Judges 21:1-15. \u00a0First of all sorry for the typos in yesterdays post and the misplaced “more” button if you were reading it on the home page. \u00a0I’m sure there are more typos and Cookie is working hard to edit back posts. \u00a0She’s amazing. \u00a0the problem is, I publish these posts right after writing them so you can have them each day so she doesn’t get a chance to edit before publication.<\/p>\n
We are coming to the end of the book of Judges. \u00a0One more chapter to go. \u00a0Today we will look at the first part of chapter 21 and tomorrow we will finish it. \u00a0Hopefully you have read the “Intro to Judges”<\/a> which I hope was helpful in understanding this book. \u00a0If you have been reading along you know we are in the last section of the book which gives us a little look at life on the streets during the time of the Judges. \u00a0the last section is marked at it’s \u00a0beginning and end by the phrase “In those days there was no king in Israel, everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” \u00a0We have just seen the results of that kind of thinking and they were very destructive. \u00a055,000 people lost their lives over the span of a few days. \u00a0The problem involved several people not following God’s rules and got much for the same reason. \u00a0Today we will see more stupid moves by people following their own ideas.<\/p>\n Notice that the reading today starts by telling us about a vow or oath (a promise) that the men of Israel had made. \u00a0They had decided that none of them would let one of their daughters marry a man from Benjamin’s tribe. \u00a0The last time I remember someone making a vow in Judges was in chapter 11<\/a>. \u00a0That story involved a daughter too\u00a0and that was a disaster.\u00a0\u00a0 I can’t help but think this will be another mess.\u00a0 \u00a0Usually the first sentence of a paragraph gives us an idea of what the paragraph is going to be about (Don’t use my stuff as an example unless Cookie has edited it because I am very lazy about paragraphs.). \u00a0In this case it starts out by mentioning the vow and then describes how sad the people are about the destruction of a tribe of Israel. \u00a0Now last thing I remember there were 600 men from Benjamin left. \u00a0And it looks like the fighting had ended because four months went by and they were still alive. \u00a0So Benjamin’s family still existed. \u00a0Why the crying? \u00a0According to the Law which God had give the Israelites to live by they \u00a0were not to marry anyone who was not a part of the 12 tribes (Deuteronomy 7:1-5). \u00a0 Oh yea, the vow. \u00a0It didn’t matter how many were left, if they followed God’s law they would de the last generation from that family. \u00a0 After a day of crying the Israelite ask God why this has happened. \u00a0Notice that God doesn’t answer but the answer should be obvious; the stupid vow they had made, plus the fact that they killed all the women in Benjamin. \u00a0Doing what was right in their own eyes.<\/p>\n The next day they got up and made some offerings to God. \u00a0Then they start talking about who had attended the “assembly at Mizpah”. \u00a0Remember that they are at Bethel now so they are not talking about the assembly the night before, they are talking about the one where they made the promise about their daughters. \u00a0I don’t really like where this is going. \u00a0They didn’t wait for an answer from God and now they are thinking again. \u00a0And what’s worse is that we found out that there is another promise they had made: \u00a0Anyone who hadn’t come out to the battle against Gibeah (remember it all started with this one town) was to be killed.<\/p>\n What is wrong with theses people? \u00a0Remember from yesterday’s post that there had to be witness for crimes. \u00a0According to God’s law for the Israelites you could only be put to death based on two or three witnesses and only \u00a0for certain crimes. \u00a0I looked back at the Law and there were several crimes that you could be executed for but not joining in a battle was not one of them. \u00a0Yesterday I made the comment that the people of Gibeah were guilty for not stopping the rape. \u00a0I said the Benjamites were guilty for defending the men who had committed the crime. \u00a0Neither of these groups should have been put to death. \u00a0In fact since the Israelite army had killed people who were not guilty of capital crimes (ones that have a death penalty) they were actually guilty of murder.<\/p>\n Then the discussion returns to the poor wifeless Benjamites. \u00a0I’m not really liking the cards I am seeing on the table. \u00a0Fact one: \u00a0There are only 600 Benjamite men left and no women. \u00a0Fact two: \u00a0The Israeiltes think this is a problem. \u00a0Although the day before they were on a rampage to destroy everyone in Benjamin now the idea of no more Benjamin bothers them. \u00a0Fact three: \u00a0Israelites are not supposed to marry outside of the twelve tribes. \u00a0Fact four: \u00a0We all promised not to give our daughters to anyone from Benjamin as a wife. \u00a0Fact five: \u00a0We also promised to kill anyone who did not join us in the fight. \u00a0Talk about painting yourself into a corner. \u00a0Theses guys had made up rules that left them only one way to get out. \u00a0They were going to get some paint on thier shoes. \u00a0Red paint in the form of blood.<\/p>\n