Jdg 11:1 “Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour, and he was the son of an
harlot: and Gilead begat Jephthah. 2
And Gilead's wife bare him sons; and his wife's sons grew up, and they thrust
out Jephthah, and said unto him, Thou shalt not inherit in our father's house;
for thou art the
son of a strange woman.”
They say, “If you get the
dirty end of the stick, sharpen it into a useful tool.”
In Jephthah’s case that’s
exactly what he did. Being born the son of a harlot, circumstances beyond his
control, he was cast out of their fathers’ inheritance by his step-brothers
once their father passed. Forcing him to flee from his breathern into a foreign
land and living as an outcast amongst the destitute. Yet, what
man labeled as unfit God recalled and established as the eight Judge of Israel
and delivered a great victory through him.
Sadly, our society today
drives away those who do not fit their definition of the norm. Often, as in
Jephthah’s case, great potential is wasted because of prejudice and refusal to
look beyond ill-conceived stereo-types. But, regardless of man’s labeling or disbursements
of dirty sticks, individually we cannot use our circumstances as a barrier for
God’s goodness to work through us.
Point being: What man
casts away God recalls and uses as His earthen treasure (2 Cor 4:7). You may be forced into a coming storm, but
you’re responsible to pack your own sunshine.
Job, during his storm,
received good counsel from Zophar; “I
would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause. Because thou shalt
forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that pass away.” (Job 5:8;
11:16)
The temporal circumstances
we let stop us become our limits… don’t sit licking your wounds, only animals
can get by with that!
HSAY… Todd
