The Horrific Sin of Benjamin

INTRO

As we move through the last two studies in Judges, the craziness is going to continue to get worse. Our one word for the Messiah in this book is Judge. The Messiah is the Judge who is coming to save! Let’s review the words for our study of the Old Testament so far: Genesis–Seed, Exodus–Deliverer, Leviticus–Atonement, Numbers— Rock, Deuteronomy– Prophet, Joshua–Commander, Judges–Judge.

TEACHING

Judges 19:1-4: Chapter 19 begins with the statement, “when there was no king in Israel.” In Judges 17—18, we had a Levite from Bethlehem who traveled to the hill country of Ephraim. In Judges 19, an unnamed Levite from Ephraim was traveling to Bethlehem. This Levite priest had issues . . . he had no problem partying or with interacting with people he shouldn’t have been with (vv. 9-14), and no problem with the way he treated the concubine. This event precipitated the civil war in Israel.

Look at the Levite priest more closely. Leviticus 21:7 states that a priest could marry, as long as it wasn’t to a prostitute or a divorced woman. The priest was to marry a virgin from his own people (Leviticus 21:13-14). A concubine wife was acceptable culturally at that time, but it wasn’t acceptable to God.¹

The concubine was unfaithful to the Levite, left to live at her father’s house for four months (v. 2). The Old Testament law required that the guilty parties of adultery be put to death (Leviticus 20:10). Instead of requiring the law to be carried out, the Levite let her leave and later, went after her “to speak kindly” (v. 3). He still loved her so much that he was willing to ignore her unfaithfulness. The concubine’s father gladly welcomed the Levite into his home, possibly because the Levite had served as his daughter’s deliverer (v. 4). For three days, the Levite stayed there, and they celebrated together.

Judges 19:5-13: After three days, the Levite tried to leave but the father stalled him, providing food and begging him to stay another night (vv. 5-7). On the fifth day, the Levite again tried to leave, but the father convinced him to stay to eat. Afternoon came and the father again tried to make him stay another night (vv. 8-9). The Levite refused to stay this time. He, his concubine, and his servant left.

The Levite, his concubine, and his servant left the area of Judah and entered the land of Benjamin (v. 10). The servant asked for them to stay in the Jebusite city of Jebus, but the Levite refused, and they continued to travel to Gibeah (vv. 11-13). The Jebusites were always a problem, because Israel never finished conquering the land and removing the pagans. The Levite refused to stay in Jebus because there were no Israelites there.

Judges 19:14-21: They continued until they arrived at Gibeah in the land of Benjamin (v. 14). They went into the city square (v. 14), where all the town’s leaders would gather. The Levite went there, expecting to be given hospitality and a place to stay the night (v. 15). There was sin in this community. Genesis 4:7 says, “But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door.” James 1:14 says, “But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desires” (James 1:14-16). The people in Gibeah had no idea how close sin was to them. Finally, an old man from Ephraim (not a Benjaminite) saw the Levite at the square and asked where he had come from and where he was going (vv. 16-17). The Levite responded that they were going back to the house of the Lord (in Shiloh²). And, although they had all the provisions they needed, they had no safe place to stay (v. 18-19). The old man told them he would take care of everything for them, even a place to stay (v. 20). The old man took them home and showed them eastern hospitality––he washed their feet and fed them (v. 22).

Judges 19:22-28: But perverted men in the city demanded that the male visitor come out so they could have sex with him (v. 22). It was the Genesis 19:4-5 situation at Sodom and Gomorrah all over again. And it happened in the tribe of Benjamin, not with pagans. There was nothing of the Lord in this encounter. The old man talked to his “brothers” –– he knew them personally –– and begged them to not do this horrible thing––to have sex (homosexuality) with the man (v. 23). The old man said he would bring out his own virgin daughter and the Levite’s concubine for them instead (v. 24). The old man would have rather seen his daughter be raped than the horrible sin of homosexuality. Either scenario is all wrong and all sin. When the men from Benjamin did not listen, the Levite priest took his concubine outside and gave her to them (v. 25). How could he in good conscious do that? The men raped and sexually abused her all night. The sin of homosexuality had led to rape and sexual abuse.

At daybreak, the men let the concubine go. She made her way back to the old man’s house and collapsed (v. 26). Can you imagine being the husband who gave his wife over for this and then went back to sleep? The Levite did and prepared to leave to continue his journey. When he opened the door to leave, he found the concubine laying at the door (v. 27). He was leaving her behind! He told her to get up but there was no response, so he took her body home (v. 28).

Judges 19:29-30: At home, the Levite cut the concubine into 12 pieces and sent the pieces to all the territories of Israel (v. 29). In 1 Samuel 11:6-7, Saul did something similar when “the Spirit of God suddenly took control of him” and he took two oxen, cut them into pieces, and sent them throughout Israel. The terror of the Lord fell upon the people, and they followed Saul. When the tribes of Israel received the pieces of the concubine, the people talked about what they saw and what had happened. Nothing like this ever happened since the day the Israelites came out of Egypt (v. 30).

Judges 20: It’s hard to accept the actions of the Levite, one of the priests of Israel. However, maybe it was a cry for help to the nation of Israel for the sin within them. In chapter 20, the other tribes of Israel were fired up against the tribe of Benjamin for what they had done. This was a call to the nations to come together and blot out the sin of the Benjaminites. So, “all the Israelites” (400,000 foot soldiers) came together before God at Mizpah (vv. 1-2). The Levite explained that his actions were because of the horrible shame in Israel (vv. 3-6). The gathered Israelites decided to take 10 men out of every 100 in each tribe, and 100 out of every 1,000, and 1,000 out of every 10,000 to collect provisions to send the army into Benjamin to punish them (v. 10). When the Israelite army arrived at Benjamin, they asked for the perverted men of Gibeah, but the Benjaminites refused, and went out and gathered their own army of 26,000 (vv. 13-15).

CLOSING

The Israelites (without Benjamin) numbered 400,000. They went to Bethel and asked God who should lead their army against the Benjaminites. The Lord answered, “Judah” (vv. 17-18). The battle took place and almost wiped out the tribe of Benjamin.