Author: John Tillman

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Judges 19  Listen: (4:52) Read: Hebrews 6 Listen: (2:58)

Scripture Focus: Judges 19.20b, 27-30

20b “Only don’t spend the night in the square.”

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!”

Reflection: Facing Ugly Truths

By John Tillman

The final chapters of Judges are intended to shock readers. They succeed.

Like a character in the first reel of a horror film, the old man says, “Only don’t spend the night in the square.” This ominous foreshadowing is also connected to the past.

The only prophet in Judges is Deborah, however, the writers have a prophetic narrative voice. They expect readers to notice nearly word-for-word parallels between Sodom and Gibeah. Like Lot in Sodom, the old man in Gibeah insisted the travelers stay at his home. (Genesis 19.2-3) Why? Both men knew spending the night in the square was unsafe. Wickedness wasn’t a surprise—it was a normality.

The writers assume readers will notice the distance between what God commanded and what the people and leaders regularly did. This is true with judges, like Jephthah, who went from heroes to villains and it is especially true in the final chapters which have no judges at all—just people doing “as they saw fit.” (Judges 21.25)

If we look for heroes here, we won’t find them. Everyone is compromised and corrupted. Even the Levite (perhaps especially the Levite) turns our stomach. He sends his concubine out to rapists to spare himself, then goes to sleep in safety. The next morning, he expects her to get up and go with him, but she is dead on the doorstep. In the New Bible Commentary, Barry Webb says, “In retrospect we can understand very well why his concubine found it impossible to live with him.” Reconciling with this man led directly to her death.

The mutilation of the woman’s body, cut up and sent as evidence, offends many readers, yet is the least unjust thing done to her. The evidence of her abuse was an ugly, undeniable, inconvenient truth shoved in Israel’s face. There was no way to claim “fake news,” blame the data, or blame the victim. Confronted with the concubine’s story, Israel rightly said, “We must do something! So speak up!” (Judges 19.30)

When ugly truths that should shock us come to light today, how do we face them? Do we do something? Say something? Or do we deny the brutal evidence? Protect our own? Are we more offended at being shocked than inspired toward justice?

Further chapters reveal that Israel’s response was also a moral tragedy. May we respond with more wisdom, but may we always speak and act to bring justice to the vulnerable.

From John: This post is not specifically about sexual abuse. Any wickedness can be normalized and should be opposed. However, many survivors of sexual abuse and other forms of abuse have, through their repeated testimonies, had their bodies metaphorically cut into parts and sent out as evidence of their suffering. Too many times, tribes have not responded as Israel did. Too many times such evidence is denied or used against the victims, despite the emotional sacrifices and pain of sharing it. If you know someone who has experienced sexual abuse or are a victim and need assistance with counseling or reporting what has happened, contact RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network). RAINN is the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization and operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline: 800.656.HOPE. There may also be excellent local organizations in your city or state.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Morning Psalm

Happy are they who have not walked in the counsel of the wicked, nor lingered in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seats of the scornful!
Their delight is in the law of the Lord, and they meditate on his law day and night.
They are like trees planted by streams of water, bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither; everything they do shall prosper.
It is not so with the wicked; they are like the chaff which the wind blows away.
Therefore, the wicked shall not stand upright when judgment comes, nor the sinner in the council of the righteous.
For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked is doomed.

— Psalm 1

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Ancient #MeToo Story

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Read more: Woe to Abusers and Victimizers

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Links for today’s readings:

Read: Judges 18 Listen: (4:39) Read: Hebrews 5 Listen: (1:57)

Scripture Focus: Judges 18.23-25

23 As they shouted after them, the Danites turned and said to Micah, “What’s the matter with you that you called out your men to fight?” 24 He replied, “You took the gods I made, and my priest, and went away. What else do I have? How can you ask, ‘What’s the matter with you?’ ” 25 The Danites answered, “Don’t argue with us, or some of the men may get angry and attack you, and you and your family will lose your lives.”

Reflection: Resist Weaponizing Spiritual Things

By John Tillman

In The Book of Eli, Denzel Washington (Eli) carries a Bible he has sworn to protect across a violent, post-apocalyptic United States.

A brutal, book-obsessed warlord named Carnegie (played by Gary Oldman and not-so-subtly named to reference Andrew Carnegie, famous for building libraries) demands Eli give it to him.

After many fighters die trying to take the Bible, Carnegie’s lieutenant questions whether “a book” is worth the spilled blood and spent resources. Carnegie responds, “It’s not a book. It’s a weapon. A weapon aimed right at the hearts and minds of the weak and the desperate.”

The final chapters of Judges share a similar apocalyptic brutality with the film. When everyone did “as they saw fit,” (Judges 21.25) wicked hearts were exposed and chaos and violence reigned.

Levites were intended to live in their own towns and serve all the tribes at the Tabernacle. However, Micah hired a Levite to serve at his private shrine of “household gods.” Seemingly ignorant of all the laws they were violating, Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will be good to me…” (Judges 17.13)

When warriors from the tribe of Dan made the Levite a better offer, he left with them. Micah pursued, crying, “You took my gods and my priest! What else do I have?”

Micah’s cry, “What else do I have?” is partially correct. It is good to recognize, “Whom have I in heaven but you?” However, we mustn’t forget the second line: “And earth has nothing I desire besides you.” (Psalm 73.25)

Micah, the Danite warriors, and the fictional Carnegie had mercenary attitudes about God, worship, and his ministers. They valued the things of God as personal weapons and tools to enrich and comfort themselves.

Beware of developing mercenary attitudes toward God, ministers, or the Bible. The Bible isn’t a weapon for winning earthly arguments. Ministers should serve everyone, not one political tribe. God doesn’t owe us blessings in exchange for worship, especially when our worship is often polluted with false “household gods,” like political and cultural ideologies.

God won’t be anyone’s mercenary and he looks unkindly on weaponizing the Bible for earthly purposes. Don’t surrender spiritual things to those who want to weaponize them to obtain earthly things.

No spoilers, however, in the film Carnegie can’t use the Bible even after winning it in battle and Eli still guards it even after it is taken from him. So may it be with us.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Morning Psalm

The Lord is King; let the people tremble; he is enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth shake.
The Lord is great in Zion; he is high above all peoples.
Let them confess his Name, which is great and awesome; he is the Holy One.
O mighty King, lover of justice, you have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob. — Psalm 99.1-4

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

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In Hebrews chapter 5, the author wishes to discuss complicated topics…But…the readers are not ready for such theological complexity…

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Links for today’s readings:

Read: Judges 14 Listen: (3:35) Read: Hebrews 1 Listen: (2:15)

Scripture Focus: Judges 14.2-4

2 When he returned, he said to his father and mother, “I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife.” 3 His father and mother replied, “Isn’t there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me. She’s the right one for me.” 4 (His parents did not know that this was from the Lord, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were ruling over Israel.)

5 Samson went down to Timnah together with his father and mother. As they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him. 6 The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done. 7 Then he went down and talked with the woman, and he liked her. 8 Some time later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to look at the lion’s carcass, and in it he saw a swarm of bees and some honey. 9 He scooped out the honey with his hands and ate as he went along. When he rejoined his parents, he gave them some, and they too ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion’s carcass.

Reflection: Out of the Strong, Something Sweet

By John Tillman

In the middle of the Great Depression, with Hitler advancing in Europe, two sons of Jewish immigrants, from the Netherlands and Ukraine, created an iconic American hero—Superman.

In Superman, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster reimagined Moses cast on the water to be raised by a powerful princess as a powerful alien cast through space to be raised by poor farmers in America’s heartland. Superman is an alien immigrant from another planet with super powers.

However, what makes Superman heroic is not Kryptonian physiology but Kansan philosophy. His moral core is a greater power than his physical strength. In the most recent film version, Clark’s adoptive father tells him, “Your choices, your actions, that’s what makes you who you are.”

Despite some simplistic teachings that cast Samson as the Bible’s “Superman,” Samson is not Superman, nor is he a super man. Samson’s choices make him who he is. Those choices make him less like the prophet Moses and more like the plagues Moses called down.

Samson was an instrument of judgment but not an instrument of wisdom. As much as we might cheer for the mighty and wicked that he threw down, we must also mourn for the potential he wasted.

Samson is strangely similar to the apex-predator lion that he fights and kills. Samson’s line about the lion, “out of the strong, something sweet,” could be an unintentional prophecy about himself. The lion’s fate is a mirror of Samson’s. We might say, “Out of the destroyer, something just…Out of the sinful, something righteous.”

God consistently chooses imperfect vessels for carrying out his purposes. God is an expert at turning actions meant for evil into something good. (Genesis 50.20) That does not mean that we can act with impunity, like Samson did, following our lusts and anger.

We cannot blame “God’s sovereignty” for our choices or actions. “God made me this way” is no more a defense for the anger of an executive who screams at workers than it is for the lust of a philanderer who takes sexual advantage of others.

If our choices make us who we are, many of them make us sinners. However, the most significant choice that affects our identity is accepting the gospel and being conformed to the image of Jesus. (Romans 8.29) We trust in the Son of Man rather than any super man. It is out of his strength we have the sweetness of the gospel.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Jesus taught us, saying: “Come to me, all you who labor and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your soul. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.” — Matthew 11.28

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

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Links for today’s readings:

Read: Judges 12 Listen: (2:21) Read: 1 Peter 4 Listen: (2:50)

Scripture Focus: Judges 12.4-6

4 Jephthah then called together the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. The Gileadites struck them down because the Ephraimites had said, “You Gileadites are renegades from Ephraim and Manasseh.” 5 The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim, and whenever a survivor of Ephraim said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead asked him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he replied, “No,” 6 they said, “All right, say ‘Shibboleth.’ ” If he said, “Sibboleth,” because he could not pronounce the word correctly, they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites were killed at that time.

Photo Information: Our photo today is of a visitor to the memorial complex for victims of the Armenian Genocide which occured in 1915-1916. It is often called the first genocide of the 20th century and is the event which caused the term to be created.

Reflection: Weaponized Shibboleths

By John Tillman

Ephraim was Manasseh’s closest fellow tribe. They were Joseph’s sons. Jacob had reversed their birth order when he blessed them, placing Ephraim, the younger son, over Manasseh, the first born. (Genesis 48.14-20) It’s possible this old controversy kept some inter-tribal hostility simmering in the background.

After Jephthah’s victory, Ephraim showed up indignant at being left out and threatened Jephthah. A similar conflict happened between Ephraim and Gideon after his victory. Gideon defused Ephraim with diplomacy and self-deprecation. (Judges 8.1-3) Jephthah’s prideful hostility sparked the confrontation, blowing it up into civil war.

Ephraim called Gilead (a sub-clan of Manasseh) “renegades.” Other translations render this, “fugitives” or “survivors.” Jephthah knew the pain of exile and this insult must have stung. Jephthah’s anger wasn’t satisfied with winning the argument or the battle. He became genocidal.

Jephthah, like many judges and biblical leaders, started out a sympathetic underdog, accomplished something beneficial, but then “went wrong” in tragic ways. This civil war between brother tribes shows the depths of darkness, chaos, and violence Jephthah succumbed to.

Jephthah’s forces defeated Ephraim and took control of the border, blocking Ephraim’s only escape. Then they strictly policed the border, using Ephraim’s regional accent to sort friend from foe and continue their genocidal slaughter. From this passage, “Shibboleth” has become a word meaning a group identity marker. Typically shibboleths are used to exclude, and in Jephthah’s case, to kill.

However, markers of identity can be positive. In a famous episode of The West Wing, titled “Shibboleth,” a group of Chinese Christian refugees seek asylum in the United States. President Bartlett must evaluate both the group’s claim to be Christians and their asylum claim, the group’s spokesperson says to him, “Faith is the true…Shibboleth.”

Like Manasseh and Ephraim, we should be brothers. We should not be dividing and conquering our family of faith or our communities. And yet… We have simmering hostility instead of hospitality and factiousness instead of fraternity. We vaunt superiority and denigrate servanthood. We celebrate domination and are suspicious of democratic cooperation. Civil wars begin with factions such as this.

To avoid the dark path of Jephthah, we need gentle answers that turn away wrath and leaders who turn down the temperature of conflicts. Instead of weaponizing Shibboleths against brothers, sisters, and citizens, we should dissolve factions based on hatred and unite around the love scripture commands. (Leviticus 19.18, 34; Deuteronomy 10.19; Matthew 22.35-40; John 13.34-35, 15.12; 1 Corinthians 16.14; 1 Peter 4.8)

Leaders who weaponize Shibboleths should be resisted.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Jesus taught us, saying: “I give you a new commandment: love one another; you must love one another just as I have loved you. It is by your love for one another that everyone will recognize you as my disciples.” — John 13.34-35

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

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