So the Holy Spirit has overtaken Yiftach and he’s about to go to war.
We’re told the first thing he did was travel to Gilead and the tribal territory of Manessah (the 1/2 of Manessah that was living on the eastern side of the Jordan River) and added more men to his army.
And then, after that he did something that has confused and bothered believers for centuries.
We’re told Yiftach made a vow to the Lord.
And it would turn out this vow would be cause of the greatest pain to Yiftach
It is because of this vow that the story of Jephthah is so famous…or maybe infamous is the better word to use.
What happened was that in order to increase his chances of winning the upcoming battle against the Ammonites, Yiftach vowed to the Lord if he will give him the victory, then he will sacrifice the first thing that walks through his door to greet him when he returns home.
Now as we’ve done with many of the other topics in the Bible we’re going to take our time in dissecting this event and the lessons to be learned from it.
So the first question that comes to mind is why in the world did Yiftach make such a vow in the first place?
I mean it was God Himself who anointed Yiftach a Judge.
And Yiftach also had the Lord’s Holy Spirit upon him.
Wasn’t that enough without having to go off and make some crazy vow?
I don’t really have a good answer to that question other than to assume Yiftach wanted all the help and reassurance he could get.
After all, this was going to be a Holy War.
Unfortunately, as bad luck would have it, it was his daughter who came running out to greet him when Yiftach returned from the battlefields victorious.
Of course, Jephthah went into shock and his heart was broken into a million pieces when he saw who came out to greet him.
Because in his mind he knew he could not go back on his vow to God since the Lord had given Israel the victory.
Keep in mind we’re witnessing a good example of how the ancient oriental mind worked in the Biblical era.
Yiftach really believed there was a direct connection between Israel’s victory and the vow he made.
Hence, he felt like he had no choice in the matter.
And apparently his daughter also understood how serious a vow was in those days.
Because she made it clear to her father that she understood he had to do what he had vowed.
We’re told the daughter took a two month period to mourn the future she would never have and then returned to her father to be sacrificed.
Okay, so obviously, the big question is…
…did Yiftach really kill and sacrifice his daughter to the Lord?
Or did he do something else to her?
We’ll get into all of this the next time we meet.
Leave a Reply