CYOA: Judges 19-21 - Microcosm

I find this story fascinating. First of all, chapter 19 bears striking similarity to the account the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19!), which definitively highlights how far Israel has fallen short of it's calling to be a nation of priests and a blessing to the whole world - the have consummated that which Sodom attempted. The other horrific detail is the cutting up of the concubine into twelve pieces and sending the pieces to all the tribes and leading to the near total destruction of one of the tribes. The cutting and sending part occurs again with oxen in 1 Samuel. They are cut up and sent by Saul right after he is made king in the previous chapter:

1 Samuel 11:
6 When Saul heard their words, the Spirit of God came powerfully upon him, and he burned with anger. 7 He took a pair of oxen, cut them into pieces, and sent the pieces by messengers throughout Israel, proclaiming, “This is what will be done to the oxen of anyone who does not follow Saul and Samuel.” Then the terror of the LORD fell on the people, and they came out together as one.

I think it is fascinating that Saul is from Gibeah, which is precisely the city in which the atrocity to concubine is committed. Furthermore, he is responding to a cry for help from Jabesh Gilead, which is where wives for the few remaining Benjamites are found in Judges 21! Furthermore, Samuel, who annoints Saul, is given to the Lord at Shiloh, where the other wives are taken from (Ju. 21).

The cutting into pieces seems connected to the practice of burnt offerings, which are cut into pieces (Lev. 1). Furthermore, the burnt offering is the type of offering that Abraham was called to make of Isaac (Gen. 22). Interestingly, burnt offerings are for atonement (Lev. 1) but are distinct from sin offerings (Lev. 4)... So apparently atonement has to do with more than just sin... hmmmm....

Anyway, Israel has become as sinful as Sodom and Gomorrah. Therefore, the Levite cuts up his dead concubine and sends the pieces to the twelve tribes of Israel as a sign of a plague of judgement. I suggest this because the response is one of reference to the day Israel came out of Egypt (Ju. 19:30) - the plague of the first born when there was not a house without someone dead (Ex. 12). It must have had the connotation of "we shall all be destroyed."

Judges 20:1
Then all Israel from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead came together as one and assembled before the LORD in Mizpah. (emphasis mine)

Previous to this verse all of Israel has done only a few things things in unity: They inquire of the Lord (Ju. 1:1), they weep at Bokim (Ju. 2:4), all Israel prostituted themselves in false worship (Ju. 8:27) and everyone did what was right in his own eyes (17:6, 18:1, 19:1, 21:25).

However, despite everyone doing what is right in their own eyes and forcibly reliving the exodus story now in Canaan, in Judges 20 all Israel assembles before the Lord (sort of). To be fair, Israel, rather than being destroyed or oppressed by another nation is now destroying itself. Clearly not a prefect picture of unity. Eleven tribes to one, Benjamin refuses hand over the criminals but unites with them against Israel. Just like in Judges one, Judah is chosen to attack first but unlike in Judges one, they lose badly. God calls them to attack again, again they lose and so all Israel goes and weeps at Bethel. Then on the third try, again by the word of the Lord, Israel destroys Benjamin and burns their towns. Then Israel returns to Bethel and weeps again (Ju. 21:2) about the destruction. Then there is the elaborate and murderous plan to get the few remaining Benjamites some wives without breaking an oath. However, in all of this the Lord is not mentioned. And so the book ends again stating: In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.

So it would seem that Judges 19-21 provide a definitive microcosm of the pattern of the whole book: United faithfulness, failure, weeping, victory, and then everyone does what is right in their own eyes leading again to horrifying destruction... What is different in this case is that Israel is turned inward rather than outward and briefly act in unified obedience for the first time since Joshua was around. God seems to, as with the other Canaanite tribes, now render judgement on Benjamin and Israel by their own hands. Is there a house without someone dead?

It seems to me that Samuel being given to God at Shiloh, Saul's kingship and defence of Jabesh Gilead marks some sort of restoration to the damage that occurs here in Judges... We have this repeated cycle of creation and destruction and restoration giving way again to destruction: Genesis, flood, Noah, Babel, Abraham, Egypt, Exodus, and then the judges but followed by Samuel but then Saul but then David and so on...

This is not just the story of the Bible but our own stories. Failure and success are often closely linked in our lives. It is the hope of scripture that God is ultimately restorative and that history is moving, in some fashion, toward a perfected consummation, toward a final restoration that was definitively begun in Jesus. It is the hope of scripture that even God's judgement, sometimes destructive, is ultimately restorative in nature...

I think the questions that I come back to in this story are - what is the relationship between destruction and restoration? and how do I make sense of this in my own life? how do we cope with god sending us to die fighting evil? and do we hope for an end to the cycles of destruction and restoration?


Check out: Beautiful Destruction - as one way that we have wrestled with these questions...