Transcendence 4

Fourteen: Civil War

The tribe of Ephraim liked to be consulted when things were going on. They wanted to feel a part of the action when war was breaking out, and fights were happening. Back when Gideon had attacked the Midianites they confronted him because they weren't aware of his plans ahead of time but his soft answer resulted in peace. Their anger toward him subsided. However, now they were very angry with Jephthah for attacking without consulting them first. Even though Jephthah was fighting for the Israelites and in essence helping them, their anger still grew. So the tribe of Ephraim gathered their troops and confronted Jephthah, "Why did you go to fight the Ammonites without calling us to go with you? We are going to burn down your house over your head!"

Jephthah didn't have a soft answer for them as Gideon had, he said, "I and my people were engaged in a great struggle with the Ammonites and although I called, you didn't save me. When I saw that you wouldn't help I took my life in my own hands and crossed over to fight the Ammonites without your help. The Lord gave me victory over them. Now why have you come up today? Will you fight me?"

The Ephraimites knew Jephthah was trying to take control over them all. They was not happy and called Jephthah and his men renegades. They raged war against them. 

( A civil war between brothers began. It was a useless war that began because of a jealous notion that Ephraim should be included in wars - especially when victory was claimed. I imagine these wars were heartbreaking to God.)

Jephthah called together the men of Gilead and protected himself as he fought against Ephraim. The men of Gilead struck down the men of Ephraim ( these men of Israel fighting against each other ). The Gileadites were able to take control of the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim Whenever a survivor of Ephraim said, "Let me cross over," the men of Gilead would ask him if he was an Ephraimite. If he said no, they would ask him to say the word "Shibboleth". (The Ephraimites could not pronounce it because of their accent) If they mispronounced it they seized him and killed him. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites were killed at that time!

Jephthah continued to lead Israel for six years. When he died he was buried in a town in Gilead.

After him, Ibzan of Bethlehem led Israel. He had thirty sons and thirty daughters. He gave his daughters away in marriage to those outside his clan, and for his sons he brought in thirty young women from outside his clan. (This act alone went against God's laws for Israel) He led Israel seven years. then Ibzan died and was buried in Bethlehem.

After him Elon the Zebulunite led Israel ten years. When Elon died Abdon from Pirathon led Israel. 

Throughout hundreds of years many generations were born and grew up and God provided leadership along the way. Throughout all the years each leader, though chosen by God, made choices against God's commandments. The generation under him fell even further away from God's wishes for his people. Eventually there came a time when it wasn't even necessary in their eyes to follow God anymore. Children who grew up not knowing God, or what he had done for them made evil decisions and in doing so fell further and further away from God's plan. Therefore God delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years!

A man who lived in Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was sterile and remained childless. The angel of the Lord appeared to her and told her she would have a child, a son. But she was to drink no wine or other fermented drink nor should she eat anything unclean, nor was she to ever cut the child's hair, because the son she bears would be a Nazirite. (This special group of people were specifically devoted to God, they never drank wine, went near a dead body or cut their hair). The angel went on to tell her that her son should be set apart to God from birth and he would begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines. When the woman told her husband, Manoah, about what the man who she thought was an angel of the Lord told her he began to pray, "Please Lord let the man of God you sent to us come again and teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born." So the man, who was an angel of the Lord reappeared to the woman and she ran quickly to bring her husband to see him. He told Manoah, "Your wife must do all that I have told her. She must not eat anything that comes from grapevines, nor drink any wine, nor any other fermented drink, nor eat anything unclean."

Manoah told the angel of the Lord, "Please stay while I prepare a young goat for you." For Manoah did not realize by then that the man was an angel of the Lord.

He replied, " I will not eat your food, but if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the Lord."

Manoah then asked, "What is your name that we may honor you when what you say comes true."

He replied, "Why do you ask. It is beyond understanding." Then Manoah took a young goat together with the grain offering and sacrificed it on a rock to the Lord. And the Lord did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched. As the flame blazed up from he altar toward heaven the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame. Seeing this Manoah and his wife fell with their faces to the ground because they realized the man that had visited them really was an angel of the Lord.

Manoah was terrified and said, "We are doomed to die because we have seen God!"

But his wife said, "If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering from our hands, nor shown us these things or told us these things."

The woman did become pregnant just as she was told, and gave birth to a boy. She named him Samson. He grew and the Lord blessed him. The spirit of the Lord began to stir him while he lived in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

(Life Question: Have you ever seen a great sign or miracle from God? If you look for them you will see them all around you. The simplest of blessings are everywhere and they are all gifts from God. But the bigger things, the profound things that can't be explained other than realizing that  God did it, those things are everywhere too. It is simply amazing when you recognize it!)