Children of a Lesser God“Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, but he was the son of a harlot; and Gilead begot Jephthah.” (Judges 11:1) In the 1986 movie Children of a Lesser God, Marlee Matlin won an Oscar for her portrayal of a troubled deaf woman who got involved with William Hurt the sign language teacher at her school for the deaf. We may not be deaf or physically impaired, but we’ve all heard stories of children who have overcome hardships — children of alcoholics, inmates or drug addicts, orphans who never had parents or suffered loss of parents to war or a fatal crash, children who were forced to labor or sold off to prostitution, and victims of childhood diseases. In the Bible Jephthah was a man who refused to allow his unfair circumstances to prevent him from becoming great as one of the judges of Israel in the Book of Judges. He was a bastard (mamzer in Hebrew) born to Gilead as a result of his father's affair with a prostitute. Gilead's wife bore more sons who grew up and rejected Jephthah, and ultimately drove him out saying, “You shall have no inheritance in our father's house, for you are the son of another woman.” (Judges 11:2) This traumatic experience led Jephthah to become a hardened warrior for a living and in a twist of poetic justice, his skills became so well known that when Ammon declared war on Israel, the elders of Gilead went to Jephthah and asked him to be their commander as well as leader. (Judges 11:6-11) Jephthah had to bury feelings of rejection from the past, overcame his pain and suffering, and responded to the call God had on his life to be the judge or leader of Gilead. By the same token, if we were to help the butterfly to exit the cocoon, the butterfly would not be strong enough to survive for it is the struggle that makes the butterfly strong enough to fly. God prepares each of us in similar ways as some of our childhoods appear to have been harsh and born from a seemingly lesser and unloving God. God, however, knows our struggles and will turn things around if we will follow Him with an upright heart as we obey His Word. God will make all things beautiful in His time and if we are willing and obedient, we will eat the good of the land. (Isaiah 1:19)Copyright © 2002 Eddy Ministries. All rights reserved. Subscribe/Unsubscribe: eddyn@earthlink.net
|