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: who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 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. (Hebrews 11:32-34, NKJV).
The time of Judges was one of the lowest points of ancient Jewish history, when every man did what was right in his own eyes.
It is instructive for us today in many ways, not the least of which is the expedient desire for a human savior to cure our societal ills.
Such was Jephthah, despised as an illegitimate son of a harlot, then sought after as a general in the existential battle between Israel and the Ammonites, their God-given oppressors at that time.
In his last desperate battle, after the Spirit of the Lord had come upon him, Jephthah made a solemn vow to his God - a bargain for victory. If the Lord would deliver his enemies into his hands, then in return, he would give, as a burnt offering, whatever came out of his house when he returned home.
Jephthah was an imperfect man of faith, as are we all, but he was a man of faith. Despite his outcast status, he knew who was Lord, and knew who controlled the destiny of men, families and nations.
Victory after victory was afforded to him, and he survived the political and national contentions against him to become Judge of virtually lawless Israel. And when he came home after all of the battles, having made a vow, his only child, a beloved daughter, emerged from his house to greet him in triumph. If he were to keep his vow to the Lord, she was to become the burnt offering.
He cried out in despair, informing his child of all that was breaking his heart. And she, out of filial devotion and abounding love, encouraged him to fulfill the vow regardless of the cost to her personally.
This is where God gives to those who choose to rebel against Him the opportunity to twist Scripture to justify their own hatred and to undermine the faith of others. For they decry this vow of sacrifice, and point to it, along with the other severe divine judgments of the Old Testament, as evidence of a bloodthirsty mythical sky god, no different from the other primitive and malicious deities of mankind's pagan past.
How can any intelligent and thinking being worship and serve such a devil, they ask incredulously, who requires that a man sacrifice his own daughter? And this is precisely where such rebels fall into a trap of their own making.
First, God required of Jephthah no vow at all. It was a voluntary act of worship on his part, a crass bargain perhaps, but indicative of where his faith resided - in the God of Israel.
Second, while it is often used of actual sacrifice, the term burnt offering had a more fundamental meaning, and what was most often done to carry it out - the killing and burning of an animal - became synonymous with that underlying meaning. To give a burnt offering was to consecrate something wholly to the Lord for His use and purpose.
If what had emerged from Jephthah's door that morning was a clean animal, it is likely it would have been killed and burned to ashes, with nothing being left for man's use, unlike the other blood offerings, portions of which which were given to the priests and supplicants for food.
But since it was a human who emerged, fulfilling the vow meant that he or she would live a life wholly devoted to the Lord, as Samuel would later in history, and as Samson was supposed to have done earlier.
Any other interpretation would require us to conclude that Jephthah was insane (clearly his success as a general and politician makes that unlikely), and that his God condoned and required human sacrifice - something expressly considered an abomination by God Himself throughout the Old Testament.
And it was the practice of child sacrifice that was the primary cause of the horrendous judgments visited upon the land of Canaan by God through the Children of Israel.
That this life, rather than death, of consecration was what took place becomes even more evident by Jephthah's daughter's last request - that she be allowed to go away with her friends to the mountains to bewail her virginity. And that during all her life, memorialized in Israel precisely because of these circumstances, she knew no man.
Her father's vow, which she faithfully upheld, required her to remain celibate and childless. For his part, Jephthah would have no other descendants, and his line would die with him, both considered extravagant prices to pay in Israel at that time.
That he kept his word even to his own hurt illustrates the depth of Jephthah's faith. That his daughter cooperated as well, illustrated his impact as a father. That he knew who controlled the destiny of Israel, illustrated his belief in God.
These are why he is hailed here in Hebrews. But there is more.
Jephthah's story is often purposefully misinterpreted to bolster the argument that if God exists, He is unconscionably cruel and hypocritical. This, in conjunction with the genocidal judgments God imposed on certain ancient people groups, is presented as reason enough to justify atheism (no God) or humanism (man is god) or some form of paganism (gods of the imagination).
But these are just manifestations of the same anthropocentric rebellion that took place in the Garden.
Did God enact the severest of judgments on those who purposefully and willfully rebelled against Him? Yes, but only after generations of long-suffering and offers of repentance. And more pertinent for our consideration - He will do so again.
Did God command Israel to put to the sword every inhabitant of some ancient city-states in its conquest of the Promised Land? Yes, but never without first extending His mercy prior to the eventual outpouring of His wrath.
Does this make Him any less worthy of our obedience, worship and devotion? Only if your view of Him is filtered through your own fallenness, and you presume to have a greater understanding of justice and righteousness than the divine Author of both.
If God is who and what He reveals Himself to be in the whole counsel of His inspired Word, then He knows the end from the beginning. He sees all the outcomes of every possible future. He transcends our finite view of time, cause, and effect.
Acting on His complete and infallible knowledge, do you suppose it unthinkable that He would destroy the inhabitants of an evil stronghold before their depravity comes to full fruition? Do you suppose He might use as the instrument of His judgment a people whom He had chosen to be His own special witness, to instruct them in unmistakable terms of His holiness and power?
Would this not be merciful rather than vengeful? To preempt the evil society's continued existence, rather than to await either its continued destruction of others, or its own ultimate self-destruction?
Look, God, if He is God, would not only be justified in this, but remiss if He did otherwise.
And it is extremely telling that those who most vociferously argue against the existence of a good God, using the judgments in the Old Testament to bolster their suppositions, are often the very same individuals who argue that man is the only authority.
Man, who is finite and fallible. Man who is short-sighted and self-centered. Man who imagines himself the arbiter of right and wrong while not even being fully cognizant of his own motives, desires and intents.
Does God eventually exact divine vengeance on evil? Yes.
Does He have that right? Without doubt.
Does it matter what we, his fallen creatures, think or feel about that right?
Not. At. All.
Jephthah, for all his dents, scrapes, and imperfections, got it right. He knew who God was and what He required. And even if we view his vow as a rash act, he stood by his word, because he believed that God is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligent seek Him.
Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:7-11, NKJV).
