Judges 21 - A Tangled Web

Judges is finished.  I began the Book of Judges almost exactly two years ago.  I got through it "faster" than the Book of Josue, but not at the pace I had hoped for.  During those two years my wife and I adopted a third child, Isabelle Mackenzie.  Just as I observed after taking so long with Josue, life just seems to get busier and crazier.  It's a challenge no doubt to sit down with Scripture, but it's one I don't want to walk away from with resignation.  I've been able to find some time this summer to commit to finishing Judges and I hope this momentum continues.  (This was never meant to be a hasty endeavor anyway).  So here are my thoughts on the final chapter of the Book of Judges.

Things just continue to get more and more morally convoluted.  As if the civil war among the Israelites weren't bad enough, afterwards we have the strange decision to slaughter the people of Jabesh-Gilead, leaving only the virgins, so that the 600 surviving Benjamites could have wives and continue their tribe.  It's interesting to note that even though they consult God on this matter, they receive no reply.  God is silent, as if giving an unspoken disapproval.  But they've sworn an oath that they wouldn't give their own daughters to the Benjamites, yet they are filled with remorse that they've nearly obliterated one of their own tribes.  The Israelites find themselves entangled in a web of their own making, consisting of unnecessary oaths and vows.  It shows how they've begun to value the letter more than the spirit, a problem that will only get worse with time.  In the last verse of Judges, we see once again an utterance that has appeared twice already:  "In those days there was no king in Israel: but every one did that which seemed right to himself" (Judges 21:24).  As if to stamp a final reminder onto the entire book, we see just how much a lack of authority has wreaked havoc upon the nations.  With a strong judge things were good, but those appear to have been only very temporary situations.  With a strong king perhaps things will be better.  But even this thought, the idea of bringing a kingship into Israel, is a morally ambiguous notion.  Is it what God truly desires?  Is it perhaps simply an unfortunate necessity?  Looks like I'll soon get to explore these questions, as the books of Samuel and Kings are just around the corner, after I first take a brief sojourn through the Book of Ruth.