Death... That's what you would get from the men of Gilead for having an accent... That is how they discerned whether someone was the enemy or not. Sounds a little like racial profiling. But, this isn't even between races. This discrimation, this division, this dissension is within the family of Israel. 42,000 Ephraimites fell to the men of Gilead at that time. And... Jephthah died after 6 years of judging Israel.
As I was helping my granddaughter with her social studies class the other day, she asked me which president was my favorite. I couldn't think of a favorite. Many of them were pretty ineffectual presidents. I don't mean to disparage them. They just were. And even those presidents who had wonderful or just awful things happen during their presidency a whole lot of that really was because they just happened to be president at the time - they were in the right or wrong place at the right or wrong time. Not because the men themselves were so great or so small. It just was or is. Leaders are like that. There have been very few who have really had a tremendous impact. If we're going to talk about great leaders, I would have to go with people like Martin Luther King, Jr.. or Gandhi. They made impacts - real impacts on the lives of people. In a republic or a democracy, people who are running for presidency may think they can make major changes to benefit the people (or themselves). The reality is they don't, because they can't. The system isn't set up that way. Most presidents have very little effect on anything, other than what congress or senate or the people allow them to do. Except maybe they can stall the progress of the country by causing dissension as sometimes those judges in the O.T. would do. With rare exception, presidents and other political leaders are essentially about as ineffective and uninspiring as the rest of us...
And, so it seems were some of the judges. Following Jephthah's death, Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel for 7 years; Elon the Zebulinte judged Israel for 10 years; and Abdon the Pirathonite judged Israel for 8 years. There is not much said about these 3 judges other than Abdon's 40 sons and 30 grandson road on seventy donkeys and Ibzan had his children marry outside of their clan. Pretty uneventful 25 years here...
As I was helping my granddaughter with her social studies class the other day, she asked me which president was my favorite. I couldn't think of a favorite. Many of them were pretty ineffectual presidents. I don't mean to disparage them. They just were. And even those presidents who had wonderful or just awful things happen during their presidency a whole lot of that really was because they just happened to be president at the time - they were in the right or wrong place at the right or wrong time. Not because the men themselves were so great or so small. It just was or is. Leaders are like that. There have been very few who have really had a tremendous impact. If we're going to talk about great leaders, I would have to go with people like Martin Luther King, Jr.. or Gandhi. They made impacts - real impacts on the lives of people. In a republic or a democracy, people who are running for presidency may think they can make major changes to benefit the people (or themselves). The reality is they don't, because they can't. The system isn't set up that way. Most presidents have very little effect on anything, other than what congress or senate or the people allow them to do. Except maybe they can stall the progress of the country by causing dissension as sometimes those judges in the O.T. would do. With rare exception, presidents and other political leaders are essentially about as ineffective and uninspiring as the rest of us...
And, so it seems were some of the judges. Following Jephthah's death, Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel for 7 years; Elon the Zebulinte judged Israel for 10 years; and Abdon the Pirathonite judged Israel for 8 years. There is not much said about these 3 judges other than Abdon's 40 sons and 30 grandson road on seventy donkeys and Ibzan had his children marry outside of their clan. Pretty uneventful 25 years here...
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