Judges 19
I have always joked with people that Judges 19 is the "Nightmare on Elm Street" chapter of the Bible. This chapter makes the lawlessness of the wild west look like a Baptist Sunday School picnic. The levels of depravity reached in these chapters are staggering even to "slasher" fans. How the people of God could fall to these lows should cause all of us to consider that subtle and dangerous slide of sin. "Think about it," is the reminder from the author. No one starts out at this level. It is a slow gradual slide into hell. Here is the commentary on why Israel sank to this level of depravity.
Judges 19:1 In those days Israel had no king.
This is the recipe for moral anarchy. We are told no less than five times that the idolatry, debauchery, and atrocities recorded here happened during a time when Israel "had no king." The implication is that because there was no king, everyone did whatever they wished. But wasn't the Lord their king? Didn't the Lord give them the 10 commandments to live by? Whenever there is an absence of moral authority (God), a vacuum is created in which nothing but chaos can reign. For either a higher moral authority is in charge, or we are. There is no moral middle ground.
Dostoevsky realized this in his novel "The Brothers Karamazov." He has Ivan say, "If God does not exist, everything is permitted." We in the USA believe that we can live without a king (God). We can just throw God out and live life according to our own plans. We have thrown God out of our schools, our government, our courts, our churches and out of our marriages.
In the end a society is little more than the sum of its parts. If you want to know the future of America without a king just turn on Jerry Springer. As you watch Jerry Springer you get to see a nation where everyone did as he saw fit. Think about it!!
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