Oh, I wish I had never said that.... have you ever said that before? The story that we have here in Judges 11 serves as a good example of this. Sometimes we as Christians are apt to respond to someone or something that has happened without thinking first and left to reap the consequences of our words. Jephthah made a vow to God that said "If you will indeed deliver the people of ammon into my hands, then it will be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the people of ammon, shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering." vss 30+31 those are some pretty strong words coming from Jephthah. How would he know what would come out of his house first? What if it were his daughter? In vs 34 we find that that is exactly what happens. His daughter, his only child, had come out to greet him first, and so the burnt offering to the Lord. Naturally this made him sad, I wonder if he was regreting his vow, but the words had already been spoken! What a lesson to learn, Let us be careful to speak with thought and soundness as with grace and not with irrational emotion. Wanting to offer thanks to God is not bad, but how thankful do you think Jephthah felt offering his DAUGHTER as the burnt offering?
Notice as well his daughter did not question her fathers word. vs. 36.
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