The Judges. Day 65, The Assembly Votes To Punish The Crime Of The Men Of Gibeah

In Chapter 19 we found the men of Gibeah (men who were Israelites) behaving like the men of Sodom and Gomorrah. They beat on the door of the Ephraimite who gave lodging to the Levite, his concubine, and his servant. They demanded the Ephraimite send the Levite out to them so they could abuse him sexually. In an effort to appease their violent lust and keep himself from their clutches, the Levite thrust his concubine out the door to them and they abused her all night, causing her to die from her injuries. As a gruesome and shocking call to arms to all the men of Israel, the Levite cut his dead concubine into twelve pieces and sent a piece to the elders of every tribe of Israel, demanding that something be done in retribution for the crime of the men of Gibeah. Today we'll find the leaders of Israel assembling to hear the Levite's testimony and to render a decision regarding the incident.

"Then all Israel from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead came together as one and assembled before the Lord in Mizpah." (Judges 20:1) The author of Judges does not mean that literally every man of Israel gathered together to consult the Lord about how to punish the men of Gibeah. The representatives of each tribe gathered together to consult the Lord. 

"The leaders of all the people of the tribes of Israel took their places in the assembly of God's people, four hundred thousand men armed with swords. (The Benjamites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah.) Then the Israelites said, 'Tell us how this awful thing happened.'" (Judges 20:3) Gibeah lay within the tribe of Benjamin and although the author tells us the Benjamites "heard" of the assembly taking place, we'll learn in tomorrow's portion of Chapter 20 that they are not in agreement with the verdict reached at this assembly. 

The leaders of Israel ask the Levite to describe for them what happened at Gibeah. He does so but glosses over the fact that he willingly handed his concubine over to the violent men to save himself from their clutches. "So the Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, said, 'I and my concubine came to Gibeah in Benjamin to spend the night. During the night the men of Gibeah came after me and surrounded the house, intending to kill me. They raped my concubine, and she died. I took my concubine, cut her into pieces and sent one piece to each region of Israel's inheritance, because they committed this lewd and outrageous act in Israel. Now, all you Israelites, speak up and tell me what you have decided to do.'" (Judges 20:4-7) I think he realizes he wouldn't come off looking too heroic if he described the night in question exactly as it happened. He doesn't state that the men showed up at the door demanding to have sex with him; his testimony is that they came to the house to kill him. While it's true that their ill treatment of him would likely have ended in his death (as it did in the case of his concubine), I think he wants to give the impression that he valiantly fought to protect his life and the life of his wife but that the men managed to seize her from his grasp.

Nevertheless, what the men of Gibeah wanted to do and what they did do was a shocking abomination for the Lord's people to commit. It wasn't unheard of in other cultures, as we learned from our study of Genesis 19, but it should have been unheard of in Israel. The Levite tells the assembly that something needs to be done. Such lawlessness cannot go unpunished. Private homes cannot be besieged in this manner. Innocent travelers cannot be assaulted. Heathen people might live this way but the Lord's people are not to comport themselves like heathens. 

I am sure the men of Gibeah didn't arrive at this level of lawlessness overnight. They didn't suddenly wake up one morning and decide they would, as a group, begin sexually assaulting every male traveler who passes through town. They must have begun by making small compromises of their values. But compromises often don't stay small. They have a tendency to grow larger over time as a person becomes more and more comfortable with transgressing God's word. For example, let's say a person gives in to the temptation to steal a small object. It will be harder to resist the temptation a second time and it will be harder to resist stealing something of more value. The same goes for many other types of sins. The first time we commit a particular sin we may be horrified by it. If we respond appropriately to that horror, we'll confess and repent to the Lord. If we don't respond appropriately, we'll probably give in a second time and a third time and so on. The next thing you know, we'll have the type of consciences the Apostle Paul compared to fabric that's been seared by a hot iron. (1 Timothy 4:2) When fabric has been seared by a hot iron, it has holes in it. It has weak spots. It's not capable of serving its purpose. The same thing happens when we harden our hearts toward feelings of guilt: holes and weak spots develop in our consciences. Then our consciences can't serve their purpose. We will be able to ignore feelings of guilt about our sins or, worse yet, we'll stop feeling guilt altogether.

The assembled leaders of Israel render their verdict on the incident at Gibeah. "All the men rose up together as one, saying, 'None of us will go home. No, not one of us will return to his house. But now this is what we'll do to Gibeah: We'll go up against it in the order decided by casting lots. We'll take ten men out of every hundred from all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred from a thousand, and a thousand from ten thousand, to get provisions for the army. Then, when the army arrives at Gibeah in Benjamin, it can give them what they deserve for this outrageous act done in Israel.' So all the Israelites got together and united as one against the city." (Judges 20:8-11) They unanimously vote to bring justice against the men of Gibeah without delay.

Since the men of Gibeah were Benjamites, the people of the tribe of Benjamin should have been the first to condemn the Gibeahites for their behavior. They should have been shocked and appalled. They should have taken immediate steps to avenge the good name of their tribe and to avenge the holy name of their God by stamping out such wickedness in their midst. As the Apostle Peter put it when speaking of sin that had been allowed to creep into the Christian church, judgment should begin at the house of God. (1 Peter 4:17) The Lord's people should be on the alert for sin creeping into their assembly so they can recognize it and deal with it while it's in its early stages. Believers should not have to have anyone outside the church pointing out sin within the church; it should be caught by the congregation and its leaders and dealt with inside the church. That's what the leaders of Israel expect the people of the tribe of Benjamin to do. They give them the benefit of the doubt that perhaps they were not aware of the lawlessness of the Gibeahites but, now that they've been made aware of it, they should be the first to deal with sin taking place within their own borders. But that's not what happens. "The tribes of Israel sent messengers throughout the tribe of Benjamin, saying, 'What about this awful crime that was committed among you? Now turn those wicked men of Gibeah over to us so that we may put them to death and purge the evil from Israel.' But the Benjamites would not listen to their fellow Israelites. From their towns they came together at Gibeah to fight against the Israelites." (Judges 20:12-14)

I think perhaps the Benjamites have fallen prey to the type of pride the Apostle Paul found in the church at Corinth. It's the type of pride that refuses to accept correction and respond appropriately to it. In the church at Corinth a church member was indulging in a type of sexual immorality that Paul says even the heathens avoided. (The man was having an affair with his step-mother.) Paul said that the church members should have gotten together to speak with the man and urge him to repent and that, if he did not repent, they should have excommunicated him until such time as he did repent. Paul said they should have handled this matter and nipped it in the bud before the man's lifestyle began influencing others into thinking various types of sexual immorality was okay for believers. Rather than taking care of the problem, he said they were proud: arrogant and stubborn, being offended whenever something wrong was pointed out to them. In Judges 20 we find the Benjamites offended that their fellow Israelites ask them to hand the wicked men of Gibeah over to them. Instead of agreeing that the Gibeahites are deserving of punishment, they take on an attitude of, "How dare you tell us what to do? How dare you judge us? This is none of your business and if you insist on coming out in battle array against the city of Gibeah, we are going to take it as a declaration of war against the entire tribe of Benjamin. We will assemble and fight back!"

The Benjamites will end up fighting against fellow Israelites over what happened at Gibeah. This same type of infighting occurs in the churches of today when sinful practices are allowed to go on. Some of the members will want to confront the problem head on and get things made right again. Some of the members will take on an arrogant attitude of pride, as if no one has the right to call a sin a sin. Many a church has split up due to things of this nature, with believer fighting against believer and with even close friends and family members falling out with one another. In Chapter 20 we'll find something even worse happening than people merely falling out with each other. We'll find fellow citizens striking each other down with the sword.