#4647 – By Faith Jephthah

Good morning people who never allow your past to dictate your future

Hebrews 11:32 NIV And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets.

I’m sensing a recurring theme over the last few days, and it should give us all hope that God can use us.

Here’s the starting verses of Jephthah’s story:

Judges 11:1-3 NIV Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior. His father was Gilead; his mother was a prostitute. Gilead’s wife also bore him sons, and when they were grown up, they drove Jephthah away. “You are not going to get any inheritance in our family,” they said, “because you are the son of another woman.” So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where a gang of scoundrels gathered around him and followed him.

Jephthah didn’t have a good start and he didn’t have a good career. Yet, even in his brokenness and rejection, he ended up overcoming Israel’s enemies by the power of God. Here’s what we read:

Judges 11:29, 32-33 NIV Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites…Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into his hands. He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon.

In some of the stories we are reading, I am drawn to the goodness and Sovereignty of God, despite the lack and brokenness in the people. And maybe this needs to be our starting point for faith to; God’s goodness.