“God, I will go to church, I will pray more, or I will give money to the church, if only the Eagles win this afternoon (or the Steelers or fill in your preferred team)!” Multiple teams are playing today; it is worth asking, have you ever made that kind of promises? Or perhaps, this is familiar “God, if you would keep my child safe, bring my child home, let me have children, I promise to read my Bible, become active at church, I will tithe.” “Lord, if you’ll just give me this promotion at work, I’ll be able to give at church.” “Lord, if you’ll just heal me, I’ll serve you.” “Lord, if you’ll put my marriage back together again, I’ll start going to church more regularly.” “Lord, if you’ll get this plane safely on the ground, I promise never to yell at my kids again.” These bargaining prayers come from our fear and gut. Good news: If you have found yourself making these kinds of promises, you are not alone.
Martin Luther’s father, who worked as a miner, wanted his son to become a lawyer, so the great reformer studied law. He was almost done with his studies, when one day at the age of 21, he was caught outside in the midst of a violent thunderstorm. In the midst of his fear, Luther cried out to St. Anna, the patron saint of miners, “Save me, Saint Anna, and I shall become a monk!” Luther lived, and he kept his vow, to the great disappointment of his father and his mother. Martin Luther went onto to give voice to the protests needed for reformation from the Roman Catholic Church. His life path changed from a bargaining prayer.
We bargain when we look to the horizon and see the unknown. Throughout Game of Thrones what hangs over the narrative like a storm cloud, is the perilous warning that “Winter is coming”. This warning feels acute particularly in the Westeros area, a fictious location where the Stark family lives. Unlike, the familiar three months per season composition with which we are familiar, Westeros has a seasonal structure where summer and winter can last for long periods of time without clear indication of when they will switch or how long they will remain. “Winter is coming” is the motto of House Stark and refers to their vigilance and preparedness. As rulers of the North, the House Stark must always be ready for anything that could happen, and eventually, something will.
George R. R. Martin, author of the book series on which the show is based, writes of the deeper metaphorical meaning generally expressing the sentiment that dark periods occur in life. Even if things are currently going well in your world (“summer”), this won’t last forever. There will eventually come a dark period, a coldness, when events turn against us (“winter”). This metaphorical interpretation reflects the underlying message of the entire show, as nobody is ever safe or comfortable for too long.
Winter is coming for Jephthah from the beginning of his narrative. He anticipates his own ending from the beginning. Jephthah is the son of a prostitute, who knew conflict with his stepbrothers. With a chip on his shoulder, he rose to prominence as an outlaw and found his success in defending his honor and land. Jephthah operates Gilead in the Transjordan. Now the adversaries in that region were the Amorites. The people turn to Jephthah and ask him to overtake the Amorites. He would become the judge as he succeeds in consolidating power.
However, the Amorites want back the land taken from them during the conquest during the parting of Red Seas; Jephthah want some additional land for the people of Israel. Jephthah began by attempting to negotiate with the Amorites. He schooled the Amorite kind of the Exodus story. But the Amorite king would not listen. There was not appeal to logic or common background story that could stop short-circuit the fighting.
While God has made clear to Jephthah this is the way forward, he is very concerned about the outcome. The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah imparting superhuman strength. Still, Jephthah harbors doubts. So ,he makes a vows: Whatever comes outs of his home first, he will offer to the Lord as a sacrifice in thanksgiving for battle victory. Be careful, Jephthah; what you promise. Winter is coming! This vow is extreme. God does not ask for it. Or bless it. Whatever comes out of the home. It could be a dog, a pig, a person, a fruit. Scholar Phyllis Trible names this one as one of the “texts of terror.(1) ” There is no good answer to this question.
Jephthah defeats the Amorites as God had promised, even prior to Jephthah’s vow. Now, it is ancient tradition that as a proud warrior returns from triumphant battle that they are greeted with trimbrels and dancing. Jephthah’ s daughter led the parade in the style of Miriam and Michel. This is the way in which Moses, David, and Saul were greeted. Jephthah’s daughter, who is given no name in the biblical text, is given a name traditionally, Adah. Adah was that first to meet her father and welcome him home!
Jephthah, who potentially has forgotten his treacherous vow, comes to realize the consequence of brash vow. A vow that was not asked of him or required. With grace and authenticity, his daughter, Adah makes the most of this impulsive vow. She takes two months of time with her friends in the hills to come to terms with the consequences of his actions. She speaks up for herself with poise and grace. Adah is singled out for pity, mother is not mentioned, grandmother is a prostitute, but these are not primary markers of her story. Adah becomes a long standing and well-regarded history of women who rises well above her circumstance and care in extraordinary ways. A four-day festival is established in her honor for the unnamed women of the scriptures to mourn, know liberation, and draw near to God.
Winter has come. Jephthah does not comfort his daughter or evoke God to bring them out of the commitment like in Abraham and Isaac. While Hebrews 11 celebrates Jephthah was a hero of the faith, I suggest Adah is more his daughter is more heroic than he. Heroism is not solely in strength and overpowering those seemingly weaker. Heroism is in trust and faith, creative solutions and wisdom.
The biblical text is not definitive about what transpires when Adah returns. “He did what he had promise” the scriptures say. Scholars debate whether Adah’s future included sacrifice or devotion to the temple or whether, Adah ultimately moved out. The ambiguity has allowed for speculation and discussion. How can you make a case for devotion to the temple, you might wonder? In verse 39, the author pauses to let us know that she remained celibate after his vow was fulfilled. There is no reason to remain celibate after sacrifice, so perhaps, she lives out her days in the temple of the Yahweh.
I can remember praying for Holiday Barbie in 1989. I am pretty sure I was open to bargaining and pleading with God, for what I was sure was essential. God does not call us to oath, vows, or extract promises from us to turn over the joys of our hearts.
One liners about God rarely capture full wisdom, but Walter Brueggemann does well, “God is not useful.” God will not be used, not by those seeking their best life now, not by those who pretend that judgement is the end and not mercy. God will just show up, often uninvited, ready…or not.
We are of two minds about God. On the one hand, God has judges like Jephthah making vows. On the other hand, “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved…”
There’s the God we bargain with, as if goodness or mercy were a thing to be traded.
Then there’s the God who finds us when we come to the end of all our accounts, finds us and makes us live, no matter the cost. The truth is, this is a story about God, and so redemption is always around the bend. Redemption is God’s primary occupation, not bargaining.
This is the Gospel, the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ, thanks be to God, Amen.
(1) Trible, Phyllis. Texts of Terror: Literary-Feminist Readings of Biblical Narratives (Overtures to Biblical Theology), 1984.
Old Testament Lesson: Judges 11:29-40 (CEB)
Then the LORD’s spirit came on Jephthah. He passed through Gilead and Manasseh, then through Mizpah in Gilead, and from there he crossed over to the Ammonites. Jephthah made a solemn promise to the LORD: “If you will decisively hand over the Ammonites to me, then whatever comes out the doors of my house to meet me when I return victorious from the Ammonites will be given over to the LORD. I will sacrifice it as an entirely burned offering.” Jephthah crossed over to fight the Ammonites, and the LORD handed them over to him. It was an exceptionally great defeat; he defeated twenty towns from Aroer to the area of Minnith, and on as far as Abel-keramim. So the Ammonites were brought down before the Israelites.
But when Jephthah came to his house in Mizpah, it was his daughter who came out to meet him with tambourines and dancing! She was an only child; he had no other son or daughter except her. When he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Oh no! My daughter! You have brought me to my knees!
You are my agony! For I opened my mouth to the LORD, and I can’t take it back.”
But she replied to him, “My father, you’ve opened your mouth to the LORD, so you should do to me just what you’ve promised. After all, the LORD has carried out just punishment for you on your enemies the Ammonites.” Then she said to her father, “Let this one thing be done for me: hold off for two months and let me and my friends wander the hills in sadness, crying over the fact that I never had children.”
“Go,” he responded, and he sent her away for two months. She and her friends walked on the hills and cried because she would never have children.
When two months had passed, she returned to her father, and he did to her what he had promised. She had not known a man intimately. But she gave rise to a tradition in Israel where for four days every year Israelite daughters would go away to recount the story of the Gileadite Jephthah’s daughter.
Gospel Lesson: Matthew 5:33-37
“Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.’ But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.
Meditations For Your Week
Sunday, September 22~ Saturday, September 29
Sunday: “Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah; and there was his daughter coming out to meet him with timbrels and with dancing. She was his only child; he had no son or daughter except her.” Judges 11:34. Consider that Jephthah’s daughter greeted her father as a whole household welcomes triumphant warriors, like Miriam greeted Moses. Our encouragement to one another is more than words. Your actions might be the only encouragement someone receives today.
Monday: “When Jephthah saw her, he tore his clothes, and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low; you have become the cause of great trouble to me. For I have opened my mouth to the LORD, and I cannot take back my vow.” Judges 11:35. Jephthah made an oath born out of his own anxiety. He could not see how God’s way would come to be without his help. Pray for discernment and patience to wait for God’s way.
Tuesday: “And she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: Grant me two months, so that I may go and wander on the mountains with my friends, crying over the fact that I never had children.” Judges 11:37. Where is it that God is inviting you to ask for what you need?
Wednesday: “At the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to the vow he had made” Judges 11:39a. Pray for all those who make vows and take oaths.
Thursday: “But I say to you, do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God.” Matthew 5:34. God invites us into relationship, not needing us to swear allegiance, but rather journeying with us through life’s hills and valleys.
Friday: “And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black” Matthew 5:36. Consider that God does not call you to make deals. God’s love is offered without negotiation.
Saturday: “Let your word be ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.” Matthew 5:37. Pray for clarity in decisions.