Jephthah Fled from His Brothers - Judges 11:3

In the book of Judges we learned how, “Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, and he was the son of an harlot: and Gilead begat Jephthah. And Gilead's wife bare him sons; and his wife's sons grew up, and they thrust out Jephthah, and said unto him, you shall not inherit in our father's house; for you are the son of a strange woman”, and in chapter eleven and verse three of Judges, we learn how, “Jephthah fled from his brethren” where we read,

Then Jephthah fled from his brethren, and dwelt in the land of Tob: 

and there were gathered vain men to Jephthah, and went out with him.

The verse reads, “Then Jephthah fled from his brethren, and dwelt in the land of Tob:” The writer began with the words, “then Jephthah” which means “at that time Jephthah whose name means ‘he opens’” “fled from his brethren” or “was put to flight, chased and hurried away separate and apart from his, Jephthah’s male siblings”; “and dwelt in the land of Tob” or “and abode, inhabited and lived within the region and territory belonging to Tob whose name means ‘good’ and was “a region east of the Jordan, north or northeast of Gilead, proabably Arabian whose location is uncertain”.  The writer shared how “Jephthah” was put to flight by his “brothers” and lived within the region known as “Tob”. 

The verse goes on to say, “and there were gathered vain men to Jephthah, and went out with him.” The writer continued with the words, “and there were gathered vain men” which means “and there were assembled and collected together empty, idle and worthless male human beings” “to Jephthath” or “toward Jephthah whose name means. ‘he opens’ and was a son of Gilead and a concubine and judge who defeated the Ammonites”, “and went out with him” which means “and departed and left alongside and accompanying him, Jephthah”. The writer shared how idle and worthless “men” assembled with “Jephthah” and accompanied him on his way to “Tob”. 

When we think through the words in this verse, we learn how “Jephthah” ran away from his brothers and lived within he region known as “Tob”. There assembled idle and worthless male human bings with “Jephthah”, and they departed alongside him. “Jephthah” was made to leave his family and home, and only those who were destitute followed him. We shall see how God uses “Jephthah” in our next few verses, but for now, let us try to imagine this difficult time in his life. He had no idea of God’s plans for him, but God desired to employ him in His Kingdom work. The same may be said for us. We may not see or believe that God has a plan for our lives, but He will work it out when we yield to His Son Jesus who died on the cross for the sins of all mankind and was resurrected from the grave after three days. As we submit to Him to be our “Savior and Lord”, He will forgive our sins, grant us everlasting life and put His Holy Spirit within us to guide us into all truth and to help us understand He is working in our circumstances even when we do not see or know yet what He’s doing. (John 3:16; Deuteronomy 29:29; Jeremiah 29:11)

Next time we learn how, “the children of Ammon made war against Israel”, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow…there is more…

See more devotionals on the website "thewordfortodaywithray.com" or look for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation to Generation”, the marriage book “So, You Want to Be Married”, “One Year in the Sermon on the Mount” and the new poetry book "Random Mushrooms Volumes I and II" and the new novel "Elizabeth County" in all major bookstore sites, http://www.amazon.com ; http://www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore. All references are from "Strongs Concordance”.