Year 1, Day 282: Judges 21

People in the Bible Can Be Wrong

Judges 21 is another unique chapter among the Bible.  And I’m going to caution you up front that if you happen to be one of those “if it’s in the Bible then the people are right in their actions” people you may not like this blog post.  Don’t get me wrong.  I think the story is accurate and I think we can believe and trust the story.  But I don’t believe the story is speaking of the Hebrew people in positive terms.  Just because they are Hebrew people does not mean that their actions are right before God!

So let me explain what I mean.  The Hebrew people realize that in their anger they have nearly decimated an entire tribe of their people in addition to making a vow that would make it impossible for the tribe the rejuvenate.  They are between a rock and a hard place.  Do they let the tribe die out because of their vow and violate the fact that their own Lord established 12 tribes?  Or do they violate the vow they made before the Lord to keep the tribes alive?

Part of the point of this story is that people who make extremely rash decisions and try to base those decisions upon their spirituality often come up lacking and look rather short-sighted.  They took a rash vow before the Lord – remind anyone of the point of the story of Jephthah and his daughter?  Because they took this rash vow, they have dug themselves into a hole.  They have quite a spiritual conundrum on their hands.

I think humanity needs to be careful about this.  It is human nature to draw lines in the sand before thinking about those lines.  We feel as though we get emotionally pushed and in lashing out against the push we draw a line in a place where a line need not be drawn.  Our Bible is full of stories of people who missed out on what God was doing in their midst because the lines they had drawn were rash and unnecessary.  The Jewish leaders who crucified Jesus come to mind, as do the leaders in the time of Paul’s arrest and trial on his way to Rome.  Because of their “hard-line stances” on issues that did not require hard-line stances, those leaders missed what God was doing.  We are no different when we make hard-line stances when they are not necessary to make.

Now don’t get me wrong.  I do believe there are things we should draw lines in the sand about.  Jesus Christ is the Messiah, and nobody goes to the Father except through Him – that’s one.  All people have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God – that’s another.  But these issues are issues of salvation, and they deserve a hard-line stance. 

So what about the potential elimination of an entire tribe simply because of one city’s sinful desire?  No, the Hebrew people are typical humans and in their short-sightedness they draw a line in the sand which need not be drawn.  Sure, the sin of Gibeah needed to be corrected.  But does the death of one person and the sinful behavior of a whole town warrant the extinction of a tribe?

Two Wrongs do not Make a Right

To get themselves out of one situation they make another rash decision.  You’ve heard the expression “Two wrongs don’t make a right?”  Well, two rash decisions don’t equal one well thought-out decision, either.  The Hebrew people grasp at any straw to be able to free themselves, and they think they find one by destroying more people.  They determine that since the people of Jabesh-gilead didn’t come to battle, they were automatically defaulting to the side of the Benjaminites.  This is a very silly conclusion to reach, because the Benjaminites could have equally concluded that since the people of Jabesh-gilead didn’t come to fight with them that they automatically defaulted to supporting the rest of Israel!  The death of more people is not likely to solve an issue that came about because people were rashly killed in the first place!

So the Hebrew people go and decimate another group of people so the Benjaminites can have wives.  But notice something: there aren’t enough wives.  This is one of the main ways we can tell that this is a plan of human origin and not of the Lord.  When does the Lord ever provide for us but His provision fails short?  Never!  When the Lord provides, He provides bounteously.  But here there aren’t enough virgins to perpetuate the tribe of Benjamin.  So what do they resort to doing?  They now approve of stealing and kidnapping!

No King in Israel

Oh, rash decisions make for poor leadership.  There is no king is Israel and the people are doing what is right in their eyes.  It sure sounds like it, doesn’t it?  There is a serious danger to doing what is right in your own eyes.  When you look at this story at first glance, you can really understand how the Hebrew people arrived at the decisions they make.  But if you are willing to take a second more in-depth look you can really understand how the humanity of the Hebrew people is coming out.  This is complicated by the fact that there is no good leadership among the Hebrew people.

We are a rash people.  We make rash decisions.  We say things we should and especially at times when we shouldn’t.  Human beings are always in the position of trying to take back something they said.  It is who we are.  But we can learn from it.  We can struggle against it.  We can turn to the wisdom of God and stop making decisions we will regret later on.

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