JU11-5: Whose Perspective Matters Most In Israel’s Land Disputes With Her Enemies?

“’Now since the Lord, the God of Israel, has driven the Amorites out before his people Israel, what right have you to take it over?  Will you not take what your god Chemosh gives you? Likewise, whatever the Lord our God has given us, we will possess.“-Judges 11:23-24

In verses 23-24 of Judges Chapter 11 we get a clear picture of how the ancient oriental mind operated during the Biblical era.

Yiftach is making a theological argument here and tells the king of the Ammonites since our God gave us the victory over the Amorites why should we hand this land over to you?

Yiftach continues by telling the king that according to that same logic whatever land your god Chemosh has enabled you to win is all you should possess.

So in a nutshell…

…”why should our God wanna give up land under His control to your god?”…

…was Yiftach’s argument.

Now all this talk about gods having control over other territories might sound silly to us today but in those times it was serious business.

Let’s take a look at verse 26.

“For three hundred years Israel occupied Heshbon, Aroer, the surrounding settlements and all the towns along the Arnon. Why didn’t you retake them during that time?”

Here Yiftach is presenting things from yet another angle.

He’s saying Israel has been living in Heshbon and its surrounding areas for a good 300 years and counting.

So why have the Ammonites decided all of a sudden that land is theirs?

Like where the heck have they been over the past 300 years?

Yiftach’s argument was pretty flawless if you ask me.

It was now clear the king of Ammon had no legitimate claim to the land he was disputing and simply wanted it for his own selfish reasons. 

In spite of that though, it’s interesting how regardless of which angle you take, whether it’s from a historical, theological, or conquest perspective, the Ammonites still had zero basis to claim the land.

They had never once conquered it, ruled over it or ever owned it.

On the other hand, if the Amorites who Joshua defeated suddenly resurfaced saying they wanted the land back, they would have a much more sound argument because the Amorites had indeed lost that land to Israel.

But the Ammonites?

Nope.  

Absolutely not…because they never possessed that land at any point in their history.

They would have been better off and a lot more honest if they had just said…

“Hey, we’re a bunch of aggressive warriors and we think we’re stronger than you and want your land!”

“So we’re gonna try by force to take it from you”.

“See if you can stop us”.

That would have made a lot more sense if they’d have just said that.

Because that’s been the way of this dog-eat-dog world since time immemorial.

It has always been through violence followed by peace treaties that the nations on our planet have formed and came to be in their present state.

But instead, the Ammonites tried to come up with some bogus claim that they had a legitimate right to Gilead and Yiftach wasn’t having any of it.

Now I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again but we are reliving the era of Judges right now as I write this.

The land dispute argument between Yiftach and the Ammonites is the exact same thing happening today between Israel and other hostile nations and people groups who are claiming their land really belongs to them.

So what’s the takeaway for today?

Well, up until now we’ve examined the many different angles Yiftach took to drive home his point that Israel had a right to the land they were currently dwelling in.

We saw the historical angle, the theological angle as well as the right of conquest angle.

However, at the end of the day, whose angle really matters in this dogfight?

It’s God’s perspective, right?

I mean we can argue history and worldly ideas of conquest and morality until the cows come home. 

But in the final analysis, it is the Creator of this world who has the final say.

And He says He has given that land to Israel.

End of story.