Vain Glory

"And the men of Israel gathered themselves together out of Naphtali, and out of Asher, and out of all Manasseh, and pursued after the Midianites. And Gideon sent messengers throughout all mount Ephraim, saying, Come down against the Midianites, and take before them the waters unto Bethbarah and Jordan. Then all the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together, and took the waters unto Bethbarah and Jordan. And they took two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeeb; and they slew Oreb upon the rock Oreb, and Zeeb they slew at the winepress of Zeeb, and pursued Midian, and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side Jordan. And the men of Ephraim said unto him (Gedeon), Why hast thou served us thus, that thou calledst us not, when thou wentest to fight with the Midianites? And they did chide with him sharply. And he said unto them, What have I done now in comparison of you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer? God hath delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb: and what was I able to do in comparison of you? Then their anger was abated toward him, when he had said that." (Judges 7:23-9:3 AV)

And the men of Ephraim said unto him, Why hast thou served us thus, that thou calledst us not, when thou wentest to fight with the Midianites? And they did chide with him sharply. And he said unto them, What have I done now in comparison of you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer? God hath delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb: and what was I able to do in comparison of you? Then their anger was abated toward him, when he had said that. And Gideon came to Jordan, and passed over, he, and the three hundred men that were with him, faint, yet pursuing them. And he said unto the men of Succoth, Give, I pray you, loaves of bread unto the people that follow me; for they be faint, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of Midian. And the princes of Succoth said, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in thine hand, that we should give bread unto thine army? (Judges 8:1-6 AV)

Here we have two records from the book of Judges, they are similar in certain areas; but the outcomes are very different.

The first one is about Gideon, who was used by God to defeat the Midianites. During the battle, he sent people to Ephraim to ask for help; his help did come and even slew two princes of Midianites: Oreb and Zeeb. Afterwards, his Ephraim helpers scolded Gideon that he did not ask for their help earlier enough. On the other hand, we can almost be sure that if Gideon was not winning the battles, he would not see any help at all. Gideon knew that these people was seeking after vain glory, however in the midst of the urgency of chasing the enemy, he swallowed his displeasure, by saying:" What have I done now in comparison of you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer? God hath delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb: and what was I able to do in comparison of you?" He basically said that you were far superior than me, even God gave you these two princes, and I cannot compare with you. His humility pacificied the Ephraim army.

This was not easy for Gideon to withhold his anger to humble himself, particularly knowing their selfish motivation.

However the reaction of Jephthah was quite different. When Jephthah had a great battle with the Ammonites, Ephraim refused to help him. When God gave the Ammonites in the hand of Japhthah, the Ephraimites then gathered up an army to threaten to burn down Japhthah house (certainly to kill him and his family), because he did not ask for their help. However, this time they received their cursed punishment, because Jephthah gathered up his army to war with them, and 42,000 Ephraimites were killed.

In these two records, Ephraimites appeared to have a tendency to look for vain glory and would take revenge if they did not get what they want. They are so unpredictable and in fact worse than enemies. This record also tells us that sinners can only get so many times, and God will deal with them heavily.

In the Bible, Ephraim always represents the world. The world are driven by the desires of fame, recognition, accomplishment, possession, and even unlawful gain. The people of this world want others to look them with awe, yet look down upon those that are not as good as them. The attitude of this has brought in two consequences: the first one is they fill up this planet with hatred and strife. The second one is that they miss the lowly Jesus and his work of salvation.