“In those days there was no king in Israel
and everyone did as he saw fit.” –Judges 21:25
This
morning, I finally had a little time alone and just as I sat down to write, our
kitten brought me a ball. She loves to play fetch, but most of the time she
doesn’t bring the ball right to you. She drops it somewhere nearby and then
watches to see if you will pick it up.
Today, the house to myself, I sit down at the counter with my Bible and
my notebook and pen and suddenly there is a little gray and white cat, with her
favorite green ball in her mouth, perched on the stool next to me. She put the ball down on the stool and
waited, watching me.
And 15
minutes later I find myself still not reading or writing, but throwing the ball
into the hall, again and again and watching her chase after it. Delighting in
her oddness. That is a gift, a blessing.
And on a Sunday morning after church and biscuits and reading the funnies, what
more should I hope for than to be given a few minutes of joy by one of God’s
goofier creations.
Ask
for a sign, let it be high as the heaven or the depths below (cf. Is.
7:11).
That’s what I did. And this is what I got. (And so much
more…)
What does
that cute kitten have to do with the book of Judges? Well, I am still trying to
figure that out. But, for now, let’s see where this blessing takes us.
One of the lessons I think I am
learning from reading and contemplating scripture is this: God is not out to get us! God is not sitting on high judging our every
move. Like a good shepherd, He is always
seeking us, trying to bring us always closer to Him, into the fold where we
will be loved and cared for.
How often do we ask: how do I know
if this is God’s will for me? How do I know if this is the right choice? Whether we are trying to discern a new
vocation (or job), or where to go to college, or whether we should sell the
house and move to the woods, many of us get tripped up by the fear that if we choose wrong God will hold it against us. But that doesn’t seem to be the God we meet
in scripture. Or the God I meet in life.
In the book of Judges we get a picture
of Israel falling apart. They have followed Moses through the wilderness,
followed Joshua into war to claim the Promised Land, and it seems that almost
immediately after divvying it up amongst themselves they begin to collapse into
selfishness and discord. Again and again in Judges we read: “The
Israelites did what is evil in the eyes of the Lord” (cf. 2:13; 3:7; 4:1, etc). This is a book about making bad
choices. But throughout this book –these
often horrible choices-- God never abandons His people. He keeps reaching out to them, sending help, lovingly
guiding them, protecting them. This book is pretty short (only 21 chapters) and
can easily be read in a couple of sittings.
There are several famous tales in it: Samson and Delilah being the most
famous, but also the story of Gideon and the 300, Jotham’s allegory of the
trees who want a king, and the tragic tale of Jephthah’s vow. Yet regardless how heroic or painful the
tales, over and over again the author returns to that same theme: Because everyone did as he saw fit, Israel began
to do what was evil in the eyes of the Lord.
This theme
comes to a horrifying climax toward the end of the book (ch. 17-21), in two
tales involving Levites (the priestly tribe of Israel). The first is a tale of priestly corruption; a
Levite agrees to serve as priest before a household idol in the home of a man
named Micah. Basically, he becomes a priest for hire. Someone asks him what he
is doing there, and he responds:
Micah pays me a wage and I act as his priest. (18:4)
There are several clues that something is terribly wrong
here. First, this a clearly not what God intended for the Levites. They were set apart to be His priests. Second,
way back in Exodus we saw what happened when God’s people made idols. Third, in Joshua we saw the trouble
that arises when people set up strange altars (cf. 22:11ff). Last, consider
the name Micah. It means: one who is like God.
A man who is like God hires a Levite to be his personal priest. This is definitely not what God intended for
His priestly people.
A few verses later this Levite is
kidnapped by warriors from the tribe of Dan (still in search of a better piece
of Promised Land). These warriors want
the Levite to now be their priest. And
like Micah, they seem to imagine that having a priest (regardless of how they got
him) will gain them God’s blessing. But after marching against “a peaceful and
trusting people” (18:27) whom they put to the sword and destroy, they rebuild
their new town, and immediately erect Micah’s stolen idol for their own use (and
set their new priest to work before it).
This is what happens to God’s people when they do whatever they like.
After this
tale, there is a second vision of priestly corruption that reveals greater
societal corruption. It is the tale of Gibeah (ch.19) and contains echoes of
the story of Sodom. In this tale a Levite and his concubine stay the night in
Gibeah (an Israelite town) and while there some of the men of the town come and
demand that their host send the Levite out for them to rape and have their way
with him. The host, unwilling to
surrender his guest, offers the crowd his virgin daughter (like Lot in Genesis
19:8), but the men refuse his
offer. So, the Levite “took hold of his concubine and brought her out to them.”
(Judges 19:25) She is abused
and raped and left for dead. Though the
host’s offer and the Levite’s act are both monstrous, the results are even more
fearful. In the morning, scripture tells us, as the Levite leaves the house he
finds the woman on the doorstep. He tells her to get up, but she makes no
answer. Which our clue that she has been
killed. And yet the priest gathers her up, puts her on his donkey and takes her
home. What we see in the priest, this
Levite, is a man devoid of humanity. He
cares only for himself. He does whatever he wills and has no fear of doing any
evil in the sight of God. What he does next is even more frightening and
strange. He takes a knife and cuts his
concubine limb from limb into twelve pieces and sends the pieces “throughout
the territory of Israel.” (19:29)
I read this
story and asked myself –why is it here? Why would anyone include this in their
sacred text? If this is God’s word, then
what is God telling us through it?
When we make ourselves into gods,
we lose our humanity. We lose our place.
We lose our Promised Land. Yes, we can do whatever we like –but in the end we
won’t like what we do.
Judges is a vision of Israel
collapsing almost as soon as it enters into the Promised Land. And that makes me wonder if the promised land
isn’t a place –it’s a way of life. Is it possible that the promised land is wherever
we are as long as we are walking with the Lord –when and where we make Him our
King, that is the promised land!
Again, I ask--what does this have
to do with the goofiness of a kitten?
I’m not sure… But it got me
writing. For a few minutes I wasn’t living
in my own ego. I stepped outside myself and just played. Present to the gift of
the moment, I was set free from “ambition’s derelict dreams.” For a few minutes
I was laughing and unconcerned about anything; maybe for a few minutes I was
just present to the promise and the presence. Maybe. But I was certainly
present to the cat.
