Context No. 3608 of 4322 · Judges

Judges 11:28-33: in context

28However, the king of the children of Ammon didn’t listen to the words of Jephthah which he sent him. 29Then the LORD’s Spirit came on Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed over to the children of Ammon. 30Jephthah vowed a vow to the LORD, and said, “If you will indeed deliver the children of Ammon into my hand, 31then it shall be, that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, it shall be the LORD’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.” 32So Jephthah passed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD delivered them into his hand. 33He struck them from Aroer until you come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and to Abelcheramim, with a very great slaughter. So the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.

As Jephthah goes out to battle, the Spirit of the LORD comes upon him, and he makes a vow, a rash and terrible one: if God gives him victory, he will offer as a burnt offering whatever comes out of his house first to meet him. He wins the battle, but the vow, as the next verses tragically tell, falls upon his own daughter, who comes out to greet him.

There is a sober warning here about rash vows made to God, promises blurted out in the heat of the moment that we have not thought through. Jephthah did not need to bargain with God, who had already given him the Spirit; his vow was an attempt to secure by a rash pledge what God was already giving freely, and it led only to grief. Scripture elsewhere warns plainly against hasty vows: it is better not to vow than to vow and fail to weigh the cost. We should be careful and thoughtful in what we promise God, not trying to strike bargains with him through reckless pledges.

Am I careful and thoughtful about the promises I make to God, rather than blurting out rash vows in the heat of the moment that I have not weighed?

Sources

Judges 11:30-31: "Jephthah vowed a vow... whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace... shall be the LORD's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering."
Judges 11:29: "Then the LORD's Spirit came on Jephthah."
Ecclesiastes 5:5: "It is better that you should not vow, than that you should vow and not pay."