Judges 20-21: When Everyone Did as They Saw Fit

Bible Book Club

Susan Merrill & Heather Rubio

Exodus, Susan Merrill, Spirituality, Heather Rubio, Bible, Genesis, Christianity, Leviticus, Bible Book Club, Religion & Spirituality, Religion

4.8 • 589 Ratings

🗓️ 20 November 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In Judges 19-21, we witness a series of horrifying events that epitomize the moral decay in Israel during those dark days. The story unfolds as a street-level view of a nation where everyone does as they see fit. The Levite, who had shown a complete lack of compassion for his concubine, takes a gruesome turn. Upon returning home, he cuts her into twelve pieces and sends them throughout Israel, provoking outrage and a call for action. The Israelites' initial shock and motivation to address the...

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Heather and I'm Susan. Come along with us on a journey through the book of judges here on the Bible Book Club. Welcome to the club.
0:11.8	In chapters 17 through 19, we began to discuss the darkest days of Israel. These final chapters of judges are a street-level view of how people
0:23.1	were living in that time, and everyone was living as they saw fit. Our first story was the story
0:30.2	of Micah, the man who tried to manipulate God with a lost Levite. The Levite did not stay long
0:35.7	and left with the tribe of Dan. They were equally lost. They had
0:40.1	lost their land and their God. The next story was about another Levi who sacrificed his own
0:45.6	concubine to a gang of rapists to save himself. All right, recall that this horrific story is
0:51.3	placed at the end of the book of judges to serve a purpose.
0:55.7	It's a street level view of what was going on in the nation at the time.
1:00.3	The characters in the story are anonymous because the author wants them to represent larger
1:06.0	groups.
1:07.1	The father-in-law represents the behavior of every father or host, because remember he was the host when they came to visit.
1:14.7	The Levites' lack of compassion is an example of every Levite who should be serving the Lord and serving the people and all the different regions.
1:23.2	The concubine's abuse is a picture of every woman's suffering and actually everyone who was,
1:30.6	you know, at risk, the poor, the orphans. So why is Israel so dark? Because everyone does
1:40.0	as they see fit. Anyone in the least bit vulnerable, a traveler, the poor, a servant, slave, child,
1:47.4	or woman was at risk for wicked abuse. Back to our story. When we left the wicked Levite
1:55.6	and his concubine, they were on the journey home. At the time of their departure, she was either already dead or
2:02.5	unconscious. From the next line in our story, we learn that if the concubine had been alive
2:08.1	when they began the journey, she didn't survive the journey. Scene one, the Levite loses it.
2:15.6	Chapter 19 continued. Verse 29, when he reached home, he took a knife and cut up
2:21.6	his concubine limb by limb into 12 parts and sent them into all the areas of Israel. Everyone who saw
	...

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