Collateral Damage With Eternal Tragedy

In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes. [Judges 21.25]

I have written many times using this verse as the basis of writing. 

Godlessness really has no boundaries. No doubt, in the fist part of today's OYCB reading, the Levite's treatment of his concubine was unimaginable.

I suppose if any one tribe of Israel represented religion today, it would be the tribe of Levi. This is the tribe the man of Ephraim with the concubine was from. For all that was wrong with what took place in the story of this man and his concubine, can we make any comparison to religion today?

This might be a real stretch but it is quite possible that religion today has joined in the same treatment of their women... Pushing them out the door into a world of perversion is exactly what religion (and the world, for that matter) has done in putting women to work (calling it equality) to fend for themselves in a world that is no less perverse than the men in Gibeah. 

Is fending for themselves really what God designed women to do? Did God intend for women to live independently of men (and vice versa)? The physical design of women, compared to men, reveals she was designed for a softer role in life and he was designed a bit more ruggedly. People can argue this to their heart's content, but nature itself speaks authoritatively: the human with a womb is the emotional nurturer and the one without a womb is the strong protector (of the one with the womb).

The Bible says God is jealous for His people. If people today really understood that marriage represents God's relationship to His people (Jesus the Bridegroom and the Church, His Bride), we might not have as much tension and competition among the sexes today.

As appalling as it was for the Levite to push his concubine out the door, we can trust that God would never do so to us. Why? Because He is jealous for us. Jealousy of a man for his wife is not a bad thing, but instead, the very environment in which she is best protected and cared for. But, most importantly, the combined roles of a man and a woman in marriage is the environment of reproduction. God brought us to Himself in order that our relationship might yield "family." The last instruction Jesus left with His disciples was the Great Commission - to make more disciples - to reproduce!

However, just as marriage today operates largely in dysfunction, so the Church is confused and dysfunctional on the one thing we are called to do: reproduce. Is it any wonder?

Father, as incredibly ridiculous as the man's treatment of his concubine was in the story of the Levite in today's OYCB reading, may we see past the collateral damage to see that in the end, the eternal tragedy is that the Levite and his concubine did not reproduce.