Jephthah’s Conflict with Ephraim
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 a great dispute with the Ammonites, and when I called you, you did not save me from their hand. And when I saw that you would not save me, I took my life in my hand 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?”
In the book of James we read this about contentions and strifes among God’s people:
James 4:1-3 (ESV)
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
Quarrels and wars between God’s people begin with envy and covetousness. This is certainly the case with the Ephraims and Jephthah. Jephthah was called to be a judge for Israel because others would not come to rescue Israel from the oppression of the Ammonites. What we see is that the pride and envy of the Ephraimites was so strong they wanted to pick at fight with their brothers. We have this same thing between families, churches and other institutions of God. When we have envy in our hearts we look to take something from others that we did not earn. Ephrahim wanted to share in the spoils of a war they had refused to take part in. However, they still thought they were entitled to some of the riches. They mistook, however, envy for entitlement. Entitlement has, at its roots, a level of deserving. The person who is entitled has some claim to what they want based upon merit of what they have done. However, someone who has envy for something others have does not have claim based upon effort, but only based upon want. This fight between these to brothers happened because envy took over and jealousy ruled their hearts. Don’t mistake what you might think is entitlement when in reality it is only envy.
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