Judges 21:12, 25: “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 . . . In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

May 5th, 2023 by Pastor Ed in devotional

We see Israel continuing to do things that seemed morally right to them, but were actually terrible, immoral decisions. After their destruction of the tribe of Benjamin, there were only 600 Benjamites left. Israel lamented that one of the tribes could be lost, so they set out to find wives for Benjamin, which was difficult as they had all taken an oath that they would not give any of their daughters to the Benjamites. Rather than break that oath they slaughtered a whole city of Israel, because the city had refused to join with them in the fight against Benjamin. Everyone except for 400 female virgins were killed, who they took and gave to the Benjaminites. This still left one-third of the 600 men left of Benjamin, without wives. For the remaining 200 Benjamites, Israel told them to go to the city of Shiloh and steal women from there for wives.

These acts are a perfect example of making bad decisions in an attempt to make up for an earlier bad decision. Israel should have simply humbled themselves before the LORD and repented of the foolish oath they’d made at Mizpah. Then they could have agreed to give their daughters as wives to the men of the tribe of Benjamin. But that of course, would have meant admitting they had been wrong. Why is it so hard to admit wrongdoing? Humble yourself, confess your sin, and repent by turning around and doing the godly thing. The lesson is simple but not easy. When you’re wrong, admit your faults early and it will save a mountain of problems later. Pride does not die easily, does it?

“LORD, please kill off a little more of us today and put the image of Your Son in that place.”