Judges 21: Happily Ever After

"The people had compassion on Benjamin, because the Lord had made this gap in the tribes of Israel."

Judges 21:15

The book of Judges ends with a reconciliation within the nation of Israel, when the eleven tribes made peace with the Benjaminite refugees and found wives for them to continue the tribe's heritage.  Then, each tribe returns to his inheritance and lives happily ever after... or wait, does it really say that?

"In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever he wanted."

Judges 21:25

This is literally how the book ends.  Talk about your happy ending!  For most of this book, we've read about various kings ruling over Israel, how badly the kings treated the Israelites, and how far from God's discipline the nation fell whenever they were led by a king.  This verse has been repeated in several chapters throughout Judges, and it obviously relates to individual liberty.

Does this mean there was total anarchy?  Not quite.  Of course, the Levite priests would serve as judges for their local areas while the whole community would act as jury.  However, there were no legislators making laws about what people can and can't do (they just stuck with the Word of God on that) and there was no executive branch in charge of military or police.  When these concerns arose, the people filled the needs much like a neighborhood watch.

We call America the freest nation and we talk about our grand experiment with democracy and freedom, but really Ancient Israel had our modern freedom beat completely.  Sure, they had the death penalty for adultery and homosexuality.  Sure, they were strict on how close of a relative men were allowed to marry.  Sure, they allowed slavery.  The difference, though, is that they didn't have any governing body truly enforcing those laws, so the morality of the people was the deciding factor in legal issues.  If the community agreed that a behavior was okay, they just didn't throw stones any more.

Question of the Day:

What can we do to ensure that our United States of America return to our original model of freedom, which was based on these holy books?  How can we change the morality of our leaders to reflect the morality of our people?  What is your role as an individual citizen?

Prayer of the Day:

Lord, guide the hearts and actions of the United States executives, legislators, and judges.  Help them work together towards recreating a nation of freedom.  Teach this nation's citizens about Your freedoms and how far we've fallen from them, so that we might make better Spirit-led decisions when voting for our leaders at every level of government from the most local all the way to Washington.  Don't let us give up any more of our You-given freedoms, but instead help us to stand up for Your principles.  Amen.