Judges 19 -- GLAD It's Over

I had to push on and get this over with!  It’s some of the worst stuff you’ll read in the Bible!

 

A Levite – someone who was supposed to be set aside by God for Temple service – took a slave woman as a concubine.  She was unfaithful to him and ran home to daddy for protection.  The Levite went after her, reconciled, and after 5 or so days partying with her father, he insisted on leaving way too late in the day, which resulted in hazardous travel.

 

Arriving in Gibeah, no one extended typical Middle Eastern hospitality by offering them a place to stay.  Only late at night did an older man take them to his home.  By this time, though, the men of Gibeah, in a scene which reminds us of Lot’s story, had surrounded the house, demanding the Levite be turned over to them for sex!  Our Western ways hardly prepare us for what happened next.  The host turned over his daughter to them, and the Levite’s concubine was tossed out the door as well to save his own skin!  The Levite actually went to sleep while his concubine was being gang-raped!  To top it off, the next morning he opened the door and saw her lying there.  He said, “Get up!”  She couldn’t hear him because she’d died.  He loaded her body on his animal, traveled home, then dismembered her body and shipped it to the leaders of the tribes of Israel.  This caused a national stir and a cry for war against Benjamin if the offenders weren’t delivered for trial.  Yet the leaders of Benjamin dug in their heels, and battles ensued.  The other eleven tribes lost 40,000 men before wiping out all but 600 remaining men of Benjamin, having also destroyed all the women and children of the tribe as well.

 

It was then that it hit them – one of the 12 tribes of Israel was about to become extinct!  They had to walk a tightrope around all of their rash pledges in order to prevent that from happening.  They’d sworn not to give their daughters to men of that tribe.  But being the connivers they were, they discovered one tribe had a city whose men did not make the meeting.  Claiming failure to defend the nation, they destroyed those men and their wives and found 400 young girls to solve 2/3 of the problem. 

 

They then hatched a final plot, wherein their own daughters would be “kidnapped” at a festival by the remaining 200 men to be taken as wives.  Since they weren’t giving them, they wouldn’t be guilty of breaking their oath.  They were so concerned about “doing things right” and not at all concerned with “doing the right things”.

 

“All this carnage and destruction happened because one Levite didn’t have the courage to stand up for what was right and treat his concubine honorably. … the problem started in the home.  As goes the home, so goes the nation,” my commentary said.

 

Father, we’ve all faced struggles at home as well.  I want Your wisdom and guidance, and I need Your intervention on my behalf.  Lead me to lead them.  Help us to remove our blinders, see where Satan attacks, and defend our families.  I don’t want to be doing nothing if my family is crumbling.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford