the Obnoxious Few

The Word for today:
Judges 19

When her husband opened the door to leave, he found her there. She was lying face down, with her hands on the threshold. He said, "Get up! Let's go!" But there was no answer. So he put her body on his donkey and took her home. When he got home, he took a knife and cut his concubine's body into twelve pieces. Then he sent one piece to each tribe of Israel. Everyone who saw it said, "Such a horrible crime has not been committed since Israel left Egypt. Shouldn't we speak up and do something about this?"
(Judges 19:27-30)

One can’t help thinking, as one reads through the grisly account of the Levite’s concubine in Judges chapter 19, of how contemporary it all sounds. It is a chapter filled with homosexual lust, rape, dismembered body parts, and vengeance.

In just the past couple of days, we have been treated to accounts of cannibalism (Miami), dismemberment (Canada), homosexual lust (Penn State), and rape (any town on any given day.)

We’re told that things have always been this way.  But I do not believe it.  In my lifetime, I do not recall evil of such frequency and such depravity.

I most closely equate our generation with the last line of the chapter:

Everyone who saw it said, "Such a horrible crime has not been committed since Israel left Egypt. Shouldn't we speak up and do something about this?" (Judges 19:30/NLT)

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“Shouldn't we speak up and do something about this?"

Yes, we should do something about this. We can pray and vote and keep on hoping for the best, but as an sold song said, “Wishin’ and hopin’ and plannin’ and prayin’” doesn’t always get things done.

So while we’re praying and voting, let’s not forget the first part of the verse:

"Shouldn’t we speak up?"

It’s time to leave the anonymity of the voting booth and the safety of the prayer closet. It’s time to get loud and to stick our faces into the fray.

It’s time to renounce our memberships in the Silent Majority and be counted with the Obnoxious Few who will stand up in public against these mounting tides.

It’s time to stop hiding behind our polite American “Christianity” and start giving voice to the Spirit of the biblical Christ within us.  He was never in the majority, and He was seldom silent.

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