Classic show look forward to regarding canine consistency we assist by the Gileadite leader This speech is remarkable not only for its length but also the formality and sophistication of Jephthah's argumentation Inrig The fourth stage of Jephthah's career puts him a very different role. We do not need to pursue all the details either of the argument or of the history Jephthah recounts. But we need to notice that the illegitimate outcast and desert gang leader is now negotiating face to face with enemy A few days have brought him a very distance! He is not a tentative leader. He had been given a responsibility, and he seized it with both hands. Jephthah was a fighting and we might expect him to strike first and to ask questions later. But that was not the route he chose to go. Before he up battle lines, Jephthah sent messengers to Ammon, asking the obvious question, What is the problem? Why are you invading us and fighting against our land? He accused Ammon of unwarranted aggression, unjustified invasion. Ammon countered with a claim that had stolen Ammon's land hundreds of years earlier the time of and that he was simply seeking justice, a rightful land claim. Jephthah turned out to be as forceful and strong-minded a negotiator with the of Ammon as he had been with the tribal leaders of Gilead. He displayed a strong grasp of the historical realities and he was convinced that the story of was a story of what God had done. His response was direct and to the point: He told the Check your history. We captured the land from Sihon, the of the Amorites, not the Ammonites Next, check your theology. The Lord God of gave us this land, and we cannot surrender His gift. Live the land your god Chemosh has given you We should note that at this point Jephthah makes two mistakes. The first is that Chemosh was the god of the Moabites, not of the Ammonites, who worshiped Milcom. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, he have been considering the as the leader of alliance. seriously, he seemed to reduce Yahweh, God alone, into just another god, by his argument that Chemosh had indeed given them their land while 's God had given His people theirs. This was a huge mistake and shows how much paganism had corrupted his thinking. Finally, check your logic. For three hundred years we have held the land, and you have done nothing to recapture it. It is too late for native land claims now The significant thing is that Jephthah's answer was grounded the truths of history. He did not argue probability or dispute possibility. He stood firmly on fact. That is where a always stands. The early Christians did not set their world aflame by expressing opinions or exchanging experiences but by insisting upon the truth of who is and what He did. Our calling is the same. We do not go into the world merely telling people of our experience but proclaiming Christ, telling people who He is, what He has done, and what He requires of us. Judges 11 and they said to him, Thus says Jephthah, did not take away the land of Moab, nor the land of the sons of Ammon. Bush took not away, &c. order to evince beyond dispute, the falsehood and futility of the enemy's claims upon these lands, Jephthah goes into a recapitulation of the leading circumstances of 's coming into possession of them. He admits that they had indeed taken the territories question, but they took them not from the Ammonites or Moabites, whom they were expressly forbidden to molest on their march, but finding them possession of Sihon, of the Amorites, they took them from him just and honorable warfare, consequence of unprovoked attack upon them. It might, indeed, be true, that prior to 's arrival the country, the Amorites had taken these lands from the Moabites or Ammonites, Num. 21; 13, but