Sunday: David Murray On The Amazing Story of Jephthah and Sacrifice of His Daughter to the Lord

PODCAST WITH DR. LEMAN: A DADDY'S INFLUENCE ON HIS DAUGHTER'S LIFE

FROM JUDGES 11

HAS THIS STORY OF JEPHTHAH FROM OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURE (TEXT BELOW) PUZZLED, EVEN UPSET YOU WHEN YOU'VE READ IT?

 It has me, until now.

 It wasn't until I heard Dr. David Murray on this Puritan Podcast that I came to look at this story from Judges in a very different light. Take a listen and see what you think. It makes infinitely more sense this way. When Japhthah 'sacrificed' his daughter to the Lord, and lamented, he was actually sacrificing her to a different way of life---giving up the more traditional role of being a wife and mother---because it would involve her serving God full-time at the Tabernacle. They both lamented because Japhthah lost the chance to have his brave lineage as a warrior be carried on through children and grandchildren. That's a lot to give up for a man, and a woman too.

Judges 11:28-40 New International Version (NIV)

28 The king of Ammon, however, paid no attention to the message Jephthah sent him. 29 Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites. 30 And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord: “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, 31 whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.” 32 Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into his hands. 33 He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon. 34 When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of timbrels! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. 35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, “Oh no, my daughter! You have brought me down and I am devastated. I have made a vow to the Lord that I cannot break.” 36 “My father,” she replied, “you have given your word to the Lord. Do to me just as you promised, now that the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. 37 But grant me this one request,” she said. “Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry.” 38 “You may go,” he said. And he let her go for two months. She and her friends went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. 39 After the two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin. From this comes the Israelite tradition 40 that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

BONUS SERMON: TIM KELLER---CROSSING OVER AND DE-CREATION