Judges 21:6-7 There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day. How shall we do for wives for them that remain…
There have been so many cultures that have been lost to history or have faded away. Here on the Bill Rice Ranch in Middle Tennessee I have found a number of arrowheads, spearheads, and so on from natives who were here long ago. I’m not sure they were the first natives here, but at any rate, those natives are now gone. I don’t know if they do not exist completely, but they do not exist where and how they did a hundred years ago. Likewise, there is evidence of homesteads and pioneer graveyards of people who moved here from the Carolinas and were alive when George Washington was president. I’m sure their descendants have survived somewhere, but it is a different way of life.
Across the road from Bill Rice Ranch there is an old shack that used to be a country store. It was owned by our neighbors, the Lanes. We called it Lane’s. I used to go there every summer as a kid to get bb’s for my pop gun, popsicles, and so on. The people who used to frequent the store would sit by the stove to spit their tobacco and gossip. Those people are gone. You can scarcely hear an authentic Tennessee accent in my county because it has changed. People have moved in and out and that culture is not lost, but it is fading.
When I am talking about culture here, I’m not being technical. I’m just talking about the way we do things here and now, the way we do things and the reason we do things. Cultures can change over time, whether it is a country, a family, a church, or an organization like Bill Rice Ranch. So, how is a culture lost? How does it change? Judges 21 gives at least two ways.
One way is that it dies out. You might call this calamity. After a civil war among God’s people, verses 6-7 say, “There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day. How shall we do for wives for them that remain…?” That was a problem that was uniquely remedied, but there was a tribe that almost died out. Verse 24 said, “And the children of Israel departed thence at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they went out from thence every man to his inheritance.” Notice the word children in children of Israel. This is a people group who had a tribe, a family, and an inheritance and they were part of a nation.
The second and more prominent way a culture can disappear is that it fades out. The people act so independently that there is nothing connecting them to the other people in that people group. Verse 25 says, “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” Notice the words every and own. Every would be all people. Own would be a bunch of individuals. Everyone was doing their own thing. They weren’t acting like a nation at that point, but like a bunch of tribes. It was cacophony, confusion, and anarchy. No sane person in intentionally wrong, but we can be wrong all the time if the only metric by which we judge right or wrong is self. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
When we are talking about a family, a church, or an organization, we can only survive as we agree on things that matter. We are all different and there is diversity in our church, the body of Christ. That is good. God has given different people different abilities and different places. That is good. I’m glad everyone is not like me. That means we are a complete body. A body is not made up of a bunch of arms or eyes or ears. It is a collection of parts that make up a whole, effective body.
So, we are all different, but we can only survive if we agree on the things that matter. Sometimes that means we have to decide what actually matters. We might disagree on some things, but what matters and makes us a church, a family, or a group. It is not just being shoehorned into the same house, property, or country. Again that is not a nation or family, but just people who occupy the same space. We can only survive as we agree on things that matter.
What does that mean as to our obligations? First, chose deliberately; don’t just slide or drift. That is how cultures are lost. It is important the way and why we do things here and now, the things that matter. Some choices make choices. For instance, I chose to be married. That is a choice that made thousands of other choices. It wouldn’t surprise you if I said, “I am not going on a date with another girl,” because I am married to my wife. So, that choice made a bunch of choices.
I would say it is important to choose your point of agency, the point where you have a choice. Once you made a choice, you walk through that door and there is a new corridor with other choices. The corridor you just left is behind you and that choice makes the choices that are available to you ahead. I have so many choices that were made by the one choice of getting married. So, when you are married, you are not free to date others, and why would you want to. There is a new corridor of choices.
You have joined a church. That doesn’t mean you have lost your mind or no longer have conviction. You should and you do, but a friend has said, “When you join a church, the church doesn’t join you; you join the church.” At the Bill Rice Ranch we are not all the same nor do we think the same. We don’t all agree on everything, but we agree on the things that matter. So, choose deliberately.
In the broadest sense I claim God and He claims everything else. I cannot say, “I love God, but I drink a little” or “I love God, but a run around a little” or “I love God, but I gossip a little.” I may love God and fall to some sin, but to have a cavalier attitude about that is not consistent or right. When I claim God, God claims everything else.
Second, if you are going to keep a worthy culture alive, pass on what matters. It is so easy to pick up the frivolous. I am a preacher, and sometimes a young preacher will be influenced by the style of an older preacher. That is the frivolous, yet most noticeable, part of preaching instead of the substantive part.
The same is true with kids. My kids have absorbed my biases, tastes, likes, and priorities. I love the outdoors and the American West, big mountains and open spaces. Is that important? It is not as important as loving God. Have my kids picked that up? That is sobering because I am concerned that my kids pick up the truth.
Are your kids picking up the truth? You need to pass on what matters whether it is in a family, church, organization, nation, or people group. These can only survive as they agree on the things that matter. So, chose deliberately. Let God be your guide, and pass on what matters to the people who look to you for guidance.