Way Out Thinking

this so disturbed and sickened me. How much more repulsive can man get. and to think that this happened all that long ago and we think our world is a mess today! man has been evil since Adam and only in a right relationship w/ Jesus do we have hope. i fell on my face before God and repented of selfish sin in my own life after reading such horror of man. poor God to have to put up with man's ways.

The Levite was a very selfish and self centered man, worried for his own skin. The men from Gibeah were obviously depraved, gathering for a gang rape, and from what they wanted, a homosexual gang rape. The levite cutting up his concubine and sending pieces to the tribes was warped so much that even the tribes, as messed up as they were, thought this was overboard. Benjamin would not give up their criminals, and ended up paying the price. As we shall see, it keeps getting worse. I think the lesson here is one that is repeated throughout the book of Judges, being basically as the people had no King, they did as they saw fit. No one was obeying the commandments of the Lord, they were twisting and perverting them to their own sick interpretations. This is a clear sign that we must indeed read the word daily, and have fellowship with other Christians, so we do not start doing things our own way. This is one of the reasons this forum is great, we get to speak with fellow Christians even though we may be geographically displaced! :)

Simply, it is so hard for me to understand the ocurrance of such massacres, many with God's instructions and/or approval.

Is what happened in today's Bible reading that much different than what is happening today? I think not.

Consider the news story I found on One News Now, a Christian news and commentary website, that reported on vandalism that had occurred in Chicago. A gay activist group vandalized Christian Liberty Academy, throwing bricks through the windows inscribed with hate messages saying that this was a sample of what would happen if pro-family Scott Lively and AFTAH (Americans For Truth About Homosexuality) weren't shut down.

There's such a thing as dispensing information but something completely different about activism, vandalism, and warfare to try to prove to people that the right is wrong and that the wrong is right.

The Gay Liberation Network has convinced the Southern Poverty Law Center to list AFTAH as a hate organization along with other pro-family organizations. American Family Association, a Christian-based pro-family organization, is on that list as well.

Hitler and psychiatrists have it right when they said that it's easier to get people to believe a big lie than a little one so tell the biggest lie possible.

We have to be on our guard every day. We need to take proactive action to arm ourselves with the Word of God and really stand up, not just pay money for just a few others to stand up. Each of us has to stand up and be counted in the fight for our beliefs.

Christians as a whole have not stood up to the swaying and bending of our minds and our beliefs and that swaying and bending and reshaping is being done deliberately to bring us to the point that we question our own beliefs and the Bible itself.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary says: "The righteous Lord permits sinners to execute just vengeance on one another, and if the scene here described is horrible, what will the discoveries of the day of judgment be! Let each of us consider how to escape from the wrath to come, how to mortify the sins of our own hearts, to resist Satan's temptations, and to avoid the pollutions there are in the world."

Jason, my brother, this is just the sort of thing Satan wants. After all this is his domain; we are not of this world. Which reminds me of Jesus' words: if the world hates you, remember that it hated me first.

Via con Dios my P4 pals! I know that we will overcome, for I read the last book of the Bible. I love you all! Have a blessed day!

Vandalism is not exactly on the same level of depravity as this story is but whatever... raping and terrorizing and total selfish acts that lead to multiple murders are nothing new. It makes me so sad what that woman experienced.

I sense an air of confusion in Julio T's comment that I can relate to, but on a very personal level. It's one thing to read these stories and feel conflicted, but yet another to have the same feelings about yourself internally. I struggled with this for a long time. My struggle was this: If God created me, gave me all these senses and feelings, and a free will to boot, then why does He expect me to act AGAINST what feels natural to me? To rephrase Julio's statement, I would say: Simply, it is so hard for me to understand the propensity of my mind to act against the written Law of God, especially since He's the one who created me in the first place. Why would He create me to feel one way, then expect me to act opposite of those feelings? You see, I didn't yet understand the doctrine of original sin---the utter depravity of the sin nature that we're born with. The truth of the matter is that He didn't create us that way, but when sin entered into His creation, it changed everything, not just the relationship between God and man, but every aspect of creation itself. To make sense of these things, both personal struggles and Biblical "anomalies", you have to be able to see them from God's perspective, and to be able to do that, you have to ask for help. The Bible, in conjunction with the help of the Holy Spirit, gives us the ability to do just that, but it requires more than just an attitude of submission on our part...it requires complete surrender to Christ. When Christ pursues us, the Spirit reveals enough of God's truth to bring us to saving faith, but beyond that it is up to us to do the pursuing (Matthew 7:7-8, Luke 11:9-10).

The fact that this concubine ran away from this Levite, back to her father, is an indication that the man probably treated her badly. The father may not have wanted the Levite to leave because he wanted to keep his daughter safe longer. Off the top of my head (I'm open to correction here), this incident led to the destruction of the Benjamites who had become increasingly evil as predicted by Jacob (Israel) on his deathbed - God was as horrified by the evil of these people on behalf of the mistreatment of women as what we are.

I concur with Anon post, I like that. Woman in the old testament was of low value back then. When Jesus came he made all things New. Thank God for Jesus!

I see the book of Judges as a reminder of what we are all capable of when we turn our backs on God. (Jer 17:9) To piggy back upon Gwendolyn E's comment, Jesus has indeed made everything new (2 Cor 5:17) The Religion of the Old Testament(the old covenant)as I understand it, was that people were under the authority of "The Law". But since we (humanity) inherited the sin of Adam, it was, and always has been impossible for us to keep "The Law" without breaking it. (Romans 3:23) (1John3:4)"The Law" served only to show, that apart from God, the insidious nature of sin condemns us every time.(The letter/religion, kills) Therefore Jesus fulfilled "The Law" on our behalf through His death and resurrection, making all things new in His New Covenant, found in the New Testament, (2 Cor 5:21) So! No longer are we under the authority of "The Law" but under "GRACE" (Eph2:8-9) For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him(John 3:17)

Thanks to everyone for their valuable participation and sorry if my 2 cents comes off a bit preachy and off topic.