Prone to Wander
Today we come to our final stop in the book of Judges. Like we heard last week, Judges concludes with two episodes that simply show us what life was like in those days. This is the second and longer of the two.
There’s three chapters in this whole account, and as you can tell, we didn’t read all three. I encourage you to do that yourself if you haven’t already. The three chapters roughly follow the three main beats of the story. Chapter 19 is about the initial event that sparked it all, the outrage at Gibeah. Chapter 20 is about the civil war that erupted as a result of what happened, and chapter 21 is about the national crisis that erupted as a result of the civil war. It’s a wild ride, so buckle up and let’s begin.
A. Outrage at Gibeah
1. The Background (19:1-9)
It all starts here in the first nine verses of chapter 19. We’re introduced to aa Levite sojourning in the hill country of Ephraim, who has a concubine from Bethlehem. There’s some similarities to last week’s account—a Levite in Ephraim with connections to Bethlehem—but no further clues that would tell us whether this is the same Levite or not.
The existence of concubines was really sad. A concubine was basically like a spare wife, who was treated somewhere in between a slave and a full wife. In a time in history when having as many children as possible was important, and so many women died in childbirth, concubines were an expedient way to increase the amount of children you could have. But it’s still pretty awful to think about, and every time the Bible actually describes a man having more than one wife, it’s never painted in a positive light. The Bible describes this practice but never promotes it.
This Levite’s concubine is unfaithful to him and goes away to her father’s house. The sense may very well be that she was unfaithful by going back to her father’s house. Or perhaps she was unfaithful with another man and decided to hide out at home instead of facing the music.
The Levite lets her go for four months before he goes out to, as verse 3 says, “to speak kindly to her and bring her back.” That verse goes on to say that when the girl’s father sees him, “he came with joy to meet him.” That’s maybe the one note of honour in our passage, suggesting that the dad hasn’t been all that happy giving up the spare bedroom again for the last four months.
But, being a good host, the dad entertains the Levite and treats him well for three days. On the fourth day, he encourages him to eat a bit before he goes, but that turns into another extended time, and when he leaves to go the dad presses him to stay the night.
Either the dad really doesn’t want his daughter to leave, or he’s just being a really good host in an almost over-the-top kind of way. On the fifth day, the Levite gets up to leave early in the morning, but the father again presses him to stay and eat some food. And again he tries to make them stay the night, but the Levite insists on leaving, even though the day has worn on. They don’t make it far—only to Jebus or Jerusalem, about a 2-3 hour walk—before the day is almost over. Remember that they didn’t have cell phones or CAA or headlights on their donkeys, and so travel at night was not safe. And naturally his servant wants them to stay in Jebus for the night.
But in verse 12 the Levite basically says “No way, because Jebus isn’t an Israelite city.” He doesn’t trust himself to those foreigners. So they press on to the nearest Israelite city, which is Gibeah of Benjamin, and arrive there just as the sun is setting. Verse 15 says “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.”
This is our first hint that something is really wrong. The girl’s father has given us a backdrop for what hospitality was supposed to look like, even if he took it a little too far. But here in Gibeah there’s nobody to take in these sojourners. They’re going to sleep out in the open. Maybe they should have gone to Jebus.
Verse 16 tells us that “an old man was coming from his work in the field at evening. The man was from the hill country of Ephraim, and he was sojourning in Gibeah. The men of the place were Benjaminites” (Judges 19:16). This man, a stranger to the place, sees the strangers, gets their story, tells them it’s not safe to spend the night in the open square, and invites them into his home where he treats them well, washing their feet and giving them a meal.
This is starting to sound a little familiar, isn’t it? Remember Genesis 18-19, which we considered about a year and a half ago? The two angels visited Abraham, and were treated to a royal feast, after which they visited Sodom, where nobody welcomed them in, and they were going to spend the night in the open square. Finally a stranger to that city, Lot, invited them in to his place where he did what the citizens of the city should have done.
2. Israel as Sodom (19:10-26)
The parallels to the Lot story are unmistakeable when we get to verse 22: “As they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, worthless fellows, surrounded the house, beating on 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.’”
What’s happening here is a perversion on at least two levels. First, it’s a perversion of hospitality. Rather than welcoming this stranger, the men of Gibeah want to take advantage of him. And second, it’s a perversion of normal human relations. Men should not be seeking physical intimacy with another man. Leviticus 18:22 gives God’s perspective on this matter: “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.”
So what’s happening here is wrong on so many levels. And it’s exactly what the men of Sodom did with the two angels in Genesis 18. The message is simple: Israel has become like Sodom. Sodom, which God destroyed off the face of the earth for their wickedness. An Israelite city, which the Levite thought was safer than Jebus, has become as dangerous and twisted as Sodom.
And the similarities continue, because the old man in the story acts just like Lot, who offers two innocent and vulnerable women in an attempt to satisfy the lust of the gang. Verse 23: “And the man, the master of the house, went out to them and said to them, ‘No, my brothers, do not act so wickedly; since this man has come into my house, do not do this vile thing. 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’” (Judges 19:23–24).
Like Lot, this man tries to offer the gang rapists the lesser of two evils. Why not a woman, instead of a man? But like Lot, this man’s cowardice and his willingness to throw his own daughter and another man’s wife into harm’s way should make us sick. A real man would take his stand at the door of his house and say, “You will get to these people over my dead body.”
But unlike Lot’s story, there’s no angels here to strike the gang with blindness. And it’s actually the Levite who follows through with the suggestion to give his wife—his young wife, referred to as a “girl” in verse 9—to the group of perverted men. “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 as morning appeared, the woman came and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her master was, until it was light” (Judges 19:25–26).
These are some of the most horrifying and heartbreaking words in the whole Bible. If this doesn’t give you a sense of rage or sorrow or something, I don’t know what to say. There are no words for how awful this is.
3. A Grisly Message (19:27-30)
But it gets worse, as we move into verse 27. “And her master rose up in the morning, 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. Then he put her on the donkey, and the man rose up and went away to his home” (Judges 19:27–28).
This man’s callousness is hard to fathom. He’s all business after a refreshing night while his woman went through hell on earth. There she lies, with her hand at the door that should have protected her and given her safety. But there is no answer to his heartless command. So he picks her up and she’s carried home by one of the donkeys.
The implication is that at some point in here, she died. Maybe she was dead already by the time he found her, or maybe she breathed her last somewhere along the hard ride way back to Ephraim. A fragile young girl, used and abused, her life snuffed out in one night by the lust of a mob and the cowardice of her husband and host.
And as if this story couldn’t shock us enough, what the Levite does when he gets home is a new level of bizarre. Verse 29: “And when he entered his house, he took a knife, and taking hold of his concubine he divided her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel.”
Rather than giving her a respectful burial, the Levite treats her corpse like crime scene evidence, and decides to divide the evidence and send it all throughout the land as a way of making the nation aware of what happened that night in Gibeah.
Apparently, somewhere down in his cold heart, he recognizes that what happened to her was not okay. And he wants to make sure Gibeah is held accountable. And the grisly message is received. Verse 30: “And all who saw it said, ‘Such a thing has never happened or 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’” (Judges 19:30).
B. Civil War
And with that we move into chapter 20, the second of three major movements in this story. And the story of the civil war begins with the muster in verses 1-17.
1. The Muster (20:1-17)
“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 Mizpah” (Judges 20:1).
We should just notice some irony here. We’ve seen a lot of musters in the book of Judges. Judge after judge has summoned Israel out to fight their enemies. And each time, it’s been just a few tribes at a time. This is the most comprehensive muster in the whole book of Judges by far. Everybody is here—as verse 2 says, 400,000 men who draw the sword. And the irony is that the target is not an enemy power. It’s on of their own cities.
In verse 3, they ask what happened. And in verse 4, the Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, tells them. Notice what he tells and what he leaves out. He tells them that the men of Gibeah wanted to kill him, not “know him” as they said. Perhaps he thinks this will get more of a reaction from the people. He says that they violated his concubine, while conveniently leaving out the part about him handing her over to them. He says, rightly, that the men of Gibeah have “committed abomination and outrage in Israel” (v. 6) without mentioning his part in that outrage.
And the most interesting part here is that it’s just this one man giving his testimony. The law required two or three witnesses to establish any case. So does the New Testament, by the way. The men of Israel should have said “This is awful, and we believe you, but we can’t act on this without witnesses or corroboration.” They should have gone to talk to the man from Ephraim who lived in Gibeah.
But instead they get carried away, and in verses 8-11 they make a plan to go up against Gibeah. At least, in verses 12-13, they try to persuade Benjamin to give up the men of Gibeah who actually committed the crime, but that doesn’t happen. Benjamin pulls together and is more concerned about family loyalty than truth and justice. Instead of handing over the criminals, they get ready for battle. They can’t win this—they’re hopelessly outnumbered—but verse 16 conveniently tells us about Benjamin’s elite group of sharpshooters. They stand a decent chance of putting up a good fight. And by the end of verse 17 the two sides are ready for battle.
2. The Battles (20:18-42)
Now, I’ll admit that the part in this story I struggle with the most comes in verse 18: “The people of Israel arose and went up to Bethel and inquired of God, ‘Who shall go up first for us to fight against the people of Benjamin?” And the Lord said, ‘Judah shall go up first’” (Judges 20:18). Why is the Lord speaking and giving directions for this battle that is so messed up from the very start? Israel didn’t even ask the Lord whether they should be joining this battle in the first place. Why does God give them this answer?
There’s probably a few answers to that question. First, if God only interacted with His people when they were doing everything right, He’d barely be in the picture at all. Like Gideon with his fleece, God is not endorsing His people’s behaviour when He interacts with them like this.
Second, had purposes for this battle that went beyond what the people themselves suspected. One of those purposes may have been discipline. Benjamin should not have been defending the men of Gibeah. If he lets them get away with this, He’s going to need to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. And perhaps the rest of the nation needs to learn a lesson about charging into a war without following the right steps.
Either way, it was right for Judah to go up first since the victim of the murder was from Judah. And that’s what happened—Judah draws up a battle line against Gibeah, and in verse 21 we read that the people of Benjamin came out and killed 22,000 of them. That’s not how they expected it to go.
But instead of scattering, “the people, the men of Israel, took courage, and again formed the battle line in the same place where they had formed it on the first day” as verse 22 says. They inquire of God, He tells them to go up again, and on the second day the battle is joined again. Benjamin comes out and strikes down 18,000 Israelite warriors. Again, the people seek the Lord, this time with burnt offerings and peace offerings. And it’s here, in verse 28, that we find out an important detail in this story: that Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, was the high priest ministering before the ark of the covenant in those days.
Once again, like last week’s detail about Jonathan the son of Gershom, this lets us know just how early in Israel’s history these events have taking place. Not a lot of time has passed since Joshua died, and things are falling apart so quickly.
The Lord tells them to go up again, giving them a promise that this time he will give Israel victory over the rebellious Benjaminites. And beginning in verse 29, we are given play-by-play detail of Israel’s victory that next day. Taking cues from their earlier victory over Ai, Israel sets an ambush, and pretends to give way to Benjamin while the ambush moves into place against Gibeah, setting the city on fire.
Benjamin then finds themselves in the middle of a pincer movement—enemies on both sides, and no place to retreat to. Verse 42: “Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel in the direction of the wilderness.” Benjamin stops fighting and runs.
3. The Slaughter (20:43-48)
And it’s here that I wish we read something like, “So Israel surrounded the Benjaminites, who admitted defeat, surrendered the wicked men from Gibeah, and made peace with their brothers.”
But instead, what happens is a slaughter. We’d already read in verse 37 that they struck all the city of Gibeah with the edge of the sword. And Israel pursues Benjamin in a rampage, striking down thousands of them as they fled. Verse 46 tells us that 25,000 men of valour fell that day. Only 600 survived. And verse 48 grimly concludes by telling us that “the men of Israel turned back against the people of Benjamin and 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” (Judges 20:48).
Israel was treating Benjamin like one of the pagan nations in the book of Joshua. Not content to merely defeat them in battle, they are trying to wipe them off the face of the earth.
The sad irony here is that Israel was actually supposed to do this with the wicked, pagan nations who refused to surrender. But so often, they didn’t. Right in the first chapter of Judges we read a long list of Israel’s failures to successfully defeat their enemies. When it came to their actual enemies, they were half-hearted and weak.
But here at Judges concludes, Israel’s most comprehensive, most detailed, and most successful military campaign is against one of their own tribes. And they so over-react, they get so carried away, that they almost completely destroy the tribe of Benjamin—every man, woman and child—save these 600 lonely survivors.
C. National Crisis
1. The Problem (21:1-7)
And that moves us into chapter 21: the national crisis. Because of God’s dealings with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, because of Israel’s history, for there to be a missing tribe in Israel would essentially throw their whole identity as a nation into question. How can they be the twelve tribes without the twelve tribes?
And Benjamin is in danger of disappearing. Yes, 600 men remain, but we find out in verse 7 that they people of Israel had made a promise that they wouldn’t give any of their daughters to the Benjaminites as wives.
This is just so sad. It’s sad to see Israel, like so many people throughout history, wake up the morning after to realize too late just how carried away they’d gotten in the heat of passion. It’s also sad because this promise is self-imposed. God didn’t tell them to do this. And in the law He gave provision for people to be freed from a rash and sinful promise (Leviticus 5:4-6). It’s also sadly ironic because we’ve read from the earliest parts of Judges how willingly the people gave their daughters to be married to the Canaanites, despite God’s command not to. But here, they’re sticking to this silly promise they never should have made in the first place involving their own flesh and blood.
2. First Solution (21:8-15)
But they come up with a solution, which emerges in verse 5, which hinges on another rash oath they had made. Apparently, they had made an oath that whoever did not come up to join the battle in the last chapter would be put to death. Again, that’s a little crazy, especially with how relaxed they were about this kind of thing in the rest of Judges.
But sure enough, in verse 8 they realize nobody had come from Jabesh-gilead, a city on the far side of the Jordan. They don’t stop to check why they didn’t come or if they even got the message. They just send 12,000 of their bravest men and command them, verse 10, “Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword; also the women and the little ones,” with the added instruction in verse 12 to spare any young women who had never been married.
That’s their solution for killing too many of their brothers: go and kill some more. Destroy another one of their cities, no questions asked. Kidnap 400 women who just watched their entire families be killed, and force them into marrying the Benjaminite refugees. What a great plan.
3. Second Solution (21:16-24)
But the problem persists, because the there’s still 200 men who need wives.
And their final solution to this problem is found in verse 19-20. Apparently there was this yearly festival coming up when the young women from Shiloh would come out dance. So they tell these 200 Benjaminites to literally hide in the vineyards, and when the dancers come out, to rush out and “snatch each man his wife from the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.”
What a brilliant plan. Inflict trauma on another Israelite city. More mass kidnapping and forced marriage. Who thought this was a good idea? But they go through with it. Verse 23: “The people of Benjamin did so and took their wives.” And they go back and rebuild their towns and live in them. And Israel returns to their towns to live in them. And everybody lived messed up ever after.
D. Conclusion (21:25)
And that is the final episode in the book of Judges. Like last week, there’s no good guys here, and definitely no happy ending. And you might be wondering, “What just happened? Why is this even in the Bible?”
And the answer is that this is actually a very important account with a very important point. And that point comes in verse 25, which concludes this account and the whole book of Judges: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).
Without a king, without a central leader to guide the people in the ways of righteousness, everybody did whatever made sense to them in the moment. Whatever seemed right to them. And as this story has shown us, what seemed right to them was generally pretty messed up.
But that’s the point. The author of Judges wants us to see how messed up Israel is, how prone to wander they are, to highlight the solution: a king. A king who will judge the people with righteousness, and lead his people into covenant faithfulness. A king like Psalm 72 describes. A king like David or Josiah or Hezekiah, who knows the Lord, and guides the people to do the same.
But we know how that went. David and Josiah and Hezekiah were part of a tiny group of kings who actually did that. Most of the kings didn’t. Time and time again throughout 1 and 2 Kings we read about king after king who “did what was evil in the sight of the Lord,” which is another way of saying “did what was right in his own eyes.” More often than not, the kings led Israel and Judah into more and more sin, further and further down the spiral all the way out of the land into exile.
E. Application
But it’s not like the author of Judges was wrong. Israel did need a king. Just not a normal, human king. They needed great David’s greater son.
Wandering Hearts
But before we consider that greater king, as we seek to apply these chapters and indeed this whole book to ourselves, we first want to consider how we see ourselves in these chapters.
We’ve heard time and again in Judges about how quickly the people of Israel abandoned the Lord. How prone to wander they were. Today’s chapters show us just how bad its got for a people who forget the word of their God. And we miss the point if we end this book by saying, “Wow, they were so terrible.” We get the point if we say, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner, who is just as prone to wander as they were.”
We feel the tug of our culture’s idols just as much as Israel felt the pull of Baal and Ashtoroth. We crave success on our terms, not God’s terms, just as much as they did. And today’s passage shows us the depths that we are all capable of sinking to if the Lord were to leave us to our own devices.
And so we need to look at Judges and recognize our own wandering hearts in these pages. We could be the wandering bride, the cowardly Levite, the rampaging Israelites. 1 Corinthians 10:6 says that “these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did,” which assumes that we’re all capable of what we’ve read here today.
Mighty Saviour
And just like Israel, we need our mighty saviour, great David’s greater son, the King not just of a tract of land but over our very hearts. He does so much more than threaten us with curses and entice us with promises. By His blood He brings about a whole new covenant, long promised by the prophet Jeremiah:
“‘Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more’” (Jeremiah 31:31–34).
This is the New Covenant Jesus spoke about on the night He was betrayed when He held up the cup and said “This cup is the New Covenant in my blood” (1 Cor 11:25). This is the New Covenant Jesus died and rose again to enact, as He paid for our sins once and for all, rose again to conquer death, ascended as the risen king, and poured out His transforming, empowering Spirit upon His people who are trained by His grace to live lives zealous for good works as we await His return.
Brothers and sisters, this is the New Covenant we live in day by day and get to enjoy with one another. We get to experience together what the judges could only long for: hearts that want to obey the Lord, and are shaped by His Word and Spirit to be able to do that, day by day. We have a mighty saviour who conquers the chaos of everyone doing what’s right in their own eyes. We have better promises, a better covenant, a better kingdom, a better hope, and a better King than they could have dreamed of.
Desperate World
And yet, as we hear these words and celebrate them, and right before we lift the bread and cup to celebrate together, how can we forget how much of our world is still living in Judges 21:25? No king, doing whatever is right in their own eyes. This is not their past, it’s their present.
That’s why our world is so messed up, confused about some of the most basic realities. That’s why, when you look around, you see so much chaos, pain, patterns of sin that keep repeating themselves again and again and again. When you see all of the messing our world, you are not just looking at socioeconomic problems. You’re not looking at psychological or mental health problems. You’re not looking at political problems. You’re looking at Judges 21:25 problems. You’re looking at a whole world still stuck in the chaos of these three chapters, trying to fix things by making them worse.
Our world needs King Jesus. Our town needs King Jesus. Your neighbours need King Jesus. And we cannot just keep Him to ourselves.
Let’s make this local. I’ve lived in Nipawin for 7 years, and when I talk to people who have been here for decades, I hear them complain about the crime, the substance abuse, that has changed this town from the way they remember it.
And I can’t help but wonder: if we know Jesus, what are we doing about the chaos of sin in our little town? How is the gospel, through us, having an impact on meth addicts here in Nipawin, SK?
Now I know that substance abuse is complicated, and there’s layers of dysfunction to untangle. But if we don’t believe that the gospel is powerful enough to save and transform meth addicts, then let’s turn off the lights and go home and never come back. Because what else are we here for, then to worship a Jesus who is the answer to the chaos of Judges 19-21?
“He speaks, and listening to His voice, new life the dead receive.” Do we believe that? And what are we doing about that belief? How will meth addicts or alcohol abusers or homeless people or proud successful people or any other category of messed-up person in Nipawin encounter Jesus, except through His people? Which includes us!
In order for us to fulfill the mission that King Jesus has given us, we can’t be content to play it safe. We can’t hide out in a Christian bubble. We’re going to have to take some risks and do some things that feel uncomfortable and even dangerous as we march under the banner of the One to whom belongs all authority in heaven and on earth, including every back alley and dirty living room here in Nipawin, SK, and who is with us always as we step into those messy situations for His sake.
And if that sounds scary and intimidating, what if you made an effort this week, even a small one, just to get to know one of your neighbours a little better? Just start there, and start praying about how God might use you for the glory of Jesus in this town. Ask God to give you a passion to share this bread and this cup with more and more people as His kingdom comes and His will is done here in north-east Saskatchewan as it is in heaven.
This world is broken, but Jesus is risen and He is worthy of the worship of all peoples. His power can change any heart. As we enjoy the gospel together in the bread and the cup, may God give us passion for the power and the worthiness of Jesus that translates into action for the sake of His name.