JOSEPH #69 | JOSEPH IN EGYPT #51 | LAST WORDS OF JACOB #40

Pastor Christopher Choo

Lesson 3665

JOSEPH #69

JOSEPH IN EGYPT #51
LAST WORDS OF JACOB #40

12. BENJAMIN #3

BENJAMIN'S DEPRAVITY

Benjamin’s tribe had its dark side.

Their warlike nature came out not only in defense of their country but also in depravity within their country.

In Judges 19—21 Benjamin takes up an offense against the other eleven tribes of Israel, and civil war ensues. 

This period had the reputation of everyone doing what was right in his own eyes (Judges 21:25).

What led to the civil war was the horrific abuse and death of an unnamed Levite’s concubine (Judges 19:10–28). The eleven tribes turned against the tribe of Benjamin and nearly annihilated them because of their refusal to give up the perpetrators (Judges 20:1—21:25). 

Eventually, the tribes restored Benjamin’s tribe, greatly diminished due to the war, and the country reunited.

This sordid episode   holds several hard lessons with as many unanswered questions:

1. Judges 19:1-30. A Levite from the hill country of Ephraim takes a concubine from Bethlehem in the territory of Judah, but she is unfaithful and he returns her to her father in Bethlehem.

2.The Levite then persuades her father to let the young woman return with him to Ephraim. They set off late in the day and not wishing to stay overnight in the Canaanite city of Jebus  (Jerusalem), the Levite and his partner push on northwards towards Ramah.

3. As dusk falls, they decide to stay overnight with an old man in Gibeah. The men of Gibeah (who are of the tribe of Benjamin) rape and abuse the concubine and she dies on the doorstep outside the house. The news of this appalling murder spreads quickly throughout Israel.

4. Judges 20:1-48. The elders of the tribes of Israel assemble at Mizpah to discuss an appropriate response to this atrocity. The Benjaminites refuse to hand over the perpetrators of the crime, so the Israelites attack the Benjaminites outside Gibeah.

5. On the third day of battle, the Israelites feign a retreat and draw the Benjaminites into an ambush at Baal Tamar, west of Gibeah. The Benjaminites are defeated and Gibeah is burned to the ground.

6. A few hundred Benjaminites escape into the desert to the Rock of Rimmon, overlooking the Jordan valley.

7. Judges 21:1-14    The Israelites assembled at Mizpah had previously made an oath forbidding the marriage of their daughters to a Benjaminite. The elders now discover that no-one from Jabesh Gilead had attended the assembly. They send a fighting force to slaughter the adult inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead as a punishment, and they return with four hundred young women who are offered as wives to the remaining Benjaminites.

8. Judges 21:15-25. Those Benjaminites who have not been given a wife as part of this peace treaty are encouraged to abduct one of the young women from Shiloh during the annual religious festival, probably the Feast of Ingathering or ‘Tabernacles’

Thus an uneasy peace returned to Israel after a bloody civil war caused by one recalcitrant tribe of Benjamin.

What is today's main lesson?

We may be shocked by the depravity of the Benjamites.

But we forget or overlook our own.

The truly humble person sees his own faults in light of the perfections of Christ; he does not seek to see the faults of others, but when he does, he speaks the truth in love and desires their sanctification so they will be built up in the image of Christ. 

He sees his own heart and the corruption that lies hidden there, along with impure motives and evil ambitions. But he does not seek to notice the errors, defects, and follies of others. 

He sees the depravity of his own heart and hopes charitably in the goodness of others and believes their hearts are purer than his.

Disunity among the brethren is an abomination in God's eyes.

The secret to unity begins with how we view ourselves within the body of Christ and how we view others. 

The key verse that addresses this is Philippians 2:3: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.”

Paul goes on to explain further in the following verse: “Each of you should look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others.”

In all modesty, humility, and lowliness of mind, we are to “be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love” (Ephesians 4:2)