The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing,
majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of
him and what came to my mind and heart in Judges 19:22-30,
"While they were enjoying themselves, some of the wicked men of the
city surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they shouted to the
old man who owned the house, 'Bring out the man who came to your house
so we can have sex with him.' The owner of the house went outside and
said to them, 'No, my friends, don't be so vile. Since this man is my
guest, don't do this disgraceful thing. Look, here is my virgin
daughter, and his concubine. I will bring them out to you now, and you
can use them and do to them whatever you wish. But to this man, don't
do such a disgraceful thing.' But the men would not listen to him. So
the man took his concubine and sent her outside to them, and they
raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let
her go. At daybreak the woman went back to the house where her master
was staying, fell down at the door and lay there until daylight. When
her master got up in the morning and opened the door of the house and
stepped out to continue on his way, there lay his concubine, fallen in
the doorway of the house, with her hands on the threshold. He said to
her, 'Get up; let's go.' But there was no answer. Then the man put her
on his donkey and set out for home. When he reached home, he took a
knife and cut up his concubine, limb by limb, into twelve parts and
sent them into all the areas of Israel. Everyone who saw it said,
'Such a thing has never been seen or done, not since the day the
Israelites came up out of Egypt. Think about it! Consider it! Tell us
what to do!'"
Disgust, revulsion and plain sorrow are the emotions I feel every time
I read this account. It is difficult to read it and not feel grieved
over it. It strains the imagination to consider how it was possible
"God's people" had sunk to such a decay in morality both in the social
fabric of the day as well as in the hearts and minds of men.
We see an old man coming in from his work in the fields express
compassion to a Levite, his concubine (hey, who needs that "slip of
paper anyway?!") and his servant who needed a place to stay. But then
we learn the act of compassion was really an act of mercy as the men
of the town were homosexual predators looking for victims. Apparently
the old man thought it best to provide them safety from his neighbors
but it turns out the old man and the Levite were all too willing to
throw the old man's virgin daughter and the Levite's live-in-love-in
out the door to save their own skins. Apparently it never crossed the
minds of these two that there might be virtue in dying while defending
themselves and their women. These fine examples of humanity raped and
abused the Levite's concubine so horrifically, she died at the door
after having made her way back to the old man's house. The concern of
the old man and Levite for her safety is documented in how they
couldn't be bothered or disturbed till morning about her safety or
whereabouts. Rather than being concerned with her well-being upon
finding her, the Levite simply told his dead concubine, "Get up! Let's
go!"
No wonder the concubine left the Levite in the first place, returning
home to her father, resulting in the trip in the first place! What
miserable people the men of Gibeah (the town where this took place)
had become. What a miserable person this Levite was. How did this take
place in Israel? How did the people God had chosen for his own sink so
low? Here is the offspring of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, living their
lives in a moral and spiritual decay, such that they look little
different than any of the peoples God had commanded be thoroughly
destroyed due to depravity.
We read in Judges 17:6 that "everyone did as he saw fit". This
observation is a part of the prelude to the story. It is also found at
the conclusion of the larger account in Judges 21:25. This is what
mankind sinks to when they follow their own "best thoughts", their own
devices, when God is forgotten and his word abandoned. Mankind has a
sinful and depraved nature and always, without fail, deteriorates into
the horrific depravity we read of in this account apart from God's
revelation, God's word.
We read in Proverbs 29:18, "Where there is no revelation, the people
cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law." When we
abandon our Bibles as a people there is only one direction a culture
and society goes. It isn't evolution, but devolution into depravity.
Some people who are hostile to God and his word accuse believers of
"pushing religion" on everybody when they stand for the truth. Somehow
that has been defined as something "wrong to do". Our culture is
hurtling toward Gibeah in a mad dash to sink into moral decay and
depravity.
Whenever I have been told by someone (and I have been many times) that
I shouldn't be pushing my religion on others as I point to the
Scriptures, I am reminded that as a society will will live by a
standard of morality, a standard of ethics that has been defined by
someone. Whose definition will the culture embrace? It will be
someone's. Will it be God's? Will it be what comes out of Hollywood?
Will it be what we see on TV? Will it be what godless college
professors are teaching our children in academia? Who are we going to
follow? Are we on our way as a culture, as a society, toward Gibeah?
Or, will we return to God in a critical mass such that our society
escapes such a future the men of Gibeah's past had become?
It is important if you have children, if you have grandchildren.
Imagine seeing them playing in the town square in Gibeah...
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share
what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to
hear from you!
Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
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