Deut 23 “21 When thou shalt vow a vow unto the LORD thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it: for the LORD thy God will surely require it of thee; and it would be sin in thee. 22 But if thou shalt forbear to vow, it shall be no sin in thee. 23 That which is gone out of thy lips thou shalt keep and perform; even a freewill offering, according as thou hast vowed unto the LORD thy God, which thou hast promised with thy mouth.”

I agree that Isreal was not what it should have been at this moment in time, nor do I mean to say that Jephthah was acting in the right when he sacrificed his daughter. But as you can read in the above quoted passages, once a vow is made to God, it is meant to be kept. Jephthah did not sacrifice his daughter out of sinful disobedience, he did it because he felt that he had no choice and he was fearful of the Lord. If I had to pinpoint the moment of Jephthah fault, it would not be the sacrifice, but rather the vow that he made, on his own, and without the Lord’s blessing. The Lord had already decided to grant Jephthah the victory in the battle, his vow had no impact on it, and yet he was still bound by his oath to fulfill it. So then, my question always becomes, “Why didn’t the Lord cause a ram to come out of his tent?”

The only explanation I can think of, is to teach Jephthah and all of us a powerful lesson on the consequences of not only our vows, but of stepping outside of God’s will to do something that would “seem” to be right. Jephthah assumed that promising the Lord a sacrifice would grant him favor in the eyes of God. In the same way, King Saul assumed that sacrificing cattle would be more beneficial than waistfully slaughtering them. (1 Samuel 15)

Doing the “right thing” can ultimately be the “wrong thing” if it is done outside of the Lord’s will. And I think that that is ultimately the lesson to be learned. The second is simple, “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

And of course let’s not forget the wisdom of Deut 23:22 “But if thou shalt forbear to vow, it shall be no sin in thee.”

When in doubt, that is always the safest route.

This part of Judges, in my opinion, was God’s way of showing us how depraved Israel had become. A man feels that sacrificing his own daughter will please God. In another story, a man gives his concubine to the violent, lustful desires of depraved men and then kills her and cuts her body and sends it to the other tribes, in a show of “righteous” anger.

God does not accept sin as a means of doing right. Keeping a vow does not remove the requirement to obey God’s law. If God had been pleased with his willingness to keep his vow, even when he realized that he made a horrible mistake, I would have expected to see a ram caught in the thickets (that would be the symbol of Christ)

I also point out in a discussion like this is that in order for God to not allow “bad” things to happen, He would have to MAKE people do what He wants. So the same people who rail against a “cruel” God for allowing “bad” things to happen are the ones who demand that they be allowed to do whatever they want to do.