Jephthah did not let others get him down. He knew that his brothers were wrong when they rejected him. They told him that he would not have an inheritance. While attending the New Testament History class last month, at The College of Maasin we learned that illegitimate children would have an inheritance. They were lower on the totem pole to speak but they were higher than Gentiles. Even illegitimate children of priests were right underneath the Levites Tribe. Jephthah did not argue with his brothers and he simply went away.
He was not the first person in the Bible to be treated this way. You Jephthah was a son of a prostitute. He was being treated badly not because of anything he had done. It was the choice of his father going to a prostitute. His father was a moabite. So because of this shame his brothers pushed him away because he was born of a different mother.
Joseph was also mistreated not only was he born of a different mother, he was his father's favorite. As parents we need to treat our children similarly but not the same. We should not have favorites but it usually happens that there is a golden child and there is the scapegoat. Joseph was the golden child who later became a scape goat. His brothers sold him into slavery. He was sold into slavery because of jealousy and envy.
It could have been the same thing with Jephthah because he was a valiant warrior. The question we must answer this morning is How Do You See Yourself?
Do you see yourself a rejected person or do you have a Spirit of Shame?
Rejection will simply say I did something wrong and therefore, I am being rejected. A Spirit of Shame will say I am a bad person. This is important because how we see ourselves will determine the choices that we are willing to make. A person with a Spirit of Shame will tend to make more bad choices than good ones.
All of us tend to get mistreated at sometime in our life. Chuck Swindoll once said "It is not so much what happens to us that makes a difference; but how we respond to what happens to us." In spite of this rejection he Jephthah goes his way. He moves forward with his life.
There are those who are able to forgive and move on with their lives and then there are others who do not seem to get past their past. They keep going on how bad their life has been.
Many children complain to their parents how unfair they are; something doesn't go their way; they say that is unfair. Life is not fair; it will never be fair. Some people will always be more accepted than others.
What can we learn from being mistreated. There are four things that we can learn from our mistreatment: 1. We can learn to walk humbly with our Lord. 2. We can learn to empathize with people who are in similar situations 3. We are able to give godly advice because we have something that they don't have. We can show them Jesus Christ. 4. We can thank God for the lessons learned but we do not have to thank him for the experiences we have gone through.
In one of my foster homes I was abused very badly for seven years. Family services did not care what happened to us. I was even raped a few times while living in that home. This was not the last home that I had lived in. The last one was much better. However, the damage was done and it has taken many years for me to get past the past. I do not thank God for what I went through but the abuse did help me to be the pastor I have become. It has made me a better person. I thank God for the lessons that I learned.
Being a pastor here in the Philippines have shown to me that in spite of what I had gone through; no matter what illnesses I struggle with; things could always be worst than they are. In either case our outlook is always determined by how we respond to our environment in which we live.
Rejection or the Spirit of Shame can be by sin. Either by the sin that we have committed or the sin of someone else.
In Romans 12:1-2 We learn that we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God. Therefore, God is not going to make us happy and holy. These two do not always go hand in hand even though men may reject us God never rejects us.
if we have the Spirit of Shame than we become prideful and we think that God cannot love us. We will not let God love us because of our pride. We become prideful and say we are too bad for God to save us and because others have rejected us we then reject God.
In verses 12-28 we see the blessings of God. As we walk through our lives do we take time to count the Roses along the way. Do we thank God for the blessings that we encounter. Each of us receive different blessings and it is not always in the form money. we learn from Jephthah that God gives us gifts in order to share our gifts with others.
He would become ruler over the Israelites for six years. This was because he was willing to swallow his pride and help the Israelites defeat their enemy the Ammonites.
This is the hardest thing for Christians to do! It is not easy to swallow our pride. We make mistakes and many people may never forgive us. And to many of us want to hold grudges. This is never a good thing. For one fifty percent of the people do not know that we are holding a grudge against them and fifty percent that do don't care. No matter what we have been through Christ can us to bless the lives of others if we will let him do it.
Verses 34-40 have to do with a foolish vow that Jephthah made. He promised to God that if he would give him victory over the Ammonites he would sacrifice that unto the Lord. In some countries and he was Gileadite practiced human sacrifices. This was not an acceptable sacrifice. God used this as a test for Abraham but he provided an acceptable sacrifice to give back to the Lord.
However, in many of the Israelite homes lambs were acceptable pets. If you have ever raised lambs you would know this. Especially if you bottle feed them from the time they are born. Sometimes this is necessary. He probably had a pet lamb and was thinking that the first thing that would come out of the home was this lamb. However, it was his daughter.
He would eventually after giving her two months to spend with her friends; he would offer her unto the Lord. He could have ask God to release from this vow and I believe God would have done this.
We should be careful what we vow to God. One we should vow something without spending much time in prayer. I do not like faith promises for this reason. We sometimes say we will do something and we cannot keep the promises that we have made. This is why James say let our yes be yes and our no be no. No need to qualify it with a promise.
I pray that if you are dealing with rejection or a Spirit of Shame that you can give it over to the Lord. There is nothing God cannot do for you. You can be an instrument of His choosing but you have to be willing to give everything to Him. Allow yourselves to be all you can be for Christ Jesus.
The question How Do You See Yourself? Must be answered individually. God allows us to go through sometimes terrible things in order for us to be used more effectively by him. For me it is not easy living in a foreign country. Sometimes people hate me just because i am an American.
Before Stanley was born we moved into a rental home on the first night we stayed there; a man threatened us with harm. Of course the girls Edena and Ditzel was scared and crying. We have deadbolts and iron guards on our windows. I started praying and the man finally left. The next day I told my sister in law; her husband is a police officer with the Philippine National Police. He put out a blogger so that everyone would know not to harm me. They may laugh and make fun of me because I am a foreigner but they will not touch me.
We have a choice in who we are going to believe. Are we going to believe the enemy or are we going to believe the enemy. The enemy says you are a shameful individual. You are so bad that God can never love you. Or we can accept our rejection as a tool to help us to grow and be all that we can be for Christ Jesus. The choice is up to us! What is going to be your choice? Are you going to embrace the Spirit of Shame or the tool of rejection? Let Us Pray!
