AM Bible Study Group; October 21, 2015 from Judges 19:1-30
Theme: This story shows us how far into sin people descended when “everyone did what was right in his own eyes”.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
In this section of the Book of Judges–a very unpleasant section indeed!–we have been seeing what happens when, as it says in Judges 17:6, “there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” As the law of God was ignored, and people became a law unto themselves, we’ve seen a dreadful decline unfold. Chapter 17 described the religious decline of the people of Israel; Chapter 18 the civil decline and the loss of justice and safety; and now, Chapter 19 a complete moral breakdown in Israel.
The events of this chapter are truly among the most horrible in the Bible. They bear such a striking parallel to the things described in Genesis 19 that it can be described as “Sodom Revisited”. And they show us the moral depths to which mankind can sink when untethered from the law of God.
I. THE LEVITE PURSUES HIS CONCUBINE (vv. 1-3).
The story is told “in those days” (that is, in the days of Chapters 17-18, and around the time of the false religion started by Micah), that the concubine of a Levite in Ephriam went away from him. If your first impulse is to feel that a concubine was the wrong thing for a Levite to be having, you’d be correct. The laws regarding marriage for a Levite might be suggested to us by the passages that describe God’s strict requirements for priests (see Leviticus 21:13-15; Ezekiel 44:22). A “concubine” is not a “wife”. She is a woman in an unmarried sexual relationship with a man, who is something akin to a slave, who receives none of the benefits of being a wife, and whose children from that relationship are not considered legal heirs. What is this Levite doing with a ‘concubine’ instead of a ‘wife’? But that was the character of the times. (We don’t call it ‘concubinage’ today; but we see much the same thing going on around us in the ‘live-together’ culture of our own times.) She was from Bethlehem; and she “played the harlot against him” and returned to her father’s house. After four months, he arose, went to Bethlehem “to speak to her heart”, and seek to bring her back. While there, she took him to meet her father; and her father was glad to meet him. No one seemed to think anything was wrong in all this! The whole story is built around this Levite going to Bethlehem to get his wayward mistress and bring her home from her season of harlotry.
II. THE FATHER DETAINS THE PARTY (vv. 4-9).
The woman’s father is also bewildering. He seems to have a “go-along-with-it-all” attitude toward these immoral doings. In fact, when the Levite comes to take his daughter and leave, the father detains the man and talks him into staying overnight. They stayed a total of five days—with the Levite getting up to leave repeatedly and the woman’s father talking him into staying. Finally, the Levite would be detained no longer; and he prepared himself to leave with his entourage in the mid-afternoon of the fifth day. This ended up causing the dangerous situation for the travelers that we find later in the story. We do great harm when we—like the father in this story—appease wrongdoers rather than rebuke them for their wrongdoing.
III. THE TRAVELERS ARRIVE AT GIBEAH (vv. 10-15).
In their travels northward late in the day, they arrive Jebus (that is Jerusalem). This was about six miles north of Bethlehem; and would have made the travelers arrive near the time of sunset. But the Levite was unwilling to stay there “into a city of foreigners” (because an Amorite population dwelt there at the time). They traveled north another two or three miles—a dangerous proposition at that time of day!—and arrived at the region of the towns of Ramah and Gibeah as the sun went down. They elected to stay in Gibeah—a Benjamite town; but even though they were well-supplied, no one would lodge them. Such inhospitable behavior was considered a great evil in ancient Asian cultures. It left these weary travelers quite vulnerable. And so, they prepared themselves to sleep in the open square of the city for the night.
IV. THE FARMER TAKES THEM IN (vv. 16-21).
We’re told that an old man—returning after a day’s work in the field—came upon them. He himself was from the mountains of Ephriam—which was were the Levite was from. He found out that the Levite, the concubine, and the servant were on their way to “the house of the LORD”, and were all planning to sleep in the open square. The old farmer—mercifully—would not have it. He took responsibility for them and took them back to his home for the night and cared for them. His words “only do not spend the night in the open square” suggested the danger that would face them if he had not taken them in. Sadly, even his kindness could not protect them entirely. He seems to be the one shining light in this dark story—and as we will see shortly, that’s not saying much!
V. THE PERVERTED MEN BECOME A THREAT (vv. 22-25).
What happened next is truly frightening. While they were resting and enjoying themselves in the old man’s home, “suddenly, certain men of the city, perverted men [literally, “sons of Belial” or “sons of worthlessness”] surrounded the house”. They began to “beat on the door”—and the intensity of this word is such that it suggests that they were throwing themselves against it bodily with the intention of knocking it down. Their wicked purpose is made plain in that they said, “Bring out the man who came to your house, that we may know him”; and the New King James Version adds the word “carnally” to make clear that their intent was to engage in the homosexual rape of the man. Many have suggested that the sin of these men was strictly inhospitality; but the fact that the farmer pleaded that they “humble” his own daughter and the concubine as an alternative shows that this was not so. That the old man was willing to suggest this shows not only the over-emphasis that was placed on hospitality, but also the low regard that the culture had toward the protection of its most vulnerable members and the dangerous depravity of the times.
VI. THE CONCUBINE IS MADE THE VICTIM (vv. 25-28).
The wicked men of Gibeah would not accept the farmer’s offer. And so—perhaps in an act of desperation—the Levite took the initiative and brought his concubine out to the men; and “they knew her and abused her all night until morning”. We can be grateful that the Bible tells gives us no more details than that; because it would have involved a nightmarish time of brutal perversity against this woman. When the day came, the Levite opened the door to find his concubine laying at the doorpost—with her hands pathetically upon the threshold of the house. We’re not told whether or not she was dead. The Levite’s callousness—shown in his words, “Get up and let us be going”—is only a further reflection on the depravity of the times. God’s holy standards were ignored; sin was not rebuked, society had grown cold and unloving, the wickedness of the human heart seemed boundless, and women—who should be protected and cared for—were made the helpless victims of brutes. This all came from everyone setting God’s laws aside and doing what was right in their own eyes!
VII. THE LEVITE CALLS FOR ACTION (vv. 29-30).
You would think that all of this is enough horror for one chapter. But no. After lifting the woman’s body up and bringing her home, he took a knife and divided her body into twelve pieces—“limb by limb” (or literally, “with her bones”); and sent her parts throughout the territories of Israel. It was his way of communicating to the rest of the tribes what had been done; and perhaps the brutality she suffered was so great that all that was needed was to show the evidence on her limbs. The Levite engaged in some dishonesty in it all by reporting it in such a way as to leave out that he had done nothing to protect the woman (see 20:5). All who received these gruesome mailings responded; “No such deed has been done or seen from the day that the children of Israel came up from the land of Egypt until this day. Consider it, confer, and speak up!”
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Truly a rejection of God’s law led to the worst of times for Israel. And we can’t read this without considering our own times—characterized as they are by an increasing rejection of God and His ways—and praying with greater fervency for revival through the spread of the gospel!