May 4

OT – Judges 19:1-20:48
The Levite’s Concubine
What an awful, awful, awful story.
In my translation, much of the euphemisms are totally left out to render the Levite devoid of any emotion to the concubine.
Just the fact that she is called ‘concubine’ is a bad omen to me. It brings up the idea of ‘less than wife’ although at the time of Judges and even later, concubines while not on par with first wife, did have status in the household.
Most of the Midrash that I read on this story fault the Levite for him choosing his honor over hers. Some also fault the High Priest for not having traveled the breath of Israel teaching Torah and how to behave (and presumably, how not to behave).
There are echoes all over this story of other stories in the Bible – Lot in Sodom, the rape of Dinah, the ill-treatment of Hagar. Even later stories have echoes like Hosea with his wife, the harlot, Gomer, and Song of Solomon.
All of this stuff leads scholars to believe that this was a very, very late addition to the book of Judges, perhaps as late as the Exile or even the return after Captivity.
No matter what, the fact that the Levite, THE LEVITE – who supposedly knew better how to treat his wife/concubine – allowed her to be raped and killed and then, only then, was he moved to do something and that something got 30,000 to 60,000 men killed.
Here is more on this story’s Midrash. The Levite’s Concubine.

NT – John 3:22-4:3
Oh, the things that you want to ask the author but he is not in an explaining mode. Why was it the disciples who were baptizing and not Jesus? And why is this scripture even in here?
My study Bible has this small note – “Many wondered where the admonition to ‘go and baptize believers came from. John is answering this question.” Who wondered this? The people of Acts?
Makes little to no sense to me.
Either John is answering a question that we don’t have or there are pieces of this story we don’t know. Either way, I will be interested in asking this question of the disciples if I get to meet them in the hereafter.

Proverbs 14:22-24
All hard work brings a profit but mere talk leads only to poverty.
I spent part of my afternoon weeding and thinning my garden. I can tell you that my back is sore, I have several thorns in my fingers (forgot to wear gloves, again…...), and I know that my knees will be painful tomorrow. But it looks beautiful and healthy and vibrant.
The people of Proverbs were almost to a man, laborers. You earned your bread by how hard you worked. There was an upper class, but it was minuscule.
No hard work, you went hungry and so did your family.
We are a long way from that kind of society. I harbor no illusions that it was a better place to be. After all, we are reading Judges “when there was no king in Israel”.
But some of the same tenets still hold true. If you don’t work hard, you won’t accomplish much. People notice that kind of stuff. You may be able to fool some people with flash and splash for a little while, but not for long.
My garden tonight.

Work hard, work well, abide in the Lord.