Today’s Scripture Reading (December
18, 2015): Judges 19
“Terrorists like ISIL are trying to divide us along lines
of religion and background. That’s how they stoke fear. That’s how they
recruit.” The words belong to President Barak Obama in his weekly Saturday
address made last weekend. And he is right. It has always been that way.
Terrorists of all kinds seek to divide us. Some of them, like the Islamic State
do it in hopes of inflicting physical damage. Some, like many Christian groups,
want to divide in order to inflict emotional, mental and often spiritual
damage. But all seek to divide us along some sort of line of their choosing. And
they are all terrorists. The appropriate reaction is to refuse to allow them to
do that. What that means in our current situation is that we cannot allow the
Islamic state or the far political right to be allowed to divide us on racial
and religious grounds. We must refuse the pressure to lump all Muslims together
in one basket – just as we need to be careful not to lump all Christians into
one group. The time has come, in fact it is long overdue, for the Christian and
the Muslim to stand in solidarity against terrorism that is being perpetrated by
the Islamic State on one side, and Christians who want to restrict religious
freedom, especially when it comes to Islam, on the other. Both are terrorists.
Yet, it is also almost human nature to make the
division. Maybe that is one reason that we need to be so careful. If someone
from another race hurts you, the natural reaction is to fear others from that
race. But the dividing line does not have to be race. It could be anything that
sets the person inflicting the pain apart from you.
This is one of the sad stories of the Bible. The main
character in the saga is a Levite living in a remote area within the tribal
lands of Ephraim. And the man is making a journey. He specifically avoids the city
of Jebus (Jerusalem) because at the time it was home to a group of foreigners.
In his mind, he had already drawn a line. Instead, he pushes on and stops in a
town within the tribal lands of Benjamin. His belief is that because the people
of Benjamin share a familial relationship with him that extends back to the
patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that here he will be safe.
But that is not the truth. He might have been actually
safer within the walls of Jebus with foreigners than he was in this town in
Benjamin. And during his one night stay, his concubine is killed. The Levite
mourns her murder at the hands of the townsmen and sends out her body parts to
the twelve tribes of Israel. The people are incensed. Something must be done. And
a new dividing line is developed – this time between the tribe of Benjamin and
the rest of the tribes of Israel. The offense is not restricted to just one
town within Benjamin, or even to its more likely cause of one group of people
who have terrorized the town. It is all the people of Benjamin that are judged
to be evil and must be destroyed.
The result will be the almost genocide of the tribe of
Benjamin as the terrorists living outside of Benjamin react to the terrorists
living in this one small town within the tribal lands. And the genocide almost
happens because one man was terrorized, drew a line, and the people decided
that something must be done to reduce the risk of further terror in Israel.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Judges
20
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