the saddest bible story ever
Posted by Social Matters , Sunday, January 6, 2013 9:59 AM
I n the days of ‘Live and Let Live,’ that is how this period of time could be described as. The bible does refer to rape, I have read about it three times and no time has the woman ever been blamed for it. That the world today, whenever we speak about rape, there are those that have tried to blame the woman, rape is not rape when a five year old girl is defiled, it is rape when a twenty year old woman is raped as well. The point being no woman wants to be raped. At times as it has been suggested, wearing a short skirt, or even walking naked is not an invitation to rape. Rape is not sex. Right now men are being raped in the Congo, small boys are being defiled world over, rape has nothing to do with dressing at all, but it kills something inside of you. Reminding us that there is something more to sex that goes beyond the physical. Dinah, Jacob’s daughter was raped as a result her brothers ended up killing the men of Shechem. Tamar was rape by her half brother even though it was her father who had sent her to help Amnon out while he pretended to be sick. After it raped her the Bible says that Tamar lived in her brother Absalom house a desolate woman. It also ended up with Absalom killing Amnon for what he had done to Tamar. The rape destroyed Tamar’s life completely. Now in this particular story, the Levite and his concubine were making their way back to the Hill country of Ephraim, they did not want to spend the night in Jebus after all they were not their brothers, they made haste to reach Gibeah, and they stayed at the city square without anyone offering them help or a place to stay. That reminds me of Christians today who would rather work in Christian organizations because they are hoping that they will feel safe and get a false sense of security, it is in such places that our image of God is distorted because you often realize that they are not serving God and have lost their way so bad. The sin in these organizations is often comparable to none, leaving you feeling disappointed and doubting God. When an old man took them in, some of the men of the town came demanding to have sex with his guests, the host offered his daughters or the concubine, but only the concubine ended outside, she was raped throughout the night that she died. I can’t help but be saddened by what happened to this poor woman. At times as a woman I think its better to die, than be raped, to be raped and killed its even worse. The story did get to the rest of the Israelites, after the Levite cut her up, a piece for each tribe, all Israel they were shocked at such an awful thing happening in Israel and they asked the Benjamites to give them men that had done such a bad thing and just like Africa today they chose to protect them. Isn’t that Africa we would rather protect the men that are busy looting the men and women at the top because they are from the same ‘tribe’ as we are. ‘Ni watu wetu.’The same men are living of money that could have prevented your son and daughter from dying from Malaria, or giving them a good education, or giving them good medical facilities. I mean how many times do women in Sub-Saharan Africa have to die because the hospital closest to them is 500km kilometers away and so they die giving birth, because of our people at the top. This woman was raped, the people in of Benjamin and Gibeah could have cared less, who was she anyway? It didn’t matter that the crime had taken place in their own town. They were women in Benjamin why didn’t they speak out against this crime, the resorted to fight against the Israelites. That’s the world today; imagine a leader of one country authorizing the ruthless murder of women and children in another country. Like the blood diamonds imagine Charles Taylor of Liberia backing the war in Sierra Leone. What happened a couple of years later, Liberia went into civil strife as well. Imagine all the countries that import war into the Congo because of the resources it has, isn’t that sad. Imagine all the women in their thousands being raped and infected with HIV/Aids in the DRC Congo, and now the men. Can we really afford to remain silent? Does their pain seem like a mirage to us, or do we have to wait until by the virtue of our silence, it happens to us that the pain will become real. People ask about what America could have done to stop the genocide, I also ask where was the African Union. Close to three months women, men and children were killed in their hundreds of thousands, there was France claimed to be offering weapons to the Militia at this point. The results of their silence and their resolve to protect the wicked men resulted in the destruction of an entire town, only 600 men were left, including the women and the children were put to the sword. That’s why Lord I believe that we should speak against evil, something in our hearts should be moved, the violence metted against innocent people should make our hearts grow cold in disbelief and shock. When crime takes place, when a bride loses her groom on the night before their wedding questions should be asked. Some things should be allowed in a Nation that claims to be 80% Christian. There should be tears in our eyes at the mention of such awful things. Of late there has been cases of rape that should have ripped our hearts out, the young woman who was raped in India, she died after fighting for her life for two weeks. Such violence she endure that I had to ask myself, the people that did that to her are they humans, do they have mothers, sisters and daughters, or the case in America where teenagers are joking about a girl they may have raped. Or even closer home one child who was raped and murdered in Mombasa this last week. The little girl was so innocent to have had to go through that. So what are the lessons from all of the above? • Rape destroys lives, Tamar had a whole life of her, the young woman from India was studying to be a doctor, and Absalom changed and killed the man who did that to his sister, Dinar’s brothers killed a whole town as a result. • God HATES rape and rapists, the men who gang raped the woman in the Levite’s story, they got a whole tribe nearly wiped out. • It creates hatred and anger. • No woman, man or child deserves to be raped ever… • Any persons who relates rape and clothing should be arrested because they have missed the point. Imagine all the persons with disabilities, elderly women that have been raped because they were defenseless and these crimes were carried out by persons just because they could. And that is saddest story ever, it ended up in the death of an entire tribe with only 600 people left to tell the story of a wicked crime that they should never have kept quiet about, such that they ended up paying the consequences.
