“The people went to Bethel, where they sat before God until evening, raising their voices and weeping bitterly.”
~ Judges 21:2
Hi James and Ellen,
What was the worst day that you have experienced? What happened that made a day the worst day that you have experienced? Was the worst day that you have experienced not going to a place where you thought that your dad and/or ma were taking you? Was the worst day that you have experienced not being chosen to do something at your school that you really wanted and/or expected to do? Was the worst day that you have experienced not having a friend who you really wanted to have stay overnight with you not be able to stay overnight? Your grandmaa has had ‘worst’ days in her life. About four months before your grandmaa married your grandpaa, your grandmaa’s dad had a fatal heart attack. About six years after your grandmaa married your grandpaa, your grandmaa’s ma succumbed to cancer. Because your grandmaa has not had a dad or ma for the last almost 38 years, your grandmaa has been an ‘orphan’ during these years. When Liberty Loan asked your grandpaa to transfer to Springfield, Massachusetts to manage the Liberty Loan office that is in Springfield, your grandmaa was no longer living close to her sister Gail. Gail was to your grandmaa a special sister friend. When a missionary one evening during a mission conference at the Christian & Missionary Alliance Church that is in Aberdeen, South Dakota asked all the parents in attendance to stand up in support of their kid or kids if their kid or kids felt a calling from God to be a missionary, your grandpaa suddenly began ‘hearing a voice’ telling him not to stand up – that your grandpaa was still young enough to take his kids to where ‘the voice’ would send him. This resulted in your grandmaa again having to move away from gals who had become for her very good friends – this time to live in Chicago, Illinois so that your grandpaa could be a Moody Bible Institute student. When your grandpaa was not able to earn enough money to pay the rent for the flat that they were living in in west Chicago, buy food and pay for his school expenses, an opportunity appeared out of nowhere for your grandmaa and grandpaa to be the Zeiger-Mueller Funeral Home caretakers. Your grandmaa for the next 2 ½ years lived with your grandpaa, dad and Aunt Lynn in a dinky apartment in the back of a funeral home on Irving Park Boulevard in Chicago. After having been required to attend Moody Bible Institute’s annual missions conference sessions in 1975, your grandpaa sensed that God was leading him to contact South America Mission. When your grandmaa was asked by South America Mission in 1976 to join your grandpaa on their summer team that was going to Colombia, South America and then when the funds were providentially provided for her to join the eight week trip with the summer team, your grandmaa flew with the 29 member South America Mission summer team to Barranquilla, Colombia. Even though your grandmaa dreads flying in airplanes – especially large airplanes, your grandmaa still got into airplanes to go with your grandpaa to where God was leading Him to go. Because your grandmaa went where your grandpaa believed that God was asking him to go, your grandmaa while she lived in Bolivia had a full-blown case of typhoid and in Guatemala she had breakbone dengue and hepatitis C.
Benjamin tribal clan guys and gals over 3000 years ago had a ‘worst’ day. Judges had become the default leaders in the land area that God gave to His specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group guys and gals, to always to have to live in as their very own land if . . . Benjamin tribal clan guys and gals had a ‘worst’ day when they decided to take a stand against their eleven tribal clan bros. Benjamin’s tribal clan bros had not liked it at all how their little bro – the Benjamin tribal clan guys and gals, had allowed some filthy dudes who were living in the town of Gibeah – a town that was located in Benjamin tribal clan area, to continue to live after the horrific thing that they had done. The consequence that Benjamin tribal clan guys and gals had to suffer for having put up with depravity within their clan was to be almost completely stamped out by their tribal clan bros. Just 600 guys survived the slaughter – where every other guy, gal and kid was killed by soldiers from the other eleven Israelite tribal clans. Per the author of Judges 21, all the Israelite tribal clans – sans Benjamin tribal clan, got together afterwards at the town of Mizpah where they committed between themselves to never let any gal from any of their tribal clans marry any of the remaining 600 Benjamin tribal clan guys. How would you feel if you had to one day have to join up with your other extended family members – except for one family branch, in order to eradicate all the guys, gals and kids in the excluded family branch because a few guys and gals in that branch having adopted a debauched, evil lifestyle?
Tough love is not an easy thing to do. It was hard for guys from the other eleven Israelite tribal clans to have to inflict the kind of punishment that they did on their defiant tribal clan bro. Verse 2 says, “The people went to Bethel, where they sat before God until evening, raising their voices and weeping bitterly.” When the meeting was over and because no guy from the town of Jabesh Gilead showed up at the conclave held in the town of Bethel, all the guys, gals and kids who were living in the town of Jabesh Gilead – with the exception of 400 unmarried gals, were killed. The 400 gals were not killed so that they could be wives for 400 of the Benjamin tribal clan surviving guys. The rest of the surviving Benjamin tribal clan guys were given permission to kidnap gals during a dance to be their wives. It only takes one compromising action to cause enormous pain for family and friends while trusting in God will erase a ‘worst’ day. Who are you now trying to model your lives after – after your grandmaa or Benjamin tribal clan guys?
Judges 21 (907)