“That’s okay, it’s could be worse.” This philosophy of life only leads us farther from God and deeper into sin that separates from God. We accept the culture around us as problematic but tolerable. Then suddenly we become a part of the culture as society affects and infects us more than we affect the culture. George Barna, a believer in Jesus and His church, is a professional statistician. God gave Barna the gift of interpreting data discovered to give us a picture of the current state of the church. Barna and his company does this by surveying and listening to people who say they believe and attend church. He studies behaviors of the church with precise predictions of where the church is headed unless changes in behaviors are radically made.
I was part of the audience where Barna, this modern-day prophet, spoke emotionally and reverently about who we are as a church with where we are headed if we do not heed the warnings to come back to God and do what He says as Jesus taught us. Jesus is the Cornerstone of the Church—the bride of Christ who gave His life for us!
History does repeat itself—due to the cycles of sin in imperfect humans unless removed. Maybe we need to wake up and pay more attention and learn from the catastrophic sinful mistakes made from others who suffered the consequences that destroyed nations “under God” in belief but not in behavior.
A traveling Levite priest seeks refuge in a city populated the tribe of Benjamin. He pushes those with him to pass by other towns to get to a place they should be safe. But, it is not. Wicked men live there who threaten their lives in brutal ways. To save his own life, and the lives of family who gave him shelter; the Levite priest cruelly and unjustly hands over his concubine to be abused by the wicked in this village of the Benjamites. When he got home, the priest cut her corpse into twelve parts and sent each tribe in Israel a part to dramatize the shamefulness of the act perpetrated by the men of Gibeah. This became another wake-up call to Israel. The nation had sunk to great depths, but God was preparing a change and a new leader to help bring the nation back to himself for Israel had wandered far from Him.
These acts of lewd violence led to even greater acts of murder that almost destroys the entire tribe of Benjamin all because of the wicked behavior of those living in Gibeah—an Israelite city thought to be trusted by the Levite. This is part one of a three-part story. Hang in there, it goes from bad to worse…but we can learn much from God if we listen.
Judges 19
A Levite and His Concubine
In those days Israel had no king.
Now a Levite who lived in a remote area in the hill country of Ephraim took a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah. 2 But she was unfaithful to him. She left him and went back to her parents’ home in Bethlehem, Judah. After she had been there four months, 3 her husband went to her to persuade her to return. He had with him his servant and two donkeys. She took him into her parents’ home, and when her father saw him, he gladly welcomed him. 4 His father-in-law, the woman’s father, prevailed on him to stay; so he remained with him three days, eating and drinking, and sleeping there.
5 On the fourth day they got up early and he prepared to leave, but the woman’s father said to his son-in-law, “Refresh yourself with something to eat; then you can go.” 6 So the two of them sat down to eat and drink together. Afterward the woman’s father said, “Please stay tonight and enjoy yourself.” 7 And when the man got up to go, his father-in-law persuaded him, so he stayed there that night. 8 On the morning of the fifth day, when he rose to go, the woman’s father said, “Refresh yourself. Wait till afternoon!” So the two of them ate together.
9 Then when the man, with his concubine and his servant, got up to leave, his father-in-law, the woman’s father, said, “Now look, it’s almost evening. Spend the night here; the day is nearly over. Stay and enjoy yourself. Early tomorrow morning you can get up and be on your way home.” 10 But, unwilling to stay another night, the man left and went toward Jebus (that is, Jerusalem), with his two saddled donkeys and his concubine.
11 When they were near Jebus and the day was almost gone, the servant said to his master, “Come, let’s stop at this city of the Jebusites and spend the night.”
12 His master replied, “No. We won’t go into any city whose people are not Israelites. We will go on to Gibeah.” 13 He added, “Come, let’s try to reach Gibeah or Ramah and spend the night in one of those places.” 14 So they went on, and the sun set as they neared Gibeah in Benjamin. 15 There they stopped to spend the night. They went and sat in the city square, but no one took them in for the night.
16 That evening an old man from the hill country of Ephraim, who was living in Gibeah (the inhabitants of the place were Benjamites), came in from his work in the fields. 17 When he looked and saw the traveler in the city square, the old man asked, “Where are you going? Where did you come from?”
18 He answered, “We are on our way from Bethlehem in Judah to a remote area in the hill country of Ephraim where I live. I have been to Bethlehem in Judah and now I am going to the house of the Lord. No one has taken me in for the night. 19 We have both straw and fodder for our donkeys and bread and wine for ourselves your servants—me, the woman and the young man with us. We don’t need anything.”
20 “You are welcome at my house,” the old man said. “Let me supply whatever you need. Only don’t spend the night in the square.” 21 So he took him into his house and fed his donkeys. After they had washed their feet, they had something to eat and drink.
22 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.”
23 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 outrageous thing. 24 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 as for this man, don’t do such an outrageous thing.”
25 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. 26 At daybreak the woman went back to the house where her master was staying, fell down at the door and lay there until daylight.
27 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. 28 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.
29 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. 30 Everyone who saw it was saying to one another, “Such a thing has never been seen or done, not since the day the Israelites came up out of Egypt. Just imagine! We must do something! So speak up!”
WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?
“Where are you going? Where did you come from?” These words could be haunting questions of our faith journey. Where are we in our faith regarding the behaviors of the culture in which we live? Who are we as we relate to others who are cultural dependent in their identity? Do we work too hard to fit in with a “you be you and I’ll be me” philosophy? I wonder if we might confuse the love of God in us as the catalyst to accept and tolerate all behaviors not of Him or His character going on around us? Love God. Love Others is the command of Jesus. We can do this and stand for Truth—Jesus. Jesus takes a way all the confusion and speaks truth. “Follow Me”, Jesus says, who embodies the love of God.
“In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit”
Gibeah had become like Sodom, a city so wicked that God wiped it off the face of the earth (See Genesis 19). The men of the city were indulging in immoral practices that were contrary to nature and the laws of God. (Leviticus 18). “Our hearts ought to revolt at the thought of a man so insensitive to the feelings of a human being made in the image of God, so indifferent to the sanctity of sex and the responsibility of marriage, and so unconcerned about the laws of God, that he would sacrifice his concubine to save his own skin. He was so calloused that he was able to lie down and go to sleep while they were abusing her in the street!”—Warren Wiersbe, Wiersbe Study Bible
Sometimes when we look around at our world, we wonder if maybe God has forgotten or given up on us. Maybe some of the Israelites wondered the same thing. But God is always there, always working to bring people back to himself. The coming stories in His Word to us will demonstrate God’s love, compassion, mercy, and grace on His people. Although this story was cruel and inhumane, these and other sins still happen around the world we live in currently. We must not close our eyes to sin but warn others of sin. Jesus did. He became sin, who was without sin, and willingly laid down his life for the sins of the world—all because of the profound, relentless love of God who does not give up on His created. Believe Jesus, follow Jesus, point the Way to Jesus! He is our only Hope!
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17
When we are confused by the behaviors of our culture that are acceptable but unacceptable according to God’s Word; ask God for wisdom and discernment. God’s Holy Spirit lives in us as our Counselor to guide us to truth with how to think and behave. Our work is to keep God in focus as we read and study His Word, then listen to Him.
Instead of striving to fit into our culture; become more like our countercultural Savior! Allow God’s Holy Spirit to do His work in us, correcting us and redirecting us to His perfect and pleasing will for us—all for our good and His glory! With trust, obedience, diligence, and humility, we will find ourselves in the story of God. Paul tells how—
“Place Your Life Before God” So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” Romans 12:1-2, MSG
Lord,
Cleanse my heart, renew my mind, refresh my soul with your mercies, and restore the joy of your salvation at work within me. May your glory be seen in me—a sinner set free by your love, mercy, and grace. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
In Jesus Name, Amen
Daily Manna (Coffee with Jesus) 