‘ In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.’ (Judges 21:25).

There’s a saying that, ‘history keeps repeating itself, it has to, no one ever learnt anything the first time round.’ That applies to the book of Judges as time and time again, Israel disobeys the Lord, the Lord delivers them into the hands of their enemies, they cry out to the Lord and he raises up a Judge to deliver them. They then have a few years peace before the whole cycle starts again!

But in the last chapters, with his focus on incidents that happened early in the occupation of the land, the writer alerts us that Israel’s problems were very deep rooted. Chapter 19 starts on the ominous note: ‘In those days when there was no king in the land’ (19:1). This lack of leadership sets up a messy story of religious and moral disintegration. Now we come to the climax of it in this final chapter.

The tribe of Benjamin has been almost wiped out, and the men of Israel have sworn they will not to give their daughters to them in marriage (v1). Whereas this might seem quite reasonable due to just having been at war with them, this could be put down to a knee jerk reaction on Israel’s part after their failure to consult the Lord. But what comes next you just couldn’t make up. It reminds me of the television cartoon ‘The Simpsons’ where Bart Simpson’s defense when accused of doing something wrong is, “I didn’t do it, no one saw me do it, you can’t prove anything.” Israel is in complete denial about what has just happened (vs2-3). The answer to the question: “why has this happened in Israel, that today there should be one tribe lacking in Israel?” is blatantly obvious. The Lord has been judging Israel, and they have made one bad decision after the other, which has brought about civil war! So it’s obvious why Benjamin is: ‘lacking’ as after fighting against them, they now won’t give their daughters to them in marriage! No doubt their religious oath sounded very impressive and spiritual when they made it, but in the end it’s a case of stupid religion (v4)!

But now we have some rather dubious religion. Israel decides it  can sort this out by itself. But how are they going to navigate around this stupid vow? The answer is simple, they’ll do it by making another one! In verse 5 we learn the vow they’d made is that anyone: “who did not come up to the Lord to Mizpah” should: “surely be put to death.” We might question why they made this vow in the first place? Was it to promote unity among the tribes, or to strong arm everyone into being there? Whatever the case, they now put it to use to get themselves out of the hole they dug themselves into. Jabesh- gilead are the unlucky recipients, as the inhabitants of the town are  massacred and 400 virgins are given to the tribe of Benjamin (vs5-15). However, that doesn’t prove to be enough.

Still sticking to their stupid oath, Israel must find another way to provide wives for the remaining Benjamites. This leads to the most insidious case of hypocrisy and religious legalism we will probably find anywhere in the Bible! Basically, the tribe of Benjamin is given permission to go and kidnap the young women of Shiloh. Any complaints from the families are easily dealt with as: “When their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, we will say to them, ‘Grant them graciously to us, because we did not take for each man of them his wife in battle, neither did you give them to them, else you would now be guilty” (v22). It’s a case of “it’s all in a good cause and we’re doing it with a thoroughly religious mindset. So you better comply or you’ll be guilty of breaking the vow we’ve made!” At no point is the Lord consulted. Why? Because religion is always driven by man (vs16-22).

So how does it all end? The extraordinary thing is in someways it ends quite well as we are told: ‘And the people of Benjamin did so and took their wives, according to their number, from the dancers whom they carried off. Then they went and returned to their inheritance and rebuilt the towns and lived in them. And the people of Israel departed from there at that time, every man to his tribe and family, and they went out from there every man to his inheritance’ (vs23-24). Despite the kidnapping of a large  number of young women, incidentally breaking a number of God’s laws, everything, that the Lord has promised to them, they still have. Maybe this tells us something, God’s people may not be consistent, but he is!

The Book concludes on an ominous note: ‘In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes’ (v25). In the end, the roller coaster ride through Judges  proves one thing, man made solutions are imperfect! Human leaders can be good, but eventually they’ll die, They can start well, but end badly. They can make stupid decisions and they can be thoroughly bad! In the end they are not the solution. Psalm 146:3-4 warns us : ‘Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish’

The book of Judges may end in a mess, but it’s a glorious mess as it tells us that human leaders, however good, are not perfect. In the end we need God’s King, one not corrupted by leadership or death. We need the Lord Jesus Christ!