Waiting

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, 

be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.

~Psalm 19:14~

If you put this verse into your own words: Our words need to be pleasing to the Lord.

Simple enough right? All of the words that we say over the course of our entire lifetime needs to be acceptable God. Basically need to be something that God would approve of.

No problem! Right?

Who has no problem always saying the right thing, nice thing, pleasing-to-God thing, to your friends all the time, every time?

Siblings?         Teachers?          Youth workers?          Mom & Dad?

Saying the right thing seems easy enough until you are in the heat of the moment and your emotions get in the way, and you want to say something better, or more clever, or more cutting than the other person.

What could we do to improve in this area?

Is it possible that if we learned to wait – to think before we speak – that we would be able to improve our words, so that they are approved by God?

And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said, 

If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, 

Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, 

when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, 

shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.

~Judges 11:30-31~

Words were a big deal to Jephthah. His home was a wreck. His parents didn’t like him. His siblings didn’t like him. Even his children didn’t like him. So Jephthah left his home in Gilead and found people who did. People who liked to fight.

Jephthah ended up leading a band of men who were known for their ability to conquer, destroy, and win.

Well, Israel and the city of Gilead needed someone to help them get rid of the Ammonites. Funny little story, you remember that when the whole people of Israel entered the land of Israel from Egypt, that God conquered the land for them. All of the people and nations that occupied Israel either left the land or died. When the king of Ammon sat back and thought about it for a few years, he realized that he had "just given up his land," then decided he wanted to move back into his old house and farm and lands.

But Israel has been living there, God gave it to them, and they are happy. Why would they give it up?

Some of the cities in Israel weren’t very good fighters – like Gilead – so they had to call in reinforcements and even though they had said so many unkind things to Jephthah before, now they asked that he come back and lead them to victory against the Ammonites.

Jephthah was pretty pleased about this. These people who had been so unkind that he left home, were now asking him to come back and lead them in battle. So he negotiated. He said, “If you make me your leader in battle, when I win, you have to make me leader of your city.” With much reluctancy, Gilead agreed. They vowed (again with the words) that Jephthah would be the leader of the city if he won the battle.

And just for good measure, Jephthah also made a vow with God.

And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said, 

If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, 

Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, 

when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, 

shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.

~Judges 11:30-31~

Then God clearly and uneventfully gave the victory.

32 So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; 

and the Lord delivered them into his hands.

In all the battles in all of the Bible, why would God chose to include this one? It seems pretty basic to me. Nothing spectacular or outstanding about it. 

34 And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter. 35 And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back.

Our words always mean something, don’t they? They absolutely always have consequences.

The consequences of Jephthah's vow were dramatic. He would have to offer his only daughter as a sacrifice to the Lord. 

Look back at vs. 31. What exactly did Jephthah promise to God?

31 Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, 

when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, 

shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.

What do you think that Jephthah was thinking when he made this promise to God?

Maybe an farm animal or favorite pet would come meet him.

Do you think it even crossed Jephthah’s mind that perhaps his daughter  - his only child – would come to meet him?

So what should Jephthah do? Should he offer his daughter as a burnt sacrifice to God as he promised? Should he change his mind and change his vow to God?

We hear a lot of people say, “Oops…” these days like it is no big deal. Everyone goes back on their word and everyone changes their mind once in a while. It’s no big deal!

Or is it?

Ecclesiastes 5:4-5 ~

4 When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. 5 Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.

When you promise God something, you had better fulfill that promise. We are fools in God sight when we don't. It is better to not make a promise than to break a promise. 



Matthew 5:33-37~

33 Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: 34 But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: 35 Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. 36 Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. 37 But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

God wants us to be honest in our dealings with people. He reminds that we really don't have a real reason to even be able to promise something.

So what happened to Jephthah’s daughter? 

The Bible doesn’t tell us exactly what happened. We know that Jephthah’s daughter asked for two months to go into the mountains and mourn her life, then the Bible tell us that she returned to her father and did unto her according to his vow. The next phrase in the Bible says, “And she knew no man.”

We know from the Bible that God does not approve of human sacrifice, so perhaps Jephthah and the people of Gilead understood that enough that they did not put Jephthah’s daughter to death. They may have just required her to never marry. We don’t know.

But one thing we do know for sure from this story, it is important to think before we speak. To pause for a moment and consider our words. How do they affect the people around us? What are their consequences?

Perhaps if Jephthah had thought first, he would have remembered that his family would come rushing toward him at the completion of the battle as was the custom of the day.

So what do we do?

1. Stop talking: sometimes the best thing to do is to stop for a minute. God said in Proverbs 17:28 that even a fool is considered wise when he keeps silent.
2. Talk less: maybe the best solution for you is to simply talk less (and let’s face it – we can’t stop talking forever). You don’t have to share everything with everyone. Sometimes it is best to keep that bit of information to ourselves.
3. Count to 10: or say a quick prayer. We cannot be like Jephthah who spoke before he thought. If you count to ten, maybe you will realize that what you were going to say is not necessary to be said.
4. Change your heart: our words reveal our hearts. So if we are only saying mean, cutting, unkind, or untrue things, there is an obvious problem with our hearts.