The moral condition of Israel has gone down to the same level
of the moral depravity the Canaanites. Compare
Joshua
24:30 with Judges 2:10. Apostasy from God and rejection of the truth is always followed by moral corruption.[1] The time is similar to that of the
days of Noah and Lot. In fact, Jesus makes reference to this in Lk. 17:28-30 and draws a parallel between these days and
the times which are to precede
the coming of the Son of Man. Evidences of such
moral corruption and violence exist today in abundance.
THE TEXT EXAMINED
19:1
In those days when there was no
king in Israel… This section relates
one of the most shocking episodes of Israel's history. It is truly tragic. It all begins
with a wrong relationship between
a Levite and his concubine. [2]
19:2 The concubine leaves her husband. Their relationship enters into its inevitable
difficulties. No woman plays the second
fiddle well, and so she becomes
unfaithful and leaves him and moves
back to her father's house in Bethlehem.
19:3 After four months, the Levite
decides that he wants her back. They appeared to reconcile and her father was happy to receive him. But, it’s time to get back.
19:4-10 The girl's father really wanted him
to stay and tried to delay their
departure. This happened again and again until the Levite finally said, "I'm leaving." They leave and end up at Jebus (Jerusalem), which, at this time was not yet in Israelite hand.
19:11-14 Unwilling to stay among the foreigners, the
Levite felt it would be safer to be among
the people of Israel. He was very wrong.
He landed up in Gibeah (the birthplace of Saul)
belonging to the tribe of Benjamin.
19:15 The people of Gibeah showed no customary hospitality - this is the first
indication that this city is evil.
19:16-21 An old man takes them in. This old
man was not a Benjamite, but he was living in Gibeah. He
inquired about their situation. The Levite explained that even though they had
enough provisions, no one had offered them a place to stay. Knowing that this
was not a safe city, the old man said, "Don't
spend the night in the town square, come to my house."
19:22-25 The sin of the men of Gibeah: The men of Gibeah
are a morally perverse bunch. They
demanded that the old man give them the Levite for their sexual satisfaction. With a similar response to Lot in Genesis
19, the old man offers them the women from the household, rather than the
men. Gibeah has become the new Sodom. All
this is written as a matter of fact and without any attempt to
make it sound less harsh. Everything written here is meant
to shock us.
19:26-30 The result of this was one of the
worst and shocking things recorded in
all of Scripture - the gang rape of a woman, resulting in her death. The Levite
calls for justice from the tribes of Israel by cutting her up into 12 parts, sending a shockwave
throughout Israel : “Such a thing has
never happened…”.
20:1-7 400,000 Israelites gather at Mizpah, in outrage
to punish the people of Gibeah for this
deed (20:8-11)
20:12-14 Investigating the crime : Instead of agreeing that the crime was awful
and that the men should be killed, the Benjamites defended the men, and armed
themselves to fight against the rest of Israel. They would rather
defend Gibeah than practise justice.
Perversity is pervasive[3].
20:15-17 Benjamin was a powerful opponent. 26 000 Benjamites
came to the aid of the 700 Benjamite warriors in Gibeah.
You would think that this is going to be a short battle. But not so. Benjamin was a very
powerful and skilled warrior tribe.
20:18-28 :
Why did God not give the
Benjamites immediately into the hands of
Israel? The most likely answer is that
the rest of Israel itself was not guiltless. They needed learn humility.
20:29-48: Victory over Benjamin. Almost
every one of Benjamin's warriors was wiped out. Only 600 men survived.
21:1 ..."No
one of us shall give his daughter to Benjamin in marriage." Now that most of Benjamin’s tribe was dead, it looked like the entire tribe might become
extinct.
21:4- 24 Mercy prevails: Wives are found for the remnant of Benjamin. 400
virgins were found from Jabesh Gilead , and more were found by
kidnapping from among the daughters of Shiloh.
21:25 “In
those days there was no king in Israel.
Everyone did what was right in his own eyes”. This is a good summary of the entire book. When
God is only given lip service, when religious service replaces a vital relationship with God, and when
wickedness is allowed to prevail, this is the situation we find ourselves in.
Does this not have a
contemporary ring about it ?
SUMMARY :
- The Bible does not attempt to avoid sin or gloss over the great shortcomings of God’s people in history. This report is meant to shock us.
- The overall intention is to depict the depravity of God’s people at this time, and this is an extreme example. This is the point of 19:29,30. The depth of this depravity is also mentioned by Hosea in 9:9, 10:9. The peak of this sexual perversity is manifested supremely in the sin of homosexuality.
- Everyone and everything in these chapters displays this sinful twistedness, whether it is the concubine who was unfaithful (19:2) or the Levite who practises self preservation (19:25), the slaughter of the entire tribe of Benjamin (20:1-48) ; the slaughter of the town of Jabesh Gilead who did not come up to the LORD at Mizpah (21:8-12) and the kidnapping of the girls at Shiloh (21:19-24).
- The writer of the Judges brief and matter of fact summary is contained in 19:1 and 21: 25. The root of it all is each man doing whatever was right in his own eyes. Each man here refers to those that were part of the OT covenant church. This is not the world out there. It is the church of the OT which displays such unspeakable wickedness. Much of the modern church has become the greatest exporter and promoter of sin.
- Grand lesson: Woe to those that trivialize God and do not take Him seriously. They shall be handed over. Romans 1:18 – 32 shows us what happens when God hands a people over. The visible result of that is sexual promiscuity, of which homosexuality is the peak!
[1] Rom.
1:26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32
[2]
A concubine was a lawful wife who was guaranteed only food, clothing,
and marital privileges (Ex. 21:7-11; Dt.
21:10-14). Any children she bore would be considered legitimate; but
because of her second-class status, they wouldn't necessarily share in the
family inheritance (Gen.25:1-6). If
a man's wife was barren, he sometimes took a concubine so he could establish a
family. Though the law controlled such a
relationship, it was never a part of God’s original design. Several of the patriarchs had children with
concubines including Abraham with Hagar (Gen.
16); Jacob with Bilhah and Zilpah (Gen.
30:4-13) Several other OT men had concubines, including Gideon, Saul,
David, and Solomon. It should be noted however that although a concubine was,
in a sense, a legal mistress, we never see such a family life blessed by God!
[3] D.R.
Davies : Christian Focus Publications ; Judges , p.215
