I can’t recall a more horrific story in Scripture than the one we’re looking at today (and it only gets worse in the following chapters). Judges 19 is a historical account that leaves me speechless. It’s like watching a news story that’s too dark to even absorb.
We’ve all experienced heartbreak and loss. I’ve been hurt by people, and I’ve hurt people. As have you. And though my stories aren’t as intense as the one we just read, every time I experience suffering, I feel like a helpless child just longing for someone bigger and stronger to fix it and make all the pain go away. You know?
Horrific crimes like the one recorded in Judges 19 are a result of what’s recorded in the very first verse of that chapter—“In those days, when there was no king in Israel…”
Without a king, depravity ensued. Without a king, lust and violence and vengeance ran rampant. All ways but the true King’s ways led to suffering and death and darkness.
And our response to kinglessness, as human beings carrying with us the brokenness of sin, is very similar to what we see in Jeremiah, isn’t it? “My joy has flown away; grief has settled on me. My heart is sick” (Jeremiah 8:18). And then a few lines later, “Is the LORD no longer in Zion?” (v.19). Like, God, are you seeing this? Where are you? Are you even here?
I have felt that. And I’m sure you have too. But praise God: the Lord is in Zion. Praise God: there is a King. Praise God that through the death and resurrection of Jesus, we are not orphaned, without a king, and alone. Let us not be like the Israelites, who disregarded their King, for He is there to comfort us and correct us and bring justice to the evil we see. Our King has already dealt decisively with sin. When we are faced with evil and suffering and death and when we find ourselves at a loss for words, there is still the truth that our suffering isn’t our entire reality. We do have a God who is bigger and stronger. He was there in Judges 19, and He’s here now in our own broken hearts’ longing. We have hope. We have Jesus.
Praying for you, Lexi.
Thank you, fellow shes for sharing your wrestlings with this tough day. I wouldn’t be committed to finishing this reading plan before moving on to Giving Thanks and Advent if it wasn’t for all of you prioritizing being women in the Word, and without the amazing ladies at SRT who invite us to just open our Bibles daily.
And thank you Teresa for sharing the song Come Jesus Come. Very appropriate and summarizing the sadness and longing in our hearts we feel at reading a day like today’s passage. Lord Jesus, please come and heal this broken world.
This is by far the hardest read in Scripture. I had to just sit and ask the Lord, “What do you want me to know from this?” (ALL Scripture is God breathed and useful for teaching…) The thought came to mind that this story should serve as an example of just how BAD our sin really is when we compare ourselves to God’s holiness and righteousness. Oh Lord, forgive me for walking in indifference to sin and not recognizing how damaging and bad it really is! ALL of it, not just the “big” ones. If we can walk away from this story and come to a place of repentance and deoendance on Jesus in our own lives, this story has served it’s purpose.
I read this passage and just cried. Cried over the horrific things that happened to the two women, and God’s heart for the daughters of his people. This sort of abuse, which far too many of us recognize, is being shown for what it is: a sick manifestation of sin and evil and far-ness from God.
Amen! As dark and depressing as parts of this study are, I appreciate that SRT puts it shortly before the Advent study as it makes me long for the coming of Christ that much more. THANK GOD for sending the one, true King. He alone is worthy!
I know this isn’t something we’d do with Scripture – and that there are lots of bleak passages in the Bible – but I kind of feel that this one needed a trigger warning. It’s really shocked me and I didn’t realise it was coming.
I have long disliked this part of Judges but it shows the depravity of men and our intense need for a Savior! Praise God we have a King & He is good!
This reminds me that there has been absolute depravity throughout the centuries…our times aren’t unique. Praise God that we have responded to his call to come out, be separate, and walk in His light and love.
As I read these bleak, heartbreaking passages where God seems so absent, I remind myself of the beginning of the book of Ruth…”in the days when the judges ruled”… and how in the midst of all this horror, when there was no king, God was working, bringing about the line of David- and more especially the line of Jesus.
I’m in the UK right now so hadn’t heard of everything happening in Ohio but I am praying with you in the midst of this.