Similar to other parts of the book of Judges, the final chapter depicts the moral decline of the Israelites. The chapter begins by referring back to the incident in previous chapters, where a Levite’s concubine was abused and eventually died in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin. This prompted the other tribes to retaliate against the Benjamites and make vows to not give any of their daughters in marriage to a Benjamite.

They then regretted their actions and “raised their voices, wept bitterly… crying to God”, as they realized that this would mean that there would be one less tribe in Israel.

The Israelites then tried coming up with solutions to this problem, firstly, by punishing the city of Jabesh Gilead for not joining the battle against Benjamin. They attacked the city, and killed everyone except the young virgin girls, instructing the Benjamites to take these girls as their wives.

Since the number of women from Jabesh Gilead was not enough for all of the Benjamite men, the Israelites told them to take additional wives by taking young women during a festival in Shiloh.

In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit. All of these actions and decisions that we have seen so far are so clearly immoral and ungodly.

How could a population of God’s chosen people who still “worshipped” God perform such actions?

In those days Israel had no King. In those days Israel didn’t revere God as their King. They chose to determine their own moral standards and values, making themselves the source of right and wrong.

Although we might dissociate ourselves from the actions of Israel in this chapter, I think this is a timely reminder for us that God, whom we worship, is our King, who rules over us. May we revere Him as King of our lives.

Prayer : Dear God, You are truly the God of the past, present, and the future. Let me be reminded to revere you greatly, as my God, and also as King of my life. Let me be cognisant of my actions, so that I do not fall into a pattern of cyclical disobedience, that only leads into a downward spiral of turning against you. In Jesus name, I pray, amen.