# commentaries

text:
<p>Next day the people went out into the field and told Abimelech- </p><p>The men of Shechem who had succeeded in entering the gates of the city of Shechem (:40) now came out into the field, where they were attacked by Abimelech (:44). They truly hated him, and it was surely only Abimelech's pride which was leading him to punish them like this. See on :40.</p>


text:
<p>He took the people and divided them into three companies and laid wait in the field, and when he saw the people coming out of the city, he rose up against them and struck them- </p><p>This division of his men into three companies was exactly what his father Gideon had done, in his legendary victory against the Midianites. But as noted on :34,48, he was totally missing the point- he was trying to make a cardboard copy of another man's faith, following only the externalities, without Gideon's faith and humility.</p>


text:
<p>Abimelech and the companies that were with him rushed forward and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city, and the two companies rushed on all who were in the field and struck them- </p><p>LXX gives "the company that was with him", singular. This sandwiching of the enemy against their own city gate recalls the strategy used to take Ai. But Abimelech's spirituality and imitation of the righteous, as noted on :43, was apparently of a purely surface level nature.</p>


text:
<p>Abimelech fought against the city all that day, and he took the city and killed the people who were in it, and he beat down the city and sowed it with salt-</p><p>This was an attempt to claim that he had executed Divine judgment against an apostate city (<a href='B:50 29:23'>Deu 29:23</a>), although Abimelech and Zebul were far from righteous themselves. We note how attractive it is to men to condemn others:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p>When all the men of the tower of Shechem heard of it, they entered the stronghold of the house of Elberith- </p><p>Elberith was presumably a form of their god Baal Berith (:4). Their trust in their false god was to be their destruction. Although Abimelech was hardly spiritual, and Zebul was apparently present in the idol temple (:27), he seems to have rejoiced in the idea of punishing them for idolatry. And we see the same personality types amongst God's people today.</p>


text:
<p>It was told Abimelech that all the men of the tower of Shechem were gathered together- </p><p>These "men of the tower of Shechem" were perhaps the priests; it seems the tower was part of the pagan temple of Elberith (:46).</p>


text:
<p>Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the people who were with him, and Abimelech took an axe in his hand and cut down a branch from the trees, took it up and laid it on his shoulder, and he said to the people who were with him, What you have seen me do, hurry and do the same!- </p><p>Abimelech here quotes the words of his father Gideon in <a href='B:70 7:17'>Jdg 7:17</a>; and the carrying of tree branches and then rushing down from a height upon the enemy recalls Gideon with his three companies of men holding pitchers. See on :34.</p>


text:
<p>All the people likewise each cut down his branch and followed Abimelech, and they put them at the base of the stronghold and set the stronghold on fire on them, so that all the people of the tower of Shechem died, about one thousand men and women- </p><p>"The people of the tower", as suggested on :47, were apparently those committed to idolatry. "The stronghold" of idolatry is equated with the tower (:46). This was the house of Millo which was to be destroyed by Abimelech's fire (:20). Their destruction by fire would have been designed by Abimelech as some kind of destruction of the apostate as required by the law of Moses, as if he were Joshua conquering Canaan and burning the cities of the Canaanites. But Abimelech's spirituality comes over as so compromised that it was merely a surface level imitation of the true.</p>


text:
<p>Then Abimelech went to Thebez and encamped against Thebez and took it- </p><p>Abimelech had an apparent run of success, and it led him to think he was invincible. This is seen so often amongst men; from sports stars to evangelists to businessmen. The Biblical histories are all so absolutely psychologically credible, unlike the uninspired histories of the time.</p>


text:
<p>But there was a strong tower within the city, and all the men and women of the city fled to it and shut themselves in, and went up to the roof of the tower- </p><p>Abimelech assumed that as he had destroyed the tower in Shechem so he could that in Thebez. See on :50. Maybe Thebez had also been subject to Abimelech but had likewise rebelled against his authority.</p>


text:
<p>Abimelech came to the tower and fought against it and drew near to the door of the tower to burn it with fire-</p><p>I suggested on :49 that destruction by fire would have been designed by Abimelech as some kind of destruction of the apostate as required by the law of Moses, as if he were Joshua conquering Canaan and burning the cities of the Canaanites. But Abimelech's spirituality comes over as so compromised that it was merely a surface level imitation of the true. He felt that because he was punishing apostacy with fire, he was himself invincible; and therefore he was judged harshly. And we see such things amongst the children of God today.</p>


text:
<p>A woman cast an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head and broke his skull- </p><p>This obviously was a fulfilment of the seed of the woman hitting the seed of the serpent upon the head (<a href='B:10 3:15'>Gen 3:15</a>). And yet Abimelech had been about to burn her to death for supposed apostacy. We also note that a man who ended up judged like this was also used as a judge / saviour of Israel (<a href='B:70 10:1'>Jdg 10:1</a>).</p>


text:
<p>Then he called hastily to the young man who carried his armour and said to him, Draw your sword and kill me, so that men will not say of me, ‘A woman killed him’. His young man thrust him through and he died- </p><p>Saul's armourbearer would not slay Saul because he was Yahweh's anointed king. Although Abimelech claimed to be king, and was accepted by some as king, he clearly was not recognized as king by God nor his own people.</p>


text:
<p>When the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead they departed each man to his place- </p><p>The tower was not burnt with fire, because it was God's intention that Abimelech should do this to Shechem- not Thebez (:20). And so Thebez was not burnt as Abimelech had intended.</p>


text:
<p>Thus God rewarded the wickedness of Abimelech which he did to his father, in killing his seventy brothers-</p><p>Sometimes the Biblical record is vague, other times exact. This reflects how God is not seeking to cover His back against critics. He is of an altogether higher nature than that. There are times when the Spirit uses very approximate numbers rather than exact ("about the space of four hundred and fifty years", <a href='B:510 13:20'>Act 13:20</a> cp. <a href='B:110 6:1'>1Ki 6:1</a>). The reference to "seventy" in <a href='B:70 9:56'>Jdg 9:56</a> also doesn't seem exact, for Jothan escaped out of the 70. Seven and a half years (<a href='B:100 2:11'>2Sa 2:11</a>) becomes "seven years" (<a href='B:110 2:11'>1Ki 2:11</a>); three months and ten days (<a href='B:140 36:9'>2Ch 36:9</a>) becomes "three months" (<a href='B:120 24:8'>2Ki 24:8</a>). And <a href='B:110 7:23'>1Ki 7:23</a> gives the circumference of the laver as “thirty cubits”, although it was ten cubits broad. Taking ‘pi’ to be 3:14, it is apparent that the circumference would have been 31:4 cubits; but the Spirit says, summing up, “thirty”.</p>


text:
<p>and all the wickedness of the men of Shechem God repaid on their heads, and on them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal- </p><p>As noted on :55, the tower of Thebez was therefore not burnt with fire, because it was God's intention that Abimelech should do this to Shechem- not Thebez (:20). And so Thebez was not burnt as Abimelech had intended.</p>


text:
<p>After Abimelech, Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar arose to save Israel, and he lived in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim- </p><p>God Himself 'arose and saved' Israel from Egypt (<a href='B:230 76:9'>Psa 76:9</a>, s:w. "raised up a saviour"), and the phrase is also used of Moses in <a href='B:20 2:17'>Exo 2:17</a>. But the people didn't want this radical deliverance from their enemies, because like the generation saved from Egypt, they were with their enemies in their hearts, and worshipped their gods as Israel had taken the idols of their Egyptian enemies with them, through the Red Sea (<a href='B:330 20:17'>Eze 20:17</a>). So the potential possible in these raised up saviours / judges was never totally realized.</p><p>This verse implies Abimelech was a saviour and defender of Israel. At some point he must have repented of all this and done work for God. His proclamation as king (<a href='B:70 9:6'>Jdg 9:6</a>) was however a rejection of Yahweh as king; the very thing his father Gideon had refused to do. Yet even such a spiritually weak man was used to save His people.</p><p>"Tola" means 'worm', continuing the theme that the judges all had something about them which made them despised of men. The left handed, the son of a whore or of a concubine, etc. And it is exactly this kind of person whom God uses.</p>


text:
<p>He judged Israel twenty-three years and died, and was buried in Shamir- </p><p>'Shamir' is the word for "brier" or "thorn", and is often used in Isaiah in a very negative place. This man called "worm", Tola, lived in a place of briers / thorns, wasteland, bearing God's curse. But from such a place arose a man used by God to save His people.</p>


text:
<p>After him arose Jair the Gileadite, and he judged Israel twenty-two years- </p><p>"Jair" means 'enlightener', or possibly 'light', which would fit with him being described as 'arising'. Like all the judges / saviours of Israel, he looked ahead to the rising of the light of Christ in Israel's darkness. There was another Jair who had liberated large tracts of land from the Canaanites during the conquest. Perhaps he was named after him. I have often noted the similarities between the lives of God's servants as recorded in the Bible; Jair judged for 22 years, and the previous judge for 23 years (:2), about the same period.</p>


text:
<p>He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkey colts, </p><p>To ride on a colt, an animal not yet broken in, was unusual. The idea surely is that they all rode on such colts at one time, perhaps the time when they received their thirty cities. It was as if they had to break in their city, as they were breaking in the colt, representing how they had to subdue the local inhabitants. And they look forward, as do all the judges, to the Lord Jesus; who also rode on a donkey colt as He entered the city of His inheritance, Jerusalem.</p><p>And they had thirty cities, which are called Havvoth Jair to this day, which are in the land of Gilead- </p><p>I would consider the book of Joshua to have largely been written by Joshua, under Divine inspiration, although edited [again under Divine inspiration] for the exiles. And the book of Judges likewise. For the exiles too were set to reestablish God's Kingdom in the land and to inherit it again as the Israelites first did. The phrase "to this day" occurs several times in Joshua / Judges, and appears to have different points of historical reference (<a href='B:60 4:9'>Jos 4:9</a>; <a href='B:60 5:9'>Jos 5:9</a>; <a href='B:60 6:25'>Jos 6:25</a>; <a href='B:60 7:26'>Jos 7:26</a>; <a href='B:60 8:28-29'>Jos 8:28-29</a>; <a href='B:60 9:27'>Jos 9:27</a>; <a href='B:60 10:27'>Jos 10:27</a>; <a href='B:60 13:13'>Jos 13:13</a>; <a href='B:60 14:14'>Jos 14:14</a>; <a href='B:60 15:63'>Jos 15:63</a>; <a href='B:60 16:10'>Jos 16:10</a>; <a href='B:60 22:3'>Jos 22:3</a>; <a href='B:60 23:8-9'>Jos 23:8-9</a>; <a href='B:70 1:26'>Jdg 1:26</a>; <a href='B:70 6:24'>Jdg 6:24</a>; <a href='B:70 10:4'>Jdg 10:4</a>; <a href='B:70 15:19'>Jdg 15:19</a>; <a href='B:70 18:12'>Jdg 18:12</a>). I would explain this by saying that the book was edited a number of times and the remains of those edits remain in the text. For God's word is living and made relevant by Him to every generation.</p>


text:
<p>Jair died and was buried in Kamon- </p><p>Kamon can mean simply the rising, referring to elevated land. But given the belief in the resurrection of the body, we wonder if there was not also the idea of burying a man from where he would finally rise from the dead. In the same way as Joshua was buried in the border of his inheritance, to rise again and enter it.</p>


text:
<p>The people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and served the Baals and Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites and the gods of the Philistines; they forsook Yahweh and didn’t serve Him- </p><p>"The children of Israel did evil in the sight of Yahweh" is a refrain which occurs seven times in Judges (<a href='B:70 2:11'>Jdg 2:11</a>; <a href='B:70 3:7'>Jdg 3:7</a>; <a href='B:70 3:12'>Jdg 3:12</a>; <a href='B:70 4:1'>Jdg 4:1</a>; <a href='B:70 6:1'>Jdg 6:1</a>; <a href='B:70 10:6'>Jdg 10:6</a>; <a href='B:70 13:1'>Jdg 13:1</a>), recalling how Israel both over history and in the last days were to be punished "seven times" for their sins (<a href='B:30 26:23-24'>Lev 26:23-24</a>).</p>


text:
<p>The anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel and He sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the people of Ammon- </p><p>Yahweh sold them, but the record often says that they sold or prostituted themselves to the idols of the nations. He will confirm men in the path they wish to go.</p>


text:
<p>They troubled and oppressed the Israelites that year. For eighteen years they oppressed all the Israelites that were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead- </p><p>The first sentence of this verse is omitted by LXX and many versions, hence GNB "For eighteen years they oppressed and persecuted all the Israelites who lived in Amorite country east of the Jordan River in Gilead".</p>


text:
<p>The Ammonites passed over the Jordan to fight also against Judah and Benjamin and against the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was very distressed- </p><p>This "distress" is the word used of the distress of the historical Jacob / Israel in this same area (<a href='B:10 32:7'>Gen 32:7</a>), when like Israel he was confronted with his sins and led to cast himself upon God's grace.</p>


text:
<p>The Israelites cried to Yahweh saying, We have sinned against You because we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals-</p><p>This was how Yahweh felt. They themselves didn't think they had forsaken Him. The Bible at times speaks from God's viewpoint, at others from the perspective of the people whose actions are being described. To forsake Yahweh was to break covenant with Him (<a href='B:50 31:16-17'>Deu 31:16-17</a>). Israel did forsake Yahweh (<a href='B:70 2:13'>Jdg 2:13</a>), but still He remained faithful to them, as Hosea remained faithful to Gomer despite her infidelity to their marriage covenant. Instead of forsaking them as He threatened, He instead by grace sent them saviours, judges, looking forward to His grace in sending the Lord Jesus, Yah's salvation.</p><p>The punishment for forsaking Yahweh was that "Yahweh will send on you cursing, confusion and rebuke in all that you put your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the evil of your doings by which you have forsaken Him. Yahweh will make the pestilence cleave to you until He has consumed you from off the land into which you now go in to possess it" (<a href='B:50 28:20-21'>Deu 28:20-21</a>). We expect these things to therefore happen at this time; but we note God's amazing patience and gentleness in not bringing these things immediately, and instead raising up judges as saviours for this wayward people.</p>


text:
<p>Yahweh said to the Israelites, Didn’t I save you from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites, and from the Philistines?- </p><p>The salvation from the Egyptians was at the Red Sea, long ago (<a href='B:20 14:30'>Exo 14:30</a>). The Israelites were repeatedly reminded of this (<a href='B:70 2:1'>Jdg 2:1</a>; <a href='B:70 6:8'>Jdg 6:8</a>; <a href='B:70 10:11'>Jdg 10:11</a>). But they failed to perceive that God's actions in history were in fact their personal salvation, an act of grace shown to them also. David grasped that point, and his Psalms often thank God for the exodus, as if it had happened to him personally. But the problem is that Israel like all people tended to only see what was before their face at that moment. They had no sense of God's historical salvation of them, and the guarantee that He would likewise come through for them, if they remained faithful to Him.</p>


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<p>The Sidonians also and the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you, and you cried to Me, and I saved you out of their hand- </p><p>"Maonites" is the word for the Midianites, alluding to the great deliverance from them worked by God through Gideon. "Oppress" is the word used of how Israel were oppressed in Egypt (<a href='B:20 3:9'>Exo 3:9</a>). But the intention, as with Israel's latter day oppression, is that it would lead them to cry out for Yahweh's salvation, 'Jesus': "For they will cry to Yahweh because of oppressors, and He will send them a saviour and a defender, and He will deliver them" (<a href='B:290 19:20'>Isa 19:20</a> s:w:). All the judges were therefore types of the ultimate deliverance of Israel by the Lord Jesus in the last days.</p>


text:
<p>Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods; therefore I will save you no more- </p><p>God told Israel straight "I will save you no more". But they begged Him, and He did. And likewise in Hosea, He said He would give them up completely, but just couldn't bring Himself to do it. God changing His mind is a theme that runs through Hosea. This is not caprice nor instability, but rather a window into the way that the pole of God's saving grace works out stronger than that of His necessary judgment of an awful, sinful people.</p>


text:
<p>Go and cry to the gods which you have chosen. Let them save you in the time of your distress!- </p><p>They had doubtless done this already, and were turning to Yahweh only as a last resort, rather than the first and only resort.</p>


text:
<p>The Israelites said to Yahweh, We have sinned; do to us whatever seems good to You, only deliver us, please, this day- </p><p>This confession of sin before asking for deliverance was apparently from the heart, for God responded to it (:16).</p>


text:
<p>They put away the foreign gods from among them and served Yahweh; and His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel-</p><p>God's soul, His very person, was grieved (Heb. cut down, reaped- as in harvest, s:w. "his soul was vexed unto death", <a href='B:70 16:16'>Jdg 16:16</a>) for the misery / grief of Israel (<a href='B:70 10:15-16'>Jdg 10:15-16</a>). The Hebrew word translated "misery" is also translated "grief". The soul of Almighty God so far away from us grieved for their grief. Their pain elicited in Him a response, no matter that their pain was totally their fault.</p><p>In the death of Jesus we see the rejection of the Son whom God had so dearly hoped His people would reverence- but they rejected Him. As something of each of us dies in the death of those we love, so "God was in Christ", sharing in His sufferings and death. It was not of course that God died. But He fully shared in the sufferings of His Son unto death. God was so hurt by Israel's sufferings that in sympathy with them, "His nephesh ["soul"] was shortened" or expended. The phrase is used in <a href='B:40 21:4'>Num 21:4</a> and <a href='B:70 16:16'>Jdg 16:16</a> about death or the diminishment of life. God's pain was such that this was how He felt, because He so internalized the sufferings of His people. And how much more in the death of His Son? He even feels like that for the sufferings of Gentiles- in the same way as Moab would weep for their slain sons, so God says that His heart would cry out for Moab, "therefore I weep [along] with the weeping of Jazer::. my soul moans like a lyre for Moab" (<a href='B:290 15:5'>Isa 15:5</a>; <a href='B:290 16:9'>Isa 16:9</a>; <a href='B:290 16:11'>Isa 16:11</a>). God "pitied" Nineveh- a Hebrew word meaning to pity with tears (<a href='B:390 4:11'>Jon 4:11</a>). The mourning of the prophets over Tyre (<a href='B:330 27:1'>Eze 27:1</a>) and Babylon (<a href='B:290 21:3-4'>Isa 21:3-4</a>) was an embodiment of God's grief even over those not in covenant with Him. And how much more does He weep and suffer with His people Israel in their sufferings (<a href='B:300 12:12'>Jer 12:12</a>; <a href='B:300 23:10'>Jer 23:10</a>; <a href='B:350 4:2-3'>Hos 4:2-3</a>); "my heart yearns / moans for him" (<a href='B:300 31:20'>Jer 31:20</a>).</p><p>God grieved over the carcasses of those wretched men whom He slew in the wilderness for their thankless rebellions against Him their saviour (<a href='B:650 3:17'>Heb 3:17</a>). The apostle makes the point: "With whom was He grieved?". Answer: with the wicked whom He slew! A human God or a proud God would never grieve over His victory over His enemies. Even in the fickleness of Israel's repentance, knowing their future, knowing what they would subject His Son to, "His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel". He delays the second coming because He waits and hopes for repentance and spiritual growth from us. But He praises the faithful for patiently waiting for Him (<a href='B:290 30:18'>Isa 30:18</a>; <a href='B:230 37:7'>Psa 37:7</a>). Here we see the humility of God's grace, and His ability to have absolute humanity.</p>


text:
<p>Then the Ammonites were gathered together and encamped in Gilead. The Israelites assembled themselves and encamped in Mizpah- </p><p>Effectively this begins a new chapter or theme; this summarizes the situation which came about after the events of <a href='B:70 11:1-4'>Jdg 11:1-4</a>. Israel had repented:&nbsp;"The children of Israel said unto the Lord, We have sinned:&nbsp;do thou unto us whatsoever seems good unto You;&nbsp; deliver us only::. and His (God's) soul was grieved for the misery of Israel" (<a href='B:70 10:15-16'>Jdg 10:15-16</a>):&nbsp;Straight after this, "the children of Ammon were gathered together" to attack:&nbsp; The people were "sore distressed" after an extended period of devastation at the hands of these people (<a href='B:70 10:8-9'>Jdg 10:8-9</a>), as they will be in the last days before they come to repent:&nbsp;It would appear from this type that after their repentance they will be faced with a final onslaught, and then tested as to whether they will really put their faith in Jephthah - Jesus.</p><p>This 'gathering together' is spoken of in latter-day passages - <a href='B:450 14:2'>Zec 14:2</a> and <a href='B:730 16:14'>Rev 16:14</a>. The previous Arab invasions which typify those of the future, also mention this 'gathering together': Sisera's forces did this (<a href='B:70 4:13'>Jdg 4:13</a>), as did those of Ammon (<a href='B:70 10:17'>Jdg 10:17</a>; <a href='B:130 19:7'>1Ch 19:7</a>), the Amorites (<a href='B:70 11:20'>Jdg 11:20</a>), the Arab powers with Assyria in Hezekiah's time (<a href='B:400 4:11'>Mic 4:11</a>), Gog's forces (<a href='B:330 38:7'>Eze 38:7</a>), the Arab-Canaanite tribes (<a href='B:10 34:30'>Gen 34:30</a>) and especially the Philistines (<a href='B:90 13:5'>1Sa 13:5</a>; <a href='B:90 13:11'>1Sa 13:11</a>; <a href='B:90 17:1'>1Sa 17:1</a>; <a href='B:90 25:1'>1Sa 25:1</a>; <a href='B:90 28:1'>1Sa 28:1</a>; <a href='B:90 29:1'>1Sa 29:1</a>; <a href='B:100 23:11'>2Sa 23:11</a>). This is quite some emphasis. Thus while we can expect to see greater potential unity amongst Israel's enemies, developing around the Israel issue and perhaps a common allegiance to a charismatic 'Nebuchadnezzar' figure for a brief period, their complete meeting of minds will not be until the final push against Jerusalem.</p>


text:
<p>The people, the princes of Gilead, said one to another, Who will begin to fight against the Ammonites? He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead- </p><p>The end result of Israel's suffering at the hand of Ammon was that they realized their desperate need for a firm leader. Both the ordinary people, and what remains of their leadership in the last days, will be unanimous in this same conclusion: "The people and princes of Gilead said one to another, What man is he that will begin to fight against the children of Ammon? he shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead" (<a href='B:70 10:18'>Jdg 10:18</a>):&nbsp;The fact that they then asked Jephthah to be this "head" (<a href='B:70 11:8'>Jdg 11:8</a>) would suggest that secretly they knew all along who they should follow.</p>


text:
<p>Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour, and he was the son of a prostitute; and Gilead was the father of Jephthah- </p><p>He was a "man of valour" (<a href='B:70 11:1'>Jdg 11:1</a>), a word also translated "virtue", and coming from a root meaning 'to whirl around':&nbsp; This may possibly suggest a connection with the cherubim, as if through their righteousness ("virtue"), Jephthah and Jesus were a manifestation of God. We see a purposeful juxtaposition between him being a man or valour / virtue, and being the son of a prostitute. Just as "Tola" means 'worm', we see continued the theme that the judges all had something about them which made them despised of men. The left handed, the son of a whore or of a concubine, etc. And it is exactly this kind of person whom God uses:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p>Gilead’s wife also bore him sons, and when his wife’s sons grew up they drove out Jephthah, and said to him, You shall not inherit in our father’s house because you are the son of another woman- </p><p>He was despised as "the son of a strange woman" (<a href='B:70 11:2'>Jdg 11:2</a>) as Jesus was accused of being born out of wedlock (<a href='B:500 8:41'>Joh 8:41</a>). All the judges / saviours look forward to Him.</p>


text:
<p>Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob, and a group of adventurers gathered to Jephthah, and they went out with him- </p><p>Having been rejected by his brethren, Jephthah " dwelt in the land of Tob" (<a href='B:70 11:3'>Jdg 11:3</a>), a word which can mean 'heaven':&nbsp;Our Lord's return from heaven in response to Israel's plea for help clearly echoes this.</p>


text:
<p>After a while the Ammonites made war against Israel- </p><p>The summary of the whole situation was given in <a href='B:70 10:17'>Jdg 10:17</a>, and <a href='B:70 11:1-4'>Jdg 11:1-4</a> have explained how this came about.</p>


text:
<p>When the Ammonites made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah out of the land of Tob-</p><p>Rejected by his brethren, he had been forced to live the life of a brigand and outlaw, and his military exploits and bravery were perhaps well known to all. Should he have resorted to robbery in order to stay alive? Perhaps not, but the experience was used by God in order to prepare him to deliver His people. The elders of Gilead likely included his brothers who had rejected him. The&nbsp; whole incident looks forward to Israel's desperation leading them to repent of their rejection of the Lord Jesus; see on :7.</p>


text:
<p>and they said to Jephthah, Come and be our chief, so that we can fight the Ammonites- </p><p>We see developed further the theme that Israel, and people generally, need a visible leader. It came to a head in their rejection of Yahweh as their invisible king in Samuel's time. And we likewise see the tendency of all religions to provide a visible 'king'; for personal faith in the invisible kingship of Yahweh, recognizing ourselves thereby as part of His Kingdom or Kingly dominion, demands real faith.</p>


text:
<p>Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, Didn’t you hate me and drive me out of my father’s house? Why have you come to me now when you are in distress?- </p><p>The Lord Jesus was 'thrust out' from His native town (<a href='B:490 4:29'>Luk 4:29</a>) as Jephthah was driven out from Gilead. It was "the elders" who were also responsible for the Lord's rejection. Jephthah's questions were rhetorical. The answer was 'Because we failed to have your faith in Yahweh and are suffering for it, so we need you, as a believer in Yahweh whom we rejected, to lead us. You have what we don't have'.</p>


text:
<p>The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Therefore we have turned again to you now- </p><p>This really was what they had done to God. And they saw Jephthah as manifesting God to them; they responded to his rhetorical questions of :7, as discussed there.</p><p>So that you may go with us and fight the Ammonites, and you shall be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead- </p><p>The end result of Israel's suffering at the hand of Ammon was that they realized their desperate need for a firm leader:&nbsp;&nbsp; Both the ordinary people, and what remains of their leadership in the last days, will be unanimous in this same conclusion:&nbsp; "The people and princes of Gilead said one to another, What man is he that will begin to fight against the children of Ammon? he shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead" (<a href='B:70 10:18'>Jdg 10:18</a>):&nbsp;&nbsp; The fact that they then asked Jephthah to be this "head" (<a href='B:70 11:8'>Jdg 11:8</a>) would suggest that secretly they knew all along who they should follow:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p><a href='B:350 1:10-11'>Hos 1:10-11</a> alludes back to Israel's choosing of Jephthah as their head, implying that their choosing of Christ will be at the time of their national acceptance by God:&nbsp; "It shall be said unto them, You are the sons of the living God:&nbsp;Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together (cp. "the children of Israel assembled themselves together" to choose a leader to fight Ammon, <a href='B:70 10:17'>Jdg 10:17</a>), and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land (Exodus language - as if their suffering in their own land will match what they experienced in Egypt):&nbsp;for great shall be the day of Jezreel" - where Gideon won his great victory over the Midianites, which prefigured that of the last days (<a href='B:70 6:33'>Jdg 6:33</a>). This confirms our view that the final Ammonite attack prefigures the very last threat to Israel, which will come immediately after their repentance.</p>


text:
<p>Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, If you bring me home again to fight the Ammonites and Yahweh delivers them to me, shall I be your head?- </p><p>Perhaps men like Jephthah (<a href='B:70 11:9'>Jdg 11:9</a>) and Samson (<a href='B:70 14:4'>Jdg 14:4</a>) were not wrong to seek to be the judges who delivered Israel from the Philistines. For we sense here that being the "head" was attractive to Jephthah. Paul seems to want to inculcate the spirit of ambition in preaching when he told Corinth that they should be ambitious to gain those Spirit gifts which would be most useful in public rather than private teaching of the word (<a href='B:530 14:1'>1Co 14:1</a>; <a href='B:530 14:12'>1Co 14:12</a>). In similar vein Paul commends those who were ambitious (from the right motives) to be bishops (<a href='B:610 3:1'>1Ti 3:1</a>).</p>


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<p>The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Yahweh shall be witness between us; certainly we will do as you say- </p><p>They swear by Yahweh, when previously they had been serving other gods; and also because they knew that Jephthah was devoted to Yahweh.</p>


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<p>Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them, and Jephthah spoke all his words before Yahweh in Mizpah- </p><p>We note that the word "king" is not used. Perhaps they had learned the lesson from Gideon's refusal of the offer to be king, and had learned too from the tragic demise of Abimelech, the man who wanted to be king.</p>


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<p>Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites saying, What have you against me, that you have come to me to fight against my land?- </p><p>The land was God's, and those who fight against God's people, fight against Him. Jephthah is very aware that as a leader of God's people, he is manifesting Yahweh. This rhetorical question, as his question to his own people in :7, was intended to elicit their repentance. And this fulfilled the Mosaic command to ask enemies to surrender before fighting them.</p><p>As Jephthah briefly appealed to the surrounding enemies to see&nbsp; Biblical sense before destroying them, will the Lord Jesus Christ do likewise? He will "plead with them" in the valley of Jehoshaphat (<a href='B:360 3:2'>Joe 3:2</a>):&nbsp;A remnant of repentant Philistines will apparently repent (<a href='B:450 9:5-7'>Zec 9:5-7</a>);&nbsp;other hints that some of the latter day enemies will repent are found in <a href='B:290 19:23-25'>Isa 19:23-25</a> ("Assyria the work of my hands" implies they will be the subjects of a new spiritual creation);&nbsp; <a href='B:290 14:1-2'>Isa 14:1-2</a> (those who took Israel captive will willingly be their slaves in the Kingdom age).</p>


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<p>The king of the Ammonites answered the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land when he came up out of Egypt, from the Arnon to the Jabbok and to the Jordan; now therefore restore that territory again peaceably- Ammon justified their invasion by a quasi-Biblical argument, based on their claim that "Israel took away my land, when they came up out of Egypt":&nbsp;Jephthah replied by saying that because God had dispossessed Ammon then, they should not keep raising this old land question (<a href='B:70 11:23'>Jdg 11:23</a>):&nbsp;Yet this issue of who really owns the land of Israel is as live now as it was then, and indicates once again how the final latter day invasion will use this sort of argument to justify it.</p>


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<p>Jephthah sent messengers back to the king of the Ammonites- </p><p>His answer is very Biblical and reflects a thorough acquaintance with the scriptures he had access to. This man who had to make a living as a highwayman and robber, the son of a whore who had been rejected by his father's sons, had turned to the scriptures because of his experiences. We cannot judge people. We simply don't know who deep down is searching for God, nor what thief or lowlife is secretly reading the Bible on their phone.</p>


text:
<p>and said to him, This is what Jephthah says: Israel didn’t take away the land of Moab, nor the land of the Ammonites- </p><p>The lengthy argument which follows will come to its conclusion in :21- it was really Yahweh and not Israel who had taken the land. To cavil at this was to effectively fight against Yahweh, and Jephthah doesn't wish even his enemies to do this:&nbsp;</p>


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<p>but when they came up from Egypt Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh- </p><p>Jephthah's knowledge of the scriptural record seems very impressive, and he quotes verbatim fragments from passages like <a href='B:40 13:26'>Num 13:26</a>; <a href='B:40 14:25'>Num 14:25</a>. Against him, the Ammonites stood no chance of twisting scripture and history to justify themselves:&nbsp;</p>


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<p>Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom saying, ‘Please let me pass through your land;’ but the king of Edom didn’t listen. In the same way he sent to the king of Moab, but he would not, and Israel stayed in Kadesh- </p><p>The lesson is that if we are unreasonable to God's people, there will be eternal consequences. The Ammonites considered that all this was mere history. And that is the trouble with human attitudes to God's word, much of which is history. We tend to focus on the immediate, the situation before us at this moment; and consider that the passage of time works a kind of pseudo atonement for our previous failings. It doesn't, and we need to therefore repent as soon as we perceive our sins. See on :28.</p>


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<p>Then they went through the wilderness and skirted around the land of Edom and the land of Moab and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and they encamped on the other side of the Arnon, but they didn’t come within the border of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab- </p><p>This is all careful quotation from <a href='B:40 21:4'>Num 21:4</a>; <a href='B:40 21:11-20'>Num 21:11-20</a>; <a href='B:50 2:1'>Deu 2:1</a>. See on :16.</p>


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<p>Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon, and Israel said to him, ‘Please let us pass through your land to our place’- </p><p>This is all careful quotation from <a href='B:40 21:21-24'>Num 21:21-24</a>; <a href='B:50 2:24'>Deu 2:24</a>; <a href='B:50 2:26'>Deu 2:26</a>. See on :16.</p>


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<p>But Sihon didn’t trust Israel to pass through his border, but Sihon gathered all his people together and encamped in Jahaz and fought against Israel- </p><p>Jephthah is hereby appealing for the Ammonites to learn a lesson from history; for they too had 'gathered together against' Israel. The whole narrative of the book of Judges is that the lessons from history are simply not learnt. And so man stumbles on in darkness, ever seeking to be the empirical learner until it is too late, without the guidance of Divine principles and the precedents set in His word. See on :29.</p>


