July 13, 2019: Day 77 – Judges 19

The wild west meets a horror movie.  What happens in this chapter is horrific.  I think one of you at some point said that while you were reading the Scripture you told yourself: you know, at this point I think I am going to stop reading.  I’m guessing this is as far as you got.  Why does the Bible have this terrifying story?  It must be to depict the atrocities that were taking place when the people were doing what was right in their own eyes.  There was no person to rule over them, and certainly they were not following the commands of the Lord.  

Does this story remind you a bit of Genesis 19:1-11?  Read  it again and see the similarities.  A similar aspect to both of these stories is yes, there was a desire by the men of the village to have sex with the men in the house.  That was an abomination.  But there is also the underlying sin of the people within the house were guests and there were very strict prohibitions against treating strangers in a way that was dehumanizing and not giving them hospitality.  

It is hard to imagine, and difficult to understand, what was in the mind of this Levite, who just might be the same Levite that we have seen all along.  To offer his wife, and by the way the fact that she is called concubine should not be seen as any justification, it  was his wife!  The people of the village raped her to death.  

What happens next is a set up for what will take place in the next chapter, an insight into how there will be hopefully some order set up after an especially atrocious act takes place.  It should remind us that often it is only when something tragic takes place that action is seen.  You would think that there could have been some steps take before this to ensure that there was some civility in the land.  That was not the case.  Everyone did what was good in their own eyes, which meant that they could do anything they wanted with no repercussions.