The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. (James 3:18)
Some stories in the Bible are just jarring to our modern sensitivities. Today I finished reading the book of Judges, which has stories of the famous leaders of Israel like Othniel, Ehud, Deborah/Barak (her general), Gideon, Jephtah, and Samson. But it ends with a story that reminds you of how different Jesus’s positions were on things.
Judges 19-21 is the story of Israel only a couple of generations after they entered the Promised Land. A Levite, a man who was supposed to be set aside in righteousness to help the priests minister to the Lord, took a “concubine” (a second wife) from another tribe – not an uncommon practice in the ancient Near East, but to my ears a definite “yuck.” Evidently the woman ran away from him, he went to get her from her father’s house, they started to travel home, and were staying in a town in the land of Benjamin one night. What happened next is just awful.
[M]en of the city, certain worthless and evil men, surrounded the house, pounding on the door; and they spoke to the master of the house, the old man, saying, “Bring out the man who came to your house so that we may have relations with him.” Then the man, the master of the house, went out and said to them, “No, my fellow citizens, please do not act so wickedly. Since this man has come to my house [as my guest], do not commit this sacrilege. Here is my virgin daughter and this man’s concubine. I will bring them out now; abuse and humiliate them and do to them whatever you want, but do not commit this act of sacrilege against this man.” But the men would not listen to him. So the man took the Levite’s concubine and brought her outside to them; and they had relations with her and abused her all night until morning; and when daybreak came, they let her go. At daybreak the woman came and collapsed at the door of the man’s house where her master was, until it was [fully] light. When her master got up in the morning and opened the doors of the house and went out to go on his way, he saw his concubine lying at the door of the house, and her hands were on the threshold. He said to her, “Get up, and let us go.” But there was no answer [for she had died]. (Judges 19:22-28 AMP)
I won’t wade into the current cultural wars on homosexuality, but I will say that the way these men treated these women was horrific. The men didn’t want to be abused, so they sent out a woman to be raped and abused all night by the men of the town. My NIV Study Bible says, “The tragedy of this story lies not only in the decadence of [the men of] Gibeah but also in the callous selfishness of men who would betray defenseless women to be brutally violated for a whole night.” (p. 387)
Indeed.
Unfortunately, there is not really justice for these men or recompense for the abused woman. The woman’s husband cut up her body and sent the pieces to the twelve tribes of the land, who then assembled and went to war against the tribe of Benjamin, killing 25,000 Benjamites. Then they came to their senses, decided that they didn’t want to totally wipe out that branch of the family, and instead they killed off a whole town of people — except the 400 virgins that they then gave to the remaining 600 Benjaminites as wives. Since that wasn’t quite enough women to rebuild the population, they told the Benjaminites they could steal the virgins from their own tribes at a festival. I don’t even want to explain my responses to how they disrespected and devalued the women involved in this story.
Contrast that with Jesus.
It was Jesus who invited women and children to come to him, who healed the women, who had women traveling with him, supporting him, and doing ministry with him. It was Jesus who – on the cross and in horrific pain – provided for his mother. Jesus recognized a woman’s sacrifice of very expensive perfume as a love-gift that was preparing his body for burial, and defended the woman against her male detractors. Jesus whose sorrow with Mary and Martha’s loss of their brother, caused him to raise Lazarus from the dead. Jesus who didn’t differentiate between the male and the female at Pentecost, but poured out the Holy Spirit on all those gathered there.
Jesus’s approach to women was radically different for that time and culture.
The men of these stories of ancient Israel did not understand the value and worth that God places on women. Women and men are different, but both are equally valued. Jesus would have never treated the women in Judges in the way the men did. Thank God for Jesus!
Creator God,
The earth is full of your lovingkindness. Your word is right, and you love righteousness and justice and faithfulness. Thank you for loving and valuing both men and women, and for Jesus as the example for how to treat and value each other. Help us to see each other as precious in your eyes and to honor you with the ways we interact with others. Help us to sow peace and righteousness into this world, we ask in Jesus’s name, AMEN.
For the word of the Lord is right;
And all His work is done in faithfulness.
He loves righteousness and justice;
The earth is full of the lovingkindness of the Lord. (Psalm 33:4-5 AMP)