god uses a negation
“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 an unlikely leader.
Jephthah was a man who was the illegitimate son of his father Gilead. His brothers drove him out and said to Jephthah, “You will have no inheritance in our house, 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 by worshiping other idols. The Lord became angry at this, and he sold them to their enemies the Philistines and the Ammonites. (Judges 10:7) However, after 18 years of persecution, the Israelites cried out to God to save them, got rid of their idols, and repented. Judges 10:16 says, “And (God) could no longer bear the sorrow of Israel.”
Eventually, the Ammonites had to join the war against Israel. The elders of Gilead went to Jephthah and asked him to become their commander.
Initially he asked them why they were coming to them after their exile. But because they insisted, and offered him full rulership of Gilead, he accepted the challenge (11:8). “God delivered their enemies into the hands of Jephthah, and he won the battle. “Jephthah went to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord delivered them into his hand.” (11:32)
Have you ever felt like you were unlucky, as if God couldn’t use you because of something that happened in your life? Know that He is preparing a way for you – regardless of your circumstances – to turn rejection into purpose, hardship into hope, and humiliation into His glory.
