Day 114: Big Bad Promises

Acts 19:21-41; Judges 11:34-12:15; Job 40

Jephthah made a promise, a big promise.  How terrible he mut have felt when his daughter came rushing to him after the battle.  I bet he regretted the promise he made.  Did he need to make that promise in order that God would help him?  We will never know.  How bad would God have punished him if he had not kept his promise? That's hard to say.  But this story shows us that we should not bargin or  make promises to God that we cannot keep.  Don't tell God that you are never going to sin in that way again, or that you would give this in order that he would give you that.  God is a serious God and his word is powerful.  He holds us to the standard of his son, Jesus, so making a bargin with God means that he expects us to carry that out.

Jephthah response, however, proves that he held God above all else in his life.  It is hard to grasp, but however much we love our family, we need to love God more.  We need to be willing to make them mad, desert them, go against their will, or in Jephthah's case sacrifice them, if that is what God calls us to do.  Now, I don't think God wants us to make those bargains or those sacrifices.  So don't go to your little sibling who annoys the heck out of you and say that God told you to sacrfice them and since you love God you have to.  That is NOT what I'm saying.  But, Jephthah was willing to sacrifice anything for The Lord, and in our hearts, we need to be willing to sacrifice anything for God: our time, money, relationships, career.