In this segment, I want to tackle one of the toughest passages in all the Bible to do expository preaching on. This may be this may be the toughest. And so I figure why? What are you going to learn by picking an easy, easy passage? We'll pick a very tough one. I mentioned before the story of Sodom and Gomorrah with Lot offering his two daughters to the crowd may be the second most disturbing story in the Bible. Well, this may be the most disturbing.
And some of you may have guessed this is a story of Judges chapter 19 near the end of the book of Judges with the horrible ending that comes to the man's concubine. And I want to take a look by taking a really disturbing story that most people would just as soon ignore and by taking the time to look at all three levels here. Perhaps we can see something that might escape the first view. Remember the first view is the basic storyline. The second view is the second level is the first three levels.
The first level is the basic storyline. Second level is moral lessons for us. Third level is foreshadowings of Christ. So this is a story that takes place during the time of judges, which is basically between the death of Joshua and the anointing of Samuel as king that period of time when there was no king and the judges ruled.
I'm not sure that everything in the Book of Judges is in chronological order, so it speaks of Phineas later on in this story, so it may have been during an earlier part of the Judge's period. Let's begin in Judges chapter 19. I'm going to start by reading the first nine verses, the introduction to the story. And so it was, in the days when there was no king in Israel, there was a certain Levite sojourning on the lower slopes of Mount Ephraim. He took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.
But his concubine left him and returned to the house of her father to Bethlehem in Judah. She remained there for four months. Then her husband arose and sought after her to speak kindly to her and win her back to himself. His young servant had a pair of asses and a pair of asses were with him. So she brought him into her father's house and when her father saw him he was well pleased to meet him.
Now his father-in-law, the father of the young woman delayed him and he stayed with him for three days and they ate and drank and lodged there. Then on the fourth day they arose early in the morning to depart. But the young woman's father said to the son-in-law, " Strengthen your heart with a morsel of bread and afterward, go on your way." So he sat down and the two of them ate and drank together. Then the young woman's father said to the man, " Please, come lodge here.
Let your heart be merry." And when the man stood to depart, his father-in-law urged him, so he sat and lodged there again. Then on the fifth day, he arose early in the morning to depart. But the father of the young woman said, " Please strengthen your heart and camp here until the day starts to wane." And the two men ate a meal together.
And when the man stood to depart, he and his concubine and his servant, the father-in-law, the father of the young woman, said to him, " Look, the day is now drawing toward evening. Please spend the night." See, the day is coming to an end. Lodge here that your heart may be merry. And tomorrow, go on your way early so you may get home. So there's this kind of an amusing exchange here that takes place.
So basically Ephraim is in the north, Bethlehem is in the south, slightly south of Jerusalem, and this is in the days before Jerusalem, I think it's called Jebus here, home of the Jebusites, was conquered by the Jews. A concubine is kind of a lower status wife, lower in social status. You have less rights and not the usual same formal wedding as a regular wife. So the Levite had a concubine here and this is the story that takes place with her. So apparently there's some conflict in the marriage.
We don't know exactly what it is. So the woman goes back to her father and then the man goes down to see her and he wants to leave and the father says, " Why don't you wait till it's late in the day? Let's have something to eat." And then late in the day he says, " Well, it's getting pretty late in the day. Why don't you sleep and you can have a nice fresh start in the morning.
In the morning he wants to sleep." He says, " Look, let's have a meal." And then he says, " Well, why don't you wait until late?" So he does this for a few days here. The father doesn't want to let him go for whatever reason, but finally the man says, " All right, that's it. We're out of here." So he takes off. Let's continue in verse 10. However, the man was not willing to spend that night. So he arose and departed and came to a place opposite Jebus, that is Jerusalem.
There with him were the two saddle donkeys and his concubine. They had come as far as Jebus, and the day was far advanced. And the young servant said to his master, " Come, let us turn aside of the city of the Jebusites and lodge in it." But his master said to him, " We will not turn aside into a foreign city where there are no sons of Israel.
We will go onward as far as Gibeah." So he said to his young servant, " Come now, let's draw near to one of those places and lodge in Gibeah or in Ramah." So they passed by and went on their way. The sun went down on them near Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin. There they turned aside to find Lodging in Gibeah. And when they went in, he sat down in the open square of the city and there was not a man who would take them into his house to lodge.
And behold, an old man came in from his field from his work in the field at evening. He was from Mount Ephraim and he sojourned in Gibeah. The men of this place were sons of Benjamin and his eyes looked upward and he saw the travelers in the street of the city. The old man said to him, " Where are you going? Where do you come from?" So he said, " We are passing from Bethlehem in Judah towards the lower slopes of Mount Ephraim. I am from there and I travel as far as Bethlehem of Judah.
But there is no man to take me into his house. Yet we have straw and food for our donkeys and bread and wine for me and my handmaiden and for the young man with your servant. There's no lack of anything. And the old man said, " Peace be with you. And let all your needs be upon me. Only do not lodge in the open street." So he brought him into his house, made a place for the asses, and they washed their feet and ate and drank.
As they were comforting their heart, men of the city, sons of lawlessness, surrounded the house and beat on the door. They spoke to the master of the house, the old man saying, " Bring out the man who entered your house that we may know him." But the man, the master of the house, went out and said to them and said to them, " No, my brethren, I beg you, do not act so wickedly. Seeing this man has come into my house, do not commit this foolishness. Look, here is my virgin daughter and the man's concubine.
I will lead them out now. Subdue and control them. Do with them what's good in your eyes, but this man do not do such a thoughtless thing. Now, what story does this remind you of? We just read the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, and this reminds me an awful lot of that story, of the way things are going here. So Jerusalem, as I mentioned earlier, is still held by the Jebusites. It's not a Jewish city, so they don't stop there. They continue on and they stop at Gibeah, which is a city controlled by the Benjamites.
An older man from Ephraim shows them hospitality, finds him in the square, takes him into his home. Wicked men surround the house, and they want to have sex with the Levite man. So this is just like the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. And the parallels here, think about this. Think about the parallels of the story of Sodom Gomorrah, striking parallels. Travelers are entering the town at evening. They're shown by hospitality by an older man who takes them in so they don't have to spend a night in the square.
That's similar. After they have a meal together with bread, a mob of wicked men surround the house. They demand to have sex with the man who's visiting the city. And instead, the host offers two women up to them instead. And then if you continue on further on the story, the city ends up getting destroyed as far as as a result of the wickedness. So extraordinary similarities to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, but what happens right now at this next part is very different than the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.
So let's read that continuing in verse 25. But the men were not inclined to heed him, so the man took his concubine and brought her out to them. And they knew her and abused her all night until morning. And when dawn came, they let her go. And toward dawn, the woman came and fell down at the door of the man's house where her master was till it was daylight.
When her master rose in the morning and opened the doors of the house and went out to go on his way, there was the concubine falling at the door of the house with her hands on the threshold. And he said to her, " Get up and let us be going." But she did not answer for she was dead. He carried her upon his ass and went to his place. Then he took a sword, laid hold of his concubine, divided her into 12 pieces.
He sent the 12 pieces throughout all the tribes of Israel, and it was so that everyone who saw it said, " A day such as this has never happened, nor been seen from the day the children of Israel were brought out of Egypt until this day. Take counsel among yourselves and proclaim your findings." So this is very different from the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. The angels pull Lot in and the people don't want to have relations with the daughters. They want the men.
In this case here, the concubine of the Levite is taken out to the crowd. They rape her and abused her all night long. She's found dead in the morning with her hands on the threshold of the door. And her husband leaves and seems completely heartless. He says, come on, let's get going now and finds out that she's dead. He takes her body with him and then when he gets home, he hacks her body up into twelve pieces and sends the parts of the body to all the twelve tribes of Israel.
Keep in mind there's no king or central ruler at this time. This is the period of judges. So a very gruesome, horrifying story about this terrible end of the woman. This to me is this is much worse than what happens in Sodom and Gomorrah. So a few questions. Why is this disturbing story in the Bible? Why did God allow this to happen to this woman? And is this a reflection of a low attitude or oppressive attitude towards women in the Bible?
And how do you feel about the husband of the woman and the other man of what they did here. This is just it's a revolting, very upsetting story. What happens as a result of this terrible crime against the woman is the twelve pieces are sent out, the people, the Jews all assembled together in Mizpah near Gibeah and Benjamin and all the men of Israel decide as one man to punish the wicked men of Gibeah. And so the Benjamites defend their own people in Gibeah, so it's all the tribes against the Benjamites.
And ultimately, after several rounds in chapter 20, the rest of Israel prevails and the Benjamites are defeated. Only 600 of the Benjamites survive and flee to the rock of Rimmon. And so it's a horrifying story of tremendous bloodshed that's a result of this crime that was committed. So level two, are there any moral lessons from this story for us? Well, that's tough. I think evil exists.
There are evil people in the world that the whole idea that everyone's basically good on the inside, and that they've been treated badly, and if you treat them well, they're going to treat you nicely. That's not necessarily the case. The world does have incredibly evil and wicked people in it. And so that's one thing I learned from here.
And another thing is that in the end, when it says God says vengeance is mine, I will repay, in the end, the people of the wicked city and those who were allied with them are destroyed. Ultimately, it takes several rounds to do that. So just like the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and the flood, the wicked are destroyed in the end. So I think there is a moral tale here of evil is defeated in the end. So it is a battle that takes place between good and evil, and ultimately evil is defeated in the battle.
So now I want to take a step back and ask another question. There are a lot of details in this story that don't seem to be necessary to the main point of the story. I mean, for example, one of the things that sticks out to me is why all this back and forth about he wants to leave on the third day, and then he stays the morning of the third day, and then the fourth day, and then he finally leaves on the fifth day. Why all this back and forth? Why does that have anything to do with the story?
And why are those details in here? So I started looking at some other details of the story and wonder if it reminds me of anything. Is there anything in this story that points to the example of Christ or could be foreshadowing something about Christ? Well, where does the story begin in Judges chapter 19? The story begins at Bethlehem.
It says, " The man took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah, but his concubine left him and returned to her house." So the man here is from Mount Ephraim in the north, and he takes the concubine from Bethlehem, and then she goes back to her father's house in Bethlehem. So the story starts in Bethlehem. And in the story here, the two are going on a journey and the journey that they go on where the murder will take place involves two donkeys. Well, why do we need to know that it was two donkeys?
Who cares? What's the significance of two donkeys? Matthew chapter 21 in verses 1-5 says, " Now when they drew near Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples saying to them, " Go into the village opposite you and immediately find a donkey tied and a colt with her. Loose them and bring to me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say the Lord has needed them. Immediately you will send them.
And this is what was done that might be fulfilled, what was spoken of the Prophet saying, " Tell the daughter of Zion, ' Behold, your king is coming to you lowly and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey." That's Matthew 21:1-5 where the prophecy is from Zechariah 9:9. So this is Jesus, when he's going into Jerusalem, the city where he's gonna be killed, he's going on and traveling on two donkeys, according to Count Matthew. An evening meal takes place and it makes a point.
He wants to leave on the third day. No, it's not the third day. Well, it's the morning of the fourth day. Then it's the evening of the fourth day. And finally, the evening meal takes place on the evening of the fifth day. This is the last meal while the concubine is still alive. It's in someone else's home, and the meal involved eating bread, drinking wine, and having their feet washed. So remember the concubine is from Bethlehem, goes on a journey with two donkeys. Final meal on the fifth day.
When was the time of Jesus' last supper? It was on the fifth day of the week. It was Thursday night. Sunday is the first day of the week, and Saturday is the Sabbath is the seventh day of the week. So the meal, he was a guest in someone else's house as it mentions in Mark chapter 14. And the meal in the Last Supper of Jesus, who comes from Bethlehem originally, there's bread and wine as it says in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. There's foot washing, as it says in John 13.
Then, once again, like in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, two are offered to the wicked crowd. Just like in Matthew 27, Jesus and Barabbas were offered to the wicked crowd. The crowd selects one of the two and brings about the death of that person. And the blood of the innocent person who was abused and murdered is on the hands of the wicked people. So that's what I remember the story of Jesus' passion.
When they choose Jesus over Barabbas, and the crowd said, " May His blood be on us and our children." And Jesus, of course, was abused, violated, mocked, scourged, spit upon, crowned with thorns, and abused all night before he was crucified. The concubine dies, so she has her last meal on the fifth day, which is the Thursday is the fifth day of the week.
She dies on the sixth day in the story, which is Jesus died on the sixth day of the week, and she dies outside of Jerusalem as things are transitioning between light and darkness. So Jesus died and was crucified on Friday the day of preparation. He died at the end of a three-hour period of darkness between darkness and light. And he was crucified outside the city of Jerusalem. It says that in Hebrews 13:12, he suffered outside the gate. And then how is the woman found dead?
It says she's found dead with her hands on the threshold. What does that make you think of in connection with Jesus? Jesus died crucified to the cross with his hands nailed to the cross. And Thomas says, I want to see I want to see the nail marks in his hands. And then that's the only way I'm going to believe. And then as a witness to the crime that has been committed, the body, the deceased body, is hacked into 12 pieces, and the twelve pieces are sent out into all the land as a witness to the crime.
What does that make you think of? It makes me think of Jesus after he was crucified that the apostles were sent out as a witness to the crime, to the whole world. And after Judas died, there was a replacement, so it had to get the number back up to twelve apostles in Acts chapter 1. And the message that they preached was, " God has made this Jesus whom you crucified Lord and Christ." It was an indictment of the Jews.
In Acts chapter 3, Peter says, " You killed the prince of life, who God raised from the dead." So the apostles were proclaiming the death of the just and holy one by the wicked Jews in Jerusalem. And what happens as a result of the crime that's done as the witnesses are sent out to the 12 tribes, the city where the evil people lived was destroyed as a punishment for the great crime that they had committed and brutally murdering an innocent person.
And that's what Jesus warned in Luke 21 is that Jerusalem was going to be destroyed in the end as a result of what they were about to do. And that was prophesied in Daniel chapter 9 that after the Christ was put to death in Jerusalem that the prince would come who would destroy the city and the sanctuary. And it's fulfilled as it says in Daniel 9:26 and Jesus refers to it in Matthew 24:15 as well.
So many ancient writers like Josephus and Eusebius wrote about the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans under Titus in AD 70. And according to Jewish historian Josephus, who saw it happen personally, he said Titus waited until the time of the Passover when the city would be full of Jews who'd come from other places to the religious feast. And then after the city was packed with the Jews, he refused to let them leave the city to magnify the impacts of the starvation.
He said the starvation was so severe that people were driven to gruesome act. One mother he said cooked and ate her own infant that over a million Jews died between starvation and multiple battles with the Romans who assaulted the city repeatedly over seven months and finally obliterated Jerusalem and destroyed its temple.
Tertullian, who lived to 160 to 230 AD, an early Christian writer from Carthage, North Africa, after he quoted the Daniel 9 prophecy about the destruction of Jerusalem as explaining why the city had to be destroyed. So he quotes the Daniel 9 prophecy and after quoting that he says, " In such wise therefore Daniel predicted concerning him as to show both when and in what time he was to set the nations free and how after the Passion of Christ, that city had to be exterminated.
This is an answer to the Jews by Tertullian in chapter 8 of that work and Ante-Nicene Fathers Volume 3 page 158. So if you think about this story of the Levite and the concubine, if this lines up the way it certainly seems to to me, the lowly concubine from Bethlehem is representing Jesus. And that might seem strange to us to have Jesus represented by a concubine.
However, he's also foreshadowed by a lamb that is slain, by a lion in Genesis 49, by a bronze serpent in Numbers 21, by a disobedient Jewish prophet who ran away from the Lord in the Book of Jonah. And by a Gentile King Melchizedek in Genesis 14 is explained in Hebrews 5 also. So we see Jesus and his Iraq several places in Scripture. So Jesus is foreshadowed in many different ways throughout the scripture. Why not by a lowly concubine?
And the woman from Bethlehem, whose last meal foreshadowed the last supper on the fifth day of the week, who died on the sixth day of the week, the wicked men of Gibeah representing the mob from Jerusalem, and the threshold on which her hands were found when she was dead is the cross unto which Christ is nailed and the twelve parts of her body. The twelve parts of the body of Christ, the apostles who testified to the whole world about the terrible crime that was done.
So this is that we go back to the Mount Rushmore test and to me this seems an awful lot more like Mount Rushmore than the man on the mountain. The details line up too specifically, too exactly.
And so the question about why would God allow something like this to happen, that many atrocities happen throughout the scriptures, but it could very well be that the God did this to point the way yet one more time of the passion of the Christ, of the greatest crime of all time that will be attested to by the twelve parts of the body being sent out to the whole world. So I believe if we look at the stories like this and ask ourselves the questions. Is there something here on the second level?
Is there something here on the third level? Is there something in this story that reminds me of Christ? Why are all these apparently extraneous details included in the story? Are they there for a reason? I believe that this is the weaving of the Holy Spirit that is explaining one more time the great story of the passion and the passion and the death of Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem that would follow.