Judges Chapter 19
Judges chapter 19 describes a traveler who is staying overnight in a stranger's home. Wicked men of the town pound on the door and demand they be given the visiting man so they can have sex with him. Eventually they send out the visitor's concubine who is raped and killed.
What kind of story is this to have in the Bible?
First we need to get a broad overview of this book. The first two chapters of the Book of Judges are introductory. Starting in chapter three we see a pattern that is repeated throughout the book. The Israelites turn from God and start "doing what was right in their own eyes". Things get bad. The Israelites finally turn back to God and plead for Him to save them. God then raises up a righteous judge (a "judge" was a ruler) who leads Israel back to righteousness again.
This pattern is repeated a number of times, continuing through chapter 16. Each time Israel turns away from God they sink deeper into sin and evil.
Starting in chapter 17 the book of Judges stops the chronological telling of the history of Israel and presents two stories that illustrate how far Israel has fallen.
The first shows how deep Israel has gone into idolatry, when a Levi, who is only supposed to serve in the Temple, becomes the personal priest for a man who is worshiping idols. Although in our culture today we can not feel the shock of this, chapters 17 and 18 present the story of a tremendous spiritual evil.
Starting in chapter 19 we read about an unbelievable moral evil. This story is included as an illustration of how far Israel has fallen.
Why does the man send out the concubine? Because in the culture of the people surrounding Israel, a culture Israel had adopted, women essentially had no value. Women existed simply to serve men, and be used and abused as men saw fit. Please note, THIS IS NOT BIBLICAL. This is the way pagans live, and it is typical of pagan cultures around the world. The reason why this particular story is included in the Bible is because it illustrates how the man, on the surface is appearing very Godly--for example he won't stay overnight in a non-Israelite city. Yet, at heart is he has completely accepted and is participating in the pagan culture, even to the point of the death of someone who is made in the image of God, and who thus is precious and loved by God.
Notice the last line of the book of Judges: "In those days Israel had no king, everyone did as he saw fit."
Labels: Fall Of America, morality
8 Comments:
I would like you to show me the facts about paganism that shows that the woman is nothing. Surely you've heard about the Celtic druids that had Priestesses not priests. That's a woman priest for those who don't know. Do you think those women where "nothing"? You Christians just lie to suit yourselves and the propaganda you're spreading at the time. I've only met a handful of true "Christians". The rest, unfortunately are Sunday Christians.
Hello Johnny Jello, thank you for your comment and question.
I assume you understand that a "druid" was one of three levels in Celtic religion. It is a job description, not a religion in itself. There were also the ovates and the bards.
The Druids had the duties of being a seer, priest, poet, philosopher, historian, scholar, teacher, doctor, astronomer and astrologer. Within the Druids were Druid priests and priestesses. They acted as mediums through which spirits could be summoned and heard.
I assume you are also aware that there are no written Druid records prior to when the Celts become Christians, so Druid history is in a large part based on myth. Yes, there is some archeology, but there are many unknowns.
The main references, in literature writer by others, to Druid women of great power is as sorcereresses. This aspect is also what we see dominating today.
Given all of this, ancient Celtic culture was one in which women engaged in many of the same activities as men, including warfare. But if you read history, and not the novels that romantisize Celtic history, you'll see that the Celtic culture was a patriarchal culture in which men had the power, controling both politics and the home.
Yes, there have been women who have been priestesses (most offen serving as prostitutes). There have been women rulers (queens) and emperesses. But did that change the role of the average woman? No.
It has only been through the civilizing of humanity through Christianity that women and men have been seen as equal... as both being created in God's image. As both being equally valuable to God, and equally loved by God.
We all know that there is a huge difference between faith and religion.
Therefore how wonderful to agree that the old priestesses of Celtic origins were not religion based. I repeat, faith has nothing to do with man made organised religions.
We only have to look at the current excavations of Crete (Minion society) to understand the role of the Goddess over 5000 years ago. Incredible information is being revealed. Their art promotes nature, peace, equality, partnership, linking, unity and a oneness of all there is. Not warfare - not perversions - not dominating societies, and certainly not ranking of authorities.
I note the last line in the book of Judges. And equally I draw attention to the story of Lot in Genesis 19:8, who offers his two virgin daughters to a mob threatening two guests in his house. There is no hint of any violation of law or any expression of righteous indignation that a father should treat his daughters so distastefully. On the contrary, Lot's guests are angels sent from God to destroy the sinful city for the populations perversions - YET Lot is actually rewarded with safety for his perversion. Moreover, the remainder of this story has so many inconsistencies that any moral and intelligible person can easily note. It's disgusting to think this 'moral parable' is still being taught in Sunday schools to children!
On the topic of myth versus history, the bible is not a history book. How easily can God have changed communication tactics and laws between the old and new testaments?
People are intelligible enough to discern their own truths, and respectfully be treated as such.
Thank you for sharing and the opportunity to share.
Thank you for your comments Irish Writer. If you study the Bible you'll see that it is the most accurate history book we have. The story of Lot is a good example. The Bible never hides the flaws of the people recorded in the Bible. This is not true of other historical records. People want to show themselves in the best light, so the emphasize the good and "forget" the things they've done wrong. No so with God's word. He shows people with all their flaws -- including Lot's sin of offering his daughters. Just like all of us, including you and me, we do wrong. We disobey God. And because we do we deserve God's punishment, just as the entire population of Sodom did. But as he did with Lot, God has mercy on some -- He will have mercy on you. All you need to do is the same thing that Lot did, turn you back on sin and walk away with without looking back (that's called repentance) and trust God to save you. The residents of Sodom are the perfect example of mankind. They refused to turn from their sin and trust God. Lot is the perfect example of those who are saved - they also have sinned, but they turn from sin and trust God.
ooo Johnny boy got owned
I heard that there is consistent archaelogical evidence to support the possibility that the bible was written by a multitude of individuals that took magic mushrooms, consumed vast quantities of marijuana, and had the ability to write down/articulate their thoughts.
I mean, it's all good, but how can you believe that 'god' put himself into a woman so he could be born to sacrifice himself to absolve us of sins which he imposed upon us in the first place, by putting a mind-altering (or perspective-altering) substance into an apple, then allowing Satan into this weird little garden to tempt his newly-fashioned humans?
I mean, 'god' is all-knowing, right? How could he let Satan into his garden, unbeknownst? I think he deliberately tempted mankind with a cruel game, morphed into a snake to do it, then made all the rest of our lives miserable because of it. Then, just to top it off, he absolved us of all sins, invites us to 'heaven', and basically makes life meaningless, besides trying not to sin, which is void because he already took the ability to sin away from us, so murdering people is okay, you can rape a man in the butt and still go to heaven now, cuz 'god' killed himself to save us.
I'd rather burn in hell with pagans. They're more interesting.
WRONG - the men of Gibeah, although they horrifically abused this woman, did not kill her:
19: 29 - "When the Levite got home, he took a knife and cut his slave woman into twelve parts, limb by limb. Then he sent a part to each area of Israel"
In Judges, there are two instances of women who die on account of men's foolishness or sins. They are Christ typologies. In chapter 11, Jephtah must offer up to God his own virgin daughter as a sacrifice of thanksgiving for victory in battle over the enemies of God's people. Jephta must do this because he promised God to sacrifice the first thing he saw when returning home from victory. His daughter is a typology of Christ. She committed no sin to warrant her death; she was a virgin, a symbol of purity as Christ is pure, but she was willing to be the sacrifice to fulfill the oath Jephtah promised to God. In the case of the Levite's concubine, the concubine was taken from Judah, the chosen clan from which Christ descended. When the Levite brought her to live with him, she was unhappy. Chapter 18 details the idolatry that had entered into Israel on account of a Levite priest, and it can be assumed that this was reason for her unhappiness and why she returned to Bethlehem to her father. The Levite went to Bethlehem to bring the concubine back to him but the concubine's father kept pleading with the Levite to stay, possibly as a way to bring him out of the idolatry of Ephraim. After staying several days, the Levite and the concubine left Bethlehem and on their way to Ephraim were met by an old man who invited them to be guests in his home as to protect them from the townspeople. When the townspeople insisted the Levite come out to have sex with them, the old man offered to them his VIRGIN daughter and the concubine to be raped. The Levite willingly pushed his concubine out the door to be raped. This woman was also a Christ typology. Who did the townsmen want to rape? They wanted the Levite, who, because of idolatry, was more fitted for such a fate. But instead, the woman from Judah, the holy lineage, was a abused, her body cut in twelve pieces (a symbol of Jesus' broken body) and distributed among the tribes of Israel.
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