The problem with power

In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.

It’s days like today that I’m glad this site doesn’t have an editor. The people who write here, are mostly ex-writers for Erick Erickson, either at RedState (like Susan) or The Resurgent, like David and me. We write what we want, and we don’t muzzle each other. You won’t find narrative here, only our personal takes, which, I think those of you who know, know, differ. But there are also days where I realize that narrative does matter in some things, and in some things a great deal.

Photo by GR Stocks on Unsplash

If you haven’t read the book of Judges in the Bible, chapters 19 through 21 make good reading. The passage begins with “In those days Israel had no king.” It ends with “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.” I’ll summarize the story—a rather long summary but it’s necessary.

A man, from the tribe of the Levites (those who administered in the Temple and assisted the priests—the Levites were given no land of their own in the Promised Land), took for himself a wife (concubine), and she left him. To win her back, he went to see her father, where she was staying. He and his servant stayed for five days, persuaded by his host to enjoy hospitality, but finally left one afternoon, taking his concubine with him.

On the way to Jerusalem, daylight was running out, and the Levite did not want to spend the night anywhere that was not inhabited by Israelites or Judeans, so he continued to Gibeah, where he waited in the town square to be welcomed and offered shelter. As the sun set, an old man offered his home, and begged them not to remain in the square. But the “wicked men” of the city came to the house and pounded on the door, demanding the man give them the Levite so they could have sex with him. Instead, the man offered his own daughter—a virgin—and the Levite’s concubine to satisfy their lust. The men would not listen.

The man sent the concubine out, and the wicked men raped her all night and released her at dawn. She returned to the man’s house where her husband was staying, and died on the doorstep. When the husband found her, he was outraged. He went home and cut her body into twelve parts and sent them to the twelve tribes of Israel. This, of course, created an enormous wave of anger. The entire assembly of Israel, 400,000 armed men, gathered at Mizpah to plan its revenge as the Levite told his story.

They pledged to raise an enormous army to totally destroy Gibeah, every man, woman, child, and animal. Gibeah was within the borders of the tribe of Benjamin. The Benjamites, decided to defend their territory and Gibeah from the other tribes of Israel. The tribe of Benjamin fielded an army of 26,000 in addition to 700 from Gibeah, against the 400,000 swordsmen from Israel.

The other tribes inquired of the Lord daily as to their battle plan, as the Ark of the Covenant was in Bethel. The Lord said to send Judah. The Benjamites defeated Judah, killing 22,000. The next day, the Benjamites repelled the attack again, killing 18,000. The Benjamites were feeling their oats. The Lord told Israel that the next day after that, Israel would have victory. The Benjamites were defeated, crushed. Only 600 of their army survived, fleeing to the hills. The Israelites destroyed all of the towns and cities in Benjamite territory. They destroyed Gibeah. Everything was burned to the ground. All Israel took an oath not to allow their daughters to marry a Benjamite, in order to complete the destruction of that tribe.

Then they lamented that Israel is missing one tribe. Searching for an answer, a way to satisfy their oath and to not allow the Benjamites to perish completely, they came up with a plan. Going back over their census at Mizpah, they discovered that nobody from the down of Jabesh Gilead attended. So they decided to destroy that city, and take its women to offer the surviving Benjamites. And they did. But there weren’t enough women. So they devised another plan for the remaining Benjamites to kidnap young women dancing at a festival in Shiloh to be their wives, and they did that.

In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.

I’m not going to draw all the obvious comparisons to various events of these days, because I think you, reader, can draw your own. What I want to chat about is power.

When there’s no overarching narrative, people will come up with their own. When a people are not guided by some shared principle, they will all come up with their own oaths and plans. When people inquire of the Lord to satisfy their own outrage or vengeance, he may answer, but his answer will not be in service to outrage or anger. God sent Judah to attack Benjamin and the Judeans were slaughtered in battle. Then God allowed the remaining force in Israel to destroy most of Benjamin. God also allowed the plans of men to commit evil to restore Benjamin. God believes in self-determination and free will. He will let us do what we want when we lose the narrative. He has all power, but God will let us use our power if that’s what we choose to do.

We can see all the problems in America in raised relief. But we don’t see things the same way, or see the same problems. We all touch part of the map and declare there’s a mountain here! But it’s not the same mountain as others are touching. It’s like the blind man and the elephant problem. Some feel the trunk, others the legs, others the tusks.

The problem is one of power. Just one example here. I believe that Nexstar and Sinclair had abundant reason to complain about Jimmy Kimmel Live, and their affiliates had plenty of reasons to object. The show’s ratings were flagging anyway. Disney had plenty of reasons to yank it. But Nexstar has a merger on the table that the FCC needs to approve. Disney has its own plans and wants to be on the right side of power. And the FCC has power, which it flexed in whatever way it saw fit, which is to say, absent any principle but the political winds coming from the White House.

There are subversive ways to use this kind of power, and there are outright hammers when 400,000 armed men march to burn down a neighboring tribe. The current situation is a little (a lot) of both. After we burn each other down, we will lament that we don’t have each other when we need to be whole. Then we will come up with some pretty evil ways to patch things up, in order to preserve our own oaths and shibboleths. Some of us will inquire of the Lord, and God will tell us to go ahead and do as we please, marching into disaster. Others will be proud of their own ability to fight off superior odds and get high on their own victory, only to be cut down.

God has his own priorities and His own plans. Those are written pretty clearly in the Bible, and if you read the Gospels, you know what Jesus said to do. These are the things we should be doing, and none of them have anything to do with political or physical power. They all have to do with spiritual authority and God’s power. There is one power we cannot obtain, nor can we bend it to our will, and that’s God’s power. The enemy—the devil—would love for us to keep trying, as that only enlarges his kingdom, which is doomed to be thrown into eternal fire.

When we play with power, we only move toward evil, because we can only do as we see fit. And we never see the whole picture, all the raised relief problems in the world. God sees all.

There is only one King, and He is the Lord. In those days, America had no King, no Lord, and everyone did as they saw fit. This is how things are today. There is no narrative but the ones we invent for ourselves. That is dangerous as all hell.