I read an article about Alfred the Great, the 19th century king of England who is credited with saving England from being conquered by the Danish.  At one point  during his wars with the Danes, Alfred was forced to seek refuge in the hut of a poor Saxon family.  The woman of the house did no recognize her visitor, but she had to leave her house to go on an errand so she asked this visitor to watch some cakes she was baking. However, the king had other things on his mind and he did not notice that the cakes were burning.  Upon the woman’s return she realized that the cakes had burned  and she gave her sovereign a hearty scolding!.  The woman showed no respect for the king because she did not know who this man really was.
 
In many ways 21st century Christians are just like this ninth century woman.  We show no respect for God because we do not know who HE really is.  Just as this woman viewed her king as a mere commoner so we today have brought God down to our level.  He is now no more than the “big guy up stairs”.   Listen to the easy unconcerned statements people make in casual conversations, the way God is depicted in movies and  television programs and talk shows and by influencers that are supposedly based on who God is and how He deals with men, they all have one thing in common.  They prove how far from God we have moved.
 
Unfortunately, the sad truth is that God it seems, is misunderstood and misrepresented by christians and the church in general today.  It is difficult for us to get our head around the fact that God is a Spirit.  We forget that God is:

•         Omnipresent: everywhere at once and there is nowhere that He is not.
•         Omniscient: God knows all things  and there is nothing He does not  know
•         Omnipotent: God is all powerful

 
We have to remember that GOD IS UNCHANGEABLE, GOD IS HOLY, GOD IS RIGHTEOUS, GOD IS GOOD, GOD IS TRUTH, in the most complete and perfect sense of all these terms.
 
This is not an exhaustive study of the general knowledge of God and His essence and attributes, but it gives us a sort of working knowledge from which to proceed.  If you can get just an inkling from these things, of the immensity and eternal nature of God, it should make the things we study about Him even more amazing and astounding.
 
How can this amazing being condescend to take any active role in the lives of men?  How is it He can even notice us? The scriptures reveal a God who has intellect, sensibility, and will. He is represented as speaking, seeking, hearing, being angry and compassionate.  He is said to be Creator, Upholder, ruler and sustainer of all things.  John wrote  it best when he said “God is love.”
 
Do you want to know who God is?  Jesus gives us a great answer when He said "I and the Father are One".  The unimaginable, the uncreated Master, the maker and monarch of eternity wants a love relationship with His creation, and has stopped at nothing to gain it back, even the sacrifice of His only Begotten Son -Jesus!
 
If you have ever read the Bible you will begin to understand God’s chief complaint against His people is that they study and see his works; they ask for miracles, they seek help in all their troubles and they pray for blessings all daylong….but they do not want to know Him.
 
Look at Jesus, believer, and see the Father - He is real, and He wants an intimate relationship with you and He wants you to know Him.  So what do you think of God?

The book of Judges in the Bible has been referred to as the Dark Ages of the people of Israel.  In Judges 2:13, we are told how the people of Israel forsook GOD.   A few verses later in Judges 2:23 we are told of God's response.  Even in light of the dark period described in Chapter 2, there is  a verse that should give ALL of us hope. It is found a few chapters later in Judges 11:1 (KJV)  "Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour, and he was the son of an harlot: and Gilead begat Jephthah."

The narrative goes like this: Jephthah was rejected by his brothers.  They really exiled him because of their greed.  He was an illegitimate son of their father whose name was Gilead.  His mother was a prostitute who is not mentioned in the Bible again. Her name is not mentioned nor are we told any other facts about her.  It seems that the father, Gilead took the child Jephthah from the mother and she disappears from the scene.
 
The most important information we need to focus on is that when the father, Gilead died, Jephthah was driven away from the family because his step-brothers did not want to share their inheritance with him.  After all he was the son of a prostitute! 

We see that Greed, the passion for money, never seems to stop and it has been going on forever (since Genesis 3).  To make matters worse, it appears that his brothers threatened his life and he had to run away from his family.  BUT something happened to Jephthah. 

The Lord had not left Jephthah and we are told that in the meantime, he became a mighty warrior and a strong leader of a group of skilled fighters.   We see Jephthah then becomes God’s deliverer.  This is a very clear picture of a rejected person, a person who is unacceptable to others BUT now is being called by God to be used for HIS purposes.  (You can check out the whole account in Judges 11:4-11 and see for yourself!)

Have you ever noticed, when you read the Bible, that not everyone used by God has a great background.  Have you noticed that? What do I mean?  Perhaps because he was the son of a harlot, a prostitute, he would have been despised in his culture.  He would have been rejected and possibly even hated, but God used him greatly.    You see if a person’s heart is toward God, no matter what his past or family affiliations are, God can use him or her.

We see in this verse that Jephthah was “a mighty man of valor”. The phrase “mighty man” means that Jephthah was marked by “great bravery”. The word “valor” refers to “strength, ability and efficiency”.

This verse identifies Jephthah as a very courageous and powerful man.  He was the kind of man who refused to back down.  He was the kind of man you would like to have on your side in a battle.  He was the kind of man others would look to for leadership.  He was a strong, able and efficient man.

Even though Jephthah had a major drawback in life as he was marked by others as an illegitimate son of Gilead - he was still accepted by GOD!  Jephthah had to pay a price for the sins of his father. His father was a philanderer who brought an illegitimate child into the world. That child would have to live with the stigma of his father’s sins his whole life.

We can see that Jephthah’s father also had other children with his wife. When these legitimate children reached maturity or the father died, , they all turned against Jephthah and forced him out of the family home. I can only imagine what a painful childhood Jephthah must have had.

Your family is supposed to be the one that loves you and accepts you even if no one else does. To be rejected by your own family is one of the most painful things anyone can experience. I am sure Jephthah felt pretty worthless. Probably one of the reasons why Jephthah became “a valiant warrior” was that he had to in order to survive. He had to become tough inside and out to just be able to survive in this cold, cruel world.
Though it is not mentioned in the text, we know from the customs and traditions of Israel, that usually the question of inheritance would only come up after the death of the father. So, going by that tradition, it is possible that Jephthah’s family refusing to share the inheritance with him may have been after Gilead’s death.

Let’s face it, the sons of Gilead were most likely motivated by greed. Maybe with Jephthah out of the way, there was more money to share between themselves. Besides, Jephthah’s presence in the family would have been a constant reminder of their father’s infidelity.

Rejection is something many of us have faced at some point in our lives. You can all fill in the blanks why you have been rejected and by whom.   But there is a God who specializes in taking those whom people reject, in taking the least of the least, the weak, the downtrodden and the marginalized and making something beautiful out of them. He chooses the foolish to confound the wise. He chooses the weak to shame the strong. He chooses the lowly things, the despised things, the things that are not — to nullify the things that are! He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap!  He picks us up from the miry clay and sets our feet upon the solid rock!  We see this truth demonstrated in the life of the Lord Jesus, “The stone which the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone!” Hallelujah!
 
No matter who rejects us or looks down on us there is a God who unconditionally accepts us.  How do I know that?

• The God who remembers us in our low estate…His love endures forever! (Psalms 136:23).
• Isaiah 49:14, But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.”
• Listen to God’s reply,“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands” (Isaiah 49:15, 16,)

 
To you reading this let it be a warning to us not to reject or forget the Lord your God. In every victory, let it be said of us, my source of strength is Christ alone!

Jephthah was born as an illegitimate child of a prostitute. However, God appointed him to become the commander of the armed forces and once the war had been won over land he became the head of the nation. The lesson for us is clear.  God rejects no person, not for any reason.  The rejected and the outcast can come to the LORD, because He reaches out to help them and to receive them and meet any need they have.

The Lord who gave victory to Jephthah tells us that the LORD will give victory to us over all the enemies who are out to destroy and defeat us.  Yes, physical and spiritual enemies as well. There is no limit to our list of enemies who oppose us.  But there is glorious and wonderful news: the Lord can give us the power to conquer all enemies.
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Remember: Victory is in the Lord.  It is the Lord and the Lord alone who can give us the power to walk through life as a conqueror and victorious, no matter who rejects you.  As long as you have chosen to humble yourself and walk with God.