{"id":55835,"date":"2019-05-20T23:34:37","date_gmt":"2019-05-20T20:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=55835"},"modified":"2022-12-13T13:37:45","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T11:37:45","slug":"the-danger-within","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-danger-within\/","title":{"rendered":"The Danger Within"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[561,598,792],"acf":{"old_id":"55835","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34245,"related_cahpter":"223","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"As long as the Israelite house remains divided in their own eyes, it truly cannot stand","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhy did you march to fight the Ammonites without calling us to go with you?\u201d exclaim the men of Ephraim after Jephthah\u2019s war, just as they did in Gideon\u2019s days. \u201cWe\u2019ll burn your house down over you!\u201d (12:1).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is a shocking threat, and an especially cruel one at this particular moment: Jephthah, as we saw in Judges 11, is newly out of homes to burn or spare. He was cast out from his first home by his brothers years earlier, when they pointedly declared \u201cThou shalt not inherit in our father&#8217;s home.\u201d (Judges 11:2) And it was he, himself, who had (metaphorically) brought down his new home more recently, by destroying his only daughter, \u2018the first to come forth and greet him from the doors of his home\u2019. Like the bramble from Yotam\u2019s parable about another broken family, Jephthah was the source of the fire that burned those under his care.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Ephraimites\u2019 choice of words proves as self-destructive as Jephthah\u2019s own in his infamous vow: like him, they bring about their own demise. Jephthah, the man who already brought down his own home, has nothing to lose or protect. He has no reason to be cautious, to placate and flatter like Gideon, who spoke of \u201cthe gleaning of Ephraim\u201d as better than his vintage (8:2). The man whose words doomed his own daughter, is more than willing to force the Ephra\u05dfmites to say the word \u2013 \u2018sibboleth\u2019 \u2013 that will doom them to be slain. The man who never knew a brother\u2019s love is more than willing to fight his Israelite brothers now. The man who was cast out from his home by his own kin is more than willing to burn the metaphorical Israelite home upon them all.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jephthah\u2019s story reminds us that the true threat to this home never came from the outside. External enemies come and go in Judges, but the real danger always lies within. Jephthah and the Ephraimites bring their own homes down in verbal acts of self-destruction; the Israelites, likewise, doom themselves to suffer through their failure to unite. In Judges 1 they set out to wage separate wars of conquest. In later chapters they often refuse each other aid. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They perceive themselves as tribes first and Israelites second, and this self-perception brings about their failures: fighting their enemies separately, they can\u2019t complete their conquests nor keep their enemies persistently at bay. As long as the Israelite house remains divided in their own eyes, it truly cannot stand.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":55836,"id":55836,"title":"jud12-house_divided","filename":"jud12-house_divided.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud12-house_divided.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-danger-within\/jud12-house_divided\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jud12-house_divided","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":55835,"date":"2019-05-20 20:34:24","modified":"2019-05-20 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