Judges 11

This one story stumps me every time. The story of Jephthah and his daughter gives me pause every time I read it, and still there is no more clarity for me than when I read it years ago for the first time. Some say that he really didn't offer her as a burnt offering but rather she was required to live celibate her entire life, yet there is no evidence that was a practice for Judaism in the period of history. Others argue that he did in fact offer her as a burnt sacrifice, even though this was strictly forbidden by God. The text clearly states that he kept his vow and his vow was quite clear...a burnt offering.

For me, I hope there always remains mysteries in God's Word. It has the opposite effect on me as as opposed to some others. For, me, I find great peace in such mysteries. The moment that in my humanity the mysteries of His divinity disappear, I am less secure. Not that I will not long for the revelation of every mystery given for me to find in this life as is the example the Apostle Paul gives us, but that even if I were to obtain every mystery possible in my humanity, the scale will still remain unmoved in the balance that remains in His undiscovered divinity...leaving for us an eternity of discovery, a revelation that moved Paul to declare that to live is Christ but to die is gain!

Pastor Fred