picture has been included for a divine purpose.  Such a display of reverence and faith is not easily swept aside, for it points directly to Jesus Christ.

Even as Jephthah’s daughter returned with the knowledge she would be offered as a sacrifice, so Jesus Christ came as the Lamb of God to be a sacrifice for sin.  Jephthah’s virgin daughter bewailed her virginity two months with her friends, and Jesus wept knowing what awaited Him on Calvary.  Hebrews 5:7-9 says of Jesus, “…who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, 8 though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. 9 And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him…”  Jesus was God the Father’s only begotten Son, the One in whom He was well pleased.  God had promised a Saviour, a Messiah, and kept His word.  Jephthah’s daughter was remembered four days in Israel every year, and we remember the death of Jesus Christ when we obey Him in celebrating Communion together.

We do not fault Abraham for binding Isaac to the altar and picking up a knife with the intent to slay his only son in obedience to God:  should we fault the faithful Jephthah for doing the same?  God doesn’t.  The context makes it clear Jephthah followed the leading of the Holy Spirit upon him in this very singular event in history which points to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.  I cannot fault Jephthah with wrong before his God before Whom he spoke and stands to this day.  It appears the people at the time did not fault this man who willing to pay such a high price to keep his word to the LORD, for he remained a judge until his death.  Jephthah was a valiant man, a man of faith.  When I read of his precious daughter I see a picture of my willing Saviour, and I feel unworthy to read the words – because I am.  We all are.  Who among us would demonstrate the faith of Jephthah, his daughter, or my Saviour?

No comments:

Post a Comment

To uphold the integrity of this site, no comments with links for advertising will be posted. No ads here! :)