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Judges 20:1–11
“So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, united together as one man” (Judg. 20:11).
As we head into the final two chapters of Judges, we find Israel as united as at any time in this period; in today’s passage alone, the author affirms three times that the people are “as one man” (vv. 1, 8, 11). Unfortunately, it is the hideous crime of some of the men of the tribe of Benjamin that has brought the nation together. And while it is right and proper that the nation unite to respond to this sin, the Israelites prove by their actions that they are not completely in accord with the ways of their God. Ethics are about to get very blurry.
A certain Levite’s concubine was ravished to death by men in the Benjamite city of Gibeah. He subsequently cut up the woman’s body and sent it throughout Israel to expose the crime and demand a response. Thus, the people of Israel from the north to the south (“Dan to Beersheba”), from the west to the east (“the land of Gilead”), come together “before the Lord” at Mizpah, adjacent to the tabernacle site in Shiloh, to take counsel together as to how they should respond. Four hundred thousand soldiers are present. “It does not appear that they were summoned by the authority of any one common head,” Matthew Henry writes in his commentary, “but they came together by the consent and agreement, as it were, of one common heart, fired with a holy zeal for the honor of God and Israel.” Ominously, however, the people of Benjamin do not come, though they know of the gathering, presumably having been informed like all the other tribes.
When all are gathered, the Levite is asked to tell what occurred. His account is brief and, in some spots, not wholly candid. Perhaps out of shame, he glosses over the true motive of the men of Gibeah, saying only that they surrounded the house where he was staying “ ‘because of me.’ ” But he says nothing of his cowardice and callousness in giving his concubine to the mob in an apparent effort to save his life. Characterizing what the men of Gibeah did to her as “ ‘lewdness and outrage,’ ” he calls upon the assembly to “ ‘give your advice and counsel.’ ”
The tribes are not slow in coming to a decision—they will march against Gibeah to “ ‘repay all the vileness that they have done.’ ” They even will detail a 10th of the men to gather provisions in the event of a siege. “As one man,” Israel is prepared to act against a heinous sin in its midst.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Israel’s response to this sin is commendable. By contrast, we in the modern church are rarely so opposed to sin, and our hesitancy to discipline means sinners are not reclaimed, unrighteousness is not checked, and the honor of Christ is not upheld. Pray that your church would practice Biblical discipline, and encourage your leaders in it.
For Further Study
- Matthew 18:15–17
- 1 Thessalonians 5:12
- 2 Thessalonians 3:14–15
- 1 Timothy 5:20