Day Seventeen: Jephthah – Leading Alone
Today’s Reading: Hebrews 11:32; Judges 11:1-12:7
Introduction: Much of what Jephthah went through as a young man could have easily crushed his spirit and caused him to turn his back on God. No doubt he felt the social stigma of being the son of a prostitute. That stigma was certainly intensified when his brothers rejected him. From there, things seem to have gotten worse for a while. “Worthless” men joined up with him (Judges 11:3). But it seems that God was using all of these things to help make Jephthah the kind of leader he would need to be when the call to lead came. The leadership qualities that were forged in Jephthah when he found himself alone and forced to make his own way through life aided him as he faced multiple challenges. He laid out clear, non-negotiable terms when the elders of Gilead asked him to lead their army. He stood up to the Ammonites when they attempted to rewrite history and accuse him of stealing their land. He understood the importance of being a man of his word when he rashly made a vow before the Lord. (Some commentators believe the Hebrew text means Jephthah kept his daughter from marriage, not that he offered her as a burnt offering. The Bible likely would have condemned sacrificing her if he had actually done that.) He fought the Ammonites on his own when his kinsmen, the Ephraimites, refused to join him. He stood up to those same kinsmen when they accused him of stealing their land. The situation called for a man who could stand alone if needed. Jephthah proved to be that man.
Application: We can learn a lot from the way Jephthah dealt with rejection. He could have allowed the social stigma of his birth to a prostitute and the rejection by his brothers to cause him to wallow in self-pity. Instead, those very things that others intended to be his undoing, he let forge him into a man who could stand on his own against anything. In a very real way, the things that could have broken him were the very things God used to enable him to lead even when it was just him and the Lord standing against the enemy. We all must learn this lesson. There are things in most of our lives that we are ashamed of or that others use to hold us back. The Bible tells us that Satan himself accuses us before God. He speaks lies to us to cause us to doubt ourselves and believe God couldn’t possibly love us or that we can’t possibly accomplish what God has called us to do. We must learn from Jephthah to use those things that others would use against us and that God has forgiven to make us more reliant on God so that we can stand against our foes and our challenges even when it’s just God and us against all odds.
Prayer: Dear Lord, thank You for saving me in spite of all my sin and circumstances. Thank You for calling me to serve You and telling me that I am of inestimable worth because I am Your child. Even when it seems that I’m all alone on the spiritual battlefield or in the challenges of life, help me to stand strong, knowing that You are with me and that, if necessary, You are enough to enable me to serve You faithfully and successfully. Amen.