Story Of Jephthah And His Daughter - Pride And Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice- The story of Jephthah and his tragic wow

Pray before you start

The judges 11 is one of the most difficult stories to comprehend. The story is a confusing, seemingly inconsistent theological nightmare.

purpose:

Today, I would like us to study the text and to understand the circumstance surrounding the story, the story itself and- finally see how is all this relevant to us and what this ancient text can teach us today here in Slough 3200 years later.

Warning to biblical literalists:

This chapter also stands as a big thick high wall to those who casually endorse the ‘plain reading of the Bible’ or more precisely very literal reading of the word of God.

The first lesson, hence, at this very beginning is that we cannot, as some of you would prefer it, read the bible as a simple recipe cookbook- no matter how attractive or comforting this idea may be.

Story conundrum

Chapter 11 ends in a shocking event that describes the victorious judge of Israel who sacrifices his daughter to God Yahweh despite explicit command by the same God that he abhors human sacrifice.

The story does not tell you whether this was a good or bad thing. It was left open-ended.

The Writer does not make it easy. He deliberately leaves you in the state of bewilderment.

Written in a beautifully poetic way

Moreover, he writes all this in sort of poetic melancholy way as we can see in his daughter’s dutiful request to wonder in the mountains for two months – we can almost imagine a wind playing with her hair and the white veil of her dress as she looks in the mountain sunset.

Additional complexity Heb11:

All this would not be so bad, and it could be explained as simply wrong had it not been this ‘unfortunate’ text in Hebrew 11:32

And what shall I yet say? for the time will fail me recounting about Gideon, Barak also, and Samson, and Jephthah, David also, and Samuel, and the prophets

Good old Jephthah entered the hall of fame as one of the pillars of faith despite (…or because) sacrificing his daughter. Seemingly suggesting, that what he did was seen as a good thing.

Here it begins:

Questions followed by exposition and explanation

So what is the story here?

What can we learn here?

Is there a square circle that we have to deal with?

What a message does the Word of God in this particular story has for us here today?

Abraham story vs Jephthah story

Many readers of the Bible find this story uncomfortable. The story just does not add up with their idealistic views of the stories in the Bible.

We all know what happened in the story of Abraham and Isaac. Suspension, drama, nail-biting….But, in the end, at the very last second God stops Abraham and, a ram appears and is sacrificed instead.

How we love this story, do we not?

An obedient servant and intervention of loving God – a fascinating story that echoes in perpetuity…end

Unfortunately, in this story God is silent and there is no substitute, no way out.

So, what do we do? We try to skew it to fit our pref

We look into every detail and cranny of the text in the hope of finding a sign, missing verb, meaning that may suggest a different course and the ending of the story.

All of us are guilty, from time to time to try to sanitize and distill the look of some of these stories. This is often an innocent and well-meaning attempt to ‘help’ the Bible as we read it to both others and ourselves.

N.B.

Consequently, regarding this story, some biblical commentators think they found a solution how to resolve the theological contradiction and inconsistency and absolve the Biblical text of accusation that suggests, that at least sometimes, to offer human sacrifice to God Yahweh – although everywhere else in the Bible God abhors the practice of human sacrifice. end

Arguments against sacrifices and counter-arguments:

So the most cited solution that deals with this awkward story is to argue that Jephthah did not sacrifice his daughter at all and therefore did not do anything abhorrent to God.

There are several arguments used to justify this view. So let’s see what they are and what strengths and weaknesses these arguments have.

1 Jephthah never said he would sacrifice his daughter as a burnt offering.

Jephthah made a vow to the LORD and said, “

If You will indeed give the sons of Ammon into my hand, 31 then it shall be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the sons of Ammon, it shall be the LORD’S, and (or) I will offer it up as a burnt offering.”