Read verse 1a: Yet again we are reminded that there is no king, which should makes us think that the people therefore are doing whatever they want.
Read verse 1b: A Levite (not the same Levite from the last two chapters) is traveling around (but remember he should be doing priestly duties in a levitical city) and he takes a concubine. Now the question you don't want to answer for 7-12th graders, but you have to since you've been asked is: what exactly is a concubine? Well here are some possible answers:
Oh and one other thing, The Levite is referred to as "the man," "his son-in-law," "her husband," "his master," and "the traveler" among other things. To make it less confusing, I'm just going to refer to him as the Levite throughout the entire story.
Read verse 2: After some time, the concubine is unfaithful to the Levite and goes to her dad's house for four months. In those days adultery would've been punishable by death so when it says she was unfaithful it means they were just having some issues which cause her to leave.
Read verses 3-4: The Levite goes to woo her back, and is welcomed by her father to stay for a few days.
Read verses 5-7: The Levite tries to leave, but his father-in-law gets him to eat and drink and stay longer.
Read verses 8-10: And again the father-in-law gets him to stay longer. However, The he leaves anyway with his concubine.
Read verse 11: It's getting late so the Levite's servant (who's been travelling with him) suggests they go to Jebus (aka Jerusalem) which is nearby.
Read verses 12-13: The Levite says he'd rather not stay in a town of foreigners but rather an Israelite town. In theory, it's safer to stay in a town of your own people than with foreigners.
Read verses 14-15: They continue on to Gibeah, a town of Israel's Benjaminite tribe. Now cultural norms would be for some one to offer them a room to stay in, however no one offers them a place to stay so they plan on staying in the town square.
Read verses 16-17: An old man (an Ephriamite, not a Benjaminite) is coming in from the fields and sees them in the square and asks them what they are doing.
Read verses 18-19: The Levite says we have food for us and the animals; we have no needs.
Read verses 20-21: The old man replies that he wants to take care of them and please don't sleep in the city square. There were probably two reasons for this. First, a traveler would generally bring along the provisions that they needed. However the old man was being hospitable and allowing them to keep their provisions and provide them with his own things for the night. Secondly, the old man knew what kind of people lived in this town and was bringing them into his home for protection. The Levite takes the old man up on his offer and they all go to the old man's house.
This is where the story really starts to get crazy... Read verse 22a: Once again we have some men that are called worthless fellows. We've seen this description previously in 9:4 (Abimelech hired worthless men to help him murder his brothers) and in 11:3 (worthless men pretend to be Jephthah's friend but just use him). Clearly when we are told these guys are worthless fellows we know something bad is about to go down.
Read verse 22b: The men are drunk and come to the old man's house. They start pounding on the door demanding the old man send out his guest so they can "know" him or as described more bluntly in some translations so they can "have sex" with him. (Um, what?!)
Read verses 23-24: The old man says no (yay!) but here have my virgin daughter and his concubine (What, why?!) and have your way with them.
Read verses 25-26: The worthless fellows don't like this idea but before they have a chance to respond, the Levite shoves his concubine out the door where she is raped all night long. As the morning approaches, they let her go and she makes her way to the old man's doorstep.
Read verses 27-28: In the morning, the Levite wakes up and gets ready to leave. The fact that he was even able to sleep after shoving this woman that he evidently had some feelings for out the door is sickening. When he goes out the door he sees her and tells her to get up. Since she doesn't respond, he puts her on the donkey and goes home.
Read verses 29-30: Evidently she's dead because the Levite cuts her up into 12 pieces and sends a piece to each tribe as a warning to others and in hopes of seeking justice.
The story continues into the next chapter where we will see the response of the tribes receiving the limbs of the concubine.
Read verse 1b: A Levite (not the same Levite from the last two chapters) is traveling around (but remember he should be doing priestly duties in a levitical city) and he takes a concubine. Now the question you don't want to answer for 7-12th graders, but you have to since you've been asked is: what exactly is a concubine? Well here are some possible answers:
- a sex slave (some sort of extended prostitution)
- a secondary wife (lacks the respect a wife deserves)
- the bearer of children for barren wives
- woman who was part of a king's harem for sexual gratification
- if a woman was unmarried and had no family, this was a better option than prostitution, homelessness or death.
Oh and one other thing, The Levite is referred to as "the man," "his son-in-law," "her husband," "his master," and "the traveler" among other things. To make it less confusing, I'm just going to refer to him as the Levite throughout the entire story.
Read verse 2: After some time, the concubine is unfaithful to the Levite and goes to her dad's house for four months. In those days adultery would've been punishable by death so when it says she was unfaithful it means they were just having some issues which cause her to leave.
Read verses 3-4: The Levite goes to woo her back, and is welcomed by her father to stay for a few days.
Read verses 5-7: The Levite tries to leave, but his father-in-law gets him to eat and drink and stay longer.
Read verses 8-10: And again the father-in-law gets him to stay longer. However, The he leaves anyway with his concubine.
Read verse 11: It's getting late so the Levite's servant (who's been travelling with him) suggests they go to Jebus (aka Jerusalem) which is nearby.
Read verses 12-13: The Levite says he'd rather not stay in a town of foreigners but rather an Israelite town. In theory, it's safer to stay in a town of your own people than with foreigners.
Read verses 14-15: They continue on to Gibeah, a town of Israel's Benjaminite tribe. Now cultural norms would be for some one to offer them a room to stay in, however no one offers them a place to stay so they plan on staying in the town square.
Read verses 16-17: An old man (an Ephriamite, not a Benjaminite) is coming in from the fields and sees them in the square and asks them what they are doing.
Read verses 18-19: The Levite says we have food for us and the animals; we have no needs.
Read verses 20-21: The old man replies that he wants to take care of them and please don't sleep in the city square. There were probably two reasons for this. First, a traveler would generally bring along the provisions that they needed. However the old man was being hospitable and allowing them to keep their provisions and provide them with his own things for the night. Secondly, the old man knew what kind of people lived in this town and was bringing them into his home for protection. The Levite takes the old man up on his offer and they all go to the old man's house.
This is where the story really starts to get crazy... Read verse 22a: Once again we have some men that are called worthless fellows. We've seen this description previously in 9:4 (Abimelech hired worthless men to help him murder his brothers) and in 11:3 (worthless men pretend to be Jephthah's friend but just use him). Clearly when we are told these guys are worthless fellows we know something bad is about to go down.
Read verse 22b: The men are drunk and come to the old man's house. They start pounding on the door demanding the old man send out his guest so they can "know" him or as described more bluntly in some translations so they can "have sex" with him. (Um, what?!)
Read verses 23-24: The old man says no (yay!) but here have my virgin daughter and his concubine (What, why?!) and have your way with them.
Read verses 25-26: The worthless fellows don't like this idea but before they have a chance to respond, the Levite shoves his concubine out the door where she is raped all night long. As the morning approaches, they let her go and she makes her way to the old man's doorstep.
Read verses 27-28: In the morning, the Levite wakes up and gets ready to leave. The fact that he was even able to sleep after shoving this woman that he evidently had some feelings for out the door is sickening. When he goes out the door he sees her and tells her to get up. Since she doesn't respond, he puts her on the donkey and goes home.
Read verses 29-30: Evidently she's dead because the Levite cuts her up into 12 pieces and sends a piece to each tribe as a warning to others and in hopes of seeking justice.
The story continues into the next chapter where we will see the response of the tribes receiving the limbs of the concubine.
Application:
This is a terrible, terrible story and one that really seems quite difficult to draw any application from. To be honest, in my notes I had nothing written down because what do you do this story?
This story is very similar to the story in Genesis 19 with Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah. Two angelic messengers visit Lot and that night the men in the town want the men sent out to them. However, Lot refuses and offers his two virgin daughters instead. Thankfully the angels help Lot and his family flee from the city which is then destroyed. Besides the way the stories end there is one other significant difference. This story it was Canaanites who where acting with such sinful intentions, yet in Judges 19 it is Israelites who are acting so sinfully.
These last few chapters of Judges are examples showing us how depraved the Israelites have become. They are acting as sinfully as a city which God destroyed for its actions. The Israelites were God's chosen people; they should not be acting like sinful Gentiles. We are also God's chosen people; as Christians we should not be acting like the world does. We need to be aware of what is going on in our lives so that we don't make decisions that are far from what we know is right. There was never a time where any Israelite would have woken up thinking, "Today I'm going to be part of an angry mob that will gang rape a visitor." There were small, compromising decisions made day after day to the point that a whole crowd of Israelites was so focused on gratifying sinful pleasures that they completely ignored what they knew was clearly wrong. Don't be fooled, you are no different. If you are not in God's Word and seeking to serve Him daily, you could end up in a situation where you are doing things that are clearly wrong but you've lived for so long acting like there is no king that you just do whatever is right in your own eyes.
Learn from this terrible story. Every day strive to honor Christ with the decisions that you make so you can avoid the slippery slope that will lead you to destruction.
This is a terrible, terrible story and one that really seems quite difficult to draw any application from. To be honest, in my notes I had nothing written down because what do you do this story?
This story is very similar to the story in Genesis 19 with Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah. Two angelic messengers visit Lot and that night the men in the town want the men sent out to them. However, Lot refuses and offers his two virgin daughters instead. Thankfully the angels help Lot and his family flee from the city which is then destroyed. Besides the way the stories end there is one other significant difference. This story it was Canaanites who where acting with such sinful intentions, yet in Judges 19 it is Israelites who are acting so sinfully.
These last few chapters of Judges are examples showing us how depraved the Israelites have become. They are acting as sinfully as a city which God destroyed for its actions. The Israelites were God's chosen people; they should not be acting like sinful Gentiles. We are also God's chosen people; as Christians we should not be acting like the world does. We need to be aware of what is going on in our lives so that we don't make decisions that are far from what we know is right. There was never a time where any Israelite would have woken up thinking, "Today I'm going to be part of an angry mob that will gang rape a visitor." There were small, compromising decisions made day after day to the point that a whole crowd of Israelites was so focused on gratifying sinful pleasures that they completely ignored what they knew was clearly wrong. Don't be fooled, you are no different. If you are not in God's Word and seeking to serve Him daily, you could end up in a situation where you are doing things that are clearly wrong but you've lived for so long acting like there is no king that you just do whatever is right in your own eyes.
Learn from this terrible story. Every day strive to honor Christ with the decisions that you make so you can avoid the slippery slope that will lead you to destruction.
**All Scripture is quoted from the English Standard Version.
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I'm currently teaching on the book of Judges for the youth group Sunday school class. We normally spend half our time playing a game and the other half studying the Bible. These are my lessons and some funny tidbits that happen during the course of the morning.
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I'm currently teaching on the book of Judges for the youth group Sunday school class. We normally spend half our time playing a game and the other half studying the Bible. These are my lessons and some funny tidbits that happen during the course of the morning.
I enjoy reading your blog. Here's an article I read about a year ago when I was reading Judges ....
ReplyDeletehttp://claudemariottini.com/2006/01/06/rereading-judges-192/