Just Wishful Thinking

The Return of Jephtha
by Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini Mario’s objects to my statement that we should not hold Jephthah up as an example of someone who behaved honourably for keeping his vow to the Lord even though it meant sacrificing his daughter. His comments are in quotes and my responses follow.

If Jephtaphs example should not be followed, why doesn’t it say so?

Ah, but it does. First of all, the law, which had been given previously to the nation of Israel, forbids sacrificing one’s children (Deut. 12:30, 31; 18:10). Jephthah should have known it, and so should someone reading the book of Judges in the context of the Old Testament.

Secondly, the whole book of Judges is summed up like this: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 21:25) This statement is repeated elsewhere in the book, too. It’s sort of a blanket statement covering the whole book, and should serve as a warning to the reader that the things the people do in this historical account are, as a general rule, not given to us as examples to follow.

Moreover, why does god keep his end of the bargain, knowing that Jephtaphs daughter would be the first to greet her father?

Where does God enter into a bargain with Jepthah? God doesn’t have an “end of the bargain” to keep. Instead, his deliverance of his people was because of his faithfulness to them in spite of their downward spiral—and in spite of Jephthah’s sinful vow—and not because God was doing his part in a negotiated deal.

What more, it wasn’t as if God delivering his people forced Jephthah to go ahead and sacrifice his daughter. There were provisions in the law for people who made rash vows that they didn’t keep. They could confess their sin and bring a sin offering (Leviticus 5). There were also provisions for annulling vows (Leviticus 27). Jephthah had good and right options that he didn’t use, but rather, he chose to keep a sinful vow—a vow to do something specifically forbidden in the law God gave to Israel.

Why would [God] let people include that story in his book, if he would want to be clear that he would never take a human sacrifice?

He includes the story as part of the true history of Israel. It’s part of the historical record given to show how bad things were, spiritually and otherwise, at this time in Israel’s history. The story of Jephthah helps make the key point of this particular historical narrative—that without a godly king, everyone did what they judged to be right instead of what God judged to be right.

And God’s hatred of human sacrifice is set out clearly in his law. There’s no lack of clarity from God on this point.

I think your interpretation is just wishfull thinking.

You think so? I’d say it’s the way someone considering Jephthah’s story as part of the whole of the book of Judges and in light of God’s previously given law would interpret it.

Sunday's Hymn

How Gentle God’s Commands

How gentle God’s commands,
How kind His precepts are!
Come, cast your burdens on the Lord,
And trust His constant care.

Beneath His watchful eye
His saints securely dwell;
That hand which bears all nature up
Shall guide His children well.

Why should this anxious load
Press down your weary mind?
Haste to your Heavenly Father’s throne,
And sweet refreshment find.

His goodness stands approved,
Down to the present day;
I’ll drop my burden at His feet,
And bear a song away.

—Philip Doddridge

Other hymns, worship songs, sermons etc. posted today:

• Through All the Changing Scenes of Life at Whatever Things
• Cast Thy Bread Upon the Waters and more at Wordwise Hymns
• Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise at threegirldad
• The Marines’ Hymn at The Happy Wonderer
• So Let Our Lips and Lives Profess at Rosemary at Home
• Blessed Lord, In Thee Is Refuge at Field Stone Cottage
• Ah, Holy Jesus at Hiraeth
• When I Can Read My Title Clear at Conjubilant With Song
• Lord’s Day 39, 2010 at The Thirsty Theologian
• Update: A Prayer, on the Morning of the Lord’s Day at Daily on My Way to Heaven

Have you posted a hymn (or sermon, sermon notes, prayer, etc.) today and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by contacting me using the contact form linked above, and I’ll add your post to the list.

Not Necessarily Normative

From 40 Questions about Interpreting the Bible by Robert L. Plummer on interpreting the historical narratives in scripture:

Historical narratives also present some unique interpretive challenges. The biblical writer’s purposes are usually undercurrents of the text rather than floating unmistakably on the surface. Because of this, unskilled interpreters are prone to missteps, leading both themselves and their listeners astray from the real meaning of the text. For example many details in stories are not presented as normative. That is, the author is not intending to present all persons or actions as moral lessons. For example, my wife and I were once listening to some audio messages for new parents. The speaker exhorted parent to put their babies in cribs (as opposed to having them in the parents’ bed) because Mary put Jesus in the manger (Luke 2:7). The key interpretive question of course is: why does Luke tell us that Jesus was placed in a manger? Was it to teach us how to put our children to bed, or was it to emphasize the Saviour’s humble origins? I’ve always wanted to point out to the speaker advocating cribs that Jesus told a parable in which a man’s children are described as being in bed with him (Luke 11:7), probably the more normal sleeping convention of that day, yet still only a colorful detail in a memorable story—not a normative principle.

I’ve heard Jephthah held up as an example of someone who behaved honourably for keeping his vow to the Lord even though it meant sacrificing his daughter. This is a case, I think, where the writer  of scripture is reporting what actually happened, but not holding up Jephthah as an example to be followed. One point of the book of Judges (maybe the main one) is that when everyone does what is right in their own eyes, things go from bad to worse, and knowing that helps us interpret the story of Jephthah’s foolish vow.

Do you have other examples where details or people in a historical narrative are held up as examples of what we ought to do when the biblical author may not have intended his narrative to be used that way?