Judges 19

It took me a while to get to this story because I can't stand it.  It's the story of Judges 19.  I won't even retell it here but merely ask you to read it because it is so hideous.

There are many glorious stories in the Bible where someone was in trouble and God came through just in time to rescue them.  Daniel was rescued from the mouth of lions.  David was spared many times even when his troubles were his fault.  Isaac is my favorite.  God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, and at the last minute, God said no, here is a ram instead as a substitute.  It prefigured Christ who was the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, the only time God said "no" to his only Son.  His people's sins needed to be punished, and Christ was the only one who could survive it.

Then, there's the story of Judges 19.  In Genesis 19, Lot almost gave his daughters to be gang raped, but angels blinded the crowd and saved Lot and his girls.  This was not the case in Judges.  A young concubine was released to the wolves and when morning came, she was dying on the door stoop of the house.

And we think of all the people not saved in this life: the babies not rescued form abortion, the children not saved from sacrifice, the Jews not saved from the Holocaust, the girls and boys not saved from sex trafficking, and we wonder why?  As the world turns its back on God and his laws, people become more violent, and this is how God sends his judgment?  By destroying the most innocent ones?

But there is one situation more unfair than this, and it was when the only innocent man ever gave his life to save me from my sins.  Jesus came as a baby, grew to be a man, didn't sin once, and then both the religious Jews and callous Romans had him crucified.  He could have called angels to have it stopped, but he loved his Church way too much to let them perish forever under God's wrath.  And he died not only for my sins but the sins of the rapists, abortionists, heartless politicians, Nazis, and more.

All I can think of is this song by Caedmon's Call called "Petrified" where they wrote the woman of Judges 19 into a song and compared her to Christ, torn for the twelve tribes.

We won't know all the answers, but we can still trust that God has a place for the victims and and even hotter anger for the ones who never repent.