Judges 11:29-40. Jepthah makes a vow to the Lord that if the Lord will give him victory over the Ammonites then he will sacrifice the first person who comes out of his house to greet him on his return home. God does deliver the Ammonites into Jephthah's hands, he is given a great victory over them in twenty cities so that they are utterly subdued. On his return home, Jepthah is horrified to see his only child, his daughter, come out to greet him with music and dancing. When he tells her the reason for his distress she says that he must do what he promised the Lord he would do. So after first being allowed to go into the mountains for two months with her companions to bewail her virginity, Jepthah's daughter is sacrificed. It then became a custom for the daughters of Israel to lament her for four days every year.

This is, obviously, a horrible story. It seems so very wrong that Jepthah's daughter must be sacrificed because of the rash vow of her father. But let's try to see what we should learn from this. God never asked the Israelites for human sacrifice. He was very clear on this - that He desired their love and honor, not their sacrifice. He instituted the sacrifice of animals in order that they had a way of fulfilling the deep need we all have in our hearts to give something precious back to God, but He would never ask any of us to sacrifice another person. Every person is a beloved precious child of God, and He would not desire their sacrifice any more than He would desire ours. Also, God is always on the side of his people when they are following Him, he even made a covenant to be. Jepthah should have prayed, discerned, and trusted in God to lead him to victory. If Jepthah was pursuing God's will, God would have always been with him and victory would have been given him without his vow.

So Jepthah, in making this vow, did several very bad things. He did not pray or discern, he decided what he wanted to do and then offered up someone else to make it happen; he showed that he did not really know God, or even really know the scriptures very well, or he would have known that God does not want human sacrifice; and he showed a distinct lack of trust in God to keep His covenant with His people always. Jepthah didn't even have the wherewithal to think ahead about who might come out of his house on his return. Can you imagine thinking that anyone, much less your daughter, who walked through that door was deserving of sacrifice?

When we act badly come we bring the consequences on ourselves, and words are vitally important. The world and we were created by the Word, and He uses His people in his creation. Our words, in service of Him, become part of the Word - they can change reality! So Jepthah's vow, given as a Judge of Israel, once made had to be fulfilled. The sacrifice herself could see this, because she herself was a good Jew.

But wow, what a lesson in always, always guarding our tongues and asking for God's direction in all things. We must never replace His will with ours, thinking that it is His, and we must never promise anything to God that we aren't very sure He would want and we are willing to give.