Judges 12:1 And the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together, and went northward, and said unto Jephthah, Wherefore passedst thou over to fight against the children of Ammon, and didst not call us to go with thee? We will burn thine house upon thee with fire.
Do You Have a Complex?
Napoleon was a great general, yet he was called “The Little General” because of his height. Sometimes we talk about people who have a “Napoleon complex.” People with a complex worry about how short they are, how weak they are, or how much they don’t know. A complex is defined as an emotional problem that causes someone to think or worry too much about something. When someone focuses on how tall they are, how smart they are, or how rich they are, nothing that anyone else can do can please them.
In Judges 12, we read about a tribe of people who, based upon their behavior, had a complex. In verse 1 it says, “And the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together, and went northward, and said unto Jephthah, Wherefore passedst thou over to fight against the children of Ammon, and didst not call us to go with thee? We will burn thine house upon thee with fire.” They continued to insult Jephthah, who had just had victory against their common enemy, because he had not invited them to help him in the fight. Jephthah states that he had invited them. In any event, I don’t think they would have been angry at Jephthah if he had lost.
Back in chapter 8 when Gideon had been given great victory, the men of Ephraim came to Gideon with the same complaint, “Why didn’t you let us be involved in this?” Gideon was a mighty warrior, but he was also a diplomat. Jephthah was not the diplomat. Jephthah turned on these men who were such malcontents, and eventually 42,000 of the Ephraimites were killed because God’s people turned on each other instead of on their common enemy.
A man with a complex is a very hard person to please. If I have a complex, I’m too focused upon myself. These Ephraimites would not hearken to the diplomacy and kind words of Gideon, and they kept having a problem. Instead of being consumed with how they could help God’s people, they were consumed with how they could be thought of as great when victories were won.
A person who has a complex is a hard person to please, but a person who has a heart to serve God is pleased when God is honored.