Judges 19:16-30.  So much for happy endings.  From  a human point of view this is probably the ugliest story in the Bible.  No wonder the woman ran away from him.  And so much for all of his tender words when he came to get her in the first part of the story.  But I am getting ahead of myself.

When we left the story yesterday it was getting ominous.  Night was falling and they were in the middle of town with no place to go and no one to care for them.  They had traveled longer than would be normal to get to an Israeli town.  Israelites were supposed open their homes to travelers.  As we read the story today the matter is made worse by the fact that they guy had his own stuff. He just needed four walls and a floor.  But no one had offered.  Hope arrives in the form of an old man.  there is even a connection, they both live in Ephraimite territory.  The old man offers shelter for the night and what ever else they may need.  We can breath a sigh of relief.

But then it happens.  Certain worthless fellows surround the house.  The Hebrew words are “ben Belial”  it means sons of worthlessness or sons of Belial.  Belial is one name for Satan in the Old Testament.  Son is obviously used in a metaphorical sense.  Just as true sons copy their fathers these men were acting just like Satan would act.  the men pound on the door tot he house and demand that the Levite be sent out, and their idea is not to confess their sins, they wanted to commit homosexual acts with him.  The host offers the two women in the house instead but the men of the city refuse.

Then Chuck Norris jumps from the roof into the middle of the crowd, round house kicks all the bad guys into submission and hauls them all off to jail.  And everybody lives happily ever after. NOT!  But that is kind of the plot of an earlier story which is very similar and perhaps the readers would be expecting a similar ending.  Yesterday I said the story echoed back to parts of Genesis involving the beginning of the Israelite people.  That this story would perhaps bring happy thoughts to mind.  Some scholars think this book was written at a dark time in the life of Israel when a man named Manasseh was king.  The people had turned their back on God and the book was a warning to return to Him (See “Intro to Judges”).  Anything that reminded the people of the beginning of their nation would have also reminded them of God faithfulness to the promises He makes.  Those would be happy thought to people in a nations that was disintegrating.

Todays story echos back even farther into Genesis, back to the story of Abraham and Lot (See “The Old Testament Connection”).  Abraham was the original recipient of the God’s promise to make a great nation from him.  Lot was a nephew that he brought along with him as he began to follow God.  Lot though was more interested in good things and good times now.  He chose the good land for his ranch and it was near the big towns too.  In Lots story he is the host and the visitors are actually angles, but every  one thinks they are just a couple of guys.  Lots house is surrounded and the people of Sodom demand the men be sent out for the same purpose as our current story.  Lot offers his two unmarried virgin daughters instead.  But the people demand the men and begin to over power Lot.  Then the angelic power kicks in and the men at Lot’s door strike the Sodomites with blindness.  Lot and his family escape as Sodom is destroyed.  They are told to leave and not look back, but Lot’s wife does and she is turned to statue of salt.

Unfortunately in our story Chuck Norris does not jump in and the Levite is far less helpful than the angles were.  It is interesting as I look back in the story that the Levite is only called that in the first verse.  After that he is called “son-in-law” once in verse 5 and the rest of the time he is just called “the man”.  Levites were supposed to be the messengers between God and the Israelites.  It was a system designed to constantly remind the people of the broken relationship we all have with God.  Everyone, including the Levites, needed to make offerings to God as reminders but the Levites were supposed to work hard at staying right with God, staying spiritually clean in a way.  It is interesting that when offerings were made in the system that God set up that often much of the offering was given back to the giver.  Part of it went to the Levites and other priests and a little bit of it was burned with fire.  Really not much was “kept” for God, although it was all devoted to God.  In other religions offerings stayed with the priests who would use some and sell the rest.  Instead of representing God and His goodness this “Levite” acts in a way that seems to be pure evil.  As the men of the city continue to demand that he be sent out the Levite grabs the girl he was so kind too just five days before, the girl he came with donkeys and servant and supplies to impress and win back, and tosses her out the door. To save his own skin.   We have a saying for this, “He threw her under the bus.”  I don’t know where that saying comes from but being thrown under a bus would be merciful compared to what that girl experienced.  She was raped and abused all night.  Night really had fallen in this story.

But she survived.  She found her way back to the house, the house where her lord her master was and fell down outside the door.  In God’s Law lord, master, have a high responsibility for the well being of those in their care.  this man, this Levite, her master, obviously has no sense of his duty in any respect.  In fact all Israelites had a responsibility to step in and stop a rape if it was happening.  In the Law that God gave to Moses for the Israelites there is a punishment for adultery, both people are stoned to death, but only if it happened in the town.  If the adultery happened in the country only the man is executed.  The reason is that if the girl was raped, and it happened in the city someone would have heard her cries and come to her aid (Deuteronomy 22:22-27).  How many Israelites heard this poor girls scream?   Morning dawned as she lay there and finally her “master” got up out of bed and went outside.  And there she was with her hand on the threshold.  His response, “Get up lets go.”  But it was too late for her, so he threw her body on one of the donkeys, went home, cut her body up and sent pieces of it to each of the tribes. I guess he was trying to make a point, was he finally becoming the representative for God that he was supposed to be?  I doubt it.

This man was about himself from beginning to end. Did you wonder yesterday why it took him 4 months before he went looking for her?  It wasn’t about her it was about him.  He was a Levite by birth but was certainly no representative for God.  In the “Intro to Judges” we talked about how the book is really a prophetic book, bringing a message to us from God.  Above I mentioned that the girl may not have cheated on the man, but just been angry and left.  There is another prophetic book in the Old Testament, Hosea.  He too has a cheating wife and he is told to take her and love her.  to bring her back and care for her.  In fact it looks like he knew that she was going to cheat on him before he even married her.  Hosea’s life was an example of the relationship between God and Israel.  In reality it is an example of the relationship between God and us.  W all cheat on God.  We all run around on Him.  But God never throws us under the bus.  Instead he stepped out of the wonders and comfort of Heaven (Revelation 21:1-22:5) and sacrificed Himself to save us (Philippians 2:5-8).  We all live for ourselves and at the smallest sign of trouble we throw God under the bus.  But God is willing to forgive.  He will save us if we cry out to Him.  And he will do it over and over again.  but like the Israelites we may come to a point where we don’t return, we don’t cry out.  Don’t let it get that far.  Lord help me stay close.  Help me always remember to cry out..  To the world I may be trash but to you I am your bride.  help me forever see myself that way and alway turn to you.  And help me be a good representative  of you.  Help me never see someone else as property to be traded in exchange for my safety or comfort.  Let me never ever toss others aside.  When I hear a cry in my city let me step out of my comfort and safety.  Let me think, “What would Jesus do?”  then do it. 

Judges 19:1-15.  Now we come to a second story about everyday life during the time of the Judges.  Though I hope this isn’t every day.  First of all, although this story involves a Levite who is living in Ephraimite territory (you know where Micah lived with his Levite), and although this Levite sends to Bethlehem for a wife (You know the same place Micah’s Levite was from),  this is probably not the same guy.  Although this story is included at the end of the book of Judges there is some evidence that it ocurred at the beginning of the period of time when the Judges ruled.  Later in the story a priest is involved who’s name is Phinehas.  He is identified as Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron who was Moses brother.  In Joshua 22 and 24 there is a Phinehas who is described the same way.  He lived in the generation after Joshua, the time of the beginning of the book of Judges.  These could be two different Phinehas’s and one of the references to “son of” could mean something other than the next generation but the book of Judges is not a timeline it’s about people turning away from God.  Also in the story we finished yesterday worship of God was in a town called Shiloh.  When Phinehas is mentioned worship is in Bethel.  Theses towns are about 9 miles apart.  So the two Levites are probably not the same guy.

The first thing that came to mind when I read this story was how it sounded like the story of Rebekak in Genesis 24 or maybe Jacob in Genesis 29-30 (See “The Old Testament Connection”).  Those stories were about the beginnings of the nation of Israel and may have should have brought good memories to mind.  On the surface the story has a sort of happy plot.  Man gets a wife.  Wife gets mad (Although most translations say she “played the harlot” a very old Greek translation in use in the time of Jesus says she was angry.  The difference in Hebrew is one dot like a period which easily could have been obscure on the manuscript leading to the mistranslation of prostitution.  Also if she had cheated on him the action in the story seems unlikely.  A concubine was a secondary and second class wife so he probably would not have followed her and brought her back, especially the way he did.)  So she was mad and left and went home to daddy.  Four months later husband goes looking for her and “speaks from his heart” to her.  son-in-law meets Dad-in law.  Three day party.  Dad doesn’t want them to leave.  A fourth party day.   A fifth party day but this time the Levite insist on leaving and they got as far as Jebus (Jerusalem).  Night begins to fall but the Levite does not want to stay in a city with foreigners so they press on until they come to an Israelite city.  Gibeah in Benjamin’s territory.  They  stop for the night in the city square.

The reading today ends on sort of an ominous note.  It would be customary for the Israeiltes to show hospitality to someone who was traveling through (In fact verses like Deuteronomy 10:19; Leviticus 19:3-34 kind of demand that you take in travelers.  See also Hebrews 13:2).  Verses 15 even has this tone, “for no one took them into their house to spend the night.”  Even the fact that night was falling can start to turn the tone of the story.  It’s usually not good in the Bible when night falls.  So a reader familiar with the Old Testament might have hope as the story starts out but slowly begin to feel doubt as the reading continues. tomorrow our fears will be realized in the worst possible ways.

The story has darkness even before the darkness falls though.  First of all we have a Levite In the remote part of the hill country of Ephraim.  In the context of Judges the last Levite in E[hraimite territory didn’t do so good spiritually.  And Levites were supposed to be serving the nation not hiding out in the hills.  Second he has a concubine.  That term usually refers to a second wife who isn’t really a wife, she is sort of a mistress, a girlfriend besides the wife.  Concubines were not treated as well as wives and usually had no inheritance.  Not to mention that the relationship amounted to adultery.  We have no mention of another wife in this story and it seems the Levite may not have had one which makes calling the girl a concubine even worse.  s I said above she was a secondary wife and second class too.  Then there is the cheating.  Although there is a possibility that she was just mad she may have cheated on him too (although how you cheat on someone who is using you to cheat on their wife I don’t know).  In either case it seems she is mad and lashing out, the original “Desperate Housewife”.  I guess “Big Love” is a myth.  Polygamy doesn’t work.  One man, one woman, God’s way works best  (See “The Old Testament Connection” and “What’s in a Name”).  And of course it ends with them siting in the town of their fellow countrymen with no one inviting them in for the night.  If you think it’s bad wait till tomorrow.

Today though we need to think about what we have read.  Do we look at relationships for what we can get out of them?  Are we running around doing things our own way?  Are we avoiding the things God wants us to do?  Are our lives all about the things that make us happy and feel good?  We need to be careful to see what God want us to do, where God wants us to go.  We certainly don’t want to be out in the dark without God.  Lord keep me in touch with you.  Help me see what you want me to do.  Help me be faithful to that.  Help me not be driven by my pleasures.  And help me not look out just for my own self but for others too.