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Some of you are interested in how writers approach the creative process, how we come up with anecdotes and applications. Here is a frightening example of how everything can go wrong with that process, but hopefully for your benefit and God’s glory.
I set out to search for the term New Sodom online to see whether any news stories would come up. You think, “You writers have an easy job now that the ultimate plagiarism source, the Internet, is available.” Not exactly. There were no newspaper articles critical of sodomy on the Internet. This omission is telling.
We are shocked by the sexual violence in Genesis 19 and Judges 19, violence that appears to go on with the approval of the magistrates. The more shocking truth is that we live in a culture that has legalized far worse. The Sodomites sit at home, enjoy a nice glass of wine, and listen to My Fair Lady while the rest of us live in fear of roving gangs of civil-rights lawyers who threaten to sue anyone who is not clearly pro-Sodomite. This is not a vast improvement over 1400 b.c.
My, my. How we don’t like to think of these realities, let alone write about them. But the Bible occasionally forces us to gaze on such difficult topics. In the Greek civilization of the first century, when sodomy occurred without penalty, Christians in slavery struggled for answers to these sexual questions, questions that the Bible does address. Consider that as we look at this story from the end of Judges, and ask yourself, as embarrassing as it may be, “What situations from our time and my life does Judges 19–21 address?”
R.K. Harrison wisely summarizes the time of the judges, saying, “While the inspired leadership of judges partially remedied this unfortunate situation, it appears to have proceeded largely on an ad hoc basis, and in consequence lacked the degree of permanence and the continuity necessary for political and social stability in the nation. The rise of tribal misunderstandings (Josh. 22:10ff, Judg. 8:1ff; 20:12ff), coupled with the seductive attractions of Canaanite religion, furnished powerful forces for disunity and disintegration in Israel, and prompted the demand for a regularized monarchy following contemporary pagan patterns.”
It is with that last “tribal misunderstanding,” as Dr. Harrison rather mildly puts it, that we begin our devotional journey this month. A war results in the near-annihilation of the tribe of Benjamin, with more than twenty-five thousand men falling. Gibeah, the Benjamite city that refused to act with justice, was destroyed with fire.
It is sometimes overlooked that while this section occurs at the end of Judges, the writer reveals that these events occurred at the beginning of the period of the judges, when Phinehas, grandson of Aaron, was high priest (see 20:27–28, compare to Num. 25:1–15). Something about this story clinches his argument for the necessity of more stable leadership. What is it?
First, notice that there are no judges present. This vacancy characterizes the vast majority of the three hundred and fifty-year judges period. God is not their King, nor is His representative there to rule.
Second, 19:30 notes that nothing like this has occurred since the Jews came from Egypt. What is so shocking—the division of the woman’s body or the unpunished rape? The text is not clear, but we would assume that since the Levite is not rebuked, it is the rape and murder that are so heinous.
Third, the writer of Judges summarizes the last narrative so as to draw parallels between Judges 19 and Genesis 19. In Genesis, Lot invites two angels to stay with him. A gang of homosexuals attacks the home and Lot offers to send his daughters out to them, but the angels intercede and blind the attackers. But no angels save the concubine in Judges 19, and she is raped and murdered. The point from this gruesome comparison: Gibeah is the New Sodom. It is even worse than Sodom in that this time God does not intercede to save the helpless. God is allowing His rebellious people to descend into the depths of depravity.
This is a new way of showing how far the people of God have fallen. No longer are the people of Gibeah covenant keepers—they are worse than the worst. They are ripe for destruction, and indeed, God does destroy them and all those around them. Israel needs radical surgery, and like a patient with a virulent cancer, the node and the surrounding tissue must be cut out to save the life. The damnable, Sodomite sin of Gibeah justifies God’s leading Israel to attack Benjamin with such fierceness, killing so many of their brothers.
Sexual sin is worse than other kinds of sin: The Bible says so (Lev. 18:22; Rom. 1:21–27). God will go to great lengths, some very destructive, to purify us from it. He has warned us of its fearsome effects, but He has made great Gospel promises to those who suffer temptation or fall. “And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11).
Brothers and sisters, we can be set free. “Such were some of you” is one of the greatest statements in Scripture to those who would leave the glittering rubble of this world for the vast riches of Christ. Go to Him, embrace Him, and find a love that will set you free.