Passage Read: Judges 18-21
Meditation Verse: 21:3
Thought
There is so much wrong in this tragedy, yet no one seems to have a clue. The Levite, the concubine, her father, the Gibeonites, the men of Benjamin, even all Israel. They are right to finally ask why this tragedy has come upon them, but do they really look for the answer? God has many ways to discipline an unfaithful people. He can stop defending them so that foreign nations can attack and oppress them. He can stop warning them of their own sins so that it piles up higher and higher and the people themselves become more and more polluted, until they are so confused between right and wrong that they bite and devour one another. Then the wickedness gets so big that they can no longer ignore it and have to do something equally big in response to it. Sins that should have been dealt with on an individual level become epidemics that must be dealt with on a national level, and the devastation is horrific. There is a more-right side, and if God is gracious, it will prevail, but it is not entirely innocent. All sides need to do some soul-searching; all sides need to repent and return to the Lord and cleanse themselves of their own personal sins, that all may benefit and the Lord is free to return and bless the land. The answer to their question is the last verse of this chapter: Everyone did what is right in their own eyes. The solution is to come back to God and do what is right in His eyes.
Application
Every nation today is in this exact same state. There is no nation that walks perfectly in the ways of the Lord. Not yet, not until Jesus returns to reign. Right and Left are both wrong, but Left is more wrong than Right. Both sides need to repent. Both sides need the Gospel. Both sides need instruction in God's standard of righteousness, and the conviction to walk according to it. I don't have power or authority to change a nation, but I have power and authority to change myself and to be a witness and a watchman to those around me. National sins begin as individual sins. I won't change enough individuals to change a nation, but I can vote for things that are more-right while I grow in my understanding and practice of what's right in God's eyes and plead with others to repent and humble themselves and listen to God.