But Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the sons of Ammon, and they said to him, "Thus says Jephthah, 'Israel did not take away the land of Moab nor the land of the sons of Ammon. For when they came up from Egypt, and Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh, then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, "Please let us pass through your land," but the king of Edom would not listen. And they sent also to the king of Moab, but he would not consent. So Israel remained at Kadesh. Then they went through the wilderness, and around the land of Edom and the land of Moab, and came to the east side of the land of Moab, and they camped beyond the Arnon; but they did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab. And Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon, and Israel said to him, "Please let us pass through your land to our place." But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory; so Sihon gathered all his people and camped in Jahaz and fought with Israel. The LORD, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they defeated them; so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country. So they possessed all the territory of the Amorites, from the Arnon as far as the Jabok, and from the wilderness as far as the Jordan. Since now the LORD, the God of Israel, drove out the Amorites from before His people Israel, are you then to possess it? Do you not possess what Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whatever the LORD our God has driven out before us, we will possess it. Now are you any better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever strive with Israel, or did he ever fight against them? While Israel lived in Heshbon and its villages, and in Arnon and its villages, and in all the cities that are on the banks of the Arnon, three hundred years, why did you not recover them within that time? I therefore have not sinned against you, but you are doing me wrong by making war against me; may the LORD, the Judge, judge today between the sons of Israel and the sons of Ammon.'" But the king of the sons of Ammon disregarded the message which Jephthah sent him.
Jephthah sent messengers again: Jephthah sent his messengers back to the king of the Ammonites with what we find written in verses 15-27. Here is the gist of it: Ammonites, you have no standing for your claim, and I am going to remind you of how everything occurred in Israel's journey from Egypt to Canaan. Historically, this is what happened: Israel did not capture the territory of Moab or Ammon. What happened, says Jephthah, is that during the Exodus, Israel had arrived at Kadesh and camped there. In order to go any farther, Moses followed standard protocol of that era and sent messengers ahead of him to the king of Edom asking if they might be able to travel through his territory so that they could get to their destination, Canaan. But the king of Edom refused. After marching around Edom, Moses sent a similar message to the king of Moab, but he also refused a right of way to pass through. So in addition to marching around Edom, Israel journeyed far to the east and north in order to march about Moab to avoid any trouble with them. The Arnon River was Moab's recognized northern border, and Israel stayed north of that border to respect the king of Moab's wishes.
And Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites: Israel sends messengers to Sihon, the king of the Amorites, whose royal city was Heshbon. Sihon becomes very hostile and goes to war against Israel. Israel does nothing against Sihon. They had already proved that they would honor the territorial integrity of nations and territories which lay in the path on their journey to Canaan. The result of the attack from the Amorites was that God favored Israel. Sihon was defeated. Israel took the territory which belonged to the Amorites. The territory is now called Gilead. (Please note, Israel won against the Amorites, not the Ammonites.)
A brief history review
Israel did not take the Moabite's land from them. This is important because Moab had a much stronger claim to their land than the Ammonites. The Amorites, a very aggressive and warlike people from Mesopotamia, had come down and conquered Moab and took their land. When Israel fought the Amorites led by Sihon, they then won whatever the Amorites owned. The former territory of Moab was among those possessions. Furthermore, in keeping with Numbers 21:24, Israel made NO claim on any of Ammon's territory. Moses had been instructed by God to respect the territorial boundaries of Edom, Moab and Ammon. Why? Because Edom was the descendants of Jacob's brother Esau; Moab and Ammon were the descendants of Lot, Abraham's nephew.
To summarize, Jephthah's argument against the king of the Ammonite's claim to the land of Gilead, he says this: first, due to God's instructions, Israel had no interest in conquering or even bothering the people of Ammon. They only respectfully asked to pass through that area in order to get to Canaan. The king of the Amorites, Sihon, who ruled over the people of Ammon and Moab went to war with Israel (out of mistrust and paranoia), and because Israel won that war, whatever land the Amorites owned now by rights of conquest belonged to Israel. In fact, the land that Ammon claimed for itself had NEVER belonged to the Ammonites to begin with; it belonged to the Amorites. The Ammonites just lived there. Now it belongs to Israel since they took it from the Amorites.
Since now the LORD, the God of Israel, drove out the Amorites from before His people Israel, are you then to possess it: The second argument Jephthah makes is a theological one which begins in verse 23. Jephthah says that since the God of Israel enabled Israel to have victory over the Amorites, should Israel hand over the land to the king of Ammon? Obviously, if God gave the land to Israel, Ammon is certainly not going to be able to expel Israel now, and Israel is not going to give it up.
Do you not possess what Chemosh your god gives you to possess: In verse 24, we get a good example of the ancient oriental mind at work. We see how the people of that era viewed the role of the gods. The logic is this: God is the God of Israel. God enabled his people to win the land of the Amorites. Therefore, the land belonging to Israel's God belongs to Israel. Whatever land Chemosh has enabled his people (the Ammonites) to win is all they should have. Why would the God of Israel want to voluntarily give up land under His control to another god?
While Israel lived in Heshbon and its villages, and in Aroer and its villages, and in all the cities that are on the banks of the Arnon, three hundred years, why did you not recover them within that time: Jephthah presents a third argument in verse 26. He says Israel has dwelt in Heshbon and all its surrounding towns and villages near the Arnon River for three centuries. Why, after 300 years, do you suddenly decide the land ought to be yours? Where have you been for the last three centuries?
It is obvious the king of Ammon had no legitimate claim over the land he wanted to fight Israel for. He simply wanted it and came up with some convoluted reasoning as to why Israel ought to give it up, move out and turn it over to the Ammonites. Historically, Ammon had no legal claim to it. Theologically, Ammon had no religious claim to it. Even from a conquest standpoint, Ammon had no claim to the land because they never had conquered it, ruled it or possessed it.
We can see a replay of this scenario concerning Israel and foreign claims to their land today. History is circular, and we are reliving the time of the Judges right now. Jephthah does not make the point that no one should be upset over the land of Gilead now controlled by Israel. He does not say that no one ought to challenge Israel's right to Gilead. He says that of all people, Ammon does not have right to the land because they never owned it at any time in history. On the other hand, if the Amorites who defeated Joshua have a reason to want to reopen the subject and fight Israel to regain the land they once held, they may do so. After all, it was the Amorites who lost the land to Israel. But Ammon, they never held claim to that land at any time.
Now if Ammon was honest and said, "We are conquerors. We think we are more powerful than you. We intend to take this land from you," that is another matter. In time honored tradition, that is how boundaries of all the nations on this earth have been formed and changed and will continue to shift. It is through wars and peace treaties in which nations come and go. But instead, the king of Ammon said they had a legitimate claim to Gilead, it was their land at one time and Israel has no right to it. That is simply a false statement.
Israel still under attack today by false pretenses
Today we have a people called the Palestinians who make this same kind of false claim on Israel's land. There has never in all history been an Arab nation or a people group called the Palestinians. It is a media and Arab League invention. To say that Israel is occupying their land is the same king of bogus claim the king of Ammon is making to Jephthah. The so-called Palestinians whose faces we see on our television screens never existed prior to 1967. They are just a mixed group of refugees from several Arab nations who came to Israel to find work after Israel became a state in 1948 and stayed.
Then, when the Arab League attacked Israel with their mighty combined armies, these Arab workers fled to Jordan in masses, and they expected to return home to their choice of any former Jewish house they wanted. Israel beat back their attackers and was not about to allow these Arab workers who were loyal to the Arab League back into Israel. The Arab nations from which these workers came refused to allow these Arab peasants to return to their home nations. So now they were refugees. The strategy was to use these displaced Arabs as pawns to achieve the Arab League's political demands that Israel be turned over to the Arabs and eradicate the Jews.
Suddenly, these so-called Palestinians are an ancient people group who have been expelled from their land which is now occupied by the Jews, and the Jews are the bad guys. The media is complicit in this great lie. Most western nations of the world are so interested in maintaining a good relationship with the Arabs so that the Middle Eastern oil continues to flow, they are willing to sacrifice Israel to the Palestinians as a peace offering.
Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a Jephthah for Israel to turn to today. Israel does not seem to have a leader who will tell the Palestinians to go to the land where their god, Allah, holds sway. Israel is the land of God, the God of Israel. The Palestinians have no legitimate claim over Israel's land, they never were a nation, they never were a distinct or identifiable people group, they never possessed the land of Israel, the never conquered the land of Israel and thus they need to take their claims and problems elsewhere.
The Palestinians are taking precisely the same tact as the king of Ammon. Israel has tried over and over again to find a peaceful solution, but the only solution as far as the Palestinian leadership is concerned is complete capitulation (the same demand the king of Ammon made to Jephthah).
Jephthah realizes there is no hope to continue the negotiations. If Ammon wants Gilead, they will have to take it by force.
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