What is righteousness? What is the righteousness of God? Can we possibly know that what we do is the righteousness of God?
Jephthah is a man who judged Israel. He was a mighty warrior who led Israel in their defeat of Ammon, one of the enemies of Israel. As the son of a harlot he had known rejection. His own siblings cast him out of the family only to call Jephthah to come and deliver Israel from their enemy. Although Jephthah reminded them of their rejection of him he set aside his feelings about the matter and came to the aid of his fellow Israelites. However, these are not the accomplishments which often come to mind about Jephthah, particularly among women some of whom anger and bitterness are stirred up. Jephthah sacrificed as a burnt offering his daughter whose name is not recorded in the scriptures. It is a fair question to ask what possible righteousness could there be in the act of sacrificing a human being, of one’s own virgin daughter by the hand of her own father?
Please understand, this is not some perverse call for human sacrifice. Rather it is an effort to understand both Jephthah and Jephthah’s daughter’s acts of righteousness.
Jephthah’s daughter stands, as I understand from her short testimony, as a giant among women -and men- not as a victim, but as one over whose shoulders one who desires to understand righteousness, obedience and sacrifice can gain insight on these things. She revealed that her love for the Lord God transcended the love which she had for her father and her own life.
they speak
I believe there is much to be gained through an understanding of the sacrifice of Jephthah’s daughter and not to regard it as a bizarre act of one man’s notion of doing the will of God. And, if Jephthah’s daughter’s blood is like that of the blood of Abel (and it is) it still speaks, he as an unwitting sacrifice, she as a witting and wilful sacrifice. There is yet another comparison to be noted between Jephthah’s daughter and Isaac.
the sacrifice of Isaac
Israel knew about human sacrifice for several centuries before Israel entered the land of Canaan and long before the sacrifice of Jephthah’s daughter. They were familiar with a virtual human sacrifice. It was the stopped-short-of-an-actual-sacrifice of Isaac by his father Abraham. Israel spun much theology and philosophy at great length in their struggle to understand the sacrifice of Isaac. There is one belief that the sacrifice of Isaac was fulfilled literally by Abraham in part because the scripture does not report anything about the return of Isaac with his father from Mount Moriah. However it is not implausible and it would be a serious understatement to say that the experience was a radical, transformative one for Isaac. It was not like heading back home with his father after a fun-filled weekend camping trip on Mount Moriah. Isaac does reappear in Genesis 24 when Abraham sends his servant to bring back a bride for Isaac from among his relatives.
Then, after centuries of much theological and philosophical musing, including one view that the lesson of Isaac was nothing more than God making a clear statement to Israel that the Lord God does not do or accept human sacrifice like the pagan nations which populated Canaan, _ it happened. The death of the Egypt’s firstborn was not a mindless, random slaughter. It was a calculated sacrifice which God took for himself without a hand or sword being lifted by any man. It was in this manner that God purposed to secure deliverance for Israel from their bondage of slavery in Egypt. The sacrifice of Egypt’s firstborn is something which continues to be a psychological burden for some Jews today. It, like the sacrifice of Isaac, was just one of numerous lessons for their learning by which God was preparing Israel for what the Lord God was to manifest in Israel several centuries later.
the sacrifice of Jephthah’s daughter
Much has been heard in sermons about the obedience of Isaac. This is true. Isaac was not unaware of the clues leading up to the preparation of his own body for a burnt offering sacrifice. Isaac had a God-given will to resist and disobey, but Isaac chose to submit himself in obedience. Yet how many times has the same or similar observation ever been made about Jephthah’s daughter? She had a whole two months to lament her virginity, namely, that she would effectively be eliminated from any possibility of being that one women who would give birth to Israel’s long awaited Messiah.
The sacrifice of Jephthah’s daughter was not a surprise which was sprung on her. She was no less aware than Isaac. She, like Isaac was the firstborn. She was an only child. Perhaps she, as well as her father, might have thought and hoped that an angel would stay her father’s hand at the last moment. Nevertheless it is an understatement and it rings like not much more than a cerebral, academic exercise to say that she demonstrated an extraordinary conviction of faith.
The sacrifice of Jephthah’s daughter is every bit as much her own bold act of righteousness as much as it was her father’s. Her act of righteousness continues to speak to women and men alike who seek to understand and do the righteousness of God.
the righteousness of God
Some have sought to determine whether the meaning of the expression the righteousness of God as written by the apostle might mean covenantal nomism, (E.P. Sanders) God’s covenant membership and faithfulness (N.T. Wright) or covenantal aspect (God is fulfilling his promise) and apocalyptic aspect (God’s power) (Kasemann) on the basis of lexical studies. Those terms are for the reader to examine at their leisure because I will not expand on them here. Read a brief review of the book, The Righteousness of God: A Lexical Examination of the Covenant-Faithfulness Interpretation, by Charles Irons. [1] Here is an audio recording by Irons. [2]) The consensus chosen as the correct one or the best rendering of the righteousness of God by the author is that it is NOT covenant faithfulness, but that it is the gift of God of and a righteousness which God imputes on the believer in Christ. I believe the latter part is quite familiar for the saints in Christ, but the question remains. Certainly, I agree that the righteousness of God is the righteousness which God imputes on the believer. But what, then, is the righteousness of God for our learning in the sacrificial burnt offering of the daughter of Jephthah?
The answer is not one which is or that should be thought of as being limited to Jephthah or Jephthah’s daughter, but it is an answer which extends to all who seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness. This is the righteousness of God which permeates the entirety of the written testimony of the revelation of the will of God.
what pleases and delights the Lord God
Here is something for the reader of the scriptures to examine and ponder concerning the righteousness of God. The writer of Hebrews cites Jephthah along with Gideon, Barak, Samson, David, Samuel as well as the prophets for among other things as having performed acts of righteousness. It does not go without notice that the Hebrews writer mentions the faith of Rahab the harlot and Jephthah, the son of a harlot, in the same breath. Thereby God bestows on Jephthah a restoration of sorts among the despised who are beloved of God. Perhaps you, too, have heard it over the years that God did not command for Jephthah to sacrifice his daughter and that God not only was not pleased with the sacrifice of Jephthah’s daughter, but he was displeased. Such an abysmal assessment of Jephthah’s act of righteousness has an equally callous assessment of Jephthah’s daughter own act of righteousness. Does this align with the testimony of the scriptures concerning the righteous of God?
When the apostle Paul stated that the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel and that it is apart from the law it was to indicate that the righteousness of God for those who believe and put their trust in Jesus is not something which came into existence or into light in the first century or even with Jesus himself. The fact is that righteousness as that which pleases and delights the Lord God did not originate with Abraham. This is the testimony of Hebrews 11 of men and women of faith with whom God was pleased and delighted. Enoch, who was not because God took him, is merely the first one of whom the scriptures testifies as being characterized by a resolute faith. The scripture does not testify that Enoch was righteous anymore than it testifies that Jephthah’s daughter was obedient. Just the thought that this realization might be difficult for some to accept. It raises the question of our genuine pursuit to understand and appreciate Jephthah’s daughter’s own decision and who admonished her father to follow through and “do to me as you have said.”
Secondly, some might be tempted to dismiss as a kind of presumptuous, preposterous and outrageous showcase display of righteousness the sacrifice of Jephthah’s daughter. Aside of the presumptuousness to stand on a higher moral ground than God it would be a dire misunderstanding. The prophet Micah cites Balaam and Balak to remind Israel of God’s purpose in that incident with respect to righteousness in Israel’s history. Micah declares that it was So that you might know the righteous acts of Lord. [3] Then, he enumerates three specifics as to what the Lord requires, 8 He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?
justice, kindness and humility
God declares that justice, kindness and humility are the characteristics of those who do righteousness. It does not always look or feel good as it most certainly did not for Jephthah’s daughter. She, as well as her father, chose to honor God and do right, that is, to do justice and be faithful, to let his yes be yes and to make good on his rash vow to the Lord. His daughter’s proclamation for him to make good on his vow speaks just as loudly to us today. This is the standard of righteousness by which those like Enoch, Noah and Abraham walk by faith _ even when they have no knowledge of the Lord God creator of heaven and earth but they do justice, love kindness and walk humbly before the Lord whom they do not know, but God sees and knows them. The kingdom of God is for such as these and God honors and will not reject their acts of righteousness.
the righteousness of Jesus
Does this invalidate the righteousness that the believer receives through Jesus? No. Just as Micah could declare that the Lord has said what he requires of us, now in Jesus he has shown us in a very graphic display of righteousness through the sacrifice of the Righteous One on the cross in order to bring us to faith. Here is the greatness of the act of the Righteous One. He was made to be sin in order that we might become the righteousness of God.
When you look in the mirror you may not look anymore like righteousness than Jesus looks like sin, but that is you have become and that is what he was made to be. [4]
Oh, the humility of Jesus! After he had fulfilled all righteousness he was made to be sin for us because of his love for us.
conclusion
Righteousness is not an easy task or warm fuzzy feeling to be fun-filled throughout our lives. The sacrifice of Jephthah’s daughter was not an easy matter for her. It was not easy matter for her father. It is not an easy matter to be crucified with Christ and if we think to differentiate its “spiritual” meaning so as to diminish its gravity from that of Jephthah’s daughter’s sacrifice we have seriously misunderstood the cross and being crucified.
Generally, some might probably prefer to leave Jephthah’s decision to sacrifice his daughter up in the air and maybe to write him off as a chauvinist loose cannon for having made such a rash vow to the Lord. It is far easier to do so than to ponder, understand and accept what it was that was pleasing to God about the act of righteousness which he performed. Such a view of him blots out the lessons of Jephthah’s daughter’s own act of righteousness. It places an uncomfortable challenge on our own sense, understanding and practice of doing justice, kindness and humility, the righteousness of God.
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