Day 72. Judges 9-11

It is always a mistake to rely too much upon first impressions, but when it comes to the person of Abimelech in our reading for today, we are pretty sure from the beginning that he is not leadership material, especially when he launches his career as king of Israel by hiring a gang (9:40) and then killing his brothers "the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, on one stone" (9:5). (It is worth noting that people in the Bible often have several names; Jerubbaal and Gideon are one and the same man—see Judges 6:32. It's confusing in our text.)
However, Jothan, the youngest of Gideon's sons, escapes his brothers' mass murder to condemn Abimelech publicly, using the parable of the trees (9:7-15). (This is actually a fable rather than a true parable. A fable is a fanciful story with a message. Parables, such as the ones Jesus used, also convey a message or teaching, but they are realistic stories—like modern short stories--incidents that might indeed happen in the course of human life.)
Abimelech's reign, Israel's first experience with monarchy, lasts three chaotic years (9:22). But there is justice built into the universe (9:24); in the end he is killed in a siege when a "certain woman threw the upper millstone on Abimelech's head, and crushed his skull" (9:53). (It's yet another instance of one of those redoubtable, bloodthirsty Bible women taking matters into her own hands.) The curse of Jothan, Gideon's son, is at last fulfilled--"God repaid Abimelech for the crime he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers" (9:56).
After the death of Abimelech, the all too familiar pattern of the Book of Judges continues. There is general wickedness in Israel (verse 6). The LORD's anger is kindled and he turns the people over to their enemies (verse 7). They are "greatly distressed" (verse 9), and cry out to the LORD (verse 10). But this time God loses his temper; "Go and cry to the gods whom you have chosen," he says (10:14). Nevertheless, there is a general reformation of religion and morals (10:16), and God sends another judge, this one named Jephthah.
It is tribute to the author of Judges that he stubbornly resists the temptation of idealize his characters. Jephthah is conceived on the wrong side of the blanket, but that does not detract that from the fact that he grows up to be "a mighty warrior" (11:1). When his family throws him out, he gathers a band of outlaws and goes raiding with them" (11:3).
The trajectory of his life changes, however, at the point where the leaders of Israel, hard pressed by the Ammonites, come to offer Jephthah the commandership of their army. Clearly they need "a dog that will eat a dog," and Jephthah is nothing if not that. He has courage, however, and some diplomatic skill, as his dialogue with the King of the Ammonites demonstrates (11:12 and following).
Jephthah takes on the role of "messiah"—deliverer—and his leadership is validated when "the spirit of the LORD" comes upon him (11:29). But at this very moment, our hero makes a terrible mistake. The story is a cautionary one. It demonstrates both the danger of making a careless vow and the sacredness with which vows made to the LORD must be regarded. Jethphah vows that whoever first comes out the doors of his house to meet him after he is victorious over the Ammonites he will offer up to the LORD as a burnt offering (11:31).
Tragically, it is his beloved daughter, his only child, who comes to meet him. Now he has to make a frightful choice. We wonder how God could be party to such a terrible act as that which follows, but the writer of Judges is not troubled by that problem.
To him and to his audience it is the sacredness of the vow is all that matters (11:35)—"I have opened my mouth to the LORD, and I cannot take back my vow," Jephthah laments. The girl is given two months so that she can "wander on the mountains, and bewail [her] virginity" with her companions (11:37). After that time has passed she returns to her father, who does "with her according to the vow he had made" (11:39).
The story presents moral questions to which it gives no answers. Why does a rash promise have to cost the life of an innocent human being? we wonder--especially when we remember how the LORD stepped in to stop the sacrifice of Isaac in Genesis 22. The best we can say is that the times were evil, as the writer of Judges constantly reminds us, and in this fallen world tragic mistakes are made.