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." (Judges 12:4)
Jephthah has dealt with the Ammonites, delivering Israel from their tyranny. The war is over but the battle over the spoils of war, specifically who gets credit for the victory, rages on. Gliead and Ephraim were two of the twelve tribes of Israel, one whose land was east of the Jordan, the other west. The Ephraimites are deeply offended Jephthah did not call on them to join the rout of the Ammonites, so much so they are ready to kill him and his household. Ephraim made the same accusation against Gideon generations before (Judges 8:1-4), but now things have escalated. Israel is on the brink of civil war.
Jephthah doesn't respond with careful diplomacy but with his own form of terror, killing 42,000 Ephraimites as he and his fellow Gileadites identify them by their accent. And so the racial and cultural differences between the tribes of Israel are accentuated, rather than the unity they share in the worship of Yahweh. Israel is falling into God-less anarchy.
Even though it was God who delivered Israel from the Ammonites, a point Jephthah readily acknowledged, the Ephraimites were obsessed not with God's honor, but theirs. They were jealous of the reflected glory that Jephthah and the Gileadites had received. Jealousy truly is a curse. Wherever and whenever our focus shifts from giving God glory and honor to seeking glory and honor for ourselves, things will end badly.
The first question of the Westminster Catechism is; 'What is the cheif end of man?' The answer is, 'The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy God forever.' Enjoyment of God only happens as we glorify him. Israel had forgotten this and we do the same at our peril. Rather than looking on with envy when fellow brothers and sisters seem unusually blessed by God, instead we should rejoice in the grace of God evident in their lives and so glorify God in their success.
With all his flaws, by the grace of God, Jephthah ruled Israel for six years (v.7) Interestingly, after Jephthah, Ibzan ruled Israel, building inter-tribal alliances through marriage (vv.8-11). Israel was fining unity not in their collective worship of God, but in more traditional and pragmatic strategies. But still God was and would be gracious.
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