Today we begin Judges Chapter 21.
For the Complete Jewish Bible, click HERE.
For the King James Version, click HERE.
“The men of Israel had sworn in Mitzpah
that none of them would let his daughter
marry a man from Binyamin.”
-Judges 21:1
Have you ever dove into something with great enthusiasm and then later regretted it?
Maybe you pulled out your credit card and made some big purchase and then later kicked yourself when the huge bill came…
Or maybe you went ahead and married some girl just because she was attractive but then later had to divorce due to irreconcilable personality differences (and you were also fleeced financially as a result)…
Or maybe you lost your temper at some bar you were drinking at and got in a fight that landed you in the hospital the next day with a couple of broken limbs and a face marred beyond recognition…
Well, this was kind of the situation the 11 tribes of Israel faced after defeating Benjamin.
You would think they’d be happy and celebrating after their victory.
But the truth is after taking some time out to think about what really happened, they were grief-stricken.
They had just killed off a whole tribe of Israel and realized the future of their nation was in jeopardy.
Even though Benjamin provoked this war by taking the crazy position of defending a group of homosexual gangbangers who had literally raped a women to death to vent their sexual frustrations, the 11 tribes realized that maybe they had gone too far.
You know, this is also a solemn reminder of how dangerous it is to swear an oath or make a vow in God’s Name.
Us modern folks generally don’t take oaths and vow-making too seriously.
But the ancients felt otherwise.
To them, it was unimaginable to even think of breaking a vow or oath.
Because the consequences could be fatal and in some cases have eternal repercussions.
And making a reckless or impulsive vow when one was in a state of high emotion was one of the worst things you could do.
Unfortunately, Israel realized they had done just that when they “had sworn in Mitzpah that none of them would let his daughter marry a man from Binyamin”.
When the 11 tribes, a total of 400,000 men gathered in Mitzpah for a war council before launching their attack, that vow sounded like a good idea.
But now they were faced with a really sticky situation.
After the slaughter of the tribe of Benjamin, there were only 600 male Benjamites left…
And since the 11 tribes had vowed no daughter of theirs would ever marry a Benjamite, that spelled the end of Benjamin’s line…
Because they had no women to bear them children.
That might not sound like a big deal to us…
But in those days, this was a nightmare of gargantuan proportions.
Think about it.
One of Jacob’s sons was about to lose his place among the family of Israel…FOREVER.
In a society based on tribalism, this was something that was to be avoided at all costs.
It’s true that one tribe often warred against another to achieve dominance.
But this was totally different than killing off an entire bloodline.
Because to kill off your own bloodline was to in a sense kill yourself.
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