Fri.’s Devo - Taking Responsibility

Read: Judges 19:1-20:48; John 3:22-4:3; Psalm 104:24-35; Proverbs 14:22-24
You can sum today’s reading in four words: “They had no king”. God had wanted to be their king but they rejected him and his prophets and his law. They did what was right in their own eyes and this story is a picture of what man does when left to himself. It starts with a Levite who is suppose to be the spiritual standard of the tribes. He has an unfaithful concubine who has left him to go back to her father. The Levite goes to persuade her to come back home with him. She would have been better off to stay with her father. He was traveling through the country of Benjamin and stopped for the night in Gibeah. After sitting all day waiting for someone to take them in for the night, an old man invites them home. The people of the town surrounded his house to abuse him, He abandoned his concubine for his own safety and she let her be abused to death. Then, he had the audacity to cut her body up into pieces and send it to the other tribes to protest her treatment, taking no responsibility himself. I hate this story!!!
When the tribes of Israel asked Benjamin to turn the wicked men who were responsible over to them, they refused. This started a war in which 30,000 Israelites were killed. In the end, 600 Benjamites fled to the caves in the desert and their towns were attacked and burned with fire. To me, this is a story where no one wanted to take responsibility for their own sins. When sin is allowed to run rampant, this is what happens. Everyone is righteous in their own eyes and no one wants God’s standard.
In John, his disciples noticed that Jesus was attracting a larger crowd than their teacher, John, so they asked him about it. John gave the best answer. He reminded them that he wasn’t the Christ and had never claimed to be. He was just a friend of the bridegroom. His joy came from hearing the voice of the bridegroom and feeling his joy. That is what John felt when he heard Jesus’ teaching and saw his ministry.
What a humble and mature answer. If we had that attitude about other ministries, we could accomplish so much as a body of believers. The world would see our love for one another and have to have what we have. I pray that one day, we will have the heart that John had.
Lord, may we realize that it truly is about lifting up your Son not about lifting up ourselves. May we walk in the humility of the truth of why we are here.