Jephthah – Two Wrongs Don’t Make One Right
Judges 11:30-35 – Victory Fellowship
May 24, 2026 - Rev. Roderick Grabski
It is accounts like this passage today that convince me beyond any doubt that the bible is true. It tells the stories, warts and all.
Jephthah shouldn’t have offered God any frivolous vows in exchange for His help. If you’re going to offer worship and sacrifice to the Lord, just do it from a worshiping heart and it will be accepted by Him. And do it, even if His help does not seem forthcoming. He is God.
It is arrogant presumption to offer for His help something that we ought to have been giving Him anyway.
Nowhere in the Bible is there an admonition to give your life to the Lord and the church in service, only when everything is going right and only when the Lord has delivered you from all your trials.
So Jephthah made two mistakes in an attempt to find right-standing with God.His first mistake was to make this vow in the first place; especially one so specific. If he felt he had to secure God’s blessing with a vow he could have said, “Lord, when this is done and you have given us the victory I will go to the temple and make a sacrifice of thanksgiving to You.” That would have been acceptable as long as he kept his vow.
But really, no vow was necessary, and was apparently made out of insecurity and perhaps a moment of doubt.
Jephthah’s second mistake was that in his vow he boasted by being very specific and making a promise which, if he had stopped to give it any thought, he might have realized he was potentially putting himself in a tight spot. (Some say, tongue in cheek, he was thinking of his wife)
Now let’s look at verses 34 and 35
34 When Jephthah came to his house at Mizpah, behold, his daughter was coming out to meet him with tambourines and with dancing. Now she was his one and only child; besides her he had no son or daughter.
35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you are among those who trouble me; for I have given my word to the LORD, and I cannot take it back.”
As far as I can see, the Bible says that Jephthah made a vow to offer in burnt offering the first thing he saw coming out of his house after his victory, and in verse 39 when it says that after her mourning period he “did to her according to the vow which he had made”, that means he offered her as a burnt offering, probably on an altar on his own property. Martin Luther and Josephus both agree that Jephthah sacrificed his daughter as a burnt offering.
Does that make it right? Of course not. Two wrongs don’t make a right. It would have been an abomination to God. It just means it’s in the Bible and the Bible tells the whole story; even the nasty parts.
So how do we get something from this that is valuable to us today?
Well first - by not letting ourselves be so focused on the difficulty of the vow question and the shocking thought of a man offering his only daughter as a burnt offering that we miss the whole point of scripture here.
Remember as I said earlier, the Bible is absolutely honest. God doesn’t cover up His people’s sins, rather He exposes them so that they might repent and so that those who see the sin and the consequences might exercise wisdom and avoid the same follies.
So here in our text today we are given the picture of a man who is no different than any one of us. He is a man who believes in the one true God, yet is capable of the most heinous of acts. He seems to stand firm on some scriptures (do every word of your vow) but not on the whole of the Law (do not sacrifice children).
Are we, even as believers, capable picking and choosing from the bible what we like and what we don’t? If we think not, then we are setting ourselves up for a fall.
Jephthah was a man who knew the history of God’s people and also the history of God’s miraculous help throughout, and yet he has doubts, needs assurances, is tripped up by his tendency to want to walk by sight and not by faith.
Are we modern believers, prone to these faults? If we think not, we are deceived.
One commentator said that Jephthah was a rebel with a clause. He wanted assurances, he wanted to argue his case, he wanted to make deals that would secure his success.
But Jephthah was a man God chose to mention in the New Testament as one of those who by faith, “…conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.” (Hebrews 11:32)
And while you and I are made of the same stuff as Jephthah, and equally capable of folly and error and insecurity and doubts, we serve the same God of Jephthah, who glorifies His name through the yielded vessel, helps in time of trouble, grants approval through faith –
That is, God justifies the sinner – and because He accepts us through the atoning work of His Son and grants to us His righteousness, He never again mentions our sin or dredges up our past.
For we have no past in Him, except that “…we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life”. Rom 6:4
PRAYER
SONG: Loving My Jesus
Judges 11:30-35 NLT
30 And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord. He said, “If you give me victory over the Ammonites, 31 I will give to the Lord whatever comes out of my house to meet me when I return in triumph. I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.” 32 So Jephthah led his army against the Ammonites, and the Lord gave him victory. 33 He crushed the Ammonites, devastating about twenty towns from Aroer to an area near Minnith and as far away as Abel-keramim. In this way Israel defeated the Ammonites. 34 When Jephthah returned home to Mizpah, his daughter came out to meet him, playing on a tambourine and dancing for joy. She was his one and only child; he had no other sons or daughters. 35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes in anguish. “Oh, my daughter!” he cried out. “You have completely destroyed me! You’ve brought disaster on me! For I have made a vow to the Lord, and I cannot take it back.”
