Chapter 94. Judges 11:29-40. Jephthah’s Daughter.
BEFORE Jephthah set out to fight the Ammonites with his brothers, the Gileadites, he vowed a vow unto the Lord and said: “If Thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into my hands, then, whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace, shall surely be the Lord’s and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.” What a thoughtless promise to make! As if saying: If God will do me this favor, I will return it with another. Shall we bargain with the great Giver of all good? King David in the 116th Psalm says, “What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord.” And that is what He wants of each of us, that we should accept with thankfulness what He offers. “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Rom. 6:23.
Jephthah then set out to fight the Ammonites in their own country, and the Lord gave him victory and delivered that people into his hands. He destroyed twenty cities as well as the plains and the vineyards, and so subdued their enemies for that time.
When the battle was ended, Jephthah went back to his house in Mizpeh. He had one daughter, his only child, and she was very dear to him. This daughter loved her father very much, and when she heard of the victory, she thought she should see her dear father again. So she waited and looked for him, and when she saw him coming, she ran out to meet him, dancing and singing for joy.
When her poor father saw her, he tore his clothes in his distress at the remembrance of his vow, and cried out: Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, thou troublest me. I have made a promise unto the Lord, and I cannot break my vow. But his daughter answered that he must keep his vow, since God had given him victory over the children of Ammon. But she begged that she might, for two months, go with her companions and mourn among the mountains. She went and came back at the appointed time to her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed,” which no doubt was done according to Lev. 27, by a substitute being provided in her place. We cannot for a moment think that God would allow him to offer her as a sacrifice, or that He could accept it, but He allows us short times to learn lessons in a very painful way. What if a dog or any other unclean animal had first passed the doorsill of that house to meet him? Would it not have been an insult to offer it to God? It would, and God has made provision for one making such a vow; (see Lev. 27:11-15.) Let us remember then, that all we have, we have received from Him, and is His for us, to use for Him, but the first thing for us to give Him, and that He can accept, is the undivided obedience of our hearts, for, He says “To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” 1 Sam. 15:22. After this vow was performed on Jephthah’s daughter, (whom we must admire for her submission to her father) it became a custom in Israel, that the young girls should lament her during four days out of each year, evidently to celebrate her continued sorrow that she had to remain single the rest of her life. This condition in Israel accounts sufficiently for Jephthah’s grief.
ML 06/09/1912