Pride and Prejudice- The story of Jephthah and his tragic wow
Pray before you start
The judges 11 is one of the most difficult stories to comprehend. The story is a confusing, seemingly inconsistent theological nightmare.
purpose:
Today, I would like us to study the text and to understand the circumstance surrounding the story, the story itself and- finally see how is all this relevant to us and what this ancient text can teach us today here in Slough 3200 years later.
Warning to biblical literalists:
This chapter also stands as a big thick high wall to those who casually endorse the ‘plain reading of the Bible’ or more precisely very literal reading of the word of God.
The first lesson, hence, at this very beginning is that we cannot, as some of you would prefer it, read the bible as a simple recipe cookbook- no matter how attractive or comforting this idea may be.
Story conundrum
Chapter 11 ends in a shocking event that describes the victorious judge of Israel who sacrifices his daughter to God Yahweh despite explicit command by the same God that he abhors human sacrifice.
The story does not tell you whether this was a good or bad thing. It was left open-ended.
The Writer does not make it easy. He deliberately leaves you in the state of bewilderment.
Written in a beautifully poetic way
Moreover, he writes all this in sort of poetic melancholy way as we can see in his daughter’s dutiful request to wonder in the mountains for two months – we can almost imagine a wind playing with her hair and the white veil of her dress as she looks in the mountain sunset.
Additional complexity Heb11:
All this would not be so bad, and it could be explained as simply wrong had it not been this ‘unfortunate’ text in Hebrew 11:32
And what shall I yet say? for the time will fail me recounting about Gideon, Barak also, and Samson, and Jephthah, David also, and Samuel, and the prophets
Good old Jephthah entered the hall of fame as one of the pillars of faith despite (…or because) sacrificing his daughter. Seemingly suggesting, that what he did was seen as a good thing.
Here it begins:
Questions followed by exposition and explanation
So what is the story here?
What can we learn here?
Is there a square circle that we have to deal with?
What a message does the Word of God in this particular story has for us here today?
Abraham story vs Jephthah story
Many readers of the Bible find this story uncomfortable. The story just does not add up with their idealistic views of the stories in the Bible.
We all know what happened in the story of Abraham and Isaac. Suspension, drama, nail-biting….But, in the end, at the very last second God stops Abraham and, a ram appears and is sacrificed instead.
How we love this story, do we not?
An obedient servant and intervention of loving God – a fascinating story that echoes in perpetuity…end
Unfortunately, in this story God is silent and there is no substitute, no way out.
So, what do we do? We try to skew it to fit our pref
We look into every detail and cranny of the text in the hope of finding a sign, missing verb, meaning that may suggest a different course and the ending of the story.
All of us are guilty, from time to time to try to sanitize and distill the look of some of these stories. This is often an innocent and well-meaning attempt to ‘help’ the Bible as we read it to both others and ourselves.
N.B.
Consequently, regarding this story, some biblical commentators think they found a solution how to resolve the theological contradiction and inconsistency and absolve the Biblical text of accusation that suggests, that at least sometimes, to offer human sacrifice to God Yahweh – although everywhere else in the Bible God abhors the practice of human sacrifice. end
Arguments against sacrifices and counter-arguments:
So the most cited solution that deals with this awkward story is to argue that Jephthah did not sacrifice his daughter at all and therefore did not do anything abhorrent to God.
There are several arguments used to justify this view. So let’s see what they are and what strengths and weaknesses these arguments have.
1 Jephthah never said he would sacrifice his daughter as a burnt offering.
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 (or) I will offer it up as a burnt offering.”
The suggestion is that Jephthah’s daughter, instead of being sacrificed on the altar she was dedicated like Samuel to the Lord and she would serve for the rest of the life in the temple as a virgin- basically, she became a Catholic nun.
‘and’ & ‘or’
Suggested alternative reading: “whatever comes out of the doors will be Lord’s or will be burnt as offering”
There are problems with ‘or’ because it contradicts some other details in the text.
Firstly, It is true that ‘and’ could be translated as ‘or’ but we do not know when they should be used.
Secondly, The girl is described as Jephthah’s only child (v34). This is the same masculine adjective as is used to describe Isaac in Gen 22:2.
He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”
Using masculine suffix could be simply an error but it is N.B. quite likely that the writer is pointing and making parallels with the story of Abraham and Isaac's story.
Thirdly, It suggests that the phrase virginity should not be translated “and she lamented her virginity” (with virginity as the direct object of the verb) but rather as “and she lamented until she became a bethulah,” which refers to a life stage between being a young girl and being a newly married woman who has not yet borne children. A bethulah is a marriageable young woman. We can recall the parallel between Jephthah and Caleb: just as Caleb (josh 15:16) gave away his daughter Aksah to Othniel as a victory prize, once Jephthah’s daughter becomes a bethulah, she can be given as a prize to a man (or, in her case, to God).
2 The second argument would be that (like any other Hebrew) Jephthah knew that God of Israel does not approve of human sacrifice- everyone was familiar with the story of Abraham and Isaac's story.
Well, while it is true that God told Israelites not to mess with human sacrifices – this does not mean that they were neither fascinated by it nor that they did not flirt (coquetting) with it and even practice it.
Several of the biblical passages that mention child sacrifice tell of national leaders sacrificing their own children during a major crisis. In 2 Kgs 3:27, the king of Moab, seeing that he cannot defeat the Israelites by strength alone, sacrifices his eldest son as a burnt offering (like Jephthah’s daughter), which results in “great wrath” against Israel, such that Israel retreats. The word ????? usually denotes the wrath of God; in this case, presumably, it is the wrath of Chemosh, the Moabite god, that is in view. Similarly, Ahaz, king of Judah, who is said to have caused his son to pass through the fire (2 Kgs 16:3), seems to have done so because he was besieged by Aram and Israel. Jephthah’s vow and sacrifice of his daughter may fit into this pattern.
And they built the high places of Baal which are in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech, which I did not command them, nor did it come into My mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin. Jer 32:35
3 The third argument says that Jephthah knew that his daughter would be among the first to come out of the doors to greet him- because this was a well-known custom throughout the ancient Levant. Girls would run out through the gates to greet returning victorious warriors.
If true, Why is he surprised, shocked and distraught when it was she who greeted him first? Hannah was perhaps sad when she took Samuel to Shiloh but this was not conveyed to us as a tragedy- as one has an impression when reading the account of Jephthah and his daughter.
4 The text does not say explicitly that the daughter was sacrificed.
The story ends with just
And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew no man. And it was a custom in Israel,
40 That the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.
Although the text says ambiguously (he) did with her according to his vow which he had vowed the text itself, when read as a piece of ancient literature provides probably the best clues that she was sacrificed as a burnt offering.
37 And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows.
38 And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months: and she went with her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains.
And she saith unto her father, `Let this thing be done to me; desist from me two months, and I go on, and have gone down on the hills, and I weep for my virginity -- I and my friends.' Young literal translation
Altars built in the high places. The image writer conveys a picture- them two standing on top of the mountain where the offerings are about to be made- Hence, She asks to go down to the mountain
As I said at the beginning this is a sad beautiful melancholic story. Where the daughter accepts her fate but has a last wish to spend some last two months roaming the mountains with her friend. The text resembles many other ancient stories involving human sacrifice:
Greek ancient stories
And what is taken up? In itself, the story of Jephthah’s daughter is the agony of the ages: the chaos of war, ambition, desperation, oath-taking, unforeseen consequences, calamity in the family. This is the story of the race. It is repeated again and again. Aeschylus tells us that the fleet was ready to sail; the city of Troy its destination. A soothsayer tells Agamemnon that he must sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to ensure a safe voyage. Agamemnon is beside himself. “The joy of my house, my daughter,” he cries. But he “dares the deed,/slaying his child to help a war
And lest you think it is only daughters on the chopping block, there is the fable of Idomeneus, King of Crete, commander of eighty ships at the battle of Troy. Endangered by a storm at sea, he promises to sacrifice to the gods the first one he sees. Whom does he see? It is his son. He duly does what he says The gods were angry at the murder of his own son and sent a plague to Crete
N.B. The last clue that Jephthah’s daughter was indeed sacrificed is extra-biblical in nature- church fathers.
And it was a custom in Israel,40 That the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.
The custom mentioned in v40 was not mentioned anywhere else in the bible again – however, in the custom of remembering the daughter - In his treatise Panarion, written around 377 CE, church father Epiphanius of Salamis discusses cults associated with Jephthah’s daughter that evidently existed in his day: ‘In Sebasteia, which was once called Samaria, they have declared Jephthah’s daughter a goddess (or saint), and still hold a festival in her honor every year.’ ‘For in Shechem, that is, the present-day Neapolis, the inhabitants offer sacrifices in the name of Core [Persephone], supposedly because of Jephthah’s daughter, who was once offered to God as a sacrifice.
Spiritual Message/ Application
So here we are. I suggest that Jephthah indeed has sacrificed his daughter on the altar.
So what lessons does this story convey to us here across the ages?
What can we learn about Jephthah?
Who is he?
What can we learn from his life?
What can we learn about his actions?
How did he end up in the Hebrews 11 hall of fame as one of the pillars of faith?
What parallels can we make with his life- so that we can avoid some of his mistakes?
Jephthah abandoned
First, we need to know where is Jephthah coming from. Let's see what the Bible tells us about Jephthah:
Jud 11:1-3 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a [a]valiant warrior, but he was the son of a harlot. And Gilead [b]was the father of Jephthah. 2 Gilead’s wife bore him sons; and when his wife’s sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, “You shall not have an inheritance in our father’s house, for you are the son of another woman.” 3 So Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob; and worthless fellows gathered themselves [c]about Jephthah, and they went out with him.
Jephthah was a son of a prostitute and when his father Gideon died his clan threw him out of the community- and he spent some part of his life with good-for-nothing outlaws.
Importance of community First (elaborate importance of being part of the community- and how in our individualistic lives we have lost the importance and value of community. We live in the illusion that we do not need anyone…this is partly the reason why you are not involved in church lives as you parents were – you do not see the reason why would you need to invest in it)
In ancient times, being part of a community was your identity and purpose and ambition of your entire life. In those days, not being a part of the community meant certain death.
Warrior/leadership skills Yet, it seems that Jephthah had some skills. We note first that he had some leadership skills- because- worthless people, like him, flocked around him.
He also developed some other skills that eventually his clan needed. Being an outlaw he learned how to fight and lead- and he is eventually invited to lead his clan.
N.B. What I find interesting is how he seems to be keen to embrace the very community that has ejected him earlier.
It looks to him like an opportunity of his life – and he is determined to do everything right – just to make sure that he (the reject, the runt ) is part of the family again.
Tries to be faithful…And crucially, he Listens to God and “the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah” v29. He wants to do what is right and wants to be led by the Holy Spirit.
And it is here at this high point in his life that he makes this tragic vow:
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.”
Elaborate on vows
God does not require oaths and vows
But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your “Yes” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No,” lest you fall into 9judgment. James 512
But even if you do make a stupid oath –God made provisions – so that you do not need to carry it through:
Or if a person 2swears, speaking thoughtlessly with his lips to do evil or to do good, whatever it is that a man may pronounce by an oath, and he is unaware of it—when he realizes it, then he shall be guilty in any of these matters.
5 ‘And it shall be, when he is guilty in any of these matters, that he shall confess that he has sinned in that thing; 6 and he shall bring his trespass offering to the LORD for his sin which he has committed, a female from the flock, a lamb or a kid of the goats as a sin offering. So the priest shall make atonement for him concerning his sin. Lev 5:4-6
So, Why on earth He did this anyway?
And when he did make this wow- why God did not stop him as he did Abraham 13 centuries earlier?
N.B. Someone once said that some of the most dangerous people – are people who take pride in their honor
A proud man is (..) looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you, C S Lewis
It is better to lose your pride with someone you love rather than to lose that someone you love with your useless pride -Ruskin
Proud people breed sad sorrows for themselves. Emily Bronte
Pride goes before destruction, a haughty (arrogant) spirit before a fall pro 16:18
the warrior hero Jephthah was, what historians, call type of ‘primitive warrior’. Something like Conan the warrior. Perhaps not terribly cultured (although Jephthah knows the history of his people). He was not schooled, perhaps illiterate, no-frills person- but what he lacked in manners and education he certainly made up for with – courage, integrity, loyalty, persistence determination – and pride.
N.B. Jephthahs in our congregations This type of people- once they made up their mind – nothing will sway them back… They are dogged, steadfast and so single-minded that they never retreat- even if they are wrong.
They are good in war but volatile in peace.
Sometimes we find these types of people in the church.
They are devout, genuine and hard working. They are often pillars of the community
They are resolute.
They want to do the right thing.
They highly value and are protective of their church.
They will defend it and its doctrines but they are often unbending and unable to pull back and think again.
As a result, sometimes, in their desire to do the right thing can hurt themselves and others- because they find it difficult to change themselves as a result of their inner pride.
More here:
You see, this is why God could not stop Jephthah sacrificing his daughter.
He made a public vow in front of his followers.
He was a proud warrior and leader- who just could not rescind his decision.
No matter how much (if anyone) pleaded, no matter how many board meetings he attended, no matter how many training seminars or speakers he listened to. Not even a Union president would not be able to move such a person – not even an inch.
Once Jephthah decided- nothing would stop him….. N.B. I have met many such people in my ministry. Honest, good, sometimes with even more integrity than I have- yet completely unwilling to listen to anything or anyone.
P A U S E
Jephthah: “did to her according to the vow which he had made.”
He killed his obedient daughter. Nobody asked him to do it – certainly not God. What a waste.
Riding high and full of pride he made this terrible vow.
The crux of the sermon
So, how did he then end up in the hall of fame as a pillar of faith in Hebrew 11?
You see, some of us learn things hard way.
How many times we eat humble pie- I certainly did few times…(grateful wife not here to tell stories)
N.B.It is in these moments, when we hit rock bottom, that suddenly we find ourselves with restored hearing- and we for the first time start listening on the subject we felt o strong about.
Pride brings a person low, but the lowly in spirit gain honour. Prov 29:23
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you. James 4:10
Jephthah, went through a horrible experience – most of it –thanks to his own doing.
But, crucially, when Jephthah hit the pit of the darkness- God did not abandon him.
God restored Jephthah.
And because God lifted of Jephthah – Jephthah became one of the most successful Judges. Thanks to him the tribes of Israel enjoyed a next 21 years of peace and prosperity- and Jephthah ended in the hall of fame of biblical heroes in Heb 11Pride and prejudice- Jephthah
My prayer is that we may learn from the story of Jephthah so that we do not need to needlessly suffer because of our pride and stubbornness.
I pray that we may have an open flexible mind that can be penetrated by the Holy Spirit.
I pray that we may also learn that no matter how low we fall God can lift us from the darkness.
AMEN!
