Judges 10:16, So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord, and he became impatient over the misery of Israel.----------Life and literature are filled with the “Cinderella legend,” stories about rejected people who were eventually “discovered” and elevated to places of honor and authority. Horatio Alger wrote over 100 boys’ novels that focused on the “rags-to-riches” theme, and he became one of the most influential American writers of the last half of the nineteenth century. Whether it’s Abraham Lincoln going “from log cabin to White House” or Joseph from the prison to the throne of Egypt, the story of the successful “underdog” is one that will always be popular. We like to see losers become winners.----------The account of Jephthah, the main character in the next fews chapters Judges, is that kind of a story, except that it doesn’t end with the hero living “happily ever after.” After Jephthah’s great victory over the Ammonites and Philistines, he experienced anything but happiness; and the narrative ends on a tragic note.----------This Sunday, Dave will cover the events chronicled in Judges chapter 10. While Jephthah is not mentioned, these circumstances serve as an introduction to what led to his selection as the next "deliverer" for the people of Israel.
