What price will you pay?
It’s Martin Luther King Jr Day as I write. There’s 1 sleeping giant and 3 teenage girls tucked in at our house, enjoying their day off from school. I, on the other hand, am a fantastic mess. I need some uninterrupted time to actually get some work done. Yet I know that the day will likely be cut into 1,000 pieces by interruptions. The pants that the store can’t seem to hem correctly before Saturday need to be rescued; the prescription that needs to be refilled expired 2 days ago. Fantastic. “Mom, what is there to eat?” will surely stop me several times throughout the day. Bible study groupings need to be done, final Getaway details need to be nailed down for print work. The taxes are crying for attention. Trauma and ministry needs don’t take a vacation either.And then there was Judges 11.If you haven’t wandered through the book of Judges in a while, you might actually wonder if I’m making this story up! I promise I’m not. Go look for yourself. It goes something like this:
- A man named Jephthah had always been treated like an outcast amongst his siblings because, unlike his half brothers and sisters, his mother had been a prostitute.
- After so many years as an outcast, they call him back and ask him to lead the Israelites in battle.
- He agrees and tells the Lord that if the Lord will give him victory, “then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the Lord’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering” (Judges 11:31).
You see the writing on the proverbial wall, don’t you? It’s hard to believe someone could make such a stupid promise! Sure enough, Jephthah is given victory. He returns home and his only child, an innocent daughter, rushes out the door “with tambourines and with dances” to celebrate her daddy’s victorious return from war.My stomach hurts. To make matters worse, she tells her dad he must keep his word to the Lord, but asks if she could have a little time to go weep for her virginity before he takes her life. This is Jephthah’s pride and joy, yet following her grieving, he somehow “did with her according to the vow that he had made” (Judges 11:39).How does this happen? Why would someone make such an over-the-top vow? We have to ask the question, “Lord, what on earth does this have to do with me?”This story isn’t as far removed from you and I as we’d like. I don’t plan to make such a ridiculous vow, but in some ways we’re tempted to do so each day. Imagine being a man who always felt like he wasn’t good enough, and then finally being given an invite back into his family. This was his chance to prove himself. The result of his decisions boils down to this:
- His ego cost him his soul.
- His impulsiveness cost him his peace.
- His focus cost him his joy.
Thankfully, none of us are sacrificing our children. But before we move past this, we must ask ourselves some soul-searching questions:
Where are you tempted by success, no matter what the cost?
Jephthah wasn’t an evil man. He didn’t set out to destroy everything he loved. He was just so determined to prove himself to ohers that destruction occurred before he could even absorb the error of his ways.
Where are you so focused on a singular victory that you might jeopardize your peace and joy along the way?
Where do your past wounds tempt you to lose perspective and make bad choices?
What in your life is at risk because you’re focusing all your time on trying to change or maintain someone’s view of you?
May we let the shock of this story stop us in our tracks long enough to help us remember what really matters in our world each day.