When confronted with problems, people look for solutions. Who we are as individuals and groups, determine where we first look for the solutions to our problems. People in a right relationship with God will look to God for a solution, or guidance to a solution, for their problems. The Israelites were not righteous, instead they were a violent people, and when confronted with the problem of the extinction of a tribe of Israel, instead of looking to God for a solution they looked to violence first. They looked to violence, in spite of the fact that their extreme violence had created the problem in the first place. The solution they found required them to destroy another town. They killed all the men women and children in Jabesh Gilead, with the exception of the young virgin women. Then with no consideration for these women’s freedom or will, they gave them to the tribe of Benjamin to replace the wives and women that they had killed in the rampage after the first war. They found that 400 captive women were not enough and the problem still remained.

The Israelites were nothing, if not consistent. In verse 15, they blamed God for the situation. They grieved because they believed the Lord had made a gap in the tribes of Israel. When it came to their sin and responsibility they were still not ready to name it and claim.

This all started with their desire to punish the men who raped a woman to death. Now for their solution they tell the Benjamites to capture the young women of Shiloh and take them as wives. Their solution was to condone kidnapping and rape. The man of the tribe of Benjamin did as they were instructed and they kidnapped the women to be their new wives and returned to their land to rebuild. The Israelites were satisfied with their solution and returned home.

Even God’s chosen do evil, when they do as they see fit. Righteousness puts God’s before all else.