July 11, 2024; Day 5 of Week 15

Daily Dose of Hope

July 11, 2024

Day 5 of Week 15

Scripture:  Judges 19-21; Acts 2

Welcome to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that complement New Hope Church’s Bible reading plan.  Today, you can breathe a sigh of relief because we are finishing with the book of Judges.  Look, I know it was a difficult book and some of the senseless violence is just hard to read.  Tomorrow, we will be moving into the book of Ruth, which is such an amazing story!  Our New Testament passage for today is Acts 2 and it should be encouraging and energizing (which is good because our Judges passages definitely are not!)  Let’s get into our Scripture. 

Judges 19 is a story of human depravity.  As I read it, I can't help but hear the echoes of Sodom and Gomorrah (read Genesis 19 to jog your memory of the details).  Certainly, this text in Judges serves to show just how horrific Israelite society had become.  Of course, we see the worst of patriarchy throughout the passage as well: the nameless concubine with no control over her life circumstances, the acceptance of the rape and abuse of women (in order to preserve the men's honor), the lack of emotional response from the Levite when he finds his wife is dead, and the subsequent disgusting murder and mutilation of the woman.  While we could probably dig much deeper into those themes, I really don't think this passage is intended to be about the abuse and oppression of women.  Rather, it is intended to show just how pagan and vicious the Israelites had become.  Everyone did what was right in their own eyes.  They look more like the Canaanites than the Canaanites themselves do.  And it's very, very ugly.  Where is their faith?  Have they totally forgotten God?

Judges 20 is not much better.  The Levite tells the story of his concubine being raped (he conveniently leaves out any part that makes him look bad.)  A large number of Israelites gather in response to the story.  It's unclear which part of the man's story is the source of their anger and agitation but they do feel justified to wage war against the Benajmites.  It appears to be a holy war of sorts against evil.  What's interesting to me are the spiritual themes which have returned to the text.  The Israelites gather together and assemble "before the Lord."  They inquire of the Lord several times during the battles and God answers them.  In the end, they give Yahweh credit for the victory over the Benjamites.  Israel has drifted far from God.  They have engaged in deplorable things and allowed idolatry to be regular part of their world.  In so many ways, they seem to have forgotten the ways of the one true God.  And yet, here we see they haven't totally forgotten God.  When crisis hits, when tragedy strikes, they remember who they are. Aren't we the same way?

In the final chapter of Judges, we witness the consequence of the Israelite battle against their brothers, the Benjamites.  In a fit of rage, they have sworn an oath to not allow their daughters to marry Benjamites (ironic because they seem to have no issue intermarrying with Canaanites).  However, once the smoke has cleared and the battles are over, their allegiance to the Benjamites begins to resurface.  There are only 600 Benjamite men remaining, as the rest were killed in battle and all the women and children were also slaughtered.  The other Israelites fear they will be celibate and unable to carry on the Benjamite line.  They weep loudly as a group over the literal end of the tribe of Benjamin.  Their solution to the problem is brutal and violent, in keeping with the lack of value for human life which we find throughout the book of Judges.  They punish those from Jabesh Gilead who failed to appear at their assembly by killing the whole village, except for the virgin women, who they give to the Benjamites in marriage.  The rest of the wives were simply kidnapped by the Benjamites, at the urging of the Israelite elders.  If their daughters were "stolen," then they couldn't be accused of giving them in marriage and breaking their former oath.  

Again, we see the treatment of women in this time and place is appalling.  We move from the rape and murder of one woman (from chapter 19), to the kidnapping and rape of literally hundreds of women.  The total unraveling of the Israelite people seems to be complete.  They are vicious, depraved, and worthy of death.  And yet, we will continue to see God's grace shine through in the least expected ways as we work our way through the Old Testament.

Let’s move on to Acts 2.  I think we need some life-giving Scripture.  I’m going to read the first three verses, On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place.  Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting.  Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. 

First, let’s talk about the roaring windstorm.  Throughout Scripture, wind is a symbol of the Holy Spirit.  In ancient Hebrew, we have the word, ruach, which means breath/wind/spirit and we see this word quite a bit in the Old Testament.  Wind represents the life-giving work of the Spirit.  Think about it.  In Genesis 2, God breathed life (ruach) into Adam.  In Ezekial 37, we are in the valley of dry bones and God has Ezekiel prophesy to the bones, saying “I will put my Spirit (ruach) in you and you will live.”  In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is typically referred to in the Greek as pneuma.  The Holy Spirit comes upon Mary to form life in her womb.  In John 3:5, Jesus tells Nicodemus that the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. 

I can’t help thinking, how many people need to experience the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit right now?  How many people are really struggling, barely holding on, languishing in doubt, pain, anger, cynicism?  Or maybe, you simply feel nothing?  There is NO true living without the presence of the Spirit, only existing.  

Next, we have the tongues of fire.  Let’s sit here for a second.  Fire is often descriptive of God in the Old Testament and it speaks to the purifying and refining work of the Holy Spirit.  In this sense, the Spirit causes things that are impure to become pure...lives, hearts. Matthew 3:11, John the Baptist says “I baptize you with water for repentance.  But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.  He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”  Peter speaks of the new Gentile believers as experiencing the Holy Spirit and having their hearts purified.  If something is pure, it is only one thing–pure gold, pure oxygen.  It isn’t filled with contaminants or additives. It is totally and completely that one thing. I picture the Holy Spirit coming upon that group of believers on the day of Pentecost and purifying or refining their hearts so they would be totally and completely dedicated to the things of God, not half filled with the stuff of the world and half filled with the things of God.  I wonder that about our own hearts.  What contaminants have we allowed to seep in?  What do we need to purify? Come like a fire, Holy Spirit, and burn in us so that we can be pure and totally devoted to the things of Jesus.

Let’s read some more Scripture, beginning with verse 4 (this is truly a paraphrase), All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.  This made a racket and a crowd forms...When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken...Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?  Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”  And then Peter gets up and says, we aren’t drunk, it’s only 9 in the morning.  Let me tell you what his means...and he shares with them the Gospel, he speaks of how the Old Testament scriptures point to Jesus as the Messiah, he speaks of Jesus’ ministry, his death, his resurrection and it says this,  Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”  Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the HolySpirit.”

And what happened? 3000 believed and were baptized.  The Holy Spirit came, the people were given power to act, and they did it!  They trusted God and they responded.  We talked about how the Holy Spirit is life-giving and purifying but it also has power.  The Holy Spirit empowers believers to do really hard things.  If you have said yes to Jesus, then the Holy Spirit has made a home within you. The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead LIVES within you.  And God didn’t give us that power simply for our own use.  It’s for the mission of sharing the love and grace of Jesus Christ with others.  

Why do you think we struggle so much with that?  What part of the mission causes you to hide in fear?  Friends, we have POWER within us and it is given to us for the purpose of making disciples of Jesus Christ.  Let’s just let that sit and settle.

More tomorrow.

Blessings,

Pastor Vicki