Have you ever read a scripture that made you angry?
Well, reading the Old Testament makes me angry – sometimes. It’s so difficult, trying to make sense of scriptures, well….that make no sense! Read Judges 11:29-38:
29 Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites. 30 And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord: “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, 31 whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”
32 Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into his hands. 33 He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon.
34 When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of timbrels! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. 35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, “Oh no, my daughter! You have brought me down and I am devastated. I have made a vow to the Lord that I cannot break.”
36 “My father,” she replied, “you have given your word to the Lord. Do to me just as you promised, now that the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. 37 But grant me this one request,” she said. “Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry.”
38 “You may go,” he said. And he let her go for two months. She and her friends went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. 39 After the two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin.
From this comes the Israelite tradition 40 that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.
Jephthah was obviously not very smart. He asked the Lord: “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, 31 whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”
But making a deal with the Lord, such as this, he must have known that SOMEONE would be coming out to greet him when he returned home. Can you imagine, making such an offer to God? Could he not have offered to slaughter his entire herd of sheep or goats….something or someone other than a human being who would come out to greet him?
It’s not as if a chicken or a cow was going to come out of the house to greet him, right? Did Jephthah think that the Lord would not accept an alternate sacrifice?
Jephthah’s daughter…she stated: 36 “My father,” she replied, “you have given your word to the Lord. Do to me just as you promised, now that the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. 37 But grant me this one request,” she said. “Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry.”
She wants to weep because she will never marry??
I’d be weeping because I don’t want to be dead! Imagine if someone was going to put a gun to your head and pull the trigger…as a sacrifice to God. Yeah, I realize guns did not exist back then, but, I’m just using this as an example – so that we can try to relate to the situation.
If you knew you were going to die….I’d be weeping because my life would be cut short. I don’t want to be dead! I’d be mourning the loss of my own life, mourning all that I’d be leaving behind.
After two months… 39 After the two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin.
So, he killed his daughter? Sacrificed his only child? Is Jephthah’s daughter in Heaven with Jesus? After all, she told her father to obey the Lord: 36 “My father,” she replied, “you have given your word to the Lord. Do to me just as you promised, now that the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites.
Jesus had not yet come to earth, but, his coming was foretold in the Old Testament. Since He’d not yet come, do those, such as Jephthah’s daughter, have the gift of eternal life in Heaven with our Creator?
I also thought about Abraham and Isaac. Why did God stop Abraham from sacrificing his son, but, he did not grant the same to Jephthah?
So, do you have any scriptures that make you angry, sad, or just make you wonder? Maybe wonder that some questions won’t be answered until we get to heaven?
