July 29, 2021
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Judges? Here’s today’s reading:
Judges 19 (NIV)
A Levite and His Concubine
1 In those days Israel had no king.
Now a Levite who lived in a remote area in the hill country of Ephraim took a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah. 2 But she was unfaithful to him. She left him and went back to her parents’ home in Bethlehem, Judah. After she had been there four months, 3 her husband went to her to persuade her to return. He had with him his servant and two donkeys. She took him into her parents’ home, and when her father saw him, he gladly welcomed him.........Continue Reading
Such a troubling chapter…so much evil! Such disregard for human life and God’s will and plan!
Judges 19&20
I don’t like this chapter.
I can certainly understand Carrie! As people reject God, there is no end to the type of depravity that they will participate in. This is reminiscent of what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah and yet happens in Israel where they should have known better. It is the deepest expression of selfishness to use someone else for your gratification independent of the form it comes in. How disgusting the strong taking advantage of the weak and vulnerable. We are very distant from a time where principles of hospitality would lead someone to offer their daughter for the sake of a guest who is a stranger. But the greatest evil is that they would be put in that position by the crowd in the first place. And it is tragic that the Levite shows no compassion for this woman and then butchers her to make a point.
It all reenforces the value of following God and living by HIs standards. It is all reflective of what happens when everyone does what is right in their own eyes without the boundaries of God’s law or man’s law. One wonders how quickly we would devolve if society rejects both.
Judges 19 what little value of women and so much immortality, what an awful time in history!
What? The guy goes to a town of Israelites. And there as evil as sodom and Gomorrah. But he’s not much better. Hands over his wife for rape and dead. Then how he sends a message?? Tough chapter!!!!
Genesis 19-12 Lot in Sodom
Ugh, what a horrible chapter!
One thing I was thinking was that all throughout Judges and other parts of the OT, the people have little moral code; they don’t even seem to have any concept of logic or of hypocrisy. I think this is the case in other cultures as well, especially where Christianity has not had any influence. It makes me realize how Christ in the world has changed the way that we think about good and evil.