Today, I am reading and commenting on  Judges 20-21.

It is not clear to me from the passage if the tribe of Benjamin was invited to to conclave intended to address what had happened at Gibeah, and chose not to attend.  Or, if they had not been invited and only heard about the army of the rest of Israel gathering because of this incident.  My inclination is that it was the former, but that part of their decision to not attend was fear that they would be attacked by the rest while unable to defend themselves.  In any case, the tribe of Benjamin took the stance that the rest of Israel had no right to enforce their laws on the people of Gibeah, and were willing to fight to enforce this.  Once again I find myself getting lost in the weeds.

The important thing is that rather than recognizing that what happened at Gibeah was merely the logical conclusion of the idolatry going on in much of the rest of Israel and repenting of their sins, the Israelites merely chose to address this incident where people had gone too far.  I am not saying that the attack on Gibeah should not have happened.  What I am saying is that the people of Israel should have first confessed their own sins and sought out God’s will for how they could make their own sins right.  Then, once they had addressed their own sins, they could have brought retribution on Gibeah for its sins.  Or, perhaps, God would have shown them another, better, way to bring the men of Gibeah to justice.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Judges 17-19.

We have three stories in today’s passage, which the writer uses to illustrate the problems which occur when a nation has no central government to enforce the laws.  I would argue that it instead illustrates what happens when a society ceases to honor God.  First, we have the story of Micah, who stole money from his own mother and only returned it out of fear of her curse. She then took some of the money and had an idol made; for which Micah then set up a shrine and worshiped it in place of God.  Some time later, members of the tribe of Dan stole the idol which Micah worshiped (and all of his accoutrements for worshiping it),  setting it up as their tribal god in the lands which they conquered.  I will note that both Micah and the Danites appear to have viewed the idol as a representation of God.

Finally, we have the story of the Levite traveling with his concubine.  He chose to stay in Gibeah rather than a city of the Jebusites because Gibeah was an Israelite town.  I am not going to spend time examining what happened in this story.  The key thing about all three of these stories is that we have a steady worsening of the social fabric of Israel because people did not honor God’s Law.  What Micah did was no one’s business but his.  Which led to what the Danites did being no one’s business but theirs.  Which led to Gibeah.  What happened in Gibeah was no worse than what Micah had done, but it represented a breaking point for Israel.  Unfortunately, as is often the case, the lesson learned does not appear to have been complete, and possibly not even correct.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Judges 14-16.

The thing which always strikes me about Samson is his absolutely terrible judgement when it came to women.  I could spend some time considering why Samson was enamored of Philistine women, but I want to look closer at the fact that God used it to further His ends.  I am not sure what led Samson to propose his riddle to the Philistine young men who were chosen as his companions for his wedding, but we often forget just how expensive a set of clothing was before the Industrial Revolution.  Some time ago someone calculated the labor that would go in to making just a shirt in Medieval times and concluded that it would cost about $3,000.  So, 30 sets of clothing would have been rather expensive.  Even one set of clothing from each of Samson’s companions would have cost each of them a large sum of money.  Nevertheless, they accepted Samson’s bet, probably thinking that this Israelite hick could not be bright enough to have a riddle which they could not solve.

As is often the case, I kind of got lost in the weeds on that last paragraph.  We can really learn lessons from both sides of the stories about Samson.  First, Samson sought acceptance among those who looked down on him because of his background.  The Philistines looked down on him because he was an Israelite.  Note: this was not the equivalent of modern Antisemitism.  It is much more like the contempt which the elites in modern society have for the working class (and those who remain faithful to Christ). The Philistines thought they could take advantage of Samson because he was an unsophisticated rube.  When they failed, they used their social position to do so.  Samson suffered for his desire to be accepted, but the Philistines suffered more.

So, two lessons: Don’t allow your desire for social acceptance cause you to compromise your beliefs (Samson revealed that cutting his hair would end his vow to someone he knew did not respect it).  Do not take advantage of a social outcast’s desire for acceptance in order to ridicule them.  Both will end badly.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Judges 11-13.

I was going to focus on comparing Jephthah to Abimelek, but I realized that I do that most years, if not every year. So, today I am going to spend a little time on the birth and conception of Samson.  The first thing we see is a precursor of the angel’s announcement to Mary that she would give birth to Jesus.  In a way, the story of Samson gives us evidence of how unique Jesus is.  Samson was dedicated to God from the moment of his conception, as was Jesus.  Samson’s parents raised him according to the vows of the Nazirite laid out in the Law of Moses.  I like to compare and contrast Samson to Samuel.  Both were dedicated to God by their mothers from the moment of conception. Both led Israel to victory over their enemies.  Both illustrate the powerful influence a mother can have over her sons.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Judges 9-10.

I really want to comment on the parable about the king of trees which Jotham told when the people of Schechem crowned Abimelek king, but I don’t see quite see how it connects to Abimelek.  I guess the connection comes from the fact that Gideon, the father of both Jotham and Abimelek, had refused to be king when the Israelites asked him to take that role.  Which brings me to what I see as the point of Jotham’s parable.  I see two possible points to this parable, and possibly both were intended.  First, those who have demonstrated their ability are more valuable to society doing what they are already doing than in ruling over others.  Second, generally, those who are willing to take the job of ruler, let alone those who seek it, should not be allowed to have it.  The reason for this is that, if they have the talent to be a good ruler they will recognize that using that talent for something else will be more valuable to society than using it to rule over others.  Once more this passage reinforces my thought that Israel in the years before King Saul was a nation which functioned according to libertarian ideals.

Ultimately, here, and throughout the Book of Judges, we are shown that a libertarian government only works when the people it governs are godly.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.