We are continuing our series of character studies in the Bible in the perspective of an abuse survivor. Today we are talking about a very difficult passage of Scripture: Judges 19, which is the story of the Levite and the concubine. Why is this horrific story included in the Bible? Why did they go to war with their own people? Did God condone these events? What practical application can we get out of this story? These questions and more will be answered. There is a trigger warning for this episode for sexual assault and kidnapping.
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Transcript
Judges 19
[00:00:00] Welcome to the Wounds of the Faithful Podcast. Brought to you by DSW Ministries. Your host is singer songwriter, speaker and domestic violence advocate, Diana Winkler. She is passionate about helping survivors in the church heal from domestic violence and abuse and trauma. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counseling or qualified medical help. [00:00:26] Now here is Diana. [00:00:33] Hello everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. Thanks for joining me today. I hope that you guys got through last podcast about the I B L P and the review of Shiny Happy people and about the Duggars. It was a difficult, yet important [00:01:00] episode to do, and it was a bit triggering I’m sure for a lot of you who have been through something similar. But I hope that now that this documentary is out that. People will start to see the man behind the curtain, so to speak. We need exposure for these cult groups because otherwise nobody would leave, nobody would get any healing. [00:01:28] And these men like Bill Gothard would be more powerful. [00:01:35] So what are we gonna talk about today? We are going to go through Judges 19, and this is called the Benjamite War. And if you’re not familiar with that, you may be familiar with the Levite that had a concubine. So this is one of these [00:02:00] stories that is, horrifying, and I almost didn’t want to do this particular chapter because it’s hard and it’s gross. And it’s like, well, what am I gonna say to this narrative, this horrible story and the story of the war that follows this event. [00:02:25] But the reason for this podcast is to talk about these difficult topics, especially things in the Bible because, I have never heard anybody preach on it while I was, in my abuse. The only one I’ve ever heard preach about this passage is Wayne Stiles, which he is an awesome Bible teacher. [00:02:52] He is been on the show and I definitely recommend listening to him because he talks about [00:03:00] topics that nobody else talks about. All of the Old Testament passages that nobody knows about except maybe the Bible scholars. it’s probably not taught because it is disturbing and makes people very uncomfortable, But we’re going to be brave. And as always, I’m going to be honest with you about these bible passages. I’m not gonna give you a bunch of fluff and all that, positive thinking stuff. You’re gonna hear the truth from me. I’m not gonna give you a bunch of fluff if I don’t know the answer. I’m just gonna tell you. If you’ve listened to the other Bible studies that we have done together, you already know this. But there’s always something to learn, even from these horrible stories. [00:03:50] And as I’ve said before, I want you to be able to read the Bible for yourself. Don’t listen to what [00:04:00] somebody on Twitter tells you that it means, or your friend tells you what it means. Get in there and look at it yourself. I have heard countless arguments about something in scripture when the person has never read the scripture in question, has never read the Bible. [00:04:21] They just, you know, parrot what they’ve heard. And we’re not gonna do that. I’m trying to go through these with you so I can give you a little bit of confidence, give you some food for thought, that things are not always what they seem until you start [00:04:41] digging a little further into the passage. And so that’s what we’re going to do today. But before we get started, I will update you on a couple things. [00:04:57] Thank you guys for praying for me. [00:05:00] My cast on my foot from my surgery is off. It feels wonderful to be able to move around and do normal things. doctor said that the incision looks great. I do have to wear this really ugly sandal. It’s square, toed, for the next week or two. [00:05:24] Uh, it’s not very comfortable. but I’m just gonna do what the doctor tells me. I started my physical therapy this past week, which went very well. [00:05:35] \ I started work again on Thursday as well, and it was great to see everybody. They were all very happy that I was back and wanted to hear all about my two weeks off. I’m very, very fortunate to have wonderful coworkers who care about me. [00:05:54] I have a handicap spot that I don’t have far to walk and got my [00:06:00] cane that I used for balance just in case. But everything’s going great. Brian gets a little bit of a break, in the chores until my left foot gets done, which will be most likely the end of August, beginning of September. [00:06:17] So that’s that. And I wanted to share something that really upset me today. Um, I went to church today and I saw one of my abusers from way back when. This was before I met my now husband. Uh, this guy abused me and he stalked me for a long time and he was, uh, mentally unstable. [00:06:49] And I won’t get into the whole story. If you go to the episode with the dating train wrecks, it goes into that particular story. But I saw [00:07:00] him at my church. I was standing outside of the front of the church and my back was towards him, but I saw him pass me. [00:07:10] He didn’t see me, but I saw him, I saw his face. Now he’s much larger than he was when we were going out and he was leaving the service and it looked like he was with a woman and a young child, maybe grade school. So that freaked me out because the last time I have any, had any contact, was [00:07:34] 14 years ago. it’s a long time ago. I get it. But I freaked out thinking, oh, I hope he is not a member of this church. He was living really far away from me, so I never had worried about him coming after me. Anyway, I had seen him a second time. I put my head down and hoped that he didn’t see me or [00:08:00] recognized me cuz it was in the parking lot. [00:08:01] And I went to the first hour because that was when our Romans Bible study was. [00:08:09] And I walked over to where the classroom was, [00:08:13] And just then I saw this guy, my abuser, he was coming up behind me. But I saw him and I turned my back towards him hoping that he didn’t see me, didn’t see my face. [00:08:29] But I didn’t know if he saw me or not. And I did not want any altercation. I did not want to talk to him. I didn’t want him to know I was here at the church. And I got to the sanctuary. And I was trying to figure out where he was because I did not wanna sit anywhere near where he was. [00:08:52] Its dark. This service had already started. I found, two of my friends and I decided to sit with them. [00:08:57] I’m looking seriously [00:09:00] around the sanctuary to see where he was. But when the pastor started preaching, I saw him across from me. He was on the other side of the sanctuary, in the second row. [00:09:12] I didn’t know if he could see me or if he could recognize me. It was quite a ways. But that was really disturbing to me. I was freaked out, distracted. This was supposed to be my time of worship. [00:09:29] But anyway, I sat there and went through all these scenarios about, okay, what am I gonna do if he approaches me? What am I gonna say? [00:09:39] I’ll probably just tell him to stay away from me. If you don’t stay away from me, I’m gonna call security. Uh, cuz we do have police officer on duty at every service. [00:09:51] So I’m going through all these scenarios in my head during church service while Kyle’s preaching, and I’m just like, this is [00:10:00] terrible. I’m missing the message that Kyle’s prepared. [00:10:02] And I thought, well, I’m going to stay after and talk to my friends and hopefully he leaves so I don’t have to run into him. And I talked to my two friends that I sat with and then I decided to go leave and I didn’t see a golf cart guy around. [00:10:22] So I walked down the hill with my cane. My car is parked in front of the building where the Bible study was supposed to be. I’m walking with my head down and hoping that he isn’t anywhere around. And I got to my car, and put it in reverse. I do a head check to see if anybody’s coming. [00:10:42] And at the corner of my eye, I saw that he was standing in front of the building, standing against a pillar and he was looking right at me. And I just turned my head and, backed out of the parking spot. And [00:11:00] I said, oh crap. I hope he doesn’t recognize me. And he’s standing there trying to figure out if I’m the person he thinks I am, and I’m hoping he is not gonna come over here. [00:11:11] That freaked me out even more. I was really upset. [00:11:16] So I don’t know what to do. I had told Mending the Soul Group about it. And I told my, Bible study teacher Kelly, our ladies Bible study group, and they’re like, oh, you should tell security. [00:11:29] You should tell the pastor. And I’m like, well, this was 14 years ago and I think he’s married and you know, he has not approached me yet, so I really can’t go there unless he is harassing me now. It’s a free country and I guess he can go to church there if he wants to, but if he follows me or anything, I’m going to call security. [00:11:49] So, Anyway, so pray for me on that. When you’re an abuse survivor, these sort of things come up where you’re triggered, where you’re in contact sometimes with [00:12:00] your abuser. [00:12:00] But yeah, this is the reality of an abuse survivor. [00:12:04] You’re just trying to move on with your life and you get triggered like this. [00:12:10] Anyway, let’s dive into the show, which, if you are sensitive to topics like sexual assault, you might wanna skip this one [00:12:20] if this is A difficult topic for you. We will see you next week, okay. Or take a look at some of my other podcast episodes that you probably would enjoy and not be triggering for you. Okay. So here we go. Already did the intro to this. [00:12:38] we are going to be in judges chapter 19. Now, judges has a lot of interesting stories that you may not have read before. a really cool story is the Judge Deborah. Now these are judges of Israel and Deborah is one [00:13:00] judge that is female. If you didn’t know that, I may do a story on her soon here and to do a little bit of research. And they’ve got the story of Gideon and they have Samson. [00:13:17] You may have heard of Samson with the long hair. And then towards the end of the book of judges, you have the Levite, his concubine in the town of Gibeah. [00:13:29] I think that’s how you pronounce that. [00:13:31] So again, with these stories, the Bible reports the stories as they happen without scrubbing things clean or whitewashing them. Um, it doesn’t mean that God condones these acts unless you specifically see in there that God has commanded something. So keep that in mind, just like the previous stories that we [00:14:00] have studied. [00:14:00] So I’m gonna start reading, [00:14:03] Verse one, chapter 19. In those days when there was no king in Israel, the certain Levite was sojourning in the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim who took to himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah. [00:14:23] So let’s stop here. Already I know your heads are spinning. Okay, so later in Israel’s history, they will ask for a king because they wanted to be like the other pagan nations. [00:14:37] They wanted a king to rule over them and instead, oh, the judges, or instead of the theocracy of God Almighty ruling them. And so this was before that time period. And let’s see, what is a Levite? Levite is a priest. They’re the ones that do the [00:15:00] sacrifices in the temple, [00:15:01] They sacrifice the bulls and the lambs during the different designated sacrificial days. Like Yom Kippur and that sort of thing. And a Levite is from the tribe of Levi. Who is Levi? Well, Levi was one of the sons of Jacob, [00:15:23] and the 12 sons each became a tribe of their own. So it is a requirement if you’re going to be a priest of israel, you had to come from the tribe of Levi. [00:15:35] All right. And then we come down to concubine. We’ve talked about concubine previous episodes, especially Hagar, if you wanna know a lot of information about that, you can listen to, the story of Hagar that we did. [00:15:55] Anyway. No, the short answer to what’s a [00:16:00] concubine is it’s basically a second tier wife. A concubine is a slave that Sole purpose is to, give birth when the first wife cannot, they are to get pregnant and have children and raise the children for the first wife. Sometimes she has some rights depending on what her husband gives her, as a concubine. She didn’t have a whole lot of rights, but it was better if you have children with the husband, usually you got better treatment than if you were just irregular slave, uh, just used for sex. [00:16:42] When I mentioned verse two, verse two says, and his concubine was unfaithful to him, and she went away from him to her father’s house at Bethlehem in Judah. And was there some four months? [00:16:56] Okay. The word unfaithful, I have [00:17:00] been doing some study on that. The original word also means angry. [00:17:06] And so a lot of commentaries, they will give you two interpretations on this particular word. A lot of rabbis of the Old Testament, they say, we believe this word in the context is that she was angry. They had some quarrel. Or argument and she ran off to Daddy’s house. [00:17:29] They don’t believe that the context of the passage was that she went and had sex with somebody else. That is not the primary opinion on that, but I give you both options so you can choose for yourself. Okay? [00:17:48] And the reason why, I think it’s because they had a quarrel, and not that she was unfaithful or cheated on him. I believe that because of verse [00:18:00] three, and her husband arose and went after her to speak kindly to her and bring her back so that. Okay. They had a fight and she ran off the dad’s and her husband wanted to make up and he was trying to make amends in whatever way he could. [00:18:23] So it sounded like he at least cared about her. So he had with him, his servant and a couple of donkeys, and she brought him into her father’s house. And when the girl’s father saw him, he came with joy to meet him. [00:18:42] Verse four. And his father-in-law, the girl’s father, made him stay and he remained with him there three days. So they ate and drank and spent the night there. And on the fourth day, they arose early in the morning and he prepared to go. But the girl’s [00:19:00] father said to his son-in-law, strengthen your heart with a morsel of bread. [00:19:05] And after that you may go. So the two of them sat and ate and drank together, and the girl’s father said to the man, be pleased to spend the night and let your heart be merry. And when the man rose up to go, his father-in-law pressed him till he spent the night there again. And on the fifth day, he rose early in the morning to deport. [00:19:29] And the girl’s father said, strengthen your heart and wait until the day declines. So they ate both of them, verse nine. And when the man and his concubine and his servant rose up to depart his father-in-law, the girl’s father said to him, Behold now the day has waned toward evening. Please spend the night, behold the day draws to its close. [00:19:57] Launch here and let your heart be merry. [00:20:00] And tomorrow you shall arise early in the morning for your journey and go home. But the man would not spend the night he rose up and departed and arrived opposite s. That is Jerusalem. [00:20:14] So let’s stop here. Another reason why I think it was they had an argument instead of her being unfaithful is it didn’t matter if you were a slave or a concubine or a wife or a single person. If you were unfaithful, you committed adultery, or outside of wedlock, you laid with somebody that was not your husband, uh, you’re stoned. [00:20:38] So she’s at her father’s house and her father’s talking to the Levite giving him hospitality and, [00:20:45] you know, feeding them and caring for. Him and the daughter. So they’ve been there five, what is it? Five days? Yeah, five days. They’ve been sitting there and eating and drinking [00:21:00] and resting and he wants to leave. Okay. [00:21:05] So they arrive near Jebus, and that was the name of Jerusalem at the time, because the Jebusites sites were the ones that occupied Jerusalem at that time. So [00:21:20] who are the jebusites? They are descendants of Ham. You remember Noah’s Flood? Noah’s sons? Ham was one of Noah’s sons, and then his son was, Canaan. And so these Jebusites are Canaanites, and we talked about Canaanites before. And the Israelites do not want to mix with them because they worship false idols and they sacrifice children to, the fire God Molech. [00:21:50] So let’s move on. [00:21:53] He had with them a couple of saddle donkeys, and his concubine was with him. When they were near [00:22:00] Jebus. The day was nearly over and the servant said to the master, Come now, let us turn aside to the city of Jebusites and spend the night in it. Verse 12. And his master said to him, we will not turn aside into the city of foreigners, who do not belong to the people of Israel, but we will pass on to Gibeah verse 13. [00:22:25] And he said to his young man, come and let us draw near to one of these places and spend the night at Gibeah or at Rama. So they passed on and went their way. [00:22:37] So this is what’s going on. They don’t, well, at least the Levite did not want to spend the night, uh, with the Jebusites sites because they are not believers. And the Israelites, the Jewish people do not get along. And so they wanted to be in a town with their own people for safety reasons, [00:23:00] which is understandable. [00:23:02] I think we all want to stay in a place that’s safe and we’re comfortable with. And so they’re gonna move on to Gi beah verse 14. So they passed on and went on their way and the sun went down on them near Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin. So do you remember Benjamin from our study of Joseph? Benjamin was the youngest of the 12 sons of Jacob, and it was, um, Joseph’s little brother from the same mother, Rachel. And so the Benjamites are his people, his tribe, verse 15. [00:23:43] And they turned aside there to go in and spend the night at Gibeah, and he went in and sat down in the open square of the city for no one, took them into his house to spend the night. Now this is very [00:24:00] familiar. If you were, here with me for the episode on Abraham and Lot and the city of Sodom, this is very common. [00:24:10] As we, we were talking about the city square, you would go to the city square and the culture in that day was you would spend the night so. At somebody’s house in the square, somebody would see that you need a place to sleep and something to eat, and you would be invited to stay at somebody’s home. There weren’t motel eights or Hiltons back in those days. [00:24:37] Most of the time you stayed in people’s homes, and so they’re sitting in the open square waiting for somebody, and that’s what happened in the city of Sodom with the angels. They were in the square. Verse 16 and behold, an old man was coming from his work in the field at evening. The man was from the [00:25:00] hill country of Ephraim, and he was sojourning in Gibeah. [00:25:05] The men of the place were Benjamite, and he lifted up his eyes and saw the traveler in the open square of the city. The old man said, where are you going and where do you come from? Verse 18. And he said to him, we are passing from Bethlehem and Judah to the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim, from which I come. [00:25:31] I went to Bethlehem and Judah, and I am going to the house of the Lord, but no one has taken me into his house. We have straw and feed for our donkeys with bread and wine for me and your female servant and the young man with your servants. There’s no lack of anything. And the old man said, peace be to you. [00:25:54] I will care for all your wants. Only do not spend the night in the [00:26:00] square. So he brought him to his house and gave the donkeys feed and they washed their feet and ate and drank. [00:26:09] Okay, a couple things. So the old man gives them a place to stay and the Levite already has all the supplies to take care of things. [00:26:21] They just need a place to sleep. And the, uh, the square is traditionally a safe place, but in this case it is not. And the old man knows that whatever you do, don’t spend the night in the square. And the same thing was in Sodom. [00:26:39] Lot, told the angels, Don’t spend the night in the square. Uh, let’s see, washing their feet. Washing their feet is a hospitality thing, have you seen any Bible movies? You’ll see their shoes were sandals. I don’t know if they had boots in those [00:27:00] days. I’d have to look that up. [00:27:01] But of course your feet are smelly and hot and tired and you’re walking into somebody’s house. And back in the day, what they would do is wash your feet. That is a sign of service and it’s a practical thing too, so you’re not tracking in, you know, animal dung and the dust into the house. [00:27:28] and then you would sit down and you would eat together. [00:27:30] Okay. Here comes the, um, Really horrible part. So last chance to fast forward. Verse 22. As they were making their hearts, merry, behold, the men of the city, worthless fellows, surrounded the house beating the door. And they said to the old man, the master of the house, bring out the man who came into your house that we may know him. [00:27:56] Now let me explain things thus [00:28:00] far. Worthless fellows. I’m showing here in my, notes in my Bible here. It literally means sons of Belial. In your Old Testament, the term belial is used descriptively. Speaking of perverted or worthless people. And that we may know him. The word know was the normal Hebrew euphemism for sexual relations. [00:28:30] So the same expression is found in Genesis 19 five, where the men of Sodom desire to have sexual relations with Lot’s guests. Yes. So this is kind of the same situation. They’re surrounding the house. [00:28:47] And they’re worthless fellows, meaning that, I don’t know, maybe they’re homeless, maybe they’re, um, drunkards, maybe they’re a gang. [00:28:56] They are not very nice people. [00:29:00] Verse 23. The man, the master of the house went out to them and said to them, [00:29:07] no, my brothers do not act so wickedly, since this man has come into my house, do not do this file thing. [00:29:16] And it gets worse, folks. Verse 24, behold, here are my virgin daughter and his concubine. Let me bring them out. Now, violate them and do with them what seems good to you, but against this man, do not do this outrageous thing. [00:29:35] And I’ll pause here because again, does it sound familiar? This is exactly what happened in Sodom. Lot Said this to the men that were banging on his door wanting to rape the angels that were in his home. And he said, oh, I’ve got virgin daughters. I can throw out there for you. [00:30:00] And, you know, instead the angels blinded the, men of the city, thank God. And it spared the, the poor daughters. But I don’t understand how this is a thing. [00:30:11] You’re gonna save your own skin and instead of protecting the women in the house, [00:30:17] you want to send them out to appease the crowd when. My thinking is, is that any man worth his salt would go out there and kick their butts. Do something. I wouldn’t think that any good man in our society would throw women out there instead of themselves to fight. [00:30:44] There’s always another way than selling somebody down the river. Uh, and a lot of the, um, comments on this is they want to, they wanna rape the Levite who is a priest. [00:31:00] Maybe they didn’t know he was a Levite. They don’t really wear, their ceremonial garb. Unless they’re doing their work in the temple. [00:31:08] They look like everybody else, I’m assuming. But apparently they think in that society that somebody who rapes a man is a whole lot worse than raping a woman. And to you and me, that’s appalling. It’s wrong on both accounts. It’s wrong to rape anybody, man or women. But yes, this disturbing passage that this master of the house, the old man is willing to not only throw his own daughter out there, but volunteers. [00:31:49] the Levite’s Concubine. It was not exactly the Levite volunteering the concubine, if we read that carefully. But the Levi didn’t do [00:32:00] anything to defend either of the women at the time. But the old man says, this is a wicked thing. This is a vile thing. Forcing, yourself on anybody is a vile thing. [00:32:13] Calls it, they call it an outrageous thing. [00:32:16] So let’s see what happens. Verse 25. But the men would not listen to him. So the man seized his concubine and made her go out to them, and they knew her and abused her all night until the morning. And as the dawn began to break, they let her go. And his morning appeared, the woman came and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her master was until it was late. [00:32:42] There’s so much wrong with this passage. Well, and I’m glad that the virgin daughter was not abused along with the concubine. That, I guess, one positive in this story. [00:32:55] So what I say to this is that yeah, neither of the men, [00:33:00] defended her, Or they seem to think that the concubine has less worth than a virgin girl. [00:33:07] I guess the concubine already has had sexual experience. Um, throwing a virgin out there to be assaulted, is probably worse. But both are horrible and unacceptable. But they made their choice. They threw concubine out there [00:33:25] and. [00:33:25] Morning appeared. Morning is usually five in the morning, most parts. the light brings attention to them and their sins. They’re going to be caught. A lot of horrible things happen in the dark. Yes, they let her go. She was alive at the time, and it doesn’t say where this event happened, but she was able to walk or crawl to the old man’s house and she collapsed at the front door. [00:33:56] Verse 27, and her [00:34:00] master. Rose up in the morning. [00:34:02] Yeah, so they go back and forth calling him Master and husband, which is irritating. And when he opened the doors of the house and went out to go on his way, behold there was his concubine lying at the door of the house with her hands on the threshold. He said to her, get up, let us be going, but there was no answer. [00:34:31] Then he put her on the donkey and the man rose up and went away to his home. So I’m gonna stop there. [00:34:37] So it’s really hard to figure out the tone behind, behind this part of the passage. Her master rose up in the morning. Apparently he went to sleep. Doesn’t say if he had trouble sleeping or if he worried about her, but he rose up in the morning. Morning. He went out to go his way. Apparently he was gonna leave [00:35:00] without her. [00:35:00] I don’t know. Is he gonna go look for her? Who knows. Oh, there’s my concubine right on the floor. Get up. [00:35:08] Let’s be going. So there’s a lot of questions that the Bible doesn’t answer sometimes. What was he thinking? Was he thinking, oh, maybe she was only raped once? Maybe he didn’t care. I don’t know. There’s a lot of unanswered questions here, but it sounds callous to me, don’t it? [00:35:30] He doesn’t say, are you okay? [00:35:33] Come on, let me take you into the house and fix you up. Uh, I don’t know if he didn’t realize the extent of her injuries or what, maybe we should give them the benefit of the doubt. There’s no answer when he talked to her. He put her on the donkey and the man rose up and went away to his home. I don’t know, maybe he was getting her medical care. [00:35:57] I don’t know. He could have left her in front of [00:36:00] the door, I guess, [00:36:00] and it doesn’t say when she dies. It doesn’t say if she died on the doorstep overnight or did she die on the donkey, but she is dead in this next part, verse 29. When he entered the his house, he took a knife and taking hold of his concubine. He divided her limb by limb into 12 pieces and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel. [00:36:27] And all who saw it said Such a thing has never happened or had been seen from the day that the people of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt. Until this day, consider it. Take counsel and speak. yeah. This is, this is disgusting, horrible. And you think, why is this in the Bible? Um, [00:36:51] why is this passage in the Bible amongst others? This is meant to be shocking, [00:36:57] and there’s a lot going on here. [00:36:58] Why did he [00:37:00] cut her up into pieces? I’m, this is my opinion. I’m speculating. Perhaps he did care for this concubine, his second tier wife. Uh, he was maybe angry that this injustice happened to her. Maybe he’s upset with himself that he didn’t do anything to help her. There’s a lot of things that could be going through this man’s mind, and they don’t give us his name, which is weird. [00:37:27] It’s so shameful and horrible. But each tribe of Israel got a leg or an arm in the mail or a head. I’m not gonna go through the different combinations of 12 pieces. That’s pretty morbid. but they’re trying to figure out from after the shock, why is this Levite sending us body parts? It’s because he is wants revenge. [00:37:56] He wants revenge. [00:37:58] So, The state of [00:38:00] Israel’s spiritual state was not very good. They had not been obedient to the Lord. They were living in gross sin. They were not doing what they were supposed to be doing. And so, I mean, the Levite did not expect the benjamite who are his people, they’re Israelites to do this horrible thing, and this is something that needs to be dealt with. [00:38:28] So let’s look at chapter 20 in verse one. Then all the people of Israel came out from Dan to Beersheba, including the land of Gilead, and the congregation assembled as one man to the Lord at Mezpa, and the chiefs of all the people, of all the tribes of Israel. Presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, 400,000 men on foot that drew the sword. [00:38:59] Now the people of [00:39:00] Benjamin heard that the people of Israel had gone up to Mezpa and the people of Israel said, tell us how did this evil happen? And the Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered and said, I came to Gibeah that belongs to Benjamin I and my concubine to spend the night. And the leaders of Gibeah rose against me and surrounded my house against me by night. [00:39:32] They meant to kill me and they violated my concubine and she is dead. So I took hold of my concubine and cut her in pieces and sent her throughout all of the country of the inheritance of Israel. Where they have committed abomination and outrage in Israel. Behold you, people of Israel, all of you give your advice and counsel here. [00:39:57] So he is telling [00:40:00] the Israelites, they all came to the this meeting, they all know that he wants to start a war with Benjamite. And he’s telling this story and he’s leaving out the part where the men wanted to rape him first, because apparently that is a source of shame. And again, [00:40:21] so he just tells part of the story [00:40:24] and he mentions the reason the Benjamites have committed an abomination and an outrage. [00:40:30] So they’re going to go to war in revenge [00:40:33] to, they’re gonna go to war against the Benjamites for this concubine who was, uh, brutally treated. And we’re trying to find some, some redeeming qualities from this story. And I have to say that this is a very common thing with the Israelites when somebody rapes their sister, such as in the case of Dina, [00:41:00] which we’ve done the, that story, and in the case of Tamar. [00:41:05] Who was, raped by her brother. they’re definitely accounts of the family wants to take revenge and they go to the other side of the pendulum and they commit great atrocities in the name of their family member who was, murdered or raped or defrauded in some way. And that’s kind of like their, as their calling card. [00:41:33] You’ll see that all through scripture is a, reaction to this horrible event. And, oh, let’s see what else they say. [00:41:45] We’re in verse eight, and all the people rose as one man saying none of us will go to his tent and none of us will return to his house. But now this is what we will do to Gibeah. We will go up against it by lot, [00:42:00] and we will take 10 men of a hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel and a hundred of a thousand and a thousand of 10,000 to bring provisions for the people that when they come, they may repay Gibeah of Benjamin for all the outrage that they have committed in Israel. [00:42:22] So all the men of Israel gathered against the city, united as one man, right? So they all give up 10% of their men who can fight from each tribe. And I guess the other redeeming quality is that Israel is United, United as one, at least against Benjamites. [00:42:44] Verse 12, the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin saying, what evil is this that has taken place among you now, therefore, give up the men, the worthless fellows in Gibeah that we may put them [00:43:00] to death, and I will purge evil from Israel. But the Benjamites would not listen to the voice of their brothers, the people of Israel. [00:43:09] Then the people of Benjamin came together outta the cities to Gibeah to go out to battle against the people of Israel and the people of Benjamin Mustered out of their cities. On that day, 2,600 men who drew the sword, and besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who mustered 700 chosen men. Among all these were 700 chosen men who were left-handed. [00:43:36] Everyone could sling a stone at a hair and not miss. And the men of Israel, apart from Benjamin mustered, 400,000 men who drew the sword, all these were men of war. So let’s talk about this. So each side is gathering up their warriors to start this fight [00:44:00] cuz the Benjamites will not give up the men who raped the concubine, [00:44:07] which I don’t know. If I was trying to save my country from war, I would give up the guilty party, but I digress. They would rather go to war and harbor these men who did this atrocity. Risk, death and destruction from going to war. This is a mistake. I wanted to mention something that, is very interesting. [00:44:32] I mentioned the Benjamites are left-handed, and I did some study on that. I’m like, oh, [00:44:39] left-handed. Are they all left-handed? Well, in my study of this, what I found is that they were probably not only left-handed, they didn’t have a word for ambidextrous in those days. You don’t see that in the Bible that I can remember. But [00:45:00] if you were a warrior and you could use your left hand because only 10% of the population are left-handed. [00:45:06] Um, I have a family member that’s left-handed. If you had skill use of your left hand and your right hand, that would make you a formidable warrior, that would give you more options because of course, somebody chops your, your right arm off, you could still fight something. You still have use of your left arm and you could at least fight with one arm. [00:45:30] And so that word actually is referring to ambidextrous people. So, and I understand that because as a martial artist myself, I train both sides of my body. I can kick with both legs. I can do any technique with either side, my right hand or my left hand. And they teach us that because if you’re carrying a baby, you have [00:46:00] probably only one hand, because you have to carry, the child. [00:46:04] Or if you’re carrying maybe groceries, yeah, you can drop the groceries. But what if it’s something you can’t drop? [00:46:12] Anyway, that was a very interesting, um, detail that was in there. [00:46:18] But let’s move on. Verse 18. The people of Israel arose and went up to Bethel and inquired of God. Who shall go up for us to fight against the people of Benjamin? And the Lord said, Judah shall go up first. So this is the first mention of God. So now they start inquiring God. They have not done this up to this point. [00:46:47] That’s important to know. Anytime in scripture, when you see somebody working, doing something independently of the Lord, there’s gonna be a disaster. [00:47:00] So they’re asking God which one of the tribes are going to go first? And he picks Judah. I don’t know why, but [00:47:07] I didn’t really look up to see why God, picked Judah. [00:47:12] So this is the moral outrage that they are going to deal with. [00:47:17] So I’m just gonna summarize all the war stuff, because it’s a lot and it’s repetitive and you probably could just take the summary of what’s going on. So the first time they go up against the Benjamite, Israel loses and 2000 men died. And so they keep asking, God, should we jaw again near to fight against our brothers, the people of Benjamin. [00:47:48] And the Lord said, go up against them. So they did a second time and the mites killed 8,000 of the Israelites. And then they [00:48:00] ask God again, shall we go out once more to battle against our brothers, the people of Benjamin, or shall we cease? And Lord said, go up for tomorrow. I will give them into your hand. [00:48:12] I don’t know why God waits until the third go around to give them the benjamite to give them the benjamite. [00:48:21] I didn’t really see anything in commentaries about that. [00:48:26] And so the next section they’re talking about the Israel set up men to ambush the mites. And I’m at verse 35, and the Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel. And the people Israel destroyed 25,100 men of Benjamin that day. All these were men who drew the sword. So the people of Benjamin saw that they were defeated. [00:48:53] Okay, so victory at last. It gets really weird. [00:48:58] So again, I’m not gonna go through [00:49:00] all the battle scenes. You can read those for yourself. [00:49:03] So the ambush, so all who fell that day, Benjamin, were 25,000 men who drew the sword. All of them remained at the Rock of Riman four months. And the men of Israel turned back against the people of Benjamin, struck them with the edge of the sword, the city men and beasts and all that they found and all the towns that they found they set on fire. [00:49:29] We’re at chapter 21 and it, they’re starting now. They’re gonna feel sorry for the tribe of Benjamin because, uh, all the men are dead. And they got these women who are pretty much prisoners of war and they start thinking about the continuation of the tribe, which is, you should have thought about that before you entered into a war. [00:49:58] Maybe there were [00:50:00] other ways for you to resolve this conflict. instead of going to war, it’s anytime sin happens in, in our lives, it’s like a, a house of cards. It comes apart pretty quickly. It’s dashed to the ground. And then you’ve got your domino effect of sin affecting all these other innocent people who didn’t deserve to be, uh, recipients of, sufferings of war. [00:50:35] So let’s read chapter 21, verse one. No. The men of Israel had sworn it Mezpa. No one of us shall give his daughter a marriage to Benjamin. And the people came to Bethel and sat there till evening before God, and they lifted up their voices and wept bitterly. And they said, oh Lord, the God of Israel. [00:50:57] Why has this happened and [00:51:00] Israel, that today there should be one tribe lacking in Israel. And the next day the people rose early and built an altar and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. And the people of Israel said, which of all the tribes of Israel did not come up in the assembly to honor to the Lord? [00:51:22] Where they had taken a great oath concerning him who did not come up to the Lord to Mezpa spa saying he shall surely be put to death. And the people of Israel had compassion for Benjamin, their brother, and said, One tribe is cut off from Israel this day. What shall we do for the wives, for those who are left since we have sworn by the Lord that we will not give them any of our daughters for wives? [00:51:49] So let’s stop here and talk about this. [00:51:53] So they said, we’re not giving any of our daughters in marriage to anybody from the tribe of [00:52:00] Benjamin, because they’re horrible people. And then they figured out that, okay, now we have a problem. Where are we gonna, where are we gonna get people? [00:52:12] So they’re trying to figure out, okay, who wasn’t at the big meeting where we all were together, and who didn’t make that pact before God, that they weren’t going to give their daughters to Benjamin, or take wives from Benjamin, whatever. Oh. Well, we’re gonna find somebody who wasn’t there, and that’s who’s gonna be the solution to our problem. [00:52:37] So we’re at verse eight, and they said, what is one there of the tribes of Israel that did not come up to the Lord ? And behold, no one had come to the camp from Jebesh, Gilead to the assembly for when the people were mustered. Behold, not one of the inhabitants of Ja Besch Gilead was there. So the [00:53:00] congregation sent 12,000 of their bravest men there and commanded them. [00:53:06] Go and strike the inhabitants of , Jabesh, Gilead, with the edge of the sword, also the women and the little ones. This is what you shall do. Every male and every woman that has lain with a male you shall devote to destruction. And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh, Gilead, 400 young virgins who had not known a man by lying with him. [00:53:32] And they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan. [00:53:38] Then the whole congregation sent word to the people of Benjamin who were at the Rock of Reman and proclaimed peace to them. And Benjamin returned at that time and they gave them the women whom they have saved alive of the women of Jabesh Gilead. But they were not enough for them [00:54:00] and the people who had compassion on Benjamin because the Lord had made a breach in the tribes of Israel. [00:54:07] So let’s. Digest this a little more. Um, this is not very pretty either, folks. This is, not a good solution. [00:54:16] The ones that weren’t there and didn’t raise their hand and swear. They’re going to take their virgins for wives, they’re gonna steal them, destroy everybody else, [00:54:27] and give these women to, the benjamite because, well, if we don’t give you the girls, then, [00:54:35] the tribe is going to cease to exist. [00:54:37] So, let’s see what else comes up here. [00:54:41] verse 16, then the elders of the congregation said, what shall we do for the wives, for those who are left since the woman are destroyed out of Benjamin? And they said there must be an inheritance for the survivors of Benjamin, that a tribe not be blotted out from Israel, [00:55:00] yet we cannot give them wives from our daughters. [00:55:04] For the people of Israel has sworn curse would be he who gives a wife to Benjamin. So they said, behold, there is the yearly feast of the Lord at Shiloh, which is north of Bethel on the east of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem and south of Lena. And they commanded the people of Benjamin saying, go in, ambush in the vineyards and watch if the Daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances. [00:55:38] Then come out of the vineyards and snatch each man, his wife, from the daughters of Shiloh and go to the land of Benjamin. And when their fathers or their brothers come to us and complain, we will say to them, grant them graciously to us, because we did not take for each [00:56:00] man of them, his wife, in battle. [00:56:04] Neither did you give them to them, else you would now be guilty. And the people of Benjamin did so and took wives according to their number from the dancers whom they carried off. Then they went and returned to their inheritance and rebuilt the towns and lived in them. And the people of Israel departed from here. [00:56:29] From there at that time, every man to his tribe and family. And they went out from there, every man to his inheritance. [00:56:39] Verse 25. In those days, there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Yes, I I told you this story, it was going to be over the top bad. So now they wanna preserve the tribe of Benjamin as we have been reading. [00:57:00] And [00:57:00] the Israelites tell Benjamites to go and, steal women from Shiloh while they’re doing their dances. Yeah. Here’s, a verse for the Baptist. Here we got women dancing. [00:57:13] That’s a yearly feast, and the women danced. [00:57:16] So have you ever seen the movie Seven Brides For Seven Brothers? That’s pretty much what went down. you know the story. These mountain men. They live in the mountains, and, they need wives where there isn’t any women in the town, where they are. [00:57:33] And so they decided to go down to the nearest town, and, they decide to kidnap all of these girls. [00:57:41] And take them up into the mountains. There was a big snow storm and the, pass was covered in snow and the parents of these girls could not pass. And so they had to wait until spring to get through to rescue their daughters. And, as the story [00:58:00] goes in this movie [00:58:01] Of course, if you know the story, there is some genuine affection and some courting that goes along and they do have a marriage ceremony when the preacher comes into town. But it was this whole thing about being kidnapped by these mountain mens who were pretty much bruts with no manners. [00:58:21] So the Benjamites said they’re pretty much bruts too, and did the same thing to these women. Uh, but the women didn’t have much of a choice. [00:58:31] They didn’t have a say in no matter, and that’s usually what happens. But it says that , they preserved the clan and rebuilt the towns, and they lived in there. They got their inheritance. And it’s interesting that they mentioned, in those days, there was no king in, in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. [00:58:52] That’s, that’s the reason why this happened. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. [00:58:58] What are they [00:59:00] redeeming? What are the takeaways from this passage of scripture? I know we have to dig deep. I get it. This is truly horrible. I’ve been trying to mention them as we go along, but [00:59:12] only it seems absurd to us that we would go to war or commit genocide for the purpose of defending somebody who was raped. Um, that’s an extreme reaction, but looking back at this, They wanted justice. They wanted revenge for this atrocity. They realized, they admitted this was an atrocity, this was a horror, this was not right. [00:59:42] So nobody’s condoning abuse of a concubine. Nobody’s condoning that. Uh, the abuses for the women who were taken from Shiloh I don’t necessarily agree with that. none of us would, would [01:00:00] condone being kidnapped. [01:00:02] But those women didn’t have anywhere to go. [01:00:04] did the Levite care for this woman? I think maybe he did. Maybe not in ways that we understand in our context, but why? Why did this happen? And many of the Bible stories that we read in scripture, really terrible things happen when the Israelites are not doing what they’re supposed to be doing. [01:00:28] They’re not seeking God. We read about them doing sacrifices and building an altar and, and worshiping at the altar, but they should have been doing that in the first place. They weren’t, they were doing what was right in their own eyes. The. Town of Gibeah, they were probably the worst of the bunch. They had been doing horrible things, unchecked with nobody to punish them when they [01:01:00] did these things. [01:01:01] And so [01:01:02] this is what happens. God does give them victory over the Benjamites. [01:01:10] I’m assuming God gave them victory because God is against abuse. God doesn’t condone rape even of a concubine. [01:01:20] Doesn’t condone rape over anybody. Why he waited till the third go around to give the Israelites victory. Most likely. This is just my opinion, is that God makes it very clear that when you go to war and instead of negotiating and trying to make peace with your neighbors, even in horrible situations going to war, you’re, you’re going to lose people. [01:01:53] Innocent people suffer when you go to war and they’re maybe next time when you [01:02:00] decide or you’re tempted to go to war for something, you need to think about this. Think about it really hard. Are there other options that we could do? Can we negotiate? Can we just take a random amount of men and execute them because a random amount of men, um, raped and butchered this concubine. [01:02:24] Yeah. You give up these men that you’re harboring or we’re gonna just take 10 men out of your tribe and we’re gonna execute them. And it’s gonna be a horrible death too. That’s what I would’ve probably, suggested. [01:02:38] But we have to be careful of slipping morally. It’s very easy to do. We need, to. Depend on the Lord and look to the Lord for guidance and advice and comfort. We need to obey the commands that he’s given us. We need to make peace with our neighbors, with our enemies, even. [01:02:59] [01:03:00] And today we’re all taught to turn on the other cheek, not to seek revenge. Revenge is mine sayeth the Lord. love your enemies to good, to those that hurt you. That’s easy to say and hard to do, isn’t it? Especially those of us who have been abused, who have been betrayed, who have been, been through some really horrible things. [01:03:21] It is hard. But with God’s help, we can, we can do those things. We can get through it, we can find alternatives. We can have access to God’s grace and mercy for people. And that’s part of the healing journey is coming to that place where I’ve processed my pain and my grief and my sorrow and my anger, and I’m at a place now with God’s power. [01:03:49] Of course, not in our own strength, but in God’s strength that I’m gonna forgive this person or these people that have [01:04:00] violated me or who have hurt somebody I love. [01:04:03] It doesn’t come overnight. It doesn’t. And we’ve talked about forgiveness before. We’re not required to forgive somebody who’s not repentant. That’s Bible. Folks, look it up. Jesus is not gonna forgive us if we don’t repent of our sin. God required Israel to repent of their sin, of idolatry before he forgave them and brought them back into his fold, into the land that he promised them. [01:04:35] John the Baptist required repentance before they got baptized. he’s a said to the woman who was caught in adultery, go and sin no more. God requires repentance for salvation to get into heaven. That’s an internal thing. It’s not something you do on the outside. It’s something you do on the inside. [01:04:55] You’re going to change your mind. That’s pretty much what it means. [01:05:00] You’re no longer going this way, you’re going that way anyway. The moral of the story is to follow God’s laws. [01:05:07] When you see, immorality, not obeying what God says, it spreads. It spreads. You got one person in the church that’s, um, spreading his sin to the rest of the congregation. Think about that for a minute. [01:05:23] Whatever it is, God doesn’t tolerate sin. And there are natural consequences for sin, like we talked about before. [01:05:33] Well, you got a group like the Tribe Benjamin, that brings the entire, state of Israel to their knees. [01:05:40] Nobody held anybody accountable for their sin. So what happens is innocent people suffer. So in the Bible, God is not condoning what happened. He’s trying to teach lessons. We are here to learn lessons. Yes, stand up for people who have been, Who have been [01:06:00] hurt, who’ve been abused, who have been oppressed. But think about what you’re going to do about it and think really hard. Some reactions to defending somebody are not wise. They’re not what God would want. They’re not practical. [01:06:19] They cause a chain reaction of things. So this is, what I’m gonna leave you with and I hope that you learned something today. I hope that it brings to light a story that nobody talks about. [01:06:34] It does not reduce the horribleness of it. But what it does is it gives you courage to go in there and dig a little more and see what’s going on. What can I learn from this passage? Is God trying to teach me something? [01:06:52] The lessons are not always going to be the feel good kind, but I do want you to get into God’s word and and try [01:07:00] doesn’t mean you’re gonna understand everything. You’re not. I don’t. [01:07:05] I have to do a lot of digging to go through these passages. You can too. [01:07:11] If you need help, reach out for help. I’ve said before I’m available if you need help, you have questions, and I’m thinking of doing, Facebook or maybe YouTube lives when I’m laid up in September, because, I’ll have a lot of time in my hands and maybe I’ll get to know some of you better and interact with some of you. [01:07:32] So thanks for slogging through this with me and it was hard. I appreciate you being here with me. Thank you for your prayers for what I mentioned in the beginning of this episode, and we’re gonna see you next week. I’m gonna try and find something a little more uplifting or less dark. [01:07:53] Let’s just say that I will try really hard, come up with something good. So until next week, God bless you, [01:08:00] and bye for now. [01:08:01] Thank you for listening to the Wounds of the Faithful Podcast. If this episode has been helpful to you, please hit the subscribe button and tell a friend. You could connect with us at DSW Ministries dot org where you’ll find our blog, along with our Facebook, Twitter, and our YouTube channel links. Hope to see you next week.