Wickedness in Gibeah

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Angel- doctor findings

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Open Question #1:

Can you recall the last place you visited and the hospitality or service was just terrible?

The Point:

When the church loses hospitality it is a result of losing a love for the Word of the Lord.

Note: this is the point of this whole account. When the honor for the Lord and His word diminishes depravity in the church rises.

The Bible Meets Life:

We’ve all been there traveling and wanting to get to our destination but we have to make a stop; be it fill up the tank, use the restroom, pick up some snacks, actually get a meal, or even all of the above.

And let’s be honest: where we stop at matters. So we pay close attention not just to when the next exit is but we pay even closer attention to the signs that tell us the different types of gas stations and food spots that are at the exit.

And if we are even more honest we only really want to stop at certain places.

And if we are even-even more honest the gas stations with all the lights on and a lot of cars stopping and going makes us more comfortable stopping there. But coming off the exit to a small gas station with just one light and two gas pumps and bars on the doors and windows would not get the time of day. We will gladly travel further up the road to feel safer at another exit.

Question #2: What was the scariest place you stopped at for gas while traveling?

For me…. Any place in the dark on them country back roads

What does the Bible Say?

Judges 19:11–12 ESV

When they were near Jebus, the day was nearly over, and the servant said to his master, “Come now, let us turn aside to this city of the Jebusites and spend the night in it.” And his master said to him, “We will not turn aside into the city of foreigners, who do not belong to the people of Israel, but we will pass on to Gibeah.”

Key Words/Phrases

Jebus- a city that was almost conquered at the beginning of the conquest. Judah attacked the city but Benjamin failed to drive out the inhabitants [Jebus was to be alloted to the tribe of Benjamin]. Jebus would eventually become the nation’s capital [Jerusalem] and where the ark would come to reside under the kingship of David.

Gibeah- a city/territory of the tribe of Benjamin. Gibeah would be the city that Saul, the first king of Israel, would set up as his capital and stronghold in the days of his rule.

“We will not turn aside into a city of foreigners, who do not belong to the people of Israel…”

If I could say: this is really the slap in the face of the Levite.

The Main Discussion

Part One: Judges 19: 11-15

What was it that caused the servant to suggest Jebus? The passage doesn’t say but we know that the Levite refused the suggestion. Why? Because it was a town of foreigners that did not belong to the people of Israel.

Just like our traveling experiences the Levite didn’t see a lot of lights in the city of Jebus but expected tons of lights in the city of Gibeah. And why shouldn’t he have this expectation? Gibeah is a town belonging to the stock of Israel, holy and set apart by the Lord.

Note: let’s be straight forward, we should have caution when visiting any church. And even more so today we should have caution with who we listen to online

Question #3: What expectations of hospitality do we have for the congregations we visit?

Questions #4: What expectations have we set in our own congregation of hospitality when visitors come?

Reflection Point: Believers are called to be in the world but not of the world. We are also instructed to engage the world. But at what point is the believer justified in not engaging the world?

Part Two: Judges 19:16-21

To feel unwelcome in a place where you should be welcomed has to be devastating. The first sign of an issue in Gibeah was that no one took the Levite in. The Levites expectation for the city of his fellow Israelite brothers is not meet at the start; the light is off in Gibeah. Imagine pulling up to a congregation with a high expectation of fellowship only to stand in the lobby and/or sit in the sanctuary and no one greets you, looks your way, or even smiles at you.

Thankfully there was one who would greet and host the Levite and his company; a sojourner from Ephraim. This was a man not from Gibeah nor of the tribe of Benjamin and yet his hospitality towards the Levite was extended.

Question #5: How does a lack of hospitality in a congregation show a lack of God’s love?

Question #6: What does it say about the Israel when the Levite is ignored and made to sleep out in the town square?

Perhaps the old man extended his roof because he was adhering to the cultural norms of hospitality. Perhaps it was because the Levite was from his home land Ephraim. Either reason is minute to the noticeable plea from the old man of “Only, do not spend the night in the square.”

The old man obviously knew something was wrong in Gibeah. This wasn’t just a case of the city lacking in hospitality. The old mans extension of hospitality wasn’t just a polite gesture or based on cultural norms not to be ignored; but it was a means of extending protection from what the he knew of the city.

Reflection Point: Ministry gatherings and Worship Services that only come with smiles, coffee, and dry cookies and a very inspiring message but no warning of the sin that lurkers in our lives leaves believers and non-believers alike to be ravished by the dogs of our modern day Gibeah’s. So it is important that the body of Christ keep the welcoming call and the warning siren of the Gospel at the heart of its extension of hospitality.

Question #7: Have you ever been/felt convicted for not showing hospitality towards someone?

Part Three Judges 19:22-30

“As they were making merry, behold…” In a place of refugee with their guard down the night all of a sudden takes a turn from good to bad and will only get worse as the night goes on. I reflect to the times growing up when things were calm in our house only for things to all of a sudden erupt and the night descend into what felt like a never ending madness. Forgive me if the breakdown of this section takes up more space on the page than normal.

Reflection thought: Have you ever been in a place where at one point it was peaceful and the next split second it descended into madness; and all you can say to yourself is how did things comes to this? [Have you ever had this happen to you with your relationship with the Lord?]

The wicked men of the city came to the house demanding that the “master of the house” bring out the Levite so that they may rape him. The demand is sick and twisted violating several Laws of the Lord. The result of unchecked sin that has descended into depravity shows its ugly hand.

Question #8: We don’t find ourselves in a sin addiction over night. It is something that grows with us as we grow in our environment. How can sin become so comfortable to us that we cannot tell our righteous actions from our unrighteous actions?

So far we’ve given much attention to the Levite and the host within the subject of hospitality. But it is here that our attention is shifted to those within the house. Those who have about as much say in their life as humanity does regarding the next natural disaster; the daughter of the host and the concubine of the Levite.

First to protect the Levite, his guest, the old man offered his daughter to Gibeah’s dogs, but he didn’t stop there. He also offered the Levites concubine. The old man calls the demand of the men of the city an act of wickedness and a vile thing but yet offers to satisfy that wickedness the voiceless bodies of his own daughter and the concubine of the Levite.

Question #9: Think back to Lots actions and consider if and how the old man’s offer is worse than that of Lots.

The house that was once a home to the daughter and for a moment a refuge for the concubine now echos the words of the Divine Comedy “Abandon all hope ye who enters here”. They now have become the sacrifice offered.

But the wicked men of Gibeah refuse the offer and it is here that the Levite shows his full cruel hand. He seizes his concubine and “made her go out to them.” She is thrown to the dogs and the door is shut. Protection and peace comes to the house for the night at the cost of the Levite offering his concubine as a sacrifice to the desires of the men of the city.

Question #10: How is the sacrifice offered by the Levite to save the house different from the Sacrifice the Father gave of his Son?

Reflection Moment: when the body of Christ becomes silent about the word of the Lord we stop practicing the word of the Lord. And in the lack of practicing the word of the Lord we stop protecting others based on the word of the Lord.

and it behaves us to move with caution because we can be very sel-righteous in on thing while being so disconnected when called upon to actually act upon it. You can be so blinded by your righteous movement that you can’t see that you are not moving

The voiceless is made to stand in the threshold of the one who was called to stand in the threshold himself. The Levite has treated his own concubine as an unholy thing not fit to be protected as a holy child of Israel; the voiceless is made to stand in the threshold for the one who should have stood in threshold for her. And it is upon that threshold that the woman crawls back only to die at the very place she should have been protected and sheltered.

Question #11: How can the church be that threshold for those who stand in need of what the concubine was denied?

Apply & Pray

To read what happened to the concubine should break anyones heart; it even angers many. We demand justice for the violation of her body and her murder. Why would the old man offer his daughter and the concubine to the men of the city? Why would the Levite make his concubine go out there? Why would the men of the city even demand to rape the Levite? Why did a night of peace and refuge become a horror movie of the most debased kind?

It boils down to the first verse in the chapter “in those days there was no king in Israel [every man did what was right in his own eyes]”. Long before Israel demanded that Samuel the prophet make a king for them their actions already dethroned the Lord from their hearts.

This is not recorded just so we can be angry at Israel. They are written to warn us that when the throne of the Lord no longer is the throne that church bows to the results are what we find in Gibeah.

Take the time out to examine yourself. Pray for a heart that submits to the Lord as King and to keep you from a heart of Gibeah. Pray for the church to have the heart and courage to stand in the threshold for those who need protection of the Word of the Lord the most.

Homework Question: why wasn’t there any angels to shut the door before the Levite gave his concubine to the dogs