From Zero To Hero
ZERO TO HERO | Rev. Oluyinka Ahove | November 19, 2017
Bible Reading: Proverb 8:19-end
Bible Text: Judges 11:1-10
The story in our text talks about a man called Jephthah. Now the bible is the constitution by which we live just like every nation lives by a constitution. So why did God include this man’s story in the bible? Every story in the Bible is important. God wants us to receive a revelational foundation in every story because Jesus is always revealed in every story.
Jephthah’s life was full of contradictions. And contradictions has nothing to do with the future God has for us. So we are not perplexed by those contradictions because in the hand of God we know what He can do. The central theme of the story of Jephthah and why it was put in the bible was for us to know what rejection does to a man and how rejection can be turned around. Sometimes rejection comes from various sources either from a relationship that we have so much expectations from or even from siblings or even amongst the brethren. Jesus’ ministry was rejected by the Pharisees. So rejection is common to us and it is something that can really destroy the heart of a man.
Rejection can bring scars to your heart. It scars some people for life. It changes some people completely that they become a different person; they become bitter and don’t trust people anymore. So there is so much that we can learn from the story of Jephthah. And I want us to be attentive to what God wants to say.
I have always said it that when you come to Jesus you don’t come to a dead end. When man says no or shuts a door it’s not the end. When God opens a door no man can shut it. Am so blessed and happy that God does not consider the opinion of men before He blesses me. Men will judge me or hold me to my past and my experiences: my past that I know nothing about. How was it Jephthah’s fault that his mother was a prostitute? Why should men hold it against him? But this young man is their brother whose mother just happens to be a prostitute.
So what can we then learn from Jephthah’s life? He was denied his rightful inheritance because of the circumstances of his birth. He was told he cannot take part in the inheritance. They told him he does not belong there. They told him he doesn’t deserve their company. He didn’t go to the school that they went to. So they couldn’t keep company with him. Oh, there’re just a few people in your church; we see 30000 people every Sunday. Beloved, there is rejection everywhere even in the church and even amongst the brethren.
People may reject you and consign you to a hellhole but God will find you. Men may live you; your parents may reject and abandon you but God will never reject you. He said I will never leave you or forsake you. So if you don’t get yourself acquainted with Jesus, life may just deal anyhow with you. But in Jesus, your scars can turn into stars.
What Lessons Can We Learn from Jephthah’s Story?
- We learn about God from Jephthah’s experience. When you trust your life and totally abandon it in God’s hand nothing that you have been through in life is wasted. All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. That rejection is working for your good. So people are pushed into their own gardens by the afflictions they face. In all of these things, we have been made more than conquerors.
- Your past that you are not proud of, that is scandalous and disgraceful can be transformed by the power of God. God can use us regardless of our background. We can’t change the facts about our life or the facts about the circumstances of our birth. Jephthah could not change the story of the fact that his mother was a But God can take that messy past and turn it into a message
- We learn that rejection can be a source of power. Don’t discountenance rejection . There is something in it. You will not know God can heal until you are sick and He heals you. The best you can say is that you heard that Jesus can deliver, prosper or protect. How will you know He’s s healer or a deliverer or that he can save you if you have not experienced Him in these areas? He himself said that He didn’t come for those who are well but for those who are sick so that the sick can know me as a Healer. Until you are sick and he Heals you you dont know him as a healer. Until you lack and He provides how will you know that He is a provider. It is not somebody else’s story. You know him for yourself . So your past can be a source of power rather than a place of pain. And that is what Jesus came to do. He came to turn around our rejection and pain to power. Now learn that Jephthah fled and joined himself to hoodlums. They threw him out. This is the danger in rejection: rejection from his brother made him to feel that he has no self-worth. So he joined himself to the hoodlums. The bible says Jesus was numbered with the transgressors Him who knew no sin. Aren’t you glad that the sovereignty of God just takes over because we didn’t hear anything that this man Jeptha prayed to God unlike Jabez did. Aren’t you just glad God doesn’t rely on your prayer to see you have been cheated before he picks you up out of the dungeon? Because Hannah was hated God opened her womb. God is going to bless you because of what they did to you.
- Proverb 19: Man’s plan for Jephthah was rejection. But Gods plan for him was to restore to him all that he had been denied. God had to orchestrate a situation that brought about the selection of Jephthah. God caused war and his brethren went to look for him. And fetched him. They came to him. “Come and be our captain that we may fight with the children of Hamon” They didn’t just ask him to collect his inheritance they asked him to come and be their leader. Isaiah 65:8 Christ is the blessing in your life. It is He who makes your destiny indestructible.
- Jesus was also rejected.He had a lowly beginning born in a sheep pen. Isaiah 64:3 and 12 say Jesus was ‘despised and rejected of.a man of sorrow and ….therefore will I divide him a portion among the great.’ So being rejected is not the end of your life or destiny. There is a good in your rejection because God can turn the rejection to selection. Psalm 145:14 says The Lord upholds and raise up those that are bowed down. If rejection has bowed you down God will lift you up. Acts 4:11 says This was the stone set at naught by the builders but is now set as the cornerstone. Jephthah was called back and they elected him as the head. They told Jephtar whatever he says is what they will do. So don’t look at your rejection and say this is where it ends for me. As He did for Jeptar so He will do for you in the Name of our Lord Jesus.
Jephthah had a but in his life but at the conclusion of his story: we can say that was then but this is now.
