In Robert Service’s poem, “The Cremation Of Sam McGee,” one line reads, “A promise made is a debt unpaid.” Jephthah found out how cruel this debt can be.
In Judges, Old Testament character Jepththah is described as a mighty warrior, spurned by his countrymen, the Israelites, because he was a prostitute’s son. In self-exile, he honed his martial skills by leading bands of marauders in raids on caravans.
Those skills didn’t go unnoticed by his former countrymen when their bellicose neighbors, the Ammonites, decided to reclaim territory taken from them by the Israelites during their Egypt-to-Canaan migration. They no longer cared who Jephthah’s mama was — they needed him to take the fight to the Ammonites and to lead them afterward.
Surely God wouldn’t let his chosen people lose, but to make sure the Creator was in his corner, Jephthah made a foolish vow: Lord, help me defeat these heathens, and when I return in victory, I will sacrifice to You the first living creature that emerges from my tent.
Apparently, Jephthah was counting on an animal to be the sacrificial victim. To his horror, when the Israelites returned from the conquest, his only child, a daughter, exited the tent and danced before him.
As Samuel Johnson said, “We must not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we cannot.” Even so, Jephthah performed what he promised, and sacrificed his daughter.
Should he have broken his vow, even though it was made to God? Yes, as Ghandi seems to indicate when he said, “A vow is fixed … an unalterable determination to do a thing, when such a determination is related to something noble that can uplift the man who makes the resolve.”
Killing one’s own — whether before birth or after — is neither noble nor uplifting. If Jephthah had confessed to the Lord that he made a foolish vow, he would have been confessing what God already knew. His omniscient Maker understood that the vow was made in haste and not well thought out, and besides, what person hasn’t made a vow to his Creator, but abandoned it when the storm ahead abated?
Whether made to God or another person, when promises are reasonable they must be kept. Doing so develops character, and carrying through with promises earns respect and trust by others, as when incurring debt. If people of meager means pay debts on time as promised, they are equal to wealthy people whose debts are paid at the appointed time.
Not keeping one’s word leads to the same fate as Aesop’s shepherd boy who repeatedly cried wolf until no one believed him, and when wolves really did attack, the herd was destroyed. Those who consistently say one thing and do another reach a point where, even when they are truthful, no one believes them.
The Bible is the ultimate lesson giver. This is certainly true in the story about Jephthah’s tragic mistake, which confirms this truth: A promise made is a debt unpaid.
Jimmy Reed is an Oxford, Mississippi resident, Ole Miss and Delta State University alumnus, Vietnam Era Army Veteran, former Mississippi Delta cotton farmer and ginner, author, and retired college teacher.
This story is a selection from Jimmy Reed’s latest book, entitled The Jaybird Tales.
Copies, including personalized autographs, can be reserved by notifying the author via email (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)).
