Theme of the Week: The Book of Judges
Bible Verse: “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.” Isaiah 53:3
Scripture Reading: Judges 10:6 – 11:33
Rejection is a bitter pill to swallow, and it can scar us for life. But the things that often cause people to reject us do not necessarily disqualify us before God. All too often we live with a sense that unless we possess certain specific skills or personality traits or qualifications, we fall short. Or perhaps we measure ourselves by our family background, our social standing, or a blemish-free past. The result can be discouraging. We convince ourselves that, at best, we will be allowed to watch and cheer as the real spiritual first-string accomplishes God’s truly significant work. Without the proper credentials, we are not the kind of people the Lord can or will use.
As we have already seen, that is not the pattern we find in God’s Word. God is not a God of stereotypes, and, if we need any confirmation of that, we have it in abundance in the study of another judge, a unique man named Jepthah. He was a man in whom we find great conflicts and contrasts. There are some ugly blotches in his life, but there are also some glorious victories.
Jepthah was a valiant warrior. Because of his tragic family life, he had become strong to survive. The story of his life is of God’s taking a strong man, and, by His Spirit, turning him into a usable man. Whatever our strengths and weaknesses, the secret of our usefulness is our availability to our God.
God’s grace had taken Jepthah from the scrap heap of Israel and transformed him into the liberator of his people. We would have seen nothing that God could use in Jepthah, an illegitimate outcast with a graduate degree in violence and survival. But the Lord took him and transformed him into His agent. Jepthah had been rejected by people but accepted in heaven. The Lord delights to do that. No one is so “worthless” that God cannot use him or her for His glory. Your past may not be as sordid as Jepthah’s nor your gifts so unusual, but the God who used him will use you as you trust Him.
Taken from Hearts of Iron, Feet of Clay by Gary Inrig. ©1979, 2005 by Gary Inrig, and used by permission of Discovery House, Grand Rapids MI 49501. All rights reserved.
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