No such thing

When her master arose in the morning, and opened the doors of the house and went out to go his way, there was his concubine, fallen at the door of the house with her hands on the threshold. And he said to her, "Get up and let us be going." But there was no answer. So the man lifted her onto the donkey; and the man got up and went to his place. When he entered his house he took a knife, laid hold of his concubine, and divided her into twelve pieces, limb by limb, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel. And so it was that all who saw it said, "No such deed has been done or seen from the day that the children of Israel came up from the land of Egypt until this day. Consider it, confer, and speak up!" – Judges 19.27-30

While there are great stories of human kindness and benevolence and charity to encourage us about mankind – there are  also plenty of terrible events which shake our faith in mankind. Indeed, apart from God anything is possible. The is no wickedness that man cannot do.

Here we have a terrible example. It is as bad as any news story we might hear today. It sound like something you might see on CSI or Criminal Minds.

This chap in Israel had a guest in his home. During the night a crowd of men showed up banging on the door and demanding that the visitor come out so they could have sex with him. Being a ‘good host’ he could not allow that so he offered them his daughter and a concubine instead. The men still insisted on the visitor, but the man sent out his concubine.

These evil men raped and abused her. In the morning when the man woke up he found her dead on his doorstep reaching for the threshold. He thinks she is asleep and tries to stir her before he discovers that she is indeed dead.

So the man cuts her up into twelve pieces and send her parts all over the country.

That’s how bad man can be. Something had to be done.

‘Consider it, confer, and speak up.’

Man is still trying to consider, confer, and speak up to deal with sin.

People often confuse knowing God with having religion. These folks had plenty of religion, but they had forgotten God. Without God and with people doing whatever is right in their own eyes all sorts of evil are possible.

That is clear today. People don’t need religion. They don’t need a moral revolution. They don’t need man defined rules. What the world needs is a relationship with Jesus Christ.