Today, I am reading and commenting on Judges 11-13.

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I am always saddened by the account of Jephthah’s daughter.  When Jephthah went out to fight the Ammonites he made a foolish vow.  He vowed that, if God gave him victory against the Ammonites, he would offer up whatever came out of his house to meet him upon his return as a burnt offering.  The translators’ notes indicate that the Hebrew word they translate as “whatever” could also be translated as “whoever”.   Commentators differ on whether or not Jephthah actually made his daughter burnt offering.  My understanding is that, while the default reading of the Hebrew leads one to that conclusion, it could also be interpreted as dedicating someone to spend the rest of their life in service to God (such as the way that Roman Catholic nuns do).  If Jephthah did indeed offer his daughter as a burnt offering, he did something which was counter to all of God’s commands concerning sacrifice. The writer writes this as a warning against making ill-thought vows.  If Jephthah did not offer his daughter as a burnt offering, but only had her dedicated to a religious life, the writer intentionally created the allusion to human sacrifice to demonstrate the way in which Jephthah, and all of the other judges, himself fell short of fully obeying God’s commands.  This is a theme which we see throughout the Bible, God uses flawed men and women to accomplish His purposes.

Speaking of God using flawed men, today’s passage ends with the birth of Samson.  This part does not get into Samson’s flaws.  The writer tells us that “the angel of the Lord” appeared to Manoah’s wife and told her that even though she is barren she will conceive and bear a son.  We see here a theme which is repeated in the birth of John the Baptist.  Samson is to be a Nazirite from before birth.  First, I want to focus on the fact that this announcement was not made by “an angel of the Lord”, but rather by “the angel of the Lord.”  Manoah’s wife initially believed that the being who delivered this messenger to her was a man of God who looked like the angel of God.  Manoah prayed that God would send this man of God back to them in order to make sure they understood all that they were to do in raising this child which would be born to them.  The angel of God came again and Manoah offered Him a meal.  The angel of God declined the meal but suggested that Manoah offer a burnt offering to the Lord instead.  The angel of God declined to give Manoah His name and went up in the flame of the burnt offering.  At which point Manoah and his wife realized that the “man of God” they had been entertaining was “the angel of the Lord.”  When they realized that, Manoah thought that they would die because they had seen God.  I want to highlight how this passage uses “the angel of the Lord” in a way which foreshadows the Christian understanding of the Trinity.  In fact, we see a reference to the Spirit of God as well at then very end of the passage.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.