Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead, and fought with Ephraim; and the men of Gilead struck Ephraim, because they said, You are fugitives of Ephraim, you Gileadites, in the midst of Ephraim, [and] in the midst of Manasseh.
Gideon’s failure was compromise with idolatry. The appeal of the world-Gideon’s cultural environment-brought him down. Jephthah’s failure was ignorance of, or inattention to, God’s Word. In the record of Satan’s temptations in Scripture, he sought to get people to doubt, deny, disobey, or disregard what God had said (cf. Genesis 3; Matthew 4). Jephthah fell before Satanic attack. Samson’s failure was indulging his fleshly appetites. These three major judges all experienced success, but they also failed. One of the three major sources of temptation was responsible for the failure of each of them. All three judges failed to follow God fully. Each one turned aside to self-will. All three represent Israel in the period of the judges, and all three are typical of all believers. They experienced a measure of spiritual success, but they also failed for the same reasons we fail.