Generally, when the story of Jephthah is examined, much ink
is spilled in discussion of what has come to be known as Jephthah’s “rash” or
“foolish” vow. That vow was “If you really do hand the Ammonites over to
me, then whoever is the first to come through the doors of my house to meet me
when I return safely from fighting the Ammonites---he will belong to the Lord
and I will offer him up as a burnt sacrifice” (Judges 11:30-31). Lo and
behold, when this situation is brought about and victory comes, it is his only
daughter that comes out of his house, “hurrying out to meet him, dancing to the
rhythm of tambourines” (11:34b). His understandable response was to say
“Oh no! My daughter! You have completely ruined me! You have
brought me disaster! I made an oath to the Lord, and I cannot break it”
(11:35b). Jephthah’s daughter takes it all in stride, saying “My father,
since you made an oath to the Lord, do to me as you promised. After all,
the Lord vindicated you before your enemies, the Ammonites” (11:36).
We will not dwell long on this story, except to note two
things. The first is that there is an element of exile and exodus within
this story within the overall story of Jephthah; and the second is that it is
not the Scriptures themselves that speak, in any way, of a “rash” or “foolish”
vow. That epithet comes only from commentary upon the vow that he
made. What we find instead, and which is something on which it is
eminently more important to focus when it comes to this part of Jephthah’s
story, is that “The Lord’s Spirit empowered Jephthah” (11:29a), and it is in
that same empowerment that he makes his vow. Regardless of how we treat
the story, the Scriptures do not dwell upon it (nor is it ever referenced
again), choosing instead to provide information about Jephthah’s dealings with
the Ephraimites, and the conflict between them and the Gileadites that followed
and would persist in the years following God’s deliverance of Israel from the
subjugation of Ammon. This ridiculous conflict between the men of Ephraim
and Gilead, and the bloodshed and death that it produced, cannot help but put
us in mind of the multiple accounts of ridiculous faithlessness of Israel following
their exodus and God’s victory over Egypt, and the death that God was forced to
pronounce against His own people in the afterglow of a phenomenal and
victorious deliverance.
Before reaching these two parts of Jephthah’s story,
however, we still find Jephthah in exile. “When the Ammonites attacked,
the leaders of Gilead asked Jephthah to come back from the land of Tob.
They said, ‘Come, be our commander, so we can fight with the Ammonites’.”
(11:5-6) Jephthah has every right to be skeptical and downright hostile,
though he is not. He “said to the leaders of Gilead, ‘But you hated me
and made me leave my father’s house. Why do you come to me now, when you
are in trouble?’” (11:7) Reading that can, once again, vault us backwards
through the Scriptures to the story of Moses for an analogy that serves to
highlight the repetitive exile and exodus narrative that is now on display here
again in the story of Jephthah, while connecting his story with the pre-eminent
exodus story. Now, it should be noted that the analogy may not be able to
be carried very far, but that does not make it any less valid.
When Moses showed forth his desire to be a deliverer to his
oppressed people, by killing the Egyptian that was treating one of his
countrymen severely, what was the reaction to the evidence of that
desire? Moses heard the words, “Who made you a judge and ruler over us?”
(Exodus 2:14b) This was the proximate cause for Moses’ personal exile, as
learning that what he had done was known, he fled from Egypt. Jephthah
voices the other end of such a scenario when he says “you hated me and made me
leave my father’s house.” When Moses encounters God in the burning bush,
and is now told that he is going to be deliverer for Israel, Moses is able to
reflect on the fact that this is what he had attempted to do and to be while
still in Egypt. In much the same way that the leaders of Gilead came to
Jephthah on behalf of the oppressed people, so too is the Lord coming to
Moses. As he reflects on the events that drove him into exile, we can
imagine Moses thinking in the same way as Jephthah spoke, with words like “Why
do you come to me now, when you are in trouble?” “The leaders of Gilead
said to Jephthah, ‘That may be true, but now we pledge to you our loyalty.
Come with us and fight with the Ammonites. Then you will become the
leader of all who live in Gilead’.” (11:8)
With a final nod to the story of Moses within this story of
Jephthah, as we round out our treatment of this curious character and his place
in God’s narrative, we look at Moses’ return to Egypt as Israel’s God-appointed
deliverer. Upon his return, along with his brother Aaron to be his
mouthpiece, we find that “Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to
Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people, and the people
believed. When they heard that the Lord had attended to the Israelites
and that He had seen their affliction, they bowed down close to the ground”
(Exodus 4:30-31). In the case of Jephthah, he “went with the leaders of
Gilead. The people made him their leader and commander” (11:11a).
As Aaron had repeated the words of the Lord to Moses, so “Jephthah repeated the
terms of the agreement” (11:11b). Moses and Jephthah have a shared
experience, in that they return from exile, share covenant terms, are accepted
as deliverers, and receive a pledge of loyalty. Following all these
things in the lives of both men, we find exodus, as God’s people are rescued
from their subjugation.
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