Judges 11

Judges 11: 29- 40 Jephthah’s Vow

I surely can’t type all of these verses but verse 31 is the actual vow:
“ I will give to the Lord the first thing coming out of my house to greet me when I return in triumph. I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.” Judges 11:31

If you go on to read the passages you will find that God did grant Jephthah’s request and he now had to make good his vow.

What I found very interesting is that as a father you would think that he would have thought his children or his wife would have been the first to come out to greet him. Maybe he had been away so long that he didn’t think through what he was vowing to God. All I do know is that Jephthah realized in an instant upon his return that he had vowed the life of someone dear to him. His Daughter! Since she was the first to come out of the house.

Now ladies, honestly- how many of us make vows with God? Maybe they are not as much of a big deal as this one but surely Jephthah must have thought that the vow he was making wasn’t going to be a difficult vow to keep. However, it was his daughter who was offered up as a sacrifice.

The definition of Vow : is to make a solemn promise to do something or to take an action.

In the old testament we see the relationship with God and his chosen people as something they did often. I think it is a picture of what relationships are about. When we marry we vow to be faithful, loving, to care for eachother, and so on. When we have children we vow to be good parents to protect and care of for our children and to provide for them. When we become believers we vow to follow Christ, to make Him Lord of our Lives, to give him Honor and Glory, to worship only Him, to serve only Him.
So how can this word be applied to us today?

Well, for me today, I think I am going to ponder and mill over, if you will, the idea of a vow and as I start the day I am going to renew some vows I’ve made that I’ve forgotten about or failed to carry out every day. To see every day as an opportunity to fulfill those vow’s will for me give me a purpose to what I do and how I behave. I sometimes just get caught up in living and forget that I’ve made vows and I need to do as I vow!

Lord, as we start our day I pray that you would bring to my mind things that I have vowed. I pray Lord that I would be a person who would honor those and Lord if I have vowed anything to You and have failed to be faithful to pay that Vow in full I pray you would bring that to my mind. Make me aware of it so that I may be found faithful even in the smallest of vows.
I love you lord and I desire to be a faithful servant who serves and is found to be trustworthy.
Lord thank you for how You provide for us and care for us!
It is in Your Name I pray!
The Name of Jesus
Amen………