There’s a story in the Old Testament I just really don’t like too much.  Judges chapter 11.  A foolish judge makes a stupid vow and, even more stupidly, upholds it.  The whole thing makes my heart hurt.  It makes me question God, question the man, question…just question.  

The story goes like this:  a judge named Jephthah makes a vow to the Lord that if He will deliver the Ammonites into his hands, he will sacrifice as a burnt offering whatever comes out his door to meet him upon his return from battle.  

Moron.  

I’d like to know how many chickens and sheep live in this guys house that he obviously believes are going to hear him coming and rush out to greet him after his long absence!

No shocker here:  his only child, his daughter, comes out to meet him.

He gives her time to grieve with her friends and then, “he did to her as he had vowed.” (Judges 11:39)

Why?  Why on earth would this guy think that the Lord would find this a pleasing offering to Him?  Read Jeremiah 32:35, God doesn’t like this kind of stuff, it’s “detestable” to Him.  Upholding a vow, now that’s a good thing, God’s pretty clear on His likeness of that (Psalm 15:4).  Not making vows to begin with, He wisely counsels in favor there (Matthew 5:33-37).

You just have to ask, what made Jephthah think this was something pleasing to the Lord?

I’m going to give you the scary answer:  Cross Contamination.

Ever heard the name Molech?  He (I use that term loosely) was the god of the Ammonites.  He’s the one you read about in Jeremiah 32, he’s the one to whom the pagans offered their children in sacrifice.  He’s the type of evil little god who would like that sort of thing.  

Remember who it was Jephthah was fighting against, who God gave him the victory over?

The Ammonites.  The same pagan people who worshiped this awful god Molech.  

The Ammonites shared some property with the Hebrews.  The Jews owned it, the Ammonites didn’t like that, that’s what the war was over.  They all lived right there around one another and they weren’t getting along.  

They lived among one another.

Their cultures mixed.  

Jephthah’s views of what his GOD would like took on some of the colorings of what their gods would like.  

Jephthah knew about the God of All Creation.  He writes a nice long letter detailing some of His activities of old.  He didn’t, however, seem to know Him at all.  What he knew was some contaminated version of old stories and cultural traditions.  He had allowed the world around him to reshape God Himself.  

Rick Burgess of the Rick and Bubba Show last week used the phrase, “hippy Jesus.”  It’s this idea that we can change who God is by just believing something different.  We can mold Him into any sort of god we choose, but notice, at that point He is no longer GOD, but just a god we’ve contrived.

The God of the Universe, the Alpha and Omega, the Creator, Sustainer, the Almighty is, was, and will always be.  He is constant and unchanging, the same yesterday, today, and forever.  That, my friends, means that we cannot change Him.  We cannot choose who He will and will not be.  

Jephthah had grown up hearing of the human sacrifices, he knew about vows and altars.  He allowed the world around him to push God into a mold.  HE doesn’t fit molds.  

Here’s the really scary part, he believed he had to do this.  It never occurred to him that his daughter would come out the door.  He was heartbroken, but felt so sure that this was something he must do that he did it through tears and agony.  He really believed this mess.  He had no idea that what he believed about his offering was not at all what God had in mind.

Test everything.  Hold on to the good.                                I Thessalonians 5:21

Everything.  Test every world view you hold.  Test every tradition you ascribe to.  Test every opinion you stand by.  Test every motivation that moves you.  Test everything.  Test it by the standard.  Test it by the unwavering, unchanging, ever true and consistent Word of the Living God.  

Like a game of grapevine, the original word was delivered and over time, through the biases and opinions and natural propensities of fallible people, the word gets contaminated.  In the end it doesn’t sound much like the original at all.  

Go to the Original.  Test your words, thoughts, ideas, perceptions, inclinations by the Original Word and the solid standard Who Breathed It.