Judges 19 and an incredibly strong story about a corrupt town. There are some things that are interesting when we first read this. A concubine was treated like a wife with no rights so it is unusual that the Levite actual travelled so far to get her back. In other words, she was important to him. We then read that although on the journey back they could have stopped at Jebus, they decided that they were better off amongst the Israelites and actually the house of someone from Ephraim where the Levite lived. This presumably indicates to us that we sometimes look to the church to find a place that is safe and appropriate for us to hang-out/rest/receive/give or whatever. This makes what happened so much worse because it is a family betrayal. If it had happened in a non-Israelite town, presumably although the Israelites would have retaliated, it would have been an expected situation but for people under the same law to commit such a crime was unforgivable.
As was right, the Israelites went to God and asked what they should do and if we suffer outrage at the hands of those in the church then it is right that we also seek the Lord's response to what happened. It was by no means a given that they should attack and destroy the town but by seeking God, that is what they were told to do - to purge the evil.
It is interesting that Judah is told to attack first. Judah was well known for being a warrior tribe but I wonder how much deeper the metaphor exists between tribes and perhaps NT ministries. Is there a 1-to-1 correlation between a tribe and a pastor or teacher, an apostle or a music leader? If so, it would be interesting to ask what is this ministry that so often gets to go first in the fighting? If it is the person who always goes first to rout out evil before the church arrives, it would presumably be apostles, prayers or music leaders.
I don't know but it's interesting.
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