FBC Morning Light – April 22, 2023

Saturday morning, people of faith. If you are an avid listener to the daily devotionals, most weeks you'll notice that that pastor doesn't change his clothes Monday through Friday. And I want to say that's because he's a little more sophisticated than I am, because if you've watched the last three Saturdays, I had the same clothes on.

And so he changes his clothes once a week apparently, and I change my clothes once every three weeks, maybe. Anyway, we're in Judges chapters 11 and 12 today. And just a little bit of background, the Judges chapters 11 and 12 talk about the judge called Jephthah.

And Jephthah is widely known for a very controversial passage about a vow concerning his daughter, and I'm going to try and stay away from that. If you want more information on that, there's a message that pastor gave about a year and a half ago, and it would be on the church's website.

I believe it would have been in October of 2021. Anyway, Jephthah was an illegitimate child of his father, and he was a mighty man of valor and was recruited by his brothers after his brothers had driven him off, and because he was a better fighter than them, better leader than them, and was recruited to fight the people of Ammon.

Well, he did that. The Lord gave them success in that battle, and they had to cross over the Jordan River from the tribal land of Manasseh to the tribal land of Ephraim to do so. And when that happened, the tribe of Ephraim was offended, and well, they came to Jephthah to threaten him for not calling them to join the battle.

And he says, well, I did do so, and you didn't join, so I had to go and take matters into my own hands in that sense. And so, there was a bit of a skirmish, a war if you would, that broke out between the Manassites and the Ephraimites, and the Manassites won that battle, and the Ephraimites were fleeing, and as they were fleeing, the Manassites had control over the region of the Jordan where the Ephraimites needed to cross.

And it says, and the men of Gilead defeated Ephraim because they said, you Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim among the Ephraimites and among the Manassites. The Gileadites seized the fords of the Jordan before the Ephraimites arrived, and when any Ephraimite who escaped said, let me cross over, the men of Gilead would say to him, are you an Ephraimite?

If he said no, then they would say to him, then say Shibboleth. If he said, and he would say Sibboleth before he could not pronounce it right, and at that point that would be a tell that they would not be who they said they were and would be then killed for it as part of that battle.

Shibboleth as a Mark of Identity

Well, that word Shibboleth has taken on a meaning within even current language of today. A Shibboleth is something that gives away who you are, and I wanted to point out an example of that from the Gospels.

This is the Gospel of Mark chapter 14 and says in middle of 69, it says, and a little later those who stood by said to Peter again, surely you are one of them for you are a Galilean and your speech shows it.

Remember that was Peter as he was kind of following along with what was going on with Jesus as Jesus had been taken and was being eventually led to the cross, and what did Peter do? He then denied it and cursed and in response to this, and so that Shibboleth for Peter was his Galilean speech that gave him away as a follower of Christ.

Being Recognized as Those Who Have Been with Jesus

Let me look at another example here, and this is from Acts chapter 4. It says, now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled and they realized that they had been with Jesus, and so the Shibboleth there is that these men, Peter and John, their lives were transformed because they had been with Jesus, and so in all of our lives there are things that will be a tell, a Shibboleth for who we are and what we do, and let's take a look and take a step back and not be like Peter in denying our Lord, but let that mark be upon us that we are the Lord's people, that we will not deny who Jesus is when we are pressed, when we are given away as a follower of Christ.

Let us not be ashamed of that good news. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word, and may we be known and accept to be known as your people and not having a righteousness of our own, but our righteousness is based on the finished work of Christ.

It's in your Son's name, Jesus, we pray. Amen. Have an excellent day, people of faith.