-- Saturday, 8/14/10 -- INSULT FOR INSULT -- Judges 12:1-6
J.R. & Bonnie Ricks
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INSULT FOR INSULT -- Judges 12:1-6 NIV
The men of Ephraim called out their forces, crossed over to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, "Why did you go to fight the Ammonites without calling us to go with you? We're going to burn down your house over your head."
Jephthah answered, "I and my people were engaged in a great struggle with the Ammonites, and although I called, you didn't save me out of their hands. When I saw that you wouldn't help, I took my life in my hands and crossed over to fight the Ammonites, and the LORD gave me the victory over them. Now why have you come up today to fight me?"
Jephthah then called together the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. The Gileadites struck them down because the Ephraimites had said, "You Gileadites are renegades from Ephraim and Manasseh." The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim, and whenever a survivor of Ephraim said, "Let me cross over," the men of Gilead asked him, "Are you an Ephraimite?" If he replied, "No," they said, "All right, say 'Shibboleth.' "He said, "Sibboleth," because he could not pronounce the word correctly, they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites were killed at that time.
Once again in Israel, pettiness and jealousy took control. The men of Ephraim were angry because they claimed Jephthah hadn't invited them to join in the battle. Jephthah was angry because he said he had invited the Ephraimites, but they hadn't joined in. Armed and dangerous, they stood shouting threats at each other. The miscalculation that Ephraim made was that they banked on Jephthah's past record. They knew he usually spoke first and acted later... much later. What they didn't count on was his swift revenge for their bad attitude. Not long after that, 42,000 of them were dead.
Ephraim and Jephthah both were acting on the principle of returning an insult for an insult. An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth. Do unto others before they do unto you. Don't get mad; get even. And look what happened. Forty-two thousand people died.
Take a look at your life. If someone does something bad to you, what do you do? Get back at them? Do everything you can to make them miserable? Take revenge? After all, that's what the world runs on, isn't it? That's certainly what makes good box-office, isn't it? And it's what keeps the Soaps running year after year. It's what fills our nightly news and fills our books. And it's also what fills our divorce courts.
Jesus says, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." (Matthew 5:44 NIV) He says, "Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." (Matthew 5:39 NIV) Jesus tells us to return a blessing for an insult.
If someone says something to hurt you, do something nice for him. If someone injures you, help her in some way. If someone creates a problem in your life, solve one in his. And in all of these cases, pray for the other person. Remember, vengeance belongs to God, not to you. Your job is to love others, no matter how you feel about it and whether you like them or not.
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