Conflict with Ephraim

BY Rebecca Faires

Jephthah’s life was starting to unravel. Because of his rash vow, his daughter was dead and his family was broken. Jephthah was wrong to make that vow, and he was wrong to keep it. Because he was called into leadership by men instead of being raised up by God, he was man’s solution to a problem that can only be solved by God. And then, after a seemingly great victory over the Ammonites, the Ephraimites were pounding at his door and threatening to burn his house down over a ridiculous tiff.

Ironically, Jephthah’s house was really already on fire by the time the Ephraimites came for him, sharpening their flints. And the fire that burned was kindled by Jephthah’s very own hands and lips. It was the destructive fire of his sin. And he couldn’t keep the smoldering smoke a secret for long.

The Ephraimites had no good reason to pick a fight with Jephthah. They were angry because he didn’t summon them to help fight the Ammonites. Since he had been called to leadership by the Gileadites, Jephthah really had no authority to summon the tribe of Ephraim to war in the first place. But once they saw that Jephthah was victorious over the Ammonites, they wanted a piece of that juicy victory and to rise up against Jephthah.

In Shakespeare’s epic tragedy, Hamlet, Claudius groans to Queen Gertrude, “When sorrows come, they come not as single spies, but in battalions.” In the same way, as Jephthah’s sins piled up, he continued to trudge forward in his own strength, his wrongs and sorrows compounding. Before he knew it, his own house was in shambles. A threat from foreigners to burn his house down was laughable because he had already burned what was valuable with his own actions. No amount of water could douse the flames ignited by the murder of his own daughter. This sin that was closest to his heart ended his career. His time as a judge was over. Jephthah was so burned by the evil that cauterized his family, he could not recover.

Our darkest and most burning sins damage us in profound ways. But hope is never lost. As Zechariah 13:9 says, “I will put this third through the fire; I will refine as silver is refined and test them as gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’” Even if the house of your heart is on fire, call on His name and He will answer you.