Cutting to the Chase

04.04.12

 Judges 19.29-30 29 When he entered his house, he took a knife and laid hold of his concubine and cut her in twelve pieces, limb by limb, and sent her throughout the territory of Israel. 30 All who saw it said, “Nothing like this has ever happened or been seen from the day when the sons of Israel came up from the land of Egypt to this day. Consider it, take counsel and speak up!” NASB

Well, what did I say, is Judges the saddest book in the Bible or what? It’s the story of a society whose gone off the deep end and this part of the book is gruesome at best. I can’t imagine what happened when the steward at the Elder’s office signed for the FedEx overnight delivery and took it in to give to the boss and he opens it and there is a severed head – yuck! Yikes! IS THIS SOME KIND OF SICK JOKE???

A while back I took the liberty of drawing up an illustration of how one (might) cut a body up into twelve parts (I know, I’m weird, but that is just how my weird mind works…). As I saw it, it came out something like this: 2 hands + 2 feet = 4. 1 torso + 2 arms; 2 calves + 2 thighs + 1 head = 8 The surgical precision is unique but the point is: Houston (Jerusalem) we have a BIG problem. But what do we expect when the narrative ends with these words: In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. (Judges 21.25)

You see, there is a huge need for order and leadership in our world. The problem is there is sin and I don’t care how much care is taken to do things well, there is always a prevalent human leaning towards hell. That’s just how life goes.

But that doesn’t mean we can wait upon God and learn from Him. But it’s more than learning; it’s living in faith of the power and presence of the Holy Spirit – graciously given to us so that we don’t act like a bunch of cut-ups. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist…) And the greatest way to honor God the Spirit is to pay attention to God the Spirit. Jesus lived that way, and the least we can do is emulate Him. What would Jesus do? He’d acknowledge and lean upon the power and presence of God the Holy Spirit…because He did.

Our Lord set aside His Godhood to embrace manhood but He lived in complete dependence upon the Holy Spirit; and the expectation is we do the same thing. Period. I marvel at my own fallenness (I cannot speak for yours but I can imagine). I marvel at how quickly and how often I rush off into my day (or the next activity) without so much as a word to the Father in prayer. I don’t think Jesus did that – ever. I do admit that part of my life is the part of making a living and relating to others, but those two things are seriously hampered when I don’t invite the Lord to partner with me in these things and then submit to His leadership in these things.

That, sadly, is what happened in the nation of Israel and this story in Judges is a precise dissection of why we mustn’t allow ourselves to wander aimlessly apart from the Lord and His presence and power. “…Consider it, take counsel and speak up!”