Day 19: Judges 15:13 - I Samuel 2:29

Yesterday's reading covers a lot of ground. We finish the book of Judges, read the book of Ruth, and start I Samuel. The end of the book of Judges is probably the most disturbing thing I've read thus far, the book of Ruth is a hopeful story in the midst of the time of the judges, and at the beginning of I Samuel Israel is on the verge of a pretty significant paradigm shift.

Sampson is very foolish and tells Delilah how his strength can be lost, she tells the Philistines, and they cut his hair and imprison him. His hair grows back and when they bring him into the temple of Dagon to entertain them. Rather, he prays to the Lord, his strength is restored, and he knocks down the pillars that hold up the temple, thus killing more Philistines in his death than he ever did while he lived.

The final story in Judges is, perhaps, the most disturbing story I've read thus far. A Levite and his concubine are traveling, and they stop in a city for the night. Here's where the story begins to parallel the story of the angels' visit to Lot in Sodom. I'm sure this isn't an accident. My guess is this is to show just how far the Israelites have fallen. They stop in the town square, and an old man says, please don't stay in the square; come stay in my house. Some of the wicked men of the city stop by and say, “Please send that man out so that we can have sex with him.” The owner of the house says “No, please don't be so vile. Here, I'll send out my virgin daughter and his concubine.” Here's where the story strays from the Lot story. The man sends out his concubine. They violently gang rape her all night and let her go at daybreak. She stumbles back to the house and dies. He takes her home, chops her up into 12 pieces and sends her to all the areas of Israel.

All the Israelites come out as one accord. They've never seen such an atrocity. The Benjamites won't turn over the perpetrators. Instead they fight the rest of the Israelites. After a three day battle, the Lord gives them into their hands and they kill everyone from the tribe except for about 600 men. The people assemble at Bethel and weep bitterly. Judges ends with a verse that pretty much summarizes the whole book, “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.”

I think it's interesting that right after this picture of total depravity, we see a story of hope in the story of Ruth. We see in this story that not everyone had completely forsaken the law. Ruth and Naomi return to Israel as widows. Ruth goes out to Boaz's field and gleans behind the harvesters (which shows that Boaz is obeying the part of the Law where widows and foreigners are allowed to do that). Boaz treats Ruth well and instructs the men to not lay a hand on her. The story ends with Boaz fulfilling his duty as her kinsman redeemer. Because her husband died, the law requires that someone else in his family marry her to maintain the name of her deceased husband.

I Samuel begins with the birth of Samuel. His mother was barren and prays desperately for a son. She promises the Lord that if He gives her a son, she will dedicate him to the Lord all his life. Samuel is born, and he goes to live with Eli the priest and his sons. Eli's sons are very evil and have no regard for the Lord. Eli confronts them, but they don't' listen to him. A messenger of the Lord tells Eli that because he is honoring his sons more than God that his sons will die and no one in his family line will minister in the priesthood again.

Samuel will then become Israel's final judge. We'll see today that the Israelites demand a king when Samuel gets too old to govern.

Today's reading is I Samuel 2:30 through 15:35.

Peace.