Judges 11:29-40 – Be careful in making vows

Although Jephthah was appointed a leader by the people, He was equipped by God to fulfil his role as a judge and deliver. In Judges 11:29, We are told that the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. This suggests that God endorsed his appointment as a leader. Empowered by the Spirit, the first thing Jephthah did was to march through Gilead and Manasseh.  Perhaps he was trying to organize his forces. After the tour, he came to Mizpah. There he took the initiative and went out to face the Ammonites. Verses 30-31 narrate for us one hasty move which he made. He made a rash vow to the Lord. He said, “If You will indeed give the sons of Ammon into my hand, 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.” 

The vow he made to the LORD was needless. The Lord did not require him to make that vow. But once a vow is made, he was snared by his own words. He had to fulfil them. What Jephthah did, help us to understand why Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes 5:2: He does not want us to make a hasty vow to God. Through Solomon God instructs us saying, “Do not be hasty in word or be impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God. For God is in heaven and you are on the earth; therefore, let your words be few.” Why? Ecclesiastes 5:4, gives us the reason “When you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying it; for He takes no delight in fools. Pay what you vow!”

Judges 11:32-33 narrate for us the victory he secured for the people of Israel. The LORD Jehovah gave the Ammonites into his hand. He managed to make a huge slaughter and he was able to capture twenty cities from the Ammonites, who were subdued. Jephthah then returned home to Mizpah. As soon as he reached home, his only child, a daughter, came out to greet him with a tambourine and dancing, in celebration of his victory. He did not expect his daughter to be the first to come out and greet him. So, when he saw her dancing and greeting him, his heart must have sunk. From his face, his daughter must have seen how shocked and speechless he was. We can imagine his daughter asking him why was he so dumbfounded? Although Jephthah was a man with many flaws, he had integrity. He knew he had to keep the vow he had made to the Lord. Quickly, he then explained to his daughter saying: “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.”

Bravely, his daughter accepted everything the father did. She was prepared to help her father keep his words to the LORD. But she requested for two months to go to the mountain and mourn her virginity with her friends. Her father granted her the request. When she returned, we are told that she had no relation with a man. In other words, she lived the life of a celibate. The great question we ask is: was the vow Jephthah made meant that she had to be sacrificed as a burnt offering to the LORD? We know that the Bible had clearly condemned human sacrifice so it would be unlikely that Jephthah sacrificed her that way. Perhaps the clue could be found in these words in verse 39 that said, “… she had no relations with a man.” The fact that she kept herself a virgin and did not have any relationship with a man may be indicative that that was the fulfilment of the sacrifice Jephthah had made to the Lord. We are not certain. But the latter would be more acceptable. Nonetheless, the lesson for us to take away is that we must not make a hasty vow to the Lord. And that we are obliged to keep our vows. Concerning making vows, in Matthew 5:34-37, the Lord Jesus tells us what we ought and ought not to do. His words are: “But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.”