Judges 21:2-3
Then the people came to the house of God, and remained there before God till evening. They lifted up their voices and wept bitterly, and said, “O LORD God of Israel, why has this come to pass in Israel, that today there should be one tribe missing in Israel?”
“Why has this come to pass?”
This scene actually opens back in chapter 17 where the reader is invited into the home of a family living in the mountains of Ephraim. By all accounts it is a disturbing scene. We read of a young man who stole from his mother and a mother who failed in any way to either discipline her son or instill within him good and godly values. When the money was returned the woman used it to create a carved image and along with her son established an entirely new and false system of worship and even hired a man from the tribe of Levi to make it seem legitimate. As disturbing as that scene might be it only gets worse.
At this same time the tribe of Dan was seeking to expand their territory and sent 600 armed men through the mountains of Ephraim. When they encountered Micah, his false religion and their store bought priest, they stole both priest and idol. This idol was set up as an object of worship and remained until the fall of Israel some 500 years later.
The next scene invites us into another home and tells the story of a priest who had a girlfriend (concubine) who was unfaithful to him. He went in search for her into the region occupied by the tribe of Benjamin. On the return trip they stopped in the town of Gibeah where she was accosted, raped and killed. These events led to a full scale attack on the tribe of Benjamin resulting in the death of thousands.
It is in response to this that Israel asks “Why has this come to pass?”
Whenever our lives take a turn for the worse we tend to look toward heaven and ask this same question. Why has this happened? Why did I lose my job? Why did my wife leave me? Why did this relationship not work out? While these questions are important and should be both asked and answered, there are times when we are asking the right questions in the wrong direction. Israel seems to be questioning God as though He is the one we caused the problems they are facing, while they should have been asking themselves what they had done. A careful look reveals that their troubles were a result of personal and national departure from the Lord. Idolatry and immorality were running rampant in the homes, the streets and government of Israel. Instead of questioning God they should have been asking themselves what they had done to create such a mess.
This story is a tragic one but an important one to draw life lessons from. If we want to see real change in our lives and in life around us, we have to be willing to address what things we are doing, the things we shouldn’t be doing and align our own lives with the teaching of the Word of God.
It might prove helpful to ask yourself the question Israel was asking God. “Why has this come to pass?”
Pastor Jim
Jim Gallagher 