Readings for today: Judges 19-21
Today we encounter some of the most difficult material in all of Scripture. We see Israel at one of her lowest points. She has forgotten Yahweh. She has become like all the pagan tribes around her. She is more focused on her own gratification than she is on serving and honoring the Lord. Her world is full of idols and sexual perversion and violence. Yes, she still goes through the motions. She still makes her sacrifices. She still prays. Fasts. Appears before the Lord at the appointed times. But it’s all empty at this point. Everyone is doing what seems right to them. They are all following their own ways. They are plumbing the depths of sin. They are pushing the boundaries of evil. Unspeakable atrocities are taking place in Israel such as the gang rape of a woman whose body is then dismembered resulting in a genocidal war that basically annihilates an entire tribe. It’s madness.
One of my favorite books is the Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. With penetrating insight, he describes the nature of man. Given the right conditions. Given the right set of circumstances. We will all succumb to temptation. In the book, Kurtz sets himself up as a god to be worshipped. He exploits those around him. He uses them for his own personal gratification and enjoyment. He is evil and selfish and insane. Towards the end of the story, he finds himself dying as he “returns” to civilization. His life flashes before his eyes. He reflects back on all he has done. And his final words are, “The horror! The horror!” Reminds me of the great Russian novelist and dissident, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who spent years in the Russian gulag for criticizing the Soviet Union, once said, “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either - but right through every human heart - and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained.” Of course he noted the opposite is also true. Even in hearts overwhelmed by good, small bridgeheads of evil are retained. Basically, all of us have the capacity within us for both great good and terrible evil.
There simply is nothing redemptive in the story we read today. Nothing good. Nothing godly. Man’s inhumanity to man is on full display. It’s dark. It’s evil. It’s terrifying. “Horror” is a good word to describe what’s going on in our world today. One only has to scroll through a Twitter newsfeed to see the hate that leads to violence that leads to death and then return the next day to watch the cycle repeat itself. Consider yet another shooting at yet another school involving children. If we’re totally honest, all of us are perpetrators on some level. All of us are victims. We are the Levite. We are the concubine. We’ve sacrificed others and we’ve been sacrificed for the sake of self-protection and self-gratification. In the Bible’s judgment, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." (Romans 3:10)
Perhaps it’s providential that we read this section of Judges on the cusp of Holy Week. Over the next week, we will reflect on the most significant events in Jesus’ life. The most significant events in human history. God Himself riding into Jerusalem to the adoration of the crowd only to find betrayal, torture, and death at the hands of some of those same people a few days later. We will reflect on the cross a week from today. A day we call Good Friday. A day we spend intentional time prayerfully thinking over the death of God. The most horrific act in human history. We reflect on the price Jesus paid. The blood He shed. The penalty He bore. We will reflect on the depth of our sin. The depravity of our nature. The darkness of our hearts. We reflect on the cost of our salvation. On what it took to redeem us from sin and death. To deliver us from evil.
But Holy Week ends not with despair but celebration! It ends not in defeat but in victory! Jesus is alive! And on Easter morning, we will gather with those we love to rejoice over our salvation! God plunging Himself into the horror of our condition! Plumbing the depth of our darkness! Immersing Himself in the breadth of our madness! And embracing us as His own! Today we declare there is hope for the Levite and his concubine! Today we declare there is hope for the Kurtz’s of our world! Today we declare there is hope even for us! And that hope is found in Jesus!
Readings for tomorrow: Ruth 1-4