As I’m trying over lent I finally got a decent session of Bible reading in last night and today.
I couldn’t believe how bloody the end of the book of Judges was, I mean well crikey. All the killing and then the last few verses to just grab a girl for yourself.
Judges 21:23:
“So that is what the Benjamites did. While the girls were dancing, each man caught one and carried her off to be his wife. Then they returned to their inheritance and rebuilt the towns and settled in them.”
I can’t get over how messy and bloody it all is. Cutting up a concubine after sending her out to be raped and abused (Judges 19). It does seem really dark to me. Then the fighting and pointless bloodshed between the tribes of Israel.
I can understand the story of Samson and in particular his death (Judges 16:23) as a kind of righteous suicide.
But the infighting, seems more like a movie, perhaps one day it will be? Or it already has been made into one.
I kind of found it amusing that there were no little notes in what is a fairly large passage, usually in my Bible where there would usually be something to say a little of God’s love in here but no, not a thing. No real surprise I guess.
On the plus side though following Judges was the book of Ruth and that was a much nicer read, inspirational really and although short shows someone with a heart to serve others. I think I needed to read that after all the killing previously.
God bless
Dan
28th February 2007
10:35 pm
It’s a great example of how people behave when they reject God. The Israelites were meant to be His people, but they frequently chose to do things their own way (or adopt the practices of the pagan peoples around them). If you consider the behaviour of the peoples of the middle east, you can see little has changed.
If you look at what prevents our society descending into their kind of chaos, you can see it’s a tacit acceptance of most of the 10 commandments. Where the requirement not to steal, murder etc is ignored then society falls to bits. The Jews were chosen by God, but it did not make them special in terms of morality – only potential.