Division not Unity

 DEVOTION

JUDGES

DIVISION NOT UNITY

Judges 12:1-6

12:1 The men of Ephraim called out their forces, crossed over to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, "Why did you go to fight the Ammonites without calling us to go with you? We're going to burn down your house over your head." 2 Jephthah answered, "I and my people were engaged in a great struggle with the Ammonites, and although I called, you didn't save me out of their hands. 3 When I saw that you wouldn't help, I took my life in my hands and crossed over to fight the Ammonites, and the LORD gave me the victory over them. Now why have you come up today to fight me?" 4 Jephthah then called together the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. The Gileadites struck them down because the Ephraimites had said, "You Gileadites are renegades from Ephraim and Manasseh." 5 The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim, and whenever a survivor of Ephraim said, "Let me cross over," the men of Gilead asked him, "Are you an Ephraimite?" If he replied, "No," 6 they said, "All right, say 'Shibboleth.'" If he said, "Sibboleth," because he could not pronounce the word correctly, they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites were killed at that time.

NIV

What is wrong with people? Why would the men of Ephraim be so upset because they were not called to war against the Ammonites, that they would burn down the house of Jephthah while he was in it? Then, finding out that Jephthah did call them and they did not answer is more confusing for those people. Was it because they were not going to share in the plunder because they did not fight? We just don’t know the thinking of the men of Ephraim, but it seems that the hearts of men are bent to evil more than we want to believe. Of course, they got what was coming because of their arrogant thinking that they were stronger than the fighting men of Gilead, under the leadership of Jephthah. There must have been some difference in the dialects of the Gileadites and the Ephraimites regarding the word “Shibboleth,” which means a flowing stream, but leaving that “h” did not sound the same as the Gileadites sounding that word, thus revealing their true identity. Was it just over the difference in dialect that caused such a division, as they all were of Israelite descent? Could that be our lesson? Paul tells us in his letter to the Galatians that we are all in Christ, whether Jew, Gentile, free or slave, male or female. However, it seems there might be some division within the body of Christ because of our language or our pattern of speech, or cultural differences, as well as our doctrinal preferences. We have witnessed an almost hatred of certain Pentecostal churches by certain Baptist churches, and then heard Pentecostals voice dissent against the Catholic beliefs, even when there was a great Charismatic movement within the Catholic church, with many being filled with the Spirit. On and on we heard such division instead of a unity in Christ. When we consider the immense number of different Christian denominations, all because of some slight difference of beliefs in the scripture, to even cause arguments and disdain for one another is not what Jesus approves. We should be building each other up until we all reach unity in the faith. If we all love the Lord and have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, no matter how we voice that language, if in our hearts we love Almighty God, the Father, Son, and the Spirit, we are brothers and sisters in Christ. Let us not be the cause of division, but of unity in Christ.