Morning Musings – Page 183

Morning Musing: Judges 21:6-7

July 13, 2018July 12, 2018Leave a comment

“And the people of Israel had compassion for Benjamin their brother and said, ‘One tribe is cut off from Israel this day. What shall we do for wives for those who are left, since we have sworn by the Lord that we will not give them any of our daughters for wives?'” (ESV – Read the chapter)

You would think that here at the end of the book we would get some kind of a happy ending. And as this chapter starts, it looks like we might. The people collectively realize what they have done in nearly completely eliminating the tribe of Benjamin by civil war. They also consider the gravity of having sworn an oath to the Lord together that they would not give their daughters as wives to the surviving men, thereby guaranteeing their eventually disappearance. It leaves the reader finally cheering a bit: “Here, now they will finally turn back to the Lord and get back on the right track.” But, that’s not the kind of book this is. Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Judges 19:12

July 11, 2018July 10, 20182 Comments

“And his master said to him, ‘We will not turn aside into the city of foreigners, who do not belong to the people of Israel, but we will pass on to Gibeah.'” (ESV – Read the chapter)

This judgment on the part of the Levite is fraught with irony. He doesn’t want to stay with these foreigners because of how his party might be received. Instead, he insists on traveling a bit further at a time of day that was no longer safe for traveling, so that his party could find shelter among their own people. And yet, when they arrive in Gibeah, all hell breaks loose. Read the rest…

Morning Musing: Judges 19:1

July 9, 2018July 6, 2018Leave a comment

“In those days, when there was no king in Israel, a certain Levite was sojourning in the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim, who took to himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.” (ESV – Read the chapter)

Here we arrive at what is arguably the darkest narrative in all of the Scriptures. The Passion sequence is bad, to be sure, but it at least ends with hope. From nearly the first words of this chapter through the end of the story in chapter 21 not a single thing goes right. Everything is wrong. Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Judges 17:13

July 6, 2018July 5, 2018Leave a comment

“Then Micah said, ‘Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, because I have a Levite as priest.” (ESV – Read the chapter)

Consider the insanity of this for a minute. This man has set up his own household god, hired a passing Levite as his personal priest of his personal religion, and now boasts confidently of the blessing of the Lord because of it. Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Judges 17:6

July 4, 2018July 4, 2018Leave a comment

“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (ESV – Read the chapter)

This, at last, is the theme of the book and its final assessment. The people of Israel had fallen to a place where everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes. When a culture reaches this point, anything goes and most of it isn’t good. We each became gods unto ourselves and everything becomes a holy crusade as we try to establish our divine fiefdoms at the expense of those around us. In the end, no one wins. Read the rest…