[One-Verse Meditation]

Judges 20:18 (NIV) “The Israelites went up to Bethel and inquired of God. They asked, ‘Who of us is to go up first to fight against the Benjamites?’ The LORD answered, ‘Judah is to go first.’”

[Meditation]

Receiving the desecrated body of the concubine, all Israel rises up in anger. They decide for themselves to punish the tribe of Benjamin for this terrible evil. Of course, their anger seems righteous. However, a look at the whole text reveals that all the characters in this story—the Levite’s ‘I,’ Benjamin’s ‘our side,’ and all Israel’s ‘we’—are deeply mired in the sin of ‘self-righteousness.’

What was the sin of all Israel? They went to God and prayed, but their question was not, “Lord, should we go to this war?” Having already passed judgment themselves, they only asked God for the tactical order: “Who of us is to go up first to fight?” This shows they were possessed by a proud self-assurance that their anger and decision were God’s will. ‘We are different,’ they thought. They too were a people ‘without a king.’

This is the very image of us trying to take the speck out of another’s eye while failing to see the log in our own. When we are full of our own righteousness, we don’t ask for God’s will but rather seek His approval for our own plans, as if to say, “I’m right, so God, you just need to give your stamp of approval.” But God does not leave us in this state. Sometimes He uses methods we find hard to understand. He may allow our misguided zeal to proceed in order to break our pride. (Indeed, Israel suffers two crushing defeats in this war.)

Through this failure, God shatters Israel’s pride and enables them to see themselves not through their own eyes, but before Him. When we stand before the mirror of the Word and see the log in our own eye first, only then can we put down the sword of judgment against others and extend a hand of compassion. This is the true fruit of humility that the Holy Spirit produces in us.

[Prayer]

Lord, thank you for the grace of the Word that makes me see the log in my own eye first. Keep me from judging others in my own righteousness, and let me walk the path of life, loving and forgiving others with the same love You showed me on the cross. Amen.
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[Daily Reading]

Judges 20:1-18