Get a Good Lawyer

Judges 11:31
"whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering."

I have been wondering recently what would have happened if Jesus came before The Law and the 10 Commandments. Would the story have gone differently if the Son of God came down first, demonstrated who he was and told us to love each other and God, then some time later the commandments and law were all presented?  It seems too often people claiming to follow Jesus prioritize the wrong commandments. The Law laid out an important framework, Jesus provided emphasis and summed it up.

When I read the Bible and I consider my understanding of a verse, I always leave room to test it. As with anyone, I form an opinion to a degree on what I have read, but I recognize this is not expert opinion. I default to examining what Jesus said and how Jesus acted, as he will be our advocate anyway, and I consider that, as the directly conveyed words of The Father, to be "expert council." Would you hire a lawyer and then disregard his advice? Even if you also read the pertinent laws to your case, would you presume to know the material better than the singular expert in the field acting on your behalf? If this lawyer said, in no uncertain terms, 3 very simple ways to approach your trial, would you ignore these prescriptions, instead acting on your relatively amateur understanding of the subject matter?

Matthew 22:37
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."

Matthew 22:39
"Love your neighbor as yourself."

Matthew 7:1
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged."

Combined with actions, including the decision not to exact judgement where it could have been levied, breaking common interpretations of the laws regarding The Sabbath and the concept of clean for the greater good, etc, it demonstrates that there is a deeper understanding of the law than we currently comprehend, but that the underpinning foundation of The Law is mercy, grace, and love. When the good lawyer we have hired says "do not judge" (in my opinion the easiest of the three presented here, by and large), we would do well to do that. It seems there are loopholes in place that we do not understand at this time, which are designed to allow for forgiveness and mercy at a fundamental level.

As I was reading through, Judges 11 stopped me in my tracks. It includes a careless vow made to the Lord, and the face value result is the sacrifice of the vowing father's daughter.  But considering the good lawyer scenario, and the type of loopholes Jesus focused on, I considered this:

"whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s"

This part seems clearly in reference to the girl, as she came out first. People dedicate children to the Lord all the time though, this is not the damaging part of the vow.

"and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering."

There are two issues with this portion of the vow:
1. "It" is not clearly defined. At its strictest definition, "it" could easily be interpreted as "the door of my house"
2. "It" would typically refer to an inanimate object. This actually favors the door (or house if you prefer) interpretation, as no inanimate object would be exiting the house. So unless he assumed someone was going to push a cart or something out his front door right when he returned, this was either a cleverly, or unintentionally fortuitously, phrased vow. At the very least the details provide room for interpretation, and given the parties involved, this means the merciful interpretation would be favored.

I am sure some will claim "this is absurd." The terms are valid, are you so eager for a child sacrifice as to ignore a differing view?

I have even been asked why I care so much about what happened to this girl. My question is why are you asking that? Is it not better to ask how this might be interpreted favorably, for the girl's life's sake alone? Would this not be more in line with Jesus' teachings? If this chapter was presented along with a multiple choice question: what did the man burn?

A. His house
B. The door of his house
C. His daughter

Would you honestly circle C without considering the other options? What if it was your daughter?

Read the rest of the chapter, you will notice that it is never said the man burned his daughter, in fact the details seem cleverly obfuscated, so as not to tempt others to make foolish vows, perhaps ones with unavailable loopholes.

To add here, Jesus simply said "But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all" Matthew 5:34. But I guarantee he'd still show up to defend your stupid vow, despite warning you against it, should you have him as your council.

In light of this, how many other ways are we prioritizing our interpretation of God's will today, over what was explicitly and unambiguously stated by Jesus?
"Do not judge." Matthew 7:1
"Love one another." John 13:34

Thank you for coming to my TEDtalk :p