The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2024)

Episode Date: April 1, 2024

Today's readings are Judges 9-11, Ruth 4, and Psalm 137. In the reading from Judges, we hear about the rise and fall of Abimelech, as well as the misguided and heartbreaking vow Jephthah makes to God in return for victory over the Ammonites. We also conclude the book of Ruth with the marriage of Boaz and Ruth. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 92, and we are reading from Judges chapter 9, 10, and 11. They're three kind of long chapters with some really, well, as all of Judges is just an intense, intense book. It is PG-13. It gets worse. Knowing that we've had the first eight chapters of the book of Judges, it gets worse. Every chapter is worse than the

one before. Just keep that in mind. If you have people that you want to maybe, I don't know, if you want to edit a little bit of what you expose people to when it comes to the word of God, it is still the word of God, but it is also a hard word and it gets harder and harder through the book of Judges. We're also reading a happy, happy story. And that is Ruth chapter four. We're concluding the story of Ruth today. We're also praying Psalm 137. As always, the Bible translation that I am using is the revised standard version, the second Catholic edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.

Hopefully you can get yours at ascensionpress.com or at amazon.com or wherever you find Bibles. Also, you can download your free Bible in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You also can subscribe to the podcast app and rate it and comment on it if you want in your podcast app. That is all the announcements today. Once again, Judges 9, 10, and 11, Ruth chapter 4, and pray in Psalm 137. The book of Judges chapter 9. Abimelech tries to establish a monarchy. or that one rule over you. Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh. And his mother's kinsmen spoke all these words on his behalf in the years of all the men of Shechem,

and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, He is our brother. And they gave him seventy pieces of silver out of the house of Baal-barit, with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless fellows who followed him. And he went to his father's house at Ophrah and slew his brothers, the sons of Jerubabel, seventy men, upon one stone. But Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubabel, was left, for he hid himself. And all the citizens of Shechem came together, and all bet Milo, and they went and made Abimelech king by the oak of the pillar at Shechem. Jotham's parable of the trees, vine, and bramble. When it was told to Jotham, he went and stood on top of Mount Gerizim and cried aloud and said to them, Listen to me, you men of Shechem, that God may listen to you. The trees once went forth to anoint a king over

them, and they said to the olive tree, Reign over us. But the olive tree said to them, Shall I leave my fatness, by which gods and men are honored, and go to sway over the trees? And the trees said to them, And the trees said to the fig tree, But the fig trees said to them, And the trees said to the vine, But the vine said to them, and reign over us. But the vine said to them, Shall I leave my wine, which cheers gods and men, and go to sway over the trees? Then all the trees said to the bramble, Come you and reign over us. And the bramble said to the trees, If in good faith you are anointing me king over you,

then come and take refuge in my shade. But if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon. Now therefore, if you acted in good faith and honor when you made Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubabbel and his house, and have done to him as his deeds deserved, for my father fought for you, and risked his life, and rescued you from the hand of Midian, and you have risen up against my father's house this day, and have slain his sons, 70 men on one stone and have made Abimelech, the son of his maidservant, king over the citizens of Shechem because he is your kinsman. If you have then have acted in good faith and honor with Jerubbabel and with his house this day, then rejoice in Abimelech and let him also rejoice in you. But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech,

and devour the citizens of Shechem and Bet-Milo, and let fire come out from the citizens of Shechem and from Bet-Milo, and devour Abimelech. And Jotham ran away and fled, and went to Beer, and dwelt there, for fear of Abimelech his brother. The Downfall of Abimelech Abimelech ruled over Israel three years, and God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech Abimelech ruled over Israel three years.

And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem, and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech, that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubabel might come and their blood be laid upon Abimelech, their brother who slew them, and upon the men of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to slay his brothers. And the men of Shechem put men in ambush against him on the mountaintops, and they robbed all who passed by them along that way. And it was told Abimelech. And Gaal, the son of Ebed, moved into Shechem with his kinsmen, and the men of Shechem

put confidence in him. And they went out into the field and gathered the grapes from their vineyards and trod them and held festival and went into the house of their god, and ate, and drank, and reviled Abimelech. And Gaal the son of Ebed said, Who is Abimelech? And who are we of Shechem, that we should serve him? Did not the son of Jerubabel and Zebel his officer serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem? Why then should we serve him? Would that this people were under my hand, then I would remove Abimelech. I would say to Abimelech, increase your army and come out. When Zebul, the ruler of the city, heard the words of Gaal, the son of Ebed, his anger was kindled, and he sent messengers to Abimelech at Arumah, saying,

Behold, Gaal, the son of Ebed, and his kinsmen have come to Shechem, and they are stirring up the city against you. Now therefore, go by night, you and the men that are with you, and lie in wait in the fields. Then, in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, rise early and rush upon the city, and when he and the men that are with him come out against you, you may do to them as occasion offers. And Abimelech and all the men that were with him rose up by night and laid wait against Shechem in four companies. And Gaal the son of Ebed went out and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city, and Abimelech and the men that were with him rose up from the ambush. And when Gaal saw the men,

he said to Zebul, Look, men are coming down from the mountaintops. And Zebul said to him, You see the shadow of the mountains as if they were men. Gaal spoke again and said to him, you despised, go out now and fight with them. And Gaal went out at the head of the men of Shechem and fought with Abimelech. And Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him, and many fell wounded up to the entrance of the gate. And Abimelech dwelt at Aramah, and Zebul drove out Gaal and his kinsmen, so that they could not live on at Shechem. On the following day the men went out into the fields, and Abimelech was told. He took his men and divided them into three companies and laid wait in the fields. And he looked and saw the men coming out of the city, and he rose against them and slew them. Abimelech and the company

that was with him rushed forward and stood at the entrance of the gate of the city, while the two companies rushed upon all who were in the fields and slew them. And Abimelech fought against the city all that day. He took the city and killed the people that were in it, and he razed the city and sewed it with salt. When all the people of the tower of Shechem heard of it, they entered the stronghold of the house of Elberit. Abimelech was told that all the people of the tower of Shechem were gathered together, and Abimelech was told that all the people over the tower of Shechem were gathered together and Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon. He and all the men that were with him and Abimelech took an ax in his hand and cut down a bundle of brushwood

and took it up and laid it on his shoulder. And he said to the men that were with him, what you have seen me do, make haste to do as I have done. So every one of the people cut down his bundle and following Abimelech, put it against the stronghold and they set the stronghold on fire over them, so that all the people of the tower of Shechem also died, about a thousand men and women. Then Abimelech went to Thebes and

encamped against Thebes and took it. But there was a strong tower within the city, and all the people of the city fled to it, all the men and women, and shut themselves in it. And they went to the roof of the tower, and Abimelech came to the tower and fought against it, and drew near to the door of the tower to burn it with fire. And a certain woman threw an upper millstone upon Abimelech's head and crushed his skull. Then he called hastily to the young man, his armor-bearer, and said to him, Draw your sword and kill me, lest men say of me, a woman killed him. And his young man thrust him through, and he died. And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed every man to his home. Thus God repaid the crime of Abimelech, which he committed against his father in killing his 70

brothers. And God also made all the wickedness of the men of Shechem fall back upon their heads. And upon them came the curse of Jotham, the son of Jerubabbel. Chapter 10, Tola and Jair. After Abimelech, there arose to deliver Israel, Tola, the son of Pua, son of Dodo, a man of Issachar. And he lived at Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. And he judged Israel 23 years. Then he died and he lived at Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. And he judged Israel

twenty-three years, then he died, and was buried at Shamir. After him rose Jair the Gileadite, who judged Israel twenty-two years. And he had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys, and they had thirty cities called Havoth Jair to this day, which are in the land of Gilead. And Jair died, and was buried buried in Camon. Oppression by the Philistines and Ammonites. And the sons of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. And they forsook the Lord and did not serve him. And the anger of the Lord was kindled againstines, and they forsook the Lord and did not serve him. And the anger of

the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the Ammonites, and they crushed and oppressed the children of Israel that year. For eighteen years they oppressed all the sons of Israel that were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead. And the Ammonites crossed the Jordan to fight also against Judah and against Benjamin and against the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was sorely distressed. And the sons of Israel cried to the Lord, saying, We have sinned against you, because we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals. And the Lord said to the sons of Israel, Did I not deliver you from the Egyptians and from

the Amorites, from the Ammonites and from the Philistines? The Sidonians also and the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you, and you cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand. Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods. Therefore I will deliver you no more. Go and cry to the gods whom you have chosen. Let them deliver you in the time of your distress. And the sons of Israel said to the Lord, We have sinned. Do to us whatever seems good to you.

Only deliver us, we beg you this day. So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord. And he became indignant over the misery of Israel. Then the Ammonites were called to arms, and they encamped at Gilead. And the sons of Israel came together, and they encamped at Mizpah. And the people, the leaders of Gilead, said to one another, Who is the man that will begin to fight against the Ammonites? He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead. Chapter 11. Jephthah. Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior, but he was the son of a harlot. Gilead was the father of Jephthah, and Gilead's wife also bore him sons, and when his wife's sons grew up, they thrust Jephthah out and said to him, you shall not inherit in our father's house for you are the son of another woman. Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and

dwelt in the land of Tob. And worthless fellows collected around Jephthah and went raiding with him. After a time, the Ammonites made war against Israel. And when the Ammonites made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah from the land of Tob. And they said to Jephthah, Come and be our leader, that we may fight with the Ammonites. But Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, Did you not hate me and drive me out of my father's house? Why have you come to me now when you are in trouble? And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, That is why we have turned to you now, that you may go with us and fight with the Ammonites and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead. Jephthah said to the

elders of Gilead, If you bring me home again to fight with the Ammonites, and the Lord gives them over to me, I will be your head. And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, The Lord will be witness between us. We will surely do as you say. So Jephthah went The Lord will be witness between us. We will surely do as you say. So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and leader over them. And Jephthah spoke all his words before the Lord at Mizpah. Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites and said, What have you against me, that you have come to me to fight against my land? And the king of the Ammonites answered the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel, on coming from Egypt, took away my land from the Arnon to the Jebok and to the Jordan. Now, therefore, restore it peaceably.

And Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the Ammonites and said to him, Thus says Jephthah, Israel did not take away the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites. But when they came up from Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh. Israel then sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, Let us pass, we beg, through your land. But the king of Edom would not listen. And they also sent to the king of Moab, but he would not consent. So Israel remained at Kadesh.

Then they journeyed through the wilderness and went round the land of Edom and the land of Moab and arrived on the east side of the land of Moab and encamped on the other side of the Arnon. But they did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was the boundary of Moab. Israel then sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, king of Heshbon, and Israel said to him, let us pass, we beg, through your land to our country. But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory. So Sihon gathered all his people together and encamped at Jehaz and fought with Israel. And the Lord, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel,

and they defeated them. So Israel took possession of all the land of the Amorites who inhabited that country. And they took possession of all the territory of the Amorites from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the wilderness to the Jordan. So then the Lord, the God of Israel, dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel. And are you to take possession of them? Will you not possess what Shemash, your God, gives you to possess? And all that the Lord our God has dispossessed before us, we will possess. Now are you any better than Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever go to war with them?

While Israel dwelt in Heshbon and its villages, and in Arawar and its villages, and in all the cities that are on the banks of the Arnon three hundred years. Why did you not recover them within that time? I therefore have not sinned against you, and you do me wrong by making war on me. The Lord, the Judge, decide this day between the sons of Israel and the people of Ammon. But the king of the Ammonites did not heed the message of Jephthah, which he sent to him. Jephthah's vow. Then the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh, and he passed on to Mizpah of Gilead, and from the 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 forth from the doors of my house to meet me when I return victorious from the Ammonites shall be the Lord's. I will offer him up for a burnt offering. So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the Lord gave them into his hand. And he struck them from Aroer to the neighborhood of Minith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel-Keramim, with a very great slaughter. So the Ammonites were subdued before the sons of Israel. Jephthah's Daughter Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah. And behold, his daughter came out to meet him with

timbrels and with dances. She was his only child. Beside her, he had neither son nor daughter. And when he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, Alas, my daughter, you have brought me very low, and you have become the cause of great trouble to me, for I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot take back my vow. And she said to him, My father, if you have opened your mouth to the Lord, and I cannot take back my vow. And she said to him, My father, if you have opened

your mouth to the Lord, do to me according to what has gone forth from your mouth, now that the Lord has avenged you on your enemies, on the Ammonites. And she said to her father, Let this one thing be done for me. Let me alone two months, that I may go and wander on the mountains and bewail my virginity, I and my companions. And he said, go. And he sent her away for two months and she departed, she and her companions and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains. And at the end of two months, she returned to her father who did with her according to his vow, which he had made. She had never known a man. And it became a custom in Israel that the daughters of Israel went year by year to lament the daughter of Jephthah,

the Gileadite, four days in the year. The Book of Ruth, Chapter 4. The Marriage of Boaz and Ruth. And Boaz went up to the gate, and sat down there. And behold, the next of kin, of whom Boaz and Ruth. So they sat down. Then he said to the next of kin, Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land which belonged to our kinsman Elimelech. So I thought I would tell you of it and say, buy it in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not tell me that I may know, for there is no one beside you to redeem it, and I come after you. And he said, I will redeem it.

Then Boaz said, The day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you are also buying Ruth the Moabites, the widow of the dead, in order to restore the name of the dead to his inheritance. Then the next of kin said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it for myself lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it. Now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging. To confirm a transaction, the one drew off his sandal and gave it to the other. And this was the manner of attesting in Israel. So when the next of kin said

to Boaz, buy it for yourself, he drew off his sandal. Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, You are witnesses this day, that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech, and that belonged to Kilian and to Malone. Also Ruth the Moabites, the widow of Malone, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brethren and from the gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day. Then all the people who were at the gate and all the elders said, we are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you prosper in Ephrathah and be

renowned in Bethlehem. And may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the children that the Lord will give you by this young woman. The genealogy of David. So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went into her, and the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi, Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without next of kin, and may his name be renowned in Israel. He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has born him. Then Naomi took the child and laid him in her bosom and became his nurse. And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying,

A son has been born to Naomi. They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. Now these are the descendants of Perez. Perez was the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nashon, Nashon of Salmon, Salmon of Boaz, Boaz of Obed, Obed of Jesse, Jesse of David. Psalm 137 Lament over the destruction of Jerusalem By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our lyres. For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors mirth, saying,

Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither. Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy. Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem and how they said, raise it, raise it down to its foundations. O daughter of Babylon, you devastator, happy shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us. Happy shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock. and dashes them against the rock.

Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. We give you honor and we just declare our love for you and our gratitude for who you are and all you have given to us this day and every day. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. I know that it has been a long day, a long day of readings and a bunch of stories when it comes to the book of Judges and even the happy conclusion

of the book of Ruth. But it's a couple, couple brief things. It began with chapter nine. Remember, Jerubabel, whose name was Gideon as well. Gideon's way easier to say than Jerubabel. I just have to say that right now. Gideon, Jerubabel had 70 sons, 71 sons really, and Abimelech decides that he wants to be the king. Now, Gideon had set himself up essentially as the king, and this is one of his downfalls. And then the next group, the next generation, his son Abimelech did the same thing. And again, one of the things we find is in this book of Judges, this cycle of God's close to his people, he blesses them. Then they turn away, they turn to other gods, then tragedy befalls them, they repent, they turn back to the Lord, they call

out to him and God helps them and they're restored. And we see this a bunch of times, in fact, 12 or 13 times here in the book of Judges. And the story of Abimelech is no different. We have the stories not of heroes, but of protagonists who aren't necessarily all together. For example, the great story, when I say great, I mean just big story of Jephthah, right? He was the Gileadite, one of the sons of Gilead, who was the son of a harlot. And so he's rejected by his family, but he becomes a mighty warrior, kind of a boy named Sue type situation, right? Where here's the Johnny Cash song, where he gets kicked out of the family, or Johnny Cash

version is he's named Sue. And so he gets beat up a lot, becomes really, really tough. Well, same thing when it comes to Jephthah. He's kicked out of the family, becomes this mighty warrior, becomes basically a bandit. And then when the Ammonites come against the tribe of Gilead, they know who to turn to. They turn to the guy they rejected who became the toughest person on the block. Now, the problem is not that Jephthah led the battle against the Ammonites.

Jephthah seems to have done a pretty good job there. The problem is his vow. And this vow is so problematic that what does Jephthah say? He says, God, if you give me, and he's turning to the God of Israel, which makes no sense because Jephthah knows the truth. He knows the reality of the God of Israel

that he does not desire human sacrifice. In fact, that he prohibits human sacrifice. And yet Jephthah makes this rash vow where he says, God, if you give me victory, whoever comes out of my door, out of the house, when I come back home, I will sacrifice them to you. Which again, when I first read this story years and years and years ago, it was so problematic because I was still under the impression that every story in the Bible, if a quote unquote hero of the Bible does this, it must be somehow okay. I try to bend my mind around why would this be okay? And the reality is in the book of Judges, we have all of these judges who do one thing okay and another thing very not okay. They have goodness in some areas of strength

or of might or of being able to fight, but they are foolish as well. They're unfaithful as well. And Jephthah is no different. In fact, Jephthah fulfills his vow that he made, this rash vow to the Lord, not because God wanted it. And that's the crazy, dark and dangerous thing here is it is possible that Jephthah did the same thing that Israel would later do. There is this God, Moloch. We've heard about him already from the Canaanites. And those who worshiped Moloch would offer up their sons and daughters in sacrifice to Moloch. And here is Jephthah doing the same thing to the God of Israel, which is absolutely prohibited. When the Israelites would have heard the story of Jephthah,

they would have heard the story of a mighty warrior who had done something incredibly, mightily foolish. And so one of the things we just recognize for ourselves in this last minute of this podcast today is that our need not only to want to make covenant with the Lord, not only to want to make promises to the Lord, but also our need to make wise promises to the Lord, our need to make wise oaths. If we ever get to a place where we make an oath or promise God something that it is consistent and congruent with his character, with who he is, that God does not desire the death of the living,

the death of anyone, but desires that all might come to life and have fullness of life. And so these rash vows that Jephthah, this one rash vow that Jephthah had made is not a model for us unless it is a model for us to avoid. So we continue to pray. I'm praying for you, especially on these long days where it's just a lot of words and a lot of minutes. But I'm so grateful for everyone who's on this journey with us. As I said, it's day 92. You guys, we're over

three months into this reading the Bible through these 365 days. Man, what a gift, absolute gift. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.