Judges 19: Sodom & Gomorah Among the People of God
Introduction
People are capable of remarkable acts of valour, courage and selflessness. We rightly remember those things frequently: orders of Australia and awards for bravery and sporting glory.
But what sort of evil are people capable of? What wickedness could your standard garden variety Aussie male commit?
Domestic violence? Why do you think we need campaigns like, ‘to violence against women, Australia says no’. Because there is violence against women to say no to.
Orgies? Well, apparently that’s not seen as wicked anymore. The only evil about it is the spread of STDs and the opposition of intolerant people like me. The New South Wales government now advertises the Mardis Gras as a tourist attraction and a healthy boost for the economy.
Gang rapes and murders. No matter how many ‘Reclaim the Night’ marches or Anti-violence against women campaigns, our society still witnesses sexual violence and murder. The Anita Coby, Janine Balding and Sian Kingi murders in the 1980s. The Ebony Simpson murder in the nineties. This year we’ve had the tragic story of the rape and murder of Jill Meagher in Melbourne.
So as a society we can hardly say, ‘wow, how primitive and evil the bible is’. ‘Such things would never happen amongst us’ ‘We have move beyond such dark and horrendous doings.’
The bible faithfully records for us what sinful people are capable. And no polyanna desire that things be different can whitewash reality. Genesis 6:5 gives us the reason that such things happen.
The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. (Genesis 6:5 NIV)
And when Jesus looks into the heart of humanity, he sees the same thing: Evil. Mark chapter 7 verses 20 to 23
"What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.' For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean." (NIV)
No wonder with his X-ray vision, Jesus declares ‘No one is good, except God alone.’
Context
At the end of the book of judges lie two abominations for us to endure. Two stories that show us how far Israel has fallen. Last week we looked Chapters 17 and 18 saw Israel’s religious depravity, her idolatory. A whole tribe, the tribe of Dan, were idolators and false worshippers for the whole time of their dwelling in the land until the exile. And this week, in chapters 19 to 21, we see Israel’s moral depravity. A whole tribe of Israel, Benjamin, within 100 years of the death of Moses[1], were prepared to defend mass rapists rather than visit justice upon one of their cities.
We are told why this situation has come about at the beginning and end of this unit. At the beginning, Judges chapter 19 verse 1, we are told ‘Israel has no King’. They are shepherdless, leaderless. They all like sheep have gone astray. God was meant to be their King. But they had practically rejected him. Again, at the end of the book, in the very last verse of Judges. Judges chapter 21 verse 25:
In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit. (NIV)
And some, namely the tribe of Benjamin, saw mass rape and murder as acceptable.
I want you back (Judges 19:2-10)
The story is a simple one. An unnamed levite takes an unnamed concubine. Now a concubine was more than a mistress or girlfriend but less than a wife. It may suggest the Levite had another wife. Nevertheless, our NIV translation says that she was unfaithful to him. Perhaps she was sexually unfaithfully, as most English translations. But there are also ancient translations that she became angry with him and abandoned him[2]. And if we should translate it that ‘she was angry’, the subsequent story shows she may well have had good grounds to be angry with her husband, if his later treatment is any guide to his earlier. For, ‘everyone is doing what was good in his own eyes’, including this Levite.
In any case, she returns to her father’s house in Bethlehem. And after four months apart, her husband travels across Israel to woo her back. And after several days of fending off his father-in-law’s middle-eastern hospitality[3], the Levite manages to head home, having successfully won her heart back. Happy story so far. A marriage reconciled.
Stranger Danger (Judges 19:11-21)
So the Levite heads towards Jerusalem, which is at this time in Jebusite, that is, Canaanite or pagan hands. Earlier in Judges, Judah and Benjamin were unable to completely drive out the Jebusites from Jerusalem (Judges 1:7-8, 1:21) So at this time, Jerusalem is a foreign city in the heart of Israel. And the Levite won’t go there for that reason. Stranger danger.
But it is dark. So the Levite must find somewhere safe to spend the night. And his answer is to go another 5 kilometres north to get to Gibeah of Benjamin. There they will be within the family of Israel. There they will be safe.
When they reach Gibeah of Benjamin, they see the first sign of a problem As they sit in the town square, no one takes them in. No one offers hospitality. A shocking contrast to the over-the-top middle-eastern hospitality of the father-in-law.
Second, it is only a newby Israelite from Ephraim who offers them hospitality, not the local Benjamites.
Third, the old man of Ephraim does not want them spending time in the square. He fears for their safety if they stay out at night. There is a bigger problem than stranger danger. The danger is of sexual abuse within the family. He knows something about Gibeah of Benjamin that they don’t. So he takes them in, and lavishes the middle-eastern hospitality that we’ve come to expect.
Sexual Abuse in the Family: Benjamin’s Disgrace (Judges 19:22-30)
But we only see how bad the Benjamites of Gibeah have become in verses 22 to 30. And let’s be frank, reading it is shocking and painful.
The best book to read is the bible, the best book to read is the bible. If you read it everyday, it will help you on your way. The best book to read is the bible.
Ministers don’t want to preach this passage. It is too shocking. But I think we need to know this stuff. I want you to hear it from me, and not from the enemies of God and the bible. Because the bible presents people as they are, not as we wish they were. It presents history as it happened, warts and all. And we ignore history to our peril. Those who do not pay attention to history are doomed to repeat it. Or as Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verses 11 to 12:
These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! (NIV)
Men today have the same anatomy and physiology and psychology that men did back then. Do you not think that men cannot act like this?
Anecdotally, think of the group sex scandals of our Rugby League teams. Statistically, the Australian Institute of Criminology reported that in 2007 there were 19,781 recorded sexual assaults in Australia. (http://www.aic.gov.au/statistics/violent%20crime/sexual%20assault.html)
Moreover, reported sexual assaults have increased by 51 percent since 1995, at an average of four percent each year. So we can safely say that every year, over 20,000 sexual assaults occur in Australia, and it is increasing every year almost 4 times the rate of population growth[4]. And they are only the ones reported.
Why do we need a Royal Commission to child sexual assault in institutions and churches? Why do we need rape counseling services and protective behaviours education in primary schools? Why do we have scandals in our ADF and our University Colleges. With all of our civilization and education and wealth, why do we still have sex crimes? The undeniable and overwhelming reason is that the male sex drive is powerful. And in a fallen world, if not channeled properly, if not subdued and placed under the limits of self-control, the male sex drive is dangerous.
First, we read of the pounding on the door. There is the demand to engage in homosexual gang rape of the visiting Levite. Those who call for it are the men of the town, probably all of them, also described literally as ‘the sons of Belial’, a term denoting extreme wickedness, rebellion and perversity[5].
Then, second, the good old man, who has shown such wonderful hospitality and protection, offers up his virgin daughter and the Levite concubine to the crowd. Here are his words from verse 24:
I will bring them out to you now, and you can use them and do to them whatever you wish (Judges 19:24 NIV).
There goes his hospitality award. And he won’t be getting father of the year. The old man is like Jephthah, who sacrificed his own daughter for himself.
How far we have fallen from Caleb providing Acsah a noble husband and well watered lands? How far from the honour in which Deborah and Jael were held? Young girls and women, daughters and wives, offered up to the crowd to satisfy their lusts. And all this done by their protectors, their husbands and fathers.
Well, so much the bible has already seen and narrated. Back in Genesis, Lot had made the same offer of his two virgin daughters to the lustful Sodomites (Genesis 19). But thankfully, the worst was not done. There, in Sodom, the angels of Yahweh struck the wicked would-be rapists blind and saved them. And then God destroyed the whole city with fire and sulfur.
But here, in the heart of Israel, these men of Israel do even worse than Lot in Sodom. For in the heart of Israel, there is no one to save this poor young woman. Her husband sends her out. And her host made the offer. So she is raped and sexually abused until morning. The knew her, they used her all night, and then they discarded her. They are animals. And her heartless husband, who used such tender words for the last week, speaking to her heart and wooing her only yesterday in her father’s house, coolly makes her endure such crimes, and then coldly says to her dead body: ‘Get up, let us go’ (Judges 19:28). And then this Levite subjects her body to the final indignity of being cut up into 12 pieces. Not even a burial for this poor victim of mass rape and murder.
No one emerges from this story unsullied. The men of the city, men of belial, are wicked gang rapists and murderers. The old man is pathetic and morally bankrupt for offering the two girls to satiate the crowd. The Levite is cowardly and evil for throwing his concubine out there to feed the crowd’s lusts.
How different is Jesus Christ, our husband! For Christ is betrothed to the church, his body and bride. And Jesus faced abuse and mistreatment so that we don't have to. The Levite sent out the partner he supposedly loved to the drooling crowd. With all his sweet talk, the Levite came not to serve, but to be served, and to give his concubine as a ransom for himself. But Jesus came not to be served, but to serve, and give his own life as a ransom for many. He is the model man and husband. And he says to us husbands, through his Apostle Paul, ‘love your wives, just as Christ loved the church, and gave himself up for her…. Husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies’ (Ephesians 5:22-33).
Israel & Benjamin Each Other’s Punishment (Judges 20)
Chapter 20 shows us that it is not just us who are outraged when we hear about these things. The majority of Israel is also outraged and intent on retribution. In the days before a police force and a prison system, the militia army is called to execute punishment. In Chapter 20 verse 10, Israel says:
‘when the army arrives at Gibeah in Benjamin, it can give them what they deserve for all this vileness done in Israel.’ And the army calls upon Benjamin to give up the wrongdoers.
In doing this, Israel is actually following God’s law. Here is Deuteronomy 13:12-16:
12 If you hear it said about one of the towns the LORD your God is giving you to live in 13 that wicked men (lit sons of belial) have arisen among you and have led the people of their town astray, saying, "Let us go and worship other gods" (gods you have not known), 14 then you must inquire, probe and investigate it thoroughly. And if it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done among you, 15 you must certainly put to the sword all who live in that town. Destroy it completely, both its people and its livestock. 16 Gather all the plunder of the town into the middle of the public square and completely burn the town and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. It is to remain a ruin forever, never to be rebuilt.
God says that, among his Old Testament people, holiness is more important than the lives of the criminals. Benjamin says otherwise. Family loyalty is more important than holiness and retributive justice. Benjamin preferred to mobilize their forces than to give up the wrongdoers.
Israel might be considered righteous when compared to Benjamin. But Israel are not righteous when compared to God. And God will punish his people. God sentences a 10th of Israel’s forces to death: 40,000 men in two days. Judgment starts with the people of God[6].
But that is nothing compared to God’s vengeance visited on Benjamin. 25,000 men, plus all the women and children, fell by the sword. Men, women, and children slaughtered. It was exactly what happened to Sodom and Gommorah, except that time it happened by burning fire and sulphur. It was exactly what was meant to happen to the Canaanites. Now it has happened to a tribe of Israel. Or, I should say, almost. For despite the annihilation of Benjamin, 600 fighting men escaped as a remnant.
Someone might say, ‘How is this fair?’ ‘Men, women and children put to death. And that is a fair question.
And I respond, ‘Yes, it does seem harsh to us’. But God has the right to give life and to take it away.
Looking at it from God’s perspective, isn’t this what God always does, just a different way. Didn’t God do this very thing in the 2004 Tsunami, when he killed a quarter of a million. Whole towns swept away. If it wasn’t God who did it, if God doesn’t control the weather and the heavens and the earth, then who was it? Except God did it with a giant wave, not the army of Israel. Didn’t God do this very thing in the 2010 Haiti earthquake, with up to over 80 thousand killed. Or the 18,000 killed in the Japanese Tsunami of 2011. In all of these, men, women, children, whole towns, swept away.
If God chose to do these acts of judgment through natural means, why can’t God visit his judgment of death upon sinners through Israel in the Old Testament? He can choose to do that, if he has good reasons to do it that way. And God had good reasons to do it that way then.
More to the point, doesn’t he do something similar with us anyway? Unless Jesus comes back first, we are all going to die. 100% of us… men, women and children. Whether as young or old people, whether after many years or few, death awaits us. It might be cancer, or heart attack, or stroke, or road accident, or flu. Whichever way, it will take us by surprise. And death is God’s doing. Death is God’s just judgment on our sin. And God is not unfair in condemning us to die, just as he was not unfair in earthquake, Tsunami, Gibeah and Sodom. He said to Adam and Eve, on the day you eat of it, you will surely die. And he says to us, the wages of sin is death. Man is destined to die once, and after that face judgment. Yes, these chapters recount evil and wickedness. But that is because there is evil and wickedness. And while our world is quick to point to the bible and say it is outdated and violent and genocidal and patriarchal, we’ve got 4 fingers pointing back at us[7] .
The bible presents things as they are, in terms of reality. When we look back, we see the people of God, warts and all.
Preserving Benjamin As They Saw Fit (Judges 21)
After the civil war, Israel has a problem. They have trapped themselves by their own hasty words. Like Jephthah, the Israelites have sworn a foolish oath, not to provide the Benjaminites daughters in marriage. It was an oath they should have never made, nor should they have sought to keep to it[8]. It was Israel who caused this problem, because they wiped out all of Benjamin, not just the wicked city.
But Israel still wants to do what is right in her own eyes. Instead of confessing their foolish vow, offering sacrifices at the tabernacle, and then giving their daughters in marriage to Benjamin, they resolve to wipe out another city in Israel and take their virgins. They pay back Jabesh Gilead who failed to muster for the battle (Judges 21:9). Israel wipes out the men, women and children, but spares 400 young virgins. They are provided as wives for the 600 Benjaminites. But they are still 200 short. So they come up with a great plan. They invite the 200 to kidnap the young women of Shiloh when they are celebrating and force them into marriage.
Now, what are we to think of these things? Does the end of Judges approve slaughter, ethnic cleansing, vengeance, forced marriage, and kidnapping?
Well, it depends. God did command Israel to wipe out wicked and sinful cities, men, women and children. And I say, at that time, and in that place, God was just and right to command it. And Israel was just and right to do it. In fact, Israel should have gone further. They also should have wiped out the city of Dan that had the idols and Ephod and false priests of Micah. The problem was that Israel wasn’t diligent enough in wiping out who should have been wiped out.
That is not to say that these laws apply in our time. They do not. It is not given us New Testament Christians to wipe out godless and disobedient cities. Neither the Church nor the modern nation state is a theocracy given the authority by God to wage war and visit God’s vengeance on his enemies. We simply don’t live in that time and situation[9]. Jesus Christ has said in John 18:36:
"My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place." (NIV)
It is not for us to visit upon wrongdoers the perfect justice we long for. Jesus Christ will do it, when he returns. This means that there is still time for repentance and forgiveness of sins. Thank God for that! God is patiently waiting for people to repent and to trust King Jesus.
With all that said, is the narrator of Judges positive to all that Israel did to remedy the problem they created in the excessive war against Benjamin? The last verse of Judges, verse 25, gives us the narrators view:
In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit. (NIV)
This is a criticism. The narrator views Israel is unstable, willful, even chaotic.
The disproportionate slaughter of Benjamin and in Jabesh Gilead, the hasty vows, the kidnapping and forced marriages, this was everyone doing as he saw fit. In nearly wiping out Benjamin, Israel went beyond strict retribution, shown by Israel’s actual grief and repentance of what they’d done.
Conclusion: We Have A King
‘Everyone doing as they see fit, everyone doing what is right in their own eyes’ is not the mark of a good society. Our society thinks of this as freedom. Freedom is understood as ‘Everyone doing whatever they want’. But in the book of Judges, it is a criticism.
In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit. (NIV)
That is the chaos into which modern Australia continues to advance.
We need a king, a benign and wise dictator. Not the current hegemony of our politicians and anti-Christian media. In the end, democracy is a necessary concession to universal human sinfulness. It is, in Winston Churchill’s sentiment, the worst form of government, except for all the others.
We need a righteous, sinless, self-less, all-wise and all-knowing King, under whose banner we will rally, under whom humanity will be unified. We need this King to rule us, and we need to follow his lead and submit to his lordship, rather than do what is right in our own eyes.
And the good news is we have one: Jesus Christ. His kingdom is not of this world. He ruled from the cross by dying for our sins, proving his selfless character. He ruled over death by breaking through death, proving his power. He ascended to the Father and is seated at the right hand of God. But the risen Jesus Christ is still king of this world in absentia. Yet, he is still here with us by his Spirit. Jesus Christ, who died and rose again for us is King of Kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 17:14; 19:11-21, especially 16). That is the Christian faith, that Jesus Christ is both Lord and Saviour.
Jesus Christ will visit judgment on his enemies in his time. It will be completely proportionate retribution for their rebellion and evil when he returns in power. But for now, Jesus Christ rules from heaven by his word and his Spirit. Jesus speaks to us through the Apostolic word, the Apostles who saw him, who testified to what he said and did, and ensured it was written down for us. That is how the Spirit speaks. The Spirit of Christ speaks through the Apostolic word, the gospel, and the Apostolic teaching found in the New Testament, which rightly interprets the Old Testament. And by this word and Spirit, King Jesus Christ rules the church. His rule is partially recognised now. It will be fully realized when he returns, and when every knee will bow and every tongue confess Jesus Christ as Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
The rule of King Jesus is good. It saves us from the world of pain now. It saves us from hell then. Make sure you come under his rule. Love and obey King Jesus. And do not do whatever is right in your own eyes.
Let’s pray.
[1] The estimate is that of D I Block, Judges: NAC, 517, on the basis of the statement that Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, is the priest. Hence these last two stories are not temporally last, though they are thematically and narratively last, because they show the extent of apostasy in Israel.
[2] The LXX reads ‘she was angry with him’ and the Targum ‘she despised him’, and Block notes that an Akkadian cognate can be rendered ‘to be angry’. See D I Block, Judges: NAC, 522-3.
[3] Was the father-in-law trying to save his daughter by delaying his son-in-law’s departure? The text doesn’t say this.
[4] Population growth is estimated at 1.2% per annum for 2009: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Australia
[5] The NIV says ‘some of the wicked men of the city’ (verse 22). However, literally the text says, ‘men of the city, men of the sons of Belial’ (Judges 19:22; compare 20:13). It doesn’t say ‘some’. The parallel with Genesis 19:4 suggests in probability that it was all of them; ‘the author has generalized the depravity of Gibeah to the entire male population’: D I Block, Judges: NAC, 536. On ‘sons of belial, see particularly Deuteronomy 13:13 below, which links Israel’s campaign on the Gibeah with the command to rid Israel of an Idolatrous city. For examples of ‘sons of Belial’ see 1 Sa 2:12 (Eli’s sons); 1 Sa 25:17 (Nabal); 2 Sa 20:11 (Sheba Son of Bichri); 1 Kgs 21:10, 13 (the men who gave false testimony against Naboth); also Proverbs 6:12; 16:27; 19:28. It seems to be a term of describing extreme wickedness, perverseness and depravity.
[6] Israel is more righteous than Benjamin. But the situation is never as simple as goodies and baddies in a fallen and sinful world. God will first use wicked Benjamin to punish sinful Israel. God sends Judah up to battle to lose 22,000 men (Judges 20:18). The next day, Israel loses a further 18,000 troops (Judges 20:25). One tenth of Israel’s 400,000 troops were killed in 2 days. And Israel are on God’s side! Just because you are more righteous than others doesn’t mean that you don’t escape God’s chastisement for your own sin. So what’s going to happen to the side who have been overcome by their evil! Consider what the Apostle Peter says, 1 Peter Chapter 4 verses 17-18: 17 For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And, "If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?" (NIV). It is good then, that a good look is being had at churches through the Royal Commission, because judgment starts with the household of God.
[7] Our society needs to take care in claiming the high moral ground over the ancients. How can they kill the children, our society says? And the ancients might reply to our culture: ‘What, you mean every year you modern Australians abort over 80,000 unborn infants. You dismember them and leave them to die. Why do you just accept that, and think yourselves so civilized?’ (http://www.humanrightsforunbornchildren.com)
[8] The Israelites could have done otherwise, like Jephthah. Leviticus 5:4-13 gives the remedy for a foolish and hasty oath to do this evil.
Leviticus 5:4-6: 4 "'Or if a person thoughtlessly takes an oath to do anything, whether good or evil-- in any matter one might carelessly swear about-- even though he is unaware of it, in any case when he learns of it he will be guilty. 5 "'When anyone is guilty in any of these ways, he must confess in what way he has sinned 6 and, as a penalty for the sin he has committed, he must bring to the LORD a female lamb or goat from the flock as a sin offering; and the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin. (NIV)
[9] Modern nation states have the right and obligation to defend their own citizens from external threats, by arms if necessary. They also have the right and obligation to defend and protect citizens of other nations from genocide and ethnic cleansing by individual and co-operative action, bearing arms if necessary. However, both individually and corporately, Jesus Christ has commanded us to go beyond strict retribution, to love our enemy and pray for those who hate us. This applies to us as individuals as well as corporately. But that doesn’t mean retribution is wrong. It is the yardstick and definition of justice. However, what it does mean is that in our actions even towards the guilty, we should leave room for God’s wrath.