Scandal had been rumored in Ramoth-Gilead. It was said that one of the village’s leading citizens had become involved in an illicit sexual affair with a local woman of the street.
Gilead, this man in the city of Ramoth-Gilead, that was his name, had been publicly named as the father of a child that was being carried by a common prostitute.
Unlike many men who walk away from offspring born under such circumstances, Gilead, to his credit, we find takes full responsibility for his act. When the infant was born, he takes it into his home and effectively raises it as one of his own family.
Scandal had been rumored in Ramoth-Gilead. It was said that one of the village’s leading citizens had become involved in an illicit sexual affair with a local woman of the street
Wonder what his wife must have felt with that child in the home, knowing the failings of her husband.
But we read from God’s word that in process of time other sons were born to Gilead of his true wife, and those sons would have taken their place in the family circle and hierarchy.
We find that it wasn’t long after those sons were born until they grow, and they look down on this son of a prostitute and their father, and they begin to see him in a different light.
Jephthah was a wild thang because it all began because he was the son of a harlot (vs. 1)
What did he feel like? Rejection is a fuel that motivates isolation from others
Whether rejection as a child, rejection as an junior higher, as a high school teenager, as a young adult, rejection as a spouse, rejection as a father or a mother. We could go on and on and give myriads of examples, but the fact of the matter is: many who experience rejection do exactly what Jephthah did.
What was that? They react to rejection by running away. That’s what he did.
He was a bad dude, good with a weapon (vs. 1), the odd stepson (vs. 2) and so he associated with those who accepted him – other worthless friends who perhaps have been rejected (vs. 3)
How God Changed a Worthless Wild Thang into a Winning Warrior
1. Your Past Doesn’t Always Define Your Future (vs. 4-6)
Even if you try to move away – people remember because they have that picture snapshot of you
The people of Israel remembered how bad of a dude Jephthah was with a weapon – he was a valiant warrior – But they also remembered he had a bad lineage
Illustration: Scarab Beetles
Many people find beetles and bugs somewhat creepy, but if here’s one beetle in the world that could turn you into a beetle lover - the jewel scarab.
Jewel scarab’s live in the jungles of Honduras and have the shape of your regular Christmas beetle. But their colours are so dazzling and beautiful that they can sell for up to $500 a beetle.
Beautiful flaming reds, bright golds, silvers that resemble bright, shiny chrome. Even the beetle hater finds jewel scarabs dazzling and beautiful!
But the jewel scarab’s beauty doesn’t come automatically. Every scarab has modest, even ugly beginnings.
The scarab starts life as a soft, mushy, grey-white grub growing inside a rotting tree stump.
They spend their life like this for around a year, until finally, when the rainy season arrives, the adult scarabs emerge soft bodied and pale.
Then within hours, their bodies harden and their splendid colours show.
They only live for another three months, but what a glorious existence it is.
People are just like scarabs. We may not feel terribly beautiful and attractive.
In fact there may be parts of you that feel distinctly ugly – and I’m not talking just about your body, but about your spirit, your mind, your thought life, your character, your home.
But it’s the work of the Spirit of God to make us beautiful.
It may seem to take a lifetime, but as the Spirit works on us, we will emerge as beautiful, dazzling, shining creatures gloriously bearing the image of our Creator.
2.Your Attitude Influences Determines Actions (vs. 7-8)
Every Wild Thang has a cause to fight for --
A Wild Thang without the right cause becomes destructive
Jephthah could have become angry at his half-brothers for scorning his heritage.
Anger is natural – but when it is suppressed, it becomes bitterness
Illustration: Genghis Khan’s Hawk
One morning Genghis Khan, the great king and warrior, rode out into the woods to have a day’s sport.
Many of his friends were with him. They rode out gaily, carrying their bows and arrows.
Behind them came the servants with the hounds. It was a merry hunting party.
The woods rang with their shouts and laughter. They expected to carry much game home in the evening.
On the king’s wrist sat his favourite hawk, for in those days hawks were trained to hunt.
At a word from their masters they would fly high up into the air, and look around for prey.
If they chanced to see a deer or a rabbit, they would swoop down upon it swift as any arrow.
All day long Genghis Khan and his huntsmen rode through the woods. But they did not find as much game as they expected.
Toward evening they started for home. The king had often ridden through the woods, and he knew all the paths.
So while the rest of the party took the nearest way, he went by a longer road through a valley between two mountains.
The day had been warm, and the king was very thirsty.
His pet hawk had left his wrist and flown away. It would be sure to find its way home.
The king rode slowly along. He had once seen a spring of clear water near this pathway.
If he could only find it now! But the hot days of summer had dried up all the mountain brooks.
At last, to his joy, he saw some water trickling down over the edge of a rock. He knew that there was a spring farther up.
In the wet season, a swift stream of water always poured down here; but now it came only one drop at a time.
The king leaped from his horse. He took a little silver cup from his hunting bag. He held it so as to catch the slowly falling drops.
It took a long time to fill the cup; and the king was so thirsty that he could hardly wait.
At last it was nearly full. He put the cup to his lips, and was about to drink.
All at once there was a whirring sound in the air, and the cup was knocked from his hands.
The water was all spilled upon the ground.
The king looked up to see who had done this thing. It was his pet hawk.
The hawk flew back and forth a few times, and then alighted among the rocks by the spring.
The king picked up the cup, and again held it to catch the trickling drops.
This time he did not wait so long. When the cup was half full, he lifted it toward his mouth.
But before it had touched his lips, the hawk swooped down again, and knocked it from his hands.
And now the king began to grow angry. He tried again, and for the third time the hawk kept him from drinking.
The king was now very angry indeed. "How do you dare to act so?" he cried. "If I had you in my hands, I would wring your neck!"
Then he filled his cup again. But before he tried to drink, he drew his sword.
"Now, Sir Hawk," he said, "that is the last time."
He had hardly spoken before the hawk swooped down and knocked the cup from his hand.
But the king was looking for this. With a quick sweep of the sword he struck the bird as it passed.
The next moment the poor hawk lay bleeding and dying at its master’s feet.
"That is what you get for your pains," said Genghis Khan.
But when he looked for his cup, he found that it had fallen between two rocks, where he could not reach it.
"At any rate, I will have a drink from that spring," he said to himself.
With that he began to climb the steep bank to the place from which the water trickled.
It was hard work, and the higher he climbed, the thirstier he became.
At last he reached the place. There indeed was a pool of water; but what was that lying in the pool, and almost filling it?
It was a huge, dead snake of the most poisonous kind.
The king stopped. He forgot his thirst. He thought only of the poor dead bird lying on the ground below him.
"The hawk saved my life!" he cried, "and how did I repay him?
He was my best friend, and I have killed him."
He clambered down the bank. He took the bird up gently, and laid it in his hunting bag.
Then he mounted his horse and rode swiftly home.
He said to himself, "I have learned a sad lesson today, and that is, never to do anything in anger."
Jephthah didn’t hate his people, but he did remind them of what they thought of him
He could have been bitter, stormed away, or fumed at them and missed what God had in store for him
A Wild Thang without the right cause becomes destructive
You become bored, then rebellious, and you begin to hurt the people you love most
You get in to trouble at school or the law for the stupidest most tiny thing – because you’re bored and you don’t have a cause in your life to stand for
3. Your Determination Will Defines Your Success (vs. 9-11)
Focusing your anger, your resentment, and your attitude into doing what you do best and it will eventually pay off
When you find the cause for which you are willing to die for, you never really live or feel alive
Fight for a cause ourtside of yourself
When you use your anger to destroy things, vandalism, verbally assinate someone’s character, or phyisically begin cutting yourself – it will only destroy you or who you are.
Jepthah could have easily formed a gang with the nasty’s he hung out with and relentlessly wander about the land kicking tail and asking questions later
Illustration: Frogs in a Cream Bowl
Two frogs fell into a deep cream bowl.
One was an optimistic soul.
But the other took the gloomy view.
"We’ll drown," he lamented without much ado,
and with a last despairing cry,
he flung up his legs and said "Goodbye."
Quote the other frog with a steadfast grin,
"I can’t get out but I won’t give in,
I’ll just swim around till my strength is spent,
then I’ll die the more content."
Bravely he swam to work his scheme,
and his struggles began to churn the cream.
The more he swam, his legs a flutter,
the more the cream turned into butter.
On top of the butter at last he stopped,
and out of the bowl he gaily hopped.
What is the moral? It’s easily found...
If you can’t hop out, keep swimming around!
The Rest Of The Story…
Jepthah sends his boys out to see what the problem with the Ammonites are – not because he was chicken, but as not to show an act of aggression.
Just because you can kick most peoples butts because you’re tough, doesn’t mean you can get away with being stupid.
The Ammonites complained that Israel walking all of their land.
Jephtah tried explaining that they just wanted to pass through to reach their promised land that God had given to them.
But the surrounding cities along with their kings trapped them in and prevented them from going around them.
So that had no choice but to fight their way through, and as they did, God gave them the power to win and capture their cities.
So the Ammonite King was angry because he saw Israel as a threat, by not just wanting to pass through, but to try and conquer his tribe and cities. (vs. 22-24)
Jephtah tried communicating with the king with something that he was familiar with – he used the king’s god “Chemosh” as an example of them taking what their god allowed them to possess.
The king didn’t buy into the idea. (vs. 28)
The Spirit of God came over Jephtah because he was willing to stand up for what is right. (vs. 29)
Do you have somebody that will stand up for you?
No matter how bad of a past someone has or how they are viewed, if they stand up for what is right or has your back it is just a great feeling.
God had Jephtah’s back for standing up for Israel.
God gave Jephtah the power and force to drive the Ammonites back into last week (vs. 33)
The lesson that we have is simply: God chooses what men reject.
God chose this man Jephthah, and we read in the New Testament in 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 27: ’God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.
If you accept and embrace the rejections of your life, bring them to God but embrace them and accept what they are with a positive attitude, your opposition will one day turn to opportunity.
As Psalm 27:10 says: ’Though mother and father forsake me, the Lord will take me up’ - for what man rejects, God chooses.
Take you, teach you, lead you, deliver you.
WHO WILL STAND UP FOR YOU? Jesus – a friend of drunkards, gluttons and less desirables.
Have you faced rejection? Have you been scorned? Have you been outcast? Have you been ignored.
Are you becoming so resentful that you’re on the edge of becoming a “Wild Thang”?
Remember, God has a unique situation He can use you for because of the unique circumstances you have been in.
He has a customized assignment for you in which He has allowed these “troubles” to come on you.
Not to get a kick and see how you respond, but to refine you and make you sharper, quicker, wiser and more powerful than what you would have become without the troubles.
Before you write God off and become a “Wild Thang” because you’re tired of it all, please...just ask God this one question – How will you use me?
The Bible promises us in Hebrews 13:5 that “Jesus will never leave or forsake you.”
God used Jephthah mightily and was impressed of Jephthah’s faithfulness to rise up the tribe of Israel against their enemies.
Although Jephthah was misguided in his commitment and thankfulness to God, He still thought enough of Jephthah to include him among the other Bible heros in the Hall Of Faith, found in Hebrews, chapter 11.
No matter how bad your past has been, or if you’ve been rejected by people who you considered a close friend, or a trusted family member...Jesus openly accepts you.
The question is...will you reject Him?
