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April 6th
The Bible reading for today is in Judges chapters 19-21.
At the beginning of today’s reading we read the following: “In those days, when there was no king in Israel...” True, there was NO “monarchy” in Israel at that time. It was on the people’s mind, but there was none at that point.
I have to believe that something else was meant in that phrase, “no king in Israel”. It is obvious from our reading that in those days, “God” was not king in Israel...either. Israel, as a whole, would not recognize God’s rule in Israel. They only recognized their own rule.
I believe that we can be confident that there were people in every Israeli tribe who believed God. with all their heart....who believed everything that God said...especially everything He said about their covenant relationship with Him. And they were committed to it.
But there would be some like Samson...who believed, but who also forgot...forgot who was King...and his pride put himself on the throne instead...if but for a season.
There would be some who truly believed that their life and their eternal life was a gift from God....and who truly believed that their strength to accomplish God-sized assignments was a gift from God.
But for a time, pride thought more highly of himself than of God. Baptist might say that they were “backslidden”...Methodists might say that they were “unrepentant”. My impatience with their behavior and the downplaying of my own would probably say that most in Israel were lost and without saving faith at that time. You can make your own judgment from the reading. The Holy Spirit is good at revealing God’s will and ways through His Word.
Back to the text...where, there was no king in Israel. A Levite living in the hill country of Ephraim was on his way to the Tabernacle in Shiloh. Today we might say he was going to church.
It was a full day’s walk up and down the mountains of Judea. His concubine was with him. She was not his wife...but the culture of the land (not God culture) made the concubine a legal partner.
They stopped for the night in a city named Gibeah of the tribe of Benjamin. A kind old man invited them to spend the night in his home. Late that night, a crowd of moral reprobates surrounded the house and demanded that the stranger come out so that they could know him in a perverted sense. The cowardly Levite pushed his concubine out the door. The next morning she was found dead on the old man’s porch.
All who saw it and all who heard of it across the promised land spoke with disgust...anger...and murderous hatefulness toward the evil done and the evil condoned. Before it was said and done close to 50,000 Israelites died and a multitude of Benjaminite cities and villages were burned.
Wow...that whole story sounds a lot like what we read and see on newscasts around the world today. What’s the answer to such evil gone wild?
Jesus...the return of Christ to judge this world and make all things new...new heavens and new earth!
Come, Lord Jesus!
Have a great day
