Wednesday – History

Reading – Judges 17-19

Highlight Verse:

“so they stopped there to spend the night. They rested in the town square, but no one took them in for the night. That evening an old man came home from his work in the fields. He was from the hill country of Ephraim, but he was living in Gibeah, where the people were from the tribe of Benjamin.”
‭‭Judges‬ ‭19‬:‭15‬-‭16‬ ‭NLT‬‬

If you read this whole chapter, you know it’s messed up in so many ways.

It starts with a Levite in an unofficial marriage.

When the concubine gets mad at the Levite and goes home, he doesn’t go after her for 4 months.

When he does bring her back, he stops for the night at an Israelite town in Benjamin’s territory.

You’d think that would be a smart move but not this town. As we see in the highlight verses, the only person to help them is an older field laborer from Ephraim, which happens to be where the Levite is from.

The people of Gibeah are so bad, I won’t dare repeat what they did here.

Why did they act like that?

They lived in a time when there was no good leadership in Israel.

Without proper guidance, the people of Gibeah gave into their basest desires to the expense of everyone who wasn’t one of them.

I am certain there were people there who could have made good leaders. They just did not step up to lead.

As a result, sin was allowed to thrive, and God was dishonored. Ultimately, Benjamin was nearly wiped out as a result.

Has God called you to be a leader or an encourager to leaders?
What are you doing about it?