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Volume 27 Number 10 October 2025
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Page 11
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Shibboleth
Aaron Cozort
In the days of the judge Jephthah, war occurred with Ammon. Jephthah led the Gileadites in battle and was victorious. However, as they returned home, the men of Ephraim confronted Jephthah and the army and said, “Why did you cross over to fight against the people of Ammon, and did not call us to go with you? We will burn your house down on you with fire!” (Judges 12:1 NKJV). As a result of this confrontation, the Gileadites and the Ephraimites battled each other. From that confrontation, an event that teaches us some valuable lessons occurs.
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’!” And he would say, “Sibboleth,” for he could not pronounce it right. Then they would take him and kill him at the fords of the Jordan. There fell at that time forty-two thousand Ephraimites. (Judges 12:5–6)
In the same way that the Ephraimites could not avoid mispronouncing Shibboleth because of their accent and dialect, some actions declare the truth about our internal lives no matter what we claim about ourselves.
The Shibboleth of Drunkenness
- The act of drunkenness excludes a person from the kingdom of God. First Corinthians 6:9–10 reads, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.” Paul made it clear that these actions have unmistakable fruit. The person who participates in drunkenness is not in the kingdom of God.
- The act of drunkenness is an action of darkness and not light. “Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy” (Romans 13:13).
- The act of drunkenness causes a person not to be filled with the Spirit of God. “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18).
- The act of drunkenness is a work of the flesh. “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21).
- The act of drunkenness is doing the will of the Gentiles. “For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries” (1 Peter 4:3).
All these Scriptures make it unmistakably clear that drunkenness is an action that demonstrates a person is not a faithful servant of God but instead is living the life of a servant of sin.
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