A Nation Confronts Its Darkness

Summary

Judges 19 begins, as the book often does, with the words “In those days, when there was no king in Israel.” A Levite who is living away from the Levitical cities takes a concubine from Bethlehem, and after she returns to her father’s house, he goes to bring her back. He refuses to lodge in Jebus and travels on to Gibeah in Benjamin, where no one takes them in until an old man offers hospitality.

That night, men of the city surround the house in an outrage that mirrors Sodom. The Levite’s concubine is abused through the night and dies at the door. When he arrives home he dismembers her body and sends the pieces throughout Israel. The slides place the passage among the book’s stories of women, which contrast prominence (Deborah, Jael, Achsah) with abuse and degradation, and note that Judges 19 shows a society that has abandoned ethics.

In Judges 20 the tribes assemble at Mizpah, hear the Levite’s account, and demand that Benjamin give up the guilty men. Benjamin refuses and musters its forces. Israel inquires of the Lord, and twice suffers heavy losses before weeping before the Lord. The lesson’s takeaways: spiritual leadership without moral integrity leads to destruction; the treatment of women reflects the spiritual health of a community; moral decay begins when everyone does what is right in his own eyes; corporate action must flow from personal integrity; and God may use defeat to refine His people.

What the chapters show

The slides lay out a progression, from a Levite who wanders to a nation at war with itself.

Practical takeaways

The slides draw out these lessons: