The Story Of Jepthah

Jephthah

Judges 11

June 16, 2024

Back in 2010, just before Father’s Day, the July/August edition of The Atlantic hit the stands with this

blazing cover story: The End of Men.

That was 14 short years ago, and among the articles in the magazine was this one - - - -

Are Father’s Necessary?: A paternal contribution may not be as necessary as we think. After looking at the “lack of evidence” supporting the importance of dads, and “evidence” suggesting the opposite, the author concluded: “The bad news for Dad is that despite the common perception, there’s nothing objectively essential about his contribution. The good news is, we’ve gotten used to him.”

Happy Father’s Day!

The good news is that a few years later, The Atlantic came out with another series of articles affirming the importance and unique roles of dads.

Over the last several years research has backed up a more positive view of dads, so whew! Dads do matter.

WOW!! I thought I was being replaced as a totally unnecessary piece of equipment. Maybe to be put in a garage sale, hoping the price wouldn’t be too low.

Today’s message isn’t so much about why dads are important, but what does it mean to be a biblical man. That’s a loaded question! And depending on who you ask, the answers will greatly vary. Today’s message is NOT going to answer that question. But the goal of this message is to get us thinking about what does it mean to be a biblical man, a man of the Word and thus - - - - a man of God.

Far too often I believe we miss the boat when it comes to teaching our sons and daughters what it means to be a man or women of God. Not that we mess up, but we’re often flying by the seat of our pants and hope like crazy that we did the right thing . . . and that our kids or those we care for, turn out somewhat normal ---- inspite of us.

I’m also not here today to tell you, you’re doing it all wrong. I’m in the same boat as you. But I want to affirm the men and at the same time, You do matter. You make a difference in this world. So, I affirm each man here.

And the hope is that by the end of our time you’re going to want to say yes, to being better equipped to be a more Godly man.

In the end, I believe it will lead to greater spiritual growth, which then changes the world because you become a different man.

Your spouse and kids will be different, your friends and coworkers will change. In fact, the world will see Christ in you and then the world will change.

To do this, we’re going to look at a really strange and controversial story from the Bible. It’s a story about a man who did something outside of the bounds of the character and nature of God. A man who didn’t have a great upbringing, who rose to stardom, but it didn’t end all that well.

AND, the crazy part of this story is that it didn’t need to happen, if only he knew one thing. And that’s the clincher! I’m not going to read the entire story, but I’m going to read some scripture and summarize it as best as I move along.

The story is found in Judges 11-12. And I’m sure you have not heard many messages on a guy named JEPTHAH. His story starts in Judges 11. Here’s our intro to Jepthah - - - -

1 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute. Gilead was the father of Jephthah.

2 And Gilead's wife also 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 Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob,

and worthless fellows collected around Jephthah and went out with him. - Judges 11:1-3

There’s never an excuse for not following God’s ways, but this guy had a lot going against him! There’s the stigma of his mother’s profession, his father had another wife who also had sons. The other sons didn’t like the bad image Jepthah gave to the family, and they didn’t want to share their inheritance, so they drove him out.

One additional comment I want to make on this and I’m reading into the silence of the scripture - - - - where was the father!? What did Gilead do? The people were named after him. It seems like he did nothing.