The
last 3 chapters of the book of Judges are ---- disturbing. And relevant. And more disturbing because they are so
relevant.
In
chapter 19 a woman cheated on her husband, a preacher (Levite). Then she left him, and moved back in with her
father. Her father not only took her
back but when the reverend arrived to
speak kindly to her and bring
her back, Big Daddy got him drunk and tried to keep them from leaving (Judges
19: 1-9).
Unfaithful
spouses, unequal yoking, indulgent and enabling parents of adult “children.” Sin followed by more sin. That was the culture in Old Testament Israel,
post-Joshua. And it got worse.
On
their way home no other Jew would offer the preacher and his wife the customary
hospitality, except one nice old man coming home from work in a Benjamite
village (19: 16-21). That night men descended
on the nice old man’s house and tried to sexually assault the preacher (Judges
19:22). These weren’t pagans. They were “good” Jewish men descended from
Israel’s youngest and most cherished son.
When
they couldn’t get to the Levite himself, they gang-raped his wife. The attack was so brutal that she died. (19:
25-28)
Her
husband had a mental breakdown, carried his wife’s brutalized body home, and
cut her up into 12 pieces which he mailed to each of the tribes of Israel. (19: 29-30)
Let’s
just pause there for a second so you can form the appropriate mental images.
…
Representatives
from every tribe, except Benjamin, met, but they didn’t know what the crap to
do.
And so it was that all who
saw it said, “No such deed has been done or seen from the day that the children
of Israel came up from the land of Egypt until this day. Consider it, confer,
and speak up!” (Judges 19: 30)
Eventually
they assembled the combined army and demanded justice--- justice in the
national interest.
Deliver up the men, the
perverted men who are in
Gibeah, that we may put them to death and remove the evil from Israel! (Judges 20:13)
Crickets
were heard in Benjamin.
There
would be no punishment, no trial, no investigation. Benjamin basically said, “And? What you gonna do about?”
So
they went to war, tribe against tribes, Jew against Jew. In 3 days, more than 65,000 died on both
sides. (Judges 20; 21)
One
sin, followed by more sin, followed by inhumanity, followed by brutality, lead to
confusion, protest, resistance, and war.
Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires
for pleasure that war in your members? (James 4: 1)
The Disturbing Relevance
Early
this morning in Ferguson, MO, during a protest in support of a federal
report finding racial injustice in policing, two police officers were shot.
Sin,
followed by more sin, followed by inhumanity, followed by brutality, lead to confusion,
protest, resistance, and war.
Human
beings in America in the 21st century are fundamentally the same as human
beings in Israel 1300 years before Jesus was born. We
are prone to the same patterns, subject to the same national tragedies unless
we consider: Where do wars and fights come from among you?
Sin,
followed by more sin, followed by inhumanity, followed by brutality, lead to confusion,
protest, resistance, and war.
Do they not come from
your desires for pleasure that
war in your members?
On
one side, extremists will use the attack on the Ferguson police officers to
validate racism and police brutality. On
the other side, extremists will use the attack to inspire more and worse
violence against police and civil authority. They’ll
demand that everybody choose one side or the other.
The children of Israel said,
“Who is there among all the
tribes of Israel who did not come up with the assembly to the Lord [against
Benjamin]?” For they had made a great oath concerning anyone who had not come
up to the Lord at Mizpah, saying, “He shall surely be put to death.” (Judges 21: 5)
But
side-taking only makes things worse.
War
comes from our insistence on what we want over all other concerns. War is averted when we want righteousness
over all other concerns. That means we
won’t lie to win. We won’t steal or
defraud “for the cause.” We won’t treat
others less than we would want to be treated, even if it requires us to go
against our own tribe.
One Last Disturbing Thing.
The
book of Judges is not written in chronological order. (See timeline.). The events in the last 3 chapters actually happened
first, BEFORE anything else in the book.
The
nation of Israel, living in the Promised Land, experienced 3 centuries of depravity,
depression, and oppression under the Moabites, Philistines, Jebusites,
Amorites, etc., etc. And it all began with
their failure to stop the cycle of disturbing events in Judges chapters 19-21.
So
now, what are we going to do?
---Anderson T. Graves
II is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry,
and rural leadership development.
Rev.
Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield,
Alabama; executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking
Organization (SAYNO); and director of
rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
You
can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button
on the right-hand sidebar.
Support
by check or money order may be mailed to
Miles
Chapel CME Church
P O
Box 132
Fairfield,
Al 35064
