The Bible Recap - Day 096 (Judges 19-21) - Year 4

Episode Date: April 6, 2022

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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, but they head out for the long journey home. His servants suggest 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 Gabea, 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 Benjaminites 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 Benjaminites 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 Benjaminites in that city. In response to this, the men of fighting age from all the tribes except for Benjamin gathered together. Any time you see the phrase, from Dan to Bershiba, in Scripture, that's basically saying from north to south, because the new cities that the tribe of Dan just conquered and took over was about as far north as you could go in Israel, and the city of Bershiba 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 Gabea 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 Benjaminites 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 whether they're losing if they're being obedient to God. But on days one and two, 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 three, 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 Minnab Benjamin except for 600 who go into hiding. The Minnab Israel burn the town and treat it like they would a canonite 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 Benjamin's 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 Levite. Thousands 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 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 portion above the chapters we're reading. We hear from a lot of you who are interested in getting transcripts of our daily podcast

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