My reading of Judges 19 and 20 today filled me with a sense of sadness and fear. I initially started reading looking for the positive side of the story presented, looking for the judge that will come and deliver the people of Israel. I was filled with sadness when I read about the action and inaction of the sons of Israel and seeing how far they strayed from the desires of God. I was also filled with fear because I realize how much I am like the Israelites because our common inherent sinful nature. What was lacking that made the Israelites wander so far astray from God? Do I display their same faults that are leading me down a path of destruction and chaos just like the Israelites?
In Judges 19 we view a story of a Levite who is taking a concubine for himself from Bethlehem in Judah. In a society that gauges wealth in offspring was it common for people to have an excessive number of wives or was it just simply lust that drove these men? As this Levite travels back to his home in the hill country in Ephraim he goes to lodge in Gibeah within the region where the tribe of Benjamin dwelt. You would expect nothing to happen but the depravity has sunk so low that some men of Gibeah were seeking put the Levite to have sex with him. I thought I had turned to a wrong page for a moment because this story is very similar to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19. To appease the men the Levites concubine is given over to them and she is raped and abused throughout the evening. Was the Levite so concerned with his own safety and not that of his concubine that he was willing to throw this woman to this crowd of perverted men? There was another man who gave lodging to the Levite and he was no better because he was offering his virgin daughter to the crowd. Do the morals of these men reflect the overall view of the Israelites? The woman who was thrown to these men was left outside to die and only looked for when the Levite was ready to head for home in the morning. Earlier in Judges 19 this man was seeking to retrieve his wife from her fathers house and now she is violated and dead.
How would you get the attention of people to awake them from their lethargic and lackadaisical attitude? Many people today use email, Facebook, text messaging, and letters to convey emotion to people. In Judges 19 this Levite cuts his dead concubine into 12 pieces and sends them all throughout Israel. He says, “Nothing like this has ever happened or been seen from the day when the sons of Israel came up from the land of Egypt to this day. Consider it, take counsel and speak up!” Judges 19:30 This message was a clear wake up call to the Israelites that there was evil in their midst. Did they not see the signs that they were being corrupted from within? Was this anger of the Israelites mostly extrospective rather than introspective? Did these people see the evil that was done and realize how far they strayed from obeying God’s commands?
The men of Israel go to war against the tribe of Benjamin and the men of Gibeah in Judges 20 because of the evil that was done. It is a moment where “all the sons of Israel from Dan to Beersheba, including the land of Gilead, came out, and the congregation assembled as one man to the Lord at Mizpah.” Judges 20:1 These men were moved to act and follow God’s direction in what to do with the evil that happened within Gibeah. Was I too hasty to condemn all of Israel in falling away from God because in Judges 20:27,28 we see that the Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron was still ministering before the Ark of the Covenant. It is easy to see all the Israelites as falling away but in Judges we are given glimpses of the disobedience and the imperfect delivers that God raised up. Was this Levite acting as a judge for Israel?
After the battle between the sons of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin it was found that only 600 men remained from the 26,000 that went to battle from the tribe and upwards of 40,000 men from the other tribes of Israel were killed. This fight was nothing less than a civil war among the children of Israel. I cannot fathom the pain that was felt where brother was fighting brother. As the Israelites continually drifted father away from God it lead to them turning upon each other. The people forgot to love God with all their heart, all their mind, all their soul, and all their strength as well as to love their neighbor as themselves. If the people were marked by their love for God and their love for people would things have turned out differently? As I seek to love God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength as well as my neighbor then I will have God’s desire as my motive in life which will guard against me falling as the Israelites did.
