Today’s passage: Judges 19:22-30
Helpful thoughts:
- The dark events of Sodom are repeated here in Gibeah…in Israel! Except this time, there were no angels to save anyone.
- The host offered his own daughter in place of allowing the men of the city to abuse his male guest.
- The woman who was thrown out (By her husband!) into this unbelievable terror went from being a concubine, to having a husband who would speak kindly to her, to having a master who had given her up in order to save himself. All this with the same man.
- He did not go to get her until he awoke in the morning! He slept through the night and didn’t expect to see her back in the night!
- She died.
- All Israel was amazed and shocked into action.
Questions to consider:
- What should have happened here? What condition would this city have to be in for this kind of event to take place without any interference?
- Are we supposed to think the Levite is innocent in all this? Why does he seem to care so little for the loss of his “wife”? Why did he even travel to her father’s house to get her back? What had he wanted from her in the first place?
- What condition is Israel in? What is their general ethical guideline? What are we supposed to notice in this correlation with the events of Sodom, whom God judged by completely wiping from off the face the earth?
- How are men to treat their wives? (Ephesians 5:25) Why should women be respected and treated with dignity? (Genesis 1:27)