A contrast today - the bitterness and evil of civil war, set against the wonderfully heartening story of Ruth. An example of how bad and how good life in Israel could be.
How the Israelites won
Judges 20:36b-48
Mourning for the tribe of Benjamin
Judges 21:1-25
Third judge, Shamgar
Judges 3:31
Third apostasy and servitude (Canaan)
Judges 4:1-3
The death of Elimelech and his sons
Ruth 1:1-5
Naomi returns home
Ruth 1:6-13
Ruth goes with Naomi
Ruth 1:14-18
Ruth and Naomi arrive at Bethelehem
Ruth 1:19-22
There is a strange mixture of behaviour and attitudes in chapter 21. One the one hand, there is mourning, because of the loss of virtually an entire tribe. Together with that there is a sense of outrage, and a desire to punish, leading to an oath that no women shall be given to Benjamites in marriage. No one wants to associate with this tainted tribe. But there is also the desire to repair the hole in the fabric of the nation, to lead Benjamin rebuild itself, and for the clans and families to grow and multiply again.
But to do that, there must be breeding, and they’ve taken an oath not to let that happen. So a weird compromise is suggested, whereby the Benjamite men are allowed to steal women to be their wives. Honour is protected, the oath is not broken, but Benjamin begins to be restored. All fine - except for the way in which women are regarded as commodities. But then, that’s the way it was.
Now the focus turns to something very different - the story of Ruth. It begins with an Israelite family that has gone to live with the enemy. Not long ago we were reading how the Moabites with their fat king, Eglon, were oppressing the Israelites. One family took advantage of the fatness of Moab - escaping a famine in Israel to live in Moab. But it all went wrong for Naomi when her menfolk died, and she started back to Israel with one Moabite daughter in law, Ruth. Will Israel welcome an enemy?
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