Rejecting the Prostitutes Son! [The Reject That became the Ruler]
Series: Battles of the Bible # 21 Judges 10:1-18;11:1-40Jephthah wasn’t to blame for his birth. His father, Gilead, had only one wife, but he consorted with a prostitute and fathered a son. At least Gilead acknowledged the boy and took him into his home, but his other sons didn’t accept this “son of a strange woman.” When Gilead died and the inheritance was to be divided, the legitimate sons drove Jephthah away. Little did they realize they were rejecting a future judge of Israel.Jephthah has been kicked out of his home because he is a son of a prostitute. He becomes a mercenary soldier, protecting God’s people from their enemies.He gains a reputation of a mighty man of valor. An enemy known as the Ammonites plagues the Gileadites. Searching for a leader, they approach Jephthah and ask him to take charge. He consents to their request and reminds them the Lord gives the victory.Throughout the world, many a child has been born to a prostitute or out of wedlock. And the child is known to be illegitimate. In addition to the illegitimate children in the world, there are millions of children who are reared by a single or divorced parent. There are children who face all kinds of problems such as poverty, abuse, deformity, unattractiveness, lack of education, and a host of other hardships that cause a child to feel or sense rejection. And in many cases, they are rejected. Then they grow into adults either feeling despised or actually being scorned or rejected. There are adults as well as children all around us who deeply sense this rejection or alienation, feeling like outcasts.God chooses the rejected!