Taking Care of the Women

Judges Week Continues!


Judges 11:29-34 (NRSV)

Then the spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh. He passed on to Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed on to the Ammonites. And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD, and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, then whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return victorious from the Ammonites, shall be the LORD’s, to be offered up by me as a burnt offering.” So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them; and the LORD gave them into his hand. He inflicted a massive defeat on them from Aroer to the neighborhood of Minnith, twenty towns, and as far as Abel-keramim. So the Ammonites were subdued before the people of Israel.

Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah; and there was his daughter coming out to meet him with timbrels and with dancing. She was his only child; he had no son or daughter except her. When he saw her, he tore his clothes, and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low; you have become the cause of great trouble to me.”

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Some people claim that there's a woman to blame
And I know it's my own damn fault.

"Margaritaville" written and recorded by Jimmy Buffett from "Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude."

How low can you get? Jepthah was one of the Judges of Israel. The Judges were a series of leaders who ruled the Nation before the nation wanted a King. Judges were appointed because the nation could no longer be counted upon to do as the Lord called. Since they wouldn't get going on their own, the Lord appointed a leader. Across the ages, the Judges ruled with various amounts of success.

How did Jepthah rate? Well, he was able to follow the wonderful way the Lord had ordained in battle. The Nation led by Jepthah found great success and was granted victory. Then Jepthah messed it all up by saying in his joy that he would give as a burnt offering whoever comes out of the doors of his house to meet him upon their victorious return. So, how did that work out for him?

The first person out of the door was his daughter and only child. So what did Jepthah say when he saw her? “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low; you have become the cause of great trouble to me.” How low can you go? What a horrible thing to say, you have brought me sorrow by coming out the door. I'm going to offer you up as a burnt offering, but you have brought this great trouble to me.

Get over yourself. You have brought this horror upon your self and your family because you took a vow that you should not have. The Lord wanted to bring the nation victory, your bravado brought nothing to the battle and brought only sorrow to your family. I imagine your vow brought sorrow to God too. It is written our God does not desire human sacrifice, and that's what Jepthah promised when he offered "whoever comes out of the doors" as a burnt offering.

"Some people claim that there's a woman to blame, and I know it's my own damn fault." It took Jimmy three verses with three different choruses to get to this conclusion, but at least he made it there.

There are a lot of times in our society when we blame the women just as Jeptheh blamed his daughter. I am not here to perpetuate the "damsel in distress" view of women, but I am calling us all, men in particular in this instance, not to put people into situations of impending doom. Am I saying not to take oaths offering another as a burnt offering? Certainly I am. And I am also asking men not through malice or negligence to endanger another.

Virginia Slims Cigarettes used to have a slogan, "You've come a long way, Baby." This is truer today than it was when tobacco companies could advertise. But to the altar to be offered to the flame, whether literal or rhetorical, is not the long way to go.

Sandbar Theology

Thanks to the smartest man I know,Michael Jinkins, for inspiring this one.
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Matthew 7:24-27

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell--and great was its fall!”

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I enjoy this life as a jester
Seems to keep me movin' around
Like the wind that blows
Tide that flows
Have my ups and downs

All a part of some strange plan I'm sure
Start a new chapter each day
Honey, love gets lost, time gets tossed
'Cause we've both got our own different ways

I feel like I'm stranded on a sandbar
Stuck in my tracks like a street car
Playin' it for all that it's worth
I'm just payin' for my sins on earth

"Stranded on a Sandbar" by Jimmy Buffett from the album "Volcano"

As Michael Jinkins writes, "The gospels don’t have much nice to say about sand." This is the most particular reference, when the storms come there is little sand does that supports a structure. When the tide flows and the wind blows Jimmy Buffett sings of personal ups and downs. As for the walls of your house, well, there are just downs.

I went to Miami Beach for a conference about 20 years ago. As you can well imagine from the name of the town, everything was on the beach, and I mean everything. There were fences on the beach. There were swimming pools on the beach. There were restaurants on the beach. There were 30 story hotels and apartments on the beach. That's when Matthew's warning crossed my mind. How do huge hotels survive in a foundation of sand. So I asked a cabby.

He told me that before the hotels were built, tremendous concrete piers were poured as a foundation. I don't know how many cubic yards of concrete has to be poured to turn a "beach" into a "rock covered with beach," but I'm sure it is both many and as of today enough.

But that's enough about engineering.

The second stanza of the first verse of Stranded on a Sandbar is the lament of a man whose life not really in a good place. His relationship is failing because they both have their own different ways. Evidently she's moving on, but he isn't because he's stranded on the sandbar. He's stuck in his tracks and unable to move. But for some reason, he believes that standing still is a form of atonement and he's playin' it for all it's worth.

Being in a place where being swept away with the rush of life is no form of atonement. It's really not much of a way of life either. Being swept in the tide is little more than a good way to be cast out to sea without the benefit of Jonah's great fish.

We instead are called to seek the rock of ages, the rock of our faith. That is where we build our great foundation. Without a solid foundation, everything we have and everything we do will be for naught as it blows away in the wind with the sand. As Michael Jinkins writes, in the sand what is here today is gone tomorrow. It's better to place our trust in what is here always. The foundation of the Lord our God.