Day 096 (Judges 19-21) - Year 8

Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

We finished our eighth book of the Bible today.

And since we're reading an entire book tomorrow, that means we're about to be at nine books

total.

Don't worry, the book we're reading tomorrow is super short, just four chapters.

Also, I mentioned this at the beginning of the Book of Judges, and hopefully you've already

read the text from today and know this is a tough section, but just a heads up that

if there are little ears nearby, you may want to listen later.

This is one of my least favorite sections in all of scripture, but there are still things

to be learned about God in these chapters, even though he seems mostly absent.

We open with a reminder that Israel is living in anarchy at this point, which sets us up

for everything that happens in today's reading.

We start with a Levite, the tribe appointed to work for God, who had a concubine, which

is basically a household servant with fewer rights and less permanency than a wife, and

whose main job is to sleep with the boss and have his babies.

She decides she wants to leave this arrangement, but he goes after her to win her back.

He meets with her dad and things are going smoothly.

Her father keeps inviting them to stay day after day with him, but on the fifth day, the Levite

is ready to move on, so they head out for the long journey home.

His servant suggests they spend the night in a canonite area, but the Levite really

prefers to keep moving until they hit an Israelite area.

They stop in the city of Gabbaya, which is in the land allotted to the Benjamites.

They're planning to sleep in the town square, but an old man comes by and urges them to

stay at his place instead.

Not long after that, the Benjamite men of the town show up and demand to have sex with

the Levite.

If this is starting to remind you of Genesis 19 and what happened with the two angels who

visited Lot in Sodom, you're not far off.

And the old man responds just like Lot did when Lot offered his two virgin daughters.

The old man offers his virgin daughter and the Levite's concubine instead.

The Benjamites didn't like this offer, but the Levite saved himself by sending his concubine

out to them.

And let me say this in case it isn't obvious.

God doesn't endorse this.

These things are the result of God's people turning away from God, which ultimately means

they have no regard for his laws either since they have no regard for him.

The men brutally assault her and rape her and beat her to death, and the Levite doesn't

even seem to be moved by her condition.

It's heartbreaking and infuriating all at once, and I don't know whether to be more angry

at him or at the men of the town because they're all pretty terrible.

He takes her back home and dismembers her, then he sends a piece of her body throughout

Israel, probably one piece to each of the tribes.

Most commentators seem to think he did this so the people would have proof that his story

was true, and there'd be no denying that the Benjamites were guilty.

And by the way, we find out in chapter 20 verse 5 that the men who did this to the concubine

were the leaders among the Benjamites in that city.

In response to this, the men of fighting age from all the tribes except for Benjamin gathered

together.

Anytime you see the phrase from Dan to Bershiva in Scripture, that's basically saying

from north to south, because the new cities of the tribe of Dan just conquered and took

over was about as far north as you could go in Israel, and the city of Bershiva was about

as far south as you could go.

And this passage even tells us that the tribes in Gilead, those 2.5 trans Jordan tribes,

they come too.

So 400,000 men from 11 of the tribes gather to talk about what the Benjamites have done

to the concubine.

The Levite tells them the story, conveniently leaving out the role he played in it, and

asks them what should happen in response to this abomination.

They decide to confront the city of Gavea in Benjamin.

First, they try to reason with the people of the city.

They ask them to bring out the men responsible for the crime so they can enforce the death penalty

since they had murdered someone.

But the city won't give them up.

They protect their wicked leaders and refuse to hold them accountable.

Then the whole tribe of Benjamin gets their backs.

As a result, the Benjamites end up going to war against the rest of the country in Israel's

first civil war.

They fight for three days, and every day Israel asks God for guidance.

He gives it, and they obey.

They can't figure out what they're losing if they're being obedient to God.

But on days 1 and 2, God doesn't promise them victory.

He just tells them what they should do.

Obedience doesn't always guarantee our desired outcome.

Sometimes its purpose is to teach us faithfulness to God, not to our desires.

But on day 3, God does tell them that they'll win.

And through the clever combo of an ambush and the bat signal, they pull it off.

They defeat all the men of Benjamin except for 600 who go into hiding.

The men of Israel burn the town and treat it like they would a Canaanite city.

God never commands this, but they do it.

And while they're all gathered and mourning what happened and offering sacrifices to God,

two things happen almost simultaneously.

First, they're trying to figure out how to keep the tribe of Benjamin from disappearing

altogether.

And second, they realize there's a clan who didn't respond to the call to come fight

with them.

One thing I can tell you for sure is that it wasn't the Ephraimites, they love a fight.

It was the clan of J. Beschiliad, a city in East Manassah, across the Jordan River.

Without consulting God, Israel puts together their best, most efficient plan.

They send 12,000 men over to go kill everyone except the female virgins.

Then they bring back 400 virgins to give to the 600 surviving men at the tribe of Benjamin.

But oh no, there's still 200 women short, so they hatch a plan for the Benjaminites

to kidnap some women while they're dancing at a festival, problem-solved.

I'm really thankful this passage is descriptive, not prescriptive.

This was man's wicked plan to fix the circumstances they were in because of sin.

When we fail to consult God and lean on our own understanding, we almost always make a

bigger mess.

And I just want to pause to point out that all of this can be traced back to the uncontrolled

lust of a handful of so-called leaders and the self-protective measures of a leadite.

Those upon thousands died as a result.

There wasn't much joy in today's reading, was there?

And do you know why?

Because there wasn't much God.

The last line of our reading reminds us again, everyone did what was right in his own eyes,

and the whole book ends with their wickedness increasing.

So that's actually my God's shop for today.

Where God isn't regarded and feared and honored, where people do as they please and follow

their own desires.

There may be a temporary solution or a fulfillment of desires, but there isn't deep, lasting,

sustaining joy.

Because that isn't found in following every longing of our hearts.

It's found in him.

He's where the joy is.

Tomorrow we'll be reading the Book of Ruth.

We're linking to a short video overview in the show notes, so check that out if you've

got a few minutes to spare.

And just a reminder, if you're using our plan in the Bible app, this video will also

be linked for you tomorrow in the Devotional tab.

We love the members of our TBR family, who are our ASL Bible recappers.

We're so happy to offer the Bible recap in American Sign Language.

The full 365 days of recap videos are in a playlist on our YouTube channel.

If you have friends or family members who would benefit from this, let them know.

For more info, visit the ASL page on the BibleRecap.com under the Languages tab.

For more, click the link in today's show notes.