Man, Judges chapter number eight, the Bible reads in verse one, "And the men of Ephraim
said unto him, Why hast thou served us thus, that thou callest us not, when thou wentest
to fight with the Midianites, and they did chide with him sharply?"
Let me bring you up to speed quickly in the story here.
If you remember, Gideon had gone against this innumerable multitude with only 300 men, and
they had the lamps and the pitchers.
They blew the trumpets.
They shattered the pitchers, scared the enemy.
God just miraculously worked this thing out that they would win this very unlikely victory.
And so when the enemy is on the run, then let's back up just a few verses to catch the
end of chapter seven so that chapter eight will make sense.
Verse 24, "And Gideon sent messengers throughout all Mount Ephraim saying, 'Come down against
the Midianites and take before them the waters unto Beth-Berah and Jordan.'
Then all the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together and took the waters unto Beth-Berah
and Jordan.
And they took two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeb, and they slew Oreb upon the
rock Oreb and Zeb, they slew at the winepress of Zeb, that's obviously where those places
got their names, and pursued Midian and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeb to Gideon.
On the other side, Jordan.
That flows directly into the thought in verse one here, and the men of Ephraim said unto
him.
So the men of Ephraim that are saying this are the ones we just read about in the last
two verses.
So when Gideon's got the enemy on the run, he sends messengers ahead that they would
kind of cut them off at the pass, you know, and that they would basically get to this
river that they needed to cross and be there to ambush them so that basically he's coming
from behind and then they can head him off at the pass and then boom, we got him.
That's the idea here.
And so this is a success.
It works out great.
But then the men of Ephraim just have this stupid objection that makes no sense.
They should all just be happy that they won.
We won the battle, the enemies defeated, Zeba and Zalmana, or Oreb and Zeb rather, are taken
care of.
But instead they whine about it and say, "Why didn't you call us when you went to fight
with the Midianites?
Why did you just call us at the very end to do this?"
This makes no sense.
Who cares?
You see, what we can learn from this is that whatever God wants us to do, whatever job
He has for us, we should just be happy to be a part of the team serving God in whatever
capacity we can serve, not necessarily that we're in the vanguard all the time.
You've got the 300 guys that are the heroes of the story, but everyone had a role to play
in the story.
God had a plan.
God had a plan for the 300 men, but He also had a plan for the Ephraimites.
The Ephraimites were just as necessary.
They had maybe the less glamorous part of the job, but that's not the point.
And in the work of Christ, there's no place for ego.
There's no place for pride.
It's all about being a part of the team, everybody doing the job that God has called them to
do, everybody in their place, and it doesn't matter whether your job is more or less glamorous.
In fact, the Bible says the parts of the body of Christ that are the less glamorous, obviously
I'm paraphrasing because the Bible doesn't use the word glamorous, but those less glamorous
parts of the body, the Bible says upon them we bestow more honor.
In 1 Corinthians chapter number 12 when it talks about how the body is important and
it's not that the foot is more important than the hand or that the nose is more important
than the ear, because we can't just be all ear, there'd be no smelling, right?
We can't be all nose, there's no hearing.
You've got to have all the parts of the body, so just be happy to do whatever work God has
given you, whatever calling you've been called to, and not have this attitude of, "Well,
I've got to be number one, I've got to be in the limelight, I've got to get accolades,"
or whatever.
Because I can't see a right motive for what they're saying here in verse 1, of saying,
"Well, why didn't we get to go at the beginning?"
Because God said no, because God specifically said it's only these 300 guys.
He didn't want 32,000 troops.
He didn't want 22,000 troops.
He didn't want 10,000 troops.
He wanted 300 troops.
That was God's plan.
And so don't be in the work of Christ or be in the battle for the wrong reasons, looking
for personal glory or fame or gain.
Rather, be in it for the right reason of wanting to win, wanting the work of Christ to go forward.
Because if that's your motive, then it doesn't really matter who's doing it.
You know, let's say for example, someone leaves our church and goes to another church that's
also a Bible-believing, soul-winning church.
Is there any issue with that?
Is there any problem with that?
Would that make us sad in any way?
Absolutely not.
You know, if somebody says to me, "Hey, you know, I'm moving and I'm going to go to this
other church," if it's a righteous church, or even if they're going to drive across town
to a righteous church, more power to them.
And it's not just about building our own little kingdom here, or our little team, or whatever.
Like this tribal mentality of Ephraim versus Manasseh, or whatever.
Is that really what God had in mind with the twelve tribes of Israel?
No.
It's all about them being the people of God, and it doesn't matter what tribe you are.
They're supposed to all be on the same team.
They're all for the Lord, against the Midianites, the Ishmaelites, the Philistines.
People are worshiping other gods, but rather they're on the same team, and so we shouldn't
have this attitude of being really tribal or territorial or wanting fame or accolades
for ourself.
And, you know, it's childish, because think about this.
If you have toddlers, you've experienced this.
I'll tell one of my little tiny kids, "Hey, would you throw this in the trash for me?"
And another one will jump in.
I'll throw it in the trash.
Grabs it, beats him to it, throws it in the trash, and then he goes like, "Ahhh!"
I wanted to throw it in the trash.
That doesn't really make sense, does it?
All right, "Hey, would you grab me a cup of water?
I'll do it!"
Boom!
And then they get it down, "Ahhh!"
Basically, that's what's going on here.
Why didn't I get to do the job?
But when you mature, you just care that the water was brought and that the trash was thrown
away, and you don't care who did it.
That's a mature attitude.
Well, that's the way we should look at the work of Christ.
Hey, we don't care who knocked the doors, we don't care who won the souls, just so long
as it gets done.
You know, we don't care what church people go to, so long as they're in a good church.
Who cares if it's our church, their church, his church, doesn't matter, does it?
As long as we're all serving Christ, that's what matters.
Like I remember there was this Bozo who basically, you know, he wanted to be a pastor someday,
and he had this city all picked out, and this guy was light years from ever being a pastor.
But in his mind, he's got the city all picked out, then he heard about someone else going
there and starting a church there, and he's like, "Oh, man, that's where I was..."
It's like, you know what that shows?
It's not that he cares about the people of that city, or that he wants the work of Christ
to happen in that geography, it's just that he wants to be a big shot.
And that's what we see in this passage.
So they chided with him sharply over no good reason.
Look at verse number two, and this is Gideon speaking, and he said to them, "What have
I done now in comparison of you?
Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer?
God hath delivered into your hands the princes of Midian or Ebonzibe, and what was I able
to do in comparison of you?"
Then their anger was abated toward him when he had said that.
And what we see here is that Gideon understands the concept that a sharp answer, or I'm sorry,
a soft answer turns away wrath.
A soft answer turneth away wrath.
Even though they chode with him sharply, and even though they're 100% wrong, yet Gideon
gives them a soft answer, because sometimes it's just not worth fighting with people that
are being stupid.
You don't have to fight with every single person and argue with every single person,
even if you know for sure that you're right and they're wrong and they're coming at you
mad.
You know, let's say you're out in public and somebody gets mad about the way you drove
or whatever, just smile, sorry, and just let it go, because the soft answer turneth away
wrath.
Especially this principle goes with your neighbors.
You do not want to get in a fight with your neighbors, because you have to live with them.
Somebody was telling me, I think it was my dad, was telling me about some kind of a reality
show or a documentary about neighbors getting so mad that they actually would just be violent
or kill one another or something.
It was called like, what was it called?
No, I mean, we all know about the Hatfields and the McCoys, but it was, does anybody know
what I'm talking about though?
It was some kind of a program.
It's on the tip of my tongue.
It was something about like, "Beware of thy neighbor" or something, I don't know.
It had a funny title.
But anyway, the point is, it was about these situations where people would get in some
kind of an argument with their neighbors and it would just keep escalating, like the Hatfields
and the McCoys or whatever.
And it would just keep escalating.
And I'm telling you, it's easy for this to happen when people have a big ego or people
are prideful and they can start over something stupid, you know.
The neighbors make it too much noise and you tell them to quiet down.
It's like, well, how dare you tell me to quiet down or, you know, this tree is growing over
into my property so I'm just like, you know, and just chop that part off.
Your dog did his business on my lawn or whatever.
These are the type of dumb things that can escalate and get out of control and get out
of hand and sometimes or your kid punched my kid in the face or vice versa or whatever.
Yeah, but he told me to do it or, you know, or we were play fighting, you know.
I just hit harder than him, you know.
He hit me first or, you know, these kind of things can escalate and get out of control.
If you're smart, when these type of things happen, you want to de-escalate the situation
even if you're right because it's not worth it to get into a feud with your neighbors
and then your neighbors are retaliating by they call the city on you because your weeds
got a little too high or you did something without a permit or something and, you know,
they can find ways to retaliate or it could get even more serious like my dad was telling
me about.
So the point is that, you know, you want to de-escalate these things.
The Bible says, "A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger."
And the Bible also says, "Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and the ringing
of the nose bringeth forth blood.
So the forcing of wrath bringeth forth strife."
Have force wrath.
Don't fight every battle, die on every hill.
Just let things go.
And here Gideon is 100% right, they're totally wrong, and they have the wrong attitude, and
they're speaking sharply to him, so he could have just turned around and been sharp back.
But you know what?
It's just not worth it.
Because what's the reality here?
The men of Ephraim just helped him out, didn't they?
Did they help him out?
I mean, they helped him out.
They were a necessary part.
I'm serving God, you're serving God.
I was in the battle, you were in the battle.
We both accomplished something.
We both did something for God.
You have a stupid attitude about it, but you know what?
He just instead turns it around, and here's what he does.
He compliments them.
Instead of saying, "You know, you got a lot of nerve.
We already, you know, you guys showed up when I already had them on the run.
You know, you guys just came and did a little clean up or whatever."
Instead, he turns around and basically says, "Well, you guys had the most important job.
You did the big thing by catching Oreb and Zeb.
And what could I do in comparison to you?"
And he also sort of plays on their geographical pride by saying, "Well, it's not the gleaning
of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abe Baezer."
He's saying, "You know, you guys, your wine country or your produce of grapes is actually
of a higher quality than what we even have.
I mean, you guys are wealthy.
You guys are doing great.
We're nothing."
You know what I mean?
You really, you guys really were the ones who are showing out there on the battlefield
today.
And then they're just like, "Oh, well, yeah, I guess, you know, yeah, I guess you're kind
of right.
I see what you're saying."
And it says at the end of verse three, "Then their anger was abated toward him when he
had said that."
And what have we been saying about Gideon already over the last couple weeks?
We've been saying that he's a humble guy.
And that's why he's able to do this.
That's why he's able to say something like this and compliment their geography.
It's just like today in the United States of America, you know, there's a little bit
of a rivalry between states.
You know, certain states that just think they're so cool and better than everybody.
You know, I don't want to name any names, but Texas, excuse me.
You know what I mean?
They're just like, oh man, you know, we're so cool.
There's certain states that feel that way.
And then other states are like, no, we're the best.
We're the coolest.
You know, there's this big argument who had the first rodeo.
You know, is it Payson, Arizona, or is it Odessa, Texas or whatever?
And that's some kind of a, and I don't even know if it's Odessa.
What is it?
Well, it doesn't matter because we all know it's from Payson.
We all know Payson is the original rodeo, and there's no awards for second place.
Second place is the first loser!
No, I'm just kidding.
Anyway, no, but the point, you're right, it is Pecos, Texas, yeah.
It's Pecos versus Payson, amen.
But the point, who cares?
But the point is, you know, people, they do get really proud of their geography and they're
really into being from wherever, and they think it's the coolest place, whatever.
So he's like, "Hey, you guys are from a really cool place."
See, he's humble enough to compliment other people, play up their achievement, play down
his own achievement.
Why?
For peace, because you know what's going to happen if this situation escalates?
People are going to die.
In fact, if you don't believe me, flip over to chapter 11, I'm sorry, chapter 12.
Flip over to chapter 12 in the very same book, very same people, very similar situation.
Look at Judges chapter 12 verse 1, "And the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together
and went northward and said unto Jephthah, "Wherefore passeth thou over to fight against
the children of Ammon, and didst not call us to go with thee?
Sound familiar?
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 you come up unto me this day to fight against me?"
You know, he's like, "What is your problem?
I needed help.
You guys weren't there.
You failed to show up.
I had to do your job for you."
And then what happens?
Obviously, this thing escalates, and then it ends up being a big battle.
And of course, Jephthah wins, and the Ephraimite people, I mean, they're the ones who suffer
the casualties, but isn't it just better if nobody dies and you can just resolve things?
Because both people are supposed to be on the Lord's side.
So if you can get along with people, that's better, especially when your brothers and
sisters in Christ, you know, that would be the symbolism here, because these are all
the people of the Lord here.
You don't want to have that civil war between God's people within the nation of Israel.
So it's better, and the Bible says that we should strive to live peaceably with all men
if it's at all possible.
And so I prefer Gideon's approach in chapter 8 to Jephthah's approach in chapter 12, because
in chapter 8 there's no bloodshed, because he just de-escalates with the soft answer
turning away wrath.
So back to chapter 8, but then we're going to get to some people that Gideon doesn't
have any patience for.
So Gideon placates the big ego guys from Ephraim, soft answer turns away wrath, because you
know what, they were participating and they just had a weird attitude.