Romans 3:23-24 “²³ since all have sinned and come short of earning God’s praise. ²⁴ By God’s grace, without earning it, all are granted the status of being considered righteous before him, through the act redeeming us from our enslavement to sin that was accomplished by the Messiah Yeshua.” CJB

Jabesh Gilead, a small town in the territory of Gilead east of the Jordan which included the half-tribe of Menashe, and some from the tribes of Dan, Reuben, Benjamites, and other inhabitants. 1 Chronicles 27:1, Numbers 32:1

We first hear about Jabesh when they failed to join all the tribes in going against Benjamin for the murder of a Levite concubine.  Because they refused to join the civil war between the Benjamites and the rest of the tribes, so they were punished.

First let’s look at what happened:  Why did the tribes get in such a war against the tribe of Benjamin.

Judges 19:1 “In those days, when there was no king in Isra’el, there was a certain Levi living on the far side of the Efrayim hills who took a woman from Beit-Lechem in Y’hudah to be his concubine.” CJB

So, so far we know that the Levite was from Eprhraim.

She left to visit with her father in Bethlehem in Judah, he went to go get her and his father in law persuaded him to stay a few days; but the day came that the Levite wanted to live and he set off. Late afternoon he got to Gibea which was inhabited by people from the tribe of Benjamin and other inhabitants.

As we read, we find out that they committed the same abomination from Sodom.

Judges 19:16-30 “¹⁶ In time, at nightfall, an old man came from his work in the field. He was from the Efrayim hills and was staying in Giv‘ah, although the residents were of Binyamin. ¹⁷ The old man looked up, saw the traveler in the city’s open space and said, “Where are you going, and where are you coming from?” ¹⁸ He replied, “We’re crossing from Beit-Lechem in Y’hudah to the far side of the Efrayim hills. That’s where I’m from. I went to Beit-Lechem in Y’hudah, and now I’m going to the house of Adonai; but there’s no one here who will let me spend the night in his home. ¹⁹ We have straw and food for our donkeys, also bread and wine for me, my concubine and the boy there with your servants; we don’t need anything else.” ²⁰ The old man said, “You’re welcome to stay with me. I’ll take care of anything you lack; just don’t spend the night out in the open.” ²¹ So he brought him home and gave food to the donkeys. Then they washed their feet and ate and drank. ²² They were relaxing, when suddenly some men from the city, good-for-nothings, surrounded the house and began beating at the door. “Send out the man who came home with you!” they demanded of the old man whose house it was. “We want to have sex with him!” ²³ The man whose house it was went out and said to them, “No, my brothers, please don’t do anything as wrong as this. Look, he’s just a guest in my house; don’t do this degrading thing. ²⁴ Here’s my daughter, who’s a virgin, and his concubine. I’ll bring them out. Mistreat them, do what you want to them, but don’t do such a degrading thing to this man.” ²⁵ However, the men wouldn’t listen to him; so, the man took hold of his concubine and brought her out to them. They raped her and abused her all night long; only at dawn did they let her go. ²⁶ At daybreak the woman came and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her husband was, and she was still there when it grew light. ²⁷ When her husband got up, opened the doors of the house, and went out to go on his way, he saw the woman lying there with her hands stretched out toward the door. ²⁸ He said to her, “Get up! Let’s go!” But there was no answer. So he loaded her body on the donkey and began his trip home. ²⁹ On arrival at his house, he got a knife, took hold of his concubine’s body, cut her up into twelve pieces, and sent them to all the regions of Isra’el. ³⁰ Everyone who saw it said, “From the day the people of Isra’el came up from Egypt until now, never has such a thing happened or been seen. What are we going to do about it? Talk it over and decide.” CJB

In Chapter 20 all Israel from Dan to Beersheba and even people from Gilead came together to fight against Benjamin.  Even though, there was no king in Israel; the tribes saw this as detestable and they consulted on Adonai.

Judges 20:12-14 “12 The tribes of Isra’el sent men throughout all the tribe of Binyamin with this message: “What is this crime committed by some of your people? 13 Turn over these good-for-nothings who are in Giv‘ah at once so that we can execute them and rid Isra’el of such evil.” But the people of Binyamin refused to obey the order of their kinsmen the people of Isra’el. 14 Instead, the people of Binyamin gathered themselves together from their cities and went to Giv‘ah to fight the people of Isra’el.” CJB

So, they had a war:

Judges 20:46-47 “Thus the total number from Binyamin who fell that day was 25,000 experienced, sword-bearing soldiers. But 600 turned and fled toward the desert to the Rock of Rimmon and lived there four months.” CJB

After this, all Israel was feeling bad for Benjamin, so they wanted to get wives for them. 

This is where Jabesh Gilead comes into the picture and their actions were view as a disgrace. 

Judges 21:8-12 “8 Then they asked who from the tribes of Isra’el had not come up to ADONAI at Mitzpah and found that none had come from Yavesh-Gil‘ad to the camp where the assembly was; 9 since when the people were counted, none of the inhabitants of Yavesh-Gil‘ad were found there. 10 So the gathering sent 12,000 warriors there and ordered them, “Go and put the people who live in Yavesh-Gil‘ad to death with the sword, including women and children. 11 Completely destroy every man and every woman who has had sex with a man.” 12 Among the inhabitants of Yavesh-Gil‘ad, they found 400 young virgins who had not known a man by lying with him, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Kena‘an.” CJB

The inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead condoned the behaviors and actions of the good for nothing from the tribe of Benjamin. The men from Benjamin behave just like the inhabitants from Sodom; therefore; the fate of the Benjamites resulted in death.  Resulted in the cleansing and purification of such abomination.  If such abomination would have been left unattended, all Israel would have suffered from it.

Jabesh Gilead became a stench to the rest of the tribes; they became disgraced and dishonored; however, we know that some of the Benjamites living in Jabesh fled.

Sometime later in the scriptures, we find out that these same people Jabesh Gilead in 1 Samuel 11 were being attacked by Nahash, the king of the Ammonites.  Interestingly enough Nahash means serpent.  Think about it, they did not feel comfortable asking the other tribes for help because they were still remembered for they disgrace, so they were willing to become Nahash slaves but Nahash wanted them to gauge out their right eyes bringing further humiliation and disgrace to them.  This is like when we do something that is evil, it comes back to haunt you.  Repentance has to happen, and one must humble and ask for help. 

When we are not walking in the things of the Lord; we are living in sin and we need to ask for outside intervention that will help us conquer the death of sin.

Well, this is what Jabesh did, they sent out a message throughout Israel to see if anyone would help them; and sure, enough King Saul came to the rescue and Israel followed.

The rest of the tribes helped even though, the inhabitants from Jabesh were a disgrace.  This is what happens in our lives when we are living in sin; we are not only living in it but we accept the same behavior in others.

Later on, we find out that when King Saul died in battle and these very people from Jabesh Gilead; took Saul’s body and put him to rest.  They showed kindness because kindness was put in them. 

1 Samuel 31:11-13 “¹¹ When the people living in Yavesh-Gil‘ad heard what the P’lishtim had done to Sha’ul, ¹² all their warriors set out, traveling all night. They took the body of Sha’ul and the bodies of his sons off the wall of Beit-Sh’an, returned to Yavesh and burned them there. ¹³ Then they took their bones, buried them under the tamarisk tree in Yavesh and fasted seven days.” CJB

King David recognized this act as heroic thus blessed them:

2 Samuel 2:4-7 “4 Then the men of Y’hudah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Y’hudah. They informed David that the men of Yavesh-Gil‘ad were the ones who had buried Sha’ul. 5 So David sent messengers to the men of Yavesh-Gil‘ad with this message: “May you be blessed by ADONAI, because you showed this kindness to your lord, Sha’ul, and buried him. 6 Now may ADONAI show kindness and truth to you, and I too will show you favor because you have done this. 7 Be strong and be brave. Sha’ul your lord is dead, but the house of Y’hudah has anointed me king over them.” TLV

Here we have a group of people who went from disgrace to blessed and honored.

Is that not our own situation: We at one point lived the crazy life of sin, impurity, and evilness but then someone despite our condition came to the rescue, showed mercy and kindness.  Because of such kindness; we are put in a position to also show kindness by telling others about a rescuer name Yeshua, His grace, mercy, and salvation.

Jabesh Gilead: At one point in our lives we acted like them. Sinning and accepting sin.  There is a parashah call Tribes journeys in the Torah, each of us has a journey; we can choose to journey within the things of God, or we can choose to journey in the things of evil. We can change our destiny by Yeshua the Messiah from disgrace to honor.

Choose HIM today.