The holy spirit came upon jephthah

THE HOLY SPIRIT CAME UPON JEPHTHAH
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Judges 11:29 29Then the Spirit of the LORD came on
Jephthah. He crossedGilead and Manasseh, passed
through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he
advancedagainstthe Ammonites.
Jephthah
Jephthah, appears in the Book ofJudges as a judge who presided overIsrael
for a period of six years. According to Judges, he lived in Gilead. His father's
name is also given as Gilead, and, as his mother is describedas a prostitute,
this may indicate that his father might have been any of the men of that area.
Jephthah led the Israelites in battle againstAmmon and, in exchange for
defeating the Ammonites, made a vow to sacrifice whateverwould come out of
the door of his house first. When his daughter was the first to come out of the
house, he immediately regrettedthe vow, which would require him to sacrifice
his daughter to God. Jephthah then carried out his vow, though some
commentators have disputed as to whether or not the sacrifice was actually
carried out. Traditionally, Jephthah is listed among major judges because of
the length of the biblical narrative referring to him, but his story also shares
features with those of the minor judges, such as his short tenure—only six
years—inoffice.
Wikipedia
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES

Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
The Spirit Of SacredWarfare
Judges 11:29-33
A.F. Muir
There is much at which the modern readerstumbles in the stories of Old
Testamentwarfare. The pitilessness, the assumption that all the right of the
question betweenthe belligerents is on one side, the carnage evento
extermination, are all repugnant to modern feeling. It is well to look at the
Divine backgroundand relationof these wars:therein, and therein alone, will
be found their apology, if apologybe forthcoming. In the Ammonite war of
Jephthah -
I. JUSTIFICATION IS FOUND IN THAT, ON THE LOWEST GROUND, IT
WAS A WAR OF SELF-PRESERVATION;AND, ON THE HIGHEST,
ISRAEL WAS DEFINITELYAND AUTHORITATIVELY IDENTIFIED
WITH THE CAUSE OF GOD'S TRUTH AND RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND
APPOINTED THE INSTRUMENTOF HIS JUDGMENTS.In a sense there
was "no quarter" in these wars. The claims of the foes of God's people were of
the most extreme and exacting character. The barbarians had no pity. It
would have been of small moment to them to have "utterly cut off" every
man, woman, and child. The greatestcrimes were perpetrated by them on the
smallestprovocation;and they could not be trusted. There was one argument,
and one alone, that could be understood - the sword. But there were also
weighty interests representedby Israel, for the sake ofwhich it was pre-
eminently important that it should continue to exist, and that under
conditions of freedom and religion. It was its missionto revealthe will of God
to men, not only as a verbal communication, but as a law illustrated in life and
conduct. These interests were the highestinterests of the world, and Israelwas
custodianof them for all future ages. There is a humanitarianism that
discounts truth, and would reduce all duty to the nearer and more external
utilities of life. The Bible, whilst not ignoring the brotherhood of men (no book

guards this so jealously), is careful to ground it upon a Divine fatherhood, and
to secure its true observance by enforcementof morality and righteousness.
Israel, too, was not at liberty to exercise forbearance. "The iniquity" of these
nations "was full." They were guilty of unnameable crimes, rejecters ofDivine
revelation, and cumberers of the ground yet to be occupied by God's gracious
purposes.
II. ALL THROUGH JEHOVAH WAS RECOGNISED AS THE TRUE
ARBITER. Nothing could be more impressive than the attitude of Jephthah.
He is anxious to obtain a just settlement without recourse to arms. He sets
forth his statementof the case with the utmost courtesy, exactitude, and
forbearance. Everyopportunity is given for peacefulunderstanding; but
Ammon turns a deaf ear. Solemnly then, under the peculiar dispensation in
which they lived, they put the question in the hands of God. Jehovahis to
witness betweenthe disputants, and the war is no longer a confusedstrife, but
a punitive judgment. Israel, under such circumstances,was notat liberty to
waive its moral claims, and to grant a truce ere the enemy had yielded the
point at issue. Israelis the instrument of Divine vengeance upon a wickedand
obstinate nation. It is an anachronism of the gravestconsequence to judge of
the wars of the ancient world by the ameliorated conditions of modern life.
III. THE LEADER OF ISRAEL RECEIVED HIS COMMISSION
DIRECTLYFROM THE HANDS OF GOD. Nothing else canbe meant by
"then the Spirit of Jehovah came upon Jephthah." Divine impulse, Divine
wisdom, Divine obligation are all implied. It is no longera war whose main
issues and movements are subjectto fallible human conditions; it is really in
God's hands. He bears the blame, so far as his commands are observed. If the
mode of warfare, etc. appear inhuman, it will be because our minds fail to
graspthe tremendous importance of that righteousness ofwhich they were the
slow precursors and rude witnesses.
IV. THE WAR IS CARRIED ON IN THE SPIRIT OF SELF-SACRIFICE
AND IMPLICIT DEVOTION. The vow of Jephthah shows this. He
anticipates his return in victory, and the people's enthusiastic welcome to him
as their deliverer. Like Gideon, he will not acceptthis; it is Jehovah's alone.
To Jehovah, therefore, he vows of his own "whatsoevercomethforth (out) of

the doors of my house to meet me." No gratificationof self, therefore, could be
the motive of such a campaign. If, on the other hand, there is not that
repugnance to bloodshed displayed by Jephthah that might be lookedfor in a
Christian leader, we must remember that the religious nature developed
slowlyin human history, and God chose his instruments not because they
were perfect, but, such as they were, to bring on higher possibilities and a
better time. - M.
Jephthah the Gileadite.
Judges 11:1-33
Jephthah
W. G. Blaikie, D. D.
It is common to regardJephthah as one of the wildest characters ofthe Bible
— a rough and heedless man; alike rash in vowing and heartless in fulfilling;
one whom it is strange to find in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. Jephthah
was neither a godless nor a selfishman. Not godless,for we find in the brief
annals of his life more copious recognitionof God than in the case ofmost of
the other judges; and not selfish, because, forgetting his private wrongs, he
devoted his life to the service of his country, and, overcoming his strongest
feelings of natural affection, he did with his daughter according to his vow.
We shall be nearer the truth if we regardJephthah as a goodman, sadly
misguided; a man roughly trained, poorly educated, and very deficient in
enlightened views;wishing to serve God, but in greaterror as to what would
prove an acceptable service;a man in whose religion the ideas of his
neighbours of Moab and Ammon had a strong though unknown influence;
one who, with the deepestloyalty to God, had unconsciouslycome under the
delusion that Jehovahwould acceptof such an offering as the neighbouring
nations offeredto their gods. In trying to estimate Jephthah aright it is
necessarythat we bear his early history vividly in mind. He had the grievous
misfortune to have a wickedmother, a woman of abandoned character;and

as in these circumstances his father could not have been much better, his
childhood must have been very dreary. No goodexample, no holy home, no
mother's affection, no father's wise and weighty counsel. If Jephthah owed
little to his parents, he owedless to his brothers. If he knew little of the
sunbeams of parental love, he knew less of the amenities of brotherly
affection. By his brothers he was, as we may say, kickedout from his father's
house; he was driven forth into the wide, wide world, to shift as he might; and
this under the influence of a motive all too common, but which in this case
appears in all its native repulsiveness. It was to prevent him from sharing in
his father's inheritance; to keepto themselves the largestpossible share. A
wretchedrevelation truly of family spirit! None of the dew of Hermon here.
The life to which, in these circumstances, Jephthahresortedwas wild and
rough, but was not consideredimmoral in those wild times. He became a
freebooteron the borders of Moaband Ammon, like many a borderer two or
three centuries ago in Cumberland or Wigton; carrying on an irregular
warfare in the form of raids for plunder; gathering to himself the riff-raff of
the country-side. The occupationwas very unfavourable to a religious life, and
yet somehow (suchis the sovereigntyof grace)Jephthah evidently acquired
deep religious impressions. He was strong againstidolatry, and that not
merely because it was the religion of his enemies, but because he had a deep
regard for the God of Israel, and had been led in some way to recognise the
obligation to serve Him only, and to be jealous for His glory. And, partly
perhaps through the greatself-controlwhich this enabled him to exercise, and
the courageous spirit which a living belief in such a God inspired, he had risen
to greatdistinction as a warrior in the mode of life which he followed, so that
when a leader was neededto contend with the Ammonites, Jephthah was
beyond all question the man most fitted for the post. It is very singular how
things come round. What a strange feeling Jephthah must have had when his
brothers and old neighbours came to him, inviting and imploring him to
become their head; trying as best they could to undo their former unkindness,
and gethim, for their safety, to assume the post for which not one of them was
fitted! It is amazing what an ill-treated man may gain by patiently biding his
time. In every history there are parallelincidents to that which now occurred
in the ease ofJephthah — that of Coriolanus, for example; but it is not every
one who has proved so prompt and patriotic. He gave way to no reproachover

the past, but only made conditions for the future which were alike reasonable
and moderate. His promptness supplies a greatand oft-needed lessonfor
Christians; showing how ready we should be to forgive and forget ill-
treatment; to return blessing for cursing, and goodfor evil. But let us now
notice what was peculiar in Jephthah's mode of accepting office. In
contemplating the prospectof the Ammonites being subdued, it is not he, but
Jehovah, whom he regards as the victor. (Judges 11:9); and after he has been
made head and captain he utters all his words before the Lord at Mizpeh
(ver.11). And now it was that he made his fatal vow. He made it as a new
pledge of his dependence on God, and desire to honour Him. The strangest
thing about the transactionis, that Jephthah should have been allowedin
these circumstances to make such a vow. It was common enough in times of
greatanxiety and dangerto devote some much-valued objectto God. But
Jephthah left it to God, as it were, to selectthe object. He would not specifyit,
but would simply engage,if he should return in peace from the children of
Ammon, to offer to the Lord whatevershould come forth from the doors of
his house to meet him. It seemeda pious actto leave to God the selectionof
that object. Jephthah's error lay in supposing that God would select, thatGod
would acceptthe responsibility which he laid upon Him. What followedwe
hardly need to rehearse. Butwhat became of Jephthah's daughter?
Undoubtedly the weight of evidence is in favour of the solution that, like
Iphigenia at Aulis, Jephthah's daughter was offeredas a burnt-offering. It is a
shocking thought, and yet not inconsistentwith the supposition that essentially
Jephthah was a sincere and loyal servantof God. We must remember that he
was an unenlightened man, ill brought up, not possessing the cool, well-
balancedjudgment of one who had calmly and carefully studied things human
and Divine with the best lights of the age, but subjectto many an impulse and
prejudice that had never been corrected, and had at last become rootedin his
nature. We must remember that Gilead was the most remote and least
enlightened part of the land of Israel, and that all around, among all his
Moabite and Ammonite neighbours, the impression prevailed that human
sacrifices were acceptable to the gods. This remarkable narrative carries some
striking lessons.

1. In the first place, there is a lessonfrom the strange, unexpected, and most
unseasonable combinationin Jephthah's experience of triumph and
desolation, public joy and private anguish. It seems so unsuitable, when all
hearts are wound up to the feeling of triumph, that horror and desolation
should come upon them and overwhelm them. But what seems so
unseasonable is what often happens. It often seems as if it would be too much
for men to enjoy the fulfilment of their highest aspirations without something
of an opposite kind. GeneralWolfe and Lord Nelsondying in the moment of
victory are types of a not infrequent experience. At the moment when Ezekiel
attains his highest prophetical elevation, his house is made desolate, his wife
dies. The millionaire that has scrapedand saved and struggled to leave a
fortune to his only son is often called to lay him in the grave. Providence has a
wonderful store of compensations. Sometimes those who are highest in
worldly position are the dreariestand most desolate in heart.
2. Another striking lessonofJephthah's life concerns the errors of goodmen.
It dissipates the notion that goodmen cannotgo far wrong. But let us learn
from Jephthah all the goodwe can. He was remarkable for two great
qualities. He depended for everything on God; he dedicatedeverything to
God. It is the very spirit which the gospelofJesus Christ is designedto form
and promote. Jephthah was willing, according to his light, to give up to God
the dearestobjectof his heart. One thing is very certain. Such sacrifices can
be lookedfor from none but those who have been reconciledto God by Jesus
Christ. To them, but only to them, God has become all in all. They, and they
only, canafford to sacrifice allthat is seenand temporal.
(W. G. Blaikie, D. D.)
Why are ye come unto me now when ye are in distress?
J. Parker, D. D.
The elders of Gilead got into trouble, and they said, "We are in distress;'we
turn againto thee,'" etc. Jephthah mockedthem, and said, "If I fight for you
and win 'shall I be your head?'" Who can tell how suggestivelyhe uttered the

word "your"? — head of a mob of ingrates — "your": and his heart said,
"Ha, ha! 'Why are ye come unto me now when ye are in distress?'Why did
you not come twelve months ago? Why did you not come when the feastwas
on the table smoking hot? Why did you not ask me to the dance and the revel
and the high glee of Gilead? Here you are like a number of whipped hounds
coming to me in your poverty and weaknessand humiliation; you have come
to the bastard." It was not a resentful speech:it was the eloquence ofa noble
man. Some people can only be taught when they are whipped. These people
belongedto that bad quality. Have we not here a revelationof human nature?
Can we boast ourselves againstthe elders of Gileadand say we are of a higher
quality? Are we not all guilty before one another in this very respect? There
are some men we never write to exceptwhen we want something. They never
receiveda friendly letter from us in their lives. The moment we come into
distress or difficulty then we write to those men and call them friends. We pay
our friends unconsciouslya high tribute by going to them againand againin
our distress. Our going, being translated into language, means, "We have
come again; every other door is shut againstus; this kind, hospitable home-
door was never thrust in our faces, it was always openedby some kindly hand:
the lasttime we came it was for help, we have come on the same errand
again." This may be mean enough on our part, and yet there is an
unconscious tribute to the very friends whom we neglectedin the time of our
strength and prosperity. See how this same question penetrates the whole
warp and woof, the whole webof life and thought. Sometimes it is the Church
that asks the question. The Church says to some applicants for admission,
"'Why are ye come unto me now when ye are in distress?'You never come in
the summer-time. you never come in the fair weather: why are ye come to me
now when ye are in distress? What has brought you? Which of God's
constables has arrestedyou and planted you in this prison? Trouble is your
gaoler, and he has turned the key of the prison upon you in Church." There
are people we use thus meanly, and the Church may be used often on this low
ground. We go when we are sad. But are we aware that here also we are
paying an unconscious tribute to the Church and to everything that is
centralisedand glorified by that Divine emblem? The Church wants you to
come in the time of distress. The Church is not an upbraiding mother. She
may utter a sigh over you as she sees your raggedAnd destitute condition, but

she admits you all the same and tells you to go up higher. If our friends can
ask the question of Jephthah, if the Church can put the same inquiry, so in
very deed and in the fullest significance canthe Bible. Who goes to the Bible
in the summer-time? The dear old Bible says to many of us, "What, you back
again? What has happened now? Some one dead? property lost? not well?
What do you want with me to-day? Tell me your case;don't profess you love
me and want me for my own sake;tell me what it is you want before you
begin, and I will open at the place." It is God's book, because it is so lovely
and so sweetand so large of heart. So far we have takenan advancing line.
We beganwith our friends, we passedthrough the Church, then we went to
the Bible, and now we go to God. This is the Divine inquiry: "Why are ye
come to Me now when ye are in distress?" This is the great hold which God
has upon us all. His family would be very small but for the distress of the
world. His heavencan hardly hold His household because ofthis wearying
trouble, this eternal want, this gnawing worm of discontent.
(J. Parker, D. D.)
Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord
Jephthah's vow
T. Taylor, D. D.
I. HOW THE LORD SUFFERETHGOOD MEN AND WISE MEN TO
SNARE THEMSELVES, AND BRING NEEDLESS SORROWS AND WOES
ON THEMSELVES BY TEMERITYAND RASHNESS (1 Samuel25:34;
Matthew 26:31).
1. The folly of man's heart, which would walk at large, unconfined within the
rules of wisdom; this makes men rash evenin the things of God, as here.
2. God's just desertionof goodmen, for their humiliation; and to give them
experience of themselves, and how their own wisdom will make them befool
themselves, as David did after his rash numbering of the people, and cleave
more close to God and His counsel, whenthey see their own counsels prove fit

for nothing but to castthem down. To be well advised in that we do or speak,
avoid temerity and rashness, by which, making more haste than goodspeed,
men do but brew their own sorrow. Consider —
1. That rashness doethnothing well (Proverbs 15:22). "Without counsel
thoughts come to nought," and the hasty man, we say, never wants woe.
Herod himself, as wickedas he was, was sorryfor his rash oath; and yet how
mischievous was it, againstthe life of John Baptist! A man going in haste
easilyslideth (Proverbs 19:2).
2. A note of a man fearing God is to carry his matters with discretion (Psalm
112:5). "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of true wisdom."
3. The law rejecteda blind sacrifice;the gospelrequireth a reasonable
(Romans 12:1); and all sacrificesmust be seasonedwith the salt of discretion.
4. Rashnessand temerity lays us bare and nakedto the lashes of God, of men,
and of our own consciences. Rules ofdirection to avoid this sin of rashness,
attended with so much sorrow.First,watchcarefully againstthine own
rashness in —
1. Judgment.
2. Affections.
3. Speeches.
4. Actions.
5. Passions.Secondly, arm thyself with the rules of Christian prudence to
avoid this sin, and the sorrow ofit; as knowing that it is not enough to be a
faithful servant, but he must be wise too.
II. THE LORD COMMONLYEXALTING HIS SERVANTS WITH SOME
HIGH FAVOUR, BRINGS SOME STINGINGCROSSWITHIT, TO
HUMBLE THEM.
1. The Lord spies in us a lewd nature and disposition, even like that of the
spider, which canturn everything into poison. There is in the best a root of
pride and vanity which in prosperity and warm sunshine sprouteth and grows

wonderfully stiff. Paul himself is in dangerto be exalted out of measure by
abundance of revelation; and therefore the Lord, as a wise physician, adds a
dose of affliction to be an antidote to expel the poison of pride, and with a
prick lets out the wind of vainglory.
2. This height of honours, success, etc., easilygainethour affections and
delights, and so draws and steals awayour delights in the Lord. We are prone
to idolise them, and to give them our hearts, and therefore the Lord is forced
to pull our hearts from them, and by some buffetings and cooling cards, tells
us in what sliding and slippery places we stand, and therefore had need still
keepour watchabout us, and not pour out our hearts upon such momentary
pleasures.
3. We are as children in our advancements who, having found honey, eattoo
much. If the Lord did not thus sauce our dainties, how could we avoid the
surfeit of them? Alas! how would we dote upon the world if we found nothing
but prosperity, who are so setupon it for all the bitterness of it.
4. The Lord spies in us an unthankful disposition, who, when He honours us,
and lifts us up that we might lift up His name and glory, we let the honour fall
upon ourselves.
III. GOD DOTH OFTEN TURN THE GREATESTDELIGHTS AND
EARTHLY PLEASURES OF HIS SERVANTS TO THEIR GREATEST
SORROW.
1. From the transitoriness ofall outward comforts;here below there is never a
gourd to coverour head, but a worm to consume it. And therefore what a man
doth chiefly delight in the fruition, he must needs be most vexed in the
separationand want of it.
2. From the naughty dispositionof our hearts.(1)Hardness of heart which will
not yield without such hard and smart strokes.(2)Thatwe can turn all kind of
comforts, natural and supernatural, to bewitching vanities, and yield them
strength enough to allure us and draw us from the sound comfort of them;
there is no ordinance, no creature, no gift, no comfort that can escapeus.

3. From the jealousyof God who hath made all His creatures, ordinances,
gifts, His servants as wellas ours, and cannot abide that any of them should
have any place but of servants with us; His zeal cannotabide that they should
gain our hearts, or souls, or any powerof them from Him, and therefore when
men go a-whoring after the creatures, and lay the level of their comfortbelow
the Lord Himself, then He shows the fervency of His zeal, either in removing
the gift or them from the comfort of it.
IV. ALL PROMISES TO GOD OR MAN LAWFUL AND IN OUR POWER
MUST BE RELIGIOUSLY AND FAITHFULLY PERFORMED;OF ALL
WHICH, THOU OPENETHTHY MOUTH TO THE LORD, OR BEFORE
THE LORD, THOU MAYEST NOT GO BACK.
1. I say, all lawful promises, for no promise may be a bond of iniquity, and the
performance of such is but tying two sins together, as Herod tied to a wicked
oath, murder of John Baptist.
2. All promises in our power, for nothing can tie us to impossibilities, as when
the bishop makes the priest vow perpetual continency — a thing out of his
powerand reach.
3. To God or men.
(1)To God (Numbers 30:3).
(2)To man; fidelity and veracity are of the weighty points of the law (Matthew
23:23).And of the heathen given up to a reprobate sense it is said, they were
truce-breakers (Romans 1:30).
4. They must be performed religiously and faithfully. To a conscionable
performance three things are required.(1) Perform them willingly and
cheerfully; for God loves as a cheerful giver, so a cheerful performer.(2) Fully
and wholly, not by halves (Numbers 30:3). He shall do all that is gone out of
His mouth, not taking awaya part, as Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5).(3)
Without delay; every seasonable actionis beautiful. Besides the express
commandment (Ecclesiastes 5:4).
(T. Taylor, D. D.)

Different views held as to Jephthah's vow
L. H. Wiseman, M. A.
Among Jewishparaphrasts and commentators, the more ancient are mostly of
opinion that Jephthah did actually sacrifice his daughter. They censure the
rashness ofhis vow, but they do not appear to doubt that the sacrifice ofthe
maiden was actually made. Some later Jewishwriters, however, of great
authority, have contended that Jephthah's daughter was not slain, but
devoted to a life of virginity; being shut up in a house which her father built
for the purpose, and there visited four days in eachyear by the maidens of
Israelas long as she lived. Among Christian writers, perhaps all during the
first ten centuries — certainly the exceptions, if any, were few and far between
— believed that the maiden was sacrificed. LaterChristian writers have not
been so unanimous. Many, perhaps the majority, of those who have treated
upon the subject, hold the opinion which, as we have seen, was universal in the
early Church. Many others, of equal learning and eminence, have maintained
that Jephthah's daughter was not offered by her father as a burnt offering,
but that she was permitted to live; among these, there are some who believe
with the modern Jews just mentioned, that she was shut up by her father and
devoted to a life of seclusion;while others suppose that she was devotedto the
Lord's service in a life of celibacy, and was numbered during the remainder of
her life with the "womenwho assemble atthe door of the tabernacle ofthe
congregation," performing duties of sacredservice in connectionwith the
worship at Shiloh That Jephthah was "hasty in opening his lips before God"
is generallyadmitted; although this rashness is singularly in contrastwith his
cautiousness andskill in negotiating and arguing with the Ammonite, and
shows how elements the most opposite may exist in the same character. That
he deliberately contemplated as possible the sacrifice ofa human being is a
supposition scarcelyto be entertained of one who is spokenof in the New
Testamentas a man of faith. Yet that human sacrifices were familiarto him
cannot be doubted; and it is possible that familiarity with the rites of the
Ammonites, on whose borders he dwelt, and with whom human sacrifices, as
is now the case in many parts of Africa, were religious rites of daily

occurrence, mayhave blunted his feelings, and have causedhim to forgethow
odious such offerings were in the sight of God. The excitement of the occasion,
however, seems to have bewildered him, so that he forgot everything not
immediately connectedwith his forthcoming expedition. His vow was utterly
rash. He did not take time to consider, for example, that if an ass or a dog had
first met him coming out of his house on his return, to offer it to the Lord
would have been an abomination. Had he bestowedthat thought upon the
matter which reasonitself would teachus to be necessarywhen we open our
lips to our Maker, he could not have failed to reflectthat it was possible, nay,
likely, that his only and beloved child would be the first to greethim on his
return. It was natural that he should offer a vow to the Lord; strange that he
should have done it with such impulsive rashness....The peculiar expressionof
the sacredtext, that "her father did with her according to his vow which he
vowed, and she knew no man," may lend plausibility to the opinion, that she
was devoted to a virgin life. But againstthis view there lie three objections,
which, when taken together, compelus to adopt the opposite view. The first is,
that a celibate life formed no part of her father's vow. The secondis, that the
greatdistance at which Jephthah was from Shiloh, where the tabernacle was,
and the absence ofany allusion in all his history to its existence, renderthe
theory of his daughter being transferred thither improbable. The third is, that
the misfortune of his birth would alone have prevented such an arrangement.
If the sons of a bastard, according to the law of Moses, couldnot enter into the
congregationof the Lord to the tenth generation, it is scarcelyprobable that
Jephthah's daughter could have securedadmission among the privileged
women who rendered service about the tabernacle. We therefore look upon
the maiden as having been sacrificed. Upon the gloom of this painful history,
however, an ethereal brightness shines. What can be more beautiful, more
wonderful, than this pure and lovely maid, brought up among bandits, and far
from the tabernacle of God, thus freely and sweetlygiving up herselfas a
thank-offering for the victories of Israel? And who canfail to see, in the story
of the meek and self-sacrificing maid, "a marvellous and mysterious
adumbration of a better sacrifice ofanother soul, of an only child, perfectly
free and voluntary, and of virgin holiness and heavenly purity, the sacrifice of
Christ, who gave His spotless soulto death for our sakes"?

(L. H. Wiseman, M. A.)
STUDYLIGHT RESOURCES
Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Judges 11:29
Judges 11:28
Judges 11
Judges 11:30
Now the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, so that he passedthrough
Gilead and Manasseh;then he passedthrough Mizpah of Gilead, and from
Mizpah of Gilead he went on to the sons of Ammon.
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Constable's ExpositoryNotes
Meyer's Commentary
Gary Hampton Commentary
Commentary Critical and Explanatory
Keil & Delitzsch
Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures
Henry's Complete
Henry's Concise
Peake'sBible Commentary
Preacher's HomileticalCommentary
Biblical Illustrator
Expositor's Bible
Pulpit Commentaries
Chapter Specific
Adam Clarke Commentary
Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah - The Lord qualified him for
the work he had calledhim to do, and thus gave him the most convincing
testimony that his cause was good.

Copyright Statement
These files are public domain.
Bibliography
Clarke, Adam. "Commentary on Judges 11:29". "The Adam Clarke
Commentary". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/acc/judges-
11.html. 1832.
return to 'Jump List'
Albert Barnes'Notes onthe Whole Bible
Then the Spirit of the Lord … - This was the sanctificationofJephthah for his
office of Judge and saviorof God‘s people Israel. Compare Judges 6:34;
Judges 13:25. The declarationis one of the distinctive marks which stamp this
history as a divine history.
The geographyis rather obscure, but the sense seems to be that Jephthah first
raisedall the inhabitants of Mount Gilead; then he crossedthe Jabbok into
Manasseh, andraisedthem; then he returned at the head of his new forces to
his owncamp at Mizpeh to join the troops he had left there; and thence at the
head of the whole army marched againstthe Ammonites, who occupied the
southern parts of Gilead.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Barnes, Albert. "Commentaryon Judges 11:29". "Barnes'Notes onthe New
Testament". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bnb/judges-
11.html. 1870.

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible
"And the Spirit of Jehovahcame upon Jephthah, and he passedover Gilead
and Manasseh, and passedoverMizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of
Gilead, he passedoverunto the children of Ammon."
"And the Spirit of Jehovahcame upon Jephthah." Thus, Jephthah entered
the lists of the greatcharismatic leaders of Israel. This made all the difference.
With Jephthah led by God's Spirit, the victory of Israel was assured.
As Yates noted, "Jephthahhere made a series ofjourneys,"[16]and the
implication is clearenough that Jephthah did so under the direction of the
Spirit of God. We are not told exactlywhat the purpose of those trips was,
but, in all likelihood, it was to enlist as many as possible in the army with
which Jephthah would meet the foe.
Copyright Statement
James Burton Coffman Commentaries reproduced by permission of Abilene
Christian University Press, Abilene, Texas, USA. All other rights reserved.
Bibliography
Coffman, James Burton. "Commentary on Judges 11:29". "Coffman
Commentaries on the Old and New Testament".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bcc/judges-11.html. Abilene
Christian University Press, Abilene, Texas, USA. 1983-1999.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible
Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah,.... The spirit of strength, as
the Targum; of fortitude of mind, of uncommon valour and courage, andof
zeal for God and Israel, and againsttheir enemies;such a spirit as used to be
given to men, when they were in an extraordinary manner raised up by the
Lord, to be judges, saviours, and deliverers of his people; so that as Jephthah
was before chosenby the people to be the generaland head of the tribes

beyond Jordan, he was raisedup and qualified by the Lord now to be the
judge of all Israel;of which the Spirit of the Lord coming on him was a
sufficient proof and evidence:
and he passedover Gileadand Manasseh;the countries that belongedto
Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh;however, all that part of it
which lay from the place where he was, to the land of the children of Ammon:
and passedoverMizpeh of Gilead; which lay to the north of the land of
Gilead, or tribe of Gad:
and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passedoverto the children of Ammon; did not
stay for them, to bring on the warin the land of Gilead, but prevented it by
carrying it into the land of the children of Ammon. It seems by this, that
though the children of Ammon had encamped in Gilead some time before,
Judges 10:17, yet for some reasonor another they had decamped, and had
retired into their own country; but yet threatening Israelwith a war, and
preparing for it.
Copyright Statement
The New John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible Modernisedand adapted
for the computer by Larry Pierce of Online Bible. All Rightes Reserved,
Larry Pierce, Winterbourne, Ontario.
A printed copy of this work can be ordered from: The Baptist Standard
Bearer, 1 Iron Oaks Dr, Paris, AR, 72855
Bibliography
Gill, John. "Commentary on Judges 11:29". "The New John Gill Exposition
of the Entire Bible".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/geb/judges-11.html. 1999.
Geneva Study Bible

Then the l Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passedover
Gilead, and Manasseh, andpassedover Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh
of Gilead he passedover [unto] the children of Ammon.
(l) That is, the spirit of strength and zeal.
Copyright Statement
Text Courtesyof BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.
Bibliography
Beza, Theodore. "Commentaryon Judges 11:29". "The 1599 GenevaStudy
Bible". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/gsb/judges-11.html.
1599-1645.
Hawker's PoorMan's Commentary
I pray the Readerto remark Jephthah's anointing. It was the same spirit
which came upon Jephthah, which descendedupon the Lord Jesus, only with
this difference, on Jephthah, according to the measure of the gift of Christ;
upon the Lord Jesus without measure. But it is delightful to contemplate, that
the anointing and qualifying of the Lord Jesus and his church is one and the
same. All these worketh that one, and the selfsame spirit, dividing to every
man severallyas he will. See Ephesians 4:7; John 3:34; 1 Corinthians 12:11.
Copyright Statement

Bibliography
Hawker, Robert, D.D. "Commentary on Judges 11:29". "Hawker'sPoor
Man's Commentary".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/pmc/judges-11.html. 1828.
Wesley's ExplanatoryNotes
Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passedover Gilead,
and Manasseh, and passedoverMizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead
he passedover unto the children of Ammon.
Spirit came — Indued him with a more than ordinary courage andresolution.
Manasseh— That is, Bashan, which the half tribe of Manassehbeyond
Jordan inhabited.
Mizpeh of Gilead — So called to distinguish it from other cities of the same
name, having gatheredwhat forces he suddenly could, he came hither to the
borders of the Ammonites.
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain and are a derivative of an electronic edition that
is available on the Christian ClassicsEtherealLibrary Website.
Bibliography
Wesley, John. "Commentary on Judges 11:29". "JohnWesley's Explanatory
Notes on the Whole Bible".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/wen/judges-11.html. 1765.
Scofield's ReferenceNotes
Jephthah

Jephthah seems to have been judge only of northeast Israel.
Copyright Statement
These files are consideredpublic domain and are a derivative of an electronic
edition that is available in the Online Bible Software Library.
Bibliography
Scofield, C. I. "ScofieldReferenceNotes on Judges 11:29". "Scofield
Reference Notes(1917Edition)".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/srn/judges-11.html. 1917.
John Trapp Complete Commentary
11:29 Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passedover
Ver. 29. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah.] See 3:10.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Trapp, John. "Commentary on Judges 11:29". JohnTrapp Complete
Commentary. https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jtc/judges-
11.html. 1865-1868.

Matthew Poole's EnglishAnnotations on the Holy Bible
The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah; endued him with a more than
ordinary courage and resolution.
Manasseh, i.e. Bashan, whichthe half tribe of Manasseh, beyondJordan,
inhabited, Joshua 20:8 21:6.
Mizpeh of Gilead; so called, to distinguish it from other cities of that name.
Having gatheredwhat forces he suddenly could, he came hither to the borders
of the Ammonites.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Poole, Matthew, "Commentaryon Judges 11:29". Matthew Poole'sEnglish
Annotations on the Holy Bible.
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/mpc/judges-11.html. 1685.
PeterPett's Commentary on the Bible
‘Then the Spirit of Yahweh came on Jephthah, and he passedover Gileadand
Manasseh, andpassedover Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gileadhe
passedover to the children of Ammon.’
Jephthah was now takenpossessionofby Yahweh, and he went through
Gilead and Manasseh(not necessarilyin person) gathering further troops to
join those already gatheredin Mizpeh (Judges 10:17). Judges 12:2 may also
indicate that he sent a summons to the tribal confederacy. Thenhe reviewed

his army at Mizpeh of Gilead and was satisfied. So then he setoff with his men
and his army to face the Ammonites.
Alternately it may be that the troops that had gatheredat Mizpah (Judges
10:17)had returned home to see to their fields and flocks whenno leaderwas
forthcoming, and thus had now to be re-gathered.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Pett, Peter. "Commentary on Judges 11:29". "PeterPett's Commentary on
the Bible ". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/pet/judges-
11.html. 2013.
Whedon's Commentary on the Bible
JEPTHTHAH’S VICTORY AND VOW, Judges 11:29-40.
29. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah — He was rousedand
fired for his warlike work by an extraordinary supernatural influence from
on high. But this must not be imagined identical with the New Testamentgift
of the Holy Ghost, and thence twisted to show that Jephthah’s rash vow was
uttered under divine inspiration, and therefore pleasing in the sight of God.
Note, Judges 3:10. PassedoverGilead and Manassehfor the purpose of
collecting troops and necessariesforthe war. Gilead and Manasseh are here
to be takenas a name for the territory of the trans-Jordanic tribes.
Mizpeh of Gilead — See note on Judges 10:17. Having collectedhis warriors,
Jephthah passedover the lofty eminence on which Mizpeh was situated, and
sooncame to the border of the children of Ammon, betweenwhom and

himself the Lord was to decide that day. Judges 11:27. From the heights of
Mizpeh the whole camp of the enemy was visible, spread over the beautiful
knolls of the undulating plateau towards Rabbah. The sight fired the soul of
Jephthah, and led him to utter his rash vow.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Whedon, Daniel. "Commentary on Judges 11:29". "Whedon's Commentary
on the Bible". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/whe/judges-
11.html. 1874-1909.
JosephBenson's Commentaryof the Old and New Testaments
11:29. The Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah — The people had chosenhim
for their leader, and promised to continue him their chief governor, as they
had already made him; and now Godpublicly declares his approbation of
their choice;and appoints him their judge, as he had others before, ( 3:10,) by
endowing him with an extraordinary measure of courage andwisdom, and all
other qualities necessaryto render him fit to be a ruler of his people. He
passedover Manasseh — That is, Bashan, which the half-tribe of Manasseh
beyond Jordan possessed. Mizpehof Gilead — So called, to distinguish it from
other cities of the same name. Having gatheredwhat forces he could, he
suddenly came hither to the borders of the Ammonites.
Copyright Statement

Bibliography
Benson, Joseph. "Commentaryon Judges 11:29". JosephBenson's
Commentary. https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/rbc/judges-
11.html. 1857.
John Trapp Complete Commentary
11:29 Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passedover
Ver. 29. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah.] See 3:10.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Trapp, John. "Commentary on Judges 11:29". JohnTrapp Complete
Commentary. https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jtc/judges-
11.html. 1865-1868.
George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary
Therefore. Hebrew, "then." Septuagint, "and." The refusalof the king of
Ammon was not precisely the reasonwhy God endued Jephte with shuch
wisdom and courage, thoughwe may say that it was the occasion. (Haydock)-
-- Jephte summoned the troops in Galaad, and in the two tribes of Manasses,
to attend his standard. He also invited Ephraim, (chap. xii. 2.; Calmet) and we
may reasonablysuppose the other tribes also, who were near enough to be
ready for the day of battle. Having collectedwhatforce he could in so short a

time, he returned to Maspha, and thence proceededto attack the enemy.
(Haydock)
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Haydock, George Leo. "Commentaryon Judges 11:29". "George Haydock's
Catholic Bible Commentary".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/hcc/judges-11.html. 1859.
E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes
the Spirit. Hebrew. ruach (feminine.) See App-9.
unto. This word is read in the text of some codices withAramaean, Syriac,
and Vulgate.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Bullinger, Ethelbert William. "Commentary on Judges 11:29". "E.W.
Bullinger's Companion bible Notes".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bul/judges-11.html. 1909-
1922.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Unabridged
Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passedover Gilead,
and Manasseh, and passedoverMizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead
he passedover unto the children of Ammon.
Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthan. The calm wisdom, sagacious
fore-thought, and indomitable energywhich he was enabled to display, were a
pledge to himself, and a convincing evidence to his countrymen, that he was
qualified by higher resources than his own for the momentous duties of his
office.
He passedover Gilead and Manasseh - the provinces most exposedand in
danger for the purpose of He passedover Gilead and Manasseh - the
provinces most exposedand in danger, for the purpose of levying troops, and
exciting by his presence a widespreadinterest in the national cause. Returning
to the camp at Mizpeh, he thence beganhis march againstthe enemy, and
there he made his celebratedvow, in accordancewithan ancient customfor
generals atthe outbreak of a war, or on the eve of a battle, to promise the god
of their worship a costly oblation, or dedicationof some valuable booty, in the
event of a victory. Vows were in common practice also among the Israelites. (1
Samuel 1:11; 2 Samuel 15:8, etc.) They were encouragedby the divine
approval, as emanating from a spirit of piety and gratitude, and rules laid
down in the law for regulating the performance. But it is difficult to bring
Jephthah's vow within the legitimate range (see the note at Leviticus 27:28).
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Jamieson, Robert, D.D.;Fausset,A. R.; Brown, David. "Commentary on
Judges 11:29". "CommentaryCritical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible -

Unabridged". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jfu/judges-
11.html. 1871-8.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(29) He passedover Gileadand Manasseh.—Rather, he went through (Vulg.,
circuiens). His objectclearly was to collectlevies and rouse the tribes—“He
sweptthrough the land from end to end to kindle the torch of war and raise
the population” (Ewald).
PassedoverMizpeh.—Perhaps, as in the next clause, to Mizpeh.
Passedoverunto the children of Ammon.—i.e., went to attack them.
PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES
Contagious SacrificialSubmission
Sermon by JoelBeeke onNov 1, 2009
Judges 11:29-40
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The Lord's Day Evening
November 1, 2009
Judges 11:29-40
“Contagious SacrificialSubmission”
Dr. JoelBeeke

Well it's very good to have the opportunity to bring you God's Word again
and to be with my dear friends, your pastors, Dr. Ligon Duncan and Dr.
Derek Thomas. I'd like you to turn with me please to Judges 11, Judges 11.
We want to read from verses 29 through 40.
Judges 11, verse 29:
“Then the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah and he passedover Gilead
and Manassehand passedover Mizpah of Gileadand from Mizpah of Gilead
he passedover into the children of Ammon. And Jephthah voweda vow unto
the Lord and said, “If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon
into my hands, then it shall be that whatsoevercomethforth of the doors of
my house to meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon
shall surely be the Lord's and I will offer it up for a burnt offering. So
Jephthah passedover into the children of Ammon to fight againstthem and
the Lord delivered them into His hands and He smote them from Aroer, even
til thou come unto Minnith, even twenty cities, and into the plain of the
vineyards with a very great slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon were
subdued before the children of Israel.
And Jephthah came to Mizpah and unto his house and behold, his daughter
came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances and she was his only
child, beside her he had neither sonnor daughter. And it came to pass that
when he saw her, he wrent his clothes and said, ‘Alas, my daughter, thou hast
brought me very low and thou art one of them that trouble me, for I have

opened my mouth unto the Lord and I cannot go back.’And she said unto
him, ‘My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord, do to me
according to that which hath proceededout of thy mouth, for as much as the
Lord hath takenvengeance for thee of thine enemies, evenof the children of
Ammon.’ And she said unto her father, ‘Let this thing be done for me. Let me
alone two months that I may go up and down upon the mountains and bewail
by virginity, I and my fellows.’And he said, ‘Go.’And he sent her awayfor
two months. And she went with her companions and bewailed her virginity
upon the mountains. And it came to pass at the end of two months as she
returned unto her father who did with her according to his vow which he had
vowed, and she knew no man. And it was a customin Israelthat the daughters
of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah, the Gileadite, four
days in a year.”
May God bless the reading of His sacredWord. Let's seek His face in prayer.
GreatGod of heaven we truly need a prayer of illumination on this chapter
that seems so disturbing to our fleshly senses. Pleasegive us wisdom and
guidance and benediction as we seek to proclaim Thy Word tonight, and do
teachus the holy and sacredart of sacrificialsubmissionthat we might walk
and be like Jephthah's daughter. We ask Thy blessing in Jesus'name. Amen.

Well when some people smile you can't help but smile — their smile is
contagious. A true Christian ought to want to be a contagious Christian. A
contagious Christianis actually someone who is so godly, so consistent, that
people around him cannot but not be impacted and inspired. Even unbelievers
can be impressed with the godly walk of believers, not that that always issues
a conversion— the Holy Spirit alone can convert sinners — but the Spirit
often uses the walk of life of a Christian as a means for the conversionof
sinners. Probably every believer here tonight canraise their hand and say, “I
know of one or two or maybe three people who've had a profound impact in
my life in first becoming a Christian.” So if we're healthy spiritually, we all
want to be contagious Christians.
To be a contagious Christianmeans first of all we have to be a Christian.
Secondlyit means we've got to be using the spiritual disciplines that God has
provided for us to grow in grace so that we have something to be contagious
about. And third it means developing an evangelistic heartfor other people
and seeing everyunconverted personas an open mission field and feeling a
burden for those around us who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ. So may I
ask you by way of introduction tonight, are you a contagious Christian? Do
you want to be a contagious Christian? Do you exercise those goodworks of
which the Hidelburg Catechismsays that one of their purposes is that, “by
our godly conversationothers may be gained to Christ.” Are you asking the
Holy Spirit, daily, that you might be able to impact others for goodby your
talk, by your walk, that your Christianity might rub off on others not by your
own osmosis, but by the impact and the influence of the Holy Spirit, taking
what He's given you so that you would be salton the earth and light on the
hill.
Well, how canwe become contagious Christians by the grace ofthe Holy
Spirit? That's what I want to look at with you tonight from the theme of
Jephthah's daughter. Jephthah's daughter was a very contagious person. You
notice at the end of the chapter, it says, “It was a custom in Israelthat the

daughters of Israelwent yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the
Gildeadite four days in a year.” What an impact this young woman had on
other young womenin Israel. Wouldn't it be wonderful, you converted
teenagers,you young men, if you impacted other young men the way, or you
young women, if you impacted other young womenthe way this young woman
impacted her peers. This is really positive peer pressure not only, but it's
positive contagious, Spirit-worked, God-honoring influence for good.
Well, let's considerthis theme tonight by looking at three thoughts. First the
difficult call for submission because you see Jephthah's daughter influenced
many people by her sacrificialsubmission. That's our theme tonight —
Contagious SacrificialSubmission. We’llsee first then the difficult call to
submission, secondthe wonderful exercise of submission, and third the
inspiring contagiousness ofthat submission.
I. The difficult call to submission.
God's plans often differ from ours and when that happens we're facedwith a
choice, aren'twe? Are we going to stubbornly proceedalong the path we want
to go or are we going to bow under God's ways in our lives? And sometimes
those choices canbe difficult, even in ordinary mundane things. Maybe you
would love to play football with your friends on Thursday night, but God's
calling you to anotherministry on Thursday night. What are you going to do?
Or maybe you’d love to have a careerin law, but God is calling you now into
motherhood — what path are you going to take? But beyond careerplans and
daily activities, maybe you’d planned to spend the rest of your life with a
certain partner, but God takes awaythat partner. How are you going to
respond? You see, when God calls us to something we haven't planned, we
must submit to His will, recognizing it takes priority over His will, but how we
submit to that will has so much to say about whether we will be contagious
Christians. Yes or no. And so sacrificialsubmissionis one of the toughest

tasks ofthe Christian life and it's preciselythat task that Jephthah's daughter
exhibits to a remarkably mature degree. She sets aside her own plans, her own
hopes, her own dreams for the glory of God. And the daughters of Israelare
so impressed, they commemorate her for her submission.
Now the problem is, we can't really considerJephthah's daughter without
considering Jephthah and his vow. So we want to look just briefly at the
historicalbackground of this situation. This is not friends, just a merely tragic
story about a foolish vow that costthe life of an innocent girl as so many have
made it out to be. God has brought the Israelites through the wilderness and
to the PromisedLand, but they did not complete the conquestof the people as
they were chargedto do and now they were living with the consequences.The
people were being corrupted by the worship of strange gods and God brought
them into judgment. Then they would repent, God would restore them, and
then they would backslide againand go back into idolatry and God would
send enemies againto attack them and His judgments would againlead them
to repentance and on and on the cycle and seventimes over in the book of
Judges. And again and again Godraised up one particular leaderto be at the
vanguard to bring deliverance to His people.
And Jephthah is one of those judges. God raises Jephthahto fight againstthe
oppressors. Now atfirst glance, youand I probably wouldn't have chosen
Jephthah. He wasn'tthe kind of man you would expect even Godto pick. He
was the illegitimate son of a Gileadite and a prostitute. His half brothers had
kickedhim out of their father's house and he was forcedto live with a band of
outcasts in the land of Tobe. Isn't that the way God often works? He makes
unlikely choices. Paulsays He choosesthe foolish things of the world, the weak
things, the base things, the things despised, the things which are not, to do His
mighty works. Wellthe elders of Gilead come to Jephthah to ask him to lead
them againstthe Ammonites who were amassedto fight the Israelites. And
after some negotiations, Jephthahagrees to do so and he sends messengersof
the king to the king of the Ammonites and the king refuses to listen, so
Jephthah regretfully is forced to go to battle againstthe Ammonites. And
knowing his odds are very dim and the situation is very grim, he comes to God
with a vow. And he says in verses 30 and 31 that, “If God will deliver the
children of Ammon into mine hands, it shall be that whatsoevercomesforth

of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace shallsurely be the
Lord's and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.” How could Jephthah make
such a foolish vow? That's what we're prone to say. Didn't he have the
foresightto think that someone he loved might emerge from his house?
Before jumping to a conclusion, let's take a closerlook and I think we’ll
discoverthat Jephthah really doesn'tmake a rash vow and really doesn't offer
up his daughter physically for a burnt offering. I know that runs contrary to
some of the old commentaries. Some commentators saythat Jephthah lived in
rough times and was undoubtedly influenced by paganideas which included
human sacrificesand bribing gods with vows to obtain favors from them and
thus he's a rather despicable figure who descends into the morass of paganism
in his actions here, both in bribing God and then in sacrificing his own, his
very own, his only daughter. And therefore he's someone to be despised. But if
you look closerat this story, I think there's actuallyeight things that when
takentogetheras a passage, repudiate this interpretation. Let me give them to
you quickly — all eight of them.
Number one, Jephthah's not a rash man. He's not a rash man. Swearing that
you will sacrifice whatevercomes out of your house sounds rash, but Jephthah
had already proved to the elders of Israeland the king of the Ammonites that
he was a cautious man. He didn't just jump at the request of the elders. He
talkedwith them, he negotiated terms, and then he didn't just jump into war,
but he talkedback and forth with the king of the Ammonites. He was a
diplomatic man not a rash man.
Number two, Jephthah was a man familiar with the Scriptures. Earlier in the
chapter we see that as he negotiated, he brings Scripture to bear on this
situation. Surely he must have known Leviticus 18:21 and Deuteronomy
12:29-32 that prohibited anyone in Israelfrom offering human sacrifices
especiallyone's children, for God is, “It is an abomination unto the Lord.” In
addition, Judges 11 is setin the context of reformation. Israel, including
Jephthah at this point, is not going awry, not slipping back into backsliding,
but they’re repenting — they’re turning to the living God, not awayfrom the
living God.

Thirdly, when Jephthah made his vow, the Bible says, “The Spirit of the Lord
was upon him.” Would the Spirit inspire him to do something so clearly
contradictory to the Spirit's own revealedScriptures? Don't we believe that
the Spirit never contradicts His own Word? So it seems very difficult to
believe that Israel would have followedJephthah as a leaderwhen his actions
so contradicted the very Word of God that the same Spirit entrusted to them.
Fourth, we need to look closelyat verse 31 — “If Thou shalt, without fail,
deliver the children of Ammon into my hands, then it shall be that whatsoever
cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from
the children of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord's and I will offer it up for a
burnt offering.” Now that does sound pretty grim, but there are two
possibilities here. The first is the word “and” which also canbe translated
“or,” in which case the text would read — “Shall surely be the Lord's or I will
offer it up for a burnt offering.” In other words, Jephthah was promising as it
were if a person comes out of my house, that person will be dedicated to the
Lord, will be the Lord's or if an animal comes out of my house, I will sacrifice
it to the Lord. So if that translation is correct, you see Jephthah is not
proposing sacrificing a human being, rather dedicating any human being that
would come out of his house to the service of God.
But there's a secondoption. The secondoption is the translation of the word
here used as “burnt offering.” In Hebrew that doesn't always mean blood
sacrifice. It can also mean total dedication. In that case you see, Jephthah's
vow would be, “Whatevercomes out of my house shall surely be the Lord's
and I will offer it for a complete dedication to the Lord.” Now either
possibility is a viable option, but there's one more translation issue and that's
the lastverse. That says, “The daughter's of Israelwent yearly to lament the
daughter of Jephthah.” The word translatedhere as “lament” is not
translated as “lament” anywhere else in the Bible. It's actually understood
elsewhere as “rehearse” or“commemorate.”The daughters of Israel did not
lament Jephthah's daughter's death, they commemorate her dedication to the
service of God which involved her wholeheartedsubmission.

Fifth, Jephthah had plenty of time after defeating the Ammonites and
greeting his daughter to ponder what he would do next. He gave his daughter
two months to bewailher virginity. Don't you think if Jephthah really
intended to kill his daughter that priests from Shiloh would have come to him
during that time, or someone would have warned him during that time of the
divine prohibition of human sacrifice?
Sixth, even if Jephthah's vow was rash, Leviticus 5, verses 4 and 5 offered him
the possibility of repenting of such a vow. And Leviticus 47 offered him the
possibility of redeeming his daughter by paying a ransom price, but we don't
read any implication that Jesus — Jephthah rather — even contemplated
either one of these options.
Seventh, that is why you see when Jephthah's daughter went to mourn for two
months she didn't mourn her dead, the mourned her perpetual virginity. The
closing verses saythat twice in a row. She goes to mourn her virginity, her
dedication to the Lord.
And finally, eighth, and perhaps the strongestofall, notice that Jephthah is
never reprimanded for what he does. In fact, he's actually commended in the
Bible. Samuel, 1 Samuel 12:11, names Jephthah as one who kept Israelsafe.
He honors Jephthah. Would Samuel have commended Jephthah is Jephthah
had sacrificedhis own daughter? Wasn't Samuel the one who said, “To obey
is better than to sacrifice”to king Saul and condemned Saul on that basis?
But most powerfully of all, if Jephthah is so despicable, then why did the
author to the Hebrews, Hebrews 11:32, include him in the famous “Hall of
Fame” of the Old Testamentfaith heroes? Jephthahdid fulfill his vow, but his
vow was to dedicate the rest of his daughter's life as a virgin to the Lord.
And lest you think that that vow is something rather trivial, so be reminded
that in Israel, if you didn't have children as a woman, it was as if the curse of
God was upon you. That was a huge burden to bear and a huge burden for
Jephthah to bear because everyIsraelite wanted to be of that line of which the

Messiahwouldbe born. And he had only one daughter, and if she was going
to be a virgin, not only could that line not produce the Messiah, but — and
that was also a problem for Jephthah — his own family line would be entirely
cut off, so it was a greatsacrifice forJephthah as well because that too in
Israelwas something that was to be regardedas God's disfavor when your
family line was cut off and you had no successors,male or female. So this was
a difficult call to submission, perpetual virginity. And Jephthah's daughter
stands out on the pages of Scripture for responding affirmatively to this
tremendous call to sacrifice so she would never been blessedwith motherhood,
never be blessedwith a God fearing husband, never be blessedas a possible
mother, grandmother or great-grandmotherof our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Messiahto come. She bows under God's will and she surrenders to her
father's vow.
II. The wonderful exercise ofsubmission
I wonder my friends, if you've ever takensomething you've really wanted
badly in your life and surrendered it to the Lord, and for the Lord's sake, you
were willing to forego it. I wonder if you know what sacrificialsubmission
means personally? But just how do we submit to the Lord? What's involved in
this wonderful submission? That's my secondthought. I'd like to present it to
you this way through the les of Jephthah's daughter's response, I believe that
submission is a five step process.We might picture it as an ascending ladder
of five steps. When we decreasein our submissionto God, we're going down
that ladder, we're moving further awayfrom God. But when we bow under
the Lord, we're actually climbing this ladder of submission and growing
closerto the Lord. But what are these steps?

Step one, acknowledgethe Lord, acknowledge the Lord. The first step of
submission is always to say, “It is the Lord.” No matter what the Lord does in
our lives. Both Jephthah and his daughter immediately recognize that their
affliction is from the hand of God. When his daughter walkedout of his door
to meet him, Jephthah was very grieved, but he could not say, “I take back my
vow.” He recognizes that God is in this. He says, “I opened my mouth to the
Lord my daughter, and I cannot go back.” He was saying, “Thatwas spoken
to God, so God is speaking in this. God is active in my affliction. God is
involved in this affliction.” Jephthah's daughter immediately echoes her
father. In verse 36 she says, “Thouhast openedthy mouth father unto the
Lord.” It is the Lord. Awareness ofGod is the first step to true submission.
Living coremdeo as the reformers put it — living in the presence of God, in
the face of God, in my everyday life, is the first step of living a lifestyle of
submission to God. So true submission doesn't blame the devil, it doesn't
blame fate, it doesn't blame man, it doesn't blame accident, but it
acknowledgesthe Lord as the primary source of all things including affliction.
True submission says, “I was silent because Thoudidst it.”
Do you remember when 9-11 happened when Larry King had a program on, I
think the next night, and askeda rabbi, two ministers, and John MacArthur,
“Where was God in all of this?” And the first three said, “Well, God wasn't
anywhere.” John MacArthur said, “Wellif Godwasn't anywhere, what hope
do we have in the midst of this tragedy?” He said, “God has everything to do
with this. God is always involved. God is always here.” — as Francis Schaeffer
calledhis book The God Who's Always There. And King actually proceeded,
and rightly so, to challenge the other three that the deity they profess must be
impotent if he couldn't controlsuch a tragedy. So how can you submit to an
affliction if God has nothing to do with your affliction? Such submission
would be unofficial and worthless. It would mean nothing. You see you can't
go to Godfor help in such times because He has no answerfor your sorrow
and your difficulty because He has no controlover it to begin with. So the
very best thing you canthen do, and sadly many Christians act this waywhen
they getafflicted, they say, “Well, there's nothing I cando but grin and bear

it.” And you say, “Well, can you give it over to the Lord?” “Well, yeah, but
what else canI do?” And they shrug their shoulders as if that's not a very
goodthing to give it over to the Lord. But true submission begins here to say,
“Godis here. This is the hand of God. It is the Lord.”
Maybe you've read the interesting little story of a boy named Robert, age 6,
who came to visit his grandfather who was an atheist. And his grandfather
had above his bed as he was dying, a sign that said, “Godis nowhere.” And he
askedhis boy, what a grandfather he was, “Canyou read that sign?” and the
boy was just learning to read. And the boy lookedat the word “nowhere” and
it was just too big for him and he broke it in half and he said, “God is now
here.” And God used it. Godused it for that man's conversion. But you see,
that's the point — God is always now here. Martin Luther said, “Letting God
be God is more than half of all true religion.” Are you letting God be God in
your life? Is that the first thing you say when you getaffliction? “It is the
Lord?”
Secondstep is justify the Lord, justify the Lord. It's on thing to say, “It's the
Lord,” but it's another thing to say, “This is right. The Lord makes no
mistakes.” In verse 35, Jephthah says, “I could not go back” implying, “It
wouldn't be right for me to go back on this vow. The Lord is righteous in all
His ways.” And the daughter says basicallythe same thing — “Do unto me”
look at verse 36, “Do unto me according to that which proceeds outof thy
mouth.” In other words, “This is right father, right for you and righteous
before God.” She's also admitting you see that she's a sinner. She deserves to
be dedicated to the Lord. She deserves virginity. She deserves this difficult
trial. Whateverhappens to her is under the righteous judgment of God. Oh
this is a step up you see. And this secondstepis really a stepthat really, even
Christians don't ever seemto reach. When they get afflicted, you’re a pastor,
you go visit them in the hospital, they hear they have canceror some child gets
hurt in an accidentand they say, “Why me?” You catchyourself saying that
too, don't you? “Why me? Why? It's so confusing. Why would the Lord do
this to me? I'm trying to be a good member of the church, I'm trying to walk
in His ways, I'm trying to be godly.” But you see if you have a little insight
into your own heart and your own worth and what you deserve, you would

rather say, “Why not me? Why hasn't the Lord done much more to me? Why
has He been so good to me?”
This past Monday our long distance seminary marketerand developer, Chris
Hannah, didn't show up for work. He was supposedto go with me to a little
conference and I called him and he said, “Did you know? I'm in the hospital.
My wife got in a serious accidentand we don't know if she's going to make it.
She's broken about twenty bones, internal bleeding.” I went up to see him,
hugged him. He lookedme straight in the eyes. He said, “She's alive. The Lord
is goodand the Lord is righteous.” That's what he said. And he paused and
the tears flowedand he said, “Evenif He takes her, He's good.” I don't know
if I could have said that if that was my wife, but that's spiritual maturity. It is
righteous. It is righteous. When Eli looses both of his sons, he says, “It is the
Lord. Let Him do what seemethHim good.” WhenAbsolom drives David
from the throne, David says, “Beholdhere am I. Let him do to me as seemeth
goodunto Him.” When Shimei curses, let him curse. It is righteous. I don't
deserve anything.
When I was twelve years old I got really upset with my mother one time
because my mother was so optimistic it was almostnauseous. And I'd try to
complain and try to getsome pity from her and she’d always say, “Wellit
could be worse.”Finally I saidto her, “You know mom, you can always say
that about anything, ‘It could be worse.’” She said, “That's right, it could be
worse, becauseson, all we deserve is death and hell and you haven't suffered
either one of those yet.” Have you ever realized that?
RecentlyI was on an elevatorgoing from floor one to floor sevenin
Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids and you know people are very quiet on
elevators. And I try to strike up conversations becausepeople are in need
when they’re in the hospital. So a woman steppedon with me on floor one and
I said, “Nice weathertoday, isn't it?” And she said, “Oh yes.” “Goodthing
we're not in control of the weather.” “That's right,” she said. I said, “The
Lord is goodto us isn't He?” “Oh,” she said, “that's right.” I was thinking
about how to evangelize her next and she turned to me and she said, “My
mama always told me, ‘Anything honey above ground is the mercy of the
Lord.’” Why, she's evangelizing me! Anything above ground — that's it! The

Lord is righteous! That's what this woman said — that's what this daughter
said. If it was evenmore than her perpetual virginity, evenif it was to sacrifice
her on the altar, “It is righteous father. I don't deserve anything.” That's a
beautiful place to be, but it's only the secondstep.
The third step is to approve the Lord, to approve the Lord. To say___ is
right, but to say, “It is well. The Lord's will is best.” — this young girl actually
took this position as well. She was willing to have her father's vow fulfilled
even if that meant she would bear the curse of perpetual virginity. She says,
verse 36, “Foras much as the Lord hath takenvengeance forthee of thine
enemies, even of the children of Ammon” in other words, “If it's the Lord's
will to exchange my perpetual virginity for the victory you've received, father
I approve. If that's the Lord's will, it's good, it's best. His will is always best.
He knows better for me, what is goodfor me, than I do for myself.” Now
that's contagious. Whenyou see believers in the midst of affliction “amening”
the ways of the Lord and saying it is well, even the world is impressedand
that's when the world is watching you the closestmy friend — when you’re
afflicted. When you’re afflicted, that's our best opportunity to influence the
world. When Job lost ten of his children he didn't say, “Lord, I acceptit that
nine have been taken, but couldn't you have left me at leastone?” But he said,
“The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessedbe” — imagine that —
“Blessedbe” with all your children dead “the name of the Lord. Now later on
it sat in Job's flesh a bit, but initially, initially he fully approved of God's way
with his children even in death. This is profound, contagious submission, and
yet the Bible's full of it, Church history's full of it. Ignatius calledthe chains
that bound him and would lead him to martyrdom for being a Christian his
“sweetpearls” andreckonedsuffering for the Lord Jesus “anhonor.” God
says, “It's not only a gift that I grant you to believe in My name, in Jesus'
name, but also that I grant you to suffer for My name.” It's a gift of Godto
suffer affliction for Christ's sake. Have you everrealized that? Have you ever
been able to amen God's ways when they went directly againstyour desires?
Step four, cling to the Lord, cling to the Lord. “If I perish, I perish, but I will
cling to God's mercy.” That goes yet beyond approving God, but it's precisely
what Jephthah's daughter was saying in verse 37 — “MayI go up and down
upon the mountains to bewail” notice not my death “but to bewailmy

virginity, I and my fellows.” Notice she was burdened. True submission is not
saying, “Well I'm not bothered by the problem.” If you’re not bothered by it,
there's no submission involved.
Years ago there was a lady in my congregationwho lost her husband and five
months later she came to me and she said, “The Lord's been so goodto me.
He's given me so much submission I've never missed my husband.” And I'm
thinking, wait a minute. Something's wrong. True submissionis not not
feeling the burden. True submission is feeling the burden and then giving it to
God and then clinging to Him and then saying with Job, “Though He slay me,
yet will I trust in Him.” That's true submission.
RecentlyI was in a London park and there was a young woman there with a
dog and she had this ball and she would throw the ball at the dog and hit him,
“Smack!” on the side. I thought, wow, she must not have meant to do that.
The dog's going to be angry. The dog wasn't angry. The dog picked up the ball
and brought it back to her. Over and over it went again — “Bam!” He picked
it up and would bring it back to her. That's the way a true Christian should
be. When God hits us with the balls of affliction, we should bring them back to
Him. “ThouHe slayme, yet will I trust in Him.” So there is a bewailing, but
it's a submissive bewailing.
But then comes stepfive, honor the Lord, honor the Lord, by saying, “His
glory is greaterthan me and my salvation” and that's where this daughter
excels beyond everything else. She was so submissive that she would surrender
anything than have God's name injured on her account. God's glory meant
more to her than her own life. That is profound submission, contagious
submission. She was saying as it were, “Father, do whateveryou vowed, for
the glory of God is at stake father. My future is nothing comparedto the glory
of God. I give up all. I give up my reputation for God's reputation.” You see,
Jephthah's daughter so identified with the cause of her father which was also
the cause ofthe covenantkeeping God of Israel, that she was spiritually one
with her father and spiritually one with God. She rejoicedin her father's safe
return. The cause ofGod's people was so close to her heart, she was willing to
approve whateversacrifice the Lord askedof her so long as the cause of God
triumphed. So her submission went beyond Jephthah's. Jephthah wrent his

clothes and was shakenwhen he saw his daughter, but she rejoicedand
remained strong in faith because the Lord had remembered His covenantand
vindicated the cause of His people. Though thou she shed many tears when
her father was gone battling the Ammonites, but now that he was home, she
was radiant with joy. God's honor made her forget herself. And that is
supreme submission.
Like JonathanEdwards said, “The greatestmoments of my life have not been
those that concernedmy own salvation, but those when I have been carried
and to commune with God and beheld His beauty and desired His glory and
forgotmyself. I rejoicedand yearned to be empty and annihilated of self in
order that I might be filled with the glory of God in Christ alone.” Beautiful,
self denial.
We’re so poor at self denial today. We’re so rich and increasedwith goods
and think we have need of nothing that we don't realize that we need self
denial. John Calvin said, “Selfdenial is the foundational ingredient of the
Christian walk of life.” And we scarcelydeny ourselves in anything.
Sometimes for us it's even too much to give the Lord even one day of seven.
“Selfdenial is a sacrificialdimension of true piety,” Calvin said. “It means
realizing we don't belong to ourselves but we belong to the Lord, and His will
and His glory means more to us than our will and our glory.” And Calvin
lived that out. We've gota long ways to go to get to that fifth step.
A member of my church that passedawaya few month ago was going into
serious surgery a few months before she passedawayand I was the last one to
see her. And the last thing I askedher before she was rolled awaywas, “How
are things going inside?” I meant spiritually. And she grabbed my hand and
this is what she said, with a firm grip looking me straight into the eyes,
“Whether we live, we live unto the Lord, whether we die, we die unto the
Lord. Whether we live therefore or whether we die, we live and die unto the
Lord.” Oh, sweet, selfdenying submission. Could it be my friend that God has
given you the trials He's given you just for this purpose, that you might learn
to be a contagious,sacrificialsubmitter in this world? Where would you be
without affliction? We’d all be spoiled brats. That's what we’d be. We need

submission. We need affliction. And we need to learn to submit under
affliction.
Jephthah's daughter has a lot to teach us. You see, we oftenwant to hold a few
things back from the Lord. We’re willing to give up this, maybe, and that,
maybe. But does it have to be our only daughter? “I’ll go anywhere Lord,
exceptto that place. I’ll do anything Lord, except does it have to be that?”
The old Scottishpreacher DouglassMcMillanonce told me a story of a
member of his church who said, “I'm willing to give everything to the Lord
for my entire life. I'm willing to submit no matter what He does to me, except
one thing I couldn't acceptif He did that.” And McMillan said, “What's
that?” “Well, she said, my dad had cancerand I just couldn't cope if my
husband got cancer.” And then he said, “What do you suppose the Lord did?
He gave her husband cancer. And how did she do? She did just fine because
she learnedto submit, even that, to the Lord.” Do you really want to be a
contagious Christian? Now, don't ask for afflictions, but also don't ask to have
no afflictions. Leave the amount of afflictions to God's inscrutable providence,
but ask that whateverafflictions God deems fitting to put upon you in His
inscrutable providence you will respond to them with these steps of
submission. https://www.fpcjackson.org/
The Biblical Illustrator
Judges 11
11:1-33
Jephthah the Gileadite.
Jephthah
It is common to regardJephthah as one of the wildest characters ofthe Bible--
a rough and heedless man; alike rash in vowing and heartless in fulfilling; one
whom it is strange to find in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. Jephthah was

neither a godless nora selfish man. Not godless, forwe find in the brief annals
of his life more copious recognitionof God than in the case ofmost of the
other judges; and not selfish, because,forgetting his private wrongs, he
devoted his life to the service of his country, and, overcoming his strongest
feelings of natural affection, he did with his daughter according to his vow.
We shall be nearer the truth if we regardJephthah as a goodman, sadly
misguided; a man roughly trained, poorly educated, and very deficient in
enlightened views;wishing to serve God, but in greaterror as to what would
prove an acceptable service;a man in whose religion the ideas of his
neighbours of Moab and Ammon had a strong though unknown influence;
one who, with the deepestloyalty to God, had unconsciouslycome under the
delusion that Jehovahwould acceptof such an offering as the neighbouring
nations offeredto their gods. In trying to estimate Jephthah aright it is
necessarythat we bear his early history vividly in mind. He had the grievous
misfortune to have a wickedmother, a woman of abandoned character;and
as in these circumstances his father could not have been much better, his
childhood must have been very dreary. No goodexample, no holy home, no
mother’s affection, no father’s wise and weighty counsel. If Jephthah owed
little to his parents, he owedless to his brothers. If he knew little of the
sunbeams of parental love, he knew less of the amenities of brotherly
affection. By his brothers he was, as we may say, kickedout from his father’s
house; he was driven forth into the wide, wide world, to shift as he might; and
this under the influence of a motive all too common, but which in this case
appears in all its native repulsiveness. It was to prevent him from sharing in
his father’s inheritance; to keepto themselves the largestpossible share. A
wretchedrevelation truly of family spirit! None of the dew of Hermon here.
The life to which, in these circumstances, Jephthahresortedwas wild and
rough, but was not consideredimmoral in those wild times. He became a
freebooteron the borders of Moaband Ammon, like many a borderer two or
three centuries ago in Cumberland or Wigton; carrying on an irregular
warfare in the form of raids for plunder; gathering to himself the riff-raff of
the country-side. The occupationwas very unfavourable to a religious life, and
yet somehow (suchis the sovereigntyof grace)Jephthah evidently acquired
deep religious impressions. He was strong againstidolatry, and that not
merely because it was the religion of his enemies, but because he had a deep

regard for the God of Israel, and had been led in some way to recognise the
obligation to serve Him only, and to be jealous for His glory. And, partly
perhaps through the greatself-controlwhich this enabled him to exercise, and
the courageous spirit which a living belief in such a God inspired, he had risen
to greatdistinction as a warrior in the mode of life which he followed, so that
when a leader was neededto contend with the Ammonites, Jephthah was
beyond all question the man most fitted for the post. It is very singular how
things come round. What a strange feeling Jephthah must have had when his
brothers and old neighbours came to him, inviting and imploring him to
become their head; trying as best they could to undo their former unkindness,
and gethim, for their safety, to assume the post for which not one of them was
fitted! It is amazing what an ill-treated man may gain by patiently biding his
time. In every history there are parallelincidents to that which now occurred
in the ease ofJephthah--that of Coriolanus, for example; but it is not every
one who has proved so prompt and patriotic. He gave way to no reproachover
the past, but only made conditions for the future which were alike reasonable
and moderate. His promptness supplies a greatand oft-needed lessonfor
Christians; showing how ready we should be to forgive and forget ill-
treatment; to return blessing for cursing, and goodfor evil. But let us now
notice what was peculiar in Jephthah’s mode of accepting office. In
contemplating the prospectof the Ammonites being subdued, it is not he, but
Jehovah, whom he regards as the victor. ( 11:9); and after he has been made
head and captain he utters all his words before the Lord at Mizpeh (verse11).
And now it was that he made his fatal vow. He made it as a new pledge of his
dependence on God, and desire to honour Him. The strangestthing about the
transactionis, that Jephthah should have been allowedin these circumstances
to make such a vow. It was common enough in times of great anxiety and
danger to devote some much-valued objectto God. But Jephthah left it to
God, as it were, to selectthe object. He would not specify it, but would simply
engage, ifhe should return in peace from the children of Ammon, to offer to
the Lord whatevershould come forth from the doors of his house to meet him.
It seemeda pious act to leave to God the selectionofthat object. Jephthah’s
error lay in supposing that God would select, thatGod would acceptthe
responsibility which he laid upon Him. What followedwe hardly need to
rehearse. But what became of Jephthah’s daughter? Undoubtedly the weight

of evidence is in favour of the solution that, like Iphigenia at Aulis, Jephthah’s
daughter was offered as a burnt-offering. It is a shocking thought, and yet not
inconsistentwith the supposition that essentiallyJephthah was a sincere and
loyal servant of God. We must remember that he was an unenlightened man,
ill brought up, not possessing the cool, well-balancedjudgment of one who
had calmly and carefully studied things human and Divine with the best lights
of the age, but subjectto many an impulse and prejudice that had never been
corrected, and had at lastbecome rooted in his nature. We must remember
that Gileadwas the most remote and leastenlightened part of the land of
Israel, and that all around, among all his Moabite and Ammonite neighbours,
the impressionprevailed that human sacrifices were acceptable to the gods.
This remarkable narrative carries some striking lessons.
1. In the first place, there is a lessonfrom the strange, unexpected, and most
unseasonable combinationin Jephthah’s experience of triumph and
desolation, public joy and private anguish. It seems so unsuitable, when all
hearts are wound up to the feeling of triumph, that horror and desolation
should come upon them and overwhelm them. But what seems so
unseasonable is what often happens. It often seems as if it would be too much
for men to enjoy the fulfilment of their highest aspirations without something
of an opposite kind. GeneralWolfe and Lord Nelsondying in the moment of
victory are types of a not infrequent experience. At the moment when Ezekiel
attains his highest prophetical elevation, his house is made desolate, his wife
dies. The millionaire that has scrapedand saved and struggled to leave a
fortune to his only son is often called to lay him in the grave. Providence has a
wonderful store of compensations. Sometimes those who are highest in
worldly position are the dreariestand most desolate in heart.
2. Another striking lessonofJephthah’s life concerns the errors of goodmen.
It dissipates the notion that goodmen cannotgo far wrong. But let us learn
from Jephthah all the goodwe can. He was remarkable for two great
qualities. He depended for everything on God; he dedicatedeverything to
God. It is the very spirit which the gospelofJesus Christ is designedto form
and promote. Jephthah was willing, according to his light, to give up to God
the dearestobjectof his heart. One thing is very certain. Such sacrifices can
be lookedfor from none but those who have been reconciledto God by Jesus

Christ. To them, but only to them, God has become all in all. They, and they
only, canafford to sacrifice allthat is seenand temporal. (W. G. Blaikie, D.
D.)
Why are ye come unto me now when ye are in distress?--The elders ofGilead
got into trouble, and they said, “We are in distress;‘we turn again to thee,’”
etc. Jephthah mockedthem, and said, “If I fight for you and win ‘shall I be
your head?‘” Who can tell how suggestivelyhe uttered the word “your”?--
head of a mob of ingrates--“your”:and his heart said, “Ha, ha! ‘Why are ye
come unto me now when ye are in distress?’Why did you not come twelve
months ago? Why did you not come when the feastwas on the table smoking
hot? Why did you not ask me to the dance and the revel and the high glee of
Gilead? Here you are like a number of whipped hounds coming to me in your
poverty and weaknessand humiliation; you have come to the bastard.” It was
not a resentful speech:it was the eloquence of a noble man. Some people can
only be taught when they are whipped. These people belonged to that bad
quality. Have we not here a revelationof human nature? Can we boast
ourselves againstthe elders of Gilead and saywe are of a higher quality? Are
we not all guilty before one another in this very respect? There are some men
we never write to except when we want something. They never receiveda
friendly letter from us in their lives. The moment we come into distress or
difficulty then we write to those men and call them friends. We pay our
friends unconsciouslya high tribute by going to them againand againin our
distress. Our going, being translatedinto language, means, “We have come
again;every other door is shut againstus; this kind, hospitable home-door
was never thrust in our faces, it was always openedby some kindly hand: the
last time we came it was for help, we have come on the same errand again.”
This may be mean enough on our part, and yet there is an unconscious tribute
to the very friends whom we neglectedin the time of our strength and
prosperity. See how this same question penetrates the whole warp and woof,
the whole web of life and thought. Sometimes it is the Church that asks the
question. The Church says to some applicants for admission, “’Why are ye
come unto me now when ye are in distress?‘You never come in the summer-
time you never come in the fair weather:why are ye come to me now when ye
are in distress? Whathas brought you? Which of God’s constables has

arrestedyou and planted you in this prison? Trouble is your gaoler, and he
has turned the key of the prison upon you in Church.” There are people we
use thus meanly, and the Church may be used often on this low ground. We go
when we are sad. But are we aware that here also we are paying an
unconscious tribute to the Church and to everything that is centralisedand
glorified by that Divine emblem? The Church wants you to come in the time
of distress. The Church is not an upbraiding mother. She may utter a sigh
over you as she sees yourraggedAnd destitute condition, but she admits you
all the same and tells you to go up higher. If our friends can ask the question
of Jephthah, if the Church can put the same inquiry, so in very deed and in
the fullest significance canthe Bible. Who goes to the Bible in the summer-
time? The dear old Bible says to many of us, “What, you back again? What
has happened now? Some one dead? property lost? not well? What do you
want with me to-day? Tell me your case;don’t profess you love me and want
me for my ownsake;tell me what it is you want before you begin, and I will
open at the place.” It is God’s book, because it is so lovely and so sweetand so
large of heart. So far we have takenan advancing line. We beganwith our
friends, we passedthrough the Church, then we went to the Bible, and now we
go to God. This is the Divine inquiry: “Why are ye come to Me now when ye
are in distress?” This is the greathold which Godhas upon us all. His family
would be very small but for the distress of the world. His heaven canhardly
hold His householdbecause ofthis wearying trouble, this eternalwant, this
gnawing worm of discontent. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord.
Jephthah’s vow
I. How the Lord suffereth goodmen and wise men to snare themselves, and
bring needless sorrows andwoes onthemselves by temerity and rashness (1
Samuel 25:34;Matthew 26:31).

1. The folly of man’s heart, which would walk at large, unconfined within the
rules of wisdom; this makes men rash evenin the things of God, as here.
2. God’s just desertionof goodmen, for their humiliation; and to give them
experience of themselves, and how their own wisdom will make them befool
themselves, as David did after his rash numbering of the people, and cleave
more close to God and His counsel, whenthey see their own counsels prove fit
for nothing but to castthem down. To be well advised in that we do or speak,
avoid temerity and rashness, by which, making more haste than goodspeed,
men do but brew their own sorrow. Consider--
1. That rashness doethnothing well (Proverbs 15:22). “Without counsel
thoughts come to nought,” and the hasty man, we say, never wants woe.
Herod himself, as wickedas he was, was sorryfor his rash oath; and yet how
mischievous was it, againstthe life of John Baptist! A man going in haste
easilyslideth (Proverbs 19:2).
2. A note of a man fearing God is to carry his matters with discretion (Psalms
112:5). “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of true wisdom.”
3. The law rejecteda blind sacrifice;the gospelrequireth a reasonable
(Romans 12:1); and all sacrificesmust be seasonedwith the salt of discretion.
4. Rashnessand temerity lays us bare and nakedto the lashes of God, of men,
and of our own consciences. Rules ofdirection to avoid this sin of rashness,
attended with so much sorrow.
First, watchcarefully againstthine own rashness in--
1. Judgment.
2. Affections.
3. Speeches.
4. Actions.
5. Passions.

Secondly, arm thyself with the rules of Christian prudence to avoid this sin,
and the sorrow of it; as knowing that it is not enoughto be a faithful servant,
but he must be wise too.
II. The Lord commonly exalting His servants with some high favour, brings
some stinging cross with it, to humble them.
1. The Lord spies in us a lewd nature and disposition, even like that of the
spider, which canturn everything into poison. There is in the best a root of
pride and vanity which in prosperity and warm sunshine sprouteth and grows
wonderfully stiff. Paul himself is in dangerto be exalted out of measure by
abundance of revelation; and therefore the Lord, as a wise physician, adds a
dose of affliction to be an antidote to expel the poison of pride, and with a
prick lets out the wind of vainglory.
2. This height of honours, success, etc., easilygainethour affections and
delights, and so draws and steals awayour delights in the Lord. We are prone
to idolise them, and to give them our hearts, and therefore the Lord is forced
to pull our hearts from them, and by some buffetings and cooling cards, tells
us in what sliding and slippery places we stand, and therefore had need still
keepour watchabout us, and not pour out our hearts upon such momentary
pleasures.
3. We are as children in our advancements who, having found honey, eattoo
much. If the Lord did not thus sauce our dainties, how could we avoid the
surfeit of them? Alas! how would we dote upon the world if we found nothing
but prosperity, who are so setupon it for all the bitterness of it.
4. The Lord spies in us an unthankful disposition, who, when He honours us,
and lifts us up that we might lift up His name and glory, we let the honour fall
upon ourselves.
III. God doth often turn the greatestdelights and earthly pleasures of His
servants to their greatestsorrow.

1. From the transitoriness ofall outward comforts;here below there is never a
gourd to coverour head, but a worm to consume it. And therefore what a man
doth chiefly delight in the fruition, he must needs be most vexed in the
separationand want of it.
2. From the naughty dispositionof our hearts.
3. From the jealousyof God who hath made all His creatures, ordinances,
gifts, His servants as wellas ours, and cannot abide that any of them should
have any place but of servants with us; His zeal cannotabide that they should
gain our hearts, or souls, or any powerof them from Him, and therefore when
men go a-whoring after the creatures, and lay the level of their comfortbelow
the Lord Himself, then He shows the fervency of His zeal, either in removing
the gift or them from the comfort of it.
IV. All promises to God or man lawful and in our power must be religiously
and faithfully performed; of all which, thou openeth thy mouth to the Lord, or
before the Lord, thou mayest not go back.
1. I say, all lawful promises, for no promise may be a bond of iniquity, and the
performance of such is but tying two sins together, as Herod tied to a wicked
oath, murder of John Baptist.
2. All promises in our power, for nothing can tie us to impossibilities, as when
the bishop makes the priest vow perpetual continency--a thing out of his
powerand reach.
3. To God or men.
And of the heathen given up to a reprobate sense it is said, they were truce-
breakers (Romans 1:30).
4. They must be performed religiously and faithfully. To a conscionable
performance three things are required.
Different views held as to Jephthah’s vow

The holy spirit came upon jephthah

The holy spirit came upon jephthah

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