One day there was an awful argument. Jephthah’s half-brothers said, “You don’t belong in this family and we don’t want you here!” Poor Jephthah! He finally ran away from his home and even from his country!

When Jephthah was on the run, he might have thought, “What have I done? I haven’t done anything to anyone. Maybe God doesn’t love me either.” Do you think God loved Jephthah?

God loved Jephthah. And He loves you too. It does not matter what has happened to you. God loves you. But it is not because you are good or better than others. All of us have done wrong and have made God sad. You too have done wrong things that God has told us clearly not to do. What about your thoughts? Are you angry and hateful just like Jephthah’s brothers? In bold you can read what God says in the Bible, “Forgive one another” (Colossians 3:13). And what about your words? Have you ever shouted angrily at somebody? Have you told lies or concealed the truth? God says, “Speak truth” (Ephesians chapter 4, verse 25). What about your actions? Have you fooled or cheated anybody? If so, you have disobeyed God, who commands, “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15). God is perfect and He hates all that is wrong – in the Bible He calls these bad things “sins”.

God loves you very much even if you are living a bad life. You deserve to be punished for all that you have done. But God punished His own Son, the Lord Jesus, instead of you so that He could forgive you. This punishment was that Jesus suffered a cruel death on the cross. He died for the wrong things that we have done – they are called sins. Jesus died, but He did not stay dead and now He is alive for evermore.

God wants to forgive you and receive you into His family because His Son, Jesus, died for you. And He had the same plan for Jephthah as well.