First off, merry Christmas to all of you. Secondly, a bit of a disclaimer to this passage, chapter 19 of Judges may be the most, as Teacher Julie puts it, "R rated" stories in the Bible. It is really quite gross but yet it is also scripture and thus it is God's word. So bear with the passage now, and others like it during your own quiet times or scripture studies. That said, this passage is also quite cool in that there are many allusions to other parts off scripture in this single passage which I think shows God's authorship of the passage, the good parts and bad parts. (You might recognize themes and events in the stories of Jacob, Lot, Joshua, Saul and even Moses)
I think there are many themes in this passage, most of which I've touched on to some extent the last several weeks, and for that reason, i'm going to make a bit of a stretch and talk about something completely new. These three chapters are the account of the civil war in Israel; the civil war amongst God's chosen people. The first thing that comes to my mind after reading that is the "civil wars" if you will, in the church; God's chosen people. For that reason I want to look at this passage and compare it too our lives as members of a local church, and how we can deal with conflict, because sadly, we are all human and thus we all err and therefore conflicts will arise. However, I think how we handle these conflicts not only can glorify God, but also can show a beautiful expression of sacrificial love to others. That said, lets look at this passage thinking about three things: the offense, the response and the reconciliation.
First, the offense. The events of chapter 19 are quite heinous to say the least, and sadly, terrible occurrences do occur in the church, but I want to get at however are smaller problems. The first oft-disputed "church problems" that come to mind is worship style, I think there are also times people disagree with something a preacher says in his sermon and then off course individual disputes also occur often within bodies of believers, take for example Euodia and Syntyche whom Paul addresses in his letter to the church at Philippi. So lets imagine something did happen between two people, some sort of dispute, I think we can take note of Judges 19:29-30 and think of how to first respond. In the text, a pretty terrible crime develops and the nameless Levite responds first by telling people, essentially taking his case to the authorities. It was a big deal so he made a big deal out of it, but for a small dispute, I think we need to put things in perspective. Our initial response should not be to make a huge deal out of it, to gossip, to tell others. A dispute between two people should be resolved by those two people, get an elder or the pastor to help you if needed, but I think it is deconstructive to take your problem and involve others.
With that in mind lets continue to talk about how we respond. In these three chapters in Judges, the Israelites pretty much handle everything the wrong way. From the initial sin on, it is a downhill slope. In our day-to-day disputes I think we need to keep in mind that in this story, one side seeked justice while the other side (the Benjamites), for whatever reason, thought they had done no wrong, and war broke out. As Christians we should not ever want a "war" to break out between two believers as the result of some conflict. When conflicts arise, we need to act calmly and address the issue in a loving manner, face to face with whoever wronged us. When we have wronged someone else, we need to take responsibility for it humbly, as hard as that may be. While in the context of Judges the sinful Benjamites of Gibeah deserved punishment, because of how the situation was handled, the entire tribe of Benjamin ended up almost being wiped clean (of course keeping in mind that King Saul, Esther and Paul were of this tribe, God had different plans). Nonetheless, I think that humility is the key to disputes. That is really hard for me to do, its easy for me to get fired up about something and want to vent and tell a bunch of people without directly solving the problem, but I think it is of great importance to lovingly and humbly address the situation one on one with the person.
Lastly, the reconciliation. In our story, the Israelites continue to be rash, ending up leaving the remnant of Benjamite men wifeless. To fix this the kidnap wives for the Benjamites and murder more people. As I said before I'm making a bit of a stretch but basically I think that after conflicts are resolved, we need to make sure to tie up any loose ends in a Godly manner. Was anyone else affected by the conflict? Do you need to apologize to anyone else? These types of smaller problems and issues can stem off from the main issue. We need to continue in our humility and try to mend any other hurts or problems caused by the initial conflict.
To conclude, if a conflict arises, be calm, be humble and approach it in a loving manner. Confront the person directly in love, leaving other people out as far as gossip goes. Once the conflict is resolved be sure to fix any loose ends. Make sure God is at the center of it all, when we stray away from him, that is when we act rashly and make poor decisions. Sorry if I sound like a middle school counselor but I think that church conflicts are very real things and when handled well can be a great picture of Christ and his love for the very church we are a part off.
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