Ignorance about God is dangerous. Jephthah’s sensitivities were shaped more by the pagan, child-sacrificing society around him than by the God of his own people. Theological ideas can have devastating consequences. That can happen even when people are worshipping the true God. Jephthah truly viewed God as powerful; Jephthah did have faith in the Lord. But his faith was so weak; he thinks the Lord is much like Chemosh, or Molech, gods who were open to manipulative bribes. You give me what I want, and I will make sure your life goes well.
You might be thinking, Jephthah is a pretty extreme example. I do not think that any ignorance of God’s Word that I might have is going to lead me to take the life of my loved one.
Probably not. It is easy for us to see how Jephthah ignored what the five books of Moses told him about who God is, how sacred life is; it is easy for us to see how instead he listened to pagan culture about God. But also we today are more affected by our culture than we think. This narrative makes us look at ourselves and ask, “What enormous blindspots do I have? In what ways do I view God as owing me, or obligated to do this or that for me? Do I think that illness, financial stress, relationship problems are things that God ought to fix because I’m his child? How vulnerable am I to the spirit of the age, which is a materialistic, entitled, egalitarian, an I-deserve-it-as-much-the-next-guy” spirit?
If you really want to know the answer to those questions, you will be regular and humble Bible-readers. A.W. Tozer was right. What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.
Oh, how we need the Word of God to be consistently and comprehensively shaping us in the fear of God, and giving us a sense of the holiness of God, the truth of God, the wisdom of God, and the goodness and love of God. A proper understanding of all those is vital for our hearts and lives. But just think of the last one, the goodness and love of God. Like Jephthah, you and I today struggle to believe that God is actually full of goodness and love and wants what is best for us. If Jephthah had firmly believed in God’s goodness and love for him, he would not have made this vow. We too, if we simply trust that God loves us, that he has our best interests in mind, that will free us from trying to control God, pay God, deserve God, get or earn his goodness and love by our obedience. Wrong ideas about God have bad consequences. It is worth asking, How would I live differently if I really believed that God is completely committed to me to love me and work what is best for me?
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One possible answer is, courageous self-sacrifice to the Lord. That is Jephthah’s daughter. She accepts the outcome of her father’s manipulative vow, even though it means she dies childless. She gave up her own ambition to accomplish the selfless ambition of serving the Lord, helping her father fulfil the vow, whatever that would mean for her.
12 Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites and said, “What do you have against me, that you have come to me to fight against my land?”