Diplomacy Fails

 God had specifically named Moses, Joshua, Barak and Gideon to be leaders of Israel.  Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Tola, Jair, and Jephthah were never called in the same way, yet they were mightily used of God.  Because they were not called in the same way, some people would question whether they were called or not.  We tend to forget what Paul said in I Corinthians 12:4-11.  “Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.  And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.  And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.  But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.  For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.”

 

Just because a person had a different experience or does things differently does not make them more or less called of God.  God chooses and empowers them as he sees fit for the benefit of the church, and as Paul explains the differences are there to meet different needs of the church.  When we demand that everyone has the same experience or do things exactly the same way, we reveal an unspiritual attitude.  The people made Jephthah their leader because God had chosen him to lead them. 

 

Jephthah first tried to solve the conflict by diplomatic means, hoping to avoid war, in Judges 11:12-13.  “And Jephthah sent messengers unto the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What hast thou to do with me, that thou art come against me to fight in my land?  And the king of the children of Ammon answered unto the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land, when they came up out of Egypt, from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and unto Jordan: now therefore restore those lands again peaceably.”

 

The Ammonite king accused Israel of having stolen their lands some four hundred years before, when they first came into the region.  The Ammonite claim was patently false, as Jephthah explained in Judges 11:15-23.  “And said unto him, Thus saith Jephthah, Israel took not away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon: But when Israel came up from Egypt, and walked through the wilderness unto the Red sea, and came to Kadesh; Then Israel sent messengers unto the king of Edom, saying, Let me, I pray thee, pass through thy land: but the king of Edom would not hearken thereto. And in like manner they sent unto the king of Moab: but he would not consent: and Israel abode in Kadesh.  Then they went along through the wilderness, and compassed the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and pitched on the other side of Arnon, but came not within the border of Moab: for Arnon was the border of Moab.

 

And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said unto him, Let us pass, we pray thee, through thy land into my place.  But Sihon trusted not Israel to pass through his coast: but Sihon gathered all his people together, and pitched in Jahaz, and fought against Israel.  And the LORD God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they smote them: so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country.  And they possessed all the coasts of the Amorites, from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and from the wilderness even unto Jordan.  So now the LORD God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldest thou possess it?”

 

Israel had only taken land occupied by the Amorites when the Amorites attacked them.  They had carefully avoided conflict with the Edomites, the Moabites, and the Ammonites. They had only taken the land because God had given them the victory over the Amorites.   Jephthah reminded them that they would have done the same thing in similar circumstances.  They must think they were better than the other countries and that everyone owed them whatever they wanted, as he pointed out in Judges 11:24-27.  “Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee to possess? So whomsoever the LORD our God shall drive out from before us, them will we possess.  And now art thou any thing better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them, While Israel dwelt in Heshbon and her towns, and in Aroer and her towns, and in all the cities that be along by the coasts of Arnon, three hundred years? why therefore did ye not recover them within that time?  Wherefore I have not sinned against thee, but thou doest me wrong to war against me: the LORD the Judge be judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.”

 

None of the land Israel had taken had ever belonged to the Ammonites, but as Judges 21:25-26 tells us, some of what they took from the Amorites had once belonged to Moab.  If anyone had claim to that land, it was Moab, not the Ammonite, and Moab had not made any such claim, even when Israel first took the land.  If the Ammonites had any claim to the land, they should have made them at the time the land was taken.  They had no right to claim the land or attack Israel four hundred years later.

 

The King of Ammon was just making the claim in an attempt to justify his efforts to seize more power.  Unfortunately many times attacks on the churches and Christians are based on equally false claims.  Like Jephthah, we can stand for what is right and trust God with the outcome.  Jesus was repeatedly accused of false teaching and sinful actions, but he did not change his teaching to suit his enemies, and we should not either.  Diplomacy and appeasement accomplish little with those who are not interested in the truth.  Judges 11:28 tells us, “”Howbeit the king of the children of Ammon hearkened not unto the words of Jephthah which he sent him.”