When Family Hurts - Jepthath's Rejection

So Michael, let's get started.

Last week, we touched on when the rejected person becomes needed.

And we mentioned about when Jephthah was brought back from Tob.

And we noticed that Jephthah seems to remember his history very clearly.

So, tell us, how did Jephthah respond it?

That's a very good place for us to start this show, Denise.

But let me just take listeners back to maybe you have missed last week's show.

We were using Judges chapter 11, and we said that Jephthah is a rejected family member.

11.2 of the book of Judges tells us that his brother said to him, Thou shalt not...

And we said that Jephthah left that country as a result, and he went to this country called Tob.

So we also said that there is meaning in the name that is given.

There's a meaning that is...

There's a reason why the author is telling us that he went to Tob.

Because here we have Jephthah fleeing the evil of his brothers who rejected him.

In the story, we are told that...

He connected himself with vain men, according to one translation of the Bible.

But the word actually means men who were considered worthless.

So here we have Jephthah the Rejected finding company or finding community in a group of men who were considered worthless.

And they are moving to this place called Tobb.

And so, this place actually means good.

So, in a sense, Jephthah is literally moving away from evil to good.

So, that takes us to the question that you're raising, Denise, because now when we come to this section of the narrative, we find that Jephthah the Rejected went to Tobin, made himself successful, became a successful military leader.

And his brothers are now calling on him to help them fight off the...

The nations around, the Ammonites, who were they at war against? So the question is, how should he respond? So Jephthah responds in Judges 11, 7 by asking a question.

And it's usually a good place to start.