Holy Week

It's 4:23 AM and I haven't slept very much all night. On top of that, I'm either suffering from a serious bout of hay fever, or I've gone and caught a fairly nasty cold. I think I know what's going on... with only a few (extremely pressure-packed) weeks to go in my seminary career, I'm remembering what I knew when I came here six years ago... I'm allergic to Kansas City! I need to head back to God's country, Washington State... quite literally to clear my head once again! :-)

Last night was interesting. On Wednesday nights at my church, the Sr. pastor and I trade off leading the devotional service. I love Wednesday nights, primarily because it's interactive... no sermon, no formal service... just a few songs of my choosing and an open-ended time of spiritual discussion, typically based on something found in the Bible (though that's not always the case). For the past several weeks, we've been making our way through the book of Judges.

Wow... I've read those stories several times before... but I've never really slowed down long enough to be shocked by them. Much of the book of Judges is appalling, if not downright offensive. I realize much of the text has to be filtered through the lens of significant cultural change, etc. Nevertheless, most of it is depressing and heartbreaking stuff. Wanton murdering, lying, raping, cheating, stealing, power-grabbing, idol worshipping... and those are the "good guys"! Basically, to me, Judges reveals humanity at its worst... base-level, unbounded sin. There is an interesting line scattered throughout the text that is rather intriguing: "In those days Israel had no king." No king... no leadership, no vision, no gelling agent, no boundaries, no relationship with Yahweh. But there's one thing they did have... religion - or should I say religiosity. An appearance of authenticity, but laced with self-centered, self-serving poison. Just one or two generations removed from Moses... geez, you'd think people would remember the miracles, remember the warnings, remember the grace that was shown their fathers and grandfathers... but no... they were content to turn from the One True God, and chase after false gods with a vengeance.

I guess the irony is that the Lord didn't want Israel to have a king... HE desired to be their king... and He even set up a system to raise up human "judges" (or stewards?) to give them someone they could relate to... But the people rejected His offer of grace. They wanted a human king, someone to wear the royal robe and diadem... someone who would powerfully lead the tribes of Israel into battle and give them victory over their enemies. So eventually, God gave the people what they demanded. But - if I understand the history properly - in this in-between time, God began to lift His hand of mercy from the stubborn, stiff-necked Israelites, and left the people to their own devices. Therefore, the book of Judges reflects a dark time in history when "Israel had no king." The last three chapters of the book are particularly gruesome and troubling. When you finish reading the story of the "Concubine in Twelve Parts"... you just feel kind of empty inside, realizing how disgusting people can really be toward one another.

Strange way to end the book huh? And... a strange book to finish up on Holy Week huh? Yes, and no. As we digested the grotesque treatment of the poor woman in the story, a few things were pointed out:

1. If we think the world we live in is bad (and it is), compared to the time of the Judges, our day and age seems rather tame.

2. If possible, the world very well have been even worse in the days of Noah... in other words, there may be no end to the depravity of our sinful hearts. That at least helps me understand better why God decided to destroy the world and start over again with Noah and his family.

3. Though I read those stories and conclude that God ought to nuke the whole bunch of them... even in the midst of their rejection of Him, and their violence toward one another... God saw them as valuable enough to forgive... lovely enough to redeem... special enough to rescue.

4. Very simply... thank God for Jesus. Thank God that He came. Thank God that in spite of everything, He never backed away from His merciful offer to be our King. Thank God that He sees the good in us, even when it's not readily apparent. Thank God for the self-emptying love of our Messiah.