A Steeple in Death’s Valley
A Steeple in Death’s Valley
Judges 20:1
Then all the people of Israel came out, from Dan to Beersheba, including the land of Gilead, and the congregation assembled as one man to the LORD at Mizpah.
Why does it take a devastating calamity to bring people of God back together as one? Why is our fallen tendency to divide and faction off and war over tribal differences during times of ease, but when catastrophe hits home, when a fire disintegrates an entire city, or when a hurricane floods the river valley, or when a world war breaks out, suddenly those neighbors who’d been fighting over fence lines are now comrades? Why is suffering the most magnetic force for bringing men together? Nevertheless, I can’t waste time decrying that fact in this devotional, because it’s the one little silver ray of redeeming light surrounding this ominous black cloud. The fact is, even in the aftermath of such a terrible and scorched-earth evil, there’s always a heavenly mustard seed that gets sown through the hell fire and begins to rise through the ashes.
Consider that picture as you move forward from this calamity, friend. Picture a burned terrain covered in ashes, and old, mature trees torn down by the winds, and then look down at the ground—look closely—because shells were cracked in that fire and new seeds have been sown in the earth; and soon, in God’s timing, a meadow and a forest will rise again bigger than before. Oh, these pilgrims are stunned and horrified, but they’re unified in their mourning. They’re weeping over the sins of Gibeah, and no one is trying to make rationalizations here. Here, in the wake of such atrocity, all eyes are opened; all stand unified in their resolve to make things right. No one quite knows how they’ll rebuild from here, but all of them are ready and willing with sleeves rolled up and boots laced tight for the revival ahead.
Friend, let Judges 19 set a fire in your heart, and let it sow a seed of renewed purity and faith before your brothers and sisters today. Like these pilgrims of old, we, too, are leaving this scorched earth for greener pastures, so let’s walk away nearer to our LORD than ever before, arm in arm with our kin, more resilient than ever to never let the landscape of our lives look like this again.