5.4.11 "The Empty Swing"

"The Empty Swing"

Judges 19:1-20:48
John 3:22-4:3
Psalm 104:24-35
Proverbs 14:22-23

Today's reading in Judges is gruesome. It's a story of a man who has a concubine who runs back home. He brings gifts to the girl's family to win her back, and he does. The girls father, however keeps talking him into staying longer than he should. They feast and party on, until finally after a few days of trying to leave, the man leaves late in the day.

Because they left so late, they have to stop along their journey to sleep in a city square. A stranger brings them in, but during the night an occurrence happens that sounds like the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. "... a gang of sex perverts gathered around the house and began beating at the door and yelling at the old man to bring out the man who was saying with him, so they could rape him." (Jud. 19:22) What ended up happening is that the man pushed the concubine out the door, and throughout the night they abused her to the point of death. He threw her body onto his donkey and took her home.

"When he got there he took a knife and cut her body into twelve parts and sent one piece to each tribe of Israel. Everyone who saw it said, 'Such a horrible crime has not been committed in all the time since Israel left Egypt. Think about it! What are we going to do? Who's going to speak up?'" (Judges 19:29-30)

You may be wondering why I would pick such an encouraging story for today's devotional. Do you recognize the name "Norma McCorvey"? She is also known as Jane Roe. She was the original plaintiff in Roe v. Wade which legalized abortion in 1973. In 1995, Norma gave her life to Christ. She was led to Christ by a pastor who was part of Operation Rescue, a pro-life organization that was protesting outside the clinic where Norma worked.

Now that there have been over 50 million "legal" abortions in the US, Norma tells the story of one day she was sitting in a park and there were no kids there. She wept as she realized the swings were empty because of the generation that has been lost.

In our backyard we have a swing set for my daughter. She's outgrown many of her toys, but not the swing. She loves to play on it and sing, and come up with new ways to swing. I hear my daughter's songs as I think of Norma's story.

The entire nation of Israel was roused to action in Judges 20. There were over 400,000 troops mobilized to attack the people of Benjamin who had become so perverted. "So the whole nation united in this task." (Jud 20:11)

"Before the battle the Israeli army went to Bethel first to ask counsel from the God." (20:18) That day, 22,000 Israelis died. "Then the Israeli army wept before the Lord until evening and asked him, 'Shall we fight further against our brother Benjamin?' And the Lord said, 'Yes.' So the men of Israel took courage and went out again the next day to fight at the same place. And that day they lost another eighteen thousand men... Then the entire army went up to Bethel and wept before the Lord..."

As much as we'd love it to be an easy battle, Israel experienced great loss in their fight for justice. Even after God told them to go fight, they lost 40,000 men. It would be easy to give up.

"The men of Israel asked the Lord, 'Shall we go out again and fight against our brother Benjamin, or shall we stop?' And the Lord said, 'Go, for tomorrow I will see to it that you defeat the men of Benjamin.'" (Jud. 20:18-28) There was more loss of life, but the evil men were finally defeated.

Reading this account you can't help think about the state of perversion in our nation. Where are the people of God? There are a few key points we need to realize.

It says earlier in Judges that Benjamin was the only tribe that didn't completely conquer the territory. They didn't purify themselves. This led to their perversion. The Body of Christ needs to be pure.

Second, notice how the man initially placed himself in the situation. He was feasting instead of returning home. Over the course of the last generation, the Church has fallen asleep in prosperity instead of holding to Godly principles.

The other point I want to make is that I believe the people of God have become intimidated into inaction. Just like the Israelites experienced great loss when they first went out to fight, I believe the Christians of our day have realized that this battle can't be fought without sacrifice, and that has caused them to give up far too early.

My question however is whether we have gone back to ask the Lord what we should do, or if we have just determined that the cost is too great and we have gone home. I believe the victory is there, but are we willing to pay the price?

This coming Thursday is the National Day of Prayer. There is much to pray about. There are empty swings.




Through the Power of the Spirit,
Live the DREAM!

Pastor Greg Lathe

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