“Nothing like this has ever happened or been seen from the day when the sons of Israel came up from the land of Egypt to this day. Consider it, take counsel and speak up!” (Judges 19:30)
Think these times in the world and in America are bad? Anxious and disillusioned, are you? I recommend you read the book of Judges, a period that spanned about 400 years of Israel’s history. By comparison to their idolatry and gross immorality during those years, our times seem utopian!
In one episode, a man––a Levite no less–travelled with a woman––his “concubine” no less. Not his wife, but his girlfriend with “benefits.” When they arrived in an unfamiliar town, an old man took them in for the night. Reminiscent of Lot’s experience in Sodom centuries earlier, some of the men of the town called for the Levite to come out so they could have sex with him. Spoiler alert: Believe it or not, it gets much worse.
Instead, the Levite pushes his girl friend out the door to get raped in his place, which happened, all night long. In the morning, he found her dead, laying just outside clutching the threshold of the door. He says, “Get up. Let’s go!” Did I say, she’s dead? If you can stand it, it gets even worse than that.
He takes her body, cuts it into twelve pieces, and sends them to the twelve tribes of Israel! So, when they say, “Nothing like this has ever happened or been seen…” they aren’t kidding!
How many times have you heard the word, “unprecedented” repeated in the news in the last eight or so years? It’s true, stuff has happened and is happening in the world, and in our country in particular, that we’ve “never heard or seen” before. Yet, nothing compares to this!
As grotesque as this incident is, it’s their proposed response that I wanted to highlight: “Think it over, take counsel and speak up!” Let’s unpack those three proposals and apply them to ourselves in our own unprecedented times.
Think it over
We’re drowning in rancor in our country these days. It’s not that we can’t agree; it’s that we disagree so disagreeably. Social media has given everybody a pulpit of their own. We might not have anything honest or logical, let alone moral or biblical to say, but we’ve got a place to say it, and by God we’re going to say it any old way we want to! Never mind intelligent debate, civility, or in keeping with the Spirit of Christ. We’re like those in the times of the Judges, when “Israel had no king, so everyone did as they saw fit.” (Judges 17:6)
With such an ocean of information at our fingertips these days, it’s no wonder that we’re not patient enough to wade all the way through someone’s argument before rushing to rebuttal. Solomon suggests rushing to judgment may not be the best tactic to take in tumultuous times: “Do you see someone who speaks in haste? There is more hope for a fool than for them.” And, “I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens.” (Proverbs 29:20; Ecclesiastes 1:13)
Stop and think it over before you react! And then…
Take counsel
Take a breath, use your critical thinking skills, and confer with others. Wise King Solomon again: “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed,” and: “To answer before listening—that is folly and shame.” (Proverbs 15:22 and 18:13)
We used to actually talk face-to-face with one another. Remember? If not in person, we’d debate on the phone. We ran our opinions by one another, one-on-one or in groups. We wouldn’t just rush off and spew our untested views in public. We’d think about them and then talk about them, at least with our friends or family members.
Before regurgitating our untested thoughts, it’s a good idea to take counsel not only with those we know, but experts in their particular fields. I’m not talking about some hack you found on the internet (present company excepted ), but critical thinking, intelligent, unbiased people.
Stop and think. Consult others. And lastly…
Speak up!
Notice that we speak up after we’ve thought about it and after we’ve ran our ideas by others. We don’t just run across an unnuanced, terse and objectifying meme on Twitter (I can’t get used to “X”) and re-post it all within 30-seconds! That’s not “speaking up.” That’s throwing up! (Sorry for the image.)
But once we’ve thought through whatever complexity the issue presents, we become culpable if we don’t ever say something. Not that we always have to say something about everything about which we have a conviction. We have to submit ourselves to the Spirit’s leading and do our best to say what he wants us to say, in the way and at the time he wants us to say it. If we ask him, he’ll give us “an understanding of the times to know what should be done” (1 Chronicles 12:32).
But if we never speak up about anything anytime anywhere, we’re probably guilty of the universal fear of the opinions of others. Even prophets can be “afraid of their faces” (Jeremiah 1:8). We all walk away from conversations regretting having said too much or too little. So don’t shame yourself.
Since we’re relying on the Israel’s wisest king, let’s consult him once again: “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” (Proverbs 31:8-9)
Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The church is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state.” A conscience that doesn’t speak up is useless. If the Church fails to speak up, we’ll be “dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century.” As a Scripture-informed, Spirit-empowered conscience, we’re obligated to say something when we observe the actions of the anti-kingdom of God.
We haven’t the luxury of silence in these times. Yes, there is “a time to be silent” (Ecclesiastes 3:7), but this, in my opinion, isn’t one such time. Once we’ve made the effort to think critically, conferred with other wise souls, and asked the Lord to lead us, I think we’ll find it’s “a time to speak” and not be silent.
barney wiget 