The Daughter of Jephthah, by Alexandre Cabanel (1879)

Not all scripture leaves us with warm feeling, unambiguous guidance, easy lessons, or peace of mind. Some of it really rocks our concept of everything else we read in the bible.

So, we sometimes avoid those passages (assuming that they only occur in the religious literature of "other peoples" religions).

Hermeneutics is the art and science of text interpretation. It is an important tool for people who wish to wrestle with difficult scriptures and be able to interpret them in their historical contexts and apply them to life today. You need in reading, as I am, the book of Judges.

Take the book of Judges.

It is set in in a rather chaotic time in the history of Israel where there is little unity, no one clear leader, syncretistic religious practices, and lifestyles not unlike other communities in the ancient near east.

The difference is that the bible teaches a continuation of God's covenant with a people who are trying to work out what it means to be His people over a long, long period of history,. There are some high points and many low points and lots of flawed people who become extraordinary leaders. They are presented "as is."

So, here is one of those problem passages where the bible does not exhort, but report, where raw truth is simply delivered as it is and people who are struggling to understand who God is and God's ways make some good decisions and some bad decisions.

Jephtha, in Judges 11:29, has been empowered by the Spirit in a mighty way and leads his army against the Ammonites.. He makes a vow to kill and sacrifice the first thing that comes through his door. When he looks at his door it is his precious daughter. She hears and encourages him to follow through with his vow, but give her a little reprieve to mourn in the mountains and come back to be offered – which she does.

I am thinking, "Is this supposed to inspire me?"

But here is a take-away, warning, and admonition – whether or not it was intended. Just because someone is caught up in the Spirit and accomplishes some great spiritual and/or physical feats does not mean several things:

1. It does not mean that they hear or understand or know God at any greater way than anyone else.

2. It does not mean that there is a direct connection between their rash statements/promises and the grace that was granted them by God.

3. It does not necessarily make them immediately mature or wise.

We have the rest of the bible for guidance and balance, so we might assume that Jephtha made a "stupid" vow and he could have called things off at any point. If he had any familiarity with his own Torah, he would have known that human sacrifices are forbidden.

At that point, he might have gone back into consultation with the LORD.

His daughter, while motivated by her own distorted sense of who God is and what God requires and by her devotion to her father, comes back from the mountains – a kind of misguided integrity, to be honored during her eulogy, but certainly to be questioned in application to our own lives.

But who are we to stand in judgment from afar? We have advantages and opportunities they did not have. Remember that these folks were influenced more by the idolatry around them than any sound Torah teaching. They had fallen away and were just now returning and even in that returning were subject to making bad decisions — which they did.

Even good, sincere, religiously enthusiastic people can make bad decisions … and do.

Lessons for 21st century Christians and other people of faith?

1. Stay grounded in scripture and sound teaching, ethical thinking, and mature deliberation. Check in with what concepts about God are influencing you. In your approach to scripture, develop good hermeneutics.

2. Get to know God and communicate with God. The life of developing spiritual maturity is intensely prayerful, deliberative, seeking, and humble.

3. Be slow to make rash declarations and do not make deals with God. Give what God demands and do not try to bribe Him.

4. Remember that good people can make bad decisions and not everything they say should be followed uncritically. In the same way, bad people can sometimes make good decisions and we need to weigh their ideas in the light of logic and truth, prayerfully.

There is much violence, greed, immaturity, bigotry, and idolatry in the bible – and that is just among the good guys!

That is because God is patient and gracious and chooses to work among, through, and with human beings.

The bible reports this process of history as God reveals Himself over time until, as Christian scripture reports, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we [finally – my word] beheld His glory.

His teachings might seem contrary to thousands of years of salvation history, but Jesus reports them as fulfillment of all that God was trying to teach all along.

Time is a funny construct. We don't really understand it. Thousands of years form only a blip in linear time. Imagine them/it in light of modern physics as a thin strand of a whole.

Then see them/it encapsulated into something infinite and eternal.

The bottom line is that we need the whole story and, with the whole story, we meet a God who, Himself provides the sacrifice and gives Himself for our redemption, a God of grace, love, mercy, truth, holiness, and unending wonder who has reveled Himself in Jesus Christ.

The book of Judges sure creates a thirst in my heart for knowing THAT God in a deeper way.

OK … on to Samson