Have you ever heard about the war that was lost by a single screw? The screw that held in place the wheel of a chariot which fell because it became loose. The wheel broke off the chariot as a result of the fallen screw. The chariot crashed because of the broken wheel that had a single screw fall off. The general who rode in the chariot crashed because of the wheel that broke off because of the fallen screw. The battle was lost due to the death of the general who rode in the chariot that crashed as a result of the wheel that broke because of the fallen screw. The war was lost as a result of the key battle which was lost due to the death of the general who rode in the chariot that crashed because of a broken wheel that had lost a single screw. The moral of this short story can be summarized in this phrase: The devil, is in the details. One of the greatest threats we have in our Christianity is becoming complacent in our lives, which will result in becoming tolerant. Repeatedly, our God exhorts His people to be diligent in all manners of living so He may grant them eternal salvation (2nd Peter 3:14). Complacency is dangerous because it promotes laziness. The person becomes comfortable in their routine and loses the ambition to want to grow and reach higher goals. The apostle Peter describes a complacent Christian as “shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins” (2nd Peter 1:9). This strong admonishment from the apostle is directed toward those members of Christ’s body that have no desire to mature in their spiritual lives. The same is true with a congregation that chooses to ignore certain problems by dismissing them as “small and insignificant.” It is in this thought process where complacency gives birth to tolerance. If this would have been Jephthah’s attitude regarding the threat made by the people of Ephraim, then his victory over the Ammonites would have been insignificant (Judges 12:1-7). The children of Ephraim reproached Jephthah because he did not call on them to go to war with the Ammonites. Their anger was not because they were excluded from the honor of defending Israel, but rather because they were envious that a victory was possible without their assistance, the most powerful tribe of Israel. The Ephraimites‘ pride was bruised as a result of this decision, therefore they felt obliged to “teach” Jephthah a lesson. The judge makes an earnest attempt to make them see that it was “the Lord [who] delivered them into my hand” and not human wit or strength (Judges 12:2-3). Unfortunately, the pride of Ephraim was too great. It made them deaf to Jephthah’s plea and they fell in battle to the Gileadites. Jehovah God’s advice against man’s pride is exemplified in the shameful fall of the Ephraimites in battle against their brothers (Proverbs 16:18-19). Jephthah, however, did not become comfortable with just defeating his adversaries on the fields of battle. As we continue to read, we see that he takes precautions to secure a complete victory for the security of his people by establishing guards at the river Jordan (Judges 12:5). We learn from Scripture that these guards had been ordered to prevent any Ephraimite fugitives from escaping and wanting to enter in their home territory. Jephthah was wisely preventing an invasion from within. The method he provided his men was an incredible one because it required a very keen ear and it would confirm the identity of a man by a minute detail. Jephthah realized that he could keep intruders out of Gilead with a single word; Shibboleth. Granted that it may seem of little importance in the beginning, but when we understand that with this small detail he was able to prevent his people from being invaded by their enemies, it becomes very significant. The Gileadites were testing anyone who arrived at the ford of the Jordan and claimed not to be from Ephraim to see if they were being honest or not. They were not necessarily keeping all Ephraimites out of Gilead; rather they were ordered to keep “any Ephraimite who escaped” out of Gilead and lied about where they were from. It is marvelous to see that even though they were the ones goaded to fight in battle by the tribe of Ephraim, they were still willing to allow them in if they honestly answered the guards inquiry. If the Ephraimite lied about his tribe, then he would be caught in his lie because the second test administered by the Gileadites at this checkpoint was to confirm if the man was lying or not, by having him pronounce the word Shibboleth. A word that Jephthah realized was pronounced incorrectly by the Ephraimite tribe. The truth of that man’s intentions were revealed by his natural habit of life. Something as small as the mispronunciation of a word would have as a consequence, death. Had that man been truthful from the beginning, it is very probable that he would have been taken as a prisoner of war, but his life would have been spared due to his brave honesty. The dishonest man became complacent in using lies as a means to survive, and in the end it was this very method that created his demise. The pride of believing that he would be able to escape with his own wit, as the proverb teaches, became the root cause of his shameful end. From this Divine portion of Old Testament Scripture, it is wise to apply it to our Christianity as the apostle John did by warning us that we “do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God” (1st John 4:1). Here is where a complacent church exposes itself to an invasion from dishonest and envious men who only seek to satisfy their own pride. Following the example of Jephthah, it is crucial to secure the safety of the Lord’s church by asking “What sayeth the Lord?” One must prove a man’s words to be true by testing them with God’s word and not simply take them at face value. To insure that a man is who he claims to be, we are instructed by the Master that we observe their habits because “you will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:15-20). Like the Ephraimites, they seek passage intending to “deceive you with empty words” and therefore gain entrance revealing themselves to be “savage wolves…not sparing the flock” (Ephesians 5:6-13, Acts 20:28-31). Because the strategy these “wolves” implement is the same, then let us emulate the counter strategy Jephthah used to prevent being caught off guard. Let us weigh a man’s words on the balance of God’s word and in this way prevent entry to all who seek to sow tares in the Lord’s fields of wheat (Matthew 13:24-30). Ignoring details and dismissing them as “small and insignificant” is exactly what our enemy wants us to do. In doing so we secure his victory by not tightening the loose screw, that can result in us losing the war. This is true because the devil, truly is in the details.
