How Bad It Can Get

Ancient Israel is a case study in the reality that laws, promises and blessings from God do not secure a righteous nation. They do not change the heart. Judges 19 is perhaps the Bible's darkest chapter filled with unthinkable human evil and wanton disregard for the dignity of woman. The narrator of Judges has brought us through the judges cycles one after the other and now paints the picture for the terrible realities met by a nation who left God behind and forged their own future.

This chapter is a solemn reminder of how bad it can get for a country when the Lord God of Creation is disregarded.

The story is about a Levite and his concubine who cheated on him and left him. That first detail is all you need to know about the spiritual life of Israel. First, a Levite was set apart for God's service. Second, marriage was between a man and woman in Israel. Third, adultery was counter to the law and punishable by death. The Levite goes to fetch her after four months away in her father's house. Though there is a reuniting, the story is about to turn horribly evil.

After being persuaded to spend a few extra days with her Father, eventually, the Levite leaves with her and enters Gibeah, a town with zero hospitality. A man from Ephraim was living in Gibeah temporarily who ominously compels the man and his concubine to stay with him.

Judges 19:20–21 (ESV) And the old man said, “Peace be to you; I will care for all your wants. Only, do not spend the night in the square.” 21 So he brought him into his house and gave the donkeys feed. And they washed their feet and ate and drank.

From there we have a picture of Sodom and Gomorrah. The same events as happened to Lot's angelic guests happen to this Levite. The men of the town surround the house and demand to have sex with the male guest. What happens next is shocking. The old man offers his virgin daughter and the Levite's concubine for their appeasement! Eventually, the Levite forcibly offers his concubine to the men who rape her to death until morning. In anger, he cuts up her body and sends the pieces to the twelve tribes of Isreal. 

What is a text like this trying to show us and why does it remain in the record of Holy Scripture? Because the scriptures warn us what happens when we walk away from God with unflinching detail. Israel has been infected by the nations around them. Rather than drive them out, they have inherited their ways.

The truly evil part of this story is the blatant disregard for women. Whereas Israel was given the law of Moses that declared women to be made in God's image, the Israelites were acting like the pagan nations around them treating their own women as sex objects and property. The saddest reality of a nation that forgets the Lord is how the most vulnerable suffer. Consider that the virgin daughter was only a moment away from death herself. This is the disgusting inevitable damage to a nation that departs from God. 

It is a warning to our current nation. I live in America, the West. We have laws and civil governments that ensure things like this do not happen. Yet I cannot help but notice how quickly we are degenerating to more and more disregard for the image of God in mankind. Slowly the ebb is turning us back into the barbarians the message of the Cross came to save us from. The reason this is happening is because we do not understand how bad it can get. We do not truly grasp the height from which we could fall.

Today what we see is the calling for and enacting of more laws and protections to counter every awful event. But laws cannot change the human heart. Israel has no king and they slowly and fatefully deteriorate into the people of Sodom. YET the had the LAW! They will soon have a king as well but STILL the nation will become like Sodom and Egypt (See Revelation 11:8). The only answer is a King who saves with a power that is stronger than our rebellion. That king is Jesus.

We need to read this chapter so that we understand that without Christ we are left to our terrible imaginations. We need to read this chapter so we can see what He can save us from.