Good morning, are you all ready for another great week of exploring God’s word? I am. I call refer to it as exploring, because there is always something new.
They say it is a living word, referencing that the Word, Jesus, is alive. But I also know that God speaks to us from His Word, the Bible. He shows us every day what we need to know.
It may be answers to questions we have, or maybe answers we will need to know soon. Either way, God is involved in the lives of His children and that is why I encourage each of us to read through the Bible, listening for His voice. Not just completing an assignment, but trying to learn something new.
They had no king
Today, we finish up the Book of Judges. While we only have chapters 20 and 21 to read, we need to reference back to what happened yesterday in chapter 19.
The opening sentence in chapter 19 is, “In those days Israel had no king.” This is also part of the last sentence today, “In those days Israel had no king: everyone did as they saw fit.” (Jud 21:25, NIV)
I’m writing this after being invited to join in some “Pride” celebrations. Pride itself is a sin, but in this case, it is celebrating a lifestyle which scripture defines as sin.
Like the Israelites in Judges 19-21, when we live with no king, everyone does as they see fit. We all like to follow our hearts, but Jeremiah 17:9 tells us, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (NIV).
Our hearts lead us to sin, but the “wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23, NIV). I have many acquaintances who revel in this “Pride” lifestyle. Some may consider my viewpoint as hate speech, but I assure you, I do not hate anyone.
In truth, I love all people. Because of this, I hate the sin, which God hates, because of its destructive and terminal consequences to those who practice it. This applies to all sins, even my own, and there are many.
The concubine
What we see in today’s reading is because of their sinful hearts, the people of Benjamin wish to sodomize this man. Instead, they rape and kill this poor concubine.
As stated, the wages of sin is death, hers. Then all of Israel rises and attacks Gibeah. I have not added up the carnage, but we read of tens of thousands of soldiers dying from both sides.
The men attacking this concubine were only thinking of their own pleasure. Who is it harming, other than this concubine, whom they had no respect for?
That is the nature of sin. We figure it is our choice, and it’s not affecting anyone other than ourselves. That is not the case. There are always lingering ripples of people who are impacted by our choices.
Even after this devastation, God shows mercy and allows the remnant of Benjamin to receive wives.
The Israelites have to conceive a way around their oath to not provide their daughters to Benjamin, which is my second point.
Instead of accepting our lot, and the consequences of our choices, we try to find loopholes. As Christians, we know that God forgives us. If we sin without feeling remorse, I question the condition of our hearts. Have we trusted Jesus as our Lord?
We still enjoy dancing on that line, assuming salvation is ours. We get as close to sin as we can, getting none of it on ourselves.
The stench
We step away from it, thinking we escaped, but those who love us can smell it on our clothing. It lingers like the aroma of a cigar.
When I was in highschool, I had a lot of friends who smoked marijuana during lunch. I didn’t enjoy the effect it had on me, so I didn’t.
My fourth hour class was Mr. Mattison’s Physical Science class, and as they all came back to class, the room smelled like pot smoke.
I would go off campus for lunch and started smoking the biggest, stinkiest cigars I could afford. The odor that was on me was stronger than what they had on themselves, so it would cover for them.
One day, as we were sitting in class learning about inertia, Mr. Mattison looked up and said, “Linder’s, I know everyone else has been getting high. Please stop smoking those cigars!”
No one believed the deception. We hadn’t gotten away with anything.
The price is high
This is the same with sin. The people of Benjamin thought, “it’s just a concubine, who will miss her?”.
God loves all His children. He required atonement for this sinfulness. The price was exorbitant.
No price was higher than the one He paid by giving His One and Only Son, Jesus, to die for you and me. We all have sin, and we all deserve the death these multitudes of soldiers received.
We can never go back and undo what had been done.
If the people of Gibeah had intervened, they could have saved many lives. The rapists didn’t have enough control of their own urges, but others could have stepped up to defend her. They chose not to.
Many people will choose not to say anything today, because they don’t want to offend anyone.
When we condone sin, we start a sequence of events which can be devastating. We all must have enough love in our hearts to speak the truth. Even when that opinion is not popular.
