(v. 36) Fulfilling a promise is good but yielding your own life for someone else promises or request is really great. Timbrels the only daughter of Jephthah, literally yield her life to be sacrificed to his father’s promise. This is similar to Isaac the only son of Abraham even though he had no clue why he was bound on the alter (Genesis 22:9) but he yield to his father to fulfill Gods request. This reminds me what Jesus said about children in Matthew 18:3. “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”

For Trusting and obeying God we need not intelligent but innocence like a child

The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone. In the same way Jephthah was rejected by his family members, but he was used mighty by God and was filled with HIS spirit. We might feel rejected but God can use us in wondrous ways.

Think twice before you make a vow to God. “It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not fulfill it” (Ecclesiastes 5:5).

We should make sensible vows to God.

God’s spirit was already on J’h. Then why make an unnecessary promise? We should not make makku plasthiri promises.

We should not make unnecessary promises.

I also learnt that daughters do not let down their fathers no matter what. True then true now.

Like Jephthah’s question to the elders, “Suppose you take me back to fight the Ammonites and the Lord gives them to me—will I really be your head?” (v. 9). He clarifies upfront that it is the Lord who will give the Ammonites into his hands

Jephthah knew that if they win over the Ammonites, the victory is from the Lord.Israelites are once again saved.The Lord gives victory over the Ammonites.
Jephthah made a blind promise to win over the Ammonites. promises made should be sensible and feasible.

(v. 11) Jephthah uttered all his words before the LORD. This is how we should be too.

(v. 29) Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah.
-Jephthah was able to drive the Ammonites out not because he was a mighty warrior but the Spirit of the Lord was with him!
-As we heard the message yesterday, the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into him so the man received the Spirit of the Lord, and the man became a living being (Gen 2:7).
-(John 20:22) Jesus breathed on His disciples and said “Receive the Holy Spirit”. We are living being only when the Spirit of the Lord is with us. When His Spirit is with us we should be able to overcome anything. If the Spirit of the Lord is not with us we are dead though we live.

The spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah and The Lord delivered Ammonites into his hands. It reminds me of our church first pattimandram ” Jephthah seithathu Sariyaa! Thavaraa! ” And as usual, we have the pattimandram result as someone’s wish. Anyway When the Lord was with Jephthah, how could this tragedy happened, does it happen with His Knowledge, why God stopped Abraham when he tried to sacrifice his son, but allows Jephthah daughter, It is a mystery, the answer is We don’t know.

Did Jephtha sacrifice (kill) his daughter? …this was one of the topic in our Bible Study. ‘He would have supplemented with something else as per the law’ …was one interpretation. But the way it was described in this chapter, we tend to conclude Jephthah sacrificed his daughter.
But there are many arguments against that as well.
My Learning: Let us commit what God expects us to commit. Whatever committed to be fulfilled at any cost.

(v. 29) Jephthah was filled by the spirit of the Lord and he moved forward to perform the victory battle. When we are filled with the spirit of the Lord we will fearlessly move forward to perform God’s work. God gave Israelites victory one more time.

Jephthah made a promise to the Lord that if God gives him victory, he would sacrifice whatever first comes out of his door to meet him on his victorious return. Jephthah’s daughter was the first thing to come of out his door when he came home. God had specifically forbidden offering human sacrifices, so God never would have wanted Jephthah to sacrifice his daughter. Jephthah serves as an example for us not to make foolish promises or oaths. If we promise to do something, God says do it! But this does not apply to sinful promises.