JU11-4: A Scriptural Example Of The Dishonesty Israel Has To Deal With Over Their Land Rights

^“Yiftach sent messengers to the king of the people of ‘Amon to say, ‘What’s your problem with us? Why are you invading our territory?’  The king of ‘Amon answered the messengers of Yiftach, ‘Because Israel took away my territory when they came up from Egypt. They took everything from the Arnon to the Yabok and the Yarden. Now, restore it peacefully.‘”-Judges 11:12-13

If you wanna get good idea of just what kind of sneakiness Israel has to face when dealing with their enemies over the land God has given to them, today’s post is for you.

First, fair warning.

We’re gonna have to get into some complicated historical details here in order to unravel what’s really going on.

But it’s gonna be fun and it’ll be worth it.

Remember I wanna give you guys an unfair advantage over and against the vast majority of Bible preachers and pastors out there who normally could care less and wouldn’t give the facts contained in this chapter more than a passing glance.

So let’s get the party started.

So the situation is that Yiftach has just accepted his assignment from the Hebrew inhabitants of Gideon to rid Israel of her current oppressors which is the hostile nation-state of Ammon.

Yiftach decides to kick things off by sending a messenger to the king of the Ammonites to ask one simple question.

“Why did  you come to MY land to start trouble?”

Notice how Yiftach is framing his position here.

He’s not presenting himself as some random warrior for hire but as a patriot who possesses a personal interest in the territory the Ammonites had invaded.

Let’s take a look at how the Ammonite’s responded.

They said…

“Because Israel took away my territory when they came up from Egypt. They took everything from the Arnon to the Yabok and the Yarden. Now, restore it peacefully.”

Okay, so that response is total pile of boooooooooooool sheeeeeeeeeeeet!

And I’m gonna show you why by breaking down Yiftach’s reply.

But first let’s analyze what the king of Ammon was really saying here.

He’s saying when Israel left Egypt during the Exodus, they took the area in the south from the Arnon River which served as the border between Moab to the south and Ammon to the north.

Now that’s not exactly accurate.

Because the Arnon River, which flows into the Dead Sea on its eastern side, was once the dividing line between territory controlled by the Moabites and the Amorites, NOT the Ammonites (Be careful not to confuse the two).

And the name of the northern border that divided Ammon on the southern side and Gilead on the northern side was called Jabbok.

Finally the eastern border was the Jordan River.

So the king of Ammon is saying return that territory to us and there won’t be any trouble.

Okay buckle in and hang tight with me here ’cause I gotta go over some key historical details.

Notice I just said that the Arnon River served as the border between Moab and the Amorites.

In other words, NEVER did the Ammonites ever possess this particular piece of real estate.

And don’t be fooled by the similar pronunciation of the Amorites and Ammonites.

These 2 people groups are completely unrelated to each other.

So Yiftach instantly recognizes the falsity of the king’s answer and realizes he’s going to have to remind him of what REALLY went down when Israel high-tailed it out of Egypt.

Here’s a super easy-to-understand breakdown of Yiftach’s answer.

First, when Israel left Egypt during the Exodus, they stopped at a place called Kadesh and camped there.

Before going further Moses sent messengers ahead of them to the king of Edom asking if it was okay that they travel through his land to get to Canaan, their final destination.

Moses was just following the normal custom of that era when he sent his request.

Yet in spite of that, the king of Edom REFUSED.

So Israel, with all of their women, children and elderly were forced to take a much longer roundabout path.

Next, after the Israelites had marched all the way around Edom, Moses sent the same request to the king of Moab.

And the king of Moab also REFUSED.

Because of the king of Moab’s refusal, Israel was forced to travel a long distance to the east and north in order to avoid the border of Moab.

The northern border of Moab was the Arnon River and Israel stayed well north of that boundary to avoid any conflict with the king of Moab.

Notice how Israel always politely and humbly respected the wishes of the kings he came into contact with in spite of their cruelty.

Onward.

Next, Moses sent messengers to the king of the Amorites whose name was Sichon to again ask the same thing:

Can my people please pass through your territory?

However, this time the response Moses received was different and not in a good way.

Not only did King Sichon refuse Israel passage but he became very aggressive and decided to attack Israel.

Again, keep in mind that never during this entire time did Israel ever become violent or threaten any nation they encountered during their journey

But now because of the hostility of Sichon, the king of the Amorites, Israel was forced to go on the defensive and battle against the Amorites (again, don’t confuse the Amorites with the Ammonites).

Well, unfortunately for the Amorites, the Lord favored Israel during this war and Sichon and his army was completely trounced.

The end result?

The end result was of course Israel won the territory that used to belong to the Amorites (again, don’t confuse the Amorites with the Ammonites here).

And that territory is the area called Gilead.

Okay, let’s rewind the tape a bit to Yiftach’s first sentence when he began his lengthy explanation of what really happened.

Yiftach said…

…“Israel did not take the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites”. 

Hmm, interesting.

Yiftach isn’t even mentioning the Amorites here.

Instead he’s starting off his argument by saying “Israel didn’t take the land of the Moabites”.

That’s a key piece of information homies.

Why?

Because the Moabites had a much stronger claim to the territory the Ammonites were disputing.

How so?

Because the Moabites were taken over by the Amorites way before Israel ever arrived on the scene.

The Amorites were a very hostile people who one day came down from Mesopotamia and took over Moab and all their land holdings which included the area the Ammonites didn’t own but resided in.

So when Israel successfully won their war with the Amorites led by Sichon, of course, they took control of the land the Amorites were holding (that they had originally won from the Moabites).

Are you getting this?

Israel, in a war they did not provoke, won a victory over a hostile people (the Amorites) who had seized their current land holdings from someone else (the Moabites whose territory the Ammonites were living in but did NOT own).

In other words, from the very beginning Israel never made any claims to any territory the Ammonites were living in.

I just showed you that Israel always respected the established borders in the region by sending messengers ahead of them to ask the kings ruling over the area they wanted to travel through if it was okay to do so.

And the kings’ final decisions were respected even if their answers were negative and greatly hurt Israel.

Heck, Moses also had every intent to respect King Sichon’s wishes but for whatever reason the king went bat crazy and decided to attack Israel for even asking.

Talk about anti-semitism getting hog wild out of control.

In fact, take a look at what it says in the Torah.

 ^“But Sihon would not let Israel pass through his territory. He mustered his entire army and marched out into the wilderness against Israel. When he reached Jahaz, he fought with Israel.  Israel, however, put him to the sword and took over his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, but only as far as the Ammonites, because their border was fortified.”-Numbers 21:23-24

We see in that passage that Israel never made any claims to Ammon’s territory.

Quite the contrary, the Lord had commanded Moses to respect the borders of Edom, Moab, and Ammon.

Why?

Because Edom descended from Jacob’s brother Esau.

And Moab and Ammon descended from Lot (recall he was Abraham’s nephew who went to live in Sodom and Gomorrah).

So Yiftach’s argument towards the king of Ammon can be boiled down to the following and keep in mind this is a paraphrase:

“Listen up homie, Israel NEVER had any interest in bothering you or your people”.

“We only asked Sichon the king of the Amorites who had already conquered the Moabites whose territory you were living in if we could pass through his territory”.

“Well, Sichon said NO and we were gonna respect his decision but then Sichon smoked too much marijuana that night or something (again, this is a paraphrase) and then decided for some crazy reason decided he wanted to attack us.”

“Well, homie we won that war and thus by the common rights of conquest whatever territory Sichon, king of the Amorites owned became our territory”.

“So if the truth be told homies, you Ammonites never did own the territory you’re disputing with me now”.

“It belonged to the Amorites who took it into their possession when they conquered the Moabites whose territory you were living in”.

“And now that territory belongs to Israel because we won it fair and square in a battle we didn’t want nor did we provoke”.

And that’s what happened folks.

I hope you were able to catch all that details.

Go back and read it again if you have to.

I’ve tried to make it as easy to understand in plain English as possible.

So what would be the takeaway for today’s post?

I’m actually discerning 2 takeaways.

The first one is to get your facts straight.

Know what the real truth of the matter is…and that truth can only be obtained through diligent study of God’s Word.

Other competing so-called holy books out there will speak different “truths” concerning who the chosen people really are or who the land really belongs to.

The only way we’re gonna know the truth is by studying the Word which is “God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness”.

The second takeaway I’m getting is that not only is it important to know the facts but to be bold and firm in communicating the facts to those who would attempt to distort the truth.

Yiftach here is a perfect example of this.

He was letting the king of Ammonites know what the real truth of the matter was and he wasn’t gonna back down.

But that wasn’t the end of Yiftach’s explanation.

He also added an interesting theological angle to his argument.

What might that be you ask?

Well, we’ll examine that the next time we meet.