Recap

So far in Judges, we've read through the introduction that sets the cycle for the rest of the book. The Israelites failed to remove the other nations from the land completely when they conquered it. Because of this, these other nations led the Israelites to turn away from God.

This created a cycle. The Israelites would turn away from God and his protection. God would allow a foreign nation to come and oppress his people. The Israelites would then realise their mistake and turn back to God. God would send judges, tribal leaders, to rescue the people and the lead them back to him. The people would live in peace for a while, before getting complacent and turning away from God again.

We then read through the first few iterations of this cycle with the judges, Othniel, Ehud, and Shamgar. Each led the Israelites to defeat the enemies that oppressed them and then live in an extended period of peace. But for each, after they died, the Israelites once again turned away from God and back to their own desires. These were followed by Deborah, who, along with a woman named Jael, helped Israel defeat their Canaanite enemies.

But then came Gideon, who wasn't as good a judge. He helped the Israelites defeat the Midianites and gave them 40 years of peace. But through it all, he often lacked confidence in God and was violent and oppressive to the people he was meant to lead. Gideon was followed by his son Abimelech, who was even more aggressive than Gideon. He killed all his brothers and then caused a civil war.

Next up was Jephthah, who completely misunderstood the character of God and sacrificed his daughter to God. He then caused an even bigger civil war where 42,000 Ephraimites died. Then we read about Samson who looked like he was going to be different. God came down and told his mother she would give birth to a son who would save the people and was to live a holy life. But Samson was born and turned his back on his duty instead living a hedonistic lifestyle. His foolishness led to his captivity and death, but God still used him to kill many Philistines.

Then yesterday we moved into the final section of the book, looking at the decline of the people. A man named Micah set up his own idol and priesthood, and then the tribe of Dan came and stole them both. They then took land that didn't belong to them with violence.

Judges 19-21

Judges 19 is a particularly difficult chapter to read. Not because it is confusing, but because the content is so awful. The scene involves violence and rape, butchering of bodies. The whole thing is really difficult to stomach.

A Levite takes for himself a concubine who, after a while, is unfaithful and flees back home to Judah. After four months, the man follows after her, and is greeted with great hospitality by his father-in-law. Eventually the Levite has had enough of the hospitality, takes his concubine back and leaves.

On their way to Jerusalem, they settle in Gibeah, a town in the tribe of Benjamin. All the people of the town come out to the house where they are staying and demand to sleep with the Levite staying there. The host offers his daughters to them instead. In this we’re meant to read echoes of Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19.

But this time, angels don’t intervene. Instead, the Levite man forces out his concubine so they can gang rape her. As she lays dead on the doorstep, the Levite shows no remorse or compassion. This is what Israel has come to. The people who were chosen to be God’s representatives have become worse than Sodom and Gomorrah.

In a gruesome display, the Levite, furious at how he had been treated, decides to cut up his concubine and send pieces of her body out across Israel with a message of what the people had done.

When all of Israel hears what has happened, they decide that this is not okay, and come out in force to punish and destroy the people of Gibeah. When they get close, they tell the tribe of Benjamin to give up the people of Gibeah.

But Benjamin refuses and so the rest of Israel goes to war against Benjamin. Three times the two armies and fight, and each time the death toll is high. In this scene, we read how Israel literally destroys itself as more and more men die.

Eventually, the tribes of Israel defeat the tribe of Benjamin and take the city with just 600 men left of the tribe of Benjamin. Suddenly, Israel feels bad.

They don't want to see the tribe of Benjamin disappear, but they've killed everyone else, men, women, and children. Before they came out to battle, they swore they would never give their daughters in marriage to anyone from the tribe of Benjamin. So they start to think amongst themselves about what to do.

First of all, they find a town that didn't come up to fight, killed all the inhabitants apart from any unmarried women, and then gave them to the men of Benjamin. But they were still 200 women short. So then they tell the men of Benjamin to go kidnap some women. That way, they aren't technically breaking their vow not to give their daughters in marriage.

And that's how the book ends. We've been reading how little by little the peopl of Israel have been spiralling, getting worse and worse. By this point, they have hit rock bottom. There's been violence and rape. The nation has been divided, with different tribes killing each other. Then they justify more murder and kidnapping to make up for what they've done.

All they way through, we see how the actions of the people caused their problems. The Levite ended up in Gibeah with nowhere to stay because he chose not to settle in one of the closer towns at a reasonable time to find somewhere. The Levite was then appalled at what the people from Gibeah had done to his concubine, but he was the one that gave her to them.

The tribes of Israel lost thousands of men because they decided they need to go to war. They then felt bad for the tribe of Benjamin, but they were the one that had killed all but 600 men. And the murder of a town and the kidnapping of innocent women happened because they had made a promise not to give their daughters in marriage to anyone from the tribe of Benjamin.

In this I want to warn against assuming that because the passage doesn’t comment on the suffering of the concubine and these women passed off to Benjamites against their will, it therefore doesn’t care about women. We’ve seen time and time again that the Bible prefers to show rather than tell. It’s using this story to show how depraved and wicked Israel have become. Wicked people treat women like this, and Israel have become a wicked people.

The book ends on a line that has appeared a few times in the last few chapters, "In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." We have seen how everyone doing what was right in their own eyes has brought Israel to this terrible, dark place.

But the author wants to give us a glimpse of hope. The reasons things were so bad was because "In those days there was no king in Israel". Which means that at some point, Israel does get a king. And hopefully, when that king comes, the people will once again be faithful to God.

Psalm 76

This psalm is attributed to Asaph, one of king David’s musicians, and falls into the category of praise psalms. The focus of the psalm is to lift up and praise God using military language.

Psalm 76:1-3 - God dwells with power in Zion

Psalm 76:4-6 - Armies are powerless before God

Psalm 76:7-9 - The earth is subject to God’s judgement

Psalm 76:10-12 The Lord should be feared over everything

The psalmist starts off with declaring that God dwells in Jerusalem in Judah. Salem and Zion are both names for Jerusalem. It’s there he dwells and from there he defeats Israel’s enemies.

From his place in Jerusalem, God stands glorious and majestic. Those that came against Jerusalem failed. He stunned them with just a word. While they are weak, God is to be feared for his strength. None can stand against him.

The whole earth belongs to him, and he will establish justice across it. The wicked will be punished, but the humble will be saved. So God stands, overcoming the wrath of humans and gathering up the remnant that have survived his judgement.

In response, all are to make vows to God and honour them. They are to bring him gifts and fear him, for he defeats the leaders of other nations who rise up against him.

This psalm seeks to praise God for his power, and show that God will use that power to protect and defend his people from their enemies.