Judges 19 "Dismembered and Re-membered" (part 1: Theological Context)

Into Night Country: Judges 19-21

Jan 17, 2025

man leaning on frosted glass panel door — Photo by Nathan Wright on Unsplash

Is the “Good Book” actually Good?

In 2023 Utah School board case, a mother named Courtney Tanner argued that the Bible contained content too objectionable to be of serious value for minors and it should thus be removed from school libraries citing, “Incest, onanism, bestiality, prostitution, genital mutilation, fellatio, dildos, rape, and even infanticide.” Now while Courtney Tanner’s case was less against the Bible and more an argument that the school board’s definition of ‘pornographic’ was unacceptable in book censorship, nevertheless, the point can be well taken: Is Judges 19, a story about people claiming YHWH as their God practicing and participating in clergy abuse, deceit, degradation of the vulnerable, avoiding the stranger, rape, murder, ignoring the cries of the abused, truly profitable for anyone…for all?[1] Moreover, these events are not peripheral, but central to the passage. The main point of Judges 19 is as simple as it is painful: Because God’s people rejected Him as their king, they became more abominable than Sodom.

Overview:

Chapters 19-21 of the book of Judges offer us a unique opportunity to digest an accumulation of evils and examine them with the clarity of God’s-eye view. The trigger warning for this essay is that it contains spousal abuse, clergy abuse, sexual abuse and rape, along with outrageous callousness throughout. These essays are a reworking of four sermons I preached at Calvary Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Middletown, PA from March 10^th-April 7^th, 2024. I highly recommend you reading the chapters before or while reading these posts. I present each chapter in digestible sections here. For instance, chapter 19 will be posted in 4 parts. My goal in chapter 19 is to present a way of approaching the content, along with some observations and a Litmus test for discerning abusive religious communities that I think it offers. I close with a reflection on how the grace of Christ might meet those who have been afflicted in such great darkness. Each point here could and should be amplified and applied far more deeply than can be accomplished here. My hope is that the work presented here will be of some use in doing so. May God grant us grace.

Can any Good come from Talking about Evil things?

How can the same God who tells people to think about whatever is honorable, pure, lovely, commendable, has excellence, or is worthy of praise (Phil 4:8) call us to revisit all the heinous acts of Judges 19? It is often our impulse to believe the best course of action is to unremember the darkness, never to speak of it, to bury our dirty laundry and keep our secrets silent. Yet Judges 19, part of the revealed word of God, leads us into the darkness, demanding we remember, retell, and repeat an event as dark as Hades itself entrusting ourselves to the Light of the World for guidance. So, come with me on a journey to the Night Country, because if Christ isn’t there? Is he anywhere?

Perhaps this is the first call to faith—to believe that the effect of remembering will be for the good of all who hear it from the God who tells the story. God tells us the truth. Jesus said, “The truth will liberate you (Jn 8:31-32). The Bible contains these terrible vulgar and violent crimes, not to condone them, but to restrain evil by unmasking those who seek disguise it. I believe this is the authorial intent for Judges 19-21. This passage must not be censored, but shouted publicly with all the grief, anger, and indignation it elicits. Abuse disgusts the living and true God. Any other god is an imposter regardless of how eloquently or forcefully that god is preached! Aren’t you glad to know that!

Theological Context: When God’s people reject God as King

The first verse sets the theological context for the chapter reminding the reader that there was “No king in Israel” (v1a). This of course does not mean that YHWH was no longer Lord, but that the people had rejected YHWH as the Lord and Ruler of their lives. The narrative can be broken down cleanly into two parts: The journey to the Father’s house in Bethlehem (vv.1b-9) and the journey home (vv.10-30) which includes an infamous overnight stay in Gibeah. The contrast of the hospitality of these two cities may very well be a foreshadowing of the two kings who would rise from them in 1 Samuel—first, Saul from Gibeah to be rejected by YHWH, and then David from Bethlehem, a king after God’s own heart. But as we follow this journey in Judges, I want to orient our compass to v14 as the lamp for our feet while we walk through the valley of deepest darkness.

“So they passed on and went their way. And the sun went down on them near Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin.” (Judges 19:14)

“Night Country”

The prophet-historian uses the cosmic realm to display the spiritual state of the people: The sun is setting, the light is going out—God’s face is turning away: the blessing is suspended, the guardianship is removed, grace is reserved, and peace is taken away. Entitled “The Night Country” (2024), The fourth season of the TV series True Detective told a fictional story taking place in Alaska where the winter brings with it some sixty days of darkness. As a murder mystery unfolds, however, the term Night Country comes to mean something more dangerous, even spiritual—it is the place where God is dead, evil spirits run free, safety retreats, blessing disintegrates and curses enclose the populace. Judges 19 uses cosmic imagery to tell the reader he/she is entering the Night Country. Unlike True Detective, however, this story is all too true, carrying in it uneasy truth about life amongst God’s people: unsafe spaces, degradation of women, Gang rape, murder, and not a pagan in sight. The story arc of Judges tells us that we find ourselves in Night Country because they rejected YHWH as their king, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right his own eyes” (Judg. 21:25). The result is a monstrous group of predators and prey.

Where God’s People look like Sodom

Literarily parallel to Judges 19 is Genesis 19 pointing the reader to from Gibeah to a memory of something similar but in another place—in Sodom! This point must be specified and amplified because In Western culture the sin of Sodom, from which the word “Sodomy” is derived, has become a mere euphemism for homosexual copulation, but while this sin might be included, the sin of Sodom is more radical than that. Listen to Ezekiel’s God-breathed prophetic reflection:

“Behold, this was this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So, I removed them, when I saw it.” (Ezek 16:49-50).

Whatever is intended by “abomination” The Holy Spirit judges pride, excess, and refusal to help the needy as Sodom’s guilt![2] Are these what come to mind when you consider Sodom’s wickedness? What about considering the life of the church?

These parallels are as pungent as they are poignant. In Genesis the men of Sodom desired to have their way with Lot’s angelic guests, and Lot tries to offer his two daughters to the would-be-rapists as an alternative, but the angels intervene by blinding the men, rescuing the family, and destroying the city. In Judges a concubine and daughter are offered before the former is pushed into the mob. In the Sodom story, Lot’s “Salvation depends on God’s mercy (Gen 19:16) and Abraham’s blessing (Gen 19:29).”[3] In this story, it is the heirs of Abraham’s blessing who have turned from Abraham’s God. The consequence is that God ceases to intervene their behalf…and as he lifts his restraining grace, they become like Sodom—yes, that same city that becomes the typical example of total wickedness under God’s outpoured wrath (Matt 10:14-15). But there is no angelic intervention like there was for Lot in Sodom—though you groan for it; and there is no fire from heaven like there was at Sodom—you’re offended by it. But there is purpose in it—you’re shocked by it. The purpose of the comparison is to shame God’s people into humility and silence. In both stories the danger of staying in a public space at night is the catalyst.

Where God’s People become Worse than Sodom

This comparison between Gibeah and Sodom must be pushed one step further. Ezekiel 16:48 actually says that Israel went beyond the sins of Sodom, a condemnation revisited by Jesus in Matthew 11:23. Why not just say Israel became similar to Sodom and leave it at that? The answer is “To whom much is given, much is required” (Luke 12:48). Gibeah became worse than Sodom for at least two reasons: First, Israel had the most intimate relationship with the living God in all the world. Second, as a people God Redeemed in order to bless all the nations they were to be the beacon of hope to those who were fare off—through Israel the sin would be atoned for, and Satan would be crushed.

Blessed with Revelation and Glorious Purpose

Think of how well Israel knew YHWH! The people of Sodom had not seen the Lord part the Red Sea. The people of Sodom did not have the Ten Commandments given to them at Sinai. The people of Sodom had the moral law written in their hearts, but here is God’s covenant people whom God had called out of the land of Egypt and slavery as His firstborn son (Exod 4:22). This same people is not simply “far off” from God, but those who had been brought near, now turning back from a God whom they had known (Deut 4:5-7; Amos 3:2). Next, think of how much more evil it is when those who promised to be instruments of your hope for healing turn out to be the very monster you were running from—that is horror. Where God intended to bless, the “worthless men” of Gibeah spread a curse (Gen 12:3).

“God is Not Mocked”

YHWH will not leave those who take His name in vain unpunished. He is not mocked. They will reap what they sow (Gal 6:7). More basically, we can think of it this way: The consequences of God’s people rejecting God as their king is that He, at least apparently, stops acting on their behalf. God stops intervening. Notice we do not see a judge pop up here for deliverance. We desperately want to see that! Just like you might have anticipated an angel to intervene to stop Jephtha from sacrificing his daughter, like God did for Abraham and Isaac (Judg. 11:39). But there is no intervention now as the Lord begins to Lift His restraining grace.

When God Ceases to Restrain Evil

Did you know that? Sometimes I think we become desensitized to what the puritan Jeremiah Burroughs (1599-1646) rightly referred to as “The exceeding sinfulness of sin.” [4] It is too common that God’s people take for granted that he restrains the evil that would come in our hearts. This we might call the sin of a “Presumptive faith.” That is, the idea that grace will abound while we sin all the more (Rom 6:1). At times the Lord lifts his hand even in the common way of restraining evil, and the wicked become more and more abominable—more abominable than even Sodom. The angelic intervention we groan for while we watch never comes, nor does the fire we want to call down from heaven. Though you might be surprised by that, even appalled by that, there is also purpose in it.

“Divine Purpose: Not What do we do with Judges 19, but what does Judges 19 do to Us?”

If God having a purpose in all this, stick with me a little longer. The purpose is this: to shame God’s people into humility and silence in their sin so that they would call upon His name and be Saved—this includes confession of sin and turning from it to God through a crucified Savior; it means recognizing that it was the very blood of God (Ezek. 16:59-64; Acts 20:28) that needed to be shed to atone the very sins which they had committed, condoned, covered up and participated in. (and you can read all of Ezekiel 16 if you’d like further commentary). In this way does God intend to be glorified amongst His people as He truly is. Christ did not die simply to make Sodom a byword, but that all might confess ‘But for the grace of God…—we don’t want to say it while looking at Gibeah-- “there go I also”? We have to reckon with that—not just “What do we do with a chapter like this, but what does a chapter like Judges 19 to do us! You don’t have to amen that one. Just sit with it. Nobody, and no people will glorify God and enjoy Him forever (WSC 1:1) that do not own up to and turn from their sinful ways and turn to the Savior, giving thanks at all times, and in full dependence on the grace of the living and true God:

YHWH, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.” (Exod 34:6-7).

“So they passed on and went their way. And the sun went down on them near Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin.”

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