Jephthah and his Worthless Men

Hebrews 11 walks through example after example of men and women who did amazing things.  The phrase "By Faith" is used twenty times in one chapter. It really struck me how each of these people was following a single line, the thread of their story, but those threads converge in the same place.  The ultimate destination for their faith was the hope of the Messiah.  In turn, their individual stories work together point the way to Christ.

While I was reading this, I couldn't help but nod slightly as I skimmed through all the familiar names and stories. Abel, Abraham, Rahab, check, check, check. Then I got to Jephthah and screeched to a halt. Who in the world is that? A quick refresher in Judges 11 cleared it up; Jephthah was a valiant warrior who went on to accomplish big things for God. Here's a really interesting note, though. In Judges 11:3 it says this,
'Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob, and worthless fellows collected around Jephthah and went out with him.'
"Worthless Fellows?" That didn't sound good.  I wondered why a man of God would surround himself with worthless fellows.  I did a little more digging on that phrase and came to understand that the word here translated as 'worthless' can also be translated as 'empty vessel'.  That struck me.  When a man is an empty vessel, he is drawn to a strong leader from whose example he can 'be filled'.  In a positive case, this is someone like Jephthah. In a negative case, it is someone like Abimelech in Judges 9.  There was a challenge in this passage for me; who am I drawn to emulate?  Will their influence be a positive one?

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