“Of Jephthae”

“And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell…of Jephthae." Hebrews 11:32

Gideon was a farmer. Barak was a soldier. Samson was a Nazarite. David was the youngest of Jesse’s sons and was despised by his brothers. Samuel was the first used by God while he was still a child. Our great God delights to use weak, insignificant, despised instruments to accomplish his greatest works in this world (1 Cor. 1:26-29).

This fact is never more demonstrably illustrated than in the case of Jephthah. Jephthah was born in shame, the bastard son of a harlot (Jud. 11:1, 2). As such, he bore all his life the pain and shame of his mother’s base, bestial immorality. He was by law excluded from the congregation of the Israel (Deut. 23:2). But Jephthah was beloved of God, chosen in Christ, and ordained as an instrument by whose hand he would save his people.

The Lord God poured out his Spirit upon Jephthah and exalted him to the highest dignity and usefulness among his people. Jephthah was one of God’s elect. As such, he was prospered in all that he did. No outward condition, be it ever so base, can hinder God’s purpose, or thwart his grace.

Jephthah feared God (Jud. 11:9-10) and believed his Word (Jud. 11:14-27). His faith was evident in ascribing Israel’s conquests to the Lord (Jud. 11: 21, 23). He called on the God of all truth to judge between Israel and Ammon (Jud. 11 27).

The Lord God honored the faith that honored him by delivering the Ammonites into Jehpthah’s hand. Jephthah’s fidelity and perseverance in the faith is seen in the keeping of his vow (Jud. 11:30-32). He had no idea that the one who would come out of his house and be the first to meet him would be his only child. But when he saw her, though his vow caused him great pain, he kept it. He said, “I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back” (Jud. 11:35). In accordance with his oath, he offered his only child as a burnt-offering to God, banning her to continual virginity.

Let us follow noble Jephthah’s example of faith. In our baptism we publicly avowed ourselves God’s forever, willing burnt-offerings to our God (Rom. 6:4-6). Let us live as those who are God’s. When we united with God’s people in church membership, we publicly wed ourselves to God’s saints in that local assembly. Let us live for the good of and serve the interests and needs of that local assembly into which God has placed us. Brothers and sisters in the household of faith serve one another in love. They seek not to be served, but to serve.