Judges 11:2

New International Version (NIV) 

“You are not going to get any inheritance in our family,” they said, “because you are the son of another woman.”

For Meditation

Feel Jephthah’s pain. It could have been on a cold winter morning that his brothers drove him out of their father’s house. He didn’t see it coming – maybe not the way it happened. The wording of the first verse could suggest Jephthah as Gilead’s first born; yet, his brothers chased him away from their family’s inheritance. “You are not going to get any inheritance in our family,” they said, “because you are the son of another woman” (Judges 11:2). That was Jephthah’s only charge – the son of another woman.

Many people suffer rejection in similar ways all over the world, and we see the effect of their lives in the streets, among gangsters, and in jailhouses. Not only are they robbed of their inheritance; they are thrown out of their homes and subjected to the harsh conditions of those places, which ruin their lives. No one hears their cry, and none feels their pain. Yet, it is all in their eyes but carefully concealed under their pretentious posture of toughness. Their only crime is that they are children of “another woman.” The sad truth is that none of them chose to be born that way – nobody does! Unfortunately, they are punished for their parentage. But, God is good! He rescues many, just as He rescued Jephthah and made him the leader and judge of Israel for six years (11; 12:7).

Writing to the Ephesian church, Paul reminds us that we too were thrown out of our Father’s house by sin and disinherited like Jephthah. But glory to God, His love came to us through Christ Jesus and gave us faith to believe in Him and grace to save us (Jn. 3:16; Eph. 2:8-9).

“Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” … remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Eph. 2:11-13).

This is Good News indeed! We were separated from Christ and excluded from God’s family, but His love has given us grace to be saved through faith in Christ Jesus (8-9). Calvary has given us the right to sonship and has made us “heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” (Rm. 8:14-17). Like Jephthah, we have been reconciled to our Father and restored to full inheritance and prominence in Christ. The pain of rejection and exclusion is over. This Good News broke over two thousand years ago and is still trending. Receive Christ and live!

But for Christ, we would still be disinherited and living among a gang of scoundrels.

Shalom