At an apartment (flat) one block to the right of where we lived on the East side resided a family of five—a single mother, a son (Toni) and Toni’s three sisters. Toni’s mum was a whore. I cannot recall any of us ridiculing Toni in his face or even behind his back for his mother’s trade. We never gave him grief over the fact that he was an SOH (son of a harlot). But that does not mean that Toni did not walk around throughout his teenage years and probably beyond with this unshedable cloak of shame. After all, as kids, we interpreted the expression “mama yako ni Malaya,” not as a compliment, but as an insult.

Brother Toni would identify quite a bit with a character in the Scriptures who  likewise was a resident of the East side. We know that Jephthah hailed from Gilead, the territory of Israel east of the Jordan,  on the ground that the Gileadites of whom Jephthah was one traced their genealogy back to Mannaseh through the person of Gilead and his daddy Machir.  Another reason why we know Jephthah was from the East Side is the gist of  the back and forth dispatch between Jephthah and the King of Ammonites beginning in judges 11:12 all the way to verse 27,namely, a contested land mass that was  located on the East side.

Bro Toni would identify with Jephthah in yet another way. Like Toni, Jepthah was an SOH (Judg. 11:1 ¶ Now Jephthah the Gileadite, the son of a prostitute,). Talk of walking around cloaked in shame. Add on top of that being disinherited (Judg. 11:2).

I am impressed by Jephthah’s choice not to retaliate against his brothers especially because as the CEO of a company called “bad boys”( Judg. 11:3) he could easily have set the bad boys loose to chew up his brothers. One reason as to why Jephthah did not seek revenge was sooner than later the same people who flung the door shut behind Jepthah found themselves having to roll a red carpet for Jephthah (Judg. 11:4-10).The stone that the builders rejected as become the corner stone!!!

The real lesson that I draw out the Jephthah story is

(a) vow-making:

(Judg. 11:30 And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD, and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, Judg. 11:31 then whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return victorious from the Ammonites, shall be the LORD’S, to be offered up by me as a burnt offering.”)

(b) and vow-keeping

(Judg. 11:32 So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them; and the LORD gave them into his hand. Judg. 11:33 He inflicted a massive defeat on them from Aroer to the neighborhood of Minnith, twenty towns, and as far as Abel-keramim. So the Ammonites were subdued before the people of Israel. Judg. 11:34 ¶ Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah; and there was his daughter coming out to meet him with timbrels and with dancing. She was his only child; he had no son or daughter except her. Judg. 11:35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes, and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low; you have become the cause of great trouble to me. For I have opened my mouth to the LORD, and I cannot take back my vow.”).

Every June 24^th, I am reminded that, like Jephthah, I made a vow,yes to my wife, but ultimately to God.

Jepthah kept is vow:

(Judg. 11:39 At the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to the vow he had made).

Will I keep my vow? Will you keep your vow