"Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior. His father was Gilead; his mother was a prostitute." -Judges 11:1
There is an incredible story in the Bible about a very unlikely leader.
Jephthah was a man who was the illegitimate son of his father Gilead. His brothers drove him away and said to Jephthah, “You are not going to get any inheritance in our family, because you are the son of another woman.”
Rejected and humiliated, Jephthah fled from his family to a place called Tob.
During this time, Israel has been unfaithful to God, worshipping other idols. At this the Lord became angry, and he sold them to their enemies the Philistines and the Ammonites. (10:7) However, after 18 years of oppression, the Israelites cried out to God to save them, got rid of their idols and repented. Judges 10:16 says, "And (God) could bear Israel’s misery no longer."
Eventually, the Ammonites were engaged in a war against Israel. The elders of Gilead went to Jephthah and asked him to be their commander.
Initially he asked them why they were coming to him after they he had been exiled. But because they insisted, and offered him full rulership of Gilead, he accepted the challenge (11:8). God gave their enemies over to Jephthah, and he won the war. "Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into his hands." (11:32)
Have you ever felt like you were the unlucky one, like God couldn't use you due to things that have happened in your life? Know that He is preparing a way for you - in spite of your circumstances - to turn rejection into purpose, hardship into hope, and disgrace into His glory.
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