Judges chapter number 12. I was talking with Adam just came back from Arkansas and I was talking to him a little bit about my time in Arkansas and one of the things that I noticed as I left I lived in North Carolina pretty much my whole life up until I was about 18. I was born in Florida and then when I was just a few months old we moved to North Carolina and And we didn't travel very much, so I didn't really know much about outside of North Carolina until I went to college in Arkansas. And when I was there, it was where I began to realize that people talk differently, even in the United States of America. I remember working at the summer camp that I was there, and one of the camp director's wife was telling us that she'll be right back to help us because she had to go wash something. And I looked over and I said, what is she doing? And they said, she's got to go wash some clothes. And I was like, no, that's not what she said. And so I learned that there are certain areas, now you may know that from, there may be Tennesseans that pronounce it that way, but they pronounce wash warsh. And then it was really different whenever I went to West Virginia. And when I went to West Virginia and lived three years in West Virginia, I remember somebody trying to tell me, I like the collar on your shirt. And I was like, well, thank you. Never got a compliment about my collar. No, no, the collar. I was like, what are you talking about? And they pointed at it. See, in West Virginia, they pronounce what we pronounce color as collar. And so it took me a little bit. I was a little bit at a loss in translation there. But there's different pronunciations for different regions. And sometimes that can make us have a sort of a smile and we get through it. Sometimes that can have devastating consequences. we are going to see in the passage today. We have been talking about this character as we've gone through the book of Judges. We've come to the point where it's talking about one judge in particular, a guy named Jephthah. Now Jephthah is an interesting character. Jephthah has some things reported about him in the text that we would consider positive. He has many things in the text that we would consider no, that's a negative. Jephthah's story starts out after Israel in chapter 10 is said to have done the cycle of sin again. God rescues them, they have peace, and before long they start adapting the other gods of the people of the lands. They leave worshipping Jehovah, they leave worshipping Yahweh, and they begin worshipping these other gods. And so God is grieved by that. So because of their lack of repentance in that sin, God then raises up a pagan nation to then come and oppress Israel. Now remember, all of this is taking place in the Promised Land after they had accomplished taking the Promised Land. And so this happens over and over again. And it happens one more time with this group of people called the Ammonites. And the people try to repent. And God says, no. And so then they remove their false gods and then they say, God, whatever you will, we will accept. And then they say, we need to find a leader. And that's where we come to chapter 11 with a guy named Jephthah. And it tells us a little bit about this guy's background. It tells us that this guy's dad had a wife and many children. However, he had an escapade with a harlot or a prostitute. And the result of that was the birth of Jephthah. And he took Jephthah in and he raised Jephthah as his own son. However, his family did not treat him as part of the family. And as he got older, they said, you will not receive any of our inheritance. So they cast him out. He became a leader, a well-known fighter, a leader of brigands or raiders or maybe pirates. However, there's something also interesting about this man, Jephthah. He had a sincerity about him when it came to religion. He had a sincerity about him when it came to God. Now, we would probably look at his life and we would definitely conclude that those things that he believed about God were incredibly off-base. They were incredibly wrong doctrines. But nevertheless, he really desired to please God. Well, the leaders of Israel came to him and asked him to lead their people. He sort of smirked at the idea. He says, you've cast me out. Now you want me to become your leader? And they said, if you will lead us in this fight against the Ammonites, we will make you our real leader. And he said, OK. He makes negotiations with the leader of the Ammonites, and then they came to a conclusion that these guys are just wanting... their reason for trying to take over the Israelite land does not fly, and so it comes to a condition of war. They cannot avoid the battle, and they fight the battle. And Jephthah does something very interesting. The Bible tells us in chapter 11 that he makes a vow. His vow was that whatever came through the doors of his home when he returned, he would give it to the Lord as a burnt offering. So they went to battle. They won! They totally defeated Ammonites, and they even were able to retake over 20 cities. Huge victory. So he's on his way back. And as he makes his way back, he sees the sight of his home, he's remembering his vow, and his only daughter, not only daughter, but only child, comes through the door first with her instrument, her timbrel, dancing, praising, excited, celebrating the victory. And Jephthah rinses clothes, cries out in utter despair, that he made a vow to the Lord and he could not go back on his word. So she made an agreement with him that she was gonna go and mourn for two months with her friends. He said, okay, go do that. She came back and he fulfilled what he was gonna do. We spent a long time last week explaining the nuances and the details of that. And if you disagreed with my interpretation of that and you believe that he just offered her for temple service, I am not going to be upset at you. I'm not going to disagree with you. I'm not going to be, oh, you know, I understand. But I believe that the evidence that we had from the text and from the interpretation was that he actually did sacrifice his daughter as a burnt offering. And it says that they actually memorialize it every year for four days where the women of the area came and they had a yearly honoring of his daughter's sacrifice. This brings us to chapter 12. Now chapter 12 is an interesting account. It finishes up our story of Jephthah and then it's going to give us, so we have two, we break this chapter down in two parts. First the finishing of Jephthah, of Jephthah's life, of the recording of Jephthah, and then it tells us about three minor judges. So we're going to cover the finishing of Jephthah's life and then we'll look at these three minor judges just briefly. So look at Judges chapter 12. We'll begin reading in verse number one. Then the men of Ephraim gathered together across over toward Zaphon, and said to Jephthah, Why did you cross over to fight against the people of Ammon? Did not call us to go with you? We will burn your house down on you with fire. And Jephthah said to them, My people and I were in a great struggle with the people of Ammon. And when I called you, you did not deliver me out of their hands. So when I saw that you would not deliver me, I took my life in my hands and crossed over against the people of Ammon. And the Lord delivered them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day to fight against me? Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. And the men of Gilead defeated Ephraim because they said, You Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim among the Ephraimites and among the Manassites. The Gileadites seized the fords of the Jordan before the Ephraimites arrived. And when any Ephraimite who escaped said, Let me cross over, the men of Gilead would say to him, Are you an Ephraimite? And if he said no, they then would say to him, Then say, Shibboleth. And he would say, Sibboleth, for he could not pronounce it right. Then they would take him and kill him at the fords of the Jordan. There fell at that time 42,000 Ephraimites. And Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried among the cities of Gilead. After him, Ibzon of Bethlehem judged Israel. He had 30 sons and he gave away 30 daughters in marriage and brought in 30 daughters from elsewhere for his sons. He judged Israel seven years. Then Ebzon died and was buried at Bethlehem. After him, Elon the Zebulonite judged Israel. He judged Israel ten years. And Elon the Zebulonite died and was buried at Eijalon in the country of Zebulon. After him, Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirithonite, judged Israel. He had forty sons and thirty grandsons who rode on seventy young donkeys. 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 mountains of the Amalekites." Now, you may read those chapters and think, okay, John, you're gonna pull out some really interesting stuff to make that mean something, because what does that have to do with anything? I'm talking about the last part of the verses. Well, we're gonna cover it, but yes, there are some times where it is recording facts for us. So we'll look at that just briefly, but let's go and finish. The main portion of our time together is gonna be spent talking about the final act of Jephthah's life here. And so it's important to remember where Jephthah has been and what just happened. Now, I have my viewpoints and my opinions on the character of Jephthah based on what he did to his daughter. However, it is not lost on me that even if this guy was as self-centered as he was to do that to his daughter, and his line was done for good, it's not lost on me to think that this guy was probably not in a very agreeable frame of mind after that situation. I don't know if you would agree with that, but that's sort of what I'm thinking about Jephthah. Probably not a good day to get on his bad side is what I'm saying. Now we start off with the Ephraimite aggression. Now this should recall to you your memory if you remember back in the story of Gideon. And Gideon, and he had his 300 guys who went down there and they sounded all the pitchers and the trumpets and all that stuff and broke it, and all the Midianite army got up and they just took off and they started killing each other, and then Gideon later in the next chapter begins taking his guys and they went and chased them down, but they were stopped and interrupted in the chase. Do you remember who it was that interrupted them? Ephraim. It was the Ephraimites. And you know what they said? You remember this story? In chapter 8, verse 1, the Ephraimites said, What are you doing beating the Midianites without us? How come you didn't call us? I mean, just the sort of, after the battle, now you're the big guy, right? That kind of attitude. And Gideon actually handles it different than Jephthah. Gideon actually flatters Ephraim to calm down. Maybe you could say it's because Gideon didn't really want to fight with him while he was trying to finish off the Midianites, or maybe that was just Gideon's character. However, when Ephraim comes and sort of does a similar thing to Jephthah, Jephthah doesn't really have any time for it. Let's look at verse 1. And then the men of Ephraim gathered together, crossed over toward Zaphon, and said to Jephthah, Why did you cross over to fight against the people of Ammon, and did not call us to go with you? We will burn your house down on you with fire." Wow. So they essentially show up and say, you didn't call us to come help you fight Ammon, you crossed on our borders to do it, and didn't call us. We're going to burn you and your house alive." And what was Jephthah's response? Wiersbe said this, the leaders of the tribe of Ephraim expressed to Jephthah the same pride and anger they had shown to Gideon earlier. Now look at Jephthah's response, verses 2 and 3. He says to them, my people and I were in a great struggle with the people of Ammon. And when I called you, what did he say? No, no, no, no, no. I did call you. I did call you for the battle. Because remember, you guys are always bragging about how great a warriors you are in Israel. I did call you. He continues on in verse two. He says, you did not deliver me out of their hands. You didn't show up. You were called. You were summoned. and you were absent. Verse three, so when I saw you that you would not deliver me, I took my life in my hands and crossed over against the people of Ammon, and the Lord delivered them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day to fight against me? He says, so whenever you didn't show up, I decided, listen, I'll cross over your territory, I'll deal with it later. We've got to fight these guys, and we took care of them. And you know what? God gave us the victory, and we beat them. In fact, another interesting note to think about is how long Ammon had oppression over them. It was 18 years. Where was Ephraim for 18 years? Oh, it's not our problem. It's not on our territory. They didn't help their brothers out. So Jephthah did not handle this like Gideon. What did Gideon do? Gideon appeased their pride by flattering them and that abased them. That calmed them down, if you will, and they worked together. Jephthah had no such desire. He basically called them out on their junk, is how we say it. He called them out. He said, wait a second, guys. I did call you. You didn't show up. I didn't have time to mess with you. So we went and did the job anyways. Why are you so upset about it now? Now, think about this. Jephthah recognizes that God was the one that brought them victory. However, he's still a military commander who just won a great war victory. over a full nation of the Ammonites. I think at this time he's not necessarily concerned about Ephraim. And so this brings us to verses four through six, which I simply call civil war. They have a civil war. This should have put Ephraim in their place, right? Ephraim should have heard what Jephthah said and said, no, no, no, you're right. We were wrong. However, it's the opposite reaction. They dig their heels in with their pride. Verse 4. Now Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. Now it tells us first that they fought. And you might take the idea that Jephthah started it. Jephthah just went ahead and attacked, but that's not the case. Ephraim provokes them because they said, You Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim among the Ephraimites and among the Manassites." Alright? That's important. We may just read it as black and white words and say, okay, it looks like they said some things the way they talked back those days. But this is a big deal. They insulted them majorly. In a way that was personal to those of the nation of Gilead, and in a way that was characteristic of the way that the tribe of Ephraim had treated the other tribes. Herbert Wolfe says this, The Civil War was triggered when the men of Ephraim called the Gileadites fugitives or renegades. This insult may have been partially aimed at Jephthah's former position as a brigand chief, but more likely it stemmed from the divisions between the eastern and western tribes. Half of Manasseh lay east of the Jordan, occupying Gilead along with the tribe of Gad. Aphraim looked down on these relatives across the river who no longer even spoke the same dialect. Ephraim was always, and it goes back, I've said this before, we've explained this a couple of times already, it goes back to how Jacob blessed the sons of Joseph back then. Ephraim always had this air that they were better and they let them know it. And then whenever the other son, the other blessing went to Manasseh, Gileadites, the Gilead is a offshoot, they are a branch off of that of Manasseh. So what they were saying is, you guys are illegitimate sons of Manassites. You don't even deserve the land that you got. That was the idea. You're fugitives. You're renegades of Manasseh and Ephraim. Wiersbe said this. Maybe it'd be something for us to contemplate this morning. When people are wrong and refuse to accept logical reasoning and confess their faults, they often turn to violence in order to protect their reputation. Let me read that to you again. When people are wrong and refuse to accept logical reasoning and confess their faults, they often turn to violence in order to protect their reputation. I wonder if you've seen that. And this seems to be what the leaders of Ephraim are doing here. So look at verse number 5. The Gileadites overran them. They seized the fords of the Jordan before the Ephraimites arrived. Now this was a huge landmark and a waterway. This would have been a good area for the troops that if you were fighting an army to lay camp at and secure a fort there, a forge of protection, because you have a water source and there. What Gilead did was they got there and they took that piece of land first. I think I've told you before, one of the points of history that I've always thought was interesting is the Revolutionary War. One of the decisive things, of course everybody probably remembers the first, you had Lexington and Concord where you had the shot heard around the world. And then you had the first major battle was at Bunker Hill. Remember that from history class. Bunker Hill they actually lost. the revolutionaries, the colonies, lost at Bunker Hill. But the fact that they put up such a major fight against the English that kept coming in off the boats was actually the colonists saw that and the, if you want to call them rebels, saw that as a major victory for them because it was sort of a mental blow to the English. Wait, these guys can hold us off and kill this many men. But, one of the first major victories that they actually had came up north with Ethan Green, or Ethan Allen, sorry, Ethan Allen. I get Nathaniel Green and him mixed up. Ethan Allen taking a Fort Ticonderoga. So Fort Ticonderoga was an established fort for the English where they sent out troops and were able to govern many of the different colonies up there in the north. The fact that they were able to take that was a huge blow to the English and they held it for quite a long time. Eventually, the English would take it back. But in warfare, capturing areas that can be established as forts and places where troops can be sent out is a huge victory. Well, Gilead gets to the Jordan and they find where Ephraim has their plot of land there, and they get to it first, and they set up a fort there. Still in verse 5. So they set up this sort of system. And when any Ephraimite who escaped said, let me cross over, they're trying to get away, the men of Gilead would say to him, are you an Ephraimite? If he said no, then they would say to him, then say, Shibboleth. And he would say, Sibboleth. Sort of like you say, hey, say wash, wash. Oh, we got him. That's the idea there. They couldn't say it. Their dialect had changed so much they couldn't say it properly to the way they said it. And when they did that, took him out back and killed him. They didn't take prisoners. Now this is something that, whereas we've probably spent the whole time thus far looking at the Ephraimites as the bad guys, this is where we've got to be honest and say, was Jephthah really behaving honorably in this situation with slaughtering 42,000 people? Verse 7 finishes up. Verse 7 finishes up Jephthah's life. And Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died, and was buried among the cities of Gilead. Now think about this. Do you think that when Jephthah was asked to come and lead them against the Ammonite army, that this man was in his 60s or 70s? I don't know about you, but I tend to think that that is not the case. He was a much younger man. And then it tells us in verse 7 that he only judged Israel for six years, and he died at the end of those six years, which means, which would lead me to conclude, he died young. It does not tell us how he died, if there was foul play with his death. I think one thing that we can be very sure of, that his time as a judge God had determined was over. And so God removed him. There's many things that we could probably take a pause and just start talking about this man Jephthah. But we move on. We come to the second part of the text, verses 8-15, and this is where we see three final minor judges. We call them minor and major not because of their importance, but just because of the amount of text that is given to them. That's the only reason they're called minor. We've already looked at six. The first one was a guy named Shamgar. If you remember him, all it said about him was that he judged Israel and that he defeated so many Philistines with an ox code. Then we looked at two other guys named Tola and Jair in chapter 10. But we come to these three guys, and it's very similar to the accounts that we read about Tola and Jair in chapter 10. Verses 8 through 10 have a guy named Ibzan. He was of Bethlehem, judged Israel. He had 30 sons. He gave away 30 daughters in marriage and brought in 30 daughters from elsewhere for his sons. He judged Israel seven years. Then Ibzan died and was buried at Bethlehem. He judged in Bethlehem of Judah, which was in the south. His large family reveals wealth and probably, most likely, polygamous practices. Herbert Wolfe says, the fact that Ebzon's marriage policy is mentioned, however, may indicate a break with tradition. The language that's actually used in the Hebrew does not indicate that he was having his sons and his daughters marry outside of Israel, but outside of his actual tribe. And so it was inter-tribal marriages. Leon Wood had actually, I thought, had a good observation of this. He says this is an indication to show the man's endeavor to gain prestige through such marriages. He's trying to build up the prestige and the importance of his family. This happened a lot in the Middle Ages with kings. If you go back and study the royalty of the nations of Europe, and probably for about a thousand years, you know what you find? They're all related. It's really, really strange at times, but they're all related. They all married each other's cousins from different nations. So that's Ibzan. Next we have a guy named Elon in verses 11 and 12. He's a Zebulonite, judged Israel. He judged Israel 10 years. And Elon the Zebulonite died and was buried at Eijalon in the country of Zebulon. So he judged Zebulon in the north. So you had Ibzan who was judging in the south after Jephthah. You had Elon who was judging in the north after Jephthah. And then we come to this guy Abdon in verses 13 through 15. Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirithonite judged Israel. He had forty sons and thirty grandsons who rode on seventy young donkeys. 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 mountains of the Amalekites." So Abdon's area with Ephraim, so he's actually a judge in Ephraim, this exists between, actually in the middle, between the north and the south. So you had a judge, after Jephthah, you had a judge in the south, you had a judge in the north, you had a judge in Ephraim in the middle. He also is said to have many sons, who then rode on many donkeys. These are just signs to let us know the wealth that was in these families. It doesn't tell us necessarily anything positive about them, or how they judged, or what they fought against, and that is God's divine prerogative. One of the things you say, well, why is it there? Why is it there? I didn't spend a lot of time developing notes for that, but one reason that I think that we can take away from why these accounts of these minor judges is there is because it is a signal to us of understanding how the historical account of this is accurate. The author obviously didn't have a lot to say about these, the human author I mean, did not have a lot to say about these what we call minor judges, but wanted to make sure that he included them for accuracy's sake. So therefore, it is a, I think, an assurance that we can trust God's word. So let's finish this morning with our application. That's the end of Jephthah's life. Troubled man, a troubled life, a life of conflict, chaos. One application, both applications sort of come from what we understand from this text on the Ephraimites though. When pride is coupled with jealousy, the mixture is self-destructive. When pride is coupled with jealousy, the mixture is self-destructive. This is the problem with the Ephraimites. They were a proud nation that was jealous that, and not just Jephthah, but even Gideon, that they were getting war glory. It worked out okay for them with Gideon, it did not work out with Jephthah. But what is jealousy? I was talking to someone the other day. I was talking about pride, and I said, what is the most satanic sin I believe out there, and that is pride? Because what was Satan cast out of heaven for? And I asked this to this guy, and he said, well, jealousy. I was like, I believe that the text in Isaiah demonstrates that it was pride, but what is jealousy? I wrote this down. Jealousy is actually a derivative of pride. Jealousy is pride pointed in the direction of what you want and your anger and insecurity that no one else should have it but you. And it is self-destructive. It is self-destructive. What is an answer for that? I'll tell you the answer, and I don't mean to be trite with this, but I believe that the answer to that is the gospel. It's the gospel. The gospel literally means good news. What is that good news? We read a little bit about it in the text that I mentioned during the song service. Jesus Christ died on the cross. He rose again on the third day. Now stay with me here. And then he tells you that if you will live according to my law, then the sacrifice on the cross will be applied to you. Is that what he says? No. But our pride always wants to try to do that. See, we think that the gospel is living a certain way, we think. Before we were actually converted, and those before, the number one response that you get with people is, oh, I'm a good person. Oh, I do this, I do that. Because you look at any other false religious system, it's all about what you're doing. The gospel fundamentally attacks pride and refutes that because it says, you can't do it. No, but what you must do is humble yourself and repent of what you have already done and believe on Christ. If you do that, then he says, you were one of my children. See, even at that, right? Even at that, that's not something that is done on our part. It is something He works in us so that we have nothing to boast. What does Ephesians 2 says? For by what? Grace. Grace. You're saved. Not of works. Lest any man should boast. Jesus said, I don't want you coming here thinking you did something to get here. Because you couldn't. Because my standard is perfect. And you can never reach that standard. So He, in His grace and mercy, came to us. The gospel is the answer to that pride. Now this last application point I wrote down, I did not come up with this. I read this from Gary Phillips and his commentary. And he said, too many Christians are like the Ephraimites, willing to let others do the work and then complain about how it was done. I'll just let that sink in. I'll just read it one more time. Too many Christians are like the Ephraimites, willing to let others do the work and then complain about how it was done. And then Phillips made another statement that I highlighted and wrote down because I wanted to share this with you. I thought this was interesting too. He said that, speaking of the Ephraimites, they were aware of their rights. What was their rights? You guys crossed over on our land. You guys didn't call us to come to battle to fight for the nation. They were aware for their rights, but never their responsibilities. Because whenever it came time to enact on their responsibilities, they were nowhere to be found. I think the root cause of a lot of that is still pride. And I believe that, again, even for those of us who are converted, the answer to that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because we need to be putting the gospel to work in our sanctification Jesus has brought us in and made us joint heirs with him and is continually making us like him through the work of the Holy Spirit in our heart. That's the story of Jephthah. You know sometimes, I was telling somebody this week, I said sometimes I think a lot of people try to make the Bible, the hard parts of the Bible, palatable for society. They think or they feel that they must explain the hard places in the Bible, and the book of Judges is one of those. And I told him, I said, you don't have to do that. You don't have to do that. You just have to explain that everything that is recorded in the Bible is what God has said we should be doing. You think God was pleased with Jephthah killing 42,000 people? You think God was pleased with him sacrificing his daughter? And the other things? Listen, the next guy we're going to get into is Samson. And many of you are familiar enough with Samson's story to know that this guy just keeps messing up and messing up and messing up. It doesn't mean that we have to make excuses for God. But God, in His sovereignty, chose to ordain the mess. Because it is messy. It is messy. We are going to take a break, though. We're going to take a break in the book of Judges. We are going to finish it up this year. But before we get into the story of Samson and then the final chapters of Judges, we're going to take a short break one more time. And we're going to do a series starting next week on what the Bible has to say about. And so there's a couple of life issues that I think that can help us and grow us to be more like Christ. But what the Bible has to say, I think there's a lot of issues out there that our society has proven us like, yeah, you have Christianity, you have the Bible, for Sundays, but when you need what we have to say in psychology for this and this and this. And I find so many people that whenever they're struggling with this are so quick to go find this outside secular help. And I want to sort of do a few weeks in sort of reorienting our mind back to the Bible actually does have something to say about those things. And so we're going to begin that next Sunday. So let's let's pray and we're going to sing Lord Be Glorified, our hymn of consecration this morning. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for all that you've done for us. We thank you for your son, Jesus Christ, who died and paid that penalty that we should have paid. that He redeemed us. And oh, how we should love to proclaim it. We pray that if there's anybody in here that is not a child of yours and they recognize that this morning, that they will repent of their sins, believe on your work of the cross and the resurrection of Christ, and that come to know you this morning. We pray that these lessons from Jephthah will sink deep into our hearts and the lessons that we've learned from your word. We pray that you'll help us to understand that no matter where we are in life, we are still susceptible to that idol of our heart, that sin of pride, that can still well up in our life. We love you and we give you praise and glory in Jesus' name. Amen.