Title: Stay away from cheap love
Judges (48) Stay away from cheap love (Judges 19:16-25)
< Cowardly Levite religious leader >
The Levite brought his wife, who had fled from him, from his father-in-law's house, and in the evening he stayed at Gibeah, where the children of Benjamin lived. But no one looked at them. At that time, a kind old man from the hill country of Ephraim, who was living in Gibeah, took him to his house and treated them generously (verse 21).
Then the neighborhood bullies knocked on the door of the house and said to the old man. “Bring out anyone who enters your house. We will have a relationship with him (verse 22).” In this verse, the word 'to engage in' means 'to have sexual intercourse'. The bad guys were trying to get a Levite out to have homosex. Then the old man told the guests of his house not to do such blasphemous and evil deeds (verse 24). “Behold, here is my virgin daughter and this man's concubine. I will bring them down, and if you reproach them, do what is good in your eyes, but do not do such vile things to this Levite!”
The old man's suggestion was not listened to by the bullies. They were only interested in abnormal homosexuality rather than sexual activity of the opposite sex. When such an urgent situation unfolded, the Levite first seized his concubine and dragged him out to them. Then, the rogues fell in love with the concubine's beauty, gang-raped and humiliated him all night, and then released him at dawn (v.
The appearance of this Levite is at the height of selfishness and cowardice. He confessed that he loved him and gave the concubine whom he brought with him as a target for gang rape in order to protect his life before his mouth dried up. In this scene, we can get a rough idea of the character and character of the Levite and the circumstances between them. Summing up, this story is presumed.
< Stay away from cheap love >
One day, a Levite with a pretty good-looking wife went somewhere and met a beautiful helper who served people. As we continued to meet, she was beautiful, but she had a pretty good family, and she was feminine and warm. So, as a confession of love covered in candy, he asked me to become his wife. Although she was interested in marrying a married man, she was usually polite and warm, and she was also attracted to the fact that she was a very religious person, so she eventually became his concubine.
Their usual relationship wasn't bad. But there were times when his true nature was revealed. When I had trouble planting, or when I drank only wine, I spit on my hands, or swear a lot, and said derogatory words, “I was a waitress…”. At first, I was patient. It's because if you feel better or just wake up from drinking, you'll beg for something you've done wrong and do it well. However, as this happened over and over again, she eventually ran away to her father's house saying that she could no longer live with her.
The Levite spoke well and could control public opinion at any time, so when people asked why she ran away, she said in order to protect her prestige. “I have a strong sexual desire, so I keep meeting other men.” If so, would she have left her husband and fled to the government house, or to her father's house? It is presumed that the biblical record of committing fornication and leaving a man is probably from the point of view of a Levite.
The Levite did not care that his concubine had left. It was because he was able to meet other women as long as he had the same appearance and status. However, no matter how much she met another woman, it was difficult to find a woman with the beauty of a concubine who ran away and with a good heart. As time passed, I remembered more. So, after promising that I would never say anything degrading with a hand-held sword again, I went to the father-in-law to find a concubine to bring him home.
When the father-in-law saw that the Levite son-in-law came to his daughter to ask for forgiveness and was about to take her away, the father-in-law treated the Levite with the utmost sincerity in the sense that the son-in-law wanted his daughter to love him more. Also, when he saw that his Levite concubine also came to him, begging for forgiveness and pleading that he would never act like he did in the past, he opened up his heart and decided to follow him again. In the world's words, "Because of his affection!" The Levites were accepted again.
In the end, her choice was the wrong one. The problem is that he accepted the love of words that were only expressed in love because of his affection. Sometimes you have to be adamant. In particular, you should not forgive easily when swearing and swearing between husband and wife. No matter how much you drink and do it in a crazy situation, you cannot easily tolerate such a habit. Drinking habits, talking habits, and hand habits are not easy to change. If you open your heart again in a situation where that habit is not clearly corrected, your suffering will not stop. Even if you try to live by sacrificing yourself, you must not live with suffering.
How many wives today suffer because of their husbands who have bad drinking habits, talking habits, and hands-on habits? Inflict serious damage with wrong words and deeds and then say, “Wrong! Forgive me! I love you!” I wish. Then he accepts it again because of his affection. How many people are unhappy with such ‘in-home stalkers’? Forgiving easily then is not a good forgiveness, because easy forgiveness only makes the person who commits the wrong repeatedly worse.
Even if you have forgiven everything in your heart, you should not accept it easily. If you tolerate it easily, bad habits will not be broken. Please accept the confession of true love that precedes repentance. However, do not open your heart easily and do not be deceived when asking for forgiveness as they come to you under the pretense of love as a solution to pleasure and loneliness. If you are deceived by it, the door of hardship will continue to open brightly due to the continued ‘stalker in the home’.
In the end, following the Levite because of his affection was the path of death. He was in good shape, had a religious position, and seduced people with plausible words, but to this Levite, other people were merely objects of use. If you look closely, you can see that the fratricide that occurred later was also to blame for the rogues of Gibeah, but it was also due to the bad Levite religion. Thousands of people have lost their lives by one bad, hypocritical religious.
There are things in the world that you need to be most careful about for a happy life. It is a confession of good love that is shown by a person who has bad drinking habits, speech habits, and hand habits. It is the same concept as surrendering the soul to idolatry and superstitious religion. Even if you love, there are things you need to love while temporarily staying away from them, and even if you forgive, there are things you need to forgive while temporarily staying away from them.
Love and forgiveness without justice and truth cannot be true love and forgiveness that work together for good. Even now, there are not one or two people who followed the confession of false love because of his affection and entered the shadow of misery, wounds and death. Cheap grace is a problem, but cheap love is also a problem. Stay away from cheap love. The reason why the God of love sometimes appears as a righteous judge in the Bible is because love based on justice is true love.