January 28, 2025
Passage Read: Judges 18-21
Meditation Verse: 19:25
Thought
There is so much carnage in these last chapters of Judges, not just war, but rape and idolatry. It's like Israel has learned nothing. How far they have fallen! These are not the times or the practices to build a theology on. The Law sheds light on the wicked practices that the people have fallen into. But apparently, without the Law, few would see anything wrong with these events, at least in that day. This is how they lived. Yet today, we're hearing of similar treatment of women and children in lands that were formerly heavily influenced by Christianity. There are people today who have no qualms about raping and killing people they consider to be less than human. We are not far from these things at all. And a revival of defense and order and justice is needed even in our own land.
Application
Of course, many would say that the only solution is equal rights for men and women--and children. Yes, they all need to be treated and counted as human and valuable in their own right. But what we really need is a revival of men who defend their own, and who have and take ownership of all that truly belongs to them, whether sons or daughters or wives or families. Until men understand their responsibility to their own people, and their own people understand their responsibility to their men, we will not be able to correct what is happening. We'll make some changes that seem good, but they're only bandages that ultimately leave the most vulnerable exposed to the wicked among us. Scripture does teach and reveal a right understanding of men leading and protecting and providing for their families, and every member embracing that protection and leadership. But Scripture also exposes what happens when men don't protect and defend their families, when they allow the vile among them to do as they please with whomever they find. And when they allow those who need protection to walk freely among those who would harm them. So much tragedy and harm because men choose not to remember the ways of God and walk in them. And history is repeating itself. As comfortable as it would be to let everyone bear responsibility for their own choices, I still need to speak up and defend what God desires and protect my own, at least those who will allow me to protect them. If they will not, then their blood is truly on their own heads.