Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from radical.net.

I'm going to read Judges Chapter 11, verses 30 and 31, and then verse 34.

So first, verses 30 and 31.

And Jephtha made a vow to the Lord and said,

If you will give the Ammonites into my hand,

then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from

the Ammonites shall be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.

So let's just pause there.

What Jeptha just did was wrong. You don't make deals with God.

You obey God and trust God, period. You don't say, if you do this, I'll do that. So this was

not right before God. And we must guard in our own lives against this tendency to say,

well, God, if you do this, I'll do this.

That's not a heart of trust in God, of love for God, of obedience to God, no matter what.

So there are examples of this in judges. Think about Gideon. So many times people

say, well, I'm going to put out a fleece and I'm going to ask God if he wants me to do this,

do this. Like, these are not examples for us to follow in this way. We don't bargain with God.

We don't cut deals with God. We obey God. We trust God. We love God with all our hearts. We do whatever he says without question.

And so that's the first thing, Jephtha did wrong. But now, verse 34. So he had just said, if you will give the Ammonites into my hand, when I return, then whatever comes out of my house, I will

offer it up for a burn offering. So verse 34 says, then Jephtha came to his home at MISBA,

and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. She was his only

child. Besides her, he had neither son nor daughter.

And the rest of the chapter goes on to describe how Jeptha did what he had said he would do,

...