April 6: Judges 19-21

April 6, Judges 19-21

Congratulations, you made it through another book of the Old Testament! We learned about the downward spiral of Israel and how their disobedience has extreme ramifications. But fear not, God will redeem! However, today’s reading shows how morbid and fallen the Israelites have become…

Judges 19 stands on its own as one of the most gruesome and disturbing stories in the entire Bible. We learn about a Levite that was traveling in Ephraim and he had taken a concubine from Bethlehem. But the Concubine was unfaithful to him, and left him to go back to her fathers house, back in Bethlehem, which was in Judah, for about four months. The first thing that we should look at, was that this man, was from the tribe of Levi. Those from the tribe of Levi, were suppose to be devoted priests to the Lord. What was this man, doing with a concubine in the first place? But it doesn't stop there. The husband decided to go after her, and to take care of her. Her dad’s hospitality is second to none, and keeps the husband for days, feasting and drinking. Finally, it was time to go, so the Levite and his concubine and servants left to go home. It was later in the day, and they came across a non-Israelite town, but the Levite decided to keep traveling to an Israelite city instead, so that they would be safe and in the cities of Israel. This proves to be a fatal choice. They get to Gibeah, a Benjamite city, to stay the night. Unfortunately, nobody would invite them in to stay the evening. Then an old man comes, who was not from that town but was staying there while he worked there, and he invites them to his place, so they didn't have to sleep in the town square. 

As the evening rolled on, some of the cities leaders, came to the house and wanted to have homosexual relations with the Levite. The old man, refused them and offered his virgin daughter and the visitor's concubine instead. Now, let's pause this for a minute. Where have you heard this story before? Doesn't it sound familiar? Let me help you out. Judges 19 states: ²² As they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, worthless fellows, surrounded the house, beating on the door. And they said to the old man, the master of the house, “Bring out the man who came into your house, that we may know him.” ²³ And the man, the master of the house, went out to them and said to them, “No, my brothers, do not act so wickedly; since this man has come into my house, do not do this vile thing. ²⁴ Behold, here are my virgin daughter and his concubine. Let me bring them out now. Violate them and do with them what seems good to you, but against this man do not do this outrageous thing.” ²⁵ But the men would not listen to him. So the man seized his concubine and made her go out to them. And they knew her and abused her all night until the morning. And as the dawn began to break, they let her go. ²⁶ And as morning appeared, the woman came and fell down at the door of the man's house where her master was, until it was light. Now let us go back to the event of the angels visiting Lot in Sodom before the Lord destroyed it. In Genesis 19 it states:  4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. 5 And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.” 6 Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, 7 and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. 8 Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.” 9 But they said, “Stand back!” And they said, “This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.” Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew near to break the door down. 10 But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them and shut the door. 11 And they struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of the house, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out groping for the door.

Do you see the similarities? They are almost identical. First you have visitors from foreign lands who were both going to stay in the middle of town, in the town square. Both of these stories have godly men who let the visitors stay in their home. Both of these stories have the host, giving a feast to the visitors. Both of these stories have men from the town surround the house, and ask for the men visitors so they can rape them. Both of the stories have the 'godly' hosts offer up their women to appease the crowd. And both of the stories have the crowd of men, refuse to listen to the offer. These stories are almost identical. Not only are they both in Chapter 19. Even some of the activities and statements made are exact. Such as: "surrounded the house", "Bring out the man who came into your house, that we may know him", and "my brothers, do not act so wickedly." These parallel stories are showing us, that it has gotten so bad in Israel, that they are mimicking the ways of Sodom, that brought Sodom to its demise. But something worse happened. After the men begged for the Levite… the Levite, instead of seeking God to intervene for his safety, like that of Lot. Took matters into his own hand, and grabbed his concubine, and throw her outside to the men of the city. Which they gang raped her all night. In the morning, she found her way to the porch, and died. Here this Levite was supposed to uphold and keep God's law, protecting the weak, he instead threw his woman out for his own safety, it is hard to debate which one was the more wicked, the Levite or the townsmen. As his poor concubine was left to the most horrible death imaginable, as the Levite sits safely in the house, most likely listening to the sounds of his screaming wife all night, without him going out there to protect those that needed protecting. Surely things were as bad in Israel as they were in the days of Sodom. Then in the morning after the horrible night, we see a heartless side of the Levite. He wakes up to leave and opens the door and calls for her to, "Get up, let us be going..." He doesn't even help her or ask if she is alright. Really, this whole story is backwards to how a Husband is suppose to act and protect. Then, we see how calloused the Levite is, as the husband shows no mercy on her. He is outraged and his actions are atrocious. He takes his dead concubine, and cuts her up into twelve pieces and sends parts of her body to every tribe in Israel - declaring war on the Benjamites. This shows the wickedness of the Israelites of the time. Here is a Levite. I know I keep saying that, but it is a major point. The Levites were supposed to the keepers of the heart and Law of God Almighty. And this Levite was farthest thing from the heart and Law of God Almighty. By cutting up his concubine, as an example, shows that he had no concern for the human body of his 'beloved', to even give her the proper burial she deserved, as she laid down her life for him, even though she was forced to. This bloody, sick, depraved act of cutting her up, as a physical illustration of the 'threat against his life is something, that only those in Sodom would have agreed with, as the Bible states, "Such a thing has never happened" like this in Israel before, and this was only the beginning...

Judges 20 The Israelites came together to seek counsel on how to proceed with this crazy Levite who used the body of his concubine to make a point. Although he wanted to start a civil war and purge the evil from among them, it also shows how perverse they were at this time. But they gathered together to see what was to be done. They were at least showing an effort in seeking the will of God. This was of paramount importance, as the Benjamite’s were one of them - an Israelite tribe and this would call for civil war. The Levite shared the story of what happened, to those who assembled from all the tribes of Israel. The Levite tells his story; how the men of the city wanted to kill him, and that they killed his concubine, all the while skipping most of the self condemning points of the story and the homosexual intent. The men of Israel all decided that they would send 10% of their troops to fight against the wicked men from Benjamin. They were united. But when they got there, the Benjamite’s refused to give up their wicked and perverted leaders over to Israel, and thus the civil war had begun. They finally inquired of the Lord and the Lord told them to have Judah go first in battle. The first battle was violent as 22,000 Israelites died. You have to remember that both of the sides of the civil war were Israelites, so this is the total number from both sides. All the while, the Israelites were saddened that so many of their people from the tribes of Israel as a whole, had died. They then sought the Lord again for the next battle. It also was a blood bath, killing 18,000 of them. The third time, the Lord told them He would give the Benjamite’s into their hands. The Israelites set up an ambush and conquered Benjamin in that hard battle, and massacred over 25,000 of those from the tribe of Benjamin. As they hoped to purge the evil from among them. But sadly, we didn't see the evil stop there… 

Judges 21 Again, we learn about the consequences of making rash promises and idiotic choices. When the men of Israel were deciding on what to do, they had made a vow to not give any of their daughters to any man from Benjamin. Unfortunately, that meant that the tribe of Benjamin would be decimated from that point further - one of their own tribes. So they inquired to whom wasn't bothered by the concubines dead body part, to come for the destruction of Benjamin. And one town was MIA. A little town they think was in East Manasseh's territory, one of the sons of Joseph. This little town, was going to be the resolve for another terrible act. They vow to attack this little town, kill all the people there and steal 400 virgin woman for the men who are Benjaminites, to take as wives. Do you think this is a horrible idea? How are they thinking they can do a bunch of evil things to make something else right? I have no idea. But this is what happens when serving and obeying God have been taken out of the picture, and a bunch of men gather around to come up with plans from among their own evil hearts. How could they overlook the sin of murder? Kind of like how the tribes of Israel over-looked the brutal hacking up of the concubines body, so were they about to do the same thing, and over look the sin of murdering, to come up with a solution for some wives. But the wives they stole from that little town, wasn't enough and they needed more wives. So what did they do? Leave it for God to figure out? Or were they going to take matters into their own hands? Well. you guessed it. They took matters into their own hand and decided that about 20 miles away there was soon going to be a yearly feast to the Lord, in Shiloh. They planned that at this feast to the Lord, if a girl came to dance the virgin dance, thus revealing her availability, they could steal their new wives. They told the plan to the men alive from the tribe of Benjamin, and they liked the plan. They traveled to Shiloh and waited in the bushes, for the right time for them to kidnap their new wives. Seriously makes no sense for those that are called to God. Here all the Israelites came together to purge the evil from among them, and they ended up causing more evil. How is this possible? Without God, all these evil things are possible. The sins that the Israelites have committed in these last 3 chapters unveils the evilness that had infected Israel like a flesh-eating disease. It really was unbelievable how much they sinned, in trying to eliminate sin. Without the leading of the Lord, we will only go from bad to worse, justifying some sins and overlooking other sins, all the while, thinking that we are doing what is right, but in the end only doing what is right in our own eyes.

To sum it all up:

• Two wrongs do not make a right. These chapters illustrate for us what life can look like if you walk away from God and pursue whatever you feel is right. Are you pursuing you own pleasures or are you living a servant lifestyle in obedience to Christ?