Proclamation
“Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold,
the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and
beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, ‘Bring
forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him.’ And the man, the master of the house, went
out unto them, and said unto them, ‘Nay, my brethren, nay, I pray you, do not
so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into mine house, do not this folly. Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his
concubine, them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what
seemeth good unto you; but unto this man do not so vile a thing.’ ” Judges 19:22-24 (KJV)
Explanation
These are the words of God which were
written by the prophet Samuel under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God.
In the days when there was not king in Israel every man did that which was
right in his own eyes. (Judges 17:6, and 18:1, and 19:1) There was a certain Levite who lived in
Ephraim who took a concubine from Bethlehem.
However, she was unfaithful to him and she left him and returned to her
father’s house. The Levite went there to
persuade her to return to him. When the
Levite was ready to leave, her father prevailed upon him to stay and spend the
night. He did this for five days before
the Levite actually left. (Judges 19:4-10)
As he journeyed home he continued on to Gibeah, the inhabitants of which
were Benjamites. No one there took them
in so they sat down in the city square. (Judges 19:11-15) That evening an old man came home from his
work in the fields, saw them, and took them into his home. While they were eating, drinking, and enjoying
themselves, some wicked men from the city beat on the door and demanded that
the old man bring the Levite out to them so that they could have sex with him.
(Judges 19:16-22) The old man refused
and offered them his virgin daughter and the concubine of the Levite. The wicked men refused the women but the old
man sent the concubine out to them anyway.
The wicked men abused her repeatedly throughout the night and left her
at the doorway of the house. (Judges 19:23-26)
In the morning when the Levite went out to leave he found her dead
body. He put her body on a donkey and took
her home. When he got home, he cut up
her body into twelve pieces and sent a piece to the tribes of Israel with a
message of what had happened. The people
were alarmed and said that something must be done about this. (Judges 19:27-30)
Application
As believers we are to be kind to strangers. Some have entertained angels and been unaware
of it. (Hebrews 13:2) We are to be kind
to one another. (Romans 12:10 and Ephesians 4:32) We are to love one another. (John 13:34-35) Those who do wrong to others and mistreat
people, especially to God’s people, will be punished. “… Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith The
Lord.” (Romans 12:19) We may do wrong to
people but all sin is against God. (Psalm 51:4)
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