Judg. 11
Full Lesson HERE
INTRODUCTION. The next judge after Gideon was Tola, a man of lssachar, who judged for twenty-three years. After him arose Jair from Gilead who judged for twenty-two years. He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkey colts and ruled over thirty cities (Judg. 10: 1-5).
Again the children of Israel turned away from the Lord and began worshipping Baal and
Ashtoreth, and the gods of Syria, Sidon, Moab, Ammon, and the Philistines. The Lord brought the Philistines and Ammonites against Israel who oppressed them for eighteen years (Judg. 10:6-9)
When Israel cried unto the Lord, He reminded them that He had saved them from the Egyptians and others, but they had forsaken him and served other gods. He told them to cry to the gods they were worshipping. However, when Israel repented, acknowledged their sin, and put away their false gods, the Lord had compassion on them and raised a man of valor to save them (Judg. 10:10-18).
Jephthah, the son of a man named Gilead, lived east of the Jordan River in the territory called Gilead. This area, extending about sixty miles from the south end of the Sea of Galilee to the north end of the Dead Sea, was bounded on the north by the Yarmuk River, on the south by the land of Moab, on the east by the desert, and on the west by the Jordan River. This fertile and rich grazing land had been conquered by the Israelites from the Amorite kings, Sihon and Og, and given to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
The land of the Ammonites was north of Moab and east of the Israelite territory of Gilead. The Ammonites claimed Gilead was their land and first attacked the Israel ites in Gilead. Later they crossed the Jordan River, invading Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim also.
Jephthah, cast out of his family by his half-brothers, at first fled to the land of Tob and led a band of men who raided and perhaps robbed. But eventually, the elders of Gilead went to Jephthah, asking him to be their commander and to help them fight the Ammonites who had invaded their land. Jephthah made the elders of Gilead agree to make him their chief if the Lord delivered the Ammonites into his hand.
In answer to the Ammonites' claim that Israel had taken their land when they came out of Egypt, Jephthah sent messengers to the king of Ammon. He reminded him that Israel had not taken the land of Moab and Ammon (descendants of Lot), or the land of Edom (descendants of Esau), but had journeyed around Edom and Moab on their way to Canaan.
The Lord had delivered to them Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and the land they now possessed they had taken from the Amorites, not the Ammonites. In addition Jephthah said that the Israelites should possess what their God had given them, and the Lord God would judge that day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.
The king of Ammon did not listen to the words of Jephthah. The Spirit of the Lord then came upon Jephthah as he went on his way to the battle with Ammon, and he made a rash vow to the Lord.
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