Judges 19

After reading these three chapters, if you were to scan your daily newspaper or weekly news magazine, you’d have to admit that times haven’t changed too much. For in these closing pages of Judges you find reports of wife abuse, blatant homosexuality, gang rape leading to murder, injustice, brother killing brother, and even kidnapping. It’s the kind of narrative that almost makes you agree with British essayist Samuel Johnson, who said back in 1783, “I have lived to see things all as bad as they can be.” What would he say today?

Of course, events like these are the daily food of people who enjoy TV violence, and researchers tell us that what happens on the screens is often duplicated on the streets. According to a study by the American Psychological Association, there are five violent acts per hour in prime-time TV programs, and on Saturday mornings when the children watch cartoons, violent acts per hour multiply five times (USA Today August 2, 1993). When a nation is entertained by violence, is there much hope for that nation?

When evil isn’t dealt with properly, it has a tendency to grow. Sin in the city of Gibeah eventually infected the tribe of Benjamin and led to war in the land of Israel.

Entertainment in Bethlehem (vv. 1–9). If you thought that the Levite Jonathan (chaps. 17–18) was a reprobate, then you’ll probably conclude that this unnamed Levite was an absolute scoundrel of the basest sort. He spent most of his time partying (19:4, 6, 8, 22); he walked in darkness and jeopardized his life and the lives of those with him (vv. 9–14); he treated his concubine in the most shocking manner, while she was alive and after she was dead; and what he did to her precipitated a civil war in Israel.

A concubine was a lawful wife who was guaranteed only food, clothing, and marital privileges (Ex. 21:7–11; Deut. 21:10–14). Any children she bore would be considered legitimate, but because of her second-class status, they wouldn’t necessarily share in the family inheritance (Gen. 25:1–6). If a man’s wife was barren, he sometimes took a concubine so he could establish a family. Though the law controlled concubinage the Lord did not approve or encourage it, yet you will find several Old Testament men who had concubines, including Abraham, Jacob, Gideon, Saul, David, and Solomon.

This particular concubine was unfaithful to her husband and fled to her father’s house in Bethlehem for protection (Lev. 20:10). The longer she was gone, the more her husband missed her; so he traveled to Bethlehem, forgave her, and was reconciled. He and his father-in-law discovered they enjoyed each other’s company and spent five days eating, drinking, and making merry. Little did the Levite realize that he really had nothing to be happy about because tragedy was stalking his marriage.

To me, this Levite illustrates the careless attitude of many believers today. They are children of the day, but they act like children of the night (1 Thess. 5:1–8). Judgment is around the corner, but these people think of nothing but enjoying life. When his nation was so far from God, how could this Levite waste his time eating, drinking, and making merry? “Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness” (James 4:9).

Yes, there’s “a time to laugh” (Eccl. 3:4), and God wants us to enjoy His gifts (1 Tim. 6:17), but for many Christians, that time is all the time! In too many churches, the laughter of “religious entertainment” has replaced the holy hush of worship. The sanctuary has become a theater. When the saints get together, the most important thing is to “have fun.” In order to salve our consciences, we have a “short devotional” before the fun time ends, and we piously thank God that we’ve had such a good time.

Nobody appreciates laughter and good humor more than I do, but I fear the church is losing its sense of awe and needs to learn how to weep. Had this laughing Levite been walking in the light, praying and seeking God’s will, he would have made other plans and saved his wife from shame, abuse, pain, and death.

Hospitality in Gibeah (vv. 10–21). During the period of the judges, it was dangerous to travel in the daytime (5:6) and even more so at night. The Levite didn’t want to stay in Jerusalem because it was in the hands of the pagan Jebusites. Thus he pressed on four miles to Gibeah so he could be with his own people. But the men of Gibeah turned out to be as wicked as the heathen around them!

To begin with, nobody in Gibeah welcomed the visitors and opened their home to care for them. Since the Levite had plenty of provisions for his party and his animals, he wouldn’t have been a burden to anybody, but nobody took them in. Hospitality is one of the sacred laws of the East, and no stranger was to be neglected, but only one man in the city showed any concern, and he was an Ephraimite. He not only took them into his home but also used his own provisions to feed them and their animals.

God’s people are commanded to practice hospitality. It’s one of the qualifications for a pastor (1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:8). “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it” (Heb. 13: niv).

Iniquity in Gibeah (vv. 22–28). Gibeah had become like Sodom, a city so wicked that God wiped it off the face of the earth (Gen. 19). The men of the city were indulging in immoral practices that were contrary to nature (Rom. 1:24–27) and the laws of God (Lev. 18:22; 20:13; see 1 Cor. 6:9–10). The word “know” in Judges 19: means “to have sexual experience with.” These sinners were excited because a new man was in town, and they wanted to enjoy him.

The host courageously and correctly described their desires as wickedness and folly (v. 23) and a vile thing (v. 24), and he tried to prevent them from raping his guest. Like Lot in Sodom, the host offered them his daughter, which shows the low estimate some men in that day had of women and of sexual purity. How a father could offer his own daughter as a sacrifice to the lusts of a mob is difficult to understand. Yet many parents today allow their sons’ and daughters’ minds and hearts to be violated by what they see and hear in movies, on television, and at rock concerts. Chastity of mind and heart is essential for chastity of the body.

Since the Levite was afraid the mob would kill him (20:5) he pacified them by giving them his concubine, and she had to endure gang rape the whole night (v. 25). Our hearts revolt at the thought of a man so insensitive to the feelings of a human being made in the image of God, so indifferent to the sanctity of sex and the responsibility of marriage, and so unconcerned about the laws of God, that he would sacrifice his wife to save his own skin. Was he punishing her for being unfaithful to him? If so, the punishment was far greater than the sin.

But it gets worse. Not only did the Levite surrender his wife to the perverted appetites of an ungodly mob, but also he was able to lie down and go to sleep while they were abusing her in the street! How calloused can a man become? And how naive was he to expect that she would be alive the next morning?

Finding her dead on the doorstep, but not feeling guilty about it, he put her corpse on one of the donkeys and made his way home. Then he did a despicable thing: He desecrated and mutilated her corpse by cutting it into twelve parts and sending one part to each of the twelve tribes of Israel. Of course, he wanted to mobilize the support of the tribes and punish the men of Gibeah who had killed his wife, but in fact, he was the one who had let them kill her! Surely there were other ways to call attention to Gibeah’s crime.

Had the Levite gone to Shiloh where the tabernacle stood (18:31), and had he consulted with the high priest, he could have dealt with the matter according to the law of God and avoided causing a great deal of trouble. Once tempers were heated in Israel, however, it was difficult to stop the fire from spreading.