Judges 11:39

I must confess that, with everything I have read on the subject, I still cannot shake the conviction that Jephthah did what every simple soul who reads the passage believes he did. I would be glad to think otherwise. But this man was stern, self-righteous and set in his own opinions. I cannot believe he was too tender-hearted to do just what he said he would do with his daughter, and offer her up as a burnt offering to the Lord.

The great Jewish commentators of the Middle Ages have pointed out that these two last clauses are not identical. No one says of an animal burnt offering that it "should be to Jehovah." As a burnt offering, it already is. But Scripture does use that expression when human beings are given to Jehovah, as with the firstborn in Israel and with Levi. In those cases no one has ever suggested actual human sacrifice. And if the loving daughter had been giving herself up to death, it is next to incredible that she would spend her last two months in the mountains with her companions rather than with her broken-hearted father.

God left Jephthah with the responsibility and the consequences of his vow, and showed neither approval nor disapproval of it. Heaven seemed closed to the voice of Israel's leader. Yet the Spirit of Jehovah granted him the victory.

Abraham offered up his son "by faith," at God's command. Jephthah offered his daughter by an act of his own will, which was simply a lack of faith… The father lacked faith, but it shone out brightly in his poor child. A rash vow had marked out this only daughter for sacrifice, and she submits instead of rebelling or blaming her father… She submitted for Jehovah's sake — a faint reflection, no doubt, of Him who said, "I have come to do Your will, O God."

Is it not true that Jephthah first offered up the daughter he loved, and then slaughtered his own countrymen? The man, it seems, reduced everything to one dead level. He had his sword drawn. He had killed the Ammonites, so he would kill his daughter, if he had promised God to do it. And having killed his daughter, he would take the fords of the Jordan and kill the Ephraimites… Have we not seen too much of that — treating the people of God exactly as we would treat the enemies of God?

In any case, the history stands as a witness to and against the terrible legal spirit of the human heart. That spirit could darken the joy of such a deliverance at the very moment God gave it. Our Lord now forbids such vowing outright: "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.' But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all." God's will does not need man's will added to it, only obeyed. To take on obedience that was never asked for is only to put yourself in bondage to your own weakness.

After Jephthah's daughter was gone, the daughters of Israel took up a custom of going to the mountains four days each year to lament for her. Is there not a lesson in this for us today? One may be the victim of an unfair action, and we can do nothing about it. At least we can remember that injustice in self-judgment before the Lord. This is different from raising an indignant outcry against injustice — a common practice today — but learning to judge ourselves will bear much more good fruit than judging others.