I'm supposed to be moving on to Samson soon. But here's the part of Jephthah's story that gets forgotten by me and others, but it also introduced the term "shibboleth" into out culture. In our culture, "shibboleth" means, "a custom, principle, or belief distinguishing a particular class or group of people, especially a long-standing one regarded as outmoded or no longer important."
It's not a good thing.
But anyway, this story goes back to Jacob's family. Jacob had two wives and two concubines. Their soap opera is found in Genesis 29-30. Jacob loved Rachel more than he loved Leah, but Leah was the older one, the first wife, and the one who bore six of his 12 sons and one daughter. Rachel finally had two sons. Her first was Joseph. Jacob loved Joseph the best and adopted his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, as his own. They became tribes in Israel. Apparently, those two tribes must have had bad blood or something. Or possibly it was the two Joseph tribes versus Gilead, which was a clan of Manasseh who stayed on the east side of the Jordan river. Jephthah was from Manasseh and fought to save Israel from the Ammonites.
Ephraim came late and said, "Why didn't you call us to help with the Ammonites? We're going to burn down your house." Jeph replied that he did call, they said no, and he won. Why are they causing this drama now? So conflict brewed and a battle was fought. Gilead won. And then, if ever an Ephraimite tried to cross the river, a guard would tell him, "Say 'Shibboleth'". Ephraimites could only say, "Sibboleth." If he said it without the "sh" sound, then the guard would kill him.
Sometimes I wonder about Jephthah. Did losing his daughter over his foolish vow tip him over the edge? It seems many men after some personal tragedy usually do something to ruin their reputations forever. It seems like the incidents that got Bill Cosby in trouble with sexual assault happened after he lost his son to a murder. It seems that RC Sproul, Jr. kept falling off the wagon with vices after he lost his first wife to cancer. It shows two things.
1) When people suffer a loss, don't let them be alone. They are suffering and need Christians around them to remind them of God's promises and his commands. They need support. If hurting people go unsupervised for long, their wounds will explode into further trauma.
2) If you suffer a loss, look to the past mistakes of others and never say, "this won't happen to me." Keep going to church or start going. Endure the awkward conversations and the dumb things that people say. And remember, although life is hard and people fail you, God has never made a mistake and will never change. He has not stopped loving you, and he will keep you until he calls you home. Believe in him. Don't be alone, and don't just lay down and die. Do what Switchfoot says, "I dare you to move. I dare you to life yourself up off the floor."
I experienced a really bad job loss in October. I didn't stop even though I wanted to. It turns out my life was not over. I got a job at a restaurant, and in the new year I began running for my sanity and volunteering for a pregnancy center. I also go involved with Celebrate Recovery and my music skills have improved much. I still feel very alone as some tragedies have more stigma than others, although that should not be the case. We all have problems and we all need God's grace and to show God's grace. But I also need to beware that I have to work harder not to make the same mistakes as before. I don't know how I'll do it but I must move forward.
And Israel moved forward with three judges before Samson: Ibzan, Elon, and Abdan.
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