March 20
Judges 20-21
Internal fighting and grief grip Israel at the end
of this book filled with the ups and downs of the life of the Israelites. They
had no king because God was their king. But the people rebelled against God and
lived for themselves. “Everyone did as he saw fit.” The land was evil. The
Israelites even fought each other. They have come a long way since the end of
Joshua when the people stood in agreement. “We will serve the Lord.”
In the last chapter a man went into a town in
Benjamin called Gibeah to stay the
night. Instead of offering hospitality to the guest, the men of the city wanted
to take advantage of him. This event is very similar to the event that led to
the destruction of Sodom an Gomorrah when the men of the city wanted to take
advantage of Lot’s guests. The man kept himself save and instead the man threw
his concubine out to them where they raped her and killed her. He cut her up
and sent a part to each tribe as an object lesson to show how evil things had
become.
Internal fighting broke out as the Israelites united
against the Benjamites. Benjamin is pushed to the point of extinction. The
Israelites devise a plan to get around their oath not to give their daughters
to a Benjamite in marriage.
This entire section of Judges just reveals how evil and
how far Israel has fallen because they have turned away from God and have
decided they know what is best. They each did as they saw fit and as evil,
fallen people, what they saw fit was spiraling them into ever increasing depravity.
We like to do our own thing. We like to think we can
do what we want and the only person it affects is us. But unless we keep our
eyes fixed on our Lord and allow Him to set our parameters, we begin to spiral
toward evil and our lives affect the lives of others. Our actions affect the
actions of others. If we follow God, we bring good to our land. If we disobey
God and do our own thing, evil will ripple out throughout the land. "In those days Israel had no king;
everyone did as he saw fit." (Judges 21:25, NIV)
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