Bible believers a little help explaining this one?

Question

Judges 11:29 Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon 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 tambourines! 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! My daughter! You have made me miserable and wretched, because 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 the girls 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.

READ THE WHOLE THING OR DON'T BOTHER!

So if God is all seeing why did he help the man who he knew would burn his daughter in sacrifice. Does this mean God helps the wicked, or God can't see the future, or God wanted him to burn his daughter for a little lesson in his book? Either way it's all bad, GOD HELPED A MAN THAT LATER BURNED HIS DAUGHTER TO DEATH!! I left it in its entire context so you wouldn't think i'm taking the Bible out of context.

"God did not make the oath, but he who made it kept it."

But he a) is all seeing and should have either said something, or not let him win the war b) had the ability to have a sheep come out instead of the daughter.

So you're saying he let the daughter die to teach the man not to make rash promises, a little harsh no?

"Does it say that she was then burned, or that she never married."

It says he did what he said he was going to do, and he said burnt offering, it's all there in copy and pasted glory.

"Jephthah vowed to sacrifice his daughter. God didn't ask. He didn't help him in order to have him fulfill his vow.

I think you are reaching here."

He helped him win a war KNOWING he was going to BURN HIS DAUGHTER ALIVE!!! I'm reaching? You didn't even try to answer the question.

Answer 1

Child sacrifice was expressly forbidden in the OT Law.
It was the reason many peoples that inhabited the land were condemned. God hated the religions that did this.
"Do not so to the Lord your God: for everything which is disgusting to the Lord and hated by him they have done in honour of their gods: even burning their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods."

This is a story of a misguided man that had the law and knew this was forbidden. God helping them to win had nothing to do with his "promise to sacrifice". If you will notice the verses before that Spirit of God came on him and he gathered the army. God already had in mind to defeat the Ammonites.
The sick promise made by this man cannot be attributed to God when you read the other scriptures on this subject.

Answer 2

There are several lessons in this story and you will need to understand what the vow meant, why it was so easily given and what the final outcome was likely to have been.

First, God prohibited human sacrifice earlier in the Bible so He would not have honored it. Also, no priest of the time would have assisted Jephthah to complete the act of sacrificing a person because it was forbidden under the law. Therefore it has to be assumed that Jephthah had no intention of sacrificing a person. (Sheep and goats also lived in the house during those times)

Second, Jephthah was foolish to make the vow in the first place as he was attempting to bargain with God. God does not want future promises and doesn't make deals with people. What He does ask is for obedience today, not a promise of obedience later.

Third..if the daughter was really going to be sacrificed, she would not have gone into the hills to comminserate with her friends because she would never have the opportunity to marry. It is also mentioned that she was a virgin which in those days was a requirement of becoming set aside for God's purposes. It never states that the girl was killed but that she never married. That would be the second requirement for a young woman in God's service and the terminology used is similar to that spoken when a girl is set aside for God's service.

This was probably written as a lesson not to act rashly because often what we seek at first is not what we get as a result of our wish. In otherwords, watch out for what you wish for because you just might get it.

God had promised earlier in the Bible that He would always protect his people in battles and would make them victorious as long as they believed in and worshiped Him. There was no need for this man to make this vow in the first place.

Answer 3

Why do you presume to know the mind of God Almighty?
Were you there at the time? I would guess not.
No where in those verses does it say that "She Was Sacrificed"
Only that Jephthah made this vow to the Lord.
Have you ever read the Book of Daniel? Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown into the fiery furnace and God protected them from the flames.
Or have you ever read the Book of Genesis?
God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son on the alter.
Just before Abraham plunged the knife into his son Isaac's chest, God called out to him and said "Abraham, do not lay a hand on the boy, Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.
No where does it say that Jephthah actually did sacrifice his daughter. All we know is that he was "willing" to sacrifice her because of his oath to the Lord.
We are not told of the outcome, but we do have other scriptural references, which I have mentioned, that show us the probable outcome of these events.
I personally believe, because both Jephthah and his daughter, were both glad and willing to carry out this oath, God chose to bless them and make them prosper.
If you notice from your own posting, his daughter was only grieved because she would not marry, not because she would be burned alive. She even told Jephthah to keep his oath to the Lord. She was more than willing to trust God with her life, without ever even second guessing Him. God never asks us to do anything He wouldn't do for us. He sent His One and Only Son to die for us, and He expects us to be willing to do the same for Him.
When you take things out of context, it is easy to mis-interpret and misunderstand Gods true revelation to us through His Holy Word.
God Bless You....Peace.

Answer 4

God couldnt just let Jephthah lose the battle and let the Ammonites destroy His chosen people. Its mmuch better that one should die than an entire nation. It just goes to show that you should not make binding oaths

Answer 5

I am so glad I am not the onlyone questioning the bible, it is shocking and I have never been able to get a straight answer from bible questions. I very much believe in a father of love/fellowship, I just no longer believe he is the one in the old testament. that enity in the old testament does/creates a lot of atrosities, not what one would imagine a loving god to be.

Does not the single statement I am a jealous and vengful god tell you right their he is not the god of love/fellowship. He is someone else, who is he, who could possibly want to control this world so badly that they would hide the dominion/evil in the churches, right under our noses.

Answer 6

Jephath made a promise to God and God gave him the victories to take place. God allowed the sacrifice take for the same reason that God allowed His Son to be sacrificed. Not because of a lack of Love, care, or concern for us, but because of His love care and concerned for us and our lives

Answer 7

God did not make the oath, but he who made it kept it.

Numbers 30:2
When a man makes a vow to the LORD or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said.

Answer 8

God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son and stopped him.

Jephthah vowed to sacrifice his daughter. God didn't ask. He didn't help him in order to have him fulfill his vow.

I think you are reaching here.

God Bless

Answer 9

Does it say that she was then burned, or that she never married. (Emphasis on virgin). I don't see that God would have had the dad burn his daughter, as this would be against the law. I believe this is a passage that I will need to study on.

Answer 10

Thats very interesting. There is a whole lot of violence and policies in the Old Testament that many Christians ignore. I would really like to see how Biblical experts respond to this one.