Year One, July 13

Be Not Rash With Your Mouth, nor Let Your Heart Be Hasty to Utter a Word Before God1

Judges 11:29-40

29Then the Spirit of the LORD was upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh and passed on to Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed on to the Ammonites.

Jephthah was a brave man, but he still needed the Lord to prepare him for his work. When the Spirit of the Lord comes on someone, it makes them far more than they were before. The Holy Spirit lifts up, guides, inspires, and strengthens. The one who has the Spirit will find whatever strength they need for the job God gives them to do, even the task that seems impossible. May this same Spirit rest upon us even more than he did on Jephthah.

30And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, 31then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the LORD’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.” (Jephthah was very careless when he made this promise. It was undoubtedly done in the heat of the moment. He was not thinking clearly. If we make a solemn promise to God, we should think long and hard about it. A vow to God is very serious and we should be extremely careful how we express it. It is very unwise for a Christian to obligate themselves with promises that are made rashly and in words that are not well thought through. Jephthah’s case should be a warning to us.)

32So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the LORD gave them into his hand. 33And he struck them from Aroer to the neighborhood of Minnith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel-keramim, with a great blow. So the Ammonites were subdued before the people of Israel.

Our hero returned home in great joy, but his triumph quickly crashed into his promise. The vow he had made without thinking had now become a trap for him.

34Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah. And behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. She was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter. 35And as soon as he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you have become the cause of great trouble to me. For I have opened my mouth to the LORD, and I cannot take back my vow.” (In this case, it would have been far better to break a wrong promise than to keep it. His mistake was that he even made such a promise in the first place. He had not considered the possible terrible consequences. He had sworn that he would use whatever came through the door for a burnt offering. His knowledge of God was limited. Perhaps he thought such a bold promise was needed to satisfy Jehovah. But now he seems to fear the true God like the heathen fear their false gods and is afraid not to keep his foolish promise.)

36And she said to him, “My father, you have opened your mouth to the LORD; do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, now that the LORD has avenged you on your enemies, on the Ammonites.” (Now it was his daughter who showed bravery. She was willing to die or remain unmarried, so long as her country was free.) 37So she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: leave me alone two months, that I may go up and down on the mountains and weep for my virginity, I and my companions.”

38So he said, “Go.” Then he sent her away for two months, and she departed, she and her companions, and wept for her virginity on the mountains. 39And at the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow that he had made. She had never known a man, (Let us hope that Jephthah did not actually sacrifice his daughter. If he did, it was a most horrible action in the sight of God. Her willingness to accept whatever happened to her was beautiful. Let us hope that the vow was somehow fulfilled without her death, and that she lived a long time as an unmarried woman fully committed to the Lord. Many things said in this chapter encourage us to hope this is what happened. At the same time, there is enough doubt about the outcome of this vow to cause us to repeat our warning against every rash promise. Stop, hot spirit! Look at what you are about to do! Think about all the possible consequences before you open your mouth and make a promise to the Lord. Make sure your vow is really for his glory and will not make you do anything that you should not.) and it became a custom in Israel 40that the daughters of Israel went year by year to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year.

^{_______________}

¹ Ecclesiastes 5:2