October 26, 2005

Reading through the Bible in one Year: Isaiah 51:1-54:17; Thessalonians 1:6-2:16

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

Judges 21:1-7

1     Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpah, saying, “None of us shall give his daughter to Benjamin in marriage.”

     2     So the people came to Bethel and sat there before God until evening, and lifted up their voices and wept bitterly.

     3     They said, “Why, O Lord, God of Israel, has this come about in Israel, so that one tribe should be missing today in Israel?”

     4     It came about the next day that the people arose early and built an altar there and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.

     5     Then the sons of Israel said, “Who is there among all the tribes of Israel who did not come up in the assembly to the Lord?” For they had taken a great oath concerning him who did not come up to the Lord at Mizpah, saying, “He shall surely be put to death.”

     6     And the sons of Israel were sorry for their brother Benjamin and said, “One tribe is cut off from Israel today.

     7     “What shall we do for wives for those who are left, since we have sworn by the Lord not to give them any of our daughters in marriage?” NASB95^[1]

Consider the problem that faced Israel.  First they had sworn before the Lord that they would not give their daughters to Benjamin in marriage.  This tells me two things, first that the men of Benjamin wanted to be married, which means that all of the homosexual men were probably killed off.  And second that an oath was considered to be sacred and could never be broken. 

Also consider the distress that the land was under.  Even though they felt justified in attacking Benjamin, they didn't like the outcome, after all part of their national identity involved being twelve tribes.  In the next couple of days we will see some interesting solutions to the problem of wiping out the tribe.

Six hundred men are all that remained of the Benjamites.  A small remnant compared to the huge tribe that once existed.  I could be wrong, but until this time I don't see anywhere that it is indicated that Israel sought the Lord through sacrifice.  That is significant.  Israel was working mostly from emotion and national anger in carrying out the judgment against Gibeah, and the end result was disaster.  Were they right?  I wonder, did they receive the word from the Lord because He saw that they were going to go in that direction anyway?  Did God allow the men of Israel to almost wipe out another tribe in order to draw them back to Him?  The problem that I keep seeing in the text is that there is an inconsistency with the way that God worked before.  Unless you consider that He allowed them to follow the path of their own emotion because the end result would be a national repentance and return to Him.  Help me on this, any suggestions?

Father, as we consider your word today, open our eyes so that we can see and understand the way that the scripture applies to us today.

In Him,

Joe Turner.

October 28, 2005

Reading through the Bible in one Year: Isaiah 55:1-63:6; Thessalonians 2:17-5:10

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

We are finishing out Judges today, I hope to return to Psalms tomorrow to start back where we finished at. 

Judges 21:8-25

8     And they said, “What one is there of the tribes of Israel who did not come up to the Lord at Mizpah?” And behold, no one had come to the camp from Jabesh-gilead to the assembly.

     9     For when the people were numbered, behold, not one of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead was there.

     10     And the congregation sent 12,000 of the valiant warriors there, and commanded them, saying, “Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the little ones.

     11     “This is the thing that you shall do: you shall utterly destroy every man and every woman who has lain with a man.”

     12     And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead 400 young virgins who had not known a man by lying with him; and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

     13     Then the whole congregation sent word and spoke to the sons of Benjamin who were at the rock of Rimmon, and proclaimed peace to them.

     14     Benjamin returned at that time, and they gave them the women whom they had kept alive from the women of Jabesh-gilead; yet they were not enough for them.

     15     And the people were sorry for Benjamin because the Lord had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.

     16     Then the elders of the congregation said, “What shall we do for wives for those who are left, since the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?”

     17     They said, “There must be an inheritance for the survivors of Benjamin, so that a tribe will not be blotted out from Israel.

     18     “But we cannot give them wives of our daughters.” For the sons of Israel had sworn, saying, “Cursed is he who gives a wife to Benjamin.”

     19     So they said, “Behold, there is a feast of the Lord from year to year in Shiloh, which is on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south side of Lebonah.”

     20     And they commanded the sons of Benjamin, saying, “Go and lie in wait in the vineyards,

     21     and watch; and behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to take part in the dances, then you shall come out of the vineyards and each of you shall catch his wife from the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.

     22     “It shall come about, when their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, that we shall say to them, ‘Give them to us voluntarily, because we did not take for each man of Benjamin a wife in battle, nor did you give them to them, else you would now be guilty.’ ”

     23     The sons of Benjamin did so, and took wives according to their number from those who danced, whom they carried away. And they went and returned to their inheritance and rebuilt the cities and lived in them.

     24     The sons of Israel departed from there at that time, every man to his tribe and family, and each one of them went out from there to his inheritance.

     25     In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. NASB95^[1]

In order for the tribe of Benjamin to be rebuilt, they needed Jewish wives; otherwise all of their children would have been of mixed blood.  The solution is interesting.

First, Israel as a whole dealt with one city that did not venture to take part in the national outburst against the sin of Gibeah.  Since they did not take an active role in fighting against the Benjamites, they were treated as if they were taking part in the sin.  All the men, women and children were killed with the exception of the young girls that were virgins.  These were saved as wives for the rest of the Benjamites.  Unfortunately they fell 200 brides short.  Justice was harsh, and it was swift. 

Imagine if you had taken your wife from this lot, I wonder what it would have been like.  I don't think we can even imagine with our permissive society that is based on the laws of psychology, how to even deal with a problem like this one, multiplied by 400 times.  The girls were probably glad to be alive, scared to cross their husbands, and lived out the rest of their lives under duress.  Or did they consider themselves to be blessed to be able to remain alive? 

Since the bride count was short, the elders used another strategy where the remaining 200 men were allowed to kidnap their wives from Shiloh.  Once again, the brides were taken from Jews, and with the case of these brides they were stolen.  Israel turned its head to the act, and the people of the city were assured that they did not break the oath of not giving brides to Benjamin since they were stolen away.

Again, imagine being married to one of these brides.  It had to be very tough, they knew that they were stolen away, and you can bet that the thought of escape to return home was a real problem.  It really messes with our idea of marriage for love, and goes into a huge marriage by capture type of attitude.  I wonder how these marriages worked out.

As a closing thought, think back on the whole story of Judges.  It started where godly men went forth to lead the nation from idolatry following God's leading. The end of the book leaves with a pitiful tale of national cleansing, and the disastrous results of it.  We are left with the story just ending, leaving us with one parting thought, "everyone did what was right in his own eyes".  Where did it lead them?  It lead them far, far away from God.  Even when they did manage to draw near to God, it seems that they caused more trouble than they cured.  Our nation is moving in the same direction, how far will we go before we call for a return to God?  What will it take to wake up the sleeping Christians in America?

Father as we close out this book, cause each of us to think, and to respond to Your calling.

In Him,

Joe Turner.