And her master rose up in the morning, and when he opened the doors of the house and went out to go on his way, behold, there was his concubine lying at the door of the house, with her hands on the threshold. He said to her, “Get up, let us be going.” But there was no answer. Then he put her on the donkey, and the man rose up and went away to his home. And when he entered his house, he took a knife, and taking hold of his concubine he divided her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel. And all who saw it said, “Such a thing has never happened or been seen from the day that the people of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt until this day; consider it, take counsel, and speak.”
“Desperate times call for desperate measures.” That statement is attributed to the Greek physician, Hippocrates. He lived around 400 BC. He stated it regarding extreme diseases call for desperate types of treatment. It might not be accurate to apply his quote to the above passage of Scripture, that occurred almost 1,000 years earlier. But that is what is happening. Chapter 19 is the complete story but the synopsis is that a Levite priest (never named) leaves his home to retrieve his wife. At a time of marital conflict the wife had returned to her father’s house. Having found his wife he heads for home. But that is when the worse case scenario happens. When he stops to find an evening respite in the city of Gibeah (from the tribe of Benjamin) unsavory men come and take his wife, abuse her all night long and that causes her death. The man is so upset about what happened that the above desperate measure takes place. He cuts the body of his deceased wife into pieces and sends the pieces to the other tribes of Israel. He was hoping to solicit a response to avenge the rape and murder of his wife. That is what takes place in chapter twenty. The key thought here is that in these days there was NO king or authority in the land. We are repeatedly reminded in this section that there was no leader and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. This husband was grieved and therefore did what was right in his eyes to avenge his dead wife. Many of the stories in Judges take on this theme. God is setting up the need for the nation to turn to Him for leadership. In chapter 20 that is what the tribes do. They eventually turn to God for direction. This man did not turn to God for direction. His anger, grief and rage caused him to desiccate his dead wife’s body. As sated in the closing lines in the above passage, such a thing has never happened before. When there is no leadership and there is not authority of God this is what happens ... men do desperate things. But not things based upon faith. This will all lead to about 40,000 warriors of the other tribes being killed in this avenging battle. Then almost 30,000 warriors supporting Gibeah, from the tribe of Benjamin, will also die. When we do things that please our own eyes these are the consequences. Without any restraint by God’s word to make decisions that honor God we end up seeing devastation and destruction.
No comments:
Post a Comment