okieinexile
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Forcing God's Hand
By Bobby Neal Winters
The book of Judge's in the Old Testament is a source of guilty pleasure for me. The pleasure comes from the marvelous adventure stories within its pages, and the guilt comes from believing these accounts are to a very large degree historical. Many of the stories show a side of the children of Israel that would not have been shown out of pride. These are skeletons in the closet.
While there is a tendency for us to keep the skeletons in the closet in the dark where they can only gather dust, it is better to bring them out into the daylight at appropriate times like they do in biology class, so we can get a better idea of how things fit together.
One of most disturbing of these stories is that of Jephthah in Chapter 11 of the book of Judges. Jephthah was a warrior who was called into the service of his people against the Ammonites. He offered God a deal, "God, if you give me victory against the Ammonites, I will give to you a burnt offering of the first thing that comes to greet me when I go home."
Victory is given to him, and when he gets home, it is his only child, a preadolescent daughter, who comes to greet him.
There is something about the father-daughter relationship that strikes a particular emotional cord. Every parent-child relationship is special and good in its own way, but it has been my experience that the father-daughter relationship has a special sort of quality about it. The male has the traditional role of the protector. This is in particular true when the father is a "mighty warrior" like Jephthah. Jephthah should be protecting his daughter, but he sacrifices her as a burnt offering instead. We can react with nothing but horror.
There are many ways to interpret this story, so many it is mind numbing. One could say that God gave Jephthah victory because he wanted Jephthah daughter as a burnt offering. I do not accept that interpretation as it goes against my belief in a loving God, but it is there, ready and waiting, for anyone who wants to take it to do so.
A more orthodox interpretation would be that, through his prayer, Jephthah was trying to force God's hand. He wanted the victory over the Ammonites, come hell or high water, and he was willing to pay whatever price God asked of him. It was an attempt on the part of Jephthah to reorganize the universe around his own personal desires.
The second part of the story, where his only child, a daughter, is the first to greet him and is therefore offered up as the promised sacrifice, is also open to interpretation. Did God send the girl out first to teach him a lesson? "So you are trying to push me around, are you? Well I will send you my daughter."
Or was this simply a random occurrence? One could simply say the whole episode was random. Jephthah would have won his victory anyway, as he was a mighty warrior, and his daughter would have ran out to greet him first because of the love that she had for him. In my personal opinion, this is what happened.
However, my point is not to argue for or against any of these interpretations. What I see as revealing here is more among what is not said than what is said.
Jephthah didn't say, "I will sacrifice the first animal that runs out." He could have, but he didn't. When his daughter ran out, the text doesn't have him say, "I meant an animal," as he would have if those had been his thoughts at the time he'd made his offer. I am led to the opinion, therefore, that he was willing to sacrifice anything that came to greet him first. Anything. His desire for this One Thing, victory in this case, was more important to him than anything else. It was more important to him than the love of his child, and it was more important than the sanctity of life.
In his mind, he had made a deal with God as one might a hired gun, God had kept his part of the bargain, so Jephthah had kept his, without negotiation or pleading for mercy. Were his actions not so horrific, one might view his attitude as virtuous. He is the mighty warrior who does whatever it takes to achieve his goal, and in this case he was willing to sacrifice his only child, a worshipful daughter in order to achieve a military victory.
One might try to explain Jephthah's behavior. He was from a savage, primitive society, after all. He did believe that military victory would save the lives of his neighbors, his people. In Jephthah's world, the life of a woman wasn't valued greatly, so his trading the life of one little girl, for the lives of his soldiers, his people, and his neighbors, works out to his favor by simple mathematics. Didn't someone say, ". . .it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish." Of course, that was Caiaphas calling for the death of Jesus.
It might be my overly sentimental point of view, but no amount of perfume can make this any sweeter. There is not an incense strong enough to cover the stench.
One might compare this story to the sacrifice of Isaac. In that case God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, and then God stayed his hand, but in this one, it was Jephthah who offered "anything," and then went through with the sacrifice. God was nowhere in the picture.
There are some things we leave only to God, and the ending of innocent life is within that realm.
By Bobby Neal Winters
The book of Judge's in the Old Testament is a source of guilty pleasure for me. The pleasure comes from the marvelous adventure stories within its pages, and the guilt comes from believing these accounts are to a very large degree historical. Many of the stories show a side of the children of Israel that would not have been shown out of pride. These are skeletons in the closet.
While there is a tendency for us to keep the skeletons in the closet in the dark where they can only gather dust, it is better to bring them out into the daylight at appropriate times like they do in biology class, so we can get a better idea of how things fit together.
One of most disturbing of these stories is that of Jephthah in Chapter 11 of the book of Judges. Jephthah was a warrior who was called into the service of his people against the Ammonites. He offered God a deal, "God, if you give me victory against the Ammonites, I will give to you a burnt offering of the first thing that comes to greet me when I go home."
Victory is given to him, and when he gets home, it is his only child, a preadolescent daughter, who comes to greet him.
There is something about the father-daughter relationship that strikes a particular emotional cord. Every parent-child relationship is special and good in its own way, but it has been my experience that the father-daughter relationship has a special sort of quality about it. The male has the traditional role of the protector. This is in particular true when the father is a "mighty warrior" like Jephthah. Jephthah should be protecting his daughter, but he sacrifices her as a burnt offering instead. We can react with nothing but horror.
There are many ways to interpret this story, so many it is mind numbing. One could say that God gave Jephthah victory because he wanted Jephthah daughter as a burnt offering. I do not accept that interpretation as it goes against my belief in a loving God, but it is there, ready and waiting, for anyone who wants to take it to do so.
A more orthodox interpretation would be that, through his prayer, Jephthah was trying to force God's hand. He wanted the victory over the Ammonites, come hell or high water, and he was willing to pay whatever price God asked of him. It was an attempt on the part of Jephthah to reorganize the universe around his own personal desires.
The second part of the story, where his only child, a daughter, is the first to greet him and is therefore offered up as the promised sacrifice, is also open to interpretation. Did God send the girl out first to teach him a lesson? "So you are trying to push me around, are you? Well I will send you my daughter."
Or was this simply a random occurrence? One could simply say the whole episode was random. Jephthah would have won his victory anyway, as he was a mighty warrior, and his daughter would have ran out to greet him first because of the love that she had for him. In my personal opinion, this is what happened.
However, my point is not to argue for or against any of these interpretations. What I see as revealing here is more among what is not said than what is said.
Jephthah didn't say, "I will sacrifice the first animal that runs out." He could have, but he didn't. When his daughter ran out, the text doesn't have him say, "I meant an animal," as he would have if those had been his thoughts at the time he'd made his offer. I am led to the opinion, therefore, that he was willing to sacrifice anything that came to greet him first. Anything. His desire for this One Thing, victory in this case, was more important to him than anything else. It was more important to him than the love of his child, and it was more important than the sanctity of life.
In his mind, he had made a deal with God as one might a hired gun, God had kept his part of the bargain, so Jephthah had kept his, without negotiation or pleading for mercy. Were his actions not so horrific, one might view his attitude as virtuous. He is the mighty warrior who does whatever it takes to achieve his goal, and in this case he was willing to sacrifice his only child, a worshipful daughter in order to achieve a military victory.
One might try to explain Jephthah's behavior. He was from a savage, primitive society, after all. He did believe that military victory would save the lives of his neighbors, his people. In Jephthah's world, the life of a woman wasn't valued greatly, so his trading the life of one little girl, for the lives of his soldiers, his people, and his neighbors, works out to his favor by simple mathematics. Didn't someone say, ". . .it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish." Of course, that was Caiaphas calling for the death of Jesus.
It might be my overly sentimental point of view, but no amount of perfume can make this any sweeter. There is not an incense strong enough to cover the stench.
One might compare this story to the sacrifice of Isaac. In that case God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, and then God stayed his hand, but in this one, it was Jephthah who offered "anything," and then went through with the sacrifice. God was nowhere in the picture.
There are some things we leave only to God, and the ending of innocent life is within that realm.
