Judges – Page 4 – The Nexus

Digging in Deeper: Judges 19:22

July 11, 2018July 11, 2018Leave a comment

“As they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, worthless fellows, surrounded the house, beating on the door. And they said to the old man, the master of the house, ‘Bring out the man who came into your house, that we may know him.'” (ESV – Read the chapter)

For Israelites who were later being told this story as part of their people’s dark past, these words would have been chilling even before the narrative of what comes next. This whole situation would have left them shuddering in terror. This would have been a story you didn’t tell your children, but waited until they were a bit older and could handle it. Even now, this isn’t somewhere I’d point my boys to read just yet. Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Judges 19:12

July 11, 2018July 10, 20182 Comments

“And his master said to him, ‘We will not turn aside into the city of foreigners, who do not belong to the people of Israel, but we will pass on to Gibeah.'” (ESV – Read the chapter)

This judgment on the part of the Levite is fraught with irony. He doesn’t want to stay with these foreigners because of how his party might be received. Instead, he insists on traveling a bit further at a time of day that was no longer safe for traveling, so that his party could find shelter among their own people. And yet, when they arrive in Gibeah, all hell breaks loose. Read the rest…

Morning Musing: Judges 19:1

July 9, 2018July 6, 2018Leave a comment

“In those days, when there was no king in Israel, a certain Levite was sojourning in the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim, who took to himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.” (ESV – Read the chapter)

Here we arrive at what is arguably the darkest narrative in all of the Scriptures. The Passion sequence is bad, to be sure, but it at least ends with hope. From nearly the first words of this chapter through the end of the story in chapter 21 not a single thing goes right. Everything is wrong. Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Judges 17:13

July 6, 2018July 5, 2018Leave a comment

“Then Micah said, ‘Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, because I have a Levite as priest.” (ESV – Read the chapter)

Consider the insanity of this for a minute. This man has set up his own household god, hired a passing Levite as his personal priest of his personal religion, and now boasts confidently of the blessing of the Lord because of it. Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Judges 17:6

July 4, 2018July 4, 2018Leave a comment

“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (ESV – Read the chapter)

This, at last, is the theme of the book and its final assessment. The people of Israel had fallen to a place where everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes. When a culture reaches this point, anything goes and most of it isn’t good. We each became gods unto ourselves and everything becomes a holy crusade as we try to establish our divine fiefdoms at the expense of those around us. In the end, no one wins. Read the rest…