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.<\/p>\n
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?<\/p>\n
“LORD, please kill off a little more of us today and put the image of Your Son in that place.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n =============================================================<\/p>\n\n\n\n Judges 21 KJV<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1<\/sup>\u00a0Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpeh, saying, There shall not any of us give his daughter unto Benjamin to wife.\u00a02<\/sup>\u00a0And the people came to the house of God, and abode there till even before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept sore;\u00a03<\/sup>\u00a0And said, O\u00a0LORD\u00a0God of Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be to day one tribe lacking in Israel?\u00a04<\/sup>\u00a0And it came to pass on the morrow, that the people rose early, and built there an altar, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.\u00a05<\/sup>\u00a0And the children of Israel said, Who\u00a0is there\u00a0<\/em>among all the tribes of Israel that came not up with the congregation unto the\u00a0LORD? For they had made a great oath concerning him that came not up to the\u00a0LORD\u00a0to Mizpeh, saying, He shall surely be put to death.\u00a06<\/sup>\u00a0And the children of Israel repented them for Benjamin their brother, and said, There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day.\u00a07<\/sup>\u00a0How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing we have sworn by the\u00a0LORD\u00a0that we will not give them of our daughters to wives? 8<\/sup> And they said, What one\u00a0is there\u00a0<\/em>of the tribes of Israel that came not up to Mizpeh to the\u00a0LORD? And, behold, there came none to the camp from Jabesh-gilead to the assembly.\u00a09<\/sup>\u00a0For the people were numbered, and, behold,\u00a0there were\u00a0<\/em>none of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead there.\u00a010<\/sup>\u00a0And the congregation sent thither twelve thousand men of the valiantest, and commanded them, saying, Go and smite the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the children.\u00a011<\/sup>\u00a0And this\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>the thing that ye shall do, Ye shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that hath lain by man.\u00a0\u00a012<\/sup>\u00a0And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young virgins, that had known no man by lying with any male: and they brought them unto the camp to Shiloh, which\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>in the land of Canaan.\u00a0\u00a013<\/sup>\u00a0And the whole congregation sent\u00a0some\u00a0<\/em>to speak to the children of Benjamin that\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>in the rock Rimmon, and to call peaceably unto them.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a014<\/sup>\u00a0And Benjamin came again at that time; and they gave them wives which they had saved alive of the women of Jabesh-gilead: and yet so they sufficed them not.\u00a015<\/sup>\u00a0And the people repented them for Benjamin, because that the\u00a0LORD\u00a0had made a breach in the tribes of Israel. 16<\/sup>\u00a0Then the elders of the congregation said, How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?\u00a017<\/sup>\u00a0And they said,\u00a0There must be\u00a0<\/em>an inheritance for them that be escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe be not destroyed out of Israel.\u00a018<\/sup>Howbeit we may not give them wives of our daughters: for the children of Israel have sworn, saying, Cursed\u00a0be\u00a0<\/em>he that giveth a wife to Benjamin.\u00a019<\/sup>\u00a0Then they said, Behold,\u00a0there is\u00a0<\/em>a feast of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0in Shiloh yearly\u00a0in a place\u00a0<\/em>which\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>on the north side of Beth-el, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from Beth-el to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a020<\/sup>Therefore they commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards;\u00a021<\/sup>\u00a0And see, and, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances, then come ye out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.\u00a022<\/sup>\u00a0And it shall be, when their fathers or their brethren come unto us to complain, that we will say unto them, Be favourable unto them for our sakes: because we reserved not to each man his wife in the war: for ye did not give unto them at this time,\u00a0that\u00a0<\/em>ye should be guilty.\u00a0\u00a023<\/sup>\u00a0And the children of Benjamin did so, and took\u00a0them\u00a0<\/em>wives, according to their number, of them that danced, whom they caught: and they went and returned unto their inheritance, and repaired the cities, and dwelt in them.\u00a024<\/sup>\u00a0And the children of Israel departed thence at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they went out from thence every man to his inheritance.\u00a025<\/sup>\u00a0In those days\u00a0there was\u00a0<\/em>no king in Israel: every man did\u00a0that which was\u00a0<\/em>right in his own eyes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6387"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6387"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16106,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6387\/revisions\/16106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}