Outrage in Benjamin

BY Scarlet Hiltibidal

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.