A Reject Becomes A Ruler | Judges 11:1-11

INTRODUCTION

Rejection is something many of us have faced at some point in our lives. People are rejected for several different reasons. This sermon will look into a character who was rejected yet in God’s time he was made the ruler of the people who rejected him. this will provide the encouragement and the hope to stay faithful to the Lord.

Today’s Passage

Judges 11:1-11 1 Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior. His father was Gilead; his mother was a prostitute. 2 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.” 3 So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where a gang of scoundrels gathered around him and followed him. 4 Sometime later, when the Ammonites were fighting against Israel, 5 the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob. 6 “Come,” they said, “be our commander, so we can fight the Ammonites.” 7 Jephthah said to them, “Didn’t you hate me and drive me from my father’s house? Why do you come to me now, when you’re in trouble?” 

8 The elders of Gilead said to him, “Nevertheless, we are turning to you now; come with us to fight the Ammonites, and you will be head over all of us who live in Gilead.” 9 Jephthah answered, “Suppose you take me back to fight the Ammonites and the Lord gives them to me—will I really be your head?” 10 The elders of Gilead replied, “The Lord is our witness; we will certainly do as you say.” 11 So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and commander over them. And he repeated all his words before the Lord in Mizpah.

BACKGROUND

The book of Judges chronicles the years of the history of Israel between the death of Joshua and the appointment of Saul as their first king. What we see in this book is a scene of utter lawlessness. Israel repeatedly would abandon the Lord for false gods. God would punish them for their sins by allowing their enemies to defeat them and enslave them. After a time of enemy oppression, Israel would repent and God would raise up a judge to deliver them. They would be set free from their enemies, and then the cycle would repeat itself all over again. The spiritual climate in Israel during those days is summed up by the last verse in the book. Judges 21:25 says, “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.”

In fact, left to ourselves, we too have the tendency to go away from God, particularly when things go well! Have you pondered on the truth that “more people fail the prosperity test than the adversity test!” When we are blessed, promoted, and exalted there is every possibility to forget the One who blest us and to wander away from God.

Robert Robinson penned these words in the famous hymn – “Come thou fount of every blessing!” Let me read it for us

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart – O, take and seal it,
Seal it for thy courts above.

On the positive side of this book is the fact that God never completely forsook His people. They failed Him and He chastised them, but He always took them back when they returned to Him in genuine repentance. That reminds me that God will never forsake or reject us! Thank God that He doesn’t easily give up on us.

Light in dark times

While the times of the Judges were dark and dismal days for Israel, a few lives stand out as bright lights against the darkness. We read of several different leaders in the book of Judges like Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Barak, Gideon, Samson and several others. One of them is the man before us in our text today. In this passage, we are introduced to a man named Jephthah. I believe that his story can be a source of encouragement to each one of us today!

The background to the story of Jephthah is actually told at the close of Judges Chapter 10. Israel had sinned against God. As punishment, God had allowed the Israelites to be oppressed by the heathen Ammonites. The Israelites were suffering badly and their sufferings brought them to their senses. They decided to return to God. In Judges 10:15 we read, “And the Israelites said to the Lord, ‘We have sinned. Do with us whatever you think best; but please rescue us now.”

Judges 10:18 states, The leaders of the people of Gilead said to each other, “Whoever will take the lead in attacking the Ammonites will be head over all who live in Gilead.”  The Israelites needed a leader to help them defeat the Ammonites, but didn‘t seem to have a candidate for the job. In their desperation, they vowed that whoever would lead them to victory, they would make that man head of all the inhabitants. That brings us to the protagonist of our story, Jephthah.

I would like to draw three simple observations from this story and draw applications to our own lives.

I. A PAINFUL REJECTION (vs. 1-3)

a. The First Truth

that we have concerning Jephthah is that he was “a mighty man of valor”. The phrase “mighty man” means that Jephthah was marked by “great bravery”. The word “valour” refers to “strength, ability and efficiency”.

This verse identifies Jephthah as a very courageous and powerful man.

• He was the kind of man who refused to back down.
• He was the kind of man you would like to have on your side in a battle.
• He was the kind of man others would look to for leadership.
• He was a strong, able and efficient man.

b. The Next Truth

we learn about this man is the fact that “he was the son of a harlot”. His father’s name was “Gilead”. Evidently, Gilead was a man who had a relationship with a prostitute and had a son through her, named Jephthah. This was a major drawback in Jephthah’s life, as it marked him as an illegitimate son of Gilead. Jephthah had to pay a price for the sins of his father. His father was a philanderer who brought an illegitimate child into the world. That child would have to live with the stigma of his father’s sins his whole life.

c. The Other Truth

– Jephthah’s father also had children with his wife. When these legitimate children reached maturity, they all turned against Jephthah and forced him out of the family home. I can only imagine what a painful childhood Jephthah had.

Your family is supposed to be the one that loves you and accepts you even if no one else does. To be rejected by your own family is one of the most painful things anyone can experience. I am sure Jephthah felt pretty worthless. Probably one of the reasons why Jephthah became “a valiant warrior” was that he had to in order to survive. He had to become tough inside and out to just be able to survive in his cold world.

Though it is not mentioned in the text, we know from the customs and traditions of Israel, that usually the question of inheritance would only come up after the demise of the father. Going by that tradition, it is possible that Jephthah’s family refusing to share the inheritance with him may have been after Gilead’s demise.

Most likely they were motivated by greed. Maybe with Jephthah out of the way, there was more money to share between themselves. Besides, Jephthah’s presence in the family would have been a constant reminder of their father’s infidelity.

Rejection faced by other Kings of Israel

We read of leaders who God raised in the Scripture there were others who suffered this kind of rejection from the family. David was rejected. In 1 Samuel 16, when Samuel came to Jesse’s house to anoint one of his sons as the next king of Israel, Eliab / Abinadab / Shammah and four other sons are made to walk before Samuel. They did not even think it necessary to call David to appear before the prophet. David recalls this rejection when he writes in Psalms 27:10, “Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.”

In Isaiah 53, we read the prophecy about the Suffering Servant. Let me read Isaiah 53:3 (the prophetic word about Jesus), “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. We see in John 7:2-5, that the Lord Jesus Christ experienced rejection in his own family. His half-brothers mocked His claims of being the Messiah. In Mark 3:21, we read that at one point all His family members thought He was crazy. John 1:11, clearly states that He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

APPLICATION

Rejection is something many of us have faced at some point in our lives. People are rejected for several different reasons.

• In our own nation, (I say this with sadness) many people face rejection because of the caste that they were born into. In rural settings, (even to this day) these people live in secluded areas, are forced to do menial tasks, and are not allowed to draw water from the well or use other common facilities. They are not permitted to even walk through certain parts of the village, where people from higher castes live.
• In certain places in our nation, when a girl child is born, she faces discrimination and rejection…. In some places, people are even ready to go to the extent of killing the female child, either in the womb or shortly after her birth, rejected right from the womb resulting in a skewed male-female ratio in many parts of India.
• In many parts of our country, people experience rejection because of the colour of their skin, and so we have this obsession with fair and lovely / and fair and handsome, not realizing that each of us are fearfully and wonderfully made!

Our God watches over the Reject

But there is a God who specializes in taking those whom people reject, in taking the least of the least, the weak, the downtrodden and the marginalized and making something beautiful out of them.

• He chooses the foolish to confound the wise
• He chooses the weak to shame the strong
• He chooses the lowly things, the despised things, the things that are not — to nullify the things that are!
• He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap!
• He picks us up from the miry clay and sets our feet upon the solid rock!
• We see this truth demonstrated in the life of the Lord Jesus, “The stone which the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone!” Hallelujah!

ILLUSTRATION

A 500 rupee note on the street, would you pick it up….even if it is dirty….. it is crumpled…… even if it has shoe marks on it! Why….is it not just a piece of paper…. But it carries the image of Mahatma Gandhi.

We too have worth and value, because we are made in the image of God. When others do not accept us or reject us for reasons unknown to us, we have a God who is ready to unconditionally love us and accept us. Hallelujah!

I would like to draw the first application from the story of Jephthah. Where we come from need not determine where we end up going! We may come from very difficult and painful circumstances – circumstances that no one should ever have to go through, rejected by our families or others about us. We may be told, whether in words or actions, that we are worthless.

Rick Warren powerfully captures this truth (in the book, The Purpose Driven Life) when he writes,

“We are all products of our past, but we do not need to be prisoners of our past!”

In other words, our past need not determine our future. The past doesn’t have to weigh us down! We must learn to allow God to heal the pain of the past! Our past should not make us feel that we are rejected.

II. A PROVIDENTIAL REQUEST (vs. 4-8)

When Jephthah left the family home, he went to a place called “Tob”. Tob (which in the Hebrew language means “the good land”) was located east of the Jordan River in the country of Syria.

We are told, “vain men” gathered themselves to Jephthah. The phrase “vain men” refers to those who are “unemployed, bankrupt and empty.” These were idle men looking for something to fill their time. We do not know why these men flocked to Jephthah. Maybe they saw an empathetic and dynamic leader in him! We see Jephthah becoming the leader of this ragtag band of misfits and outcasts. He was able to mould these misfits into an effective fighting force.

As time passed, Jephthah developed a reputation as an inspirational leader. He is making the best out of his situation when something pretty ironic happened. His own people come to him with an unusual request. Let’s take a moment to examine that request.

The Cause of the Request

The nation is under attack. The Ammonites are trying to take over the land. The children of Ammon were the descendants of Lot (Abraham’s nephew) through an incestuous relationship with one of his own daughters. The Ammonites were cousins to the Israelites, but they were also their perpetual enemies. So, Israel is under attack and they do not have a strong leader to guide them to victory over their enemies.

The elders of his people come to him with the request that Jephthah come back and become their “captain”. This word means “commander, chief, or ruler”. At one point, they asked him to leave; now they come to him asking him to lead! What a change of mind; what a change of direction! Now, they want Jephthah to come back and take over! They want him to come back and be their boss. The very people who had rejected Jephthah and treated him worse than scum, come crawling back to Jephthah and beg him to come help them defeat their Ammonite oppressors.

APPLICATION

That is what God can do in our life when we trust Him to fight our battles. When bad things happen to people, they respond to their situations in several different ways:

• Some people will immediately say, you must have done something in your past life to deserve what is happening to you.
• Others will say what to do, “It is written” Takdir Kharab Hai / It is written on my forehead / Ki Korbo Kapale lekha acche
• Others resort to astrologers and soothsayers asking for help!

ILLUSTRATION

Story of a church member (while I was pastoring in the outskirts of Kolkata) – He came to our church in Tribeni, was neck-deep in debt and had begun to pay interest on interest. This member went to an astrologer who said to him that planetary conditions were unfavourable to him, so he needed to buy certain stones to change his destiny. He took further loans to buy these astrological stones for things to change! Things went from bad to worse – from frying pan to the fire!

When I heard his story, the verse the Lord laid on my heart was Daniel 2:21 – “God changes times and seasons!” He accepted Jesus and in a few years was debt free! He went on to become one of the leaders in our church.

That is the God who we Worship: The One who changes times and seasons! Our God is the One who lives outside of time but controls time. He is not limited by time but governs time and orchestrates events in our lives. Often when the hand of the enemy is working visible, the hand of God works invisibly to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is fully committed to Him! He works in ways that we cannot see; He is able to make a roadway in the wilderness and give springs even in the desert!

I would like to focus on the Providence of God – Once we understand that God is the all-powerful Creator it seems reasonable to conclude that he also preserves and governs everything in the universe as well.

Our God is on the throne – Sovereign – Ruler of everything!

• Nothing happens without His knowledge –
• Not a hair from our head will fall to the ground,
• not a sparrow from the sky, not a tear from our eye.
• His hands are not short, his ears are not heavy.
• He knows the end from the beginning.
• Even when we don’t see it, He is working – even when we don’t feel it, He is working – He never stops working
• He never sleeps, never slumbers
• He watches over us his children

The second application that I would like to draw from the life of Jephthah is that when we trust God implicitly, He can turn that which is seemingly evil and make it something good for us. Proverbs 16:7 reminds us, “When the Lord takes pleasure in anyone’s way, he causes their enemies to make peace with them.”

• A PAINFUL REJECTION
• A PROVIDENTIAL REQUEST

III. A POWERFUL RESPONSE (v. 9-11)

I do not know what I would do if I were Jephthah, and this group of people who rejected me came to ask for my help. We would probably not respond as he did. His response is powerful. Let’s take a moment to examine it.

After confirming that their offer is valid, Jephthah consents to go with them and lead them to victory. His treatment of them is vastly different from their treatment of him! Even though they had abused him and treated him like dirt, Jephthah was not bitter. He was able to get over the things they did to him. He was able to see past their mean-spirited actions and he caught a glimpse of the hand of God at work in his life.

One thing that will become clear as you read about Jephthah is that he was a man who honored the Lord in his life. He might have been an exile from Israel, but he was never an exile from God. Unlike his relatives, he proved his commitment to the Lord through his treatment of others.

Whether we accept it or not, how we treat others is a direct reflection of the place God holds in our hearts. If we can spitefully mistreat and attack those who are made in God’s image, it shows that we are not in the right relationship with Him.

I am reminded of Paul’s admonition in Romans 12: 17-21,

17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. At times when we are unfairly treated and victimized, we may feel like trying to vindicate ourselves. But when we let God do the vindication, he does it in ways that are beyond our imagination!

The people honoured their word and they elevated the reject and made him their ruler. He became their “head” and he became their “captain”.

Let me draw our attention to the third observation

We are told that “Jephthah uttered all his words before the Lord in Mizpeh.” The word “Mizpeh” means “watchtower”. In Gen. 31:33-55, we read that at the place is called “Mizpah”, Jacob and Laban made an agreement that they would not attack each other. They called upon the Lord to witness their covenant. By the way, their separation was not a friendly one!

That is what Jephthah was doing here. He was calling on the Lord to look upon the promises made to him by his people, to watch over him as he goes out to battle. Jephthah was acknowledging the Lord and looking to Him for the help he would need to win the victory. In verse 9, Jephthah acknowledges that any victory they might enjoy would only have to come from the Lord.

The third application that I would like to draw from this story is that it is important that we remember that any victory that we enjoy is because of the hand of God upon our lives! Victory does not come to us, because of our resources, our efforts, or our capabilities.  When God turned things around in the life of Jephthah, he went before the Lord and acknowledged his help.

The Tale of Two Kings: Contrast Nebuchadnezzar and David!

CONCLUSION

Let me conclude. After mentioning many famous personalities who did great exploits for God in Hebrews 11: 32-34, the writer records the following lines, “And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.”

I find it pertinent that in the chapter that documents the great heroes of the faith, Jephthah in spite of all rejection and other setbacks that he faced finds his name mentioned there.

Let me conclude: I would like to remind us of three simple truths from the life of Jephthah.

1. NO MATTER WHO REJECTS US THERE IS A GOD WHO UNCONDITIONALLY ACCEPTS US!

• The God who remembers us in our low estate…His love endures forever! (Psalms 136:23).
• Isaiah 49:14, But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.”
• Listen to God’s reply,“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands” (Isaiah 49:15, 16).

2. WHEN WE ARE UNFAIRLY TREATED REJECTED AND VICTIMIZED, IT IS BETTER TO LET GOD VINDICATE US!

• We may feel the need to clear our name and prove our innocence, but when we let God fight for us, he does it perfectly.
• His ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are greater than our thoughts!
• He can intervene and turn things around. He can orchestrate events in our lives beyond our imagination!
• When a man’s ways please the Lord, He will make his enemies come and make peace with him
• Vengeance is mine, says the Lord, I will repay!

3. AT THE TIME OF VICTORY, IT IS IMPORTANT THAT WE ACKNOWLEDGE THE SOURCE OF OUR VICTORY!

We read in Deuteronomy 8, (the caveat / the warning)

• when you live in houses that you have not built,
• when you drink from wells that you have not dug,
• when you eat from vineyards that you have not planted

     Remember not to reject or forget the Lord your God!

     Are you like King David or King Nebuchadnezzar?

In every victory, let it be said of me, my source of strength is Christ alone!

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