Judges 12:1-15.  Today we come to the end of  Jephthah’s story.  Yesterday we saw him lead his troops to victory over the Ammonites.  But before the battle he had made a stupid vow to God in an attempt to manipulate God.  If  God would give him the victory then he would give the first thing from his house that  came to meet him to God as a burnt offering.  Unfortunately it was his only child, a daughter.  And she had never had children.  That would be the end of his family.  His troubles were not over though.

In the story of Gideon we saw that one of the tribes, the Ephraimites, felt cheated because Gideon had not invited them to the battle from the beginning (Judges 6:34-35; 7:23-8:3).  The funny thing is that Gideon did eventually invite them when the battle got near their territory.  Gideon was able to calm their anger and went on to finish the battle with the Midianites.  Now Jephthah is being called out by Ephraim for the same thing, not inviting them to the battle.  In his case though the fight is already over.

Remember that Jephthah was a Gileadite.  He was from a part of the tribe of Manasseh. When the Israelites approached the land promised to them by God the tribes they had some battles with surrounding people (It was one of those battles that the Ammonite king talked about yesterday as he picked the fight with Jephthah).
The twelve tribes stood on the east side of the Jordan River looking to the land west of the river which God had promised them.  According to Number 32 the tribes of Gad and Reuben had a lot of livestock.  Maybe they were  in charge of the herds for the traveling Israelites.  As they all stood on the east side of the river those two tribes asked to be given the land they were standing on, the hill country on the east of the Jordan that would eventually be known as Gilead.  It was good pasture land.  At first Moses was angry that they did not want to go into the promised land and fight for it.  The same thing had happened forty years before (Numbers 13-14) and the people had been banished to the wilderness for 40 years.  The Gadites and Reubenites assured Moses that they would only leave their wives, children, and livestock on the east side of the river, they would go and fight with the rest of the Israelites as they took over the promised land.   Part of the tribe of Manasseh, the sons of Machir (Gilead’s father),  also got in on the deal.  They had fought and taken over some cities in the area.  So when Moses gave orders to give the land to Gad and Reuben he also gave orders for some of it to be given to Machir’s part of Manasseah.  The orders were given to Joshua who was the leader of Israel after Moses.  he led the people into the land, started the conquest, and divided the land among the tribes.  He also was the leader of Israel leading up to the times we are reading about in the book of Judges.  So the Gileadite’s territory was on the east side of the Jordan River.  Remember also that Jephthah was thrown out of the family by his half-brothers and went to live in the land of Tob.  The exact location of Tob is unknown but from different historical evidence we know it was also east of the Jordan River neat Succoth and Penuel (the towns that would not help Gideon).   Jephthah probably lived his whole life east of the Jordan River and that is where he fought his battle with the Ammonites.  Ephraim on the other hand was one of the tribes that lived west of the Jordan River.

The battle that Gideon fought started on the west side of the Jordan.  When he called the Ephraimites into the battle he wanted them to block the Midianites from crossing the river and escaping to the east.  They were only partially successful and Gideon eventually had to chase the Midianites east through Gilead.  But for the most part Gidoen’s fight was on the west side of the Jordan.  So it makes sense that the Ephraimites wanted a part of that fight.  Now though, they are all over Jephthah for not inviting them to a battle that stayed totally on the east side of the river.  Gideon was able to calm the Ephraimites down by bragging about what a great job they had done in capturing two of the invading kings.  He compared himself to left over grapes in the field and them to the best wine.  Jephthah is a different story though.  The Ephraimite actually cross over the river and get all over Jephthah.  His response is that he called them and they didn’t come so it’s their fault that they weren’t part of the fight.  No where in the story do we see Jephthah calling the Eprriamites to help and it is not very likely that he did.  He is probably lying and trying to manipulate the situation, like he did when he promised a burnt offering to God if God would give him the victory.  The outcome with the Ephraimites is as much a disaster at the one with his daughter.  Jephthah has to future family  he not about to lose his reputation as well, he’s a valiant warrior.  So he goes to battle against the Ephraimites and statrs to win.  Jephthah has his troops block the river crossings so Ephraim is trapped as they try to retreat and he kills 42,000 Ephraimites.  The last verses of Jephthah’s story tell us that he judged Israel for six years.  The man from Gilead then dies and is burried in Gilead.  Once again the cycle is changed, no mention of peace, of the land being undisturbed.  The last mention of that is with Gideon.

Todays reading ends with the mention of three more minor judges (kind of like the mention of two between Gideon’s son and Jehpthah).  The first one is Ibzan of Bethlehem (a town near Jerusalem on the west of the Jordan River in the territory of Judah).  All we know about Ibzan is that he has his children marry with non Israelites, the law of Moses forbid such marriages, and that he ruled for 7 years.  Then Ibzan dies and is burried in Bethlehem.  The second minor judge is Elon from Zebulun.  He ruled for 10 years then dies and is burried in his home territory.  The third minor judge is Abdon.  He is listed according to his home town, Pirathon.  His father’s name is added but not his tribe. We are told that Pirathon is in Ephraim but it looks like Ephraim is being used as a name for more than just tribal land, like Gilead east of the Jordan River which overlapped Gad’s territory.  We are never told Abdon is an Ephraimite. We are also told that Abdon had seventy descendants who rode on donkeys.  Like Judges 5:10 and Judges 10:4 this is probably a reference to richness and royalty.

The story of Judges has moved from a united nation to one of petty rivalries.  From the twelve tribe fighting together against foreign invaders to the twelve tribe fighting against themselves. It has even come to the point where the leader are identified by their cities rather than their tribes.  One time Jesus caused a powerful demon to leave a person.  The religious leaders were scared, this was a threat to their personal power so they accused him of using power from Satan.  Jesus told them that a kingdom divided against itself cannot last for very long (Luke 11:14-17).  Israel was quickly becoming a kingdom divided against it’s self.  We see though God in the background.  Even when the different tribal or city leaders were ruling the author of Judges talks about them “judging Israel”.  Abimelech wanted to be ruler over Shechem.  Jephthah wanted to be ruler over Gilead.  But they all “judged Israel”.  I think our history is like that too.  We plan our way but God is in the backgorund moving history forward according to his plan.  We plan and move but he gets what he wants done done (See Proverbs 16:9).  Romans 8:28 says that God causes all things to work together for good in the lives of those who love Him and are trying to follow his plan.  Notice that it does not say all things are good, God uses them though to get His plan done.  Notice, too, that it’s not good for everyone.  It all only winds up being good for those who who love Him and are living for Him.  Again this doesn’t mean no trouble in your life if you love God.  In fact the Bible is very clear that if you love God you will have more trouble in your life.  The journey will be tough but the destination will be very good.  Yes God is working in history.  But there are consequences if you are not on God’s side.  There were consequences in the lives of the Israelites.  Jephthah’s name was lost, his family line was ended.  His daughter paid the ultimate price because her father was proud and self willed.  The Ephraimites lost too, 42,000, because they were mad about not being invited to the party.  God is in contrly and His plan will be done.  Are you on His team?  Is it God’s way or your way that matters?  Ar youmore worried about what people think of you or what God thinks of you?  Is it about you, your family, your town, your country or about God?  Lord help my life be first and only about you.  All the parts of my life are part you have put in place, they are from you so they can be about you too.  Help me keep my life that way, about you.  Be honored in my life.