The death of Jephthah’s firstborn brought no peace. The sacrifice of sinful man can never be a sacrifice God regards as acceptable. And that is why God was willing to sacrifice his own firstborn son, and not as a result of a bad vow. But of a decision before the foundation of the world between the Father and the Son to deliver God’s people once and for all by the death of the Son. Christ came to live and die for us when we did not even cry out for a deliverer. He too remained single and childless. He too became a casualty of the faithlessness and disobedience of others. Judges 11 helps us anticipate the horror of the suffering of the cross. There was no other way for victory to be won than for the Father to sacrifice the person most dear to him—his only son. And the son in humble self-sacrifice said, Do to me what has been decided.
But the awful sacrifice of Jephthah’s daughter paled by comparison to Christ’s sacrifice, where he did not suffer and die as the result of one man’s foolishness and self-indulgence, but as the result of the foolishness and self-indulgence of the many
(Romans 5:12–19)! Yet he was sacrificed and even forsaken by his Father out of his Father’s love. And so, out of the greatest evil ever came the greatest good.
This is the God you are called to know. And not just to avoid the danger of sinning against him. But to enjoy the sweet rewarding blessing, both now and eternally, of fellowship with him. You have a God who sacrificed himself for you. You and I deserve to be in perpetual mourning over our sins. But God has given us great reason for rejoicing because Christ has taken the curse we deserved. So why would you ever think you need to earn his goodness and love? You have nothing to offer God that can make him love you more than he already does. Your true need is for his forgiveness and adoption as his children, and that need is met by faith in God and what he has already done for us in Christ. God saves all, including Jephthah, including you, who come to him in faith in Christ and him sacrificed. Shall you not then humbly give yourself in service to him, in whatever way he chooses? For even in hard or sorrowful times, that brings you joy, and it brings your Father pleasure. He will never disown those who trust in him alone.
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?”