Alrighty, let’s get our bearings here for a moment and see how the latest Judge, Yiftach, who we’re studying about came to be.
Recall he originally lived in an area called Gilead located on the east side of the Jordan River.
However, he ended up being kicked out of his family’s home because he was the son of a prostitute.
Gilead’s legitimate sons simply could not stomach sharing their inheritance with an illegitimate bastard child.
The thought of such a demeaning association inside their family was intolerable, so Gideon was thrown out.
Now what’s a man to do who has pretty much been thrown out into the streets without so much as a shekel to keep him alive?
Well, you go off and create a gang of desert pirates who raid caravans and villages for a living, that’s what you do.
There were plenty of rich men and rulers who would have no problem paying Yiftach and his thugs good money to engage in certain mercenary activities on their behalf.
Which leads me to another interesting point.
Although unthinkable in our day and age, in the Biblical era, Yiftach’s profession as a marauding pirate wasn’t totally looked down on.
He wouldn’t have been viewed as some immoral and disgusting human being who should have been thrown into prison.
Rather, he would have been seen as more an immature troublemaker who ended up going down a wrong path…which isn’t entirely misunderstand-able given what happened to him.
And recall the story of Avimelech, the son of a concubine who killed all 70 of his brothers to seize power.
During that time, a group of bandits led by a man named Ga’al came on the scene and were actually warmly welcomed by the citizens of Shechem who Avimelech has been ruling over.
My point is groups who we would castigate as thugs and criminals worthy of condemnation weren’t viewed in the same way back in those days.
In ancient Middle Eastern cultures, there was actually a degree of respect and admiration accorded them.
So in the same way, the leaders of Gilead viewed Yiftach as just the type of man they needed to hire in order to get their current oppressors, the Ammonites, off of their backs.
In fact, as I mentioned earlier, coming to Yiftach was most likely their last resort and before coming to him they probably did a thorough search to find a good candidate to be their military leader but came up empty-handed.
Therefore, at the end of the day, they had no choice but to humble themselves before this son of a prostitute and seek out his help.
Of course, from Yiftach’s perspective, there would have to be A HUGE REWARD in it for him if he was going to risk losing his life on the battlefield for the very people who had rejected him and kicked him out of his hometown.
Well, that “huge reward” was IF Yiftach emerged victorious, he would become the ruler over all of Gilead.
In order to seal the deal, a covenant oath was made at the military headquarters in Mitzpah.
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