When God Writes the Prequel for Scream 8 (New blog post)

When God's stories sound more like Scream 4 than Mother Goose, it messes me up.  In Judges 19-21, we have a story so gruesome that it would be a R rated movie AFTER they cut out half the scenes.  I don't know that it would even get funding, it's so bad.

The story is about a guy who has a lover/half wife.  She cheats on him, then leaves and goes home to another part of the country.  After a while, he decides he does want her, and goes to get her.  The father in law is a manipulative guy, and keeps them both around a lot longer than the husband wants to stay.  Finally, they leave.  The husband is arrogant, and ignores good advice on the trip, putting the family at risk because of his racist attitudes.  When they finally stop, its in a dangerous place.  An old farmer takes them in, because he is kind and is worried about the family's safety.  That night, the men of this creepy town come, and call for the old farmer to send out the man so they can rape him.  The farmer won't, and in desperation, offers his daughter and the man's lover.  They refuse, and demand the man come out.  The farmer sends out the man's lover instead.  They abuse her for hours, and leave her for dead.  She crawls back to the doorstep of the farmer's house, where she dies alone.

Meanwhile, the guy is asleep in the house, completely not caring about his girlfriend.  He sleeps in, and when he finally wakes up, he finds her on the doorstep, where she died trying to get back in the house.  He tells her "Get up, let's go".  Only then does he realize she's dead.  He takes her body, goes home, and decides what to do.

If this movie isn't terrifying enough at this point, it goes downhill fast here.  He cuts up her body and mails parts of it to all of his family around the country in order to get them stirred up and angry.  This ignites a gang battle / civil war that ends up splitting the country into pieces, results in thirty thousand people dying needlessly, and in the kidnap and slavery of dozens of more women before the story ends.

Oh yeah, did I mention, that the guy in the story is a pastor?

That is messed up.  And unfortunately it is a true story about the people who were supposed to be following God and showing His love and compassion to the world.  It's not a script from some warped mind.  It's historical non-fiction.

It's also a reminder of what happens when we quit listening to God in our lives.  This story comes at the end of the book of Judges, which is packed full of stories of God's nation as they continually refused to listen to Him and change.  It's our story.  As gruesome as it is, we can each become this destructive when we try to live life on our own terms. 

Just consider the fact that we go to movies with stories like this, and consider them "entertainment".  Are we that far off then?

The book of Judges is a wake up call of God's concern and love for us, and our severe need to depend on Him each day, and live each moment by His plans as best we can.  We are called to be a people of beauty and light, grace and hope, peace and joy.  Does that describe your interactions today?  Yesterday? 

Or do we line up more with the self absorbed, bitter, pastor in the book of Judges?

The story is a shocker, and it is intended to shock us into evaluating where and how we live as part of His Kingdom.

Does it work?

Or is it just a story?

Taking a Turn from the Worst

There is a fairly famous verse in Deuteronomy 4 that goes like this:

"29 But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul."

In church, we often talk about how comforting this verse is, how encouraging it is.  We read it, discuss it, and quote it. We make pretty posters with it on them.  We cross stitch it into wall hangings.  We ... well, you get the point.

And often we misunderstand it.

We live our lives doing our best to follow God and obey Him.  We try and try, and have a mixture of success and failure.  But at some point, all of us fail in big ways.  We fall flat on our faces, we blow it, we make fools of ourselves and our faith.  For a few of us, it's in a big, ugly, public way and we feel humiliated.  For many of us, its in more private ways, where we know we've messed up, and wonder if God could ever forgive us.

On those days, this verse may not feel encouraging.  We haven't been seeking God with all our heart and all our soul, and we've made a complete mess out of everything.  Now we are too far gone, and there's no coming back.  Things can begin to feel very, very, very hopeless.

If only we would read the rest of the verses around this one verse.
 
"24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. 25 After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time—if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and arousing his anger,26 I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed.27 The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the Lord will drive you.28 There you will worship gods of wood and stone made by human hands, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.29 But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.30 When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey him.
31 For the Lord your God is a merciful God;"

Did you catch that?  This verse is packed into a section where Moses tells the people what will happen to them if they disobey God.  They are getting ready to inherit this huge blessing, and Moses is desperately trying to warn them.  If they wander from God, they will lose everything.  They will worship fake Gods, and turn their back on the real God.  If they get really, really ugly about it, God will take away their blessing (the land) and ship them off to other lands.  Once they get there, if they STILL won't turn around, it will get worse.  At this point, they are about as far from God as they can get in their hearts, they are stubborn, they have lost everything, and He is MAD at them.

Then comes our little verse: 


"29 But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul." 


And do you catch how it ends?  

"31 For the Lord your God is a merciful God;"


He is, you know.  He loves us, and when we are truly broken, when we want God, He is there waiting for us.  He doesn't want us to come to Him as perfect people who never mess up, He just wants us to come to Him.


I don't know what it is you've done.  I'm sure it's been painful.  But He is waiting.  No matter how bad your mess is, it isn't as bad as what the Hebrew's did.


And it was into their mess that God sent Jesus.


He still does the same thing today.

Sickos, Angels, Fireballs, and Salt

In Genesis 19-21, God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah.  It's a rough, rough story.  God sends the two angels into the city, and Lot tries to protect them in his house.  He knew what would happen to them if they stayed on the street.  Every guy in the city shows up, and wants the men given to them so they can rape them.  Yep.  It's that ugly.

Here's the thing.  Lot knew the city was like that, and yet he stayed.  He wasn't acting as a good influence on them, and he was raising his daughters in that city.  Why would you live in a city like that, when you could move ten miles away and be completely out of that influence?

It's the same question as asking "Why do we keep watching movies that we know are teaching us values that are not what God wants?" or "Why do we keep going back to those websites, even though they are full of junk that's rotting our soul?" or "Why do we keep trying to impress those friends when we know they are pulling us away from God?"  It's all the same.  Yet we do it, just like Lot.

So God sends the angels in, and they have to physically, literally drag Lot and his family out of the city before it's destroyed.  Lot knows it's going to be destroyed.  He completely believes the end is coming.  Yet, they have to drag him out.  It's so hard to leave sometimes when we have so much invested in sin.  It is what we know, and it feels like we have some control over our lives.  But really, IT owns US.  And we're afraid to leave it behind.

Once they leave, they bargain with God to reduce the pain.  He grants it.  And then, his wife can't take it.  She stops and looks back, longingly.  She wants what is being destroyed in the city more that the future God has laid out for them.  God promises if they will move forward and trust Him, even though they have been living in filth, He will use them in great ways.  She doesn't care.  She looks back.  And she dies for it.  It kills her.

What are you and I holding onto that God is telling us to leave behind?  What do we run to, that is actually destroying our souls?  Will you let it go, walk away, and never come back?