Judges 12:3

Ephraim had the greater influence. In the prophecies the ten tribes are often called Ephraim. See their jealousy at not being first in Gideon's victory over the Midianites. His meek answer softened their anger. The same spirit appeared when Jephthah had overcome the Ammonites. In this case Jephthah called them, and they refused. Even so, they resented his victory. Who was Jephthah, the son of a concubine? Should Ephraim follow him? But the man they despise wins, and this they resent. It was resenting the mercy of God, who had worked a great deliverance for them.

We no longer find in Jephthah the unselfishness or humility of a Gideon. He answered the flesh with the flesh. His own wounded feelings clashed with the selfishness of Ephraim. In his defence he made self prominent… Jephthah talked about himself and brooded on his disputed worth. He fell into the trap Satan had set for him, and formed a party. Just before this he had identified himself with the people, and had proclaimed their unity in the face of the Ammonites. But now "my people" meant Gilead as opposed to Ephraim.

In Gideon's case a soft answer turned away wrath. But Jephthah was at once on the defence. He told Ephraim in effect that he had expected them to deliver Israel from the Ammonites. When they failed to do this, he took his life in his hands and attacked the Ammonites, whom God delivered into his hands. So Jephthah made it clear to them that they were in the wrong. But people do not usually like being shown that they are wrong. In this case it led straight into conflict.

After this we find how the pride of the men of Ephraim flares up at a person of such an origin as Jephthah. God had given Israel a remarkable deliverance through him, yet they come out to fight. Jephthah may have had little desire for such a conflict; even so, where do we see meekness, where patience? And be assured that in an evil world patience is morally far above power.

Here is one who loves Christ, whose heart is filled with love for Him, one who wants to please Him. Am I to treat such a person the same way I would treat a teacher of blasphemy? Should I treat him like someone who brings in all kinds of false doctrine about the Person of the Lord? Are Ammonite and Ephraimite to be the same, and is the same judgment to be given to both? Surely not. I am to remember that the Ephraimite is a fellow Israelite, and a brother. That holds even if he is conceited, even if he taunts the Gileadites with being runaways from Ephraim, and complains with jealousy that Gilead has won a victory that by rights belonged to Ephraim.

Great strife follows. The Gileadites take the fords of the Jordan, and those who said "Sibboleth" were killed. A horrible record! Forty-two thousand Ephraimites were murdered… Shibboleth means "flood," that which divides. Sectarianism is certainly in view here. How God's people have suffered under it and still suffer! It is true that "every test which divides the people of God from one another, and not from their enemies, is another false shibboleth."