Women in white raiment

by John Lemley

Finally, this scene is a pattern page from God’s book of remembrance. Some day we shall read the other pages and find our names recorded either with the inhabitants of Meroz and Reuben, or with the victors of faith who stood with Deborah, and Barak, and Jehovah, in the battles of the Lord. Oh, shall we shine now like stars in the night, and then like the sun in the kingdom of our Father?

Passing on in our narrative from the brave deeds of Deborah, we next come to one of the most heroic daughters in Israel, and her great act of utter abnegation to save a father’s vow is so beautiful that, like the good Samaritan in our Lord’s touching parable, uttered in answer to the question, Who is my neighbor? the name is lost in the fragrance of the deed. She is simply Jephthah’s daughter.

It was during that stormy period in the history of Israel, when again and again they had fallen into the idolatrous practices of their heathen neighbors around them. These unlawful acts had often called down the judgments of God upon them. In the time of Jephthah, the Israelites were smarting under the oppression of an Ammonitish king. The unsettled character of the age was such that the elders of the people sought in vain for a suitable leader, who could command the confidence of his countrymen.

There was one man, however, a native of Gilead, who was a brave and successful leader. This was none other than Jephthah, but, because he had been born a child of misfortune, his brethren disowned him, and had cast him out. In most persons such treatment develops a spirit of misanthropy and bitterness which often find expression in revenge.

But Jephthah seemed to have possessed a much sweeter disposition than his brethren. His faith seems to have been anchored to God, and, as is usually the case, when all else forsook him then the Lord took him up, and, trusting in Jehovah, he lived to have a glorious revenge upon his unkind people by bringing them a blessing instead of the curse that they had given him.

We have a little touch of his character in the name he gave his new home. He called it the land of Tob. Tob means “good,” and this is but a little straw to tell how the wind blew in Jephthah’s life.

And so the day came when Jephthah’s brothers were glad to send for him to be their deliverer, and Jephthah had the high honor of returning good for evil, and saving the people that once despised him. He consented to become their leader on the condition, which was solemnly ratified before the Lord in Mizpah, that in the event of his success against the Ammonitish king he should still remain as their acknowledged head. This is the way that God loves to vindicate us, to make us a blessing to those that hated us and wronged us. His promise is, “I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.”

When Jephthah responded to their appeal, and came for their help, we see in his very words and acts the spirit of godliness and a lofty faith. We are told explicitly that all his words to his own people were “before the Lord.” He spoke as in Jehovah’s presence. He also went against his adversaries in the name of Jehovah God. The battle was not his, but the Lord’s, and such faith never can be confounded. It was not long before Jephthah returned in triumph from the slaughter of his enemies. His country was delivered, his claims vindicated, and his enemies were destroyed.

But now we come to the great trial in Jephthah’s life, which shows not only the loftiest faith, but the sublimest faithfulness. In the hour of peril he had vowed a vow unto Jehovah, pledging that when he returned in victory the first object that he met should be dedicated to the Lord, an offering to Him. As he came back amid the acclamations of universal triumph, the first who met him when he approached his home was his beautiful daughter, and as he realized all that his vow had meant, he was overwhelmed for a moment with the deepest emotion. But not for an instant did he hesitate in his firm and high purpose, nor once did that dear child shrink back from the sacrifice imposed upon her, but stood nobly with her father, demanding that he should fulfill his vow to the utmost.

The scene is very graphically described: When “Jephthah came to Mizpah unto his house, 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. 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 can not go back.”