DAD'S RAMBLINGS -- REPAIRING THE BROKEN WALL

DAD'S RAMBLINGS – REPAIRING THE BROKEN WALL

"And the people grieved for Benjamin, because the LORD had made a void in the tribes of Israel." (Judges 21:15)

These last three chapters are a good illustration of the truth of the last verse of the book of Judges – "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes"  (Judges 21:25).

The details of the story in this chapter are too gruesome and too graphic to recount.  I will leave that to your discretion if you care to read it.  Suffice  it to say, there was great evil in one of the twelve tribes, especially the citizens of Gibeah of the tribe of Benjamin.  The other eleven tribes gathered together to bring judgment on them.  "The tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, 'What is this wickedness that has occurred among you?  Now therefore, deliver up the men, the perverted men who are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and remove the evil from Israel!'  But the children of Benjamin would not listen to the voice of their brethren, the children of Israel.  Instead, the children of Benjamin gathered together from their cities to Gibea, to go to battle against the children of Israel" (vss. 12-14).  

The Benjamites were soundly defeated after three days of battle, destroying much of the tribe.  "The men of Israel struck them down with the edge of the sword – from every city, men and beasts, all who were found.  They also set fire to all the cities they came to" (vs. 48).  The decimation of Benjamin left a big hole the family.  The Israelites considered them the "missing tribe" (21:3) and were grieved by the vacuum that had been created in Benjamin's defeat.

The word "void" in today's focus verse means a breach, or a gap, and is used to describe a broken-down wall.   Chapter 21 is the record of them repairing that breach in the family.

It is a sad thing when there is a gap, a breach, a hole in the wall that is left when a fellow-believer – a part of the family – is missing.  It should cause us to grieve and mourn when another Christian is alienated from the family, especially when the separation is caused by sin.  Instead of writing them off as a lost cause, a better response is to weep for them, and do the work of restoration as the rest of the Israelite tribes did in chapter 21.   It is better to rebuild the wall than to leave the gap empty.   

Love, Dad