The Bribe, Pt. 2
Friday, March 21
The Bribe, Pt. 2
Judges 11:34-35
Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah. And behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. She was his only child. … 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 for me. For I have opened my mouth to the LORD, and I cannot take back my vow.”
Even in these days of the judges where men do whatever seems right in their own eyes, we’ve seen the LORD moving on behalf of His prodigal people, stirring the hearts of saints like Othniel and Deborah and Gideon to deliver Isreal from their oppressors and bring back the days of renewal. And I submit to you that whenever God works a mighty victory over Satan’s legions, His singular desire is for His people to be filled to overflowing in the unity of love, their voices overwhelming the cacophony of demonic gnashing of teeth with triumphant praise. The last thing our gracious LORD desires is for us to come home from so great a victory more defeated than ever. Yet, that’s the debacle Jephthah’s loose tongue has gotten himself and his daughter into.
I still can’t gather from Jephthah’s shock here who or what he expected to come running out the door to greet him in the first place. Of course it’s going to be her, right?! She’s his only daughter! I mean, who else would be watching the window all day long, waiting for his shadow to cross the horizon in the distance? Like we said yesterday, maybe he had a favorite pet—a lamb or goat or dog—but the whole ordeal just beggar’s belief. And I can’t even bear the thought that just like that this precious woman’s prospects in life, like her tambourine dance, are cut short before they even get going.
Friend, let the image of Jephthah’s expression of horror burn in your mind today, and read in it a sobering parable of how our self-serving devices impede the fullness of joy our LORD desires for us to experience. Let’s rip conditional, bribe-type prayers like Jephthah’s out of our vocabulary entirely, replacing them with the only prayer that leads to unbroken songs and unbroken lives afterward: “LORD, not my will but Yours be done.”