No King in Israel (26)

I try very hard never to negotiate with God.

Perhaps you struggle with that too. The habit is hard to kick, especially when you want some particular outcome very badly and believe only Heaven can deliver it. But promising God this or that provided he does what I want for me is a pagan instinct, not a Christian one. In his Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus instructed his Jewish followers, for whom vows and oaths were commonplace, not to take oaths at all.

Keeping that in mind, I try never to put myself in the position of promising the Lord things I may not be able to deliver.

Negotiating with God

The writers of the New Testament would later expand on Jesus’ teaching, and stress its importance. “Vow” and “oath” are not precisely synonyms, but the reasons they give us not to swear promises before men apply all the more to promises made to God. James first reminds his readers how little they know about the future and how little power they actually have to produce the results they hope for by their own efforts. Any attempt to horse-trade with God, or any solemn promise made to men in his name, assumes circumstances over which I have no control and knowledge I don’t possess. James finishes by saying, “Above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your ‘yes’ be yes and your ‘no’ be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.”

“Above all,” he says. That’s how important it is not to make promises you might not be able to keep.

Jephthah’s story is the single most powerful Old Testament illustration of how man’s tendency to make promises to God can go horribly, horribly wrong. I’ve been reading and re-reading it for several weeks now, and I like the story less each time.

II. Twelve Judges in Chronological Order (continued)

8. Jephthah (continued)

Judges 11:29-31 — A Rash Promise

“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. And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, ‘If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, 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 it up for a burnt offering.’ ”

The Dark Side of Judges

Judges is a book about God’s faithfulness in repeatedly delivering his failing people from the rightful consequences of their sin. But just about every story in Judges has a dark side to it. The natural sinfulness of even the men God used for his glory comes out here, there and everywhere. In chapter 1, failure to finish the job mutes the early victories of various tribes. Later, Barak’s cowardice taints his victory over Sisera, and his glory goes to a woman. Gideon’s spectacular victory over Midian is marred by the necessity to kill Israelite rebels, the ephod that becomes a snare, and seventy sons murdered because their father just can’t stay away from the concubines. We will get to Samson shortly, who makes so many unforced errors it’s hard to keep track.

But one of the darkest stories in Judges is Jephthah’s. Yet another great victory is about to end with “Alas!”

The Spirit of the Lord

I cannot easily get past these words: “Then the Spirit of the Lord was upon Jephthah.” That’s so positive!

I noted earlier that Jephthah is the first judge of whom the text says nothing about God’s involvement in calling him or raising him up. Othniel? “Raised up.” Ehud? “Raised up.” Barak? “Commanded.” Gideon? A conversation with the angel of the Lord and a couple of timely miracles persuaded him to serve. Tola and Jair? “Arose.” (We seem to be going downhill here, but we can still infer God’s passive involvement in equipping them for service.)

Well, now we come to Jephthah, whose authority to lead Israel into war with Ammon came from men in a negotiation. Nothing about the circumstances in which he came to prominence inclines the reader to assume God was behind it. However, Jephthah’s own statement during the negotiation with his brothers that victory comes from the Lord tells us he was at least God-conscious, as does his repeated mention of “the Lord our God” in his letter to the king of the Ammonites. That’s something.

Now the Spirit of the Lord comes upon Jephthah. God is finally showing evidence of being personally involved in the fight with Ammon. It seems like we’re off to the races.

Then, just one verse later, Jephthah starts negotiating with God. “Jephthah made a vow.” It started with the words “If you” and continued with the words “I will”. You just want to shake your head in disbelief. The words “I will” in the mouth of created beings rarely turn out well.

Vows and the Law of Moses

We may forgive Jephthah for his error to some extent. The man had never heard the Sermon on the Mount. He had never read the book of James. He may even have assumed the Law of Moses required such things. If so, he assumed incorrectly.

Vows are all over the Law of Moses. The books of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy use the Hebrew word for “vow” forty-five times. Do you know what all those references have in common? Not one of them ever requires a vow. Every reference to vows in the law simply assumes that making them was a common activity men of the day engaged in, and puts limitations and qualifications on the vow-making process. The law warns repeatedly of the dangers involved in making promises to God that a person might not be able to deliver.

Vows were strictly voluntary, as this passage plainly declares:

“If you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin. But if you refrain from vowing, you will not be guilty of sin. You shall be careful to do what has passed your lips, for you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth.”

So then, the Law of Moses did not require anyone to make vows, but it stipulated that any promise made to God absolutely had to be kept. Jephthah remembered the second part, but not the first. God had given seven judges great victories in the past. In no case did he require them to make promises in order to obtain his help.

Getting Out of a Vow

People often complain that the Law of Moses discriminates against women. I don’t think that’s the case at all. Compared to the laws of other nations of the day, Israel’s law offered women unprecedented protection. The only people in Israel who could get out of a vow made to the Lord were wives and daughters, women under the headship of men. Numbers 30 is an entire chapter devoted to spelling out circumstances under which a husband or father could nullify the thoughtless vow of any woman under his care, and the Lord would then forgive her for not following through on her promise. Widows and divorced women did not have the same protection. Like all Israelite men, the law expected them to keep every vow they made.

Vows could be costly. In giving Samuel to the Lord all the days of his life, Hannah got the desire of her heart, but her little boy grew up in Shiloh from the time she weaned him and she saw him a grand total of once a year. Numbers 30 tells us her husband Elkanah could have nullified her vow, but he did not.

Men and Vows

Had Elkanah made the same vow, he would have had no such protection. As the same passage states:

“This is what the Lord has commanded. If a man vows a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.”

We take solemn promises much less seriously today, as current divorce laws and contract laws demonstrate. There are all kinds of ways to get out of a deal you’ve made that ends up working against your interests. Jephthah’s situation was not like that. He was a man under a law that did not require vows, but took those that men made very seriously indeed.

With this background in mind, we proceed with our story.