Poor priorities

"What shall we do for those who remain, that they may have wives, seeing that we have sworn by the LORD not to give them of our daughters as wives ? We can not give them women of our daughters ; For the sons of Israel have sworn, saying : Cursed he that giveth a wife unto Benjamin." Judges 21, 7, 18

The end of the Book of Judges is one of the darkest pages of the Bible. After a terrible collective rape in a village of the tribe of Benjamin, a civil war culminated in the almost complete extermination of the guilty tribe. Struck by this human bloodletting, the eleven tribes wondered how to ensure the descendance of the few survivors of Benjamin.

Indeed, faced with the horror of the crime, the other tribes had made a solemn (though hasty) pledge never to give their daughters for women to a Benjaminite. In order not to be perjured, they imagine a double subterfuge :

"First of all, they will cruelly strike from the map a city, Jabes of Gilead, which had not joined the coalition against Benjamin, sparing only the virgin daughters to be given to the surviving Benjaminites.

The Israelites will then "authorize" the abduction of young girls by the Benjaminites who are not yet "provided" on the occasion of a feast to the Lord.

Thus the 600 surviving Benjaminites were able to marry and the survival of this tribe was assured.

This narrative nevertheless poses a serious question: should the vow contracted before God pass before any other consideration ? Was he worth the massacre of an entire city, including children and women ? Was he worth this somber "trick" on the occasion of a so-called religious festival ? It is true that God had indicated in the law the solemnity he attached to the vow : "When a man has made a vow to the Lord, or when he has taken an oath, to bind his soul by an obligation, he will not violate his word ; He will do according to all that is out of his mouth" (NIV 30.3). But God had first said in the ten basic commandments : "Thou shalt not kill ... Thou shalt not steal" (Exodus 20:13, 15).

Let us reflect on the order of our priorities : it may also happen that we cling to a commandment of God, certainly clear - to the point of contravening other divine principles that should pass before. Let us re-examine the order of our priorities before God !

Source (To pleasing the Lord)