How To Read The Old Testament
When God Speaks—Be Quick to Obey!
SUMMARY: What the Bible describes does not mean it excuses. The writers of scripture simply paint a sad picture for us of what happens when God is marginalized. Moreover, rather than justifying unrighteous behavior, these kinds of stories are to stand as perpetual warning signs to us when we put our needs, wants, and interests ahead of God’s purposes and plans. Without God at the center and circumference of our thoughts, feelings, and actions, life will ultimately stink! With him at the core of everything we do, we have his eternal promise to bless us with success, prosperity, and his smile: “Then you will be prosperous and successful.” (Joshua 1:8)
GOD SPEAKS — I OBEY // Judges 21:4-5, 25
Early the next morning, the people built an altar and presented their burnt offerings and peace offerings on it. Then they said, “Who among the tribes of Israel did not join us at Mizpah when we held our assembly in the presence of the Lord?” At that time they had taken a solemn oath in the Lord’s presence, vowing that anyone who refused to come would be put to death….In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.
Note: It would be helpful to read the entirety of Judges 21 to make sense of this devotional.
Moral outrage that is not based on any kind of higher, propositional, and immutable moral truth might be real, but it can be and is usually wrong. It is selective, inconsistent, and hypocritical—and ultimately dangerous. That is why God calls us to live by his unchanging truth.
Let me get this straight: Israel has just basically wiped out one of their own tribes (Judges 20); they then vow that they will never allow their daughters to marry any of the remnant of that tribe, Benjamin (Judges 21:1); they feel really bad about it (Judges 21:2-3,6); they call a sacred assembly to offer sacrifices before the Lord (Judges 4); then they make another vow to kill anyone who doesn’t show up to their worship service (Judges 21:5). Now there’s a great way to increase church attendance!
What a mess! So, they discover that the people from Jabesh-Gilead had not attended church that day, so they ordered their execution: “The assembly sent 12,000 of their best warriors to Jabesh-Gilead with orders to kill everyone there, including women and children.” (Judges 21:10) But wait, someone then comes up with the idea that if they spare the unmarried woman of that city, they can then force them to become the wives of the left-over Benjamite men, then that tribe can repopulate, they won’t lose one of their tribes after all, and technically, they will not have violated their vow not to let their daughters marry anyone from Benjamin.
The problem was, there were only 400 of these girls from Jabesh-Gilead, and there were gobs of guys from Benjamin who needed wives. Just then, someone comes up with an idea that sanctions kidnapping brides from Bethel for the rest of the men as the girls are leaving one of their annual festivals. (Judges 21:19-22)
So, the assembly sent 12,000 of their best warriors to Jabesh-Gilead with orders to kill everyone there, including women and children. (Judges 21:23)
Then everyone went home and lived happily ever after. Not! Why not? Because as the last verse of Judges observes, “In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.” (Judges 21:25) They had no controlling moral authority to keep them between the lines of civility with their neighbor and righteousness before God, so they kept on coming up with social solutions, assuming that God was guiding them. At the end of the day, this only made their national mess bigger and far worse.
Now, as you read this chapter, and plenty of other chapters like it in the Old Testament, you, too, can assume that since it was recorded, and you find no condemnation of what is recorded, that God must approve of what they are doing. But notice in Israel’s crazy plan to get brides for Benjamin, there is no use of the phrase, “the Lord commanded.”
God didn’t tell the nation to annihilate their fellow tribe. God didn’t order them to make a rash vow. God didn’t instruct them to kill off the city of Jabesh-gilead for not showing up to church. God didn’t show them how to devise a dumb plan to kidnap child-brides for the Benjamites. God wasn’t talking in this chapter. They had pushed God to the margins, then blamed him for whatever they did next.
“If you push God to the margins in your life, then don’t blame him for what happens next.”
Dr. Ray M. Noah
So, what does this have to do with how you read the Old Testament? Simply this, what the Bible describes does not mean it excuses. The writer is simply painting a sad picture for us of what happens when God is marginalized. Moreover, rather than justifying unrighteous behavior, these kinds of stories are to stand as warning signs to us when we put our needs, wants, and interests ahead of God’s purposes and plans.
Without God at the center and circumference of our thoughts, feelings, and actions, life will ultimately stink! With him at the core of everything we do, we have his eternal promise to bless us with success, prosperity, and his smile. (Joshua 1:8)
Never forget that when you obey, God blesses! When you don’t, well, just re-read Judges!
CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY: Justification of thoughts, feelings and actions without consideration for God is a dangerous thing. Is there an area where you might be guilty of that? If so, repent—ASAP!
“The countless respectable and seductive disguises and masks in which evil approaches [men of conscience] make their conscience anxious and unsure until they finally content themselves with an assuaged conscience instead of a good conscience.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer