The No-Name Girl
One of the bravest ladies in the Old Testament doesn't have a name. We know her only as "Jephna's daughter" but her life has sparked more debate than many of her more famous counterparts. Some even believe she was offered as a human sacrifice.
Jephnah was leader of the Israeli army and as he stood looking out at the vastly superior Ammonites, he knew there was no hope. God would have to actively fight on his side or they were doomed. So, in an effort to secure divine favor, he promised God he would sacrifice the first thing that came to meet him when he returned home in victory. It was a stupid promise and one he would soon regret.
I don't know what Jephnah thought might be first to welcome him, or even if he thought at all, but he seemed genuinely shocked when his lovely virgin daughter danced through the door with a laugh. His only child was singing and playing a tambourine, rejoicing in her daddy's victory. The book of Judges tells us what happened next.[1]
When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, "Oh! My daughter! You have made me miserable and wretched, because I have made a vow to the LORD that I cannot break."
"My father," (. . .) "do to me just as you promised (. . .) But grant me this one request," she said. "Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry."
"You may go," he said. And he let her go for two months. She and the girls went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. After the two months, she returned to her father and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin.
When I first read this story, I was about thirteen and the images playing in my mind ranged from macabre to the melodrama only a teenage girl can produce. I could see the Jephna's daughter with flowers in hair walking serenely with head held high as she faced her destiny. Of course, her face looked a lot like my noble profile, but as I said, I was a young teen.
Later, I was angry that these verses were even in the Bible. The story didn't seem to fit with the rest of scripture and it frustrated me. Human sacrifice so blatantly violated everything for which the Bible stood!
It would take a good many more years of study before the light dawned. The simple truth is that God provided many different offering in addition to burnt sacrifices. One method was to simply lift something up before the Lord then use that item in the service of the tabernacle.[2] While I doubt the priest actually tossed this girl into the air, the point is she could have been "sacrificed" without being killed or burned.
The story of little Samuel is an example of a person being given to the Lord [3] and in the New Testament we find Anna who "did not depart from the temple, but served God with fasting and prayers night and day."[4] This must have been the type of sacrifice made my Jephnah's daughter. Anything else puts the Bible at odds with itself.
It is also important to notice exactly what this spirited young woman and her friends were mourning for during those two months in the hills. They did not cry over her loss of life, but the loss of her future marriage and motherhood. In the view of their culture, she was to suffer a fate worse than death; barrenness.
Jephnah's daughter gave up her own future for the sake of someone else's' vow. She would spend her youth, middle years and old age confined to the tabernacle complex and involved in the most mundane physical duties. But it is also likely that-like Anna-she offered the spiritual service of prayer and selflessly poured out her life for others.
The next time you feel like a servant without a name, remember Jephna's daughter. As far as history is concerned, she didn't have a name either. Yet, she approached her fate with a spirit that was both honest about her grief and willing to lay down her life. Her strength of character and beauty of example endures to this day. And, there is one more thing we can be sure of-the God she served never forgot her name, and He won't forget yours either.[5]
[1] Judges 11:35-40 (NIV) [2] Numbers 18:24 [3] Samuel [4] Luke 2:37 [5] Revelation 3:5
