"What They Deserve"

(Today's reading - Judges 19-21)

Today's reading contains one of the Bibles strangest stories. Many of us don't even want to read it or think about it, but hidden in the story are a few lessons that we need to learn.
The "Readers Digest" version goes something like this....A Levite and his concubine are traveling home when they decide to stay in Gibeah in the land of Benjamin. They are invited to stay in the home of an elderly gentleman. During the night, men from the town come to the home and demand to have sexual relations with the traveling man. The man sends out his concubine and the men rape and kill her. He takes her body and returns home. He cut her body into twelve pieces and sent one to each of the tribes of Israel. This created a great outrage among the people and they sought to deal with those responsible for the "disgraceful act".
"All the people", after hearing the story, determined to punish the tribe of Benjamin. They sent men throughout the tribe asking that they hand over those responsible, but they refused. Instead, the Benjamites determine to fight the other tribes. So, the battle begins. The Israelites lose two battles and 40,000 men. They go back to God and he promises to give them the victory the next day. God is faithful and the Benjamites are defeated. The tribe is nearly wiped out and the remaining tribes determine to restore the tribe of Benjamin. They provide brides to the remaining men to so that they could "retain their inheritance and rebuild the towns".
The lesson for us to learn is about the seriousness of sin. When the Israelites were confronted with the sin of the Benjamites, they were outraged and sought to cleanse the land of sin. They could have decided that one concubine wasn't that big of a deal,  that there are much worse things going on in the world to be dealt with. Instead, they determined to pay the price to deal with the sin in the land.
In the battles against this sin, nearly 70,000 lives were lost. Sin costs! There is a price to be paid for sin. It cost God His only Son and it cost Jesus His very life. Seventy thousand men die for the murder of one concubine. They understood that it was more than one sin, it was an attitude of sin that must be defeated. Clearly, the morals among the tribe of Benjamin had declined to the point that they saw no issue with rape and murder. Israel knew that if they were to continue to be God's people, the sin had to be dealt with. The price was paid, not only by those that committed the sin, but by the entire family of God. Like an contagious infection, sin will spread and affect those that come in contact with it. If it is not treated, the infection becomes worse and will eventually kill.
The last lesson to be learned is the "clean up". After the Benjamites are defeated, the nation of Israel would seek restoration. One of "theirs" was damaged and might even disappear from among them. Some would say "fine, they deserve what they get". But they determined to restore the tribe of Benjamin so that the twelve tribes would remain. Sometimes we take the attitude that the church would be better without someone because of their past lives. After restoration, we should welcome them back into the community of believers and insure that they can continue as part of the body. The Israelites gave them their daughters as wives to insure that they would have offspring to continue the tribe. Amazing, the sin was rape and murder and they gave the sinners their daughters. I struggle with that. Would I give a loan to someone who had stolen from me? God calls us to a greater forgiveness than the world offers. We are to forgive as we have been forgiven, that changes everything.
May God bless us as we determine to take sin seriously. May He provide the needed courage to confront it in ourselves and in our spiritual families.