Judges 20-21 offers us the pathetic story of how Israel judged the tribe of Benjamin for their heinous crime against the Levite’s concubine. All Israel went out in battle against Benjamin and nearly wiped the tribe from the face of the earth, but not until the Benjamites had killed thousands of Israelites from the other tribes. When the fighting had ended, only 600 men of Benjamin remained. The Israelites wept that one of the tribes had been eliminated from Israel. The people had vowed not to give any of their daughters as husbands to the men of Benjamin, so it did look as if the tribe would perish. Then a plan was developed that provided 400 young women from Jabesh Gilead as wives. The remaining 200 men were given permission to “take” wives from Shiloh. This didn’t break their vow not to “give” their daughters in marriage to Benjamites, but it treated their daughters with little respect. At the end of chapter 21, we read once again that there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. That statement is so accurate. As we reflect on the Book of Judges we see how over and over again, the Israelites abandoned God, turned to worship false gods, found themselves enslaved by the people of the land, cried out to God and received deliverance. But they never learned from the experiences. They fought with each other. They abandoned God, and they received the punishment of their actions. This illustrates what it’s like to do what is right in our own eyes. We have all experienced this rebellion and its results in our lives, whether when we were non-believers, or when we reject God’s leadership in our lives. As we move from Judges, let us learn the lesson the book teaches us: Those who turn away from God will bear the consequence of rejecting Him, and it will never be better when we’re in active rebellion against Him.
As we return to John 18 once again, we remember Jesus’ arrest, His examination by the priests and Pilate and Peter’s denial of Him. We’ve now read these accounts twice in Mark and twice in John, yet the impact of how easily the people of Israel found it to reject the Son of the living God of the universe might not yet have set it. Every time I read these passages, I think, “How could they not have see what they were doing? How could Pilate have gone along with the crowds when he knew Jesus was innocent? The short answer to every question we could ask about this terrible time at the end of Jesus’ live is: God planned for Jesus to die for us. He was going to die. It was the time for Him to die. Nevertheless, it always seems to me it shouldn’t have been so hard for everyone to see who Jesus was, to repent and turn to Him. The religious leaders of all people ought to have recognized Jesus. But they were more concerned with their own short-term “salvation,” than they were about their long-term salvation. As we go about our days living on the resurrection side of Easter, let’s not fall into the same trap of putting our selfish desires before faithfulness to Jesus. His condemnation, death, and resurrection were God’s means of saving us from sin and death. They are therefore, the greatest opportunity for us to remember how much God loves us, and to live into our relationship with Him in Jesus’ name and in the power of the Holy Spirit.