Day 72: Judges 7, 8 and 9

Israelites from Naphtali, Asher and all Manasseh were called out, and they pursued the Midianites (Judges 7:23).

This may seem rather incidental to the story of Gideon and Israel’s fight against the Midianites, but I wanted to highlight a characteristic of Israeli life during the time of the judges. We think of the Israelites marching out of Egypt, a million strong, all thinking and acting as a unified body. Tradition tells us there were twelve tribes, but our tendency is to see them as the nation of Israel rather than individual tribal groups.

In Judges we see a glimpse of what is more likely the truth. These were scattered tribes who were at least somewhat settled into their inherited land holdings. If one of them was threatened, we may like to think all the rest rallied to their assistance, but reality is that they were a little more pragmatic than that. Different tribal groups had their own leadership and when they received a call for help, they would take into account: Am I threatened? Will I be threatened if our neighboring tribe falls to an enemy? If there was a direct threat to one’s tribe, or if the threat was to a next-door neighbor, then they were certainly motivated to do something about it. But what if the threat was on the extreme far end of Canaan?

Fohgeddaboudit.

TODAY’S MEDITATION

When asked for help, do we roll up our sleeves? Or is our first question, “What’s in it for us?” Does someone need your help? Will your response be about you? …or them?