Unbullied (Part B)

You know the sad thing, you go to a church for years and you stop going and then your unbelieving friend or someone, oh, you don't go to that church anymore?

I thought you loved it so much, what happened? It'd be well something if you say the doctrine went foul. But it's usually not the doctrine, it's I was offended. Not a good testimony, but there's nothing much we can do about it, but I think we can slow it down some by making comments as I just made from the pulpit and all of us can say to it, you know what, that's right.

I mean, be on my guard, post a double guard because it's so easy. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Rick is currently teaching through the book of Judges.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Unbullied is the title of Pastor Rick's message and today he'll be teaching in Judges Chapter 12. Let's summarize his response. He says, I was in a life or death situation and when I called to you, you ignored me. So we delivered ourselves.

We won without you. Closing point, get out of my face. That's how he ends it pretty much. Again, don't fault me because I'm liking Jephthah. I told you at the beginning I liked him.

He had that whole mess up thing with his daughter, but outside of that, I would have liked to have known more about him. So why is it that troublesome people are so surprised when other people have finally had it with them, finally fed up with them? Have you ever come across somebody just keep picking and picking and then you deal with them and they're just so shocked that you finally had enough? Well, verse four, I have to watch it. I don't vent up here. Just my life experiences through Jephthah. Well, it's not me, Lord. It's Jephthah. I'm just commenting.

It's expositional teaching. So Jephthah gathered, verse four, together all the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim and the men of Gilead defeated Ephraim because they said, you Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim, among the Ephraimites and among the Manassehites. Well, so there has to be some lapse of time.

He likes it. He had to have known they were coming into his territory in force. Otherwise, he would not have had time to gather forces to withstand them when he told them, you know, hey, you know, we won without you.

I don't know what you're doing here. They could have just killed him on the spot. Anyway, the point that I'm trying to make is Jephthah was a step ahead of them. He got ready very quickly. Men rallied to him very quickly. That goes back to his personality. When he says it's time for war, the men who had already gone to war came right back to his side. It was, you know, really, you have to compliment his leadership skills and the skills, the followship skills of the men that served him.

This is, it wasn't his first choice, but this was now a self-defense situation and they insulted him. Another Proverb, Proverbs 18, 6 and 7. A fool's lips enter into contention and his mouth calls for blows.

You might want to write there social media. Social media will suck you in like a black hole. It will hook your flesh like a fish hook because you just feel your comment is going to change the world and you throw down your comment and all of a sudden people will scratch your eyes out from the back of your head. It's a nasty world. It's a tower of babble and it feels like, and I told them and they're going their side saying, and I told them until finally somebody blocks somebody or, you know, I'll meet you in a parking lot. I don't know.

It's crazy. Only the extent of my social media is the church website. Church tomorrow, I'm not open for comment. The Proverbs not finished.

I'll repeat. A fool's lips enter into contention and his mouth calls for blows. Now I'm not calling anybody a fool who's on social media who comments, but I am just saying that's the Proverb. He continues, a fool's mouth is his destruction and his lips are a snare of his soul.

That's sobering words for anybody. This is what happened to the Ephraimites. Their mouth got them in trouble. It could have just stayed home. That would have been a good start, but they came, okay, so they talked, but then they still wanted to war. God's people defeated the enemy and found themselves fighting each other. Great.

Just great. What a testimony, and it happens too much. You know the sad thing, you go to a church for years and you stop going and then your unbelieving friend or someone, oh, you don't go to that church anymore? I thought you loved it so much.

What happened? It'd be, well, something if you say the doctrine went foul, but it's usually not the doctrine. It's I was offended. Not a good testimony, but there's nothing much we can do about it, but I think we can slow it down some by making comments as I just made from the pulpit, and all of us can say to it, you know what, that's right. I mean, be on my guard.

Post a double guard because it's so easy. Once I offended myself. Okay. That's happened quite a bit, and so have you. We just, it's called when you're just disappointed with yourself.

You said something the wrong way or it was taken the wrong way or just you just goofed. You meant to be funny and it was taken and it just fell apart, and it's just an awful part of this. I won't miss it in heaven. If there's a window to look back at this life, I'm going to break it up because I don't want to see back in this life.

I just want to go forward. Does that sound depressing? The men of Gilead defeated Ephraim. That is what it says. They learned the hard way. Another proverb because of a bunch of big mouth malcontents who tried to bully the innocent. Proverbs 13, 15.

Good understanding gains favor, but the way of the unfaithful is hard. And the unfaithful in this case were the Ephraimites and it was a hard defeat and it's going to get worse. He says, so he adds this to historian does, he gives us what also insulted Jephthah because they said you Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim among the Ephraimites and among the Manasites. Now those are two of Joseph's sons. So Ephraim is essentially saying that my brother and I, Manasseh and I, we are the boss of the tribes and you are runaway slaves. You're supposed to be under our authority.

How arrogant and unnecessarily how arrogant to assign themselves such an elevated status. Judah was probably up doing its own thing. Nobody, big tribe, nobody mess with them. So Ephraim and Manasseh were thinking, you know, well at least according to this one who made the statement, Manasseh is not mentioned as being present so they're probably not guilty of this, but these words a reek of arrogance charging the two tribes, two and a half tribes on the east side of Jordan with again being runaway slaves. This only stirred the defiance in Jephthah and his men and that's why the historian says because they said it just stuck with them.

He says, yep, I don't answer to you. You want to see what it's like to rebel? I'm going to show you what it's like to rebel.

It's so uncallful. So we're supposed to look at these lessons as Christians and say, let me Lord not be like the Ephraimites in this story and if I am in a position of Jephthah, may I be wise and merciful but thorough if that's what it calls for. The verse, again, if we didn't have the New Testament, you know what, I came across in some of my research a site where this person was trying to use the Old Testament to support polygamy. See that's what happens when you have only the Old Testament and you do not subject it to the New Testament.

That is exactly what happened. That's just one case in point and I mean it's like 39 named polygamists in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, of course, Paul says that's not how we do it anymore and it was a big problem in the early church because many people were getting saved. They had multiple wives who couldn't just tell them, okay, split the family up.

Too bad, sister, you should have been the first wife. The church had to deal with and they dealt with it in grace. They put some boundaries on it and eventually, of course, it died out as a practice until heretics cultists. You know Brigham Young said that he believed there were people walking on the sun. You know, Brigham Young was one of the, he formed much of the doctrine of the Mormon church. This is the man they follow. Just trying to say, do you know how much sunscreen you would need to walk on the sun?

You'd have to buy it by the, how would you buy, anyway, I like to put in an order for it. Verse 5, the Gileadites seized the fords of Jordan, because they didn't do no Chevy's, before the Ephraimites arrived. And when the Ephraimite who escaped said, let me cross over, the men of Gilead would say to him, are you an Ephraimite?

If he said no, verse 6, then they would say to him, then say, shibboleth, and he would say, sibboleth, for he could not pronounce it right. Then they would take him and kill him at the fords of the Jordan. There fell, at that time, 42,000 Ephraimites.

Where to begin? In verse 5, where they seized the fords, of course, that's the escape route back into Israel East, across Jordan into the mainland. So, they strategically, the Gileadites, Jephthah's men, they set up there, so you couldn't get past them without the password, which involved some dialect. It was dialect-centered.

It's kind of an exciting kind of a thing, it's like, you know, so the New Yorkers take the Hudson, and they say to the people from Boston, say car, ha! That's what it, that's what was happening. So, their word was not good enough. They say, are you an Ephraimite? No.

Well, let's test that. We're not going to take your word for it, because this is war. Verse 6, as I mentioned, here at verse 6, Jephthah and his men, you know, they knew how to bust the guilty in this case. I mean, who thought of it? You know what, just ask them to say, shibboleth, and if he says, sibboleth, kill him.

It's just a bad day to mispronounce a word. So, when it says that 42,000 fell, that's likely the total number of the entire campaign, not just there at the Fords. That would have just not been practical. You, we have to remember that those battlefield first aid, or care for the wounded on the battlefield, was pretty much non-existent. I mean, if you didn't bleed to death, you'd go into shock, or if you were wounded enough, or die of dehydration, which would become dehydrated and cause other problems. And so, the killed in action, that number would be very high. And that's why we read of these big battles, and so many people died. To kind of benchmark it, next to one of the Napoleonic Wars, the Battle of Vigram, there in 1809, 40,000 dead on each side.

The Austrians and the French, and French is, you know, they're the allies of the French. So, you had 80,000 dead in a two-day battle, and here you have 42,000, and it likely is not one day that this battle took place. The historians, I think of the Old Testament, really thought they were sparing us a lot of unnecessary reading. Come on, have you ever read the Old Testament? It's like, why is he still repeating that? If he wanted to spare me some reading, there are other details I would have liked to have had, and leave that one out.

I guess I'm the only one. Verse 7, it says, no, but you have to read it in front of people, that's what adds it to Europe. Verse 7, and Jephthah judged Israel, six years, then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried among the cities of Gilead. Ah, you know, it doesn't mean they chopped him up in a prayer, it just didn't.

He's somewhere in Gilead, I guess is a better way of saying it. So ends the leadership of this judge, and again, he's a guy that just, he reached a point in his life where he just wasn't going to be bullied anymore, and he did a lot of good, evidently. The Jews had 31 years of peace and security because of following him, because of what he accomplished.

He got, word got out, don't go messing with them, even when he was dead. And so these next judges, the next three judges that we have here, again, they take up a period of about 30 some years, and it was a peaceful time. Jephthah was the cause of that, and we come to verse 8, after him, Ibsan of Bethlehem judged Israel. Now, again, you mothers looking for a unique name, because all the other names are taken, I'll give you some suggestions. Rick, biblical, and Ibsan, take your choice. So, Ibsan's such a foreign name, you could probably get away naming a girl that too, nobody would know it was masculine or feminine. Anyway, okay, I'm sorry, but I'm going to do some more in a minute. So, this is, again, not much going on with their judgeship, which is a positive. There's nothing to report.

The plane landed safely is the analogy, maybe, that we like to say, that we're very grateful for that, and if that is the case, there really are not many details that go along with it. Verse 9, he had 30 sons and he gave away 30 daughters in marriage and brought in 30 daughters from elsewhere for his sons. He judged Israel seven years. Well, he has 60 kids. He's trying to, you know, Gideon, Jair, they were judges that also had multiple wives and platoons of children.

Here we have the case with Ibsan. It's interesting that the judges, the judge that preceded Jephthah and the two that follow immediately had all these children and while Jephthah was childless himself, it's sort of an ironic placement. Verse 10, then Ibsan died and was buried in Bethlehem. Now, this is probably Bethlehem and Zebulun's territory as opposed to Judah's territory, and you say, well, why does, why would I care? Well, it's an interesting stamp, time stamp.

It's whenever Bethlehem of Judah is intended, then the writer says Bethlehem in Judah, whenever it shows up in Joshua and in Judges, and the reason is because by the time the historians compiled these books that we have, Joshua and Judges, it's on the throne, and they wanted to draw attention to the fact that David was from Bethlehem and Judah, and there were other places named that. You know, there's a mechanics field in Maryland. It's like an alternate universe. Their state's named after a girl, the ladies say. See, we were not hating you for a while, but remarks like that undo any progress you've made.

But anyway, there is a mechanics field in Maryland. Does anybody who did not know that? Good, all right, so I've enlightened someone tonight, and that's my job. Anyway, verse 11, after him, Elan the Zebulunite judged Israel. He judged Israel ten years. Again, ten years of apparent stability, verse 12, and Elan the Zebulunite, see, see what I mean?

They make you say it twice. There are other details that we could have had in that place. The Zebulunite died and was buried in Ajelon in the country of Zebulun. Well, Ajelon is where Joshua had the great battle. Sun stands still, and the hail stones as large as, you know, a man's fist. God got involved in the fight, and of course the great victory was won, and that took place at Ajelon, and that's where Elan, that judge, was from. Verse 13, after him, Abdon, the son of Hallel, the Perithonite.

Yeah, he's going to repeat that several times. He judged Israel. Incidentally, the Perithonite, one of David's mighty men was from there, Beneniah. Now, there's two Beneniahs that were part of David's mighty men.

This was a relatively unknown one, but there was another Beneniah who was a Levite, and he was one of my favorites. He was the captain of David's bodyguard. He's the one that went to execute the prince at Anijah for trying to take the throne from Solomon, and he went to Solomon's mom to do it.

Bad move. And she didn't see it there, she did, but Solomon got word. He says, what? And that was it for him. He dispatched Beneniah. And then Joab, David said to Joab, don't let that gray-haired man go to his grave without the sword. He is a killer.

He is a madman. David couldn't do it. It would have destabilized the kingdom.

It too politically tied, whether we like it or not. But he was wise enough to know Solomon was removed from all that drama, and Solomon could pull it off, and the nation wouldn't suffer. And so Solomon comes to the throne, Joab backs the wrong guy, and of course Joab, the chainsaw of Israel, he goes and hides in the temple, and Beneniah takes him out there.

He's holding the altar clean. And then another one was Shemaiah, who was the one that, you know, cursed David. You go up, you foul man, you bloodthirsty man. You know, he was a Benjamite, which means he was on Saul, King Saul's side, and he hated David, and throwing rocks at him, kicking up the dust. He hit this picture. And Abishai, Joab's brother, said, let me take this dog's head off. And David was just so, such in grief over his own sin. He just, oh, this is from the Lord.

I deserve this. Because, you know, David get melancholy on you real quick. So they didn't kill him. But later, when David comes back to the kingdom, Shemaiah comes, I'm sorry, David, you're really not that bad. I mean, I'm just, you're the man, David.

And David's like, yeah, yeah. And tells Solomon you can deal with him too, because he'll start trouble. And of course, he was confined at one point to his own territory. His slaves ran away from him because he was such an icky guy, I'm sure.

And icky covers such a wide range of emotions, does it not? Anyway, he goes to fetch his slaves. And he broke the sort of territory arrest.

He went outside the boundaries. And Benaniah, again, was dispatched and took him out too. So, now, he's not my favorite because he's killing all these people.

Not one of my favorites. But he was just, you have to read the story. And as his name comes up and what's associated with him, you find he's trusted. He's no nonsense.

He stands for justice. And I like Benaniah. It would be another good name for a boy, Benaniah. You thought I was going to say Benjamin. No, it's Benaniah, your t-shirt. Anyhow, that Benaniah here is not the same guy.

So I just took the time to go into the other one. Because we're going to be coming to Samuel, once we get through Ruth, the gentle story of Ruth, which is such a loving story, we get to meet Samuel and icky, Saul, and then David. Well, verse 14. He had 40 sons and 30 grandsons who rode on 70 young donkeys. He judged Israel eight years. Well, another well-to-do judge, and also he had many wives. He rode on the young donkeys as opposed to the old ones. It was very nice of them.

It was like they had all new cars, is the idea. Back in Judges 10, we read of the judge. He had 30 sons who rode on 30 donkeys, and they also had 30 towns.

And so some of these judges, pieces associated with their judgeship, but also an extreme amount of wealth and carnality. And aren't we glad we're in the New Testament, ladies? Verse 15.

Then Abdon, the son of Hallel, the Parathonite, died and was buried in Parathon in the land of Ephraim in the mountains of the Amalekites. So that doesn't really mean too much to us anymore. It meant something a little bit more to them at that time. Incidentally how things flip around. When the Gileadites were guarding the fords that led back into the Promised Land in this battle, 30 years earlier under Gideon, that's where the Ephraimites went to cut off the retreat of the Midianites, trying to get out of Israel back to their land because Gideon put a beating on them. And so it's interesting, what an irony. Again, the opposite of what you would expect.

One time here you are guarding the fords, the next time it's being guarded from you, and if you can't say shibboleth, then you are done. So here in verse 15, with these relatively uneventful tenures of these judges, Samson's next and he'll make up for all of the dullness. Non-stop drama from before he was born. He comes on the scene in an exciting and fascinating way. He is such an enigma, loaded with lessons and he's a tariff to men, because you look at Samson and you say, I don't want to be Samson.

I wouldn't mind the muscles, but the rest of the drama I just don't. Personally I don't like riddles, so that doesn't appeal to me. And he was a good riddler, so he was riddled with riddles. Okay, I'm almost done, just hang in there, you'll make it. What was missing in the story that we're reading, in the times of the judges, what was missing from Ephraim? It's a very fundamental thing that all of us need, and have to fight to keep your entire Christian life. And that is, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Now you may say, I have hungered and I have thirsted and I have not been filled. Then what are you doing here? If you haven't been filled, you wouldn't be here.

The fillings is a different, it works on a different scale than what we do. The scales of God are just and they are eternal, and hell knows it. We catch it more slowly, we're a little bit slower than hell in recognizing the victories of God so many times.

For instance, the demons could tell who Jesus was before the people who he was. I know who you are, the Holy One of God. So, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they shall be filled.

May that be us. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the book of Judges. Cross Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. If you'd like more information about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website crossreferenceradio.com. You'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick available there and we encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. By doing so, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. You can search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app or just follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. That's all the time we have for today. Join us next time to continue learning more from the book of Judges right here on Cross Reference Radio.