I have been doing the Beth Moore bible study on David at church with a bunch of women. Last week, one of the day's homework really made me think. The topic was the Inhumanity of Humanity, talking about when King Saul was in pursuit of David because the people liked David more and Saul felt threatened. David had gone to a priest named Ahimelech and asked for some food for David and his men. David deceived the priest and the priest helped him. Saul found out and ordered that priest and all others in that town killed. Eighty-five priests and everyone else in that town was slaughtered, with only one escaping, Ahimelech the priest that helped David. Ahimelech went and joined David and his army. Because of the jealousy of King Saul, many people lost their lives. (1 Samuel 21-22)
I happened to be sitting invigilating an exam while I was doing my bible study homework when I came across the question, "When was the last time you were stunned by the depravity of humanity?" Immediately my response was The Tolerance Zone. About 3 months ago, I was in Colombia on a missions trip with my church. It was simply an amazing, life altering experience in many ways, but one event that occurred will never be forgotten. We went on a tour of what they call the "tolerance zone", an area of the city where law enforcement turns a blind eye to what is going on. There were blocks of tiled store fronts, each with a few chairs in the "window" and a hallway. We were in the prostitution district. Girls literally sat in the window until someone came along to purchase some time with them. There was one young woman who looked directly at us; her image will forever be seared in my brain.
The next question was, "How did you sort through your feelings about the situation?" I sat and thought about it and came to the conclusion that I really hadn't sorted through it. I sat watching these people taking this exam and inside I was feeling so helpless and so hopeless. I tried to pray for the girls we had seen, but I wasn't getting far with it. After sitting there contemplating it all for about 5 minutes, I needed to go on; my heart was too heavy. I couldn't allow myself to remain stuck. In the study, Beth Moore went on to reference Psalm 52, which was written by David about the time of the slaughter of the priests. It was written directed at the man responsible for the slaughter.
Psalm 52
1 Why do you boast of evil, you mighty man?
Why do you boast all day long,
you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God?
2 Your tongue plots destruction;
it is like a sharpened razor,
you who practice deceit.
3 You love evil rather than good,
falsehood rather than speaking the truth.
Selah
4 You love every harmful word,
O you deceitful tongue!
5 Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin:
He will snatch you up and tear you from your tent;
he will uproot you from the land of the living.
Selah
6 The righteous will see and fear;
they will laugh at him, saying,
7 “Here now is the man
who did not make God his stronghold
but trusted in his great wealth
and grew strong by destroying others!”
8 But I am like an olive tree
flourishing in the house of God;
I trust in God’s unfailing love
for ever and ever.
9 I will praise you forever for what you have done;
in your name I will hope, for your name is good.
I will praise you in the presence of your saints.
Beth came up with four conclusions:
"1. God is not the author of destruction.
2. God will repay evil.
3. Our hope must be in God.
4. No matter how bad things look, God is good.
In the face of unimaginable horror, we must cast our imaginations on Christ, our only hope. His Word will be our anchor when our faith is tossed like the waves."
After reading all of that I remembered something. When we were at the Farm, what they call a "reparenting place" where children from the streets of Bogota can grow up to learn a new and different way of life - a life of love and hope, I met one young girl, who may have been about 5, whose smile stole our hearts. The missionary shared her story with me. T was the granddaughter of a prostitute. The grandmother raised her daughters to be prostitutes because that was all she knew, but she wanted her granddaughter to have a better life, so T gets to live on the farm, a beautiful place in the mountains.
So how did I end up sorting through my feelings that day? I prayed for the young women I saw in those tiled storefronts, but focused on the positive by thinking of T.
No matter what is going on in life, we need to take it to God; leaving the justice in His hands; putting our hope in Him to take care of the situation and us and remembering that no matter what, God is good. We may not always understand why things happen the way they do, but we can't see the big picture like our God can. I want to be able to say, like David, that "I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God’s unfailing love for ever and ever."
