Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb20060723.htm

1 AND 2 CHRONICLES: GAINING DIRECTION OUT OF THE AIMLESSNESS OF APOSTASY
Part I: Gaining Direction From God's Work In Our History From Furthest Antiquity, 1 Chronicles 1-9
B. Gaining Direction From Noting God's INTERACTION With Past Groups In The Faith, 1 Chronicles 4-8
8. Gaining Direction By Noting God's Work With The Tribe Of Benjamin
(1 Chronicles 7:6-12 et al.)
  1. Introduction
    1. Though God wants men to take responsible leadership as we learned in our last lesson on the tribe of Issachar, such oversight should be considerate, not cruel toward subordinates.
    2. The history of God's dealings with the tribe of Benjamin reveals the need for leaders not to be cruel:
  2. Gaining Direction By Noting God's Work With The Tribe Of Benjamin, 1 Chronicles 7:6-12 et al.
    1. 1 Chronicles 7:6-12 repeatedly notes that the men of the tribe of Benjamin were "heads [of the house] of their fathers, mighty men of valor," revealing they were valiant leaders and warriors, 7:7b, 9b and 11b.
    2. Though valiant in leadership and war, Scripture reveals that at times they were also wickedly cruel:
      1. Jacob's Genesis 49:27 (ESV) prediction of his youngest son, Benjamin noted his descendants would be like a "ravenous wolf, in the morning devouring the prey and at evening dividing the spoil."
      2. Hence, they would be "successful in war, but also cruel," Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978 ed., ftn.
    3. The history of the tribe reflects how this prediction by the patriarch Jacob came to pass (as follows):
      1. On the one hand, under Deborah and Barak, the men of Benjamin helped overcome the Canaanites (Judges 5:14), and their marksmanship in war was legendary, cf. Judges 20:15-16.
      2. However, vile men in Benjamin sexually abused a concubine of a Levite, killing her in the process, an atrocity that led to civil war where the other eleven tribes nearly annihilated Benjamin, Judges 19-20.
      3. Also, king Saul was of the tribe of Benjamin, and he had a very mixed record of good leadership and success in war followed by faithless cruelty toward the innocent (with eventual personal defeat):
        1. Initially, Saul from the tribe of Benjamin (1 Sam. 9:1-2) was anointed king (1 Sam. 9:27-10:1) and was used of God to lead Israel to overcome the nation's wicked, threatening foes, 1 Samuel 11:1-15.
        2. However, Saul failed to obey God's directive from the prophet Samuel regarding his need to wait for Samuel to offer a burnt offering, and he unbiblically offered the sacrifice himself, 1 Samuel 13:8-12.
        3. Accordingly, Samuel predicted God would replace Saul with another man after God's own heart who would (generally) submit to the Lord's leading and obey God for blessing, 1 Samuel 13:13-14.
        4. When that replacement in the form of the future king David was anointed and blessed by God (1 Samuel 16:1, 13), Saul became jealous and repeatedly sought to kill David, 1 Sam. 18:7-11, 29.
        5. Eventually, Saul's lack of faith and obedience to God led to his loss of God's help, and he ended up committing suicide in battle with the Philistines, 1 Samuel 31:1-5.
    4. Yet, by God's GRACE, another man from Benjamin, the Apostle Paul, began as a cruel persecutor of innocent Christians only to end up nurturing them as an apostle, writing nearly half of the New Testament and becoming the most effective missionary for Christ in Church History!
      1. The Apostle Paul, whose initial name was Saul, was from the tribe of Benjamin (Acts 9:1; Phil. 1:1; 3:4-5), began as an ardent persecutor of the Christian Church, Acts 7:59-8:3 with 1 Timothy 1:12-13.
      2. However, in grace, Christ intercepted Saul while he was headed to Damascus to find and persecute Christians, and Paul was converted to Christ in the process, Acts 9:1-19, 20.
      3. Saul's name was changed to "Paul" (Acts 13:9, 13), and he was sent as an Apostle of Christ to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15-16; 1 Timothy 1:1), becoming a very nurturing Apostle (cf. 1 Thess. 2:7-8).
      4. Paul wrote at least 13 of the New Testament's 27 books we have (as we do not know who authored the Epistle to the Hebrews), and evangelized a large part of the Roman Empire (Romans 15:19) before dying as a martyr for the Christian faith that he had once so cruelly persecuted, 2 Timothy 4:6, 16!
Lesson: (1) Though the men of Benjamin were noble, successful leaders in war, they also tended to be cruel toward innocent, vulnerable people. (2) Yet, by God's grace and the work of the Holy Spirit, Paul from the tribe of Benjamin revealed such cruelty could be overcome to make one a great, gentle leader!

Application: May we men lead responsibly, but in the HOLY SPIRIT'S power, that our responsibility be tempered by gentleness and kindness toward weak, vulnerable, innocent subordinates and other people!