Jephthah's Daughter

Judges 11:29-40

Jephthah's Tragic Vow

²⁹ Then the Spirit of the Lord was upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh and passed on to Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed on to the Ammonites. ³⁰ And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, ³¹ then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the Lord's, and I will offer up for a burnt offering.” ³² So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the Lord gave them into his hand. ³³ And he struck them from Aroer to the neighborhood of Minnith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel-keramim, with a great blow. So the Ammonites were subdued before the people of Israel.

³⁴ Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah. And behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. She was his only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter. ³⁵ And as soon as he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you have become the cause of great trouble to me. For I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot take back my vow.” ³⁶ And she said to him, “My father, you have opened your mouth to the Lord; do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, now that the Lord has avenged you on your enemies, on the Ammonites.” ³⁷ So she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: leave me alone two months, that I may go up and down on the mountains and weep for my virginity, I and my companions.” ³⁸ So he said, “Go.” Then he sent her away for two months, and she departed, she and her companions, and wept for her virginity on the mountains. ³⁹ And at the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow that he had made. She had never known a man, and it became a custom in Israel ⁴⁰ that the daughters of Israel went year by year to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year.

I want the heart and joy and faithfulness of Jephthah’s daughter. For that’s all that’s really known of her; but I don’t think I have seen in any human anything more profound and beautiful. She’s this daughter who runs out to her father in joy, and all I can picture is this holistically beautiful girl. The kind that no one can help but love. Someone that beams like sunshine, and it even says how she came out with her tambourine dancing! Can you picture this? She’s everything that’s lovely. But that’s just the tip of who she is. When she is given the news of her father’s vow, and her impending death, her response is this beautiful faithfulness. This unimaginable courage. This unexplainable confidence and trust in not only her father but her God. And not a confidence or trust that is dependent on safety or comfort, but in the awe and love of who God is. I can’t even comprehend having such purity in the truths of my soul from which I live my life. But she exemplifies it.

She’s not the “spared Isaac” of Abraham, she’s the sacrificed daughter, offered up without even the mention of HER name. And her death, to me, seems completely without purpose or necessity, apart from showing a wholehearted love and obedience to God. And so I think to myself, can there be anything else that I desire more than the absolute purity of loving and obeying God for no other purpose than that itself? Her only achievement was the greatest achievement any of us can ever achieve. I have never been so impressed by any other biblical character than this daughter without a name. My prayer is that I may one day be like this sister in the way I live as His daughter. Without need for deed, or recognition, or fulfillment in any other way except for in Him. That the sum of my life will be that I loved and died for Him. And that every action in between was joy and faithful obedience, even when I’m clothed with sorrow at the loss of dreams and hopes. We dream with His bold power and strength, but I want to live in humble faithfulness to Him and His love. I want to live not for my dreams but for His. I want to live not as mine, but as His. I want to live with the heart, and joy, and faithfulness of Jephthah’s daughter.