Day 8: Judges and Ruth

This is the first day that I've had to read more than one book of the Bible. It's harder to keep straight some of the observations and which book they come from without taking notes (which I am not doing, as I want to be careful not to make this into an academic exercise). If I struggle with 2, I wonder how I'll do with 5 or 6 later. Regardless, time to trudge on, with only one major observation for today:

Be Careful Little Mouth What You Say

Judges tells the story of a guy by the name of Jephthah. Jephthah's story is the stuff of a soap opera. He was the son of Gilead...but his mother was a prostitute. Jephthah's half-brothers wanted to be sure that Jephthah didn't receive any inheritance, so they forced Jephthah to leave home and to head out to the wilderness. This is where the story gets interesting.

While in the wilderness, Jephthah develops into an excellent military leader, leading a group of "rebels" in the wilderness. At some later point in the story, his brothers come under attack and they beg Jephthah to lead them in battle. Understandably, Jephthah isn't fond of his brothers and is reluctant to help them. After they promise to make him "king," though, he goes to battle and wins.

All of that, though, is a prelude to the real observation from Jephthah's life. He gets a little too confident prior to a battle and lets his mouth run away with him. If victorious, he promises to offer as a burnt offering the first thing (person/animal) to come out of his house to greet him on his return. Of course, he won...and the first person to greet him was his only daughter, Milpah. Unable to escape the promise he had made to God, the text tells us that Jephthah carried out the sacrifice. Disturbing, I know.

Aside from the overall disturbing nature of this story, I find myself seeing it as a cautionary tale for the times I want to run my mouth and make promises or guarantees. If Jephthah had been satisfied to win and kept his mouth shut, the tragedy would not have befallen him. Instead, he boasted in front of many people about what he would do...and ended up in a no-win situation. The words we say can be very dangerous, and Jephthah reminds me that I need to try harder and seek God's help in controlling my tendency to over-speak.