These were the descendants of Ehud, who were heads of families of those living in Geba and were deported to Manahath: - 1 Chronicles 8:6

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 28, 2016): 1 Chronicles 8

Israel. Just the name is enough to induce conflicting views on the Middle East situation. Its people are fiercely independent and self-aware. In an ocean of Arab States, Israel seems to exist on its own Island, set apart and different from all of their neighbors. The nation itself was reformed in 1948 after an almost 1900 year absence in the world (Israel ceased to be in the early 70’s as The Roman Empire decimated the nation and pulled down her Temple). But the Second World War revealed that as a planet we had a problem. The Jews were a people without a homeland, and they were under attack. They needed a place to call home, and their ancestral land beckoned. Israel was not replanted easily. The opening moments of the new nation meant that she was immediately embroiled in a new war against neighbors that simply wished that she didn’t exist. But for those first inhabitants of the land in 1948, any fight seemed worth the attempt to finally have a place where the Jews could once again call home.

I am not sure that Israel has ever been a safe place. She has developed some positive ties with some of her neighboring countries, but there are still many in the area who wish that Israel would simply cease to be. But for this moment in time, at least her people have a place to stand and a place to say that this ground belongs to them. Israel is part of the area of the world that is known as The Levant, a term that has inserted itself into our culture with the growing of the Islamic State which calls this part of the world theirs, but for now Israel has a place to exist, if not a place to exist in relative safety.

This passage in 1 Chronicles is a troublesome one, and there is a high probability that the passage has endured at least some kind of corruption. But at the minimum, we see the story of a deportation of some of the tribe of Benjamin from their native lands to Manahath, a town within the tribe of Judah. Judah and Benjamin shared a border, but more than that, the two tribes shared a future. After the death of Solomon, Israel would be divided into two nations, Israel in the north and Judah in the south. The northern nation would consist of ten tribes. Judah would consist of only two tribes, Judah and Benjamin. And the story we have in the books of Chronicles is actually aimed at those two tribes who chose to stand together. And this story of the deportation of the descendants Ehud form one of the early interconnections between the two tribes.

What we don’t know is why this portion of the tribe of Benjamin was deported into the territory of Judah. But the likely result was that within Judah, this portion of the tribe of Benjamin found a safe place to simply be and grow. They would help Judah tame the land and in return they would be kept safe from all who wished to cause Benjamin harm. It was the beginning of what would become a lasting friendship, maybe even culminating in the two major forces that would shape the Christian Church; Jesus the Messiah, a descendant of the tribe of Judah and Paul the Apostle, a descendant of the tribe of Benjamin.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Chronicles 9