“Say what you mean and mean what you say,” my mother told me too many times to recall. I certainly talked plenty, so she probably wanted me to learn to measure my words.
Sometimes our words become our weights.
For example, recently my family and I shopped for a house, and I promised my daughter I’d take her to the park that day. Then house shopping morphed into all day house budgeting. If we wanted to purchase the lot that butted up to the woods with the creek, we needed to make a decision—now.
Late into the afternoon, my brown-eyed, six-year-old with a head full of spiral curls looked up at me with tears in her eyes, “But you promised to take me to the park.”
Her wave of her tears felt heavier than the decision of building a home.
So I cannot imagine the immense weight of sorrow and guilt Jephthah felt when he flippantly vowed to the Lord to sacrifice whatever came out of his house after the battle if the Lord gave him success—and then his only child, his daughter, burst out of the house singing.
Grief is always heavy, but especially when we are the ones who cause the pain by our words or actions. Our sin sometimes falls back on us with torrential force. When this happens, the only way forward is through the mercy of God. Have you ever felt pain mixed with guilt? Repentance and grace lead us forward.
Psalm 51 is David’s crying out to God in his grief and confession of his sin. But his consequences remained even after the repentance. We can imagine that the weight of David’s sin or the death of Jephthah’s daughter weighed down the hearts of these men for the rest of their lives.
When it comes to living for the Lord, God’s Word invites us to approach His throne with confidence through faith in Jesus (John 14:13). But Scripture also gives us these stories as a warning: measure our words, whether in prayer or in action. May our yes be yes and our no be no. Anything more than this is evil (Matthew 5:34–37).
❤️
If you dig deeper into the verses my research suggests he did not sacrifice (kill) his daughter, but she was sent to serve in the temple the rest of her life and never marry or have children. His sacrifice was no heir since she was his only child.
Amen!
If only Jephthah would have told God that he knew he was foolish, and asked God for a different solution for his oath! God is merciful, and I think He would have presented a different solution than her death. We can always approach our loving Father when we’ve made a mess of things!
Finishing post:
RHONDA J – Praying for your neck and back pain, for some level of lessening/relief! Keeping your friend in prayer, too.❤
DONNA WOLCOTT – You, too, are on my heart. Update? ❤
LYNNE FROM ALABAMA – Thankful for Tina’s good results with chemo so far and for her positive attitude! You and Jack remain in my prayers, too. ❤
SEARCHING – Miss you! ❤
In the law of Moses, God puts a great emphasis on the importance of fulfilling vows. But on the other hand he is emphatic that human sacrifice is an abomination to him. There is much confusion in the time of the Judges and I wonder if Jepthah’s understanding of God had become convoluted. His vow was rash and sinful, but to fulfill that vow would also have been a great sin against God. So I wonder if (like David in Psalm 51) his better course of action would have been to come to God with a broken and contrite heart repenting of his sinful vow/ breaking it, and then to sacrifice an animal instead.