Click to read Judges 21
Synopsis
In this concluding chapter, the Israelites made more mistakes in the heat of their emotions. They made reckless vows; 1) that they will never allow their daughters to marry any Benjamites, and 2) that they will put to death those who did not gather to worship the Lord at Mizpah.
Because these reckless vows, they feared that the tribe of Benjamin will have no more descendants and thus Israel would be short of one tribe. Because of these vows, another group of Israelites at Jabesh Gilead who did not turn up at Mizpah, was massacred. Once again, these incidents showed that the people did whatever that seemed right in their own eyes and they were no different from the Benjamites. They might even have justified their action by arguing that an oath cannot be broken, and that to spare the women of Jabesh Gilead so that the remaining Benjamites would have wives. They thought that these were the right things to do. They even planned out and justified the kidnapping of virgins from Shiloh to give the the Benjamites as wives.
Major Verses
V8-12 - The Israelites got into another mess by killing all, except the virgins, in Jabesh Gilead and justified their murder and kidnapping with an argument that they cannot break an oath. What in fact had happened was that they had put tribal loyalty above the common sense of love and life. They did this to justify their vow, even though it was a wrong one.
What I learnt
We must put be careful not to allow our emotions to direct our decisions. More often than not, such decisions end up wrong and create much pain for those involved. If we have to made a decision, commit it to God and ask Him for direction. Nothing is too small for Him to answer us on.
V25 - This statement, "In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit" appeared many times over in the 21 books of Judges. This was the main problem. It is more of a reference that the people did not revere God as their King and thus immorality, selfishness, pretense, misplace loyalty and the likes thus prevailed.
What I learnt
Throughout the period of judges, the bible records that Israel experienced trouble because they did not revere God. Instead, they became their own authority and acted on their own opinions of what was right or wrong. We see that by so doing, the results were horrendous. This is the same in our world today. Where people do not put God in His rightful position, we see abuse of power, we see misdirection, we see all kinds of horrendous activities. Only when we come to a position of revering Him and declaring His Kingship in our lives, we can never have peace.
Summary
The journey through the 21 books of Judges taught me many lessons. These lessons point to the need for one simple act - to revere God always, putting Him in the rightful position in our life. I have learnt much from my journey. I hope that you have too.
I encourage you to leave your comments and words of encouragement to other readers if this journey had helped you. Let us build each other up in the word of God. Do so by clicking the "Comments" hyper link below.
God bless you.....Steven Chan .... the one that Jesus loves.
How are we different than the Israelites today? People stay silent like the Benjamites when they are aware of those around them who perform evil acts. Those involved in the drug trade who destroy the lives of others are called drug "lords" and "king"pins but people do not even acknowledge the Lord and King, Almighty God. The "rights" of the evil men of today are being defended just as the Benjamites defended the "rights" of the men of Gibeah.
ReplyDeleteThe Benjamites protected men who were ready to sodomize another man - they protected them. Today people, including "leaders" of countries", are defending homosexuality and "gay rights" and have gone even further to embrace "same sex marriage", despite the fact that God sees homosexuality as an abomination and destroyed the whole of Sodom and Gomorrah.
When something gruesome happens we appear to be unified but do not include God, just like the Israelites did. do we have to receive body parts as in Chapter 19 before we act? The Israleites gathered together and in self-righteous judgment demanded the Benjamites hand over the wicked men of Gibeah, "sons of Belial", while they were just as guilty as those men. All the time they too were doing as they saw fit and had neglected God. Imagine the first time the ark of the covenant was remembered is in Chap. 20:27. In going to war, they consulted God but did not commit to God and in the first two attempts faced the consequences by losing 40,000 men. Only on the third occasion, when in humble penitence they commited themselves to Almighty God, did he promise to give the Benjamites into their hands. Each day many of us consult God but do not include God in our decision-making. For others God is not even an option in their lives. So I believe in the world today there is no king, everyone is doing as he sees fit. People are not recognising nor revering God as the Creator of this world, the one in whom we live and move and have our very being. People are not going to "Shiloh" (place of worship)but instead are consumed with doing as they see fit.
All the time Israel was indifferent to what was happening, then they went to the next extreme and destroyed all the Benjamites, except 600 men. After making their "God-less" vows, they realised they had put their foot in their mouths. Instead of humbly removing the foot and seeking God's forgiveness, they committed murder and kidnapping and then tried to cover it up. Is anything different happening today?
I pray for those of us who recognise God as King and are doing as He sees fit that we have the fortitude to persist in the name of the Lord. May the name of the Lord be praised forever! Bless His Holy Name!