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Day 72, or March the 13th. We are all essential.

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Our thoughts today are based on Judges chapter

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21, verses 2 and 3. The people went to Bethel,

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where they sat before God until evening, raising

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their voices and weeping bitterly. Lord God of

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Israel, they cried. Why has this happened to

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Israel? Why should one tribe be missing from

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Israel today? First, the big picture surrounding

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these verses. Civil war breaks out between Israel

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and Benjamin, and the tribe of Benjamin is almost

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destroyed. It's ironic, really, as this small

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tribe would produce King Saul, who ruled after

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the judges. It was also the tribe that gave us

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the Apostle Paul, who was probably named after

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King Saul. It was only small, but the other tribes

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of Israel saw, almost too late, that it could

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not be allowed to disappear. A cunning plan is

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devised and lots of young women are captured

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from Shiloh and taken by the Benjamites to help

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replenish their numbers. And now today's action

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step. Having vowed not to intermarry with the

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tribe of Benjamin, the other tribes then had

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to search for an escape clause when Benjamin

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was almost wiped out and needed replenishing

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from outside. Even though the other tribes were

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larger than Benjamin, they conceded that without

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them the tribes of Israel would be incomplete.

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This seems an early prototype used by the Apostle

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Paul, who likens the church to a body, with each

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part having a job to fulfil in order to achieve

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whole -body ministry. Sometimes in local churches

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we are relieved when someone, who constantly

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raises queries and questions in the fellowship,

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leaves. Beware, they are sometimes the folk who

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stir us up into action, even if their ideas seem

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crazy at the time. When a church is made up of

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folk who agree with each other all the time,

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the edge can wear off and stimulation for progress

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is dulled. Thank God now for any of your fellowship

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who may irritate you. Don't ignore them. Listen

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carefully just in case God is speaking to you

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through them.