I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.
Today, I am reading and commenting on Judges 17-19.
The events described in today’s passage result from the truth of one phrase: “all of the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.” It describes what happens when no one is accountable to anyone else. The story starts with Micah returning money to his mother that he had stolen from her. Micah’s mother used that money to make him an idol, which he set up and worshiped. When Micah successfully recruited a Levite to officiate as his priest in worshiping this idol he believed that God would bless him as a result. He held this belief despite God’s repeated commands to NOT create such idols.
Next we have a story involving the tribe of Dan. On their way to scout out territory for the tribe of Dan to conquer, five scouts accepted the hospitality of Micah’s household. There they discovered the Levite acting as a priest and got his story out of him. Then, when they were leading their war band to conquer the territory they had scouted, they turned aside and stole Micah’s idols and recruited his Levite priest away from him. When Micah pursued them to get his property back, they threatened violence against him. The context suggests that the people of Dan also thought they were worshiping God as they worshiped this idol. Further, it never occurred to the scouts that they had violated the hospitality which Micah had given them by later returning and stealing his property.
Which leads us to the final story of today’s passage. Here we have the story of a Levite and his concubine returning to his home from her father’s home (there is a good bit to be examined in that part of the story as well). As he was travelling the Levite continued on later than ideal in the day so as to stay in an Israelite town rather than that of another people. The unspoken assumption being that they would be safer in a town with their fellow Israelites (in this case from the tribe of Benjamin) than among a foreign people. This proved to be a bad assumption. The Levite was prepared to spend the night in the town square since he had sufficient supplies for his needs. However, a man from the tribe of Ephraim who had been living in the town for a long time insisted that the Levite stay with him. The Ephraimite’s comments made it clear that he knew how the town toughs would treat a stranger. Unfortunately, the town toughs did not take kindly to the Ephraimite’s actions and demanded the Levite be given to them for abuse. When the Levite gave them his concubine (there is more to be examined here), they raped her to death. This story takes the abuse of hospitality one step further than the story about the tribe of Dan. More important than the abuse of hospitality is the fact that no one held these town toughs accountable for their bad action. The story makes clear that everyone local knew about their bad behavior, but no one was willing to do anything about it as long as they reserved their abuse for strangers.
Micah stole from his mother, but that was OK, because he confessed and gave it back when she uttered a curse against the thief. The Levite served as a priest to an idol because Micah rewarded him handsomely for doing so. The scouts for the tribe of Dan accepted Micah’s hospitality, but did not think twice about coming back and robbing from him. The Levite betrayed Micah when the tribe of Dan made him a better offer (and it was a betrayl because he not only agreed to become priest for the tribe of Dan, he helped them steal the “holy” items from Micah). Finally, the troublemakers of the town of Gibeah tried to force a man from elsewhere who lived among them to turn over his guest for them to abuse. Abusing strangers was clearly something they did regularly, but no one from the town attempted to stop them. In all of these stories we have people who seemed to have the attitude towards anyone who might wish to interfere with their actions of “What business of yours is it that I do this?” Or, “If I think this is not wrong, who are you to tell me otherwise?” Sound familiar?