Lesson 27 - Judges 20 & 21 (End of Book)

[Music] so today marks the end of the book of Judges for us and we're going to move fairly rapidly through judges chapters 20 and 21 as it is mostly a self explanatory a historical account of perhaps the worst atrocity committed by Hebrews that's recorded in the Bible main our next the the next study if you're gonna go in order that you ought to read is the Book of Ruth because the Book of Ruth comes immediately after the period of judges now last week we studied the gut wrenching story of a Levite man and his unnamed concubine who live in the hill country of Ephraim and the timeframe is perhaps 20 years more or less after Joshua died the couple got into some type of a serious argument that led to the woman leaving her husband going home to her father that lived in Bethlehem Bethlehem and after the Levite thought it over he decided that she was worth winning back so he journeyed the substantial difference from his home to retrieve her if she was willing to come back she was there was reconciliation and so they along with a servant that the Levite had brought along with him for a traveling companion they began their journey home when they stopped the first evening in the city of Gibeah now Gibeah was a tribal territory that belonged to Benjamin and the Levite had the option of stopping a couple of hours earlier as they passed near Davis later called yerushalaim Jerusalem but because in that area jabu's was still controlled by one of the many Canaanite peoples he decided to keep going a little bit forth through so they could overnight among fellow Hebrews and as it turned out that was a big mistake after arriving at the city of Gibeah and no Benjamite what offered the customary hospitality that was actually a secret duty of the residents more than it was a nicety by refusing to offer hospitality an old man that was sojourning for a little while and Gibeah noticed this this threesome so he offered him his home as a safe place for them to stay no sooner had they gone inside did a crowd of worthless men gather and demand that this old man send out his houseguest a Levite man so they could have homosexual sex with him the old man was in an impossible position as he didn't have the means to defend himself or his host from these men as he was duty-bound to do according to middle-eastern custom so in a in an eerie reminder of lot in the city of Sodom he offered to send out his own unmarried daughter as well as the Levites concubine for them to have their way with and while the old man the Levite huddled inside that man's home in fear all night long the Benjamite men of Gibeah raped and otherwise tortured the concubine until later when they were through with her she crawled back and Dow died outside the old man's doorway the Levite packed her body under one of two donkeys he had brought with him from the hills of ephraim and took her back to his home in ephraim but rather than giving her an honorable burial and his outrage and anger he shamefully cut her body up into 12 pieces and sent one piece to each of the 12 tribes as a message to ask Israel what they intended to do about such a that has happened to this woman and to him and at the crux of it all was what would Israel do about a Brethren tribe tribe Benjamin which has brought disgrace upon the entire Israelite nation and has just spiraled out of control the answer wasn't long and coming that is what we're about to read now to best understand the response of Israel and what was gonna happen next we're gonna read all of chapters 20 and 21 consecutively without stopping so open up your Bibles to Judges chapter 20 if you have a complete Jewish Bible it's page 294 294 Judges chapter 20 we're gonna read all of chapter 20 and we're gonna go right into chapter chapter 21 right to the end of this book all the people of Israel came out from Dan to Beersheba including Gilead the community assembled with one Accord before Adonai at meat spa the leaders of all the tribes of Israel presented themselves in the Assembly of the people of God four hundred thousand foot soldiers armed with swords now the people of Benjamin heard that the people of Israel had gone up to meet spawn the people of Israel said tell us how was this crime committed the Levi the husband of the murdered woman answered I came to Gibeah which belongs to Benjamin I am my concubine to stay the night and the men in Gibeah attacked me and surrounded the house I was staying in at night they wanted to kill me but instead they raped my concubine to death I took my concubines body cut it into pieces and sent them throughout all the territories beyond the Israel because they committed a shocking obscene and degrading crime in Israel look you are all people of Israel so discuss what to do and give your advice here and now all the people stood up an agreement and said none of us will go home to his tender is house what we will do now to Gibeah is this will draw lots will take a ten men out of each hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel and a hundred out of a thousand and a thousand out of ten thousand to collect food for the others and when they's come to give you a Benjamin they will avenge the crime that was committed so all the men of Israel joined together in complete agreement and assembled to attack the city now the tribes of Israel sent men throughout all the tribe of Benjamin with this message what is this crime committed by some of your people turn over these good-for-nothings or in Gibeah at once so we can execute them and rid israel such evil but the people of benjamin refused to obey the order of their kinsman the people of israel instead the people of benjamin gathered themselves together from their cities and went to give you to fight the people of israel on that day there were twenty six thousand men from benjamin armed with swords besides the inhabitants of Gibeah who numbered seven hundred specially chosen men all of these seventy seven hundred specifically picked men were left handed and everyone could sling a stone at a hair and not miss the army of israel apart from benjamin numbered four hundred thousand men with swords they were all experienced soldiers the army of Israel began by going up to Beit el where they asked God who should go up first to attack the army of Benjamin I don't I said Judah first so the army of Israel got up in the morning and set up their camp near Gibeah then the army of Israel went out to attack Benjamin and set up their battle line in front of give yeah but the army of Benjamin came out of Gideon slaughtered the army of Israel on that day twenty-two thousand men fell the people the men of Israel restored their morale and again position themselves for battle where they had been the first day then the army of Israel went up and cried before Adonai until evening they asked Adonai should we attack our kinsmen the people of Benjamin again and added I answered attacked them so the army of Israel went out to attack the army of Benjamin the second day but Benjamin went out against the men from give you the second day and slaughtered the army of Israel eighteen thousand men armed with swords fell then the whole army of Israel all the people went up to Beit el and cried and sat there in the presence of Adonai and they fasted that day until the evening offered burnt offerings and peace offerings to ad and I asked that and I what to do the art for the Covenant of God was there at that time and Pinkus the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron stood before it at that time they asked should we still go out to battle again against our kinsmen the people of Benjamin it should we stopped and I don't I answered attack because tomorrow I will hand them over to you Israel hid some men around Gibeah and on the third day Israel attacked the army of Benjamin took a position against Gibeah as they had the other times again the army of Benjamin and went out against the people lured away from the city they began attacking and killing some of the people as they had the other times they killed about thirty men of Israel in the countryside and on the roads one of which goes up to Beit el the other to give you the army of Benjamin said they're defeated just as before but the army of Israel said let's run off and draw them away from the city onto the roads all the men of Israel left their places and took up a battle position to bail tomorrow while the other Israel men burst out of their hiding places at array gave off ten thousand men chosen out of all of Israel came over to attack Gibeah and the combat was intense but the army of Benjamin didn't know that they were about to be defeated for Adonai routed Benjamin in Israel's presence that day the army of Israel destroyed twenty-five thousand one hundred men of Benjamin all of whom carried swords and the people of Benjamin realized that they had been beaten the men of Israel trusting the ones that had put in place to ambush Benjamin gave ground to the men of Benjamin and then the men who had been lying in wait rushed in on Gibeah through there's drew their swords and destroyed the city the army of Israel and the ambushers had agreed that as a signal they would make a huge cloud of smoke rise from the city at which time the men of Israel would turn back when this happened Benjamin began to attack they killed about thirty of Israel's men and said clearly we're defeating them again as in the first battle but when the smoke signal began rising from the city the men of Benjamin looked behind them and saw the whole city going up to the sky and smoke then as the men of Israel reversed direction those of Benjamin were overcome with terror and when they saw that disaster had come upon them they turned their backs on the men of Israel and they made for the road to the desert but the battle followed them and those who came out of the city destroyed them from the rear they surrounded the men of Benjamin they chased them and they trampled them down across from Gibeah on the east eighteen thousand men of Benjamin fell all of them experienced soldiers they turned they fled towards the desert to the rock of Ramon five thousand were killed on the roads they followed them to get home they killed another two thousand thus the total number from Benjamin who fell that day was twenty five thousand experienced sword bearing soldiers but six underturned they fled towards the desert to the rock of Ramon and they lived there for four months the men of Israel turned back on the people of Benjamin and killed them with the sword the entire city the cattle everything they found moreover the set on fire all the cities they conquered 21 the men of Israel had sworn in meat spa and that none of them would let his daughter marry a man from Benjamin the people came to Beit el and stayed there before God till evening crying out and weeping and they said God God Adonai why has this come about in Israel Why should there be today in Israel one tribe missing the next day that people got up early they built an altar offered burnt offerings and peace offerings and the people of Israel asked who among the tribes of Israel did not come up to assemble before I'll deny for they had made a great oak to put to death whoever didn't come up to Adonai and meets ba the people of Israel became sorry for Benjamin their brother and they said today one drive has been cut off from Israel how are we going to obtain wives for those who remain alive since we've sworn by Adonai that we won't let our daughters marry them then they asked who from the tribes of Israel had not come up to Adonai at meat spa and found that none had come from llaves Gilead to the camp where the Assembly was since when the people were counted and none of the inhabitants of yevette chiliad were found there so the gathering sent twelve thousand warriors there and ordered them go and put the people who live in commish in llaves Gilead to death with the sword including women and children completely destroy every man and every woman who has had sex with a man among the inhabitants of the officially ad they found four hundred young virgins who had not known a man by lying with him and they brought them to the camp of Shiloh which is in the land of Canaan then the whole gathering sent a message proclaiming peace to the people of Benjamin who were at the rock of ramone so Benjamin returned at that time and the people of Israel gave them the women that they had kept alive of the women from Jabez Gilead but there wasn't enough for them the people were still sorry for Benjamin because ad and I had made it division among the tribes of Israel the leaders of the Assembly asked what are we to do for those who still don't have wives in as much as all the women of Benjamin have been killed and they said there has to be a way to help the survivors preserve Benjamin's inheritance so that a tribe will not be eliminated from Israel yet we can't give them our daughters as wives for the people of Israel hoods Warren cursed be whoever gives a wife to Benjamin then they said look each year there's a festival in honor of Otto 9 Shiloh north of Beit el on the east side of the road that goes up from beit el jem and south of lebanon they ordered the men of benjamin go hide in the vineyards and keep watch and if the girls of shiloh come out to do their dances then come out of the vineyards and each of you catch for yourself a wife from the Shiloh girls and go on to the land of Benjamin and when their fathers or brothers come to complain to us we'll say to them give them as a personal favour to us because we didn't take wives for each of them in battle you didn't give them to them that would have made you guilty for breaking your oath so the men of Benjamin did this they took wives for themselves from the girls who were dancing as many as they needed and they carried them off and they went back to the land of their inheritance rebuilt the cities and lived in them the people of Israel then left that place each man returned to his tribe and family and each man went out from there to the land he had inherited at that time there was no king in Israel a man simply did whatever he thought was right first one says that all the people of Israel answered the call to do something about the murder of the Levites concubine by some wicked Benjamites it also makes the point that despite the tension that existed between the two-and-a-half tribes of Israel who had elected to make their homes east of the Jordan River and the nine and a half tribes who had entered the promised land with Joshua and settled there just as they were supposed to do the warriors from Gilead also responded to the call now Gilead was 10 a specific area occupied by the tribes of GAD and Manisha in the Transjordan but it was also used as a general term at times to refer to all members from those two-and-a-half tribes the writer better the editor of the book of Judges uses the term from Dan to bear Shiva to mean all of Israel this makes the subtle point that this narrative was written after the tribe of Dan had migrated to the north of Israel and conquered the city of lush but because there is no constant rather there is constant mention of the phrase at that time there was no king in Israel it is all also obviously making the point in relation to a time that Israel did have a king so this was very likely written during the era of the kings Saul David or Solomon I want to reiterate that it was Hebrews from the tribe of Benjamin who wanted a homosexual II gang-rape to Levite man but then except that his concubine - somewhat swage their perverted sexual appetites and they were not satisfied until they killed her in the process but I find equally appalling that the Levite man's response to all this which was the butcher virtually and desecrate his concubines corpse was apparently considered justifiable when in fact the Levite ought to have been prosecuted for such a ghoulish dismembering of her but such was the condition of Israel at that time and generally throughout the period of the judges it was that way and there's no hint of an objection to his actions verse two explains that eleven of the tribes gathered it meets pod this was considered a holy convocation to engage in a and a kind of holy war even though we can really give it a holy war status so the Hebrew words used to describe it are qahal a da which means the congregation of the people and this phrase is generally reserved for a gathering of the people of Israel to worship God now four hundred thousand armed men showed up this is further proof of the early date of this event even though it was not written about until maybe three hundred years later because Israel still had a sense of unity about it and this was a holdover from the days of Joshua now as you've already learned for reading about the show theme the judges of Israel during their day beginning with oatmeal Israel was very divided and each tribe generally cared only for themselves the tribal prince the chief Benjamin had no doubt also received a portion of this concubines body an expectation that he and his tribe would want to join their brethren and punishing those men of Gibeah as a just an outlaw group but the leadership of Benjamin chose to Harbor the murderers instead of siding with instead of siding with Israel so of course they knew what was going on the other tribes they knew were gathering for war once everyone was gathered at meat spa the tribal elders of Israel asked the aggrieved Levite man to tell his story to them as a group so they could all hear it and have the same information not surprisingly he lied the Levite man told them the men of Gibeah wanted it kill him and that was not the case at all so things started off on pretty bad footing now verse eight is essentially the making of an oath before God by the eleven tribes and it was that they would not return to their homes without taking proper retribution against Benjamin now as an aside what the scripture actually says that they did that they will not return to their well or their bite well means tent by eat means dwelling or a house all right made of stone or brick or wood so again proof of just how soon after entering Canaan this occurred because many of Israel had not yet conquered their territories fully they were still many of them were still living in goatskin tents like they used during their Exodus journey while others indeed were living in stoned dwellings very probably dwellings of the Canaanites who had formerly lived there now apparently a protracted battle with Benjamin was anticipated because the first thing the leaders of the 12th law of the 11 tribes did was to agree to assign 10% of their men their army the task of establishing a supply line to those who were going to do the fighting Benjamin was already known as among the very best the most fierce stubborn warriors of Israel and the 11 tribes were not about to take him for granted just because of the large advantage of numbers that they enjoy but Benjamin had another advantage that we're gonna explore shortly terrain terrain now without doubt this grand meeting at meat spa was but a formality as they would never have mustered their armies and marched them there if it was only to have about have a discussion and go home he their collective minds were made up before they ever left home but since the goal was to punish the guilty well then the next thing that happened was that runners were sent to various of the clan leaders of Benjamin with a message to hand over those those men of Gibeah for proper justice execution in this case but instead Benjamin refused either to invoke justice on their own as they should have since these men of Gibeah did what was patently against the laws of the Torah and they committed a capital crime nor would they allow the 11 tribes to do it for them instead they chose to fight against their brethren on behalf of these degenerates for no other reason than these degenerates also happened to be Benjamites so here we see another side to tribalism and a little later on in the story yet another decision is gonna be made to illustrate that ancient tribal mindset it is that above all above everything tribes remain loyal to themselves and they do not easily accept outside interference even from a brother tribe and although tribes there always by the way divided up into clans would regularly have blood feuds going on amongst themselves god forbid an outsider would want to inject their influence into the matter just watch The Evening News about all the goings on in Afghanistan and Pakistan Iraq and Jordan Syria other places in the Orient where tribalism still rules and you're gonna see this exact pattern dominating to this very day it is nigh on to impossible I think for Westerners to wrap our minds around this foundational quad cultural aspect of the Middle East but we can learn about it simply by proper study of the Bible because it was the same then as it is now understand it is Islam's intent to return the entire globe to tribal governance so if you still think it's wise to consider peace through appeasement with Islam you might want to realize the end result of this first Benjamin gathered their fighting men together for war twenty six thousand now remember a fighting man was generally regarded to be somebody from around 20 years of age to around 50 those younger and older men of Benjamin were not counted among the 26,000 so verse 14 begins with a unfortunately a poor translation I complete Jewish Bible it says that they're the people of Benjamin gathered and went to give yet to fight what it says in Hebrew is that the is that the Ben be in a Benjamin gathered and went to give you to fight in this passage just before it also alludes to the Ben ven of Israel see the thing is that while it certainly makes sense just the way it is this is actually just an expression used in this context saying the children of Benjamin didn't mean all the people of Benjamin nor did it merely mean sons nor certainly did it mean non adults rather the idea is that these are the representatives of Benjamin or earlier representatives of Israel they didn't constitute all in fact it is an endearing saying meaning that they're doing us they're doing a service on behalf of their tribe or their nation now in addition to the 26,000 fighters of Benjamin or 700 Benjamite men of the city of Gibeah many of who would have been the criminals who killed that concubine by the way they gave him a combined total of twenty six thousand seven hundred soldiers the additional reference to the seven hundred left-handed stone slingers were only a special group of Benjamin French mites within that twenty six thousand seven hundred and this is not a small thing though seven hundred stone slingers were deadly accurate and the stronger men could sling stones the weight up to a pound at ninety miles an hour now it's helpful to notice that the four hundred thousand soldiers that the combined Israelite army only represented two thirds of the size of the available army under Joshua so there were reserve forces if needed but Benjamin was outnumbered almost twenty to one so I imagine such a need for a reserve force wasn't even remotely contemplated now with the battle lines and forces set and described to us the assault began but not before the army of Israel went up to Beit el to consult with God now first the entire army was not moved to be tell only the commanders but second of all why go to Beit el at all what's the point well there's much disagreement among scholars over this matter however as time goes on evidence mounts I think to explain it and it has to do with the location of the wilderness Tabernacle at this time see when Israel first arrived in is first to write in Canaan the tabernacle was first set up at Shechem and a while later got moved to Shiloh but only briefly before it then moved on to Beit el and after some time it was moved back to Shiloh from Beit el and it remained there for several hundred years so we've arrived at the point in time in this particular story of the era when the sanctuary and therefore the central religious authority of Israel the priesthood was located in Beit el so we see in verse 18 that the main reason that they went to Beit el was to inquire how about how to proceed in battle this is something they remembered from the days of Joshua so it says that they asked God how to proceed and the answer to their question was Judah first but did God actually speak audibly to somebody in this situation no see it was that the Orem and cooming has carried and operated by the high priest were consulted these two sacred stones indicated God's specific will we don't know exactly how the stones indicated the divine answer perhaps it was by lot maybe one or the other two stones glowing or something we just don't know but in no way did they speak God's voice or was any others audible means employed that is recorded so in this story when we see such responses when they ask God who should go first and they says and they got the response due to go first it's not that these are your hobbies words it is that this is the indicated result of the questions to the arraignment to meme stones so having preceived their answer the army attacked Gibeah with Judah and the lead they were slaughtered presumably with Judah taking the brunt of all the casualties 22,000 of the Israelite Army's soldiers were killed I mean how could dammit Benjamin do so much damage against such great odds well for one thing the terrain worked for them Gibeah is located in hilly country so that favors the defense no matter how many soldiers Israel had available only a small portion of them could approach the city to assaulted while the bulk of the forces waited their turn as replacements for the fall but no soldier is anxious to throw himself into battle over the strewn bodies of his comrades so they sculpt away defeated the leaders of the army went back to Beit el and they wept and they besieged Jehovah for the reasons why they had failed given that they seemed to have his backing and that they had followed his instructions they again consulted God by means of the high priest and those two stones and they asked if they should attack once more the answer was yes and after regrouping they prepared for another attack upon Gibeah even though it's simply says that this occurred on the second day it doesn't mean the day after the first battle it meets imp Lehman's the second time they battled and several days or weeks even could have passed in between the first and second battles they are again defeated history lost an additional 18 thousand men so in verse 26 we find the Israel trudging back again to Beit el tails between their legs dismayed and confused but not quite ready to give up this time they took a different approach to their inquiry of God they fasted they offered sacrifices and then again they asked God what they should do and the answer was one was unequivocal unequivocal attack Gibeah one more time but the Lord communicates that this time it will be different this time Benjamin will fall to the sword so the Israelites were contrite before God they now understood the repentance and humility were needed to properly approach the creator of all things and that numbers alone never guarantees success so they switch tactics and instead of a direct frontal assault upon Gibeah they planned an ambush much in the same molds was used in the battle for AI led by Joshua now here we find that the war priest for Israel was none other than Phineas the grandson of Aaron whose resolute action of using a spear to run through the Midianite woman and the Hebrew man who were having intercourse inside the camp of Israel killing them both had saved Israel from God's wrath Phineas is bold action old Phineas nozzlenose penis okay Phineas is bold action when everybody else was paralyzed or just utterly dismayed and disinterested atoned for Israel's rebellion before the Lord an in the divine plague that had already killed 24,000 Israelites this Phineas is one of the more unrecognized I think Old Testament Bible heroes he had taken a lead role in the war against Midian he acted as a mediator during a time when the two and a half tribes east of the Jordan were suspected of disunity and apostasy due to the erection of a memorial altar now interestingly like Moses he had also been given an Egyptian name for some reason pain aha see is the Egyptian pronunciation of his name and it means Nubian or more appropriate for this situation the dark-skinned one just as Moses given adaption name was mo say that was later Hebrew Hebrew eyes to moshe then Ingo sized to Moses so pain I see in Egyptian was later Hebrew eyes to pay knocks us and we say Phineas in English bottom line Phineas was a noticeably darker skinned man than the average olive-skinned he drew well the third attack upon Gibeah commences just like the previous two the Benjamites assumed that since the method of assault seemed the same they could expect the same result and one what they didn't know was it was all a trick and when it appeared that the Israelites were being routed they turned and ran and the Warriors of Benjamin gave chase once they were a fair distance outside of gibbous defensive walls a hidden company of his er life stole into the city captured it and burned it and when the Israelites who were running away saw the thick black clouds of smoke rising upward that was the signal for them to turn around and begin attacking the Benjamites who were pursuing them and with her City captured and then caught in a vise between two forces the army of Benjamin was doomed 18,000 men of Benjamin died defending Gibeah the rest ran tried to save their lives but the Warriors of Israel were ready for that and easily caught up to them and they killed them 5,000 of them fled towards the rock of Ramon Ramon means pomegranate tree and they were slaughtered on the road another 2000 city for the headed for the city of Guillaume they were killed 600 more made it to the rock of Ramon and they hid there for four months and so they survived after this the Israeli army executed every last man woman child even all of the livestock that anything to do with Gibeah the tribe of Benjamin lay on the verge of complete extinction moving on to chapter 21 sometime past the heat of the battle was over the victorious Israelites had time to think over everything that had transpired here and they fell under grief over it they reflected on what the result of their actions meant for the future of Israel and they repented and even though it was Benjamin who necessitated this war by their outrageous position of defending the deranged men of Gibeah who turned to homosexuality and behaved exactly as the ethan of sodom and at the time it must have been seemed reasonable that just as God annihilated Sodom that same justice upon Gibeah was in order maybe he's really gone a little too far we've talked about the issue of swearing oaths and making vows in God's name and just how dangerous of an undertaking that is we moderns like to think otherwise but we really don't take our oaths and vows all that seriously in general but to the ancient it was unthinkable to violate an old or a vow because the consequence was probably going to be devastating and long-lasting so making a rash out or a vow is a doubly bad idea but Israel now realized they had done just that before they even shot one arrow and anger against Benjamin and as the Israelite force of 400 thousand soldiers gathered in meat spa and war council before heading towards Gibeah they had made a vow sounded pretty good but now it faced them with a terrible dilemma the vow was that no one from any of the 11 tribe coalition would allow their daughter to marry a Benjamin the problem was a mere 600 men remained out of the entire tribe of Benjamin and with no women to bear children for them the line of Benjamin would end and his bad sounds to us it was horrific to the mind of an ancient Hebrew that one of Jacob's sons would lose his place among the family of Hebrews was just too awful to contemplate the in tribal society it's one thing for interrelated tribes to war and kill amongst themselves in order to punish or achieve dominance but it's quite another to kill off an entire bloodline and this was usually avoided at all costs well when the victorious Israelites realized that the utter demise of Benjamin was a very real probability now they went before God again back up they went to Beit el the to the tabernacle and they wept and they asked for forgiveness as well as trying to understand why God would even allow such a thing to happen they offered sacrifices of a repentance to you homemade they sought a solution and they absolutely however could not break their vow a vow refusing to give to Benjamin their daughters for marriage and childbearing so how do they keep Benjamin from extinction verse 7 sums up the problem very well how are we going to obtain wise for those who remain alive those Benjamite men who remain alive very few since we've sworn by ad and I we won't let our daughters marry them they find an answer to the problem and a very convoluted unexpected way and it starts with Israel search to find out if any clan of Hebrews had failed to show up to contribute to the war effort and it turns out that the people of the city of Jabez Gilead meaning the people who lived in the city of Jabez and the territory of Gilead which is east of the Jordan if had not answered the call understand this was in violation of a much earlier and perhaps more fundamental oath and that oath is that all Israel was united under the under God and under the laws of Moses and so they were duty-bound to act together as one in a crisis Jabez was seen as traitors to God into Israel and not only that at the time of the war council and meat spa and oath was sworn that the punishment for whoever did not participate in the war against Benjamin they were to be killed so a strike force of 12,000 from Israel was sent across the Jordan to take vengeance everyone was to die except for girls of childbearing age but who were still virgins these girls were to be captured and brought back to Shiloh turns out there were about 400 of them so a plan was forming to kill two birds with one stone so to speak first was to execute those people of Jabez in order to satisfy the vow of killing everybody who refused to participate in the war but second was to find wives for the remaining six hundred men of benjamin those virgin girls of Jabez would provide a would provide a good start to remedy this problem so we're gonna back up just a bit the six hundred men were not all the remained Benjamin some number of elderly perhaps some infants very young children remained alive the key is that the six hundred men were those of an age who were able to impregnate women and the reason that the virgin girls of childbearing age were captor captured was that by being virgin the versions that would make them desirable as wives and would give them many years in which to bear as many children as possible to replenish the tribe now I want to show you another interesting thing in verse 11 the order is given to completely destroy every man woman and child of Jabez Gilead except those virgins were talking about of course now what is usually translated like on a complete Jewish Bible is completely destroy is in Hebrew the word is hmmm that oughta be a word that sounds familiar to you it's it is in other places in the Old Testament usually translated into English as ban ba in ban C Haram means to destroy something for the purpose of giving it to God hem is a holy war term it indicates that since the true commander of a holy war is God himself and the spoils of war need to go to him but how does one give the spoils of war to God he says it is to be in the form of a kind of burnt offering so the spoils must be destroyed and then burned up in this way it is dedicated it is banned to God and at the same time that people can't partake of it because it's all been destroyed so to the Israelites they saw what they were about to do to the people of Jabez Gilead as a holy endeavor and so for them the killing of the people was going to be made under the law of harem it was holy to their minds because it was carrying out an oath that they had made before God to kill all who would refuse to participate in the war against Benjamin now was this a good thing before the Lord hardly it was just another case of men making a rash vow and they would rather follow through with it no matter what the consequences to others might be then not follow through and accept the consequences of their own sin of breaking a vow the 400 versions of Jabez were given to the lone male survivors of benjamin but that left them still 200 wives short what to do well they came up with another clever plan just gets worse than then there was a festival to the Lord each year in Shiloh lots of women naturally went to it the young girls especially the virgins customarily participated in it by dancing some leaders of the Israelites went to the leaders of the 600 mating Benjamites and told them that if they would just go to Shiloh at this festival time and hide then when these young virgins came to dance they could be pounced upon and they could cart them all off for wives Israelites would be sure there would be no interference and the men of Benjamin would be free to remove these girls back to their allotted territory of Benjamin now what's gonna happen when the fathers and the other male family members of these stolen girls come to the leadership of Israel and a complain about the theft of their daughters and seek justice well they would be told to do the leadership a favor that sounds like the Mafia then it's like we're watching The Godfather here and they were to ask just just don't react don't do anything just let it be cuz you know why it's all the best for Israel besides they wouldn't be breaking their vow to God to not give Benjamin any God of Israel because their girls weren't given they were kidnapped so it's not their fault it's brilliant it's just that these fathers would make the decision not to retrieve them Wow I mean it's so it's no wonder so many Jews become lawyers but I want to point out something though that might go unnoticed but it's important the children born now follow this throw the children born now to the tribe of Benjamin from here forward would be mixed that is the four hundred women of Gilead were mostly from the tribe of Vanessa but Gilead also consisted of some populations of GAD and Reuben the remaining 200 women taken at Shiloh were some combination of members from the other ten tribes so even though the fathers of the next generation of Benjamites were generally themselves Benjamites by blood not one mother of their children would be a Benjamite by hereditary by heredity not one I've pointed out before that Israel is hardly a genealogically pure race with all their genes coming from Abraham even Jacob before he went to Egypt acquired probably the largest part of his family during his stay at Kim it happened when his sons went on a raid of revenge for the rape of their sister Dinah and in the process they killed all the male's of scam and they did what with the females captured him in tribal society those foreign females would be rapidly assimilated into their captors tribe the wing women of Shechem were Hittites a type of tonight they were not Hebrews so the family of Jacob was mixed very early on then in Egypt there was much intermarriage and so the Torah tells us that a huge number of non Hebrews used the term a mixed multitude followed Israel on their Exodus and here we see drastic action taken by Israel to save the tribe of Benjamin that resulted in all future Benjamites after the war of Gibeah being of mixed tribal blood with other Israelite tribes no modern-day Hebrew could ever possibly speak of purity of bloodlines to his own tribe let alone going back to Abraham or Jacob rather the issue is of a declared allegiance to the God of Israel just like it is for both Gentile and Jewish believers in Messiah Yeshua one final thing we will be done with other judges in the time of King Saul you're gonna find an interesting relationship between King Saul and the people of Gilead when a moun threatened the people of Gilead they turned to King Saul for help later it would be the men of Gilead who recovered the corpses of Saul and his sons as their corpses hung on the walls of Bette Shan Saul was of the tribe of Benjamin so we see how and why the tribe of Benjamin had a special bond with the people of Gilead and point of fact they were closely related by blood and it happened as the aftermath of this war were reading about here as this war against Benjamin the final words of the book of Judges ends most appropriately with at that time there was no man - no king in Israel a man simply did whatever he thought was right you know I truly pray that we see that just as God was showing Israel that they needed a king so do we need a king and his name is Yeshua unfortunately we are today reliving the time of the judges the state of judeo-christianity is as it was in the days of old nil Deborah Sampson with everyman doing what is right in our own hearts doing deeds it seemed pious and righteous outwardly comfortable to us inwardly but paying little heed to the actual Word of God this concludes our study on the book of Judges [Music] you you

Channel: Torah Class

Views: 889

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Keywords: Torah Class, Sampson, Israel, Tom Bradford, Deborah, Promise Land, Bible Study, Seed of Abraham, Judges, Old Testament

Id: 3Sdo32SgUFg

Length: 58min 9sec (3489 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 10 2019