Jealousy Will Erupt into Something Else

Judges 12

I have an older sister and as we are both adults we get along for the most part. We can be around each other and enjoy each other’s company without yelling, “STOP touching me!”Or without hitting each other. It is nice that we can do this now but when we were younger we would get in some gnarly fights. We would yell at each other, we would hit each other, we would say mean things to each other. I have seen some of you with your brothers or sisters and it is the same thing, almost war will break out between you. We normally would get into fights over the littlest things. Either someone was jealous over the other person or angry that they got something that they did not.

In this chapter of Judges we see Japhthah who just delivered Israel from the Ammonites now have a conflict with the tribe of Ephraim.

We Will Burn Your House Down

After his battle with the Ammonites as well as giving his daughter up to the Lord we see that the men of Ephraim came up to him and said, “How come you did not ask us to go to battle with you?” Because he did not they were going to burn his house down. Man, talk about bad attitudes. Could you imagine today if someone was mad because you did not invite them somewhere that they said they would burn your house down. No way, they did not mess around back then. 

Japhthah just took it like a grain of salt and said, “Actually I invited you fools, but you did not want to come and because of that, YOU WILL PAY.” Because of this little skirmish, Gilead, the tribe of Jephthah killed 42,000 Ephraimites. That was a lot of blood shed over this issue.

The Ephraimites were jealous of Japhthah and Gilead’s success and because of their jealousy it lead to fighting. Many times in our families we can get jealous of what our brothers or sisters may receive and we did not. We may get jealous of their opportunities and not like them because of that. Jealousy is a very dangerous deception because it starts eating the jealous person up. One who is jealous can become bitter and hate everyone and everything. King Saul was jealous of David as people would sing, “Saul killed his thousand and David his tens of thousands.” David was one who walked with the Lord, was happy, and was successful. Saul was failing as a leader, not walking with the Lord, and was losing his popularity. Are you filled with jealousy towards your brother or sister? What about a friend or someone at school? Do you act out in your jealousy? Proverbs 13:40 tells us that jealousy rots life away and that is so true. Be careful and know what where you are with jealousy, if you dance with it, it will overtake you. I always need to ask the Lord to take away any of that stuff and be grateful of where I am. Jealousy can ruin you, BE CAREFUL!