Click to read Judges 19
Synopsis
This chapter tells the story of the brutal rape and murder of a Levite's concubine by the unruly people of the tribe of Benjamin. It started a brutal civil war amongst the tribes of Israel that almost ended in the extinction of one tribe.
It all started with a Levite whose concubine out of Judah, ran back to her father's house. The Levite went to look for her and lodged at her father's house. On his journey home, he did not want to stay over in Jebus (Jerusalem) as it was not an Israeli city then. He thought that it would be safer to stay in a city occupied by an Israelite tribe. So he chose Gebeah which was a city of the Benjamites. There he met a man also from his hill country of Ephraim and who was staying in Gibeah. The man hosted the Levite and his company.
However, as the nation had strayed away from God, the Benjamites in Gibeah were of low moral standing. They had no regards for God and His commandments. They confronted the host and wanted to sexually abuse the Levite. To protect his guest, the host offered his own virgin daughter and the Levite's concubine for the men to abuse instead.
The men were unreasonable and finally the Levite pushed his own concubine out the door and the men raped her repeatedly. When it was finally over, she was left at the door of the host's house, dead. The Levite carried her home and dismembered her body into twelve pieces, sending a message to each of the tribe with a piece of the woman to announce the hideous crime. He wanted all the tribes to seek revenge on his behalf.
Major Verses
V22 - The Benjamites were so immoral that they wanted to sexually abuse the Levite.
What I learnt
When people stray away from God, they lose their morality easily. The Benjamites had neglected God and became so low as to want to have sex with the Levite. We must keep our eyes focused upon Jesus so as to guard our heart from falling to such low immoral ways.
V23-25 - The host and the Levite, in protecting themselves, offered two girls to the brutal men. The Levite personally "pushed" his concubine out of the door to the criminals, knowing that they would abuse her.
What I learnt
Protecting the guest at all cost was an important aspect of a Middle-eastern man's code of honor then. Unfortunately in this story, the keeping of this code was nothing short of fanaticism. The Benjamites were not the only ones that had low moral standards. The host and the Levite were just as immoral. The host went too far to protect his own honor instead of protecting his daughter. Similarly, instead of standing up for his concubine, the Levite pushed her out to protect himself. Both these men, in trying to protect themselves, were just as guilty of the abuse and murder of the girl as the rapists themselves.
We must keep God's honor - protecting the weak and innocent are more important then protecting our own honor.
V29-30 - Sending body parts to the tribes was a horrible way of spreading the news of the crime, but it did communicated the horror of the crime.
What I learnt
While the Levite wanted to exact revenge and sought the help of his fellow kinsmen, he absolutely forgot that he was just as guilty of the crime. We need to examine our lives before taking judgement on others, if at all. In God's way, we are told to leave vengeance to Him instead of taking it in our hands.
Summary
A horrible crime was committed but this was not Israel's worst offense. The failure of the people to establish a government based on God's principles and laws was more serious. That resulted in the lost of morality as there were no enforcement of God's laws. The people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes. Crimes were ignored, sexual perversion and lawlessness were results of the people's disobedience to God.
This chapter and many others in Judges tell us that whenever we stray from God and His word, evil will reign. We must therefore constantly guard our heart against this decay. We must keep our self close to God through prayer and the reading of His word.
Up Next...
The civil war that ensued nearly wiped out the entire tribe of Benjamin.....coming up on 3rd Sep.
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