Chapter 12. I've entitled this message, Sibyleth
or Shibboleth? Judges chapter 12, let's begin
reading in verse one. And the men of Ephraim, now remember
these were Israelites of the tribe, remember Manasseh and
Ephraim and they were on the other side of Jordan and they
were Israelites. The men of Ephraim gathered themselves
together and went northward and said unto Jephthah, wherefore
passest thou over to fight against the children of Ammon, and didst
not call us? to go with thee. We will burn
thine house upon thee with fire. And Jephthah said unto them,
I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon.
And when I called you, you delivered me not out of their hands. And
when I saw that you delivered me not, I put my life in my hands."
and passed over against the children of Ammon, and the Lord delivered
them into my hand. Wherefore then are ye come up
unto me this day, to fight against me?' Then Jephthah gathered together
all the men of Gilead," and these were Israelites also, this was
a civil war as it were, "'and fought with Ephraim.' And the
men of Gilead smoked Ephraim because they said, ye Gileadites
are fugitives of Ephraim among the Ephraimites, among the Manassites. And the Gileadites took the passage
of Jordan before the Ephraimites. And it was so that when those
Ephraimites which were escaped said, let me go over. that the
men of Gilead said unto him, Art thou an Ephraimite? If he
said, Nay, then said they unto him, Say now, Sibylleth. And he said, Sibylleth. For he could not frame to pronounce
it right. Then they took him, and flew
at the passages of Jordan, and there fell at that time of the
Ephraimites forty and two thousand. If the Ephraimites could not
pronounce Shibboleth, but said Sibboleth instead They were put
to death. And this cost 42,000 people their
life. And this has been used to criticize
being too doctrinally exact. Shibboleth or Sibboleth, does
it really make that much difference? Yeah. It cost 42,000 people their life
in mispronouncing this word. Now this story begins in Judges
chapter 11, verse 1. Now Jephthah the Gileadite was
a mighty man of valor, and he was the son of an harlot. And
Gilead begat Jephthah, and Gilead's wife bare him sons, and his wife's
sons grew up. And they thrust out Jephthah,
and said unto him, Thou shalt not inherit in our father's house,
for thou art the son of a strange woman." Now Jephthah, mentioned
in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews chapter 11 as a man of faith,
was an illegitimate child. And his brothers ran him off. They didn't want him to have
anything to do with the inheritance. Verse 3, Then Jephthah fled from
his brethren, and dwelt in the land of Tob. And there were gathered
vain men to Jephthah, and went out with him. Now, Jephthah is
a type of Christ. He's the man who delivered Israel. And in line with the type of
Christ, look who gathered themselves to Jephthah. Vain men, worthless
men, sinful men. It's no different today, is it?
Those are the people who gather themselves together with Christ.
Vain men. Sinful men. Worthless men. They see that about themselves.
And so they gather themselves together with the Lord Jesus
Christ. Verse 4, And it came to pass
in the process of time that the children of Ammon made war against
Israel, And it was so that when the children of Ammon made war
against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah
out of the land of Tov, these same people that ran him off.
And they said unto Jephthah, Come and be our captain, that
we may fight with the children of Ammon. And Jephthah said unto
the elders of Gilead, Did not you hate me and expel me out
of my father's house? And why are you coming to me
now when you're in distress? I can understand him having that
response, can't you? And the elders of Gilead said
unto Jephthah, Therefore we turn again to thee now, that thou
mayest go with us, and fight against the children of Ammon,
and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead. And Jephthah
said unto the elders of Gilead, If you bring me home again to
fight against the children of Ammon, and the Lord deliver them
before me, shall I be your head? And the elders of Gilead said
unto Jephthah, The Lord be witness between us, if we do not so according
to thy words. Then Jephthah went with the elders
of Gilead, and the people made him head and captain over them,
and Jephthah uttered all his words before the Lord in Mizpah."
So Jephthah is now going to deliver the children of Israel. Now,
I think it's interesting as you go on reading in this chapter,
Jephthah first tries to reason with the children of Ammon, and
he lets them know that they didn't have a right to try to drive
them out of the land because the Lord had given them this
land. And he went through the history of what took place, some
300 years of history, from the Pentateuch, the writings of Moses,
to tell why we had this land. And you have no right to try
to drive us from this land. Now look down at verse 27 of
this same chapter. And now, art thou any better
than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever strive
against Israel? Did he ever fight against them?
That's verse 25. When Israel, verse 26, when Israel
dwelt in Heshbon, in her towns, in Heror, in her towns, and all
the cities to be along by the coast of Arden three hundred
years, why therefore did you not recover them within that
time? Wherefore, I have not sinned against thee, but thou doest
me wrong to war against me. The Lord, the judge, be judged
this day between the children of Israel and the children of
Ammon. So the children of Ammon rejected
what he said. Look in verse 8. Howbeit the
king of the children of Ammon hearken not unto the words of
Jephthah, which he sent him." Chapter 11, verse 29. Then the
Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, and he passed over
Gilead, and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpah of Gilead, and from
Mizpah of Gilead he passed unto the children of Ammon. And Jephthah
vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said, If thou shalt without fail
deliver the children of Ammon into my hands, then it shall
be that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet
me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall
surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering."
Now, was that very wise? No. That's trying to make a payment
to the Lord. He was not wise in doing this. He was wrong in doing this. Verse
32, I'm so glad the Lord overrules our foolishness. You know, we
do a lot of wrong things. The Lord overrules it. And he overrules this. Verse
32, So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight
against them, and the Lord delivered them into his hands. The Lord
fought this battle for them, won this battle for them. They
were delivered from the children of Ammon. Verse 33, And he smote
them from Eror, even till they came to Minneth, even twenty
cities, unto the plain, and the vineyard, with a great slaughter.
Thus the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of
Israel. The Lord won this victory for
them. And Jephthah came to Mizpah,
unto his house, And behold, his daughter came out to meet
him with timbrels and with dances. And she was his only child. And
beside her he had neither son nor daughter. And it came to
pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas,
my daughter, thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one
of them that trouble me, for I have opened my mouth unto the
Lord, and I cannot go back." Can you imagine the horror he
felt when he comes back to his house and out comes his daughter? His only daughter whom he loves
so much, here she comes to meet him. And he realizes that he's
made a vow to the Lord to offer up as a burnt offering the first
one who comes to him. And he says, I can't go back.
I'm going to have to offer you up as a burnt offering. Now, I don't know of a story
that's more disturbing in all the scriptures than that one.
It makes you feel bad, doesn't it? Was he right in making this
vow in the first place? No. Was he right in keeping this
vow? No. He wasn't. I admire what he says when he
says, I can't go back. I admire that. But when I look
at this passage of scripture, what pain it must have given
him to slit his daughter's throat and set her on fire. You think about that and all
it does is make you feel bad. But you know what I get out of
that? You say, well, where's the gospel in this? How much pain, and I don't even
know how to say this, how much pain did the father feel and
poured his wrath out upon his only begotten and well beloved
son? Now, if somebody deserves punished,
let's say someone does something to one of you kids, some kind
of crime, and they have to be punished, suffer under the law,
It doesn't make you feel much pain. You think, I want to happen. Justice must happen to those
persons. But what if it was your child? You know, I don't understand
this. There's no way I can understand
this. But the Lord, when he poured his wrath out upon his son, he
did so in anger and vengeance. His son deserved to die because
my sin became his, so that he became guilty of it. He was the
lawbreaker. He was the criminal when my sin
became his, and he deserved to die. And it's also true, what
pain the father must have felt in afflicting his son. You know,
there's a story told, and I've heard it's a true story, about
a judge over somewhere in England. And he was beloved. And the townspeople loved him.
And his son committed a murder. And was found guilty. And the
townspeople loved this man so much. This judge that was so
good to them said, we're not going to punish him. We're not
going to let him come under the law. He's your boy. We can't
stand to see him put to death. The next day, early in the morning,
there was a bell ringing, and all the people of the town came
out to see what was going on. And they saw the judge's son
hanging by the neck. And he said with tears in his
eyes, nobody is above the law. He hung his own son. Do you think
that gave him pain? How much pain did it give the
father in afflicting his son on Calvary Street? I'm talking
about stuff that I just don't understand. It's just so far
beyond us. What holiness! What justice! What grace! What love that the
Father would give His Son. God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe on Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. Now, I see Jephthah, this
daughter of his, let's go on reading, verse 36. And she said of Him, My Father,
If thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord, do to me according
to that which is proceeded out of thy mouth, forasmuch as the
Lord hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even the
children of Ammon." She was willing. She was willing. And she said
unto her father, let this thing be done for me. Let me alone
two months, that I may go up and down upon the mountains and
bewail my virginity, I and my fellows. And he said, go. And
he sent her away for two months, and she went with her companions
and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains. And it came to
pass at the end of the two months that she returned unto her father,
who did with her according to his vow which he vowed. And she
knew no man, and it was a custom in Israel that the daughters
of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the
Gilead four days a year." Chapter 12 And the men of Ephraim gathered
themselves together and went northward. I think there's a
lot of significance to that. They went up. They went up. The only way to go is down. Down at his feet. But these fellows
are going up. They go northward. And the men
of Ephraim gathered themselves together and went northward and
said unto Jephthah, who had done so much for Israel, who'd seen
this happen to his daughter, they said unto Jephthah, Wherefore
passest thou over to fight against the children of Ammon, and didst
not call us to go with thee? We'll burn thine house upon thee
with fire. Now, what pride is involved?
They wanted some of the glory in this. They said, You didn't
get us involved in this, and we're going to burn you alive
because of this. What pride, what arrogance is
in their language? As a matter of fact, this has
happened before. The ephraimites were unusual. Look in chapter
eight of Judges. When Gideon had delivered the
children of Israel, but said the same thing. And the men of
Ephraim said unto him, Why hast thou served us thus, that thou
callest us not, when thou winnest to fight with the Midianites?
And they did chide with him sharply. When Moses gave the twelve tribes
their individual lands, it was only Ephraim who complained about
what he got. Now they should have been rejoicing
in what Jephthah had done for them, but instead they're mad,
they're angry, they said, we're going to burn you with fire because
we're not getting to share in the glory of any of this. Now
go back to chapter 12, verse 2. And Jephthah said unto them,
I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon,
and when I called you, you delivered me not out of their hands. Now
he did call. He did call them. And they didn't
do anything about it. All of their problems with Jephthah
came from this lie. He did call them. Verse 3, And
when I saw that you delivered me not, I put my life in my hands,
and passed over against the children of Ammon. And the Lord delivered
them into my hands. Wherefore then are you come up
unto me this day to fight against me? Then Jephthah gathered together
all the men of Gilead, and fought with Ephraim, and the men of
Gilead smote Ephraim, because they said, you Gileadites are
fugitives of Ephraim, among the Ephraimites and among the Manassites.
Now, these fellows had the religion of the Pharisee. They'd make
a difference. They said, you guys are nothing
but fugitives. You're not up on our par. You're low-class. The problem with you, you're
not, you're fugitives. You're not up to the par of us. And
this is the religion of the Pharisee, always comparing themselves with
somebody else. And listen to me. All of God's people. Are equal. There's not one above another,
there's not one below another. You see, we're all saved by the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we're all Holy brethren,
partakers of the heavenly calling. There's not one up here and one
down here. All of God's people are the same. And the religion
of the Pharisee tries to make distinctions. You guys are nothing
but fugitives. You're not up to our level. And
that is why the Gileadites fought them. What they were doing was
denying the Gospel. It's really the same thing that
happened over in Galatians chapter 2, where Peter was eating with
the Gentiles, Having a good time and then certain from James came
down and they were nervous when they saw these Jewish believers
coming. So what they did, they got up
from the table. Peter left the table and let
the Jews or the Gentiles and sit over here with the Jews because
he felt uncomfortable because he knew the Jews would disapprove
of what he's doing. And Paul reprimanded him publicly
and said, what you're doing is a denial of the gospel. It's
pure hypocrisy. And that's what was going on
here with the Ephraimites. They were trying to make a distinction.
And that's always evil. And so what took place? Verse
5. And the Gileadites took the passages
of Jordan before the Ephraimites. Now, for the Ephraimites to get
back to his land, he had to cross back over Jordan. He couldn't
stay in the land of Canaan. For him to get back into his
land, he would have to find a narrow place in the river, a shallow
place, and go back to his land over the Jordan. And the Gileadites,
first in, took the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites.
And it was so that when those Ephraimites, which were escaped,
said, let me go over, that the men of Gilead said unto him,
art thou an Ephraimite? Now, I believe if he would have
said yes. And admitted to what he was.
He would let him go back home. But when he lied. When he said,
no, I'm not one of those. He put him to the test. Verse
five. If he said no, verse six, then
said they unto him, say now, Shibboleth. And he, the Ephraimite,
said, Shibboleth. That was part of their native
tongue. They couldn't, you know, people speak in different dialects.
He could not pronounce it. He couldn't say it right. He
said, Shibboleth, for he could not claim to pronounce it right.
Then they took him and slew him at the passages of Jordan. And
there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand. Now isn't that harsh? Putting
somebody to death because they couldn't pronounce a word right?
I mean, the words are awful close, shibboleth, shibboleth. Does
it really make that much difference? Isn't that harsh to put a man
to death because he couldn't pronounce a word right? Well,
they were not put to death because they couldn't pronounce a word
right. They were put to death because it was their intention
to burn up Deptha and kill him and his house. That was their
intention, and that's why they were put to death, not because
they couldn't pronounce a word right. But the inability to pronounce
the word identified who they were. Now, there is a lot of typical
significance to this. You see, words are the index
of the heart. Out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaketh. What's in your heart is going
to come out in your speech. You know, the Lord said, by your
words, you'll be justified. And by your words, you'll be
condemned. You see, your words are going
to line up with the gospel if they're right words. And your
words will not line up with the gospel if they're not right words. And our Lord said, by your words,
you'll be justified. That's strong language, isn't
it? By your words, you'll be justified. By your words, you'll
be condemned. Now what is the significance
of Shibboleth and Sibboleth? What is the difference between
Shibboleth and Sibboleth? One letter. What? H. H. The breath of life. Turn to Genesis chapter 17. Now
remember, the best commentary on scripture is what? Scripture. You know, not just going to some
commentator, but you know, the Bible sheds so much light on
the Bible. Genesis chapter 17. Verse 3, And Abram fell on his face, and
God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant
is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Life is going to come from you,
neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name
shall be Abraham. For a father of many nations
have I made thee. Life is now in his name." Look
in verse 15 of the same chapter, And God said unto Abraham, As
for Sarah, Thy wife thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but
Sarah H. shall her name be." Now she is
the mother of many nations. Now the issue here between Shibboleth
and Sibboleth is an issue of life. Abram is now called Abraham because
life. comes from him. Sarai is now
called Sarah because life comes from her. They produce life. Now, Shibboleth or Sibboleth,
if you leave out the H, you leave out life. Shibboleth and Sibboleth sound
awful close, don't they? Very similar. But there is an
infinite difference. It was life or death to 42,000
people. Now, what is the significance
of all this? When I open this passage of scripture
or this service, what do we read? John 6? John chapter 6, verse
63, where the Lord said regarding his words, those words that many
people said, these are harsh sayings, these are hard sayings,
these are austere, they're cruel. Who can be expected to listen
to stuff like this? Who could hear such sayings?
He said those words that you call austere and hard and even
inhumane, the idea is carried within the word. He said those
words that you call harsh and austere, their words of spirit
and their words of life. Now, in that passage of scripture,
if you look at John chapter six, we've looked at it so many times,
but in that passage of scripture, the Lord lays out clearly what
we call the doctrine of grace. These are the words that they
found to be such harsh words. Total depravity. No man can come
to me, except the Father which has sent me draw him, and I'll
raise him up at the last day. Unconditional election, all that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. Limited atonement, this
is the will of him that sent me, that of all which he hath
given me I should lose nothing, but raise it up at the last day.
Irresistible grace, they shall all be taught of God. Every man,
therefore, that has heard and has learned of the Father cometh
to me. Perseverance of the saints. He that eats meat and eats my
flesh and drinks my blood will never die. He'll continue all
the way to the end. Now, that's what our Lord preached
at that time. And these people said, these are hard sayings.
These are hard sayings. Now, let's think of these sayings. Total depravity. You know, it's one thing to agree
that the Bible teaches doctrine of public depravity. And it's
an altogether different thing to believe that you yourself
are totally and absolutely depraved and you must have life given
to you or you'll perish forever in hell. And you find the only
life is the life that he gives you because you have no life
in yourself. You're dead. You find life in
these words. Talking about election, God's
choice of His people before time began. It's one thing to say,
yeah, the Bible teaches that. I mean, you can't deny it. There
it is. I read it in black and white. It's one thing to find
that and agree with it and say, yeah, I'll believe it. It's another
thing to find election absolutely necessary for your life. You
won't live unless God chooses you. And you know that there's
no life apart from that. It's one thing to believe that
the Bible does, in fact, teach that Christ's atonement was for
the elect and that it is effectual and that everybody he died for
must be saved. All you've got to do is read it. You'd see that.
I mean, I remember talking to one fellow and I was talking
about, he was a preacher, and I was talking about the death
of Christ being for the elect. I remember the guy said, you're
just trying to make sense. You know, if that's a crime,
I'm sorry, but I don't believe it because it makes sense. I
believe it because the Word of God teaches it. But you know, it
makes sense, too. It doesn't make any sense to think the Christ
could die for someone. He doesn't end up going to hell anyway,
does it? That doesn't make any sense. It's one thing to see
that, and it's another thing to see that the only way you
have life is if Jesus Christ died for you and you have no
other hope. The only hope you have is that Christ died for
you, and you find life in those words. It's not just doctrine
you agree with. It's life. It's one thing to
believe that the Bible teaches irresistible grace. It's another
thing to find irresistible grace absolutely necessary for you
to have life. There's life in these words,
and you can't hear anything else preached. You find no life in
anything but the Word of God. Now, it's one thing to say Sibyleth.
I see the Bible teaches these things, but you don't find life
in them. As a matter of fact, this kind of thinking is making
a distinction. Well, these people who don't
believe this way, they have life. They're believers, we're just
more mature believers. We just have a greater understanding.
How proud. That's evil. You're making a distinction,
just like the Ephraimites did. You guys are just fugitives.
We have a greater understanding. We're more spiritual. We have
more understanding. There's no life there. No life
at all. The difference was life. Verse 5, if he said nay, when
they asked him, are you an Ephraimite? If he said no, I believe some
of them said, yes, I'm an Ephraimite. They confessed to what they were.
And anybody who confesses their sin before God finds mercy. You can just count on that. If
you come to God as a bankrupt sinner and confess, yes, I'm
an Ephraimite, I'm a wicked, that's what I am, you'll find
mercy. But if somebody lied, are you
an Ephraimite? No, I'm not. Then they were given
the test. Say Shibboleth. You know, an Ephraimite never
can say Shibboleth. They really don't see life in
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. They can't say it. They
can't understand it. They can't. They don't get it.
They don't get it. And that one who could not say
Shibboleth was put to death. Now. Somebody's thinking. Are you saying that people have
to believe exactly like you believe? And people have to say things
the way you say them. Is that what you're saying? No. People have to believe like I
believe. I don't want you to believe like I believe just because
I believe it. But you do have to believe what God says. Everything
God says, you must believe. You must bow. Amen. What does a man have to believe
to be saved? Everything God says. I've heard people say, well,
you have to believe this, you have to believe that. I tell
you what. If I was interviewing for somebody for a job, and if
they said, well, how much can I get by with not doing? Would
you hire me? You wouldn't hire that person.
You'd know there's a real problem with that, wouldn't you? No, we don't. What do you have to believe?
Everything God says. If he says it, it must believe.
I don't necessarily understand it all, but I believe everything
he says. Oh, by God's grace, I want to say shibboleth. Now, the gospel. The gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. How God saves. Salvation by the
Trinity. Election by the Father. Redemption
by the Son. Regeneration by God the Holy
Spirit. Salvation is of the Lord. Is
that a more mature understanding? Or is that life? Shibboleth or Shibboleth? Shibboleth. May God enable us,
by His Spirit, by His grace, to say Shibboleth. Let's pray.