When is God's punishment too severe?

A common objection to the Christian belief of a loving God often brings up the subject of eternal punishment in hell. How can a truly loving supreme being create such an awful punishment? This is a very complex question and I won't be able to give it a fair treatment in this blog. But in today's scripture reading of Judges 20-21, it invoked in me the same sentiment - did God go too far in punishing the sinful Benjamites?

The background story to this chapter has to do with the rape and murder of a Levite's concubine by the wicked men of Gibeah (who were Benjamites, or people of the tribe of Benjamin). The Levites and his concubine were making a stop at Gibeah  on their return from Bethlehem to their home in Ephraim (Judges 19). When the Levite arrived home he cut up the dead concubine's body (yes it's in the bible!) to 12 pieces and sent them all over Israel. This apparently stirred up the anger of the other tribes of Israel who then came together at Mizpah to punish the tribe of Benjamin. The ensuing civil war ended in tens of thousands of lives lost and a near complete annihilation of the tribe of Benjamin.

This story is the last of a series of "weird" stories recorded in the Book of Judges. It is weird mostly because I am living in a well protected and basically civilized country and this type of events just don't happen in modern day! However, looking around the world, it is not difficult to find similar stories happening even right now - in Syria, Egypt, Ukraine, and many countries in Africa where civil wars have torn these countries apart.

"In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit." (Judges 21:25)

This sentence appears multiple times in the Book of Judges. It describes the moral decline of the nation of Israel. In earlier chapters, when the Israelites sinned, God sent their enemies to punish them. But when they cried out to God in repentance, God sent them a Judge to redeem them. Not so in this last story. The Levite, who was at the centre of this story did not cry out to God. He called for vengeance. He took matters into his own hand. The result was severe casualties on both sides.

What I make out from this story is that:

• Severe consequence accompanies moral decline (even among God's people).
• God is gracious and will preserve a remnant of His people to accomplish His ultimate goal.
• God is our King, our obedience to His rule will serve us well.
• God sent the ultimate Redeemer, His son, to save us - not by conquering over our enemies, but by dying for our enemies. We do well to follow His example.