Scripture Daily

Context No. 4040 of 4322 · Judges

Context · Reflection

Judges 1:1-8: in context

1After the death of Joshua, the children of Israel asked of the LORD, saying, “Who should go up for us first against the Canaanites, to fight against them?” 2The LORD said, “Judah shall go up. Behold, I have delivered the land into his hand.” 3Judah said to Simeon his brother, “Come up with me into my lot, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I likewise will go with you into your lot.” So Simeon went with him. 4Judah went up, and the LORD delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand. They struck ten thousand men in Bezek. 5They found Adoni-Bezek in Bezek, and they fought against him. They struck the Canaanites and the Perizzites. 6But Adoni-Bezek fled. They pursued him, caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his big toes. 7Adoni-Bezek said, “Seventy kings, having their thumbs and their big toes cut off, scavenged under my table. As I have done, so God has done to me.” They brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there. 8The children of Judah fought against Jerusalem, took it, struck it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire.

As Israel begins to take the land after Joshua's death, they capture a Canaanite king named Adoni-Bezek. And this king makes a striking confession about his own downfall. He had, by his own account, cruelly maimed seventy conquered kings and made them scavenge under his table; now the same is done to him, and he says, as I have done, so God has repaid me.

Even this pagan tyrant recognized a moral order at work: the cruelty he had inflicted on others had come back upon his own head. We read the harshness of these ancient events soberly, but the principle Adoni-Bezek himself names is one Scripture affirms throughout: we reap what we sow. The cruelty a person deals out has a way of returning to them; the measure we give is measured back to us. It is striking that this truth is confessed not by a prophet but by a pagan king, who saw plainly that his own downfall matched his own deeds. There is a sober warning in this for how we treat others, especially those in our power.

Do I consider that the way I treat others, especially those in my power, tends to return upon me, sowing mercy rather than the cruelty that has a way of coming back to find me, as even Adoni-Bezek confessed of himself?

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