In the final five chapters of the book of Judges (17-21), a couple stories of Israel’s disobedience are described so that future readers could understand the extreme apostasy and immorality that characterized this time in Israel’s history.  There are two main stories which comprise the conclusion to this book: Micah and the Danites’ idolatry (Judges 17-18) as well as the immoral actions of a priest and certain men of Gibeah (Judges 19-21).  The first story focused more on Israel worshiping false gods while this second story focuses more on the immorality plaguing the people of God.  Instead of speaking generally about the immorality in Israel during the time of the judges, the author provides a specific example of a Levite from the mountains of Israel who “…took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah” (19:1).  Priests were permitted to marry (Leviticus 21:7, 13-14), but a concubine was typically a slave woman whose purpose was to carry on the duties of the household and provide sexual pleasure for her husband.  Having a concubine implied that the man had multiple wives, but the concubines were often treated unfairly and did not possess the same privileges as a wife; therefore, this Levite was not living in a way that was acceptable to God.  This Levite’s concubine was eventually unfaithful to him and she departed for her father’s house where she resided for four months (19:2).  After four months of separation, the Levite visited her father’s house and brought his wife back with him after he had lodged there for five days (19:3-10).  On their journey home they stopped in the city of Gibeah and were invited to lodge in the home of a man, who knew that the Levite and his wife would not be safe in the city square (19:11-21).  ”As they were enjoying themselves, suddenly certain men of the city, perverted men, surrounded the house and beat on the door. They spoke to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring out the man who came to your house, that we may know him carnally!” (19:22).  The man of the house refused to release his male guest to the perverted men of the tribe of Benjamin (19:23), so in a disgusting compromise the host offered to release his virgin daughter and the man’s concubine to fulfill their sexual desires (19:24).  The men of the city rejected this offer but the Levite became fearful of the men, presented his wife to them, and they sexually abused her all night long (19:25).  The men let her go in the morning and then she returned to the door of the host’s home where her master was lodging (19:26).  ”When her master arose in the morning, and opened the doors of the house and went out to go his way, there was his concubine, fallen at the door of the house with her hands on the threshold.  And he said to her, ‘Get up and let us be going.’  But there was no answer.  So the man lifted her onto the donkey; and the man got up and went to his place” (19:27-28).  The actions of this priest and these men are unfathomable and represent the extreme immorality plaguing the nation of Israel during this time.

Even though the Levite was ultimately responsible for the death of his wife, he was angered by the actions of these Benjamite men of Gibeah so “…when he entered his house he took a knife, laid hold of his concubine, and divided her into twelve pieces, limb by limb, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel” (19:29).  Along with the parts of her body the Levite man probably sent a message describing what had been done to this woman by the men of Benjamin.  When the territories received the body part and message, their anger against the men of Benjamin was kindled and they vowed revenge on them (19:30).  An army of 400,000 men gathered together against these perverted men of Gibeah (20:1-11) and requested that the people of Gibeah hand over the men who were responsible for the death of this woman (20:12-13).  Rather than surrendering these men to the army of Israel, they formed an army of 26,000 men and to fight against Israel (20:14-17).  Two times the army of Israel went up to defeat the men of Benjamin but they were defeated (20:18-25).  Israel’s defeat was most likely a punishment for the nation’s tolerance of such immorality.  Following their second defeat by the hands of the people of Gibeah, Israel cried out to God and He gave them the victory over the tribe of Benjamin and only 600 Benjamite men survived the slaughter of the Israelites (20:26-48).  Although Israel had made an oath not to allow anyone to give their daughters in marriage to the remaining 600 Benjamite men (21:1), the rest of Israel cried out at the reality of one tribe’s extinction from the twelve (21:1-7).  This dilemma resolved itself when Israel discovered that no soldiers from Jabesh Gilead had come to help in the battle against Gibeah, so they killed everyone in that city except 400 virgins and gave them to the men of Benjamin so that their tribe would remain (21:8-18).  This still left 200 Benjamite men without wives so they found a “loophole” in their oath and instead of giving them wives, they commanded them to steal wives from the daughters of Shiloh (21:19-24).  The concluding words of the book of Judges read like this: “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (21:25).  This is an unfortunate description of the people who were supposed to be worshiping and obeying God alone.

Dear God, keep me from doing what is right in my own eyes. 

The book of Judges mostly contains the history of fourteen judges who were sent by God at different times to the disobedient nation of Israel (Judges 3:7-16:31).  Each time Israel disobeyed the Lord, He would send judgment upon them by allowing their enemies to conquer them and when their enemies had victory over them, Israel would cry out to the Lord for deliverance.  Throughout the time of the judges (1383-1043 BC), God’s deliverance often arrived for Israel whenever He would send judges to be victorious over their enemies and call the people to repent and return to the Lord.  Israel’s relationship with God during this time is best described as unstable.  Disobedience led to oppression.  Oppression led to Israel crying out to God for help.  A cry for help led to God sending a judge to deliver Israel from oppression.  Israel would experience a time of peace until they fell back into disobedience.  The cycle would begin again.

In the final chapters of Judges (17-21), various stories of Israel’s disobedience are documented in order to communicate the extreme apostasy and immorality that characterized this time in the history of Israel.  Two major stories make up the conclusion of the book of Judges: Micah and the Danites’ idolatry (Judges 17-18) as well as immoral actions of a priest and certain men of Gibeah (Judges 19-21).  The first story is focused on a man named Micah who stole 1,100 shekels of silver from his mother (17:1-2).  When Micah found out that his mother had pronounced a curse on the one who stole the silver, he confessed his wrongdoing to her and she surprisingly blessed him (17:2).  After Micah had returned the money to his mother she said to him, “I had wholly dedicated the silver from my hand to the Lord for my son, to make a carved image and a molded image; now therefore, I will return it to you” (17:3).  She then paid a silversmith who made two different idols for Micah to place in his home (17:4).  The actions of Micah and his mother were strictly forbidden according to God’s law, which prohibited anyone from creating a carved image for worship (Exodus 20:2).  In addition to having a shrine and household idols, Micah consecrated his son as his own personal priest (17:5).  Setting up his own priest was also forbidden since priests were only permitted of the tribe of Levi (Leviticus 13).  Even though this was only one example of what was taking place in the nation of Israel, it seems like everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes (17:6).  To make matters worse, a man of the tribe of Levi was searching for a place to stay when he came to the mountains of Ephraim and took up residence in the house of Micah (17:7-8).  Whenever Micah found out that the wandering man was a Levite, Micah asked him to stay in his home and become his priest (17:9-10).  The man agreed and Micah decided to pay the Levite ten shekels of silver a year and also provide food as well as clothing (17:10-11).  ”So Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and lived in the house of Micah.  Then Micah said, ‘Now I know that the Lord will be good to me, since I have a Levite as priest!’” (17:12-13).  The actions of Micah and the Levite were serious sins and reflected an overall lack of obedience throughout the nation of Israel.

After the Levite had settled into Micah’s home as his personal priest, the tribe of Dan was searching for a land to dwell since they had not yet settled in the land that had been designated to them (18:1).  The Danites sent five men to spy out a land and as they journeyed through the mountains of Ephraim, they lodged with Micah (18:2).  While they were dwelling at Micah’s house, they recognized the voice of the young Levite and inquired about why he was staying with Micah (18:3).  The Levite revealed to them that he had been hired by Micah to be his personal priest and the men then asked him if the journey that they were on would be prosperous (18:4-5).  The priest told them that the presence of the Lord would be with them (18:6) so the men continued to Laish and returned to their people with a good report (18:7-10).  Upon hearing the report of the spies, they sent 600 Danites on a journey to overtake Laish (18:11); however, on their journey to Laish, the five spies had them stop into the house of Micah once again and they persuaded the young Levite to become a priest over their tribe (18:12-19).  The priest willingly agreed to a priest over the Danites so he took the idols and departed with them to Laish (18:20-26).  Upon their arrival in Laish, they struck the people with the edge of the sword, burned the city, and then rebuilt it (18:27-29).  Unfortunately, they continued in their sinful ways by setting up for themselves Micah’s carved image and consecrating unqualified priests to lead them (18:30-31).  The tribe of Dan’s disobedience would negatively influence many generations to come.

Dear God, may I worship You alone. 

Samson was the last judge during this time in Israel’s history (1383 – 1043 BC).  The nation had experienced a 40 year oppression (Judges 13:1) by the hands of the Philistines until God brought up Samson as the one who would deliver them from bondage.  From the time of his birth, Samson was a Nazirite which meant that he was set aside for God’s use (Judges 13).  As a Nazirite, Samson was required to evidence his dedication to God by abstaining from three things: drinking wine, cutting his hair, and touching a dead body (Judges 13:3-5).  At times Samson struggled to keep his Nazirite vow and these struggles were often exposed through his weakness for women.  Samson fell in love with and married a Philistine woman; however, the marriage practically ended before it began (Judges 14).  The abrupt end of the marriage left a rift between Samson and the Philistines which eventually resulted in Samson flaunting his strength and bringing defeat to the Philistines (Judges 15).

Unfortunately, Samson’s weakness for women leads him to Gaza (a Philistine city)where he spends time with a prostitute (16:1).  When the Philistines found out that Samson was in their city, they surrounded the prostitute’s residence and waited until morning for Samson to exit so they could kill him (16:2).  ”And Samson lay low till midnight; then he arose at midnight, took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two gateposts, pulled them up, bar and all, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron” (16:3).  Samson’s actions in Gaza exhibited the great strength given to him by God and probably made the Philistines cower in fear.  Sometime after this incident, Samson’s weakness for women surfaced again when he fell in love with a woman named Delilah (16:4).  When the leaders of the Philistines became aware of Samson’s new-found love, they employed Delilah to find out the secret of Samson’s strength so that they could overpower him and eventually kill him (16:5a).  If Delilah was able to tell the Philistines the secret of Samson’s strength, they promised to give her a very large sum of money (16:5b).  Without hesitation Delilah began questioning Samson concerning the secret of his strength saying, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and with what you may be bound to afflict you” (16:6).  Samson responded to Delilah’s question by lying and saying, “If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings, not yet dried, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man” (16:7).  Upon hearing this information, the Philistines went into action and Delilah bound Samson; however, when she yelled “The Philistines are upon you,” Samson easily broke the strings which bound him and the secret of his strength was not known (16:8-9).  When Delilah knew that Samson had lied to her she said to him, “Look, you have mocked me and told me lies.  Now, please tell me what you may be bound with” (16:10).  Samson lied to her two more times (16:11-14) and Delilah finally became frustrated by his lying game.  She kept pestering him daily about the secret of his strength until Samson finally became weary of her constant questioning and revealed that his strength was wrapped up in the fact that his hair had never been cut (16:15-17).  After Delilah knew that Samson had told “…her all his heart” she lulled him to sleep on her lap while the Philistines came in and shaved his hair off (16:18-19).  After his head had been shaved, Delilah yelled that the Philistines were upon him and Samson awoke thinking that he would overcome them as he had before; however, the Lord had departed from him and his strength was gone.  Samson’s disobedience and weak character had finally caught up with him and he was left without the power of God.

“Then the Philistines took him and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza.  They bound him with bronze fetters, and he became a grinder in the prison.  However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaven” (16:21-22).  The Philistines worshiped and rejoiced in their god, Dagon, whom they attributed with giving them the victory over Samson (16:23-24).  During this time of celebration they brought Samson out of prison and placed him between two pillars so that they could mock him (16:25).  Samson asked the young boy who had led him into the temple to lean him against the pillars that supported the structure and then Samson cried out to God saying, “O Lord God, remember me, I pray!  Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!” (16:26-28).  Upon hearing Samson’s prayer, God gave him strength one more time and he pushed down the pillars that supported the temple so that in his final action he killed more Philistines than he had killed during his life (16:29-31).  Although Samson’s life had been marred by many bad choices, God allowed him to finish his life in victory.

Dear God, help me to finish well.