They were to 'be fruitful an multiply.' Eating storks might have adversely affected their birth rate.

Aside from the fig leaves, God made Adam and Eve's first clothes

Jeremiah wore a linen belt that couldn't get wet. Jeremiah 13:1

A Levite cut up his dead concubine up into 12 pieces, one for each tribe of Israel. Judges 19:29

Trivial? (shudder!) The whole story stinks.

mel

I agree- pretty twisted

I don't quite understand how the concubine thing worked... food for another thread, I guess. I'll go start one

The whole idea of Judges is that we're supposed to shudder at the things that God's professed people did. See how low they could go, despite all of God's blessings and despite His miracles and leading. They burned their children to a false god. They did every sort of evil possible. And "everyone did what was right in his own eyes." Judges 17: 6; 21: 25. God's people weren't following God's prophets or His laws. God wanted so much to bless them, but He couldn't while they were living apart from Him. See Deut. 28: 1-14.

So you know exactly what the whole idea of the book of judges is huh? hmmmmm Don't you have anything useful to do?


mel

Yes, Mel, a major theme of Judges is to show us how horrible even God's people can be when they wander away from God. They do things such as cut their concubines up in pieces, things that are intended to make us shudder. I think God meant these stories to shock us. These were all Israelites, God's own people, doing these horrific things to each other. It got so bad that mothers were eating their own children, boiling them for dinner!!! If we contrast the way it was then with the way God planned for it to be, as given in His promises in Deut. 26: 1-14, the events recorded in Judges become doubly tragic.

I think it worked!