BRF: Judges 20 – 21

I have mixed feelings about this week’s review. Although I’ve learned a lot, I know I’ve also missed a lot in this book. Nonetheless, I am feeling quite ready to move on from Judges; reading about everyone doing what was right in his own eyes is getting a little depressing.

I can’t believe how far God’s people will sink when they trust their own judgment rather than God’s Word.

The Levite had a concubine (problem), allowed his host to offer her to the perverted men (problem), didn’t check on her again until morning (problem) and when they had killed her he carved her into twelve pieces and sent one piece to each of the twelve tribes of Israel (big problem). And yet nothing is said of his sin, only that they were going to get revenge on the tribe that was responsible for the murder.

Did you catch that? I didn’t on the first few readings, but last night I noticed that Gibeah, the town full of perverted men where it wasn’t safe to be out at night, where if you had an overnight guest, male or female, they beat on your door until you let them know them carnally, belonged to the tribe of Benjamin. The travelers could have stopped in Jerusalem, but because it wasn’t occupied by Israelites, they chose to journey on rather than stay with foreigners.

HOW COULD A TOWN BELONGING TO THE ISRAELITES BE FULL OF PERVERTED MEN WHO WOULD DO THE THINGS STATED IN JUDGES 19:22 – 25????

That’s what happens when God’s people have no leader and everyone does what is right in their own eyes.

Judges is a thorough study in natural consequences. The last two chapters sum it all up well. The Israelites kept on trying to work things out in their own way, and look at the devastation it caused. If only they had done things God’s way!!

In the end, when their own bad judgment, both as individuals and collectively as the children of Israel, had caused them to kill off thousands of their own people in a vengeful war between tribes, they cried out to the LORD and asked how it could be that a whole tribe was facing extinction. I don’t know how you read that, but it sure sounded to me like, “LORD! How could you let this happen!”

When will we stop blaming God for our own stupid choices?

When we do things our own way and they don’t work out, we have no right to blame God. He has given us all the information we need to make the right choices. It’s our own fault when we don’t take His advice, and why shouldn’t we have to sleep in the bed we made?

And yet, through all of this wickedness, God is still working His eternal plan. That still amazes me and makes me dizzy when I try to reconcile it in my mind.

What am I taking away from this book? Shannon said it well in her comment on my last review:

It was an eye opener and got me thinking that we should be scared to death NOT to obey God EXACTLY as He wants us to. Because he is merciful and longsufferring we can confuse the lack of consequence of our sin to actually be blessing.

I don’t want to find myself there. I want to call a spade a spade, and see sin in my life as exactly that: sin against a holy God. I don’t want to find myself as above or independent of God’s rules and do what is right in my own eyes. I also know how easy it is to find myself there. The Israelites didn’t go from “We will serve the LORD!” to chopping up a dead concubine overnight (although it seems that way at times as we’re reading). One small bad choice leads to a slightly bigger bad choice and next thing I know, I’m in up to my neck. AND I NEVER WANT TO BE UP TO MY NECK IN SIN AND NOT EVEN HAVE A CLUE. To mistake God’s mercy and patience for a stamp of approval!!

Judges also taught me that something I’ve been taught (in several gatherings, by several teachers) isn’t really true. I’ve been told in the past that I need to be living for God, a clean vessel fit for the Master’s use so to say, so that He can use me. Now I see that that’s just not so. Most of these characters we read about in Judges weren’t clean vessels. And I’m not talking about still having a sin nature but trusting in God, I’m talking about deliberate disregard for His commands. Lifestyles that make me shake my head (and wonder if I can even read about them to my children) and wonder how anyone can do those things and have the gall to face God and ask why He’s not blessing like He should. And God still used them. God’s will was still done, but they missed out on the life that God intended them to live. Like I said in an earlier review, God uses us, but when we disobey Him we miss out on the chance to please Him and give Him glory. That’s a chance that I don’t want to miss. Either way, I have a part in His plan. I might as well choose the pleasing part!!

And so, to answer the question about whether to read the “questionable” parts of scripture to our kids or not. I used to agree with Shannon, and skipped the parts that contained subject matter that I felt was inappropriate for my kids. We had set out to read through the Bible, and I became so discouraged that we didn’t even get through Genesis. It seemed like I had to skip most of it. The Bible is full of unsavoury characters, it seems.

I asked a few people their opinion on the matter, and in the end decided to just read through. (We will, however, be skipping Song of Solomon. They can read that on their own just before they get married!!) I realized that I was imagining what my kids would be thinking as we read, based on my knowledge of the subject, not theirs. They don’t even pick up on most of the things I’m concerned about. When someone does, I answer their questions honestly with only as much information as they need. We operate on a need-to-know basis. It is my opinion that they don’t need much, and it has been my experience that ‘not much’ is enough to get the point across. As they get older they will understand more, but they will also be better able to handle that information. The world we live in is so yucky and kids are exposed to so much filth that it is easy to pull back too far in the other direction. (I’m not saying that everyone who chooses not to read certain scriptures to their kids has overcompensated. I’m saying that I think I was.) Rather than present the facts in a beneficial way, we avoid them altogether. Now we choose to read through, and present appropriate amounts of information from a Biblical perspective when a question comes up. And so far, it’s working. We have older ones who are understanding a lot more (and they are just as embarrased as I am that people would behave that way), and younger ones who don’t even seem to notice that there was something to notice.

We are a little behind in our family reading of Judges, but when we get to chapter 19, we will be reading it. They need to see that when someone continues to make bad choices, they will end up where they never dreamed they’d be.

(I sure wish I could answer a question in short answer form. I really do. In fact, this was my short answer form. You should have seen the essay.)

Onward and upward. I’ll be looking at my life a little differently, from a slightly different angle, thanks to Judges. Can’t wait to hear what we’re reading next.