Jephthah was born to a prostitute and was driven away by his brothers, living a life of hardship. His background made him a despised figure, but through his pain, he learned greater patience and love.
1. Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, and he was the son of a prostitute: and Gilead became the father of Jephthah. 2. Gilead’s wife bore him sons; and when his wife’s sons grew up, they drove out Jephthah, and …
Today's message, through the story of Jephthah in Judges 11, shows us how God guides us. Despite his difficult birth and background, Jephthah relied on God and walked his own path. Even in tough situations, we should deepen our relationship with God and wait for the opportunities He provides through prayer and faith. When we seek Him with a prepared heart, God will surely use us.
- Judges 11 1. Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, and he was the son of a prostitute: and Gilead became the father of Jephthah. 2. Gilead’s wife bore him sons; and when his wife’s sons grew up, they drove out Jephthah, and said to him, “You shall not inherit in our father’s house; for you are the son of another woman.” 3. Then Jephthah fled from his brothers, and lived in the land of Tob: and there were gathered vain fellows to Jephthah, and they went out with him. 4. After a while, the children of Ammon made war against Israel. 5. It was so, that when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah out of the land of Tob; 6. and they said to Jephthah, “Come and be our chief, that we may fight with the children of Ammon.” 7. Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Didn’t you hate me, and drive me out of my father’s house? Why have you come to me now when you are in distress?” 8. The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “Therefore we have turned again to you now, that you may go with us, and fight with the children of Ammon; and you shall be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.” 9. Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you bring me home again to fight with the children of Ammon, and Yahweh deliver them before me, shall I be your head?” 10. The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “Yahweh shall be witness between us; surely according to your word so will we do.” 11. Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them: and Jephthah spoke all his words before Yahweh in Mizpah. 12. Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, “What have you to do with me, that you have come to me to fight against my land?” 13. The king of the children of Ammon answered to the messengers of Jephthah, “Because Israel took away my land, when he came up out of Egypt, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and to the Jordan: now therefore restore that territory again peaceably.” 14. Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the children of Ammon; 15. and he said to him, “Thus says Jephthah: Israel didn’t take away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon, 16. but when they came up from Egypt, and Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea, and came to Kadesh; 17. then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Please let me pass through your land;’ but the king of Edom didn’t listen. In the same way, he sent to the king of Moab; but he would not: and Israel stayed in Kadesh. 18. Then they went through the wilderness, and went around the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and they encamped on the other side of the Arnon; but they didn’t come within the border of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab. 19. Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, ‘Please let us pass through your land to my place.’ 20. But Sihon didn’t trust Israel to pass through his border; but Sihon gathered all his people together, and encamped in Jahaz, and fought against Israel. 21. Yahweh, the God of Israel, delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they struck them: so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country. 22. They possessed all the border of the Amorites, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and from the wilderness even to the Jordan. 23. So now Yahweh, the God of Israel, has dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and should you possess them? 24. Won’t you possess that which Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whoever Yahweh our God has dispossessed from before us, them will we possess. 25. Now are you anything better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them? 26. While Israel lived in Heshbon and its towns, and in Aroer and its towns, and in all the cities that are along by the side of the Arnon, three hundred years; why didn’t you recover them within that time? 27. I therefore have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong to war against me. Yahweh, the Judge, be judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.” 28. However the king of the children of Ammon didn’t listen to the words of Jephthah which he sent him. 29. Then the Spirit of Yahweh came on Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed over to the children of Ammon. 30. Jephthah vowed a vow to Yahweh, and said, “If you will indeed deliver the children of Ammon into my hand, 31. then it shall be, that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, it shall be Yahweh’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.” 32. So Jephthah passed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them; and Yahweh delivered them into his hand. 33. He struck them from Aroer until you come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and to Abelcheramim, with a very great slaughter. So the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel. 34. Jephthah came to Mizpah to his house; and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances: and she was his only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter. 35. When he saw her, he tore his clothes, and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you are one of those who trouble me; for I have opened my mouth to Yahweh, and I can’t go back.” 36. She said to him, “My father, you have opened your mouth to Yahweh; do to me according to that which has proceeded out of your mouth, because Yahweh has taken vengeance for you on your enemies, even on the children of Ammon.” 37. She said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may depart and go down on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my companions.” 38. He said, “Go.” He sent her away for two months: and she departed, she and her companions, and mourned her virginity on the mountains. 39. At the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed. She was a virgin. It was a custom in Israel, 40. that the daughters of Israel went yearly to celebrate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.
- Judges 11:1 1. Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, and he was the son of a prostitute: and Gilead became the father of Jephthah.
- Numbers 21 1. The Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the South, heard that Israel came by the way of Atharim. He fought against Israel, and took some of them captive. 2. Israel vowed a vow to Yahweh, and said, “If you will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.” 3. Yahweh listened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. The name of the place was called Hormah. 4. They traveled from Mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom The soul of the people was very discouraged because of the journey. 5. The people spoke against God, and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, and there is no water; and our soul loathes this light bread.” 6. Yahweh sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people. Many people of Israel died. 7. The people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against Yahweh, and against you. Pray to Yahweh, that he take away the serpents from us.” Moses prayed for the people. 8. Yahweh said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole. It shall happen, that everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” 9. Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it on the pole. If a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked at the serpent of brass, he lived. 10. The children of Israel traveled, and encamped in Oboth. 11. They traveled from Oboth, and encamped at Iyeabarim, in the wilderness which is before Moab, toward the sunrise. 12. From there they traveled, and encamped in the valley of Zered. 13. From there they traveled, and encamped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness, that comes out of the border of the Amorites: for the Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites. 14. Therefore it is said in the book of the Wars of Yahweh, “Vaheb in Suphah, the valleys of the Arnon, 15. the slope of the valleys that incline toward the dwelling of Ar, leans on the border of Moab.” 16. From there they traveled to Beer; that is the well of which Yahweh said to Moses, “Gather the people together, and I will give them water.” 17. Then Israel sang this song: “Spring up, well! Sing to it, 18. the well, which the princes dug, which the nobles of the people dug, with the scepter, and with their poles.” From the wilderness they traveled to Mattanah; 19. and from Mattanah to Nahaliel; and from Nahaliel to Bamoth; 20. and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the field of Moab, to the top of Pisgah, which looks down on the desert. 21. Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying, 22. “Let me pass through your land. We will not turn aside into field, or into vineyard. We will not drink of the water of the wells. We will go by the king’s highway, until we have passed your border.” 23. Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his border, but Sihon gathered all his people together, and went out against Israel into the wilderness, and came to Jahaz. He fought against Israel. 24. Israel struck him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, even to the children of Ammon; for the border of the children of Ammon was strong. 25. Israel took all these cities. Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all its towns. 26. For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab, and taken all his land out of his hand, even to the Arnon. 27. Therefore those who speak in proverbs say, “Come to Heshbon. Let the city of Sihon be built and established; 28. for a fire has gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon. It has devoured Ar of Moab, The lords of the high places of the Arnon. 29. Woe to you, Moab! You are undone, people of Chemosh! He has given his sons as fugitives, and his daughters into captivity, to Sihon king of the Amorites. 30. We have shot at them. Heshbon has perished even to Dibon. We have laid waste even to Nophah, Which reaches to Medeba.” 31. Thus Israel lived in the land of the Amorites. 32. Moses sent to spy out Jazer. They took its towns, and drove out the Amorites who were there. 33. They turned and went up by the way of Bashan. Og the king of Bashan went out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. 34. Yahweh said to Moses, “Don’t fear him, for I have delivered him into your hand, with all his people, and his land. You shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.” 35. So they struck him, with his sons and all his people, until there were no survivors; and they possessed his land.
- Isaiah 34:16 16. Search in the book of Yahweh, and read: not one of these will be missing. none will lack her mate. For my mouth has commanded, and his Spirit has gathered them.
- John 5:39 39. “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and these are they which testify about me.
- 2 Timothy 3:15 15. From infancy, you have known the holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.
- Romans 15:4 4. For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that through patience and through encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
- Acts 17:11 11. Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of the mind, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.
- Ecclesiastes 5:2 2. Don’t be rash with your mouth, and don’t let your heart be hasty to utter anything before God; for God is in heaven, and you on earth. Therefore let your words be few.
- Genesis 28:20 20. Jacob vowed a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and clothing to put on,
- Psalms 15 1. Yahweh, who shall dwell in your sanctuary? Who shall live on your holy hill? 2. He who walks blamelessly does what is right, and speaks truth in his heart; 3. He who doesn’t slander with his tongue, nor does evil to his friend, nor casts slurs against his fellow man; 4. In whose eyes a vile man is despised, but who honors those who fear Yahweh; he who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and doesn’t change; 5. he who doesn’t lend out his money for usury, nor take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be shaken.
The Faith of Jephthah and God's Guidance
- The Birth Background of Jephthah
- God's Calling
- Jephthah's Prayer and Resolution
- Preparation for War and Diplomacy
- The Presence of God's Spirit
- Jephthah's Vow and Its Consequences
Six days of devotions drawn from this Sunday's sermon — one for each day, Monday through Saturday.
Five quick questions from this Sunday's message. Tap an answer to see if you're right.
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What was the environment like in which Jephthah grew up?
Jephthah was born the son of a courtesan and grew up despised by his brothers.
I bless all the saints who have come to the dawn service today in the name of the Lord. Let us begin our dawn service by singing hymn number 384, "As I Go on My Way."
As I go on my way, Jesus leads me on,
How can I be without mercy in my Lord?
Those who live by faith will be lifted to heaven,
Whatever I encounter, all will go well.
Whatever I encounter, all will go well.
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