Wake Up

"All who saw it said, 'Nothing like this has ever happened or been seen from the day when the sons of Israel came up from the land of Egypt to this day. Consider it, take counsel and speak up!" -Judges 19.30

Israel has sunk to a new low. A Levite has journeyed from the hill country of Ephraim to Bethlehem to retrieve his concubine. On the way back he stops in Gibeah, a town of Benjamin to stay for the night. His servant tried to persuade him to stay in Jebus, Jerusalem still under control of the Jebusites, but he ops for a town belonging to Israel.

They arrive, but no one will take them in until an old man offers them hospitality. He washes the feet and provides for all their needs, welcoming them into his home. Sometime during the night men from the city come and demand that the Levite be given over to them. In the middle east if a guest enters your house you are to protect them, and so he refuses to hand the man over, but does given them his concubine. She is raped and abused all night, and in the morning falls down dead outside the door of the house. The Levite returns home, cuts her into twelve pieces and sends a piece to each of the tribes of Israel to which verse thirty is the response.

The only other record of an act like this is found in Genesis 19, where two angels come into Lot's house and the men of the city demand that they be handed over. No women are abused that night, but shortly after the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed for their wickedness. Never has anything like this taken place in Israel, but without a king to enforce God's standards of righteous holiness, the people have sunk to the same level as the pagan nations the used to inhabit the land.

Seeing the pieces of the concubine calls Israel to look at what they have become as a people. They are not acting like God's set apart people who are meant to share Him with the world, instead they are doing the same things that pagan cities God destroyed did. There is the call to wake up to the situation and do something about it.

Men, when you look at the world and the church, do you see any similarities? Do the Christians you know look more like Jesus or the world? What about your life?

Over time, and without an example, Israel wandered further and further from God. The events of Judges 19 is a call for Israel to wake up to the situation and begin to do something about it. We must do the same.

Let us wake up to the reality of the world and the church. Let us begin to call people to become more like Christ.

"Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."

To God alone be the Glory!

Strength and Honor