The men of Israel went back to Benjamin and put all the towns to the sword, including the animals and everything else they found. All the towns they came across they set on fire. – Judges 20:48

Today’s Scripture Reading (December 19, 2015): Judges 20

In April 2013 “Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead” from the Movie “The Wizard of Oz” made a surprising comeback to the British Music charts – and it also was added to a growing list of songs that have been banned from being played over certain radio stations. In the case of “The Wizard of Oz” ditty, the banning from British radio stations may have been a bit of a surprise for most of the world, but highly logical in Britain. On April 8, 2013, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher died and the song, which was originally recorded in 1939, stopped being about the death of a fictional witch and the enemy of Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz,” and started to become a message about the policies of The Iron Lady by people who did not appreciate how Thatcher had remolded Britain. The authorities decided that the song celebrated death and, at least in this moment in time, nothing could be more inappropriate. Of course, the problem with the banning – as is true with most episodes of attempted censorship – is that it simply made the song even more popular, eventually driving the song to hit number 2 on the British charts that April.

Margaret Thatcher might be a hard person for history to judge. Her reputation will most likely experience some ups and downs. Thatcher needs to be remembered for all of the good that she has done. She is repeatedly included on lists of the most competent Prime Ministers in the history of the United Kingdom. But she also ruled with an Iron Will, and that will likely cause some problems with the way history remembers her. But the reality is that the good and the competence might have been wasted if she was also easily swayed and lacked the will to put what she thought was right into British Policy. She was divisive and may have unintentionally devalued Scotland, but whatever the verdict, one thing that remains certain is that Margaret Thatcher must be remembered.

As we near the end of the story of the unlucky Levite and his concubine, there can be no doubt that what was being attempted was not just the erasing of the Tribe of Benjamin as a people, it was the erasing of the Tribe of Benjamin from the collective memory of Israel. The sin committed in murdering the Levites concubine was unthinkable within Israel – and the kind of action that Israel often seemed to accuse her enemies of committing. But the goal does not seem to be just the erasing of a people, but rather the erasing of even the memory of the people within the society. Everything that belonged to the Tribe of Benjamin was burned and nothing was redeemed. All that was of Benjamin needed to be lost.

But in the end, Benjamin would not only be redeemed, but would once again prove her value among the Tribes. And even this town of Gibeah, where the incident between the town and the Levite and his concubine started would prove to be important, because Gibeah would also be the birthplace of Israel’s first King, Saul; and Benjamin would be the tribe of origin of the Apostle Paul, the first and foremost theologian of the Christian faith. Benjamin’s memory and presence within in Israel proved to be important for the future, not just of Israel, but the world. But that didn’t seem to be even remotely possible in this moment of time as her memory was burned by those who simply wanted to rid Israel of what the terrorists in Gibeah had done.  

 Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Judges 21