If you'd open your Bibles, please, to the 12th chapter of the book of Judges, Judges chapter 12. And we'll be reading the text as we work our way through the 12th chapter tonight. And before we begin our journey, let's look to the Lord in prayer. Our Father, we bow in thy presence tonight to ask for thy blessing on thy inspired scriptures. We pray that the Spirit of God will do its work within each of us. And we pray that the end result will be more and more of an effective godliness that can be used in thy hands. And we'll thank you for that. In Jesus' name, amen. I read of an arrogant young man who wanted to impress a young lady who really wasn't impressed with him because of his arrogance. And in the course of his boastful conversation, he told the girl that he could trace his historical roots to royalty. The young woman who already was fed up with him said, I'll bet you can, and I'll bet your ancestor is King Kong. Dr. Chuck Swindoll said when he counsels someone before a marriage and he spots a terrible jealousy or envy in one of them, he will point it out, and he'll tell them it usually won't get better. If a person doesn't deal with it, it can cause great problems. Because pride is a terrible, terrible sin that God hates. God says there are seven things that are an abomination to him, and at the top of his list, pride, a haughty look, stands at number one. A couple of chapters later, in Proverbs 8, we read, There's no question when you search the scriptures, God hates pride. In fact, according to Proverbs 29, 23, a man's pride will bring him low. You have God's word on it. Pride is something that can knock you down. Pride can topple us, it can topple an organization, it can topple a nation, it can topple a church. When you have pride, you have jealousy and envy. And in Galatians 5.20, jealousy and envy sit in a flesh sin context of strife and disputes and dissensions and outbursts of anger and factions. God will not bless proud, arrogant people. He never has. He never will. In fact, jealousy and envy can ruin your life. It did ruin the blessings of God for the nation Israel. And when you become jealous of someone, you can start opening your mouth. And when you open your mouth, you can get yourself into serious trouble. You can begin to say some crazy things that will come back to haunt you. It's a sinful thing to covet something God has given to someone else. And when you start opening your mouth, you can find yourself really under the judgment of God. In the final years of Jephthah's life, they really weren't happy years, partly due to his own stupidity, not knowing the word of God and how to apply it in the situation with his own daughter, but also partly due to the proud and arrogant jealous brothers from the tribe of Ephraim. What we see when we look at this text tonight, and you'll see it, is that when God's people have an inflated and arrogant opinion of themselves, they're heading to major disaster. Just like Proverbs 16, 18 says, pride goes before destruction. Now, the Ephraimites, we've met them already, were known to be big, proud talkers. The Ephraimites were people who liked to shoot off their mouths in a proud and arrogant way. They liked to talk big. They liked to talk tough. You can remember in the previous chapters in Judges chapter 8 that they complained to Gideon, how come you didn't call us to fight the Midianites? and gideon gave them a soft answer to kind of calm them down well you track down two kings and what is that compared to what we did But Jephthah is not Gideon. If you march up to Jephthah and you arrogantly start complaining against him, he'll do something about it. And when you look at this text, there are certain facts I want you to see. First of all, Ephraim verbally confronts Jephthah. Notice verse 1 of chapter 12. Then the men of Ephraim were summoned, and they crossed to Ziphon and said to Jephthah, why did you cross over to fight against the sons of Ammon without calling us to go with you? We will burn your house down on you. Now Ephraim is a proud tribe. This is the tribe that has the tabernacle in its territory. This is the tribe that has Bethel in its territory. This is the tribe from whom Joshua came. They're a proud group of people and they want to be honored. And these are the kinds of people that always want to be top dog. We may remember that when Gideon was being blessed by God, they came to him and they complained to him against not calling them to fight the Midianites. These are people who always talk big. They want limelight. By the way, what's all interesting about that is if you go back to chapter 10 and verse 8 of the book of Judges, chapter 10 and verse 8, we read They afflicted and crushed the sons of Israel that year for 18 years. So for 18 years, God allowed Israel to be dominated by the Ammonites. I don't remember Ephraim one time stepping up to the limelight of history and saying, hey, we'll deliver you. I don't remember Ephraim one time coming to the forefront and saying, well, we'll go fight them. We'll take back the land. Ephraim types of people are big, big talkers. They're the kinds of people that want to be stroked. They want to be coddled. They want to be appeased. They're the kinds of people that are whiners and complainers. They really don't want to fight the battle. They want to complain and talk, but it's their talking that's going to get them into big trouble. Ephraim is jealous of the great victory that Jephthah had experienced over the Ammonites. You remember he asked God to give him victory and he went out and he fought and he won. And Ephraim are mad at Jephthah because he never called them to fight the Ammonites and they're mad about the fact that he got the job done without them. What they should have been doing is saying, we need to go congratulate this guy. What a job he's done. Finally, someone is raised up by the Lord, goes to bat for Israel, gets our territory back. We should get behind him. He gave us victory. We should want to rally around him. But that's not how the Ephraimites operate. So they crossed the Jordan, and they ran into Jephthah and Zaphon. It's a city located about five miles north of Sukkot, which was a city near the Jordan River. A couple of weeks ago, we canceled our men's prayer breakfast and one of our men, who's a very hard worker in the church, humorously said, that's a shame because I was intending to come to that breakfast. This is a guy whose idea of daybreak is 1030 in the morning. He was frankly joking and talking like an Ephraimite. Now he was being funny, but there isn't nothing funny about what happens in this text. The truth is all of us have seen Ephraim types. time or two at church. Paul knew all about them in the Philippian church. He said don't do anything from empty selfish conceit because there were some in the church of Philippi who were empty and they were conceited. Ephraim types like to talk big. They talk like they want in on the action until you get them into the action. George Bush in his commentary on judges says sometimes the greatest boasters and the loudest pretenders are usually the greatest cowards. Ephraim types are the kinds of people who show up after the work is done And then they'll always say something like this. Why didn't you call me? They're upset at their delusional world because had you called them they wouldn't have shown up. Anyway Ephraim types are jealous and they're proud and they can cause big problems. They're not interested in the welfare of the whole They're not interested in the welfare of the group. They're only interested in themselves and And unfortunately, as one commentator said, there are Ephraim types in almost every church. You'll find them. They don't want to fight the battle. The rest of the church is fighting. They're not on the front lines of what's going on in the church. They're not on the front lines of the warfare. They sit at home. They don't get involved in much of anything, but they whine and complain. There are many people in the church that are on the front lines of everything going on. I mean, they're in the action. They're supporting everything that's being done. They're part of the warfare. But there are always those who are behind the scenes whining, sniveling Ephraimites. And all they do is criticize. A few years ago, we had, and some of you in the church will remember this, we had a 12-day span where we had three funerals and a wedding, and all the services in between in 12 days. And somebody is whining, how come you didn't call me? And I'm going, you've got to be kidding me. We have three funerals and a wedding and all the services going on and you wonder why I didn't pick up the phone and call them That's an Ephraim type. That's what was happening here this time though The Ephraimites are crossing a big line. They're making a huge mistake Because they're threatening the wrong guy See Jephthah is not Gideon Jephthah is not the kind of guy you want to threaten. And according to verse 1, they make a big threat. They said, since you didn't call us to come and fight against the Ammonites, we are going to burn down your house. One commentator said, this threat would be as ridiculous as Don Knotts threatening Clint Eastwood. You're talking here about trying to push around Jephthah, and you're not going to bully him. Sometimes you'll hear someone say well if if someone broke into my house, I just don't know if I could shoot them You wouldn't hear Jeff to say that Jeff didn't say let him come on in the house Let him try to do anything to harm my house and I will kill him and literally that is what he's going to do Jephthah is the wrong guy to threaten that you're going to burn his house down. He's in no mood to be threatened. He's just come off a major military victory, and he has just sacrificed his own daughter. And furthermore, we may remember that Jephthah was a guy who used to be a leader of a bunch of criminal types. They were called worthless men. So you don't go up to an Al Capone type and threaten them and think you're going to get away with it, because if you threaten that kind of man, you're in for serious trouble. Which brings us to the second fact. Jephthah verbally responds to the Ephraimites. Notice verse 2. Jephthah said to them, I and my people were at great strife with the sons of Ammon. When I called you, you did not deliver me from their hand. When I saw that you would not deliver me, I took my life in my hands and crossed over against the sons of Ammon, and the Lord gave them into my hand. Why then have you come to me this day to fight against me? There are five verbal responses that old Jeff defiers right back at these Ephraimites. Response number one, I and my people were fighting a great war with the Ammonites. He says in verse two, look, I and my people, we were fighting a war. You know, if you are right where God wants you to be, if you're doing exactly what God wants you to do, if you're on the front lines of accomplishing just exactly what God wants you to accomplish, there are going to be some people that will verbally assault you. And by Jephthah's response, he basically says, I don't have time to babysit you. I don't have time to listen to your little whining, sniveling complaints. I was on the front lines of battle. I don't have time to come and hold your hand. D.L. Moody said one time a guy came to him and complained about his evangelistic tactics. And he said to Mr. Moody, you know, I just don't like your tactics. And Moody said, well, what do you do? What are your tactics? He said, well, I don't have any. He said, I'll stick with mine then. Because I like mine better than yours. You don't do anything. That's basically what Jephthah is doing here. Secondly, he said, I did call you to fight and you never showed up. Now, verse 2 is interesting. At the end of verse 2, he says, when I called you, you did not deliver me from their hand. Now, that is intriguing to me. Because, ladies and gentlemen, what that tells us is that Ephraim was shading the truth just a little bit here. Jephthah apparently had asked them to come and fight and help in the fight, but they didn't do one thing to help him. And what I find is so admirable about Jephthah is that he did not initially even bring that up when he first met them. He could have said, in view of the fact they never showed up to do anything, he could have said, well, where were you cowards? Or he could have said, how come you didn't come and help us when we asked you? But Jephthah very carefully was choosing his words, perhaps in view of the fact he made that dumb vow that cost him a great deal. He was rejoicing in the fact that God had given him. Apparently, he decided not to get in some verbal argument with these people, so he didn't rub it in the face that they never bothered to show up. But I want you to learn a very important lesson from this. Be very careful about what people say and what you believe about what they say. Because there are some people who really can talk a good game, but they don't play. There are some people who can put a really good spin on things when that spin isn't completely true in order to make themselves look good. That is why a wise person will be very careful to search out the whole truth and get all the facts. A wise person will not be given the partiality. A wise person is very careful to assess, well, just exactly what went down here. They're making this allegation, how come you didn't call us? And Jephthah said, I did call you, and you've never bothered showing up. Which brings us to the third response. I took my own life into my hands and we went out and fought without you. Verse three says, when I saw that you would not deliver me, I took my life in my hands, crossed over against the sons of Ammon and the Lord gave them into my hand. Jephthah says, our lives were being threatened. We weren't gonna sit idly by and just hope you guys would show up. We were not just gonna sit there and hope you would come protect us. We decided we need to protect ourselves. We had a job to do for God and we did it. And then he says to them, God gave us victory. At the end of verse three, the Lord gave them into my hand. Jephthah is solid in his theology. He's giving all of the glory and praise to God for this victory, and these Ephraimites should have been praising God too. They should have been rejoicing at the fact that God had given them their land back, that victory belonged to Israel. Instead of them rejoicing and praising God like Jephthah's doing, they're jealous and mad. They're not focused on God, they're focused on themselves. And then Jephthah says, how come you've come to fight me? At the end of verse three, then why have you come up to me this day to fight against me? Jephthah says, I'm not your enemy. I'm your brother. I've been out there fighting a war for you. I've been on the front lines of battle. I've been out there taking the heat. And you come to fight me? Why is that? Well, the answer to that is they're jealous. Dr. J. Vernon McGee said that whenever he found someone who was always opposing the preacher all the time, he suspected there's jealousy behind it. And haven't you seen that yourself? Can't we all testify of that? We're on the move. We're getting things done for the Lord. You've got some whiner, some complainer, verbally out in the shadows attacking you and attacking your ministry. That is exactly what happens here. But the problem is they had picked on the wrong guy, which brings us to the third fact. Jephthah physically responds to the Ephraimites. Verse 4 says, Then Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and fought Ephraim. And the men of Gilead defeated Ephraim because they said, you are fugitives of Ephraim, O Gileadites, in the midst of Ephraim and in the midst of Manasseh. The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan opposite Ephraim. And it happened when any of the fugitives of Ephraim said, let me cross over. The men of Gilead would say to him, are you an Ephraimite? If he said no, then they would say to him, now say to us Shibboleth. But he said Sibboleth, for he could not pronounce it correctly. Then they seized him and slew him at the fords of the Jordan. Thus there fell at that time 42,000 of Ephraim." The chapter says, you boys want to fight? I'm your guy. I'll accommodate you. They've just come off a face-to-face meeting and threat with a man who's going to call their bluff. Jephthah is not a guy who's going to play games with these boys. God had already used him in a major way. Jephthah was a man of integrity. He'd been raised up by the Lord to fight a big battle. He and his own daughter had been sacrificed because he was a man true to his word, and they had just picked a fight with the wrong man. The Ephraimites were better at talking and complaining than they were fighting, and they're about to learn we're no match for this guy. And there are three reactions that you see that take place here. First of all, Jephthah gathered his men and fought and defeated Ephraim. The Ephraimites were degrading. They said the Gileadites were nothing more than fugitives from Ephraim. That apparently is what caused Jephthah to explode. When they made that false allegation, it's like saying, you aren't anybody. The tribes of Reuben Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh had been given their land by Moses and Joshua. They were not fugitives at all from Ephraim and Manasseh. In other words, they were insulting them. They're telling them, you guys are nothing more than a bunch of fugitives. You don't even belong in this land, and this was their land, and that's what pushed Jephthah over the edge. He's the wrong man to insult. You know, there's an old saying, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Well, Ephraim's words are about to hurt him. Ephraim's words are about to get him killed. Gilead then captured all key land areas. It's interesting how often this idea of get those Ford areas become critical notice verse 5 They captured the Fords of the Jordan now. Let me explain this for those of you that have been in areas where you have to cross rivers and you don't have bridges, you understand the importance of fording areas. Out in the west, there's a creek called Cottonwood Creek, and there's one place, one place where you can safely take a truck, pulling horses, and cross this place. That's the fording area. You don't want to try crossing this at any other area. Now, these fording areas are critical in the book of Judges because these are key areas where people would have to go if they want to cross a river safely. So what Ephraim was doing is, they were threatening Jephthah, and Jephthah decides, I'm going to capture all these fording areas, and so Ephraim's on the run, they're going to have to cross at these fording areas, and Jephthah said, once they come to this area, they're not getting off the hook. Which brings us to the third reaction. He comes up with a password test that they have to pass in order for him to let him go. Verse 6 says, they would come to him and they would say to him, say Shibboleth. But he said Sibboleth, for he could not pronounce it correctly. And they seized him and slew him at the fords of the Jordan. Thus there fell at that time 42,000 of Ephraim. Now, to determine whether or not one was a Gileadite or an Ephraimite, Jephthah and his men came up with a little verbal password test. When someone would come to the ford, where they would cross the Jordan, they would ask them whether or not they were an Ephraimite, and naturally, they would lie. They would say, no, no, we're a Gileadite. They would lie to them. So they would say, OK, I want you to say the word shibboleth, which in Hebrew means flowing stream. Now, the Ephraimites spoke a little different dialect, and they couldn't actually accurately pronounce the two SH consonants together, and they would say Sibyleth rather than Shibyleth. There are some phonetic sounds that we in America have that are difficult for some other people to pronounce. For example, the TH sound that you and I pronounce without even thinking about it is difficult for some Europeans and Iranians. Dr. Bush, in his commentary, said he knew of some German Jews who could not pronounce the S-H consonant sound even when reading the Hebrew Bible. For example, Bereshith, which means in the beginning in the book of Genesis, was pronounced Bereshish. I went to school with a guy from Boston. We would get laughing because his dialect would always add a consonant R even when there wasn't one in the word. I would always say to him, and he'd get me laughing, I'd say, say idea, idea. He'd say idea. I'd say I didn't say idea. Stop the R. Say idea. And he'd go idea. It's just the way that he would talk. And we would get laughing about the fact that he couldn't say idea. That's the same kind that was happening here. Same kind of thing. What I find so amazing, it was their proud tongue that got the Ephraimites their delusional elevation, and now it's their proud tongue that's going to get these Ephraimites their execution. It's no wonder that James said, the tongue is a fire. It's a world of iniquity in which it's full of deadly poison. But you know, this does raise an interesting point that I think we need to grasp. There are times we need to run, I think, a shibboleth test. Oh, not just about pronouncing words, but about examining doctrine. John would say, test the spirits. to see whether they are in fact from God. How do you test spirits? Well, you question people. You ask them about their beliefs. You find out what it is that they believe about Jesus Christ, what it is they believe about saving faith. You run a little shibboleth test. You basically say to them, quiz them when you say Jesus Christ is the Savior. What do you mean by that? Are you saying he's the God's Savior who's the only one who can give you everlasting life? We need to be careful not just to accept something because people say it. And there's no question that God gave Jephthah an amazing victory because in the end, 42,000 Ephraimites were killed. Let me put that in some perspective for you. Go back to Numbers chapter 1. We read in Numbers 1 and verse 33, here's the number of men from Ephraim they had at that time in military when they were numbered. Numbers 1, 33 says their numbered men of the tribe of Ephraim were 40,500. What we read here is that 42,000 of them were killed. Why did all of this happen? What is the reason for this? It is their pride. That is what pride does. It destroys things. Their arrogant pride, it destroys relationships, it destroys family, it destroys churches, it destroys countries, it destroys individuals, it destroys Israel. In my opinion, one of the most arrogant, jealous West Point Calvary officers of the Union Army was Major General George Armstrong Custer. The man was so arrogant that he refused to take orders. In fact, at one time he was court-martialed for disobeying orders and was suspended from the military. But unfortunately, they gave him back some of his power. And in 1874, he was placed in command of an expedition. His job was to protect survey crews working on the Northern Pacific Railroad in Sioux Indian Country. On June 25, 1876, Custer ignored reports that scouts had given to him that there were overwhelming Indian numbers. He wanted to become a big-shot famous hero. He wasn't interested in waiting for help. He didn't wait for backup support that was on the way. He led his men straight into an ambush at Little Bighorn in the Montana Territory, in which he and more than 250 of his men were killed. What is the reason for that? His stinking pride. 250 men dead because of Custer's stinking pride. 42,000 dead because of Ephraim's stinking pride. Those 42,000 could have been used to fight the real enemy. They should have been backing Jephthah and on the front lines of battle for the glory of God, but instead they're at war with their own brothers. Now there's a big discussion here as to whether Jephthah is right or wrong in all of this. You know, I assume that God's spirit was on Jephthah, and Jephthah's criticized by many commentators. He's not criticized by other commentators. You know, maybe it was time that somebody called their bluff. I mean, there comes a point in time when you get sick of the nonsense. There comes a point in time where you say to somebody, it's time for you to put up or shut up. There does come a point in time in the work of God where you need to say to somebody, I've listened to your mouth run long enough, now you either get in the game or you quiet down. That is Jeff the Stand. It's a dangerous thing to start pushing leadership raised up by God around. It's not wise to want power and authority unless you're going to earn it. It's not wise to just want to take it. And the Ephraimites are trying to weasel their way into power, and down they go. Which brings us to the fourth fact, Jephthah judged Israel for six years and then died. Verse 7 says, Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead. That life that started out not seeming to mean anything, he's the son of a prostitute. He doesn't even have any place he can call home. He ends a hero. He ends a big man in the plan of God. He ends up in Hebrews 11. He's named there. as one of the great heroes of the faith. The fifth fact is after Jephthah Isban judged Israel for seven years, verse 8 says, now Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel after him. He had 30 sons and 30 daughters whom he gave in marriage outside the family. And he brought in 30 daughters from outside his sons, and he judged Israel seven years, and Ibzan died and was buried in Bethlehem. Ibzan was from Bethlehem. He was a judge. He had 30 sons and 30 daughters, and it's interesting because Jephthah only had one daughter that he had sacrificed, but Ibzan was one who was blessed, and he the territories of Israel through his family. The sixth fact is after Ibzan, Elon judged Israel for 10 years. Verse 11 says now Elon the Zebulonite judged Israel after him and he judged Israel 10 years and Elon the Zebulonite died and was buried in ideal on in the land of zebulon nothing is known about him except he was from the tribe of of zebulon and then seven after a lot and abdon judged israel for eight years first thirteen says now and on the son of Hillel, the Pirithonite, judged Israel after him. He had 40 sons and 30 grandsons who rode on 70 donkeys, and he judged Israel eight years. Then Abdon, the son of Hillel, the Pirithonite, died and was buried in Pirithon in the land of Ephraim in the hill country of the Amalekites. Abdon was the son of Hillel. He had 40 sons and 30 grandsons. Why are these tacked on at the end of this massive discussing talking about Jephthah? The contextual reason why they're mentioned is because these were the next judges who basically were raised up by the Lord to live in a tranquil period of time because of Jephthah. In other words, after Jephthah had gone on the front lines of battle, these next three leaders were able to live and govern in Israel in a relatively quiet fashion for 25 years. And God blessed Israel all those years because he had raised up one guy to start it, his valiant warrior, his valiant warrior named Jephthah. And Jephthah is the one who paved the way for peace. You know there's something that shows up over and over again in this book of Judges and we're certainly going to see it as we get into the next perhaps most famous judge raised up by God in the whole book of Judges, Samson, which will start, Lord willing, next Sunday night. But there's something that shows up over and over again in this book and it is this. When God's people cried out to God for help, then what God did to help them was He raised up somebody. That's what he did. He didn't just say, OK, I'll send a bunch of angels to do this. And he didn't just say, OK, I'll answer this by just some miraculous form, although he used miraculous intervention, as we've seen already in the book of Judges. But he raised up a person, and he worked through that person. And when the people got behind the person, he blessed them. Look at the Reformation. He raises up Luther and Calvin. Look at dispensationalism. He raises up Schofield and Schaeffer. That's what God does. And when God raises up somebody who's on the front lines of battle, when God brings somebody into existence who's getting a job done for him, then you don't want to envy them. You don't want to be jealous of them. You want to pray for them and you want to support them. And had these people done that with Jephthah, this would have been a whole different story. But they didn't. They were envious, they were jealous, and down they went. This passage of scripture should do several things for us. First of all, this passage of scripture should cause us all to want to keep our ego always in check. We need to keep our egos always in check. Because if your ego gets out of control, it can lead you and me right into disaster. Secondly, it should cause us to be involved and not sit on the sidelines and talk and murmur and complain. We don't want to get before the Lord and say, you know, you were just like those Ephraimites. You talked the big game, but you didn't live it. I mean, you talked tough, but you weren't really there. You weren't fighting the battle for the glory of God. Thirdly, it should cause us to be very careful about what we do say with our lips, what does come out of our mouths, because obviously it's in the presence of the living God. And it also should cause us to realize that not one person, when it comes time for judgment, escapes God. There will be a test of every individual. The test will be, how did you respond to the word? How did you adjust in light of the Spirit of God? And if we are doing our best to apply the scriptures, learn the scriptures, make adjustments, then we will hear when we get before the Lord, well done, good and faithful servant. May we pray. If you're here tonight, and you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your savior right now you can take care of that right where you sit you pray something like this God I know I'm a sinner I admit that that's a fact and I thank you that Jesus Christ went to that cross for me and right now I place all of my faith in him to save me our father we thank you for this tremendous book of judges we thank you for the practical lessons and there are great practical lessons in this book. I pray that we would be people who would be in the action. We would be people who would get done exactly the job you want done in our individual lives and in the church. We pray that we will always be a church that is solidified, united, not whiners and complainers, but good soldiers, good ambassadors on the front lines of the action for the glory of God. We pray that you will continue to use us and develop us for thy glory. In Jesus' name, amen.