The people of Israel have left one of the 12 tribes decimated and hanging on for dear life. A minor civil war had erupted because of the way the men of Benjamin had treated the concubine of a Levite man. And that civil war left the tribe of Benjamin with no women left. What to do? What to do?
Unfortunately, the people of Israel had sworn a vow that they would never give their daughters in marriage to a man of Benjamin. So the easiest and quickest option was taken off the table. Now, they were left with trying to determine the best way to keep the tribe of Benjamin alive. And so they cried out to God and wept, wondering aloud how this could have happened in Israel… how could a tribe of Israel be on the brink of extinction?
Their hatred of their fellow tribe quickly turned to sorrow and lament for the sorry state of their brothers. They decide that they must help the men of Benjamin find wives to keep the tribe going. So, they asked if there was anyone among Israel that did NOT make that vow. And they found that Jabesh-gilead sent no one to the assembly where they made the vow.
So, strangely enough, the people of Israel send 12,000 of their best warriors to Jabesh-gilead to kill everyone there except for the virgin women. So all the men, women and children of that town were killed, but any virgin girl was kept alive to be given as wives to the men of Benjamin. In all, 400 virgins were found in that town and brought to the men of Benjamin to have as wives.
But 400 wives was not enough to give all the men of Benjamin a wife, so they had to get creative. How could they give the men of Benjamin wives without breaking the vow they had made? They decide that they would tell the men of Benjamin about a festival of the Lord where the young women would be dancing. And they instructed Benjamin to hide in the vineyards and wait until they saw a young woman that caught their eye. Then they were to run out and take the woman that they wanted as their own. And that is how they found a way around the vow because they were not actually “giving” their daughters in marriage to the men of Benjamin. They simply allowed them to be “taken”. And in those days, Israel had no king and the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.
I think we can easily see that in this final story of Judges. Look at where we’ve been…
- A Levite man had a concubine – the Levites were God’s priests for Israel, if anyone should be living a life of purity and not have a concubine, it’s a Levite. Yet, the people of God had fallen so far that even the “holy” men were living lives of outward, obvious sin.
- The men of Gibeah were inflamed with lust for the Levite man – they surrounded the house and wanted to have sex with him. The city of Gibeah was driven by lust and pleasure alone.
- The old man who took the Levite and his concubine in, offered his virgin daughter to this sinister crowd demanding the Levite. What kind of father offers his daughter willingly to be ravaged?
- The Levite shoves his concubine out of the house to save his own skin – there is no hero in this story, and this man was a coward.
- The men of Gibeah raped that concubine to death – how gruesome can a story be? Is there really any horror much worse than this one?
- The Levite cuts up the remains of his concubine and sends her body parts to the 12 tribes of Israel as a wake up call. Regardless of the situation, this is a jaded man in a jaded country to do what he did.
- This leads to a war with 11 tribes of Israel going to battle against the men of Gibeah or the tribe of Benjamin. Ultimately, the 11 tribes win and nearly destroy the Tribe of Benjamin leaving only 600 men.
- Which leads us to today’s story where we see the people of God make vows which they ultimately try to break without “breaking” them. To provide wives for the 600 men of Benjamin that remain, they commit more war against Jabesh-gilead – killing all but the virgins. And when that was not enough, they allow Benjamin to steal their young daughters so that the men of Israel wouldn’t have to break their vow to not “give” their daughters as wives.
It’s a nasty story and it’s the result of people living to their own devices. Our morality is hardly a morality at all. We need clear directions or we start doing things that seem to make sense to do at the time. But later, when the reality of what we’ve done sets in, we realize our sin and foolish we were. There are some people who are genuinely good people without the influence of God, but I think it is only because they are around other people in a culture that has been influenced by God. They are people who want to look good in their culture so if their culture esteems doing good and godly things, then these people will follow suit. But they will also degrade with the culture.
If the culture allows for sins such as abortion and homosexuality to not only be tolerated, but rather celebrated then these “moralists” will follow suit. They want acceptance in their culture rather than actual moral lives. If the culture celebrates promiscuity and adultery in its entertainment, they will say it’s all in good fun and there’s nothing wrong with it. If a nation chooses to feast and consume and consume more, they will simply join in and get more and more fat as their houses and bank accounts grow.
Maybe these moralists aren’t “good” people after all – maybe they simply follow. That is what we see here in Israel – there was no king and there was no one to follow. So, if your neighbor goes to another man’s house to cause problems and rape someone – anyone – then you follow along with him and join in. It’s just your culture – it’s mob mentality. If your culture demands that you give up your daughter to vile men and you know that it’s breaking a vow you made to your God, you do it because it is what the culture demands of you.
And, I think these moralists fill our churches today. These feel-good happy moralists will go along with culture because being accepted by the popular and powerful is most important. We join in laughing at sin and find our entertainment growing more violent because we have no moral compass anymore. We simply slide down the morality scale with our culture rather than taking a stand. We don’t want the unpleasant consequences that may come when we call sin “sin”. We don’t want to lose our forms of entertainment. We don’t want to sacrifice our comfort for others to have a better life. We don’t want to make the effort.
Oh Jesus! Save me and my generation from being like Israel. The slide down the morality scale can accelerate at any time and Jesus is the only solution. We need a morality that is not dependent on those around us, but rather on the eternal standard of God. That is the only way to keep us from going down the dark road that we read about these last few chapters. We need a King, and we need him to be Jesus.
Father, thank you for Jesus. I affirm again that He is my King. He is my Lord and I’ll follow Him anywhere. Let my life be lived for His glory and His kingdom for evermore. Let me give up my entertainment, my gluttony, my lust, my comfort, my pleasure, my peace, my way, my control, and even my very life for the sake of knowing Him. Holy Spirit, move in me to make me more like Jesus. Help me to believe the promises you made through your Word. Help me to believe that I have the mind of Christ – that I’m a new creation – that you have loved me and saved me out of darkness. Let my light shine Your LIGHT out into this dark world so that others may know you too. In Jesus’ name, amen.
And there you have it- we have journeyed through one more book of the Bible! Judges has been a wild ride; at times leaving me nauseated, in fact! My prayer as we leave Judges behind is for God to open my eyes clearly to areas where I have allowed sin to make its’ home in my heart. May His Law be written on my heart; and by that, I mean for my actions to be motivated, not by outward pressure of culture or mere ‘rule-following’, rather by the inward change of heart that occurred when the blood of Jesus made me a new creation. Only when a true ‘heart transplant’ has taken place will I be able to follow Him- will I desire to follow Him– regardless of what is happening in the world around me. Because of who You are Lord, and because of what You have done to save me, make me faithful to the end! In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.
*And in case you are wondering; we will begin our next study in the book of Revelation. Hope you will join us!
The Eleven89 