Jephthah

"One Year Bible" Old Testament History Passage
Judges 11:1-12:15

"Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, but he was the son of a harlot, and Gilead begot Jephthah.  Gilead's wife bore sons; and when his wife's sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out, and said to him, 'You shall have no inheritance in our father's house, for you are the son of another woman.'"  Judges 11:1-2 (NKJV)

Jephthah was one of the great leaders of the Old Testament.  GOD RAISED HIM UP.  He stands as an example to us of how God can work. 

By human standards, Jephthah had some major set-backs to overcome.  We might say that he was socially unacceptable.  Remember -- this is by human standards. 

But, he was the very man God had chosen.  He was a great leader.  His half-brothers hated him.  They drove him out of the family.  Yet, God had chosen him.

We are so prone to qualify people on the basis of human standards.  We have this unspoken "pedigree" whereby we evaluate people.  Throughout Scripture, there is a pattern wherein God choses those individuals that no one else would have ever chosen!

DO NOT LET THE DEVIL TELL YOU THAT YOU ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!!  Do not let the enemy disqualify you when you are the very one that God has chosen.  Paul (and for good reason) was adamant about this.  "Who (what) shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulations, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?"  (or past failures, or sins of our fathers, or injuries when we were children!!!!)  NO.  God is for us!  We, like Jephthah, can yet be used of God to "deliver Israel."