Friday, October 11, 2019

Why I Say The Bible Is A History Book, Part 2: Introducing Arguably The Most Difficult Passage In The Bible

Reflective tangent, post-Part 1: I felt it best to chop this topic up in multiple posts. Today's post was my original focus, but I found myself needing to give some background to some of the most common and current opposition to the Bible. In today's climate, even simply declaring that the Bible is a history book is becoming scandalous even here in the United States of America. I get it: sadly, many Americans (including the most vocal Americans) who identify as a Bible-believing Christian also tend to ally themselves politically against race reconciliation and against social justice, both of which I believe Jesus cares a lot about. As such, a large plurality of Americans who happen to be vocal about racial reconciliation and about social justice, tend to look at those who identify as Bible-believers and automatically think "I want no part of whatever they're drinking." I repeat: I get it. I wouldn't either.

My heart for those who identify as a non-Christian -- are least as a non-Biblical-inerrancy-believing Christian -- who are still pro-racial reconciliation and pro-social justice is that you can separate the two. I believe it is not only possible to be a Bible-inerrancy-believing, racial-reconciliation-advocating, and social-justice-activist Christian, but that that's actually a big and important part of the heart of following Jesus. I am happy to then set this post as a plug for the Evanston Vineyard: as a church, that's what we are about. We are very much about racial reconciliation (the fact that we have no single ethnic majority, and that we have representatives from over 50 nations around the world, should prove that). And we are very much about social justice, between the Harvest Pantry, the Care Center, as well as various small groups and Bible studies that also focus on building godly relationships with those that might be culturally or ethnically different from us.

And, we also believe that the Bible is indeed the Word of God. 100 percent of it.* It is off this point that I wish to now delve into perhaps the most difficult passage that exists in the Bible. There are plenty of others, but this jumped out at me. Chances are, you are unlikely to hear a Sunday morning sermon on this in most churches, because... yow. Why am I attempting to examine this passage? That's a good question. I'm not a pastor, and, because I don't have the seminary training, I lack certain tools to be able to do it scholarly justice. But, what I do have is the heart to look at a Biblical passage through the lens of Christianity as a relationship with Jesus, and not merely a religion, and for me that's enough.

So I am here presenting to you the truth that the Bible is a history book. (One final side note, for those with technical minds: sure, some books are letters written from one person to another; but just know that when I've studied history-history, like say, the Civil War, part of our curriculum included reading letters from soldiers, from plantation owners, and others. It may not be in the textbook, but it is still part of the history. The Bible works the same way: King David's Psalms, King Solomon's several wisdom books, and Apostle Paul's letters to various churches and friends are as much part of the fabric of the ongoing story of our God in our midst as much as the accounts are.)

With that, here is arguably the most difficult passage in the Bible. Judges 19 (link to entire chapter here). First, the background (aka, the not-so-painful part):
1 In those days Israel had no king.
Now a Levite who lived in a remote area in the hill country of Ephraim took a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah. 2 But she was unfaithful to him. She left him and went back to her parents’ home in Bethlehem, Judah. After she had been there four months, 3 her husband went to her to persuade her to return. He had with him his servant and two donkeys. She took him into her parents’ home, and when her father saw him, he gladly welcomed him. 4 His father-in-law, the woman’s father, prevailed on him to stay; so he remained with him three days, eating and drinking, and sleeping there.
5 On the fourth day they got up early and he prepared to leave, but the woman’s father said to his son-in-law, “Refresh yourself with something to eat; then you can go.” 6 So the two of them sat down to eat and drink together. Afterward the woman’s father said, “Please stay tonight and enjoy yourself.” 7 And when the man got up to go, his father-in-law persuaded him, so he stayed there that night. 8 On the morning of the fifth day, when he rose to go, the woman’s father said, “Refresh yourself. Wait till afternoon!” So the two of them ate together.
9 Then when the man, with his concubine and his servant, got up to leave, his father-in-law, the woman’s father, said, “Now look, it’s almost evening. Spend the night here; the day is nearly over. Stay and enjoy yourself. Early tomorrow morning you can get up and be on your way home.” 10 But, unwilling to stay another night, the man left and went toward Jebus (that is, Jerusalem), with his two saddled donkeys and his concubine.
Judges 19:1-10, NIV
So far, not too terrible. Seemingly an ordinary story about a seemingly random Hebrew from the tribe of Levi and his concubine (or, his wife). They were so insignificant that they don't even have names. Basically, a Levite guy got married. His wife cheated on him. Then she left him to go back to her parents' house. (Great catch, dude! (Sarcasm)) He goes to her parent's house to pick her up and bring her back, but her father continually entreats him to stay, which he does, until the fifth day, when he's had enough. As far as I'm concerned, it's like: OK, why are we reading a story about an insignificant family? Let's read on.
11 When they were near Jebus and the day was almost gone, the servant said to his master, “Come, let’s stop at this city of the Jebusites and spend the night.”
12 His master replied, “No. We won’t go into any city whose people are not Israelites. We will go on to Gibeah.” 13 He added, “Come, let’s try to reach Gibeah or Ramah and spend the night in one of those places.” 14 So they went on, and the sun set as they neared Gibeah in Benjamin. 15 There they stopped to spend the night. They went and sat in the city square, but no one took them in for the night.
16 That evening an old man from the hill country of Ephraim, who was living in Gibeah (the inhabitants of the place were Benjamites), came in from his work in the fields. 17 When he looked and saw the traveler in the city square, the old man asked, “Where are you going? Where did you come from?”
18 He answered, “We are on our way from Bethlehem in Judah to a remote area in the hill country of Ephraim where I live. I have been to Bethlehem in Judah and now I am going to the house of the Lord.[a] No one has taken me in for the night. 19 We have both straw and fodder for our donkeys and bread and wine for ourselves your servants—me, the woman and the young man with us. We don’t need anything.”
20 “You are welcome at my house,” the old man said. “Let me supply whatever you need. Only don’t spend the night in the square.” 21 So he took him into his house and fed his donkeys. After they had washed their feet, they had something to eat and drink. 
Judges 19:11-21, NIV
Still nothing out of the ordinary. At this point, the Levite, his wife, and their servant are journeying from Bethlehem back to the hilly country in northern Israel. ("Road trip!") They ended up stopping in the town of Gibeah for the night. After hanging out in downtown Gibeah for what seemed like quite a while, waiting for someone to show up to take them in (they didn't have motels in those days), an elderly man came from the fields and offered to take them in. From the text, this elderly man was moved to host them, likely because he was afraid for them if they spent the night outside in the center of town. (It's possible that it might not have been a safe neighborhood at night.) So, they spent the night at his house.

As a side note, I also realize I am inadvertently also proving how boring the Bible can be. Please try to understand, this book is in the heart of the Old Testament, which is also the entire Jewish Bible. It is both part of our Bible and a shared history and faith-heritage with those of the Jewish faith.

Anyway, this is where the boring part of the story ends. Given my parenthetical about how safe the neighborhood really was, the next bit of text seems to indicate that it really wasn't:
22 While they were enjoying themselves, some of the wicked men of the city surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they shouted to the old man who owned the house, “Bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him.”
23 The owner of the house went outside and said to them, “No, my friends, don’t be so vile. Since this man is my guest, don’t do this outrageous thing. 24 Look, here is my virgin daughter, and his concubine. I will bring them out to you now, and you can use them and do to them whatever you wish. But as for this man, don’t do such an outrageous thing.”
25 But the men would not listen to him. So the man took his concubine and sent her outside to them, and they raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go. 26 At daybreak the woman went back to the house where her master was staying, fell down at the door and lay there until daylight.
27 When her master got up in the morning and opened the door of the house and stepped out to continue on his way, there lay his concubine, fallen in the doorway of the house, with her hands on the threshold. 28 He said to her, “Get up; let’s go.” But there was no answer. Then the man put her on his donkey and set out for home.
29 When he reached home, he took a knife and cut up his concubine, limb by limb, into twelve parts and sent them into all the areas of Israel. 30 Everyone who saw it was saying to one another, “Such a thing has never been seen or done, not since the day the Israelites came up out of Egypt. Just imagine! We must do something! So speak up!” 
Judges 19:22-30, NIV

...Yeah. Basically some wicked men (modern term: "hoodlums") show up wanting to rape the Levite. The elderly man who was hosting the Levite and his wife offered both his own daughter and the Levite's wife. Somehow, only the Levite's wife -- you know, the one who had cheated on him and then left him to go back to her parent's house -- she was the one raped and murdered. At best, it was very questionable judgment on the elderly man's part, offering his own daughter, let alone also offering one of his guests. It is notable that the Levite (the husband of the woman sacrificed to the hoodlums) appeared never to speak up, let alone to object to his decision. Same thing with the Levite's servant.

So, how do I explain that? The truth is, I can't. There is nothing to defend. It is clear as day that what happened here was wrong. Sure, the three men (the Levite, the Levite's servant, and the elderly man) might have been between a rock and a hard place. But it doesn't explain why they didn't try to fight for their women. It doesn't explain why they didn't put themselves on the line. (We don't know how able-bodied the elderly man really was, in regards to fighting. But it doesn't explain why neither the Levite nor his servant fought.)

But, the truth is all of human history is like that. Our history books record events like the Holocaust, the Apartheid, the slave trade, Jim Crow, 9-11, unpopular wars like the Vietnam War, the Iraq War, among many others. It records assassinations of Abraham Lincoln, John F Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr, and countless others. It records rulerships of dictators like Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Fidel Castro, Pol Pot, and more. All of those things that are recorded were wrong at the time, and are still wrong. Not only so, but they were and are horrendous events, horrendous rulerships.

Just check out the list of kings below. It's a list of every king of Israel and of Judah who did evil in God's eyes, starting from Saul and going all the way to the Hebrews' exile into Babylon. Of the kings listed below, Saul and Joash were the two cases where they each started out doing what was good before doing what was evil, and Amaziah did what was good but not wholeheartedly. All the others, however, did what was evil from beginning to end. All translations New International Version (NIV):
As much as we would love our history to only be full of good things, like the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the signing of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights (for other nations insert your equivalent points in history), the presidencies of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and maybe a couple others... and as much as we like our Bible to have only stories of miracles, like Moses parting of the Red Sea, Young David slaying the Philistine, the birth of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, what earth will be like after Christ comes back and destroys all those who are evil... the truth is, all of our history has both beauty and ugliness, joy and pain, victories and losses. And like the above passage from Judges 19 -- as well as the very many passages I referenced regarding all the kings who did evil in God's eyes -- the Bible is full of ugly moments. Just like every honest history book ever written.

One other thing I think it's important to note: just because it records a woman getting raped, murdered, and cut up into twelve pieces, it doesn't mean that God was OK with it happening. In fact, I believe that God was not OK with it happening. Even though it doesn't say it, I believe God -- the Father, Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit -- grieved not only over her passing, but also the manner in which she passed on. Not only so, but perhaps also grieved over the loss of her soul as well. The text does not say whether she ever repented to the Lord (or her husband) for cheating on him or for running off. We don't know what happened; and sadly it is our loss that we don't get to know. As such, we also do not know, nor do we get to know, the fate of all the men in the story: neither the Levite, nor his servant, nor the elderly man who hosted them, nor the hoodlums. What I do know is that I believe God judged each of the men according to their actions. How He judged, I cannot say. I wasn't there. But I do believe that He judged them.

A final piece of context: the entire book of Judges takes place when Israel itself was not following God nor His commandments. Yes, even after settling in the Promised Land that Moses led them to and Joshua led them into. Yes, even after tale after tale after cautionary tale of their ancestors disbelieving and disobeying God and reaping the consequences (i.e. they forfeited their privilege of being allowed into the Promised Land). The simple truth is, not two generations later, the Israelites forgot everything that God and their ancestors had warned them.
1 The angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land I swore to give to your ancestors. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, 2 and you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars.’ Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this? 3 And I have also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; they will become traps for you, and their gods will become snares to you.’”
4 When the angel of the Lord had spoken these things to all the Israelites, the people wept aloud, 5 and they called that place Bokim. There they offered sacrifices to the Lord. 
Judges 2:1-5, NIV

10 After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. 11 Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. 12 They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger 13 because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. 
Judges 2:10-13, NIV
This was not a good time for the Kingdom of Israel. The book of Judges, as such, is dark. But it was honest. And, for those of you who like your history books to be honest, to truthfully record history as it happened, and not some kind of rose-colored glasses perspective, there are parts of the Bible that are going to be hard, and dark, and bloody, and rather disgusting. These events aren't in Scripture because God was OK with it. In fact, I believe that He was not OK with it. But they still happened. And I believe that He dealt with the individuals individually once they passed out of the flesh.

My hope, from having delved into these passages (particularly Judges 19, though) is to help remove what I think is and has been a stumbling block for many: if God is so good, and the Bible is so good, why are there so many terrible things recorded? Another form of that question can be: if God is God, why do bad things still happen? The short answer is that it's the consequence of Him giving us humans free will, in the hopes that we would choose to love Him, rather than this alternate idea that God should just force us to love Him. He's not that way, and it doesn't work that way. But the messiness of this world -- sin, horror, war, famine, pestilence, genocide, racism, slavery, rape, etc -- is the risk that He has taken with us from the beginning. Personally, I still struggle with that in my heart, and I expect that I will struggle with it for the rest of my life. But the hope is that I can still draw near to Jesus in spite of everything that is wrong in the world, in me, and in my ever-evolving circumstances. And, that if I am able to succeed at connecting with Jesus through Scripture every day, maybe I could be able to overcome my struggle with this question, at least for a moment. At the very least I'll grow closer to Him. That would be nice.

* Both my church and I support women being pastors. I understand that it is a sticky and hard topic among many other churches. As the Holy Spirit leads, maybe someday I'll challenge myself to look at it with fresh eyes and see what it is in the text (specifically Paul's letter to Timothy) that has led many churches to not support women as pastors, and maybe even to offer clarity and encouragement for those whose stumbling block regarding trusting the Bible rests on this topic.
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