All right, there we go Chapter 12 starting in verse 1 It says the 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 and Jephthah said to them I and my people had uh And Jephthah said to them I and my people had a great dispute with the Ammonites, and I called you, and you did not save me from their hand. And when I saw that you would not save me, I took my life in my hands 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? And 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. And the Gileadites captured the fords of 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, they said to him, say Shaboleth. And he said Shaboleth, for he could not pronounce it right. Then they seized him and slaughtered him at the fords of Jordan. At that time, 42,000 of the Ephraimites fell. Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gilead died and was buried in the city of Gilead. Let's pray together. Lord, I thank you for your word. I pray that you'd be with me now. Give me strength that I may proclaim Christ. Let the world forget me and remember him give his strength now. We are your servants in cross name. I pray amen And there's your justice Josh. I totally lost my I didn't do that on purpose. I promise you I really did just totally lose my place there that is the That is the justice of the Lord, okay Anyway, putting myself aside and my loss there for the sake of running my mouth this morning. Let's just remember last time before we get into our text for today. If you remember last time Jephthah had, when he was going against the Ammonites, he had promised the Lord that if he'd give him victory, that he would sacrifice anything that come out of his doorpost, that come out of his house and come to meet him. And that thing was indeed his daughter, his only daughter. He had no son or daughter besides her. And because of that, of course, God did give the Ammonites into his hand. He defeated them. And so because of that, he understood he had to keep his vow. We read over in Deuteronomy where it said, you cannot be slack in giving and repaying your vow or whatever you've promised to the Lord, you have to give. and so understanding that his daughter had told him to simply let her go and wait for her virginity on the mountains and we spoke about that because the reason being the purpose her understanding that bringing in the messiah bringing in the one that's going to crush the head of the servant comes to the woman that's what god had promised in the garden of Eden. So not being able to do that, she went and weeped because she would not be able to marry or have children because she was going to be put to death. Jephthah had said that anything that comes out from the doorpost would indeed be a burnt offering. We then spoke about what a burnt offering was. It was something that was cut into pieces and then burnt completely. It was an offering to the Lord. At the same time, we had talked about how God had not told the Israelites to do that. In fact, he told them not to. Don't be sacrificing your children to these pagan gods or even to me. because they are indeed in the image of God. So anyway, the girl is killed and because the girl is killed we are told that ever so often they would lament the girl and it started this trend in Israel where the women would go up to the mountains and weep for her death because she was sacrificed in that way. We then start out with chapter 12 with this dispute between Ephraim and Jephthah here and it's the same dispute if you recall that we'd seen happen with Gideon after he had won that battle there. We can turn back to chapter 8 and see that. This is after Gideon had defeated Midian. If you remember, Midian had oppressed the people in such a way, just recalling back, that the people were hiding in caves and such, and they were afraid to even go out because every time they would go out, they would come through, remember it said like locusts on camels and things of that nature that you could not number, and they would steal all the produce that the people had. They would steal everything that the people were working hard for. And so because of this, the people were found in hiding away from Midian. And then they are defeated. God works through Gideon, who we found hiding in the wine press there, threshing out the wheat. And he works through this lowly man to save the people. And after that, in that same way, we see this repeating again. Look in verse 1 of 8 there. Then the men of Ephraim said to him, what is this that you have done not to call us to fight against Midian? And they accused him fiercely. We've seen the same thing happen there. It's the same people, Ephraimites here. They're accusing Jephthah of the same thing. And the reason for that is, is because they simply wanted a hand in the victory. They simply wanted a hand in the glory. Not only the glory, but the spoils. At that time when you would defeat another people, you would have a right to their stuff. You would have a right to the thing because they were indeed defeated. And so this pride welling up in the Ephraimites here that we've seen before angers them. And it indeed angers them so much that they tell Jephthah, we're going to kill you. And the way that we're going to kill you is we're going to burn you alive within your house. We are going to burn you alive within your house. Look in verse one there. Read it again together. The men of Ephraim were called to arms and they crossed Zaphon and said to Jephthah, why did you cross over to fight against the Amorites and did not call us? So why didn't you give us our spool, give us our chance to go into battle with you? In the second part there, look, it says, we will burn your house over you with fire. This angers them so much that we will simply burn you alive. Some people point this back to maybe the judgment of God upon him for what he did to his daughter. That's not clear within the text. But it is clear, I think, that this whole section here, this small civil war that we're going to see, this buildup, is indeed judgment from God from what happened. Because God was going to give the Ammonites into his hand anyway, and recall we spoke last time that Jephthah took it into his own hands to say, well, if I can just do this, God, then surely you will give me the victory. If I can just offer up something that I have, I think this will persuade you to give me the victory if you hadn't before. And we spoke last time that Jephthah indeed did not need to do this at all, because favor with God did not come from something that he did. It did not come from an action or a sacrifice that he gave, although he was told anyway to give God his best of his flock, right? We read that over in Leviticus. They were called to do that, give of the flock to God, because he had given to them, he had brought them out of slavery. And it is not an action that they do that causes God's favor upon them, but we read in Deuteronomy 7 that it's simply because God loved them. It is simply because God loved Israel that He chose them among the nations. Remember He said it's not because you are mightier or greater or the most in number, in fact they were the least. It is simply because God loved them and He is obeying something that He promised to Abraham. of that great seed that he would guide them and direct them and they would be a mighty nation. That is the reason why they're loved. And we compared that, this is important to understand, we compared that last time to the church today. It's what we can even say today. It is not because something that we do, it is not because something that we bring to the table that God loves us, that Christ loved us and chose to die for us. It is because He simply loves us that He loves us. It is nothing that we bring within our hands that causes God's favor upon us. It is simply the grace of God and nothing else. Many people stumble at this idea. Many people stumble at this concept. And I think that what we're seeing here is definitely Ephraim doing this, wanting their part in the battle. And this is this pride that is welling up within them. Because this pride and jealousy comes from somewhere more than just this battle. The way they are acting here comes from somewhere more than just a simple battle at a simple time. It's important for us to understand that. We may localize it in such a way that we don't understand the big picture and what's happening over and over and over and over again in the book of Judges. And I'm trying to stress that because it's a condition of the heart. It's not simply a condition of circumstance. See what I'm saying? Not just simply a condition of circumstance. Many people today, they localize people's actions to a position of circumstance, right? Well, I'm really mean and I like to beat people up because I was mistreated in my life. or I'll do this because of that. And when in reality, it's all a condition of the heart. And so that's what we see here with Ephraim. Not only that, but this is a dispute that goes back. You may ask the question, why did we see that before? And why don't we see it now? The reason that that is, is if you remember that the Gileadites and Ephraim were both sides of Joseph, both clans of Joseph, their monarch. So this is a dispute really between close family, all of Israel's family, but even closer family because they're both coming from Joseph. And this pride raises its head in this way. It is a total unloving nature toward God. is a heart that is absent from love, and that's what pride is. It totally negates the love of God, something that they were commanded to do. If so, we can see that this sin, pride, was indeed most likely, or is, the first sin. We can either tie that to Satan, that pride welled up within him, Or we can tie it to man with Adam and Eve. Satan saying, don't you know you will be like God? You can be the same. You can be in that same manner. And that same idea goes along today. I just watched a video a couple weeks ago of Jeff Durbin, an evangelist on the streets, speaking with Mormons. And they didn't have big sticking points over who Christ was. They didn't have big sticking points over what hell was or what this or that was. Their big sticking point was, we believe that we do something for salvation. We put our part into it and don't you take that away from us. And the moment that he started to prod against this idea of them bringing something to the table, of them having some glory in this salvation that God is offering them, that immediately was hostile. Why? Because this is the pride that we see within man and it is so easy even within ourselves to see this. It's the same pride that we see in the clan of Ephraim. I have to have part. I have to have glory. I cannot just simply be saved. I have to at least bring something to the table. Even if that's the 10% out of the 90%, I have to have something to contribute. And that's why people bash against grace. That's why people don't like it. It's not that they simply don't understand it. They do understand it and they hate it. It's because they can bring nothing to God to find favor within Him. And that's the one thing that we want. To bring something to God. To find favor. To say, I am better than my brother. Obviously, I'm better than them. I should have got the glory in this battle. And that is the issue here. If you remember, Pastor Josh, I believe, it was either him or Scott, but I believe he went through this section in 1 Timothy. This is important for us to understand. Speaking of pride here, 1 Timothy chapter three, listen to how it speaks here in this connection of pride with Satan. 1 Timothy three and six, this is speaking of qualifications for overseers or pastors or elders, and look what it says here. This is something very important for not only people that desire a ministry to understand, but for all of us to understand, as I believe Josh stressed when he went over this. We can six there. He must not be a recent convert, recent convert. And this is the reason why, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. What is the condemnation of the devil? Well, he was puffed up. He thought he was something when he was not. He thought indeed he was better than God when he was not. And so we do not throw men simply headlong into the ministry because it's easy at a young age for pastors to get the big head, to become puffed up, to become prideful and think that it's something that they're doing that makes their ministry great. Look at my, I have a congregation of 200. Look at me. I'm so great, I'm so fantastic. And so because of that, we can fall into that same snare, the snare that Ephraim is going into here and the snare that all of us are tended towards. And that is pride. That is pride. They were told to do the opposite. If you remember, we've went here many times and we'll go here many times again because this is foundational things for understanding who God is and how he has worked through time in Deuteronomy chapter six. Deuteronomy chapter six, this is the Shema, this prayer that they would pray if you recall. Deuteronomy chapter six in verse four, look with me. Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise. You should bind them as a sign on your hand, and it should be as frontlets between your eyes. You should write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates. And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant, and when you eat and are full, then take care, and this is a warning to us today, so I want us to say, then take care lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of slavery. So this is what the children of Israel were commanded to do. First of all, love God. Second of all, when you go within the land, when you get all these things, when you see all these great things, these things you did not do, you did not do, you didn't plant the trees, you didn't build the cities, you didn't reap this, you've reaped the harvest, but you did not plant it. When you get all these great things that God gave to you, not because something you did, but because that he loves you, don't get the big head. Don't start thinking that you're something that you're not. Don't forget where you came from, something that Ephraim had done. Not only back in Egypt, but where they were not long ago with the Ammonites. This is what they had forgotten. Don't forget they come from that slavery. If you remember where they were not many Sundays ago, they were within that slavery. Look back in our book, Book of Judges in chapter 10 there. Chapter 10, Book of Judges. So if you remember, this is where we started out. This is that same band. They had just come out of that tyranny. Remember, at the end of this, they had said, Lord, please help us. And he had simply told them, seek your gods that you've been serving. Seek the other gods. Call out to the wooden statues to help you. And we spoke of last time that they indeed couldn't because you get no help from the tree. You get no help from the creative thing. What that is indeed nothing. And so that's what God had commanded them to do. They had served those seven other gods from those seven other places when they were told to kill them. And we spoke to that before when they go into the land and those seven nations is Deuteronomy chapter seven, those seven nations, uh, bigger than them. They were to kill them with the sword. Instead they were serving them. And although they had done all of that and this judgment had come upon them, God become unpleased with their situation. And he had decided to help them toward the end of verses 16 through 18 there, I believe. And he decided to help them in their need. And so because of that, the people come to arms and they'd ask the question, who will go out for us? And then the next chapter in chapter 11, Jephthah, who had been cast out before this, they went to him and said, help us because he was a mighty man. God had then used him, even though he was a sinful man, we obviously seen that through the slaughter of his daughter, through the burning of her, even though he was sinful, he still used him to save them. And directly after that, Ephraim comes to him, now here in our text, and it is not a praise to God, it is not a thank him for everything he has done for us because he has brought us out of slavery, it is a instant, why did I not get the glory out of this? Why? Not a thank God that he brought us out from this bondage we were in for 18 years? No, no, no. Why were we not called to fight and battle and get the spoils and glory along with you? with an anger so great that they are ready to kill their leader themselves. The one they had sought after, who will lead us? We will simply kill him because we do not have our part with him. It shows God's loving kindness. How many times have they turned their backs and said stuff like that? Absolutely. So we may get how that they forgot. Navigating this, I wanted to kind of go back for a moment We may get how they didn't remember God, but the question might be, what we referenced before, how is this not loving God? Just to thrust this out a little more. How is this not loving God? Christ gives us a better picture, Him being a usher in of the new covenant, gives us a better picture to understand what I'm getting at here in Deuteronomy chapter six. And we can find that in Matthew 22, Matthew 22. Now understand something, Jesus being God, the law that was given to Moses was Christ's law. It was, in fact, Jesus's law. So we have to understand that he understands it more than anyone, okay? We can get that point. And so let's look in 22 and 34 through 40 here. When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. which is the greatest commandment in the law. And he said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And then he adds, we understood that, that's what they were told to do. Look, that's the Shema in Deuteronomy chapter six there. But he gives us more insight here to what this does. What happens when you love God? The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. You see, a failure to love God, the reason that we can look at Ephraim and say this is a failure to love God is the way that they treat their brother, the way that they treat their neighbor, how quick they can be to go to wrathful hate against their brother who had helped them, who God had used to deliver them instead of simply loving him. And it's the same in our lives. When you see someone who has no love within them for their brother, it is simply a result of having no love for God. That is the result of it. It's why we can see in 1 John, 1 John chapter four here, this is what John tells the church. 1 John four and 20, if anyone says, I love God. So we're speaking of claims here. Someone comes to the church today and they tell us, I love God. Okay, you don't have to worry about me. I love God. This is the claim they're making. and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God who he has not seen. You see that? That's the litmus test of love for God. You see a man who hates his brother, he hates God. You see a man who truly loves his brother and cares for them, that's a good sign that the love of God is in him. And that is what we see lacking here today. Jesus says this is what fulfills all the law and prophets. That's what Paul, I won't go there for the sake of time, that's what he says in Romans 13. You know, he's listing out the law there, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not do all these things. He says the law fulfills all that. Because when you love your brother, you do not wish to kill him. When you love your brother, you do not wish to steal from him or have his wife or covet his things. And this is the fulfillment of that. That's what Jesus was getting at in Matthew 22 there. And we can see the antithesis of all this through Ephraim's pride that they had against their brother. And that they really, and in fact, had against God himself. Which is something indeed that God hates. It is something that God hates. Proverbs 6, Proverbs chapter 6, 16, 17. There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him. Look at the top of the list here. Haughty eyes. What is that? It's pride. Pride. Haughty eyes. It's where we get to look down on somebody, right? People say, oh, he looks down on people. That's haughty eyes. That's lifted up gaze that I am so much above you. That's that pride. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue and hands that shed innocent blood. heart that desires wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers. These are the things that God hates because there are things that God loves. and therefore there has to be things that God hates, as we spoke about before. And this is the attitude, and this is the cockiness of Ephraim toward their brother. It is easy for us, and I want to stop here in a way of application like we always do, because it's so easy for us in speaking about pride, for us to have a pride of our own. It's so easy for us to read these stories, as I've said before and I'll say again, and say, oh wow, look at these sinners, they are so terrible, and forget to place ourselves within the narrative. We within the narrative are indeed the same sinner. We are indeed the same people that are in need of saving from bondage. The same people that are within slavery, and if we are not careful, we'll forget where we come from. That is us. We can see that comparison there. So don't get cocky, but in the way of application, some of us may say this. We may say, well, if we were there in that time, and if we were with Jesus, man, it would have been easy. We have done things exactly the way we were supposed to. If we had seen all these miracles and all these great things, it would have been totally easy to obey God and walk with Him. Let's look in Luke 22. Luke 22. Here we have the first supper with Christ and his disciples. Let's read it together. And when the hour came, this is verse 14 of 22. And when the hour came, he reclined at table and his apostles with him. And he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took the cup when given thanks and said, take this and divide it amongst yourselves. For I tell you, that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, This cup is poured out for you. It is the new covenant. in my blood. But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table. For the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed. And they began to question one another, which of them it could be who was going to do this. Look at what the disciples do after Jesus had told them all this. A dispute, this is verse 24, a dispute arose among them to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. And he said to them, the kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them and those in authority over them are called benefactors, but not so with you, rather the greatest among you as the youngest and the leader as one who serves. For who is the greater one, who climbs at the table, or the one who serves, is not the one who climbs the table, but I am among you as one who serves. You are those who have stayed with me in my trials, and I assign to you, as my father assigned to me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table, in my kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel. And so here we see with his disciples, just in way of application, of us thinking that we would do a little differently, especially if we got to follow Christ for these years that the disciples did. Surely we would not have any power within ourselves in being able to see the Christ, to follow the Christ around on his missions. So here we see a study with the disciples when Jesus in his final time here is speaking with the disciples and they're having the Passover and this is when the inauguration of the Lord's Supper comes into play and Jesus tells them this great reality of what is going to happen. This is my body, this is my Blood, it is given for you. I give it freely. These are the things that I'm doing for you. I will not drink of this again until I'm with my Father. All these great things are going to happen. One is going to betray me. And instead of being in awe, instead of being just stumped at how these things could be, these miraculous works that Christ is going to accomplish, the simple question that they have is which one of us is the greatest? Which one of us is the greatest? And this is our tendency, and it would be your tendency too. My tendency too. If we were sitting at that table, we would have been asking the same questions along with the disciples. But which one of us truly is the greatest? And the answer was, the greatest one was before them. It was Christ. And it is something that they missed. And it is something that we can miss if we're not careful. and all that Christ has given us and all that he has done for us, we can take our eyes off of him and simply say, yes, but which one of us here is the greatest? Which one of us here will have more? And Christ answers them and tells them that the greatest one is indeed the one you would not think is the one who serves. He said that the world is set up in this way that the ones who do nothing and are served, we see them as great people. Those are the kings and the rulers and all those things. We could lock them into our presidents. Those are the great ones. They have the most authority. They can make things happen just by a word. They are great. But Jesus tells them that the greatest one is the one who is the least. It's the one who serves. And he caps that off with saying, I'm serving you now. Yeah. I am greater and I am serving you now. And he also says that they will be served in heaven. They will sit at Christ's table. They will sit on these thrones and they will be served from Christ, proving that Christ is the greatest. You see it? The one who serves is the greatest and they will be served. That is what Christ says. So it's important for us to understand, not to think of ourselves to be more than we actually are. This is the upside down kingdom of God, the last being first and the first being last, right? Jesus spoke of this many, many times. All right, let's continue. Back in our text, just to close out here, we see in verses four through seven there, Okay, back in chapter 12, verse 4-7. Then Japheth 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. And the Gileadites captured the fords of Jordan against the Ephraimites. And when the fugitives of Ephraim said, let me go over, the men of Gilead said to him, are you an Ephraimite? When he said no, they said to him, say Shibboleth. And he said Siboleth, for he could not pronounce it right. Then they seized him and slaughtered him at the Fords of Jordan. At that time, 42,000 of the Ephraimites fell. Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in Gilead. So here we see the payment upon these men, the payment for their pride, 42,000 to be slaughtered. This silver war as it was, 42,000 lives and we hear this story of how in a way they would do this as they captured that territory there and when men would try to cross over they would test him. They would ask him if they were from Ephraim and when they said no, I'm not from Ephraim, they would ask him to say Shibboleth, Shibboleth. And when they pronounced it, they would not pronounce it with the strong sh, the strong sh sound, as we would understand it. And so because of that, they could understand where they come from. This word is rare. Commentators really don't understand what it means. Its usage is not found many places. So it could be floods, some believe, a flowing stream, or even an ear of grain. Many commentators are different upon that point. But the simpler point is that they use this as their litmus test for who they would kill and who they would let go. And this is the judgment of God that come upon them for their pride. The judgment of God really upon both sets. Proving what said in the Proverbs, Proverbs 16, this all culminating and coming upon their heads. Proverbs 16, verse five there. Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord. This arrogance, this pride, this puffed upness, everyone who thinks himself bigger than he truly is, who does not put himself in the position that he should be put, that is as a servant to God and allegiance to God for everything he has done for him. Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord. Be assured he will not go unpunished. be assured he will not go unpunished. And that goes for Israel as a whole here, this arrogance that they had, the arrogance of Jephthah in thinking that he could do something for the Lord, and the arrogance of Ephraim thinking that they had even a minute point of glory to be had in this war and in their circumstance. And we should not let it be so with us, church. We should not let it be so that when we speak of salvation, when we think of what Christ has done for him, that we can even for a second put anything of our works within it. It is simply with an empty hand that we come to Christ, and if you come to Christ in any other way, you will not be accepted. there'll be nothing but damnation for you. And so this is something important for us to understand in this history study of what is happening with the children of Israel. At least we repeat history within the church today and become all two together like them. So We were told that Jephthah, then after this, serves for six years. He's a judge for six years, not a very long time. And then he simply dies. And if we've seen anything from the book of Judges, is that when this judge dies, we are going to go in another down spiral of the idolatry of the people of Israel. And indeed, we've already seen this, but Jephthah is not the one we were looking for. We were looking for someone to come and crush the head of the serpent, someone to come and keep covenant faithfully forever. And Jephthah was not him like so many others. And so we continue looking forward and we understand now being in the new covenant that indeed is Christ. We look no further is the man Christ. So that will leave us all for next time to look into the children of Israel's life and the down spiral of the nation. Let's pray together. Lord, I thank you for being able to speak with you, to read your word, to preach your word. Help us, God, that we will look to the cross of Christ and understand that apart from that, there is no salvation. Apart from Christ's atoning work on the cross that we contributed nothing to, apart from the sin that made it necessary, God, that we would be damned, that we would be lost. Help us now today on the Sabbath day that when we worship you, we would reflect only upon you and throw self to the side to cast all away in the light of your glory and your grace and none other. In Christ's name we pray, amen.