JUDGES 21 “MAKING A BAD SITUATION WORSE” Mark Kolbe

INTRODUCTION

While docked in front of our house, I started our pontoon boat in preparation to take my wife, kids, and grand kids out on the lake to watch our local firework show. Watching the fireworks from the lake provides a much better vantage point than watching from home. It’s also more fun on the water because of the hundreds of flickering lights from all the other boats around. But to my dismay, when I went to test the lights on our boat, they did not work. A cylinder-shaped button with the number 5 on it had popped out indicating that something was wrong. I pushed this button back in and tried the lights again, but it just popped back out. My assumption was that my lights were being controlled by a 5-amp fuse that had blown. Knowing the fireworks would be starting soon, I hurriedly ran to the house to look for a replacement fuse. I found a 10-amp fuse like those I’ve replaced on an automobile, but no 5-amp fuse, and nothing that looked like the cylinder-shaped button I had been messing with. I ran back to the boat and noticed that the button for the boat’s live well also had the number 5 on it. I decided I could temporarily do without the live well, so I decided to use the 5-amp live well fuse as a replacement for the lights. I crawled on my back and wedged myself under the captain’s console hoping to find a simple fuse box like the one on my car. Instead, all I could see was a tangled mess of wires and boxes. I then ran back to the house to find the pontoon boat owner’s manual. When I turned to the page containing information about fuses, there was no diagram telling me where the fuses were, what they looked like, nor any specific instructions on how to change one. No better off than before, I crawled back into the tight, hot space under the captain’s console and started tugging on a black plastic box that I assumed contained the fuse I needed from the live well. Shortly thereafter, a small metal clip and a spring dropped to the boat floor. I looked within the plastic box only to find more wires. Not knowing what the metal clip or spring was for, nor able to put them back in place, I merely reattached the black plastic box. After my frantic attempts to fix the boat lights, I had now caused my live well to be inoperable as well. Dejectedly, I crawled out from under the console and tried the lights one more time for good measure. Much to my surprise, the lights came on, so we sped off to watch the fireworks from the lake. At some point I’ll be paying someone who knows what they are doing to double check the boat lighting and to get my live well working again.

When we act in haste out of frustration, ignorance, or lack of skill, more times than not we’ll make a bad situation worse. This includes situations that are directly related to morality. Being created in the image of God means that everyone has morality built into them. We all know there is right and wrong, and that justice is a proper response to wrong. However, if a person is not devoted to following the God who created them, their sense of right and wrong will be skewed. As a result, they will eventually make moral decisions that are rash, illogical, or sinful. Judges 21 is the last of three chapters about a set of events that proves this tendency.

In a minute we are going to put Judges 21 in the proper context by reviewing what happened in the two preceding chapters. However, the best verse that will help us understand what occurs in Judges 21 is the last verse of the chapter – one that has been a common theme throughout.

21:25 - In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.

Judges 21 is about a people living without the proper moral compass. During this time the nation of Israel had started to abandon God, the One who had guided them into the promised land. Judges 19-21 involved a conflict between the tribes of Israel. We have seen how people on both sides of this conflict acted in ways that weren’t in line with God’s moral will and character.

1. Judges 19:1-30 - a Levite and a concubine, after spending some time with her folks in Bethlehem, made their way North. They stopped for the night in Gibeah where an old man entertained them. In the course of the night the Levite yielded to the sadistic cravings of the men of Gibeah and gave his concubine to them to save himself. In the morning she was dead on the doorstep, so the Levite dismembered her and sent the parts around the country.

2. Judges 20:1-17 – Elders of Israel meet at Mispah to discuss the response. They assemble a military force to go to Gibeah to find the men responsible. However, the Benjaminites living there refuse to hand over the guys who did it. This started an intertribal war between the tribe of Benjamin and the other tribes. The Israelites attack the Benjaminites outside Gibeah.

3. Judges 20:18-48 - Initially, the war didn’t go well for the tribes, but finally they defeated the Benjaminites, almost completely annihilating them. The city of Gibeah was burned to the ground, but 600 Benjaminite men escaped to the Rock of Rimmon.

JUDGES 21

ON THE VERGE OF EXTINCTION

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 raised their voices and wept profusely. 3 And they said, “Why, Lord, God of Israel, has this happened in Israel, that one tribe is missing today from Israel?” 4 And it came about the next day that the people got up early and built an altar there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.”

Judges 21 begins with the Israelites crying out to God as asking, "Why, O Lord God of Israel has his happened in Israel. An entire tribe has disappeared from Israel today!” At one time or another we have all asked the question, if God is loving, all-knowing, and all-powerful, why do bad things happen? Both religious and non-religious people often turn to God for the answer to that question. In cases of natural disasters, accidents, or other things that befall us due to no fault of our own, that question is totally justifiable. However, in this case of the Israelites, asking God for the reason why the tribe of Benjamin has been made almost extinct seems a little out of place. Although God had given them direction during the military campaign, there was still something fundamentally off about the war they had just embarked upon. Sure, they were attempting to bring judgement against sin that was carried out and covered up by a certain group of people. But keep in mind how the whole thing started. Would they have been in this situation if the Levite priest did not have a concubine that he handed over to perverse men who raped and murdered her – no? In addition, the Israelites had become outraged and carried out the bloodshed based upon a half-truth from a single, nasty Levite.

In a time when “everyone did as they saw fit”, do you think that rape and murder was the only evil occurring in their land? Of course not. In fact, the Israelites were living side by side with wicked people groups who made a mockery of the one true God they were now crying out to. If the Israelites were really wanting to be in tune with the heart and mind of God, they would have been united in battle against people like the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, and Jebusites – not another tribe of Israelites. In some ways, the violence that these tribes of Israel brought against the tribe of Benjamin was a case of selective indignation.

We can also see that spiritual weakness and immaturity exists in Israel as a whole, because those making the important decisions had also made oaths before God about what they would do or not do.

Although they had left a remnant of Benjaminite men alive, they come to the conclusion that their decisions had essentially assured the extinction of the tribe. When the Israelites had assembled at Mizpah in chapter 20, besides deciding on going to war against the Benjamanites, they had also made an oath to not to allow any of their daughters to marry any remaining Benjaminite men. Instead of putting the brakes on their misguided plans, Israel keeps its foot on the accelerator ready to carry out even more atrocities.

USING A BAD OATH TO RESOLVE A BAD SITUATION

5 Then the sons of Israel said, “Who is there among all the tribes of Israel who did not go up to the Lord in the assembly?” For they had taken a solemn oath concerning anyone who did not go up to the Lord at Mizpah, saying, “He shall certainly be put to death.” 6 And the sons of Israel were sorry for their brother Benjamin, and said, “Today one tribe is cut off from Israel! 7 What are we to do for wives for those who are left, since we have sworn by the Lord not to give them any of our daughters as wives?”

The Israelites recognized the ramifications of their earlier decisions. If there are no women left in Benjamin and no daughters from the other tribes can be given to their men, the tribe of Benjamin was going to die off. What are they going to do? What are the alternatives?

If God was the one who was responsible for allowing the tribe of Benjamin to be on the verge of extinction, then He could also have been the one to figure out a way to keep that from happening. The Israelites could also have asked for forgiveness for the vow they made, asking God to release them from it and provide daughters to the men of Benjamin willingly. But they don’t do that, that continue to take matters into their own hands. They do what spiritually weak people do – they come up with spiritually bankrupt ideas. They decide to find a guinea pig – someone else they can destroy for their own benefit.

8 And they said, “What one is there of the tribes of Israel that did not go 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 counted, behold, not one of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead was there. 10 And the congregation sent twelve thousand of the valiant warriors there, and commanded them, saying, “Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword, along with the women and the children. 11 And this is the thing that you shall do: you shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman who has slept with a male.” 12 And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young virgins who had not known a man by sleeping with him; and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

The self-righteous Israelites identify another group of Israelites who hadn’t taken part in the original meeting when they decided to go to war with Benjamin and had made the vow to not give away their daughters. They go to the town of Jabesh-gilead and kill everyone there except for 400 young virgins.

600 – 400 = CHEAT

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 And the tribe of Benjamin returned at that time, and they gave them the women whom they had allowed to live from the women of Jabesh-gilead; but they were not enough for them. 15 And the people were sorry for Benjamin, because the Lord had created a gap in the tribes of Israel. 16 Then the elders of the congregation said, “What are we to do for wives for those who are left, since the women have been eliminated from Benjamin?” 17 And they said, “There must be an inheritance for the survivors of Benjamin, so that a tribe will not be wiped out from Israel. 18 But we cannot give them wives from our daughters.” For the sons of Israel had sworn, saying, “Cursed is he who gives a wife to Benjamin!”

600 remaining men from Benjamin minus 400 virgins from Jabesh-gilead = 200 men without wives. On one hand we see the compassion of the Israelites as they felt the need to give them a second chance. But compassion alone doesn’t guarantee a proper response. The Israelites had already killed all the people of one city to provide wives for 2/3’s of the remaining men of Benjamin. While that action had ensured the tribe would remain intact, it still meant that the family lines of 200 men would end. So, they continue to take matters into their own hands and devise another devious plan. The Israelites decide to resolve the problem by taking advantage of another group of people.

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 road 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 seize his wife from the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin. 22 And when their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, 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, otherwise 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 seized. And they went and returned to their inheritance, and rebuilt the cities and lived in them. 24 And the sons of Israel departed from there at that time, every man to his tribe and family, and each one departed from there to his inheritance.

The Israelites responded to bad circumstances by finding a loophole. They decide to use an upcoming celebration, probably the feast of tabernacles, to their advantage. By allowing the remaining men from Benjaman to steal daughters, then technically they didn’t break their oath of “giving” them daughters. The evil ways of the Israelites result in 200 young women being forcefully removed from their homes and families.

25 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

SO WHAT

1. Good intentions don’t guarantee good results.

Just because a person has good intentions, that doesn’t mean they are going to respond in the best way possible. This is especially true when the situation directly involves sin. Sin never leaves willingly and isn’t defeated accidentally. Anytime someone tries to contain sin, it always seems to leak or gush out (lake house erosion example). Human behavior naturally moves in the opposite direction of God’s holiness. Led by the Holy Spirit, we need to continually fight against sin. Even though they made a lot of bad choices (Battle of Ai, Achan, Judah, direct command, God identified, whittled down to guilty party), at least the Israelites were making a stand against the stubborn, sinful behavior of the tribe of Benjamin.

2. Passion must be governed by Godly principles.

The book of Judges helps us see the perilous condition of people who act without clearly defined, Godly principles. Without principles based upon the character of God, people who believe they are marching in heroic determination and righteous indignation can quickly turn on others, even resorting to brutality and evil to put their self-defined morality on the throne.

Our world today is a perfect example of this. People are descending into perversion and are using inexplicable logic to defend their ways. In cases of evil that people enjoy or benefit from, they seek ways to celebrate and defend it. In cases of evil that people cannot overcome they pivot to other causes for which they can find a sense of moral victory. Rather than using God as the objective standard to determine what evil really is and how to respond to it, people turn to subjective opinions to form their own sense of morality. The lack of Godly vision and understanding causes people to seek to destroy those who disagree with them.

If a person’s ideals aren’t based upon truth found in God’s word, then what they are doing is evil, not moral.

Romans 1:28-32

28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

3. Follow God’s word in the Bible, not your own

Even those of us who claim to follow the God of the Bible can make bad decisions. Our hearts are corrupted. That means we will be tempted to respond to circumstances with our emotions and make decisions based upon how we feel. That leads to ignoring God’s existing commands or adding our own set of moral or religious rules to His.

In the case of the Israelites, they made oaths about what they thought they should do or not do. Making oaths is a bad idea. Jesus said, ‘make no oath at all’, ‘but let your statement be yes, yes or no, no, anything beyond this is evil’ (Matthew 5:30, 37). A definitive yes or no is sufficient. The problem with making oaths is that circumstances beyond our control may force us to break them. Then we become liars before God. So just say “yes” or “no”, not, “yes I promise” (Matthew 23).

For the Israelites, they saw 600 men without wives and formed devious plans. Their behavior embodied what Proverbs 14:12 says - “There is a way which seems right to a person, But its end is the way of death.” It’s our natural inclination to take matters into our own hands and resolve them with our ideas, skills, and actions. But since we look at bad circumstances through corrupted eyes, we can form corrupted responses. God had witnessed that very thing in the nation of Israel. Jeremiah 18:15 says it this way, “For My people have forgotten Me, They burn incense to worthless gods, and they have stumbled from their ways, From the ancient paths, to walk in bypaths (shortcuts), not on a highway.”

We need to remember that God’s math is not our math. God is using all circumstances – good and bad – for His purpose. He is always taking the high road and never has to skirt around things and look for loopholes. Therefore, continue to obey and glorify Him believing that He has a myriad of ways to “fix” things.

Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”