When should we pray a lament? (Judg 21.3)
“O LORD, the God of Israel, why has it come to pass that today there should be one tribe lacking in Israel?”
Background
This is the last prayer in the book of Judges. It connects with the last three prayers, prayers that asked God for guidance during the civil war between the tribes of Israel. With a desire to punish the Benjaminites, Israel killed many men, burned many cities, and made a vow never intermarry with any from that tribe. Later, they discovered that only six hundred Benjaminites had survived the pogram. There were not enough women for marriage to keep the tribe alive. Since Israel had vowed never to intermarry with them (like Jephthah’s rash vow),1 the people were now faced with the extinction of a tribe.
When the people realized what they had done (both by decimation of one of their own and the vow), they offered up this prayer of lament. We studied one lament before. Hagar’s prayer over her mistreatment by Sarai when she banished her to the desert to die with her young child.2
A lament, in general, is a prayer offered at a time of great crisis. A time when all is lost. It is not a petition because it does not ask for relief. Instead, it is an anguished cry at loss and the inability to understand the depth of the suffering. Laments often voice the feeling that God has abandoned the one praying (or the community). A lament cries, “why, God?!” in its most heart-wrenching form.
Hagar, being a slave, had only done as told in bearing Abraham’s son. For her obedience, she was abandoned in the desert to die.
In this lament, the people are not innocent. Yet it appears that there is no solution; no way to mitigate the terrible loss. In their passion for “justice,” they had destroyed themselves. Like a parent, wanting to punish a child enough to show the seriousness of the child’s wrongdoing, went so far that the child died. Israel, in their zeal, have killed the tribe of Benjamin.
“What have we done?” This was not a foreign clan they had destroyed; it was their brothers and sisters, cousins, and families. It was one of the Twelve Tribes that made up the whole of Israel. They would no longer be complete—ever. The people of God were maimed and diminished. “O LORD, the God of Israel, why has it come to pass that today there should be one tribe lacking in Israel?” Of course, they knew why, and it was more than they can take.
Meaning
We learn two things from this prayer. First, when we find ourselves so devastated by events that there is no hope, and we have no idea what to say to God—we can pray a lament. Whether the crisis is by our own hand or someone else’s, a lament is appropriate. It is the cry of a human, overwhelmed. God does not only desire lofty praises, well-intentioned petitions, selfless intercessions, or grateful thanksgivings. He also desires that we cry out from the depths of our pain with nothing more than “Why?!” Like a child in pain crying out to a parent.
Second, we can learn that there is such a thing as being overzealous in righting wrongs. In our zeal to wipe out sin, we might cause suffering ourselves. God is depicted as taking the path of zealous and righteous destruction, occasionally. But it is relatively rare. God prefers reasoned and appropriate punishment, accompanied by a road to redemption. After all, he is the God who believes that the worst of sinners can become saints; the worst of situations can become blessings, and that death can become life. Should we not believe the same about our brothers and sisters when they sin?
Israel had been zealous to punish (rightfully so), but their “righteous indignation” had terrible and eternal consequences. They needed to punish, but rather than seeking a redemptive solution, they pursued a destructive solution. In doing so, they experienced loss, too.
Israel found a way to solve the problem without breaking their vow (a serious thing in that world). The solution required some logical gymnastics and more loss and suffering. If they could find some men within any of the other eleven tribes who not come out to fight, they would not have taken the vow as part of the tribe. Because those men had failed to support their clans and tribes, they had to be punished, too. These men were put to death (the punishment for treason). This left their wives without husbands, who were then free to marry the Benjaminites. What a terrible solution! Yes, they had solved the problem of the death of a whole tribe. But at the cost of individual lives and families.
This “solution” emphasizes the theme of the book: Israel has been on a downward spiral of faithlessness, corruption, and sin. It has gotten so bad that they almost destroyed one of their own tribes, solved by killing others from among their own tribes. While the solution is not as bad as the problem, it should have never come to that in the first place.
Even the judges appointed by God could not halt this destructive cycle. The writer of Judges implies that Israel cannot stop it on their own. They cannot remain faithful. They need something more than a prophet like Moses, or a leader like the judges. The next book, Ruth, begins the next stage in the history of Israel and is much more positive in its story and its prayers.
Application
You might begin by considering a time when you might have caused undeserved suffering through your desire to do justice. A prayer of confession and repentance would be in order. Then, consider a time when you might have been the recipient of such zeal. Did you pray a lament to God? If not, what might that lament have sounded like?
Finally, consider a time when you felt overwhelmed by loss or suffering. So much so that you did not think you could take it, or felt like God had abandoned you. Write out a lament, and pray it today for that poor suffering soul that was you. God hears your pain and desires to comfort you.
- See “Rash Vows (Judg 11.30-31).” ↩
- See “Hagar’s Lament and Petition (Gen 21.16)” in Praying Through the Bible, Volume 1 (Genesis–Joshua) (2015). ↩
