Lent: Day 6

The book of Judges is so strange Lord. I'd have to say it is one of the most violent and sexual books in the whole Bible, and certainly not in a good and wholesome way. But it ends with this sentence, "In those days Israel had no king, everyone did as they saw fit." And in reading the stories leading up to the end, we have all sorts of strange things going on that people apparently saw fit to do. One man builds his own gods but strangely says he worships and inquires of You. One man's concubine is unfaithful but he chases her down to keep her anyways, only to give her up to be raped instead of himself. When the Benjaminites don't have wives, the suggestion is that they just come steal wives when the ladies of Shiloh are dancing. Weird stuff. Stuff that can easily happen when no one is in charge.

What's even weirder though is that when the Israelites come and demand a king of Israel, someone to lead through all this weirdness, You tell them that they don't need a king. That You will be their King. That doesn't seem like it really would have worked because that's what was supposed to be happening in Judges, and uh, it wasn't going so well. I mean, sure, You as the only King sounds really good. And I suppose that if everybody took seriously living in Your way and seeking You and Your priorities before making decisions that things would work out real well. But people don't do that.

Which leads me to another question: Are You idealistic and not practical? Are the plans that You put in place perfect and don't allow for the requisite human stupidity? This may seem like I'm trying to knock the way You do things, I'm not. I really like to be idealistic myself, set up a plan that is the best way of doing things even though I'll end up having to compromise on some part of that plan. Personally, I think that being that dreamer who thinks and tries to act in a perfect way is courageous. Of course, for a human like me who always fails it can sometimes be a downer how short I fall from perfect.

Anyways, Lord, I guess if You are idealistic then I'd better be in conversation with You about how I can live up to that ideal. Help me today as I deal with students and others who have no concern about living within Your ideal. Thanks for the job and the life that You've given me, that I might actually have time to seek You!