Year One, July 12

I Have Made Him a…Leader and Commander for the Peoples1

Judges 11:5-7; 9-10; 12-21; 23-28

5And when the Ammonites made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah from the land of Tob. 6And they said to Jephthah, “Come and be our leader, that we may fight with the Ammonites.” 7But Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Did you not hate me and drive me out of my father’s house? Why have you come to me now when you are in distress?”

We should be careful who we insult. We may need their help some day. Jephthah was a mighty warrior, but his relatives had forced him to move from Gilead because they did not approve of his father’s marriage to a prostitute.

9Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you bring me home again to fight with the Ammonites, and the LORD gives them over to me, I will be your head.” 10And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The LORD will be witness between us, if we do not do as you say.”

Jephthah asked no more than had been publicly promised. It was his reasonable reward. So when the Lord Jesus saves us from our sins, it is only reasonable that he should reign over us.

12Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites and said, “What do you have against me, that you have come to me to fight against my land?”

Rather than just getting into a fight with the Ammonites, Jephthah first tries to reason with them. Let us make every effort to live in peace with all everyone.2

13And the king of the Ammonites answered the messengers of Jephthah, “Because Israel on coming up from Egypt took away my land, from the Arnon to the Jabbok and to the Jordan; now therefore restore it peaceably.” (This was just the excuse they used for attacking Israel. Diplomacy3 abounds with falsehoods. The Ammonites had lost the territory in war with the Amorites, and when Israel captured it from the Amorites, it became theirs.) 14Jephthah again sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites (He tried one more time to reason with them, by reminding them what really happened.) 15and said to him, “Thus says Jephthah: Israel did not take away the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites, 16but when they came up from Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh. 17Israel then sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Please let us pass through your land,’ but the king of Edom would not listen. And they sent also to the king of Moab, but he would not consent. So Israel remained at Kadesh.

18“Then they journeyed through the wilderness and went around the land of Edom and the land of Moab and arrived on the east side of the land of Moab and camped on the other side of the Arnon. But they did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was the boundary of Moab. 19Israel then sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, king of Heshbon, and Israel said to him, ‘Please let us pass through your land to our country,’ 20but Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory, so Sihon gathered all his people together and encamped at Jahaz and fought with Israel. 21And the LORD  the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they defeated them. So Israel took possession of all the land of the Amorites, who inhabited that country.

23“So then the LORD  the God of Israel, dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel; and are you to take possession of them? 24Will you not possess what Chemosh your god gives you to possess? And all that the LORD our God has dispossessed before us, we will possess. (Jephthah used their own arguments against them. If they really wanted justice, this would have convinced them.) 25Now are you any better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever contend against Israel, or did he ever go to war with them? 26While Israel lived in Heshbon and its villages, and in Aroer and its villages, and in all the cities that are on the banks of the Arnon, 300 years, why did you not deliver them within that time? (Undisputed possession for three hundred years was certainly a good reason to not give the land back. It was rather late to use that argument.)

27“I therefore have not sinned against you, and you do me wrong by making war on me. The LORD, the Judge, decide this day between the people of Israel and the people of Ammon.” (He did well to say the Lord would be the final judge in the matter. When right is on our side, we may fearlessly leave results with God. If we have done all we can to make peace, and men will not act fairly, they are the ones who sin.) 28But the king of the Ammonites did not listen to the words of Jephthah that he sent to him.

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¹ Isaiah 55:4

² A reference to Hebrews 12:14a, “Strive for peace with everyone.”

³ Diplomacy is the work of maintaining good relations between the governments of different countries.