Surprised by Injustice

As one reads through the book of Judges, one is quickly reminded that this book is not your typical Children's story you read to the young ones right before bed.  No, in fact Judges feels like your watching an R rated movie at times, and can get pretty scandalous very fast.  As one can become calloused to all the violence and warfare we watch on TV, the same sort of dullness can set in when you get to the later chapters of the book.  So, when thousands of men are killed, we think okay, move on, tell me what's the point.

However, as I was reading Judges 17-19 (I like to read 3 chapters at a time), I found myself ANGRY, and almost in tears for the way chapter 19 ended.  In Judges 19, a Levite and his concubine (that's a story for another day) were traveling across the country side of Ephraim.  His concubine was then unfaithful to him and runs away to her father, so the reader starts to think she is the villain and this Levite is the hero.  Yet, the Levite tracks her down, and stays at her father's place for much longer than he anticipated.  The father in law seems to have known that something terrible was looming on the horizon.  So, he kept trying to keep his son in law and his daughter at bay.

But finally they leave and sojourn to city called Gibeah.  While there, an older man has grace on them and lets them sleep at their house.  However, the men of Gibeah came to the door of this old man demanding, "Bring out the man who came into your house, that we may know him."  This seems eerily reminiscent of the account with Lot in Gen. 19.  Now, one might expect the Lord to intervene and save these people from this terror.  Yet, the Levite and the old man hand over the concubine to these men, and lock themselves back in the safety of the house.  And the scriptures reveal the depravity of our nature when it says, "And they knew her and abused her all night until the morning. And as the dawn began to break, they let her go.  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." 


What horror.  Where is God?  Why did he let this woman be treated like this?  Where is this so-called hero?  It gets worse.  As you read on, the the man sees her the next morning lying there and tells her to get up, but no response....she dies right there on the door steps.

This was the end of my reading for devotions.  WHAT!  I can't stop here.  Where is the justice?!  Where are you Lord!  ... This is our cry today.  When pain, terrors, and crisis hits us we want to know, "Where are you Lord?!"  We don't have another chapter to read, we live in the moment.  We don't know what's next.   I had to keep reading, and learned in Judges 20, the men of Israel team up to take down the men of Gibeah.  And for us, we may not know what the next line is in our story, but we do know the end.

May we always keep the end in sight, may we remember we have the person of Jesus as the Judge of the world and as our Savior, and as Paul reminds us in Philippians 3, that their end is destruction, but our is a citizenship in heaven.  He will not tolerate this injustice.  He will go outside instead of offering you to the wolves.  He will protect and love and care the way this Levite should have.  While we are stuck in the middle of death and life and night and day, may we look forward to the sea of glass and the trumpet sounding, "Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready;" (Rev. 19:7)


Amen.

Stuck in the Middle

The whole idea of 'already and not yet' has become more and more real to me as of late.  I am seeing how all the wells on earth are running dry very fast.  I am finally seeing the epidemic that has been here all along.  Though we are already saved, though we are fully bound for glory, I am seeing the painful reality that glory is not here yet.  And until that day comes, I will never be satisfied fully.  Because my heart continually longs for more and more to fill it.  In every facet of life the that which once settled my heart is now numb and needs more the next time.  Just as an addict needs more drug to get the same high, our hearts need more stimuli to feel at rest.  This is a truly dangerous thing, as we will never be filled.  We live in the tension, the middle, the conflict, of the Not Yet.

But, we can't forget about the Already.  My heart is as St. Augustine put it, "restless, till it finds its rest in thee."  Our hearts are indeed restless, but I can't ever forget that there is a well that won't run dry.  There is an ocean that has no bottom, there is a love that is endless.  Jesus Christ marries heaven to earth with himself.  We may not be fully there yet, but we have been given an engagement ring from Jesus.  This ring reminds us of the Wedding to come, of the blessings of the union that is ours even now.

So, while in this middle, restless, vanity, wind chasing world, there is a savior.  We have the 'already' from Jesus life, death, and resurrection.  We have been given the deposit of the Holy Spirit to keep us until that great Feast to come.  We have been given hope.  Paul tells us that Faith, Hope, and Love remains.  Thank Jesus that these remain.  Remain in Him, and you will find faith, hope, and love...even in the middle.