April 7 – Judges 19:22-30
April 7 – Judges 19:22-30
22 As they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of
the city, worthless fellows, surrounded the house, beating on the door.
And they said to the old man, the master of the house, “Bring out the man who
came into your house, that we may know him.” 23 And the
man, the master of the house, went out to them and said to them, “No, my
brothers, do not act so wickedly; since this man has come into my
house, do not do this vile thing. 24 Behold,
here are my virgin daughter and his concubine. Let me bring them out
now. Violate them and do with them what seems good to you, but against
this man do not do this outrageous thing.” 25 But the men
would not listen to him. So the man seized his concubine and made her go out to
them. And they knew her and abused her all night until the morning. And as the
dawn began to break, they let her go. 26 And as morning appeared, the woman came and fell down at the door
of the man's house where her master was, until it was light.
27 And her master rose up in the morning, and when he opened the
doors of the house and went out to go on his way, behold, there was his
concubine lying at the door of the house, with her hands on the threshold. 28 He said to
her, “Get up, let us be going.” But there was no answer. Then he put her
on the donkey, and the man rose up and went away to his home. 29 And when he
entered his house, he took a knife, and taking hold of his concubine
he divided her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout
all the territory of Israel. 30 And all who saw it said, “Such a thing has never happened or been
seen from the day that the people of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt
until this day; consider it, take counsel, and speak.”
How dreadfully horrible the
night in Gibeah proved to be. When the
old man refused to turn over the Levite to some “worthless fellows” who were
seeking sexual acts, the Levite turned his concubine over to the men who had
their way with her repeated and resulted in her death. In the strangest turn of events, the Levite
found her body, journeyed home and then cut her body into 12 pieces. My mind says, “what in the world?” Why is this story shared in the Bible? How could the Levite sacrifice his concubine
life for himself? And, what was the
significance of the Levite cutting the concubine’s body into 12 pieces and
sending them throughout the nation? Do
you see similar cycles of violence in our society today? Is the Spirit calling to you, your family or
community to stand up for justice?
Heavenly Father,
when I read these verses I
see such anger, hate, violence, greed, and all of these come from selfishness. I can’t help but think how it must grieve You
for our world to be filled with so much hate, the opposite of everything You
are. I can’t imagine what causes people
to do such horrible things and we are always talking about how horrible the
world is and how it gets worse every year, but then I read something like this
and think about Sodom and Gomorrah, and realize men are just filled with evil
and hate, if they aren’t filled with You and Your love. I think the biggest problem is how many
people now accept the level of hate that is rampant. We are encouraged to accept sin as
commonplace and okay. We are supposed to
accept sin as “normal”. I love You
Father, and I just pray that You protect me and my family from thinking this
way and accepting such horrible things as normal. I know we all sin, but I ask You to help us
not accept sin, and to recognize sin for what it is. Help me see when I am on the slippery slope
and help me represent You well.
In Jesus’ name.
Amen!
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