Judges 19:1-30 And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel… These two questions were usually proposed of old to the traveller, by the inhabitants of any district through which he might be passing; nor were they unnatural in a state of society wherein the infrequency of journeying must have rendered the appearance of a stranger a matter of curiosity, and where, owing to the want of houses of public entertainment, hospitality was an important and necessary duty. What are we all, in truth, but wayfaring men — journeying towards a city of habitation? We are, like this Levite, sojourners passing through the streets — guests that tarry but a night, and who require only a temporary shelter. Whence come we? and whither are we going? 1. The former of these questions, if generally considered, might be answered by remembering that we have no reason to vaunt of our origin, since that is but of yesterday, and of the earth. "Why is dust and ashes proud?" If a recollection of our lowly origin might thus subdue the imperious, and liberalise the selfish, a sense of our sinful extraction ought in no less measure to abase the self-dependent. "Whence come we?" Some among us have come from the suffering of affliction. Have we been purified in that furnace? Has the storm, pelting on the wayfaring man, accelerated his homeward pace? Others have come from experiencing remarkable instances of the Divine mercy. They have come from some of the smooth plots of greensward, the isles of palm-trees in the waste. How have they profited by the blessing? Have they thanklessly attributed their success to good fortune, or boldly to their own arm, instead of acknowledging the hand of the Father of lights? Have they tithed the bounty to poverty and distress? 2. It has been said (though the remark is a quaint conceit) that the heathen deity Janus, from whom the first month in our year derives its name, was described in the ancient mythology as having two faces, the one looking on the past, and the other on the future. But there hardly needs so fanciful an allusion as this to advance our contemplations from the irrevocable past to the solemn future. On that future let us next direct our forethought, turning our attention from our origin to our destination, "Whither goest thou?" We are travelling in a circle. We are hastening back to the earth, from whence we proceeded. Dust we are, and unto dust we shall return. 3. Place now these two questions together; view the line of life from its commencement to its termination; consider the past with reference to the future, and the future as a continuation of the past. If there be any who have arrived at the present season from a year, or a life, which they can review only with shame and sorrow — who, to the question, "Whence comest thou? " can only reply, like Satan to Jehovah, "We come from going to and fro in the earth, and from wandering up and down in it"— let them think of the end of those hitherto squandered days, to which they are ever speeding, and know not how near they are come, that they may, if possible, redeem the time that is past, and improve that which is passing. (J. Grant, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the side of mount Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Bethlehemjudah. |
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