The Unwanted Brother (Judges 11:1-3)

2/2/2010 8:05 AM

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY

 

My Worship Time                              Focus:  The unwanted brother

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                        Reference:  Judges 11:1-3

 

          Message of the verses:  “1 ¶  Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a valiant warrior, but he was the son of a harlot. And Gilead was the father of Jephthah. 2  Gilead’s wife bore him sons; and when his wife’s sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, "You shall not have an inheritance in our father’s house, for you are the son of another woman." 3  So Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob; and worthless fellows gathered themselves about Jephthah, and they went out with him.”

            The KJV of the Bible describes Jephthah as “a mighty man of valour.”  Jephthah was the son of Gilead, but his mother was a harlot, and so when his father died the rest of his sons told Jephthah to leave town for he would not receive any of the inheritance of his father because his mother was a harlot.  Jephthah went to Tob which is north of Israel near Syria and there is where he lived for a while, and while there many “worthless fellows gathered themselves around him.”  The NIV uses the word adventurers instead of worthless in verse three.  Dr. Wiersbe comments on this word as follows:  “The Hebrew word means ‘to make empty’ and refers to idle people looking for something to do. (See Judges 9:4, the ‘vain and light persons’ who followed Abimelech.  Here the  word means ‘to be reckless’). 

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  God was the One who chose Jephthah even though his mother was a prostitute and this was done in the Sovereign will of the Lord for reasons of His own, however I do believe it was to bring glory to the Lord.  Ephesians 1:4 tells me that He chose me before the foundation of the world and Ephesians 2:10 tells me that I was saved to do work for the Lord which he also ordained before the foundation of the earth.  This was all done in the sovereign will of the Lord for His own reasons and one of those reasons was to bring glory to His name, which is what I desire to do.  There are times when I get myself off the track, but when that happens I need to claim 1 John 1:9, and then dust myself off and get back to doing the work of the Lord so that I can bring glory to Him.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

 

1. I desire to bring glory to the Lord in all that I do.

 

2/2/2010 8:41 AM