Year 7, Day 280: Judges 19

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Judges 19 is a chapter that always makes me feel uneasy.  When I read it, I wonder what its place is in the Bible.  It seems to take death too lightly.  It seems to promote a comedy of errors.  It just doesn’t have the right feel at all.

In part, I think that’s the point. The story revolves around a Levite.  The Levite’s life, however, shows very little evidence of a relationship with God.  For example, we are told that the Levite has a concubine.  However, the Bible also speaks of the concubine’s father as the Levite’s father-in-law.  This is likely evidence that there was a marriage, but it was a marriage of legality and not a marriage of love.  This was likely an arranged marriage where the Levite never truly develops any kind of love for his wife.  She remains a concubine because he does not take her emotionally into his life for a full wife.  Even when the father-in-law pleads for the Levite to stay among them and develop relationship, the Levite is focused on returning home.  There is little relationship there.

We get further evidence of this Levite’s heart as they pass into Gibeah.  Granted, the people of Gibeah are clearly in the wrong as they look to have a lustful night of homosexual relations with the Levite.  Yet, the Levite himself shows just as much contempt for God’s ways when he pushes his concubine out among them.  He forces her to go out and be violated so that the lust of the people will be appeased.  He has no concern for her at all.  There is no love there.  There is no reflection of relationship with God in this act.

Even more, see how this Levite acts when he comes out onto the threshold the next morning!  He looks to the concubine and says, “Get up.”  There is no compassion.  There isn’t even any concern in his voice for her.  When she doesn’t move, he takes her dead body, sits it on top of his donkey, goes home, and cuts up her body!  There is no evidence of mourning.  He is solely focused on showing the people of God the brutality of the people of Gibeah.

We can absolutely become too focused on the law.  We can take such a legalistic approach to life that we lose all compassion.  We can become so focused on the black and white spaces of right and wrong that we utterly lose all perspective on love, grace, and mercy.  The Levite is a tragic role in this story, a person who has lost attachment to the joy of life that God has placed within him.

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