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I usually don't read long passages of scripture because I feel led most time to just to focus on specific things but today I have to share with you a passage of Scripture that to me is just so powerful it cannot be taken one verse at a time. However, before I get there, let me ask you a question...have you ever said "Lord, if you do this for me, I will do that for you"? Have you ever made a vow to the Lord for something major or insignificant?

I know I've done it in the past. I've told God that if He delivered me in a particular situation that I would in turn give something back to Him. He did, I did but I have to admit the sacrifice I made wasn't that major of a sacrifice...it was more along the lines of what I should have been doing all along. Still, God humored me and I'm better in my relationship for it.

Still...have you vowed anything to Him?

This is what jumped out at me today from the reading of the Daily Audio Bible. It's the story from the book of Judges where Jephthah vows to the Lord that if God delivers unto him the Ammonites, Jephthah would offer whatever came out of the door of his house first as a burnt offering to the Lord. Here's that story from Judges 11:29-40 (ESV):

"Then the Spirit of the Lord was upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh and passed on to Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed on to the Ammonites. And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the Lord’s, and iI will offer it up for a burnt offering.” So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the Lord gave them into his hand. And he struck them from Aroer to the neighborhood of Minnith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel-keramim, with a great blow. So the Ammonites were subdued before the people of Israel.

Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah. And behold, his daughter came out to meet him lwith tambourines and with dances. She was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter. And as soon as he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you have become the cause of great trouble to me. For I have opened my mouth to the Lord, mand I cannot take back my vow.” And she said to him, “My father, you have opened your mouth to the Lord; do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, now that the Lord has avenged you on your enemies, on the Ammonites.” So she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: leave me alone two months, that I may go up and down on the mountains and weep for my virginity, I and my companions.” So he said, “Go.” Then he sent her away for two months, and she departed, she and her companions, and wept for her virginity on the mountains. And at the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow that he had made. She had never known a man, and it became a custom in Israel that the daughters of Israel went year by year to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year."

When I read that I just sit there with a stunned brain that just keeps saying "wow." Jephthah killed his only child and offered her as a burnt sacrifice to the Lord.

Now, in today's Daily Audio Bible, Brian talks about how pastors have used this story as a metaphor and try to say that Jephthah didn't kill her. They try to say that he offered her in service to the Lord and that the mourning was the fact she would never marry and have children. However, that's not what the Word actually says about the vow. The vow clearly says that whatever comes out would be made a burnt offering to the Lord (which you can't do with something and still have it be alive when it's over) and the passage said he "did with her according to the vow that he had made." In other words, she became a burnt offering. There's no other way to really look at it and still be truthful to the actual text.

Now, some will say that it doesn't say if God stepped in and stopped him from killing her as He did with Abraham in Genesis 22.  It certainly makes the story a lot more palatable to parents and non-believers to put the story in that manner.  However, I have to believe if God stepped in with power in that manner that it would have been written in the narrative.  God saving the life of this young girl...and therefore excusing Jephthah of his vow...would be too important to leave out of the lesson.

There's no other alternative but to say he killed her.

So then I have to look at this story and think of my children.  I know I would never make a vow to the Lord to sacrifice something in a way that would leave the door open for the enemy to put something in front of me that I just can't sacrifice like my children.  (I'm talking in a manner such as death.  He's already asked me to sacrifice some things concerning my children and I'm not happy about it but I'm obeying the Lord with joy.)  It drives home just how important a vow is to the Lord and how much He takes it seriously.

So when you say "Lord, if you deliver me from this situation I will never take another drink of alcohol" the Lord takes you at your word.  If you say "Lord, if you deliver me from this I will never look at pornography again" the Lord says "OK."  If you say "Lord, if you bless me with a child I will raise them up to serve You" then you better have that kid in church, be teaching them at home and make sure they realize the value of service to the Lord.  (We all have free will and the child may turn away but I believe in that case if you've done all the Lord has led to you to do to raise up that child to serve Him your vow will be fulfilled.)

Making a vow to the Lord is not a sin.  I know some people would like to say that it is but clearly according to the Word it is not sinful to make a vow to the Lord.  The sin comes in when you don't live up to that vow because it's suddenly become a lot harder than you thought it would be when you uttered those words to the Lord.  Still, your word is your word and His word is His word.  He takes yours seriously and your response to how you fulfill your vow says how seriously you take His word.