The Judges. Day 41, Jephthah Tries To Reason With The Ammonites, Part One

The Ammonites are oppressing and attacking the Israelites. The people of Jephthah's hometown of Gilead have asked him to head up the army to fight back against the Ammonites. But first Jephthah tries to reason with the enemy.

"Then Jephthah sent messengers to the Ammonite king with the question: 'What do you have against me that you have attacked my country?' The king of the Ammonites answered Jephthah's messengers, 'When Israel came up out of Egypt, they took away my land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, all the way to the Jordan. Now give it back peaceably.'" (Judges 11:12-13) When the king says "my land" he doesn't mean he was alive when Israel took hold of the region in question. He could not possibly have been alive and king of the Ammonites when this took place. What he is saying is, "Your people took the land of my people. We want it back. You can avoid war with us if you'll turn this area back over to us."

But what he's saying isn't true. The Israelites did not take from the Ammonites the region in question. The Israelites took this particular stretch of land from the Amorites who had taken it from the Ammonites long before the Israelites left Egypt. It was Amorite territory---not Ammonite territory---when the Israelites came out of Egypt. And the only reason the Israelites fought the Amorites in this region and won control of the land "from the Arnon to the Jabbok" was because King Sihon and King Og of the Amorites opposed them with their armies and would not allow them safe passage on their way to the promised land. 

At some time in the very distant past, there was a conflict between the Amorites and the Ammonites. The Amorites were successful in gaining hold of the stretch of land between the Arnon and the Jabbok either in one big war or through a succession of smaller battles. The Amorites kept hold of this territory for an unspecified amount of time until the Israelites came out of Egypt and were on their way to the promised land. When the Israelites asked the leaders of the Amorites to allow them safe passage through this territory, the leaders not only refused but came out with their soldiers in battle array to prevent them from reaching the promised land. The Israelites fought the Amorites and took control of the region from them. So it is not accurate for the Ammonite king to claim the Israelites came and took his people's land. It was not his people's land when the Israelites took it. It was the land of the Amorites when the Israelites took it. 

"Jephthah sent back messengers to the Ammonite king, saying: 'This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites.'" (Judges 11:14-15) After the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt, He forbade them to take land that was in the possession of the Moabites and the Ammonites at that time. This is because the Moabites and the Ammonites were related to the Israelites. Moab and Ammon were the sons of Lot, the nephew of Abraham. But the Lord's order not to harass the Moabites and the Ammonites did not apply to land that had been in the possession of those peoples in the past but no longer was in their possession. The Lord had allowed the Amorites to take away from the Ammonites the region from the Arnon to the Jabbok and later He allowed the Israelites to take this region away from the Amorites. But He did not tell the Israelites to release this portion of land back to the Ammonites. 

As it has been throughout history, land belongs to whoever can conquer it and keep hold of it. The Ammonites lost the battle long ago for the region between the Arnon and the Jabbok. They lost this stretch of land to the Amorites and, when the Amorites fought the Israelites and the Israelites won this stretch of land from them, the Israelites were in no way obligated to restore it to the Ammonites who lost it somewhere way back in the past. Jephthah is saying to the king of the Ammonites, "Your beef is with the Amorites, not with me and my people. We didn't take anything from you. The region between the Arnon and the Jabbok was not yours when we came out of Egypt."

In tomorrow's passage Jephthah will give the king a history lesson---a lesson about Israel's history which explains how and why the Israelites are now in possession of the disputed territory. He will conclude the lesson by stating that it was the will of God for the Amorites to take the region from the Ammonites and that it was the will of God for the Israelites to take the region for the Amorites in return for the Amorites' cruel refusal to allow passage. Then he will tell the Ammonite king if he is not happy with this arrangement, the Ammonite god Chemosh is welcome to take the matter up with the living God. The king will not listen to reason and will soon see whose god is real and whose is not.