God Is More Important Than Politics

Now in those days Israel had no king. [Judges 19.1a]

In the context of today's OYCB reading there were a lot of Israelites killed in battle. What's really bad about this is that these deaths were at the hands of Israelites! The tribe of Benjamin killed their fellow Israelites and then were killed by the same.

All of this killing came about however because of the first event described in today's reading about a Levite's concubine. The concubine in the story left her husband in the the remote area of Ephraim and returned to her home in Bethlehem. After some time, her husband traveled to Bethlehem to convince here to return with him to Ephraim, which he did.

Traveling through Gibeah on the Levite's return journey with his concubine is where the most disturbing disregard for human life took place. It was there that some men from the town became forceful intending to have sex with the Levite man. If this sexual perversion wasn't bad enough, the Levite shoved his concubine (the entire reason he was on the journey in the first place) out the door to the homosexuals who raped and abused her to death. Mind you, this was the concubine he felt strongly enough about to go retrieve from Bethlehem.

It should not be overlooked that the first and last sentences of today's OYCB reading say essentially the same thing, "Israel had no king at this time" as if the events described in these stories were the result of that king-less condition.

It makes me wonder if the chroniclers of this story used this statement of their king-less condition to justify their God-less condition! I am sure a king would have offered some Godly advice... if he was Godly himself...

The irony of this story is that when Israel did get their first king, Saul, he was from the tribe of Benjamin (who was the offending tribe in this story!!!)

Father, help us to see that Godliness is more important than any political condition.