There were other troubling stories in the Bible.
Like the story of Jephthah in the book of Judges. Jephthah, a warrior and a Judge, who defeated the Ammonites at Gilead. He made a rash oath that if God should grant him victory, he would sacrifice the first thing that came out of his tent.
After defeating the enemy, he came home with victory, and his daughter, his only daughter, came out of his tent with timbrels, dancing with joy for her father’s victory.
Jephthah was grieved. He knew the oath he’d made. He had to follow through. Jephthah’s daughter went away to the mountains for 2 months to bewail her virginity. It is unclear whether or not Jephthah actually sacrificed his daughter. Human Sacrifice was forbidden according to the Law of Moses, but in the time of the Judges, every man did what was right in his own eyes.
Or, if instead of sacrificing her, he simply did not let her marry. She would remain single and childless. She would never marry or enjoy intimacy, as a way of fulfilling the oath.
It seemed like a terrible curse top place upon an innocent girl, her future, her happiness destroyed because of her fathers’ rash decision.
I'm very moved from the beginning with the presence of a narrator who is troubled by, and therefore questioning, some of what she reads in what is considered a holy book. This lone questioning person is intriguing to me.
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ReplyDeleteyour telling of this story makes me want to go back to Sunday school and hear more Old Testament stories. What a rich source of questions about morality, about men and women, fathers and daughters.