Do you speak Christian? It is its own language, you know! But now, what dialect do you use?
The next-door neighbors to Gilead, across the Jordan, were “the men of Ephraim.” And they were miffed! “Why did you cross over to fight against the people of Ammon, and did not call us to go with you? We will burn your house down on you with fire!” they said (Jdg 12:1). I presume it was the spoils of war they had not shared. Just as with Ammon, Jephthah patiently explained, “My people and I were in a great struggle with the people of Ammon; and when I called you, you did not deliver me out of their hands. So…I took my life in my hands and crossed over against the people of Ammon; and the Lord delivered them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day to fight against me?” (vv 2-3). That all seems reasonable enough, but evidently Jephthah thought their threat against him was too much. The talk of making an end of his house pushed him over the edge. And the taunt, whatever it meant, “You Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim” (v 4), inspired the other men to join Jephthah. Again, the fords of Jordan played a prominent role, the pinch-point for anyone trying to escape to safety. Here’s what happened: “When any Ephraimite who escaped said, ‘Let me cross over,’ the men of Gilead would say to him, ‘Are you an Ephraimite?’ If he said, ‘No,’ then they would say to him, ‘Then say, “Shibboleth”!’ And he would say, ‘Sibboleth,’ for he could not pronounce it right. Then they would take him and kill him at the fords of the Jordan” (vv 5-6). In this way, “there fell at that time forty-two thousand Ephraimites.” What a sad reminder of all the infighting between believers because one person doesn’t say things quite like another. Paul warns, “If you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!” (Gal 5:15).