The other day when I dropped into Judges 19 which began with “And it came to pass that in those days when there was no king in Israel …” That phrase immediately strikes me because I instantly think of The King and my spirit goes directly to seeing it as symbolic of their being no King of Kings in Israel (or in our own hearts and circumstances) which of course can’t be good. This account can’t possibly end well … and indeed problems do arise. Here’s some of what I saw in Judges 19-21.

The first Misstep – Isolation.
And so the Scripture goes on to recount that “There was a certain Levite sojourning on the side of Mount Ephraim.” Seems innocent enough but my question is if he’s a Levite would it not be reasonable to expect him to be attending to temple duties, priestly duties – why is he sojourning alone on the side of a mountain? Solitude maybe? Okay I get it, we can all use some alone time, but maybe spend some of it communing with The Father? He pretty much moves onto his “next.”

The Second Misstep – A Conjugal Decision & Lack of Godly Counsel
Next the Levite makes a unilateral life-altering decision. He “took to him a concubine out of Bethlehem-Judah.” The Word teaches that “He who finds a wife, finds a good thing.” (Prov 18:22). The problem in the Levite’s case will become an unfortune appropriation of verb and subject. “Takes vs. finds and concubine vs. wife.” In the absence of a Godly king, or more directly – The King and secondarily, devoid of God-fearing counselors, the stage is set for undesirable outcomes.

Notice that the Levite takes a concubine from a “foreign” territory. He’s based in the region of Mt. Ephraim. She’s from Bethlehem-Judah. Could unequal yoking become a disruptive factor here? Is there a possibility that the two having become one (distorted) flesh and not being of the same tribe nor of one mind lead to conflict?  Well, the concubine summarily is unfaithful and abandons the Levite to camp out at her father’s house in Bethlehem-Judah, shaming the Levite with a hefty four-month desertion.  The Levite swallows his pride and pursues the concubine – and at first this effort struck me as somewhat noble, but it dawned on me that he has taken action once again in the absence of counsel. The Scripture doesn’t say he consulted God, nor fellow Levites, nor his Israelite brethren. No priestly advice. Just a woefully short-sighted decision.

Misstep #3 – Know When to Walk Away and Know When to Run
So now having embraced the shameful desertion scenario at the Father-in-Law’s house he soon finds himself in the peculiar circumstance of being a little well – trapped. He’s treated well, but after a few days he is ready to return home – concubine in tow, but he delays. Perhaps he’s avoiding being rude and doesn’t want to appear ungrateful for his overbearing host’s kindness (a generous host who apparently had not found it prudent to insist that his daughter return to her own home), but one who is sufficiently gracious and social – encouraging the Levite to remain well-beyond his intended humiliating 3-day stay. After 6 or 7 days of caving – I mean acquiescing to the father-in-law’s demanding generosity, the Levite finally gets decisive about leaving. The thing is that the near week-long delay will position him and those connected to him for treacherous events the likes of which he could never have imagined.

Misstep #4
Now the Levite, his servant, and the concubine have been sojourning back to Ephraim for awhile and the Levite’s servant suggests that they lodge in Jebus/Jerusalem – the city of the Jebusites, but the Levite’s like “Nah, nope – we’re not overnighting with strangers – stranger danger? Ironically, as it turns out, they may have been safer with the Jebusites. The Levite counters that they’ll head to Gibeah and stay with their peeps the children of Israel. So now they’re in Benjamite territory, and they encounter more hospitality. Thank goodness for the old man from Ephraim who pretty much takes them in off the street. So far so good. That is, until there is a graphic and grotesque turn of events – which I won’t delve into here – The Word of God does a masterful job of recounting it.

Missteps # 5, 6, 7 etc.
The situation at the hospitable old man’s house is rapidly disintegrating into utter wickedness. But In response to the wicked circumstance they find themselves confronting, he and the Levite are now “managing” the Benjamite’s wickedness with what essentially amounts to a different form of wickedness. They’ve yet to call upon The Lord God. Once the situation has descended into complete debased fatal chaos, the Levite returns to the congregation of the Israelites and relays a few half-truths about the experience, plays the righteous indignation card, favorably frames his own misdeeds, and is now finally ready for consultation – with everyone. “Behold ye are all children of Israel, and give here your advice and counsel.” (Judges 20:7) The people fall for it. They agree to go exact revenge upon the Benjamites and avenge their “honor” – without consulting their God of course and naturally their plan is a colossal fail, and there’s tremendous loss of life – among their own peoples. It’s not until Judges 20:18 that they decide to see what God has to say about the whole horrific affair.

But note, they don’t actually ask for the Lord’s plan, they simply ask him to comment on theirs “Which of us shall go up first to the battle against Benjamin?” And God in his eternal patience, I think indulges their blindness, responding with “Judah.” and watches as they “rose up early, encamped against Gibeah, went out to battle against Benjamin, put themselves in array to fight against Gibeah, and were summarily destroyed down to the ground twenty-two thousand men (Judges 20: 19-21).  Undeterred, they set themselves to battle again, crying a lot before The Lord. This time beseeching Him whether they should go slaughter their brothers (I propose that this may have been the wrong line of questioning/approach – but what do I know …) They Lord replies – at least this is how it translates in my (God isn’t finished with ne yet mind) – Sure G’head. They get slaughtered again. There was more weeping, and fasting this time, but definitely weeping and earnestly questioning God about whether they should slaughter their brother the Benjamites. The Lord eventually relents/agrees but it’s a long bloody hard-fought process before He delivers the Benjamites into their hands.

Taking More Matters into Their Own Blood-Stained Hands
So here’s the thing, once the battle was won, it occurred to the Israelites that the Benjamites are still their brothers and that they were going to need wives. I mean it wouldn’t be fair for them not to have wives. But since mostly everyone’s been massacred, particularly the women, whoops – this would mean they’d need to give the Benjamites their Israelite daughters for to wife (a little old English is fun), but perish the thought!. That was a big “ahhh-no can do!” So as has been their custom, they devised a plan, without – you guessed it, inquiring of The Lord. Well they sort of consulted Him. I mean they went to the house of God and wept and cried out about “why this was happening to Israel,” and then got up early, built an altar, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, but before The Good Lord could get an instruction out to them, they kind of looked around and basically said – hey, who among the tribes of Israel didn’t show up to this prayer meeting, and they had made an oath – prior to, or at the time of this realization that one of the tribes was missing, not sure. But anyway they swore an oath to God that the missing tribe would surely be put to death for their absence. And that pretty much sealed the fate of the poor tribe of Jabesh Gilead – except for the virgins; the virgins, would be spared for (to wife) the Benjamites. So they went to the Benjamites and basically colored the truth, laying the destruction of the Jabesh Gilead tribe at the feet of The Lord. Unfortunately, something else they didn’t anticipate was that the Benjamites would have absolutely no interest whatsoever in Jabesh Gilead virgins. And there stood the Israelites dumbfounded with more unappointed blood-stained hands.

Now what to do, what to do – Ah hah! Here’s what they advised the Benjamites. There should be a bunch of Daughters of Shiloh heading up to the annual feast, when the DOS pass by the vineyards, and when they come out to dance, you’all just grab yourselves up one of ‘em – one Daughter per man. And that’s exactly what the Benjamites did – “caught” themselves a wife. Finally pleased with the outcome, basking in the glow of self-satisfaction, the Israelites returned to their tribes and families …

Conclusion
And the cautionary tale concludes with this bookend “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did what was right in his own eyes.” Judges 21: 25