“The Old Testament Connection”<\/a>). \u00a0Abraham was the original recipient of the God’s promise to make a great nation from him. \u00a0Lot was a nephew that he brought along with him as he began to follow God. \u00a0Lot though was more interested in good things and good times now. \u00a0He chose the good land for his ranch and it was near the big towns too. \u00a0In Lots story he is the host and the visitors are actually angles, but every \u00a0one thinks they are just a couple of guys. \u00a0Lots house is surrounded and the people of Sodom demand the men be sent out for the same purpose as our current story. \u00a0Lot offers his two unmarried virgin daughters instead. \u00a0But the people demand the men and begin to over power Lot. \u00a0Then the angelic power kicks in and the men at Lot’s door strike the Sodomites with blindness. \u00a0Lot and his family escape as Sodom is destroyed. \u00a0They are told to leave and not look back, but Lot’s wife does and she is turned to statue of salt.<\/p>\nUnfortunately in our story Chuck Norris does not jump in and the Levite is far less helpful than the angles were. \u00a0It is interesting as I look back in the story that the Levite is only called that in the first verse. \u00a0After that he is called “son-in-law” once in verse 5 and the rest of the time he is just called “the man”. \u00a0Levites were supposed to be the messengers between God and the Israelites. \u00a0It was a system designed to constantly remind the people of the broken relationship we all have with God. \u00a0Everyone, including the Levites, needed to make offerings to God as reminders but the Levites were supposed to work hard at staying right with God, staying spiritually clean in a way. \u00a0It is interesting that when offerings were made in the system that God set up that often much of the offering was given back to the giver. \u00a0Part of it went to the Levites and other priests and a little bit of it was burned with fire. \u00a0Really not much was “kept” for God, although it was all devoted to God. \u00a0In other religions offerings stayed with the priests who would use some and sell the rest. \u00a0Instead of representing God and His goodness this “Levite” acts in a way that seems to be pure evil. \u00a0As the men of the city continue to demand that he be sent out the Levite grabs the girl he was so kind too just five days before, the girl he came with donkeys and servant and supplies to impress and win back, and tosses her out the door. To save his own skin. \u00a0 We have a saying for this, “He threw her under the bus.” \u00a0I don’t know where that saying comes from but being thrown under a bus would be merciful compared to what that girl experienced. \u00a0She was raped and abused all night. \u00a0Night really had fallen in this story.<\/p>\n
But she survived. \u00a0She found her way back to the house, the house where her lord her master was and fell down outside the door. \u00a0In God’s Law lord, master, have a high responsibility for the well being of those in their care. \u00a0this man, this Levite, her master, obviously has no sense of his duty in any respect. \u00a0In fact all Israelites had a responsibility to step in and stop a rape if it was happening. \u00a0In the Law that God gave to Moses for the Israelites there is a punishment for adultery, both people are stoned to death, but only if it happened in the town. \u00a0If the adultery happened in the country only the man is executed. \u00a0The reason is that if the girl was raped, and it happened in the city someone would have heard her cries and come to her aid (Deuteronomy 22:22-27). \u00a0How many Israelites heard this poor girls scream? \u00a0 Morning dawned as she lay there and finally her “master” got up out of bed and went outside. \u00a0And there she was with her hand on the threshold. \u00a0His response, “Get up lets go.” \u00a0But it was too late for her, so he threw her body on one of the donkeys, went home, cut her body up and sent pieces of it to each of the tribes. I guess he was trying to make a point, was he finally becoming the representative for God that he was supposed to be? \u00a0I doubt it.<\/p>\n
This man was about himself from beginning to end. Did you wonder yesterday why it took him 4 months before he went looking for her? \u00a0It wasn’t about her it was about him. \u00a0He was a Levite by birth but was certainly no representative for God. \u00a0In the “Intro to Judges” we talked about how the book is really a prophetic book, bringing a message to us from God. \u00a0Above I mentioned that the girl may not have cheated on the man, but just been angry and left. \u00a0There is another prophetic book in the Old Testament, Hosea. \u00a0He too has a cheating wife and he is told to take her and love her. \u00a0to bring her back and care for her. \u00a0In fact it looks like he knew that she was going to cheat on him before he even married her. \u00a0Hosea’s life was an example of the relationship between God and Israel. \u00a0In reality it is an example of the relationship between God and us. \u00a0W all cheat on God. \u00a0We all run around on Him. \u00a0But God never throws us under the bus. \u00a0Instead he stepped out of the wonders and comfort of Heaven (Revelation 21:1-22:5) and sacrificed Himself to save us (Philippians 2:5-8). \u00a0We all live for ourselves and at the smallest sign of trouble we throw God under the bus. \u00a0But God is willing to forgive. \u00a0He will save us if we cry out to Him. \u00a0And he will do it over and over again. \u00a0but like the Israelites we may come to a point where we don’t return, we don’t cry out. \u00a0Don’t let it get that far. \u00a0Lord help me stay close. \u00a0Help me always remember to cry out.. \u00a0To the world I may be trash but to you I am your bride. \u00a0help me forever see myself that way and alway turn to you. \u00a0And help me be a good representative \u00a0of you. \u00a0Help me never see someone else as property to be traded in exchange for my safety or comfort. \u00a0Let me never ever toss others aside. \u00a0When I hear a cry in my city let me step out of my comfort and safety. \u00a0Let me think, “What would Jesus do?” \u00a0then do it.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Judges 19:16-30. \u00a0So much for happy endings. \u00a0From \u00a0a human point of view this is probably the ugliest story in the Bible. \u00a0No wonder the woman ran away from him. \u00a0And so much for all of his tender words when he came to get her in the first part of the story. \u00a0But I am […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=376"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":416,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376\/revisions\/416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}