Ephraim was the second son of Joseph, not the first, but God gave him the first place. That was when they were much younger, and now Ephraim had a big family and was rather proud of himself. He seemed to have forgotten that it was God who gave him a more important place than his brother.
One day enemies came to war against Israel, and who would win? God chose Gideon to be the leader of Israel’s soldiers, but it was a very small army. Just three hundred men and they didn’t have even one sword. They only had trumpets to blow, pitchers to smash and lamps to suddenly shine in the dark. However, the enemy fled in terror, and all Israel chased them. Israel had a wonderful victory!
But, Ephraim and his men were not called to be helpers in that battle. This really hurt their importance, and Ephraim and his men were angry. We can almost hear their angry words as they said to Gideon, Why didn’t you call us to battle?
Gideon was careful in his reply. He didn’t want to make their anger any worse, so he said, You did very well. You chased the runaways and you did better than I did. This answer calmed down the angry men of Ephraim and made them feel that they were important fighters after all.
But the problem in the heart of the men of Ephraim was the ugly thing called “jealousy.” If there is jealousy in your heart, don’t let somebody’s polite words push it down under where it will grow like a cancer.
You are very, very important, because Jesus cared enough to give His precious life for you. The more you follow Him, the more you will see how very important you are, and there will be no room for jealousy towards anybody else. Turn your jealousy problem over to God. His way is always right and perfect. “As for God, His way is perfect: the word of the Lord is tried: He is a buckler [shield] to all those that trust in Him” (Psalm 18:3030As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the Lord is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him. (Psalm 18:30)).
Trouble came again to Israel, and this time their leader was Jephthah, a man of Gilead, and he had a very successful fight too. But again, Ephraim and his men were not called to help in the battle. Now there was more jealousy. They were so angry that they said to Jephthah, We will come and burn you and your house with fire!
Jephthah did not answer politely as Gideon had done. He accused them of being unwilling to fight, and he gathered all the men of Gilead to fight against Ephraim. This is the worst kind of fighting—not with enemies, but with each other! In fact, it was hard to tell friend from foe. So Jephthah came up with a plan.
When a soldier came to the Jordan River, there was no bridge, but there were shallow places called “fords,” where a man could easily wade across. The men of Gilead stood guard at all the fords where the men of Ephraim would have to cross to escape. So here came a soldier, but is he a foe from Ephraim or a friend from Gilead?
Here was the test to decide if a soldier was friend or foe. Before the soldier could pass, he was forced to say the password, “Shibboleth.” If he were an Ephraimite, he could not pronounce the word correctly and said, “Sibboleth.” The guard knew by his pronunciation that he was from Ephraim, and he was immediately killed. This test really worked, and 42,000 Ephraimites were killed that day.
This is a very sad story, isn’t it? Your life will be a sad story too if you hold jealousy in your heart and leave it there. The Lord Jesus died for sins like that. Will you tell Him about it now? He will forgive and give you power to overcome this ugly fault if you stay close to Him. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:99If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)).
You may read this story for yourself in Judges chapters 7, 8 and 12.
ML-05/04/2014