Today's Scripture
Rape of Levite’s wife – Judges 16:16-30
Today’s Reading Schedule: Judges 19-21 – Click to read
16 Then in the evening, an old man was coming home from his daily work in the fields. This man was from the Ephraim highlands and was an immigrant in Gibeah, the people of that place being Benjaminites. 17 He looked up and saw the traveler in the city square. “Where are you heading and where have you come from?” the old man asked.
18 “We’re traveling from Bethlehem in Judah to the far corners of the Ephraim highlands,” he replied to the old man. “That’s where I’m from. I went to Bethlehem in Judah, and I’m heading to my home. But no one has offered to take me in tonight. 19 We’ve got our own straw and feed for our donkeys, plus food and wine to provide for me, the woman, and my servant with us. We don’t need anything.”
20 The old man answered, “You’re welcome to stay with me, but let me take care of all your needs. Just don’t spend the night in the square.” 21 And he took him into his house. He mixed feed for the donkeys, and they washed their feet, ate, and drank.
22 While they were relaxing, suddenly the men of the city, a perverse bunch, surrounded the house and started pounding on the door. They said to the old man, the owner of the house, “Send out the man who came to your house, so we can have sex with him!”
23 The owner of the house went outside and said to them, “No, my friends, please don’t commit such an evil act, given that this man has come to my home as a guest. Don’t do this disgraceful thing! 24 Here’s my daughter, the young woman, and his secondary wife. Let me send them out, and you can abuse them and do whatever you want to them. But don’t do such a disgraceful thing to this man!” 25 But the men refused to listen to him.
So the Levite grabbed his secondary wife and sent her outside to them. They raped her and abused her all night long until morning. They finally let her go as dawn was breaking.
26 At daybreak, the woman came and collapsed at the door of the man’s house where her husband was staying, where she lay until it was daylight. 27 When her husband got up in the morning, he opened the doors of the house and went outside to set out on his journey. And there was his secondary wife, lying at the entrance of the house, with her hands clutching the doorframe. 28 “Get up,” he said to her, “let’s go.” But there was no response. So he laid her across a donkey, and the man set out for home. 29 When he got home, he picked up a knife, took his secondary wife, and chopped her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces. Then he sent them into all the areas of Israel. 30 Everyone who saw it said, “Has such a thing ever happened or been seen since the time when the Israelites came up from the land of Egypt until today? Think about it, decide what to do, and speak out!”
Devotion
What Does the passage Mean to Me/US?
This is such a disturbing story. It reminds us of the story of ‘Sodom and Gomorrah.’ It is a reminder of how God’s people can fall when they don’t follow God’s way. The following verse reminds us how the evil act of the Benjamites and the retaliation of the Israelites were considered evil in the eye of the Lord because they were doing what they thought was right.
In those days there was no king in Israel; each person did what they thought to be right. (Joshua 21:25)
However, this story forces us to see the grace of God.
God uses the people of God who committed the same crime, in the time of ‘Sodom and Gomorrah’ and still spares them.
God uses this tribe, considered as the smallest and now the weakest, to anoint the first king for the Israelites.
The grace of God can supersede our own understanding. His grace is unbound.
Are you living in that grace today?
Prayer
Lord, your grace amazes us every day. That is why we need your grace today. Pour out your grace upon us, so we can share that grace with others. In Christ name, AMEN.
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