Judges 20-21

God’s message to me: Political correctness can convince us to sin. It’s one thing to recognize peoples right to live in sin and foolishness. It’s something else entirely to condone it, defend it, or accept it. This country maintains freedom for all at the expense of tolerating some foolishness. Tolerance of each others views is what allows us to maintain our freedom. However; no one has the right to be accepted, heard or have their view promoted over others.

Homosexuals have the right to live in their sin and Christians have the right to call it sin. Those who would count our biblical view as hatred and intolerance and would write laws forcing us to condone them are the enemies of God. Those who force us to pay for the murder of children through financing abortion and paying for fetal stem cell research are the enemies of God. Accepting their views and their laws without a fight is no better then the Benjamites protecting the Sons of Beliel whose practices resulted in a murder that brought the entire nation against them.

Promises: God will always fulfill His promises. Cutting off the tribe of Benjamin entirely would have breached the promise despite their sin. God kept the remnant to let the promise to that tribe live on.

Commands: Do Not tolerate, condone, except, defend, or sanction perversion and sin. The tribe of Benjamin tolerated perversion and defended the perverts and were nearly destroyed as a result.

Timeless principles: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." (Edmund Burke) Christ "gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works" (Titus 2:14). “The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing” Albert Einstein

The sins involved in the worship of false gods and the activities tolerated throughout Israel led to a complacence that allowed evil to persist in the land for years. It was the murder of one woman and the very public and shocking act of her husband that finally made the Israelites wake up to the problem.

The same complacency and acceptance of evil led the tribe of Benjamin to protect those who had committed evil in their midst. These murdering fools should have been hung in the streets by their own tribe and the problem would have been resolved but, instead, the Benjamites protected them and their right to be perverts. The result was the near complete destruction of the tribe.

How can I apply what I’ve learned: Fight against the politically correct with everything you have. While some of it may seem eminently good the evil hidden within will destroy the country and all who live in it from the roots. There is a way which seems good to a man but it’s end is death.

more to learn for in-depth study: 400,000 Soldiers from the other 11 tribes came to the council that sent the army against Benjamin. In the first two days of battle 26,700 Benjamites brought punishment on the nation for letting things get so bad and 40,000 Israelit soldiers died on the field of battle. The same number as the council had decided to send to punish Benjamin. After that the Israelites decided to give a whole hearted effort and the Lord promised deliverance. 25,100 Benjamites were killed and 600 sent into hiding. All their cities and all the non-combatants in them were destroyed.

Like the Benjamites the people of Jabesh Giliad failed to condemn what had happened and join the battle. They too were marked for destruction and from their destruction came the beginning of a new hope for the remnant of Benjamin.

tomorrow: The book of Ruth