Courage to obey

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. When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, ‘Oh no, my daughter! You have brought me down and I am devastated. I have made a vow to the Lord that I cannot break.’

‘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. 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.’

‘You may go,’ he said. And he let her go for two months. She and her friends went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. After the two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin. Judges 11: 34 – 39

I read recently that real courage is obeying even when you know the consequences. Jephthah had made a rash vow that if God gave him victory in battle over the Ammonites, then he would sacrifice the first thing that came to meet him when he got home.

God did give him victory in battle and the first thing to greet him when he got home was his daughter, his only child, celebrating his victory in battle and homecoming. What I notice though is her response. She neither begs nor pleads with her father or God to let her off a vow that she has not made. She understands the bigger picture; her father has had great victory in battle because God helped him. The Israelites would continually need God’s help to win victory over their enemies and breaking this vow would seriously compromise their future cause. Vows made to God are serious things and should not be readily broken. Jephthah’s daughter understood this. (see blog Broken vows break relationships).

Instead she just asks for two months to go and weep with her friends over what would never be; her own husband, home and children. She had the courage to go through with this even though she knew the consequences for herself. I am sure during those two months some friends would have encouraged her to defy the vow. You can imagine them saying that surely God would not expect her to die because of something her father vowed. The consequences though for the nation would have been greater if she had not gone through with it.

Imagine too the anguish of Jephthah’s heart that he must have endured. No daughter or grandchildren now. Did he beg God to let him off his vow I wonder? Nevertheless, he went through with it; that takes courage – a courage only exceeded by his daughter’s.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, was another woman who had the courage to be obedient to God’s calling, despite the consequences. When she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit before marrying Joseph, the consequences were awful. There was a very real chance Joseph would reject her and I am sure society did. Unmarried mothers were outcasts in those days. However she also got hold of the bigger picture and knew she was the most blessed of women because she had been chosen to be the mother of the Messiah. Simeon prophesied to her that a sword would pierce Mary’s soul (Luke 2:35). Watching Jesus being crucified must have been indescribable and like having her soul pierced just as Jephthah’s soul must have been pierced when he had to kill his own daughter. What courage these people displayed.

I do not expect we will have to face such awful choices but may we have the courage to obey God in our circumstances even when we know the consequences will be hard.