This post is going to be very short today ladies because I am EXHAUSTED from being at the Pure Freedom Conference at Oak Hill...but I would not trade this time or this exhaustion for anything else in this world!!! What an incredible and life-changing event for the young ladies of our church and for the adult ladies who were there to mentor them! And how fitting that our Bible text for today involves some VERY sexually violent things done to a young woman. This is one of the most, if not the most, disturbing and depraved events that occurs in the Old Testament in my opinion. I am reminded once again that Dr. Del Tackett said in the "Truth Project" that if we could see all of the wickedness that goes on in this world for ONE second, we would be CRUSHED and instantly die. This is one of those things that I think he was referring to when he said that.
These three chapters are filled with sexual depravity of the gravest kind and violence and gore on the largest scale possible in human existence. We have a young woman who is raped all night long by a gang of sexually hungry and extremely violent men and a Levite man who sees her laying at the doorway dead and just tells her to "get up and let's go" not realizing she is dead after a night of being torn apart by "animals"! Then, he cuts her up into 12 pieces and sends them off to the 12 tribes of Israel (and how does he do that exactly - by UPS???)! I know that you can read these events for yourself, but I just had to repeat them here for effect because it is just so incredible to me that human beings can be so incredibly and purely wicked and evil! This especially infuriates me after I have just experienced some of the acute and deeply ingrained pain that the young ladies I just spent 2o hours with are going through and then I have to read this and process it! It is almost too much for me to bear and I do not know, Lord, why you did not just wipe us out so long ago!!!
Having said all of that though, we have "pure freedom" from this and other horrible events in our lives and in all of human history thanks to the blood of Jesus shed on the cross for all of us!! Would you take a moment with me to just REALLY think about that again afresh and anew? What Jesus did for us is about more than I can take in and my heart overflows with thanksgiving for his redemption! As I told the young ladies late last night, not ONE SINGLE tear falls from our eyes that is not held in the palm of the Father's hand and not ONE SINGLE injustice goes unseen and they will ALL be dealt with by our Lord! Your pain is NOT EVER in vain!!!! I love you all and all glory and honor be to our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, forever and ever and ever!!!! AMEN AND AMEN!!!
