The time of the Judges

Judges 21:25 At that time there was no king in Israel. People did whatever they felt like doing. There was a king though, God was supposed to be ruling over Israel. But people forgot that and made up the rules as they went along. By this time, the end of Judges, we have a story of rape, murder and more than one bloody massacre. In other words, chaos. This is what happens when people set themselves up to rule their own little fiefdoms. And there the 12 Tribes were breaking apart! A man traveling thought he would be safer staying the night in an Israelite town, a Benjaminite town, rather than one ruled by "foreignors" (the Jebusites). He discovers total lawlessness, gives his concubine to be gang-raped and murdered to save himself, and then calls all the other tribes to seek revenge. So from one horrible wrong, everything escalates until you have Israelites slaughtering Israelites, and then kidnapping foreign women to be the wives of what's left of the tribe of Benjamin, in whose city the whole thing started. A brutal and bloodthirsty time.
Prayer: Dear God, I am so fortunate to live in a place and at a time which is relatively peaceful and under the rule of law and order. Open my heart to the sufferings of those who are not so fortunate: those who live in open warfare, who are the victims of genocide, refugees living in limbo and others who are oppressed and in danger. Touch their hearts with your presence that they might know how you love and cherish them even in the midst of the suffering they endure. Amen.