Judges 7 - 11

Victory, An Evil King, A Fateful Vow

Three major events are described in today's reading.  First Gideon has a tremendous victory over the Midianites using a force of only 300 men. Gideon had recruited 32,000 men (7:3).  Through a multi-step process, the Lord pares this down to 300 so that they would not brag that they won the battle based on their own strength (7:2). Because Gideon relied on signs, the Lord allowed him to overhear a dream of one of the Midianite soldiers. This inspired Gideon to route the Midianites and ultimately capture their kings and slay them (8:21). Because of his great victory and the relief of the Israelites from the oppression of the Midianites, the people wanted to make Gideon their leader. He took the gold booty and made an ephod (a ceremonial garment) which ended up being an object of worship.

Gideon had 70 sons by his wives and one son, Abimelech, by a concubine. Abimelech was evil and slew all but one of Gideon's 70 sons, then set himself up as a king. Because of the evil and idolatry of his kingship, God had Jotham, the surviving son of Gideon, place a curse upon Abimelech and the inhabitants of Shechem (9:7-20). This curse was later fulfilled in 9:56. Abimelech was the first of several more leaders who allowed Israel to fall into deeper and more idolatrous apostasy. There sin was great to the point that the Lord allowed the Ammonites to oppress them terribly. After years of oppression the people called to the Lord for help (10:18) and the Lord raised up Jephthah.

Jephthah was a great military man who had a mark against him because his mother was a prostitute. When the Ammonites began a war against Israel, the people who had earlier reject Jephthah asked him to be a judge over Israel and deliver them. In 11:14 -27, Jephthah sends a message to the Ammonite king that is nothing short of inspired and historically accurate.  Verse 28 states, "But the king of Ammon paid no attention to Jephthah's message." This motivated Jephthah to muster an army to wage war against the Ammonites, and in his enthusiasm, Jephthah makes a fateful vow to the Lord - 11:30-31, "If you give me victory over the Ammonites, I will give to the Lord whatever comes out of my house to meet me when I return in triumph. I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering."

This vow is interesting in that Jephthah dehumanizes the person/living thing that will exit his house. He calls this "whatever" and "it", not whomever and he/she. He had to know that the most likely thing to exit his house would be a human. Yet in his haste and enthusiasm, he makes this vow. Of course, he did not need to make the vow in the first place.  The Lord had raised him up to defeat the Ammonites to begin with, thus he did not need to make a "deal" with God, he just needed to go fight the battle.

Of course, on his return from the victory, his daughter (an only child) comes from his house singing and dancing and is the object of his vow.  At this point, Jephthah should have consulted with the religious leaders in the law.  The law in Numbers 30:6-8 makes provisions for vows that are unwise or, in this case, violate a greater law, the law against human sacrifice (Lev 27:1-8).  Unfortunately, Israel had fell into such a low estate that no one stood up and counseled Jephthah on his terrible vow, and according to 11:39, he sacrificed his daughter.

May God bless you and bless the reading of His Word.