Judges 21 & Mark 7

With the almost absolute destruction of Benjamin, the question becomes, what's next? Judges 21 attempts to pick up the pieces. While Israel is resolute in their statements against Benjamin and refuse to provide their daughters in marriage to Benjamin, they do realize the reality of the situation; if no wives are found, then the tribe of Benjamin will cease to exist.

Doing a roll call they determine that the region of Jabesh-Gilead did not respond to the call to rise against Benjamin. The Israelites sent a contingent to Jabesh-Gilead and the men and women who was not a virgin was killed and four hundred virgins were brought to Benjamin. However, since 600 men remain, that means 200 more women are needed.

The men of Benjamin are then allowed to go to the harvest festival in Shiloh to find (take) wives, which they do. Then Benjamin begins the slow rebuilding process. A note for the future: Jabesh-Gilead will be very supportive of Saul, a son of Benjamin, when he becomes king.

The Book of Judges ends with a reminder that even though in this civil war Israel looked to God, they reverted back to their sinful ways, as "the people did what was right in their own eyes."

Of course, if you are really thinking about this whole situation, which began with the rape and murder of one concubine has now been concluded by the murder of whole community in Jabesh-Gilead and the rape of 600 women. Truly, Israel has lost sight of its calling.

Mark 7

In this chapter Jesus begins by criticizing behavior of humans that were created by humans related to God. In other words, it is behavior that humans have said come from God, yet do not and at times actually interfere with God's commands. The issue of corban is offered as an example; this is the practice of dedicating something to God and removes it from the purview of others. In this particular example, funds or food or other necessities are being offered to God even though family might have claims upon it. The people are using corban as a means not to support family and are laying the blame upon God. The same is true of the Tradition of the Elders; are these true teachings of God or just attempts by humans to control God and others?

Jesus points out that our behavior, and our "righteousness" is not achieved by washings and other cultic behaviors. Our "righteousness" is seen by how we speak of others, how we act towards others. Those outward expressions are the signs of whether we are following God's commands or not.

Almost as a response to the challenge of who is clean and unclean, the Syrophoenician woman comes to Jesus seeking assistance. From Jewish traditions, this woman is anything but clean yet her willingness to humble herself before Jesus in the belief that he could heal her daughter demonstrates that the words that come from her mouth are clean.

In another example, Jesus heals the deaf man, who is most likely not an Israelite. Jesus is proclaiming a new standard of being righteous, it is about how one cares for another.