Cherrypicking

Atheists like to paint God as a murderer and as evil because of some of the events that took place in biblical times.  They like to discredit God using the bible and especially certain stories in the bible that involve the deaths of people, children etc.  Once, I had a debate with an atheist and his beef with the bible was that God allowed/demanded human sacrifice and that God was somehow a sadist.  He used a story from the book of Judges to make his point. 

The story of Jephthah in Judges 11 is an interesting one.  Jephthah was an outcast from his family.  His brothers ran him off because his mother was a harlot and they did not want him to share in his father's inheritance.  After some time, the people of Gilead came back and asked him to become their military leader and he obliged, only after making a deal with them (Judges 11:9-11).

"So Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you take me back to fight against the sons of Ammon and the LORD gives them up to me, will I become your head?” The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The LORD is witness between us; surely we will do as you have said.” Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them; and Jephthah spoke all his words before the LORD at Mizpah."

 

Jephthah was militarily skilled and he was a valiant warrior.  He sent the king of Ammon a letter which the king refused.  Then, Jephthah made another deal.  In verse 30:

 

Jephthah made a vow to the LORD and said, “If You will indeed give the sons of Ammon into my hand, 31then it shall be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the sons of Ammon, it shall be the LORD’S, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.”

 

The bible says that the Spirit of God was upon Jephthah as he passed through certain areas.  When he made this vow, I believe Jephthah was being overzealous and being a deal-maker.  I don't think that he was in the Spirit when he made this vow knowing that either his wife or his daughter was going to come out to greet him!  It was foolish of him to make such a vow.  This text shows the seriousness of a vow made to God.  Let's see how it ends in verse 34 and we will talk further.

 

"When Jephthah came to his house at Mizpah, behold, his daughter was coming out to meet him with tambourines and with dancing. Now she was his one and only child; besides her he had no son or daughter."

 

So, Jephthah makes a vow to God and is bound by it.  When he gets home, his daughter rushes out to greet her father and now, because of his foolish vow, he has to do what he said that he would do.  His daughter is a rather amazing person in that: 1. She understood the seriousness of a vow to God 2. She was willing to die, even for father's mistake 3. She did not complain.  She asks for two months to mourn and Jephthah agrees, after which time, they carried out the vow- with the daughter as a willing participant.

 

So, this is one of those stories that atheists love because, to them, it shows the brutality of God.  "He's a savage that accepts human sacrifices." is a common refrain.  They cherrypick this story without understanding the context of the times.  The time of Judges was a very tumultuous time in the history of the Israelites.  The bible commonly states  in this particular book, that "each man did what was right in his own sight."  In other words, people made their own rules and were not trusting in God.  

 

Even God's own Judges rebelled.  Samson was a Nazarite from birth.  A Nazarite is one that takes a vow, in the case of an adult, or whose parents take a vow, in the case of a child, to not cut their hair, not drink strong drink and to never touch anything that is dead.  There are other things but these are the basic requirements.  John the Baptist's parents also received the command to bring him up as a Nazarite.  Well, we know that Samson broke that vow repeatedly.  Not only was he a whoremonger, he killed a lion with his bare hands and then ate honey out of his carcass and he even gave up the secret of his superhuman strength, his hair, to the conniving Delilah.  Although he was ordained by and really belonged to God, he constantly lived in his own will and God's will was an afterthought.  Samson was a judge, God's chosen man to lead the Israelites and even he could not get it together.  Sin was rampant.  Idolatry was rampant.  It was simply a terrible time in the history of the Israelites.

 

Atheists take this story and run with it and blame God for everything that was happening, including this little girl losing her life.  Here are the issues that I have with their argument:

 

1. Jephthah made the vow to God, God did not force him to make a vow nor ask him.  Nowhere in the text do you see God asking for a child sacrifice!  But these guys twist this scripture up really good.

 

2. Faith is nowhere in the equation- Jephthah's painful vow really shows a lack of faith- did he not trust God and therefore try to add a safety net in the form of a vow.  Earlier in the text, Jephthah is said to have made his initial vow in the LORD's hearing.  If that is the case, and God actually orchestrated this situation and sent the elders back to ask Jephthah to lead them, it stands to reason that God would make provision for the victory in battle.  God placed confidence in Jephthah and there was really no need for a second vow!  There was a disconnect in Jephthah's faith.

 

3. God cannot be blamed for the corrupt nature of the people of that day, nor any foolishness as a result of that corruption, considering that the people lived in open rebellion and did what was right in their own sight.  The same holds true to this day.  People want to blame God for the actions of other people when the primary motivation for the actions of man, especially those outside of Christ, is sin.  Period.

 

4. Piggybacking on point 3, the issue of sin is rarely dealt with or commonly brushed aside by atheists, many of whom believe that man is inherently good.  This is in stark opposition to the truth of the Bible which says that we are born into sin (Psalm 51:5).  Sin must be considered if we are to debate seriously on any theological topic concerning God and man.  Atheists always sidestep the issue of sin and how if affects  every facet of human behavior.

 

 

God cannot be blamed here.  Unless we address sin and understand that sin is the root cause of all behavior and the only way to change the behavior is to release man from the yoke of slavery that we call sin, people will always try to find fault with God.  Whether it was Jephthah's pride or his lack of faith that led him to make this vow, he made a very costly mistake.  Was he thinking more about himself than anything else?  If you recall, earlier in the chapter, a military victory would cement his acceptance as leader by the same people that ran him out of Gilead.  This is my take on Jephthah.  He was longing so much to be accepted by his peers that he put everything on the line to ensure it!  That's very dangerous.  The bible says that each man did what was right in their own sight. The fact that God's Spirit had not been fully given meant that one second, Jephthah could be in the Spirit and then out of the Spirit in the same moment of time.  Being filled with the Spirit is not a one time act but there is a constant refilling of the Spirit.  Take this example, you are driving down the interstate listening to your favorite gospel song or your favorite preacher, and you are in the Spirit- then someone cuts in front of you and you go from being in the Spirit to road rage!  That's how it works. 

Jephthah is to blame here, not God.  He made the vow and ended up having to honor it knowing full well that someone of value to him would be coming out of that house to greet him!  Was Jephthah thinking like the pagans, that God would delight in a human sacrifice?  God has never required a human sacrifice in the entire bible!  Isaac was only a test of Abraham's faith and a typology of Christ's sacrifice that would happen thousands of years later.  Human sacrifice was a practice of the pagan religions of the time but not of the Jews.  Not to mention, the bible is very clear, God desires obedience not sacrifice (1 Sam 15:22). 

 

Rather than cherrypicking scriptures, read the bible in its proper context.  In context, it is hard to distort scriptures because you have to consider every factor that surrounds the scripture in question.  Out of context, you can make a scripture mean whatever you want it to mean.  Here is the beauty that gets lost on those that use this argument and this scripture to make a case against God, Jephthah's daughter never blinked.  Even she, at her tender age, understood God's sovereignty and God's integrity.  A vow to God couldn't be broken.  Deuteronomy 23:21 says it very clearly, ""When you make a vow to the LORD your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for it would be sin in you, and the LORD your God will surely require it of you."  On a different level, God's rulership of the universe and His omniscience means that He knew exactly what was going to happen and who was going to come out of the house.  Could he have stopped it, yes.  Why didn't He stop her from walking out of the house?  I don't know, but that does not negate His goodness!  There is far more good in the bible and we should not allow this one story to detract from it.

 

A hard sacrifice is something that God understands, considering John 3:16.  God loved the world and He gave Jesus, the only begotten Son of the Father, as proof of His love for us.  He sacrificed the life of Jesus in lieu of taking the lives of those that actually deserve death...mankind!  Jesus died for the atheist as well as the one that has accepted Him-- difference is, the atheist refuses to acknowledge it and subsequently rejects salvation in favor of humanism.  It is my prayer that anyone that tries to debunk the bible would come to realize that it is a futile effort.  The seamlessness with which the Old Testament is woven into the New Testament is a beautiful sight to behold, if you are willing to see it.  The promises of God are all there for anyone that, by faith, is saved and seeking a deeper relationship with Christ!  If ever in a debate with someone that cherrypicks scriptures to support their atheism, find out why they are rebelling.  Ask them what event changed their thinking about God.  Seek not to win the argument but to win the person which is what we should  always try to do.  Help them to realize that the ENTIRE bible is there for them to take, the entire bounty of cherries, handpicked by Christ, and free of charge.  Why pick one single cherry when you can get the whole tree- which would in turn allow for a better understanding of the scriptures erroneously taken out of context?  The tree is there for the taking if you are humble enough to seek it and the tree gives life.  God's blessings be upon you.