JU12-3: How Israel Became A Divided Nation

When we last left off, the leaders of Ephraim had insulted Jephthah.

This was a HUGE mistake that would cost them more than they bargained for.

Why?

Because Jephthah was a man who harbored bitter wounds and pent up feelings that could at any moment explode into a full blown rage.

Remember, this was a man…

Whose own mother was a prostitute…

Who was outcast by his own brothers because of his background…

Who was forced to put together a gang and raid traveling caravans in order to survive…

And then later, Jephthah would be asked to return home to defend the very people who had cast him out because of his lowly status.

It was Jephthah’s men (the men of Gilead) who had defeated the Ammonites and freed Israel from oppression.

Yet it was these very men who Ephraim was now insulting and saying they were never worthy of fighting a battle for Israel in the first place.

Do you see just how divided Israel had become at this point in their history? 

Although both Ephraim and Judah lived on the west side of the Jordan River (inside the Promised Land), they had turned against each other.

And because Gilead was located on the east side of the Jordan outside of the land, they were viewed as aliens by the other Hebrews inside the land.

Ephraim and Judah were well aware that Moses had told the 2 1/2 the tribes living in the Trans-Jordan they would still be considered part of Israel.

But the fact of the matter is…

…they were NOT living inside the Promised Holy Land.

And because of this, they were looked down on by the other 9 1/2 tribes who WERE living inside of Canaan.

The 2 1/2 Trans-Jordanian tribes were painfully aware of their growing inferior status and that bothered them to no end. 

So again to take pause here for a sec.

I want you to notice just how marginalized Israel had become at this stage in their history.

The two top dog tribes, Ephraim in the north and Judah in the south, had becoming increasingly divided.

There was a HUGE schism between the tribes who lived inside the land versus those who lived outside of it.

And to make matters worse, of the tribes living inside the land, some of them decided to side with Ephraim and others decided to side with Judah.

It was a big MESS…

We can see this reality fleshed out in verses 5 and 6 when Jephthah and his men attacked Ephraim causing them to scatter in different directions.

The fleeing Ephraimites when they were caught tried to lie about which tribe they really belonged to.

Unfortunately for them, their dialect or thick pronunciation was a dead giveaway.

Okay, I think that’s enough detail for today.

We’ll pick up where we left off the next time we meet.