Imagine this – a father makes an oath and this oath results in the murder of his daughter! This Old Testament story appears in the Book of Judges.
As he has been doing for each of God’s Women in this series, Fr. Mike tells the background history setting the story in the context of the time. Jephthah, a leader of the Jewish army, was asked to go against the enemy forces of the Ammonites. He bargained with God and took an oath that if he won against these formidable enemies, he would sacrifice the first person who came out of his tent. You can guess what happened! We don’t even know his daughter’s name. Fr. Mike shows how this sad turn of events leads us to question such an understanding of God. He shows the two extremist views of the image of God and challenges us to ask ourselves about our own image of God. He poses other challenging questions arising from this story.
