Joel M Bradshaw

1The men of Ephraim were called to arms, and they crossed to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, “Why did you cross over to fight against the Ammonites and did not call us to go with you? We will burn your house over you with fire.” 2And Jephthah said to them, “I and my people had a great dispute with the Ammonites, and when I called you, you did not save me from their hand. 3And when I saw that you would not save me, I took my life in my hand and crossed over against the Ammonites, and the LORD gave them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day to fight against me?”

4Then Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and fought with Ephraim. And the men of Gilead struck Ephraim, because they said, “You are fugitives of Ephraim, you Gileadites, in the midst of Ephraim and Manasseh.” 5And the Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. And when any of the fugitives of Ephraim said, “Let me go over,” the men of Gilead said to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” When he said, “No,” 6they said to him, “Then say Shibboleth,” and he said, “Sibboleth,” for he could not pronounce it right. Then they seized him and slaughtered him at the fords of the Jordan. At that time 42,000 of the Ephraimites fell.

7Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in his city in Gilead.–Judges 12

Every spouse has started an argument with their husband or wife that had no point. It was unnecessary. Maybe he did the dishes or folded the laundry in a different way than you were taught. And so you decide to have an attitude correcting the husband doing dishes and folding laundry. Maybe she didn’t put the tools back in the wrong spot in the garage or got an oil change at a place you don’t prefer. So you decide to correct your wife with an attitude even though she was working on something for the house and taking care of the cars. Maybe it’s your parenting instead that has unnecessary fights.

Here we have Ephraim acting like a spoiled brat. Not only did they not recognize Jephthah’s leadership, but they rejected him as a member of their own tribe. Never mind the fact that all their sons didn’t have to risk their lives fighting the enemy! Furthermore, they were too incompetent to pass a verbal test. Hebrew has two ‘s’ consonants at the end of the alphabet. Sin (‘seen’) and Shin (‘sheen’). They look alike except for the placement of a dot. Try drawing a curvy capital W and put a dot over the right spike and then another with the dot over the left spike. That is the difference between Sin and Shin. And evidently those letters confounded the Ephraimites.

Let’s bring today’s blog post home with James 3. Churches have unnecessary battles as well.

But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. (James 3:14-18)

Are your battles necessary?–JMB