Judg 19:1 | KingComments | STEP | As already mentioned, also Judges 19-21 form a whole. They deal with a particular event and its results, and expose the moral condition of the people. God never disguises the condition of His own, neither in the individual nor in the people as a whole. Painfully detailed is described an event that is unparalleled among the people of God. It can be shocking to read such a story, but it must be done. God has not included this in His Word for nothing. Each of us must become aware that these are actions that each of us can commit. He who thinks he is not capable of such a thing, knows himself badly. It is also good and beneficial to know that God also knows the worst of us. The Lord Jesus also wanted to bear that for all His own. He knows like no other the hidden depths of the human heart and what can arise when the opportunity arises, or the circumstances are appropriate. He knows what it means to be in God’s presence with this. That is why in Gethsemane His sweat has become like large drops of blood. There He felt the suffering on the cross, where He was made sin and God’s wrath struck Him because of sin. If the connection with God is abandoned – we have seen this in Judges 17-18 – the unity of the people is also broken, and there is no longer any question of building up together in love and peace. After breaking the first tablet of the law, which regulates the connection between the people and God, the second tablet, which regulates the connections between the people, is now broken. The break with God also causes any other connection to be broken. We can make the following subdivision: 1. Judges 19 describes sin; 2. Judges 20 describes the treatment of it, how the people deal with it; 3. Judges 21 describes the result of that treatment. The first verse tells us directly in what time the events that take place before our eyes happen. It shows how it is possible that this atrocity, with all its miserable aftermath, which God’s Spirit describes in such detail, can take place. There is no recognized authority to which one has to submit. Everyone is his own law. This creates a fertile ground for the most horrible excesses of the evil heart of man who has turned his back on God. If it is also someone who has an outward connection with God, but does not take the authority of God into account in his life, someone who has even pushed Him aside, then the deepest fall is near. If there is any recognition of God in the Levite from the previous chapters, there is nothing left of God in the Levite about whom we read here. God does not seem to exist for him. Here the saying is confirmed that the corruption of the best is the worst corruption. We are dealing with matters among the people of God, which even in the world are condemned (cf. ).

‏ Judges 19:1

Introduction

As already mentioned, also Judges 19-21 form a whole. They deal with a particular event and its results, and expose the moral condition of the people.

God never disguises the condition of His own, neither in the individual nor in the people as a whole. Painfully detailed is described an event that is unparalleled among the people of God. It can be shocking to read such a story, but it must be done. God has not included this in His Word for nothing. Each of us must become aware that these are actions that each of us can commit. He who thinks he is not capable of such a thing, knows himself badly. It is also good and beneficial to know that God also knows the worst of us.

The Lord Jesus also wanted to bear that for all His own. He knows like no other the hidden depths of the human heart and what can arise when the opportunity arises, or the circumstances are appropriate. He knows what it means to be in God’s presence with this. That is why in Gethsemane His sweat has become like large drops of blood. There He felt the suffering on the cross, where He was made sin and God’s wrath struck Him because of sin.

If the connection with God is abandoned – we have seen this in Judges 17-18 – the unity of the people is also broken, and there is no longer any question of building up together in love and peace. After breaking the first tablet of the law, which regulates the connection between the people and God, the second tablet, which regulates the connections between the people, is now broken. The break with God also causes any other connection to be broken.

We can make the following subdivision:

1. Judges 19 describes sin;

2. Judges 20 describes the treatment of it, how the people deal with it;

3. Judges 21 describes the result of that treatment.

No Longer Authority in Israel

The first verse tells us directly in what time the events that take place before our eyes happen. It shows how it is possible that this atrocity, with all its miserable aftermath, which God’s Spirit describes in such detail, can take place. There is no recognized authority to which one has to submit. Everyone is his own law. This creates a fertile ground for the most horrible excesses of the evil heart of man who has turned his back on God. If it is also someone who has an outward connection with God, but does not take the authority of God into account in his life, someone who has even pushed Him aside, then the deepest fall is near.

If there is any recognition of God in the Levite from the previous chapters, there is nothing left of God in the Levite about whom we read here. God does not seem to exist for him. Here the saying is confirmed that the corruption of the best is the worst corruption. We are dealing with matters among the people of God, which even in the world are condemned (cf. 1Cor 5:1).