Do well after the title blessing
Judges (32) Do well after the blessing (Judges 11:29-40)
< Jephthah's false vow >
When King Ammon did not listen to Jephthah, Jephthah went out and made a vow. "God! If I deliver the children of Ammon into my hand, when they return in peace, I will offer them as a burnt offering to the LORD whoever welcomes me at the door of my house (verses 30-31). How frivolous are your vows? Eventually, with God's help, he returned victorious from the battle with Ammon, and when he arrived at his house in Mizpah, his only daughter, his only daughter, grabbed the trumpet and danced to meet him (verse 34).
Then Jephthah tore his clothes and said, “Daughter! You are making me miserable and tormenting! I have opened my mouth to the LORD, and there is no turning back” (verse 35). Then the daughter said. "father! You have opened your mouth to the LORD, so do what you have vowed. Just give me two months to go to the mountains with my girlfriends and mourn over dying as a virgin.” In the end, Jephthah's daughter mourned over her death as a virgin on the mountain, returned to her father after two months, and died without knowing the man (verses 38-39).
Could Jephthah's daughter actually become a burnt offering? The Old Testament law forbade the sacrifice of people by burning (Leviticus 18:21). Therefore, Jephthah, who was well acquainted with the Old Testament law, would not have committed the sin of actually offering his daughter as a burnt offering. Also, at that time, the Ammonite worship of Moloch (Milkom) had an evil superstitious practice of sacrificing children by fire. Jephthah would not have followed their superstition while fighting Ammon.
Some argue that Jephthah's grievous appearance made it possible for Jephthah's daughter to have been offered as a real burnt offering, but rather, she would have spent her whole life as a servant of the tent of meeting as a virgin. In fact, the meaning of the burnt offering implies the meaning of 'devotion'. Also, the expression “I did not know a man” (verse 39) implies that he had been a virgin all his life, and that was also heartbreaking for his father. As the tragic story of the death of a beautiful daughter from such an influential family as a virgin became known, the daughters of Israel mourned for Jephthah's daughter for four days each year in commemoration of her devotion (verse 40).
< Good luck after the blessing >
You have to be careful in praying your vows and try to keep what you prayed for. What is the purpose of vow prayer? After receiving the blessing, you don't just wash your mouth, pretending not to know, and express your determination to do well after the blessing. After the blessing, if you use the blessing as a channel of sharing, God will accept his wish more than anyone else.
God does not want to hear only the cry of prayer, but He also wants to hear about what to do after the prayer is answered. Therefore, do not be satisfied with receiving a higher level of prayer, but also pray about what you will do with what you receive. Don't let the early morning prayer meeting become a prayer meeting that only asks for problems to be solved, and make it a prayer meeting where you make a new resolution every day about how to give the rest of your life to God in a wonderful way.
If you try to receive anything, you will rot. The reason the puddle water rots is that it only receives but does not know how to give. The reason many souls today are emaciated is because they do not know how to give. If you pour out as much as you receive, clear, living water will flow out constantly. In that sense, devotion is like the lifeblood of the soul and is a way to prepare for greater blessings in the future. In the end, missionary work and sharing, which are done in secret and without self-interest, are also for the sake of one's own soul.
Why do saints have problems? It is God's will to help us pray through that problem and give us answers. However, if you stay at what you have received, it is never a blessing. From there, you have to go one step further to the level of devotion to achieve true blessings and happiness. Problem solving itself is not the goal. Problem solving is in the process of blessing, and the real goal is to devote ourselves and glorify God. When you do not deviate from that purpose, you become the main character of true blessing.
Life is like the 400 meter relay. If there is a problem, you have to pass the baton well in terms of prayer. And after receiving answers to prayer, you must pass the baton well in terms of devotion. When you get a response and just finish there, it's like running 300 meters in the 400 meter relay and ending it. Then you lose in the life relay. In that sense, if there are no tears of devotion, the history of answers is meaningless. After all, healthy vow prayer is not to promote prayer answers with greed, but rather to strongly urge devotion after blessing.