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Judges 19:25-30
So – here we are almost to the end of this study, and again the story is not that great. Remember there are no more Judges in the history of Israel. There are a few stories here from the remainder of that time period, and it gets kind of gruesome.
Yesterday we ended with relativism. That’s where truth becomes so individualized that it results in selfishness, that ends up treating people as less than human. And that’s the story we are going to see today.
Remember, yesterday we spoke about a young man named Micah. And commentators believe this is the son of Delilah and Samson. And with the disfunction of that family – one might assume that this relativism is a part of that. But it is not just a family thing in Micha’s family. This relativism is a problem in the society of God’s people.
So let’s get a bit more of the story we are going to look at today from Judges 19. We encounter a Levite priest and his concubine traveling. They stop in a city called Gibeah for the night. Gibeah is within the area of Israel assigned to the tribe of Benjamin.
There an old man takes them in for the night, but a gang within that city pounds on the old man’s house demanding that he turn the Levite over to them to be raped. Very similar to the situation with Lot and the angels that visited him. The man and the Levite try to reason with the gang, this is what happens.
Judges 19:25-30 (NIV) 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 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!”
Guess what happens then? Eleven tribes get mad. The Levite gives them a twisted version of the truth. And no one cares after all, Israel had no king and everyone did as they saw fit.
Now, that doesn’t sound familiar, does it? We don’t live in a world where when something tragic or horrific happens we get upset, pass judgment, and demand vengeance before getting the facts, do we?
Honestly, I believe this has been happening all throughout human history. You see when we leave truth, when we reject the truth of God, we open ourselves to an extremely selfish version of broken humanity. And that creates relativism – which is rampant in our society today.
However, when we accept the truth of Christ, when we lay down our lives and put on the life of Christ as His disciple, we learn to love God with heart soul mind strength. And in turn God’s love draws us to love others as we love ourselves. You know it’s that simple – filter life through the life and love of Christ.
Paul said it like this…
1 Corinthians 10:23-24 (NIV) “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.
Love God – Love others – honestly it truly is that simple.