”So it was, on the next morning, that the people rose early and built an altar there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. The children of Israel said, “Who is there among all the tribes of Israel who did not come up with the assembly to the Lord?” For they had made a great oath concerning anyone who had not come up to the Lord at Mizpah, saying, “He shall surely be put to death.” And the children of Israel grieved for Benjamin their brother, and said, “One tribe is cut off from Israel today. What shall we do for wives for those who remain, seeing we have sworn by the Lord that we will not give them our daughters as wives?” And they said, “What one is there from the tribes of Israel who did not come up to Mizpah to the Lord?” And, in fact, no one had come to the camp from Jabesh Gilead to the assembly. For when the people were counted, indeed, not one of the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead was there. So the congregation sent out there twelve thousand of their most valiant men, and commanded them, saying, “Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead with the edge of the sword, including the women and children. And this is the thing that you shall do: You shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman who has known a man intimately.” So they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred young virgins who had not known a man intimately; and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan. Then the whole congregation sent word to the children of Benjamin who were at the rock of Rimmon, and announced peace to them. So Benjamin came back at that time, and they gave them the women whom they had saved alive of the women of Jabesh Gilead; and yet they had not found enough for them. And the people grieved for Benjamin, because the Lord had made a void in the tribes of Israel.“
Judges 21:4-15 NKJV
a. Who is there among all the tribes of Israel who did not come up with the assembly to the LORD... He shall surely be put to death: Here again Israel did something that seemed right at the time, but was actually a horror. They decided to slaughter a whole city of Israel, a city that refused to join with Israel in the fight against Benjamin.
i. This was doing one bad thing to make up for another. Israel instead should have repented of their foolish oath made at Mizpah, and they should have agreed to give their daughters as wives to the men of the tribe of Benjamin, renouncing the foolish vow of Judges 21:1.
b. They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred young virgins: In the ungodly massacre at Jabesh Gilead, they killed all but 400 young virgins. Still, this was not enough: yet they had not found enough for them. (Guzik)
Foolish Oaths
We have to study this carefully, read Guzik’s commentary: “They decided to slaughter a whole city of Israel, a city that refused to join with Israel in the fight against Benjamin.” Because of a foolish oath, they slaughtered a whole city of their own tribe because they refused to join them in the fight against the tribe of Benjamin! Then they gave the daughters of the city of Israel to the men survivors of Benjamin whom they made peace with.
We’ve all made foolish oaths in our lives. Let’s remember what Jesus said in Matthew 5:37
Blessings
No comments:
Post a Comment