Israel’s Darkest Day
Israel’s Darkest Day
Judges 19:22-23 & 25a
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.” And the man … said to them, “No, my brothers … do not do this vile thing.” … But the men would not listen to him. So the man seized his concubine and made her go out to them.
This brutal, hard-to-stomach episode that mars the end of the Book of Judges reads like an exact replica of that repulsive scene in Genesis 19, where depraved men of Sodom surrounded Lot’s door, demanded that he toss out the male visitors he’d welcomed into his home, only for Lot to offer up his daughters instead. Oh, but there’s one crucial omission from this scene in Judges 19: where are angels this time to strike the wicked men and save the girl? These depraved Benjaminite thugs should’ve lost their sight immediately, and their city should’ve gone up in the fire and brimstone of heavenly fury, never to rise again; but instead, a small voice is left to cry out in the darkness, echoing through the corridors of an unspeakable calamity, “Father, why have You forsaken me?” And the only thing more unbearable than the fading wail of that suffering soul is the silence of Heaven that follows it.
But why not move past this scene and immediately run to the far more edifying story of Ruth? After all, this is a devotional for goodness’ sake! Because I don’t believe evasion is a virtue of faith. I believe God put stories like these in the Scriptures so that we’re forced to wade through the mire of human madness and face up to our own corruption. We need to feel the sting of the climb up Golgotha’s dark, winding ridge, till the stumble turns to a crawl, and till a crossbeam weighs heavy on our minds, because that’s part of how we share the sufferings of our Savior and comprehend the triumph He won.
Friend, whether God sends angels to your aid today or holds them back, cling to the light of Romans 8 amidst the shadowy travail: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us.”