Judges 19-21, What happenes when you do things you see fit without relying on God.

Last week, we consider Judges 17 and18. There, we saw what happened to God’s people when they neglect God’s word; we witnessed the idolatries at a personal level from the story of Micah and his mother and at a tribal level from the story of a Levite and the tribe of Dan. Today, we are going to consider the rest of the book of Judges, chapter 19-21. What we are going to see is the level of idolatry affecting, not just at the personal and the tribal level, but the whole nation of Israel. We are going to see what happened when the Israelites did things as they saw fit without wholeheartedly relying on God.

A story of a Levite and his concubine (Judges 19)

Judges 19 tells a story of another Levite. This Levite is a different person from the Levite, Jonathan the grand son of Moses from chapter 17-18. We are not given the name of this Levite in chapter 19. We are told that he lived in the hill country of Ephraim. Just like Jonathan the Levite from the chapter 17 & 18, the Levite in chapter 19 was not living in his designated Levite city where he was to serve God. This Levite too was a renegade Levite who wasn’t living out God’s will for him.

We are told that this Levite took a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah. We are not told that the Levite has another wife, so it appears that this concubine was the first and sole wife for this Levite. Verse 2 tells us, “she was unfaithful to him.” But, another translation, New Revised Standard Version, translates this as “his concubine became angry with  him.” The differences come from the different manuscript sources used to translate this verse. New Revised Standard Version used older manuscripts to translate this verse; it exonerates the concubine and places the blame for the marital problem on the Levite. It seems unlikely that this concubine indeed if she committed adultery would have been able to go back to her father’s house. If she committed adultery, likely outcome would have been honor killing by her husband. Verse 2 and 3 tells us that the Levite after four months since she left, he went after her to persuade her to return to him. The Levite going back to his adulterous wife to have her come back to him seems unlikely considering how he treated her later in this story.

Now, when he went back to his concubine’s father’ house, verse 3 says that her father gladly welcomed him. As it was a typical custom, the father-in-law was hospitable to his son-in-law. The Levite stayed with him for three days, but wanted to go on his way with his concubine. But, he ended up staying another night because of his father-in-law’s insistence.

On the fifth day, the father-in-law again insisted his son-in-law to stay over night. But, we are told in verse 10, he was unwilling to stay another night. He left and went toward Jebus (that is, Jerusalem), with two saddled donkey and his concubine along with his servant.

The servant suggested to the Levite to stay over night in the city of Jebusites. But, the Levite rejected his servant’s suggestion because Jebus was still an alien city, whose people were not Israelites. He might have thought that he would receive a better welcome from his own people than from the foreigners in Jebus. So, he pressed on and reached a town called Gibeah by sunset. The city of Gibeah was a part of the tribe of Benjamin.

Verse 15, they went into the city of Gibeah and waited in the city square, but no one took them into his home for the night. Unlike the warm welcome hospitality the Levite received from his father-in-law, in Gibeah, supposedly a town belonging to the fellow Israelites, no one was hospitable to the Levite.

Verse 16 tells us that it was an old man from the hill country of Ephraim who was living in Gibeah, who stopped to find out what was going on. The old man came from the same town, Bethlehem, where the Levite lived and was heading to. The old man warmly welcomed them to his house; he hospitably fed the Levite’s donkeys; he also washed their feet, gave them something to eat and drink.

While all things seem to be going well, verse 22, the wicked men of the city of Gibeah surrounded the house. They demanded the old man to send out his guest, the Levite so that they could have sex with him. This reminds us the story of Lot from Genesis 19, where Lot faced the mob of men who wanted to have sex with his guests who were the angelic visitors.

The old man seems to be a religious man for he told them, “No my friends, don’t be so vile. Since this man is my guest, don’t do this disgraceful thing.” But, then he offered them, “Look, here is my virgin daughter, and his concubine. I will bring them out to you now, and you can use them and do to them whatever you wish. But to this man, don’t do such a disgraceful thing.” What we see here is moral confusion. The old man was repulsive by their attempt to rape the Levite in homosexual act. But, somehow in his mind, giving his daughter and the guest’s concubine to be raped by this gang of wicked men was better than the Levite getting raped.

Now, here is the telling scene about the kind of man the Levite was. When the men wouldn’t listen to the old man, verse 25 tells us that the Levite took his concubine and set her outside to them; they raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go. Verse 26 reads, “at daybreak the woman went back to the house where her master was staying, fell down at the door and lay there until daylight.”

The Levite didn’t protest against the wicked men of Gibeah. He didn’t stand up for his concubine, his wife. Instead, to save himself from being raped, he gave his concubine into the wicked gang of men to be raped and abused. He had the appearance of religiosity when he wanted to stay in a town belonging to the Israelites. But, the Levite was a man who only looked out for himself.

What was he doing during the night while his wife, his concubine was being raped by a group of gang? Verse 27 says, “When her master got up in the morning and opened to the door of the house and stepped out to continue on his way, there lay his concubine, fallen in the doorway of the house, with her hands on the threshold.” He slept through the night comfortably while his concubine was being raped and abused; when he woke up he got himself ready to leave; when he was about to step outside of the house he saw his concubine lying motionless by the threshold. What did he say to her? Verse 28, “Get up; let’s go.” Cold, loveless… no wonder the concubine left this man. With no answer from her, he put her on his donkey and set out for home. No mention of tears, moaning… nothing from him!

Verse 29, He came home and took a knife and cut up his concubine, limb by limb, into twelve parts and set them into all the areas of Israel. One commentator suspicious of this man’s character wonders if the concubine was still alive when he dismembered her.[1] By sending dismembered parts of the body of this concubine, the Levite was calling the Israelites to arm to deal with the wicked men of Gibeah, the Benjamites.

The Israelites responded (19:30-20-15)

When the rest of the Israelites received the dismembered body parts of the concubine, they were enraged; at Mizpah, a near city to Gibeah, they enquired the Levite of what happened. Verse 5, he told them, “During the night the men of Gibeah came after me and surrounded the house, intending to kill me. They raped my concubine, and she died. I took my concubine, cut her into pieces and sent one peace to each region of Israel’s inheritance, because they committed this lewd and disgraceful act in Israel.” Listening to his story, it sounds like he was a helpless victim, a caring husband. But, we know that they weren’t after him to kill him. They were after him to have sex with him. And he conveniently skipped the part about how his concubine ended up outside of the house. It was he who pushed her outside to save himself.

The Levite gave them an embellished account of what happened. With the witness of this one man, without investigating further to learn what really happened, the Israelites reacted as one man. Verse 11 says, “So all the men of Israel got together and united as one man against the city.” Each tribe sent out 10 percent of their people to deal with the men of Gibeah. They were responding to Deut. 13:12-18:

If you hear it said about one of the towns the LORD your God is giving you to live in that wicked men have arisen among you and have led the people of their town astray, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (gods you have known), then you must inquire, probe and investigate it thoroughly. And if it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done among you, you must certainly put to the sward all who live in that town. Destroy it completely, both its people and its livestock.

With the embellished account of what happened by the Levite, the Israelites didn’t carefully inquire, probe and investigate the matter thoroughly to determine if it was true and proven. The Levite took no responsibility for his action.

If they indeed investigated carefully and learned the true nature of what really happened according to God’s word, the story might have very different outcome.

The Israelites mustered four hundred thousand swordsmen according to verse 17 to deal with the situation. Verse 13, the Israelites demanded from the tribe of Benjamin, “Now surrender those wicked men of Gibeah so that we may put them to death and purge the evil from Israel.” Verse 15, but the Benjamites refused to give the men who sexually abused and violated the concubine. Instead of turning those men of the city of Gibeah, the whole tribe of Benjamin decided to protect these wicked men. The Benjamites had mobilized their own 26,000 swordsmen and 700 chosen men who could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.

The Israelites fought the Benjamites (Judges 20:16-48)

Chapter 20:16-48, we are told about three battle scenes between the rest of the Israelites against the Benjamites who were protecting the wicked men of Gibeah. In the first scene, being confident they were doing right, they ask the Lord in verse 23, “Who of us shall go to fight against the Benjamites?” God answered, “Judah shall go first.” He gave them no promise for victory though. The Israelites although vastly large in number suffered 22,000 casualties at the hands of the Benjamites.

After been defeated, now less confident of themselves, verse 23, they approached God with weeping, “Shall we go up again to battle against the Benjamites, our brothers? Again, the LORD told them to go up against them, but without the promise of victory. Again the Benjamites killed another 22,000 of the army of the Israelites.

For the third time, they approached the LORD, this time verse 26, with weeping, fasting, and presenting burnt and fellowship offerings to the LORD. They were no longer confident of themselves. They finally humbled themselves to seek God’s will on this. Through the prophet Phinehas son of Eleazar, the LORD told them, “Go, for tomorrow I will give them into your hands.”

With the LORD’s promise, they set an ambush around Gibeah and fight against the Benjamites. Verse 35 says, “The LORD defeated Benjamin before Israel, and on that day the Israelites struck down 25,100 Benjamites, all armed with swords.”

When the battle was over, verse 47, only 600 men survived. They fled into the desert of the rock of Rimmon; there they stayed four months. Verse 48, the men of Israel went back to Benjamin and put all the towns to the sword according to aforementioned Deuteronomy 13.

The wives for the Benjamites (Judges 21)

After all that had happened, the men of Israel took an oath at Mizpah, “Not one of us will give his daughter in marriage to Benjamite” Do you remember what happened when Jephthah rashly vowed to sacrifice whatever came out to greet him first when he returned home in chapter 13. He sacrificed his own daughter for his hasty vow. In the same way, the Israelites made a rash vow here as well without bothering to hear from God only to regret later. They also took the second oath in verse 5, “anyone who failed to assemble before the LORD at Mizpah should certainly be put to death.”

The excessive measure to kill all the Benjamites except 600 left the tribe on the brink of extinction. All because of their rash and thoughtless oaths! When they realized what they had done, verse 2-4, they sought the LORD, weeping bitterly, building an altar and presenting burnt and fellowship offerings. But, the LORD didn’t answer them.

So, what did they do? They found that no one from Jabesh Gilead showed up earlier at Mizpah when they decided to arm against the Benjamites. And, on the condition of their second oath, they decided to wipe out the people of Jabesh Gilead, except the virgins. Jabesh Gilead didn’t participate in the oath not to give their daughters to Benjamin. This meant their virgin daughters were not prohibited from being given to the Benjamites in marriage. So, the 12,000 fighting men killed all the people of Jabesh Gilead except 400 young virgins.

Verse 13 and 14, they offered peace to the 600 Benjamites by giving these unfortunate 400 young girls to them. Still 200 Benjamites were left without wives.

The elders of the Israelites devised a scheme to get 200 women for the remaining Benjamites. They saw a loop hole in their first oath. Their first oath was not to give their daughters as wives to the Benjamites and “Cursed be anyone who gives a wife to Benjamite.” The plan was for each of these 200 Benjamites to abduct the unsuspecting girls of Shiloh to make them their wives.

Verse 23 says, “So that is what the Benjamites did. While the girls were dancing, each man caught one and carried her off to be his wife. Then they returned to their inheritance and rebuilt the towns and settled in them.”

K. Lawson Younger would call this scene “the rape of daughters of Shiloh,” and he compares this to the rape of the concubine.[2]

Applications

The question today’s sermon asks is, “What happens when you and I do things as we see fit without wholeheartedly relying on God.”

1. coward and selfish (the Levite’s action to give concubine for abuse, lies to make himself look better).
2. moral confusion (the old man’s action to offer his daughter and the concubine of the Levite).
3. you mess things up (the Israelites attempt to deal with situation... not following God’s word to investigate carefully, rash oaths, killing after killing to remedy their own rash decision…

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[1] K. Lawson Younger, The NIV Application Commentary: Judges and Ruth, P. 359

[2] Ibid., p. 383.