Judges 19:1-20:48, John 3:22-4:3, Psalm 104:24-35, Proverbs 14:22-23
Today is the fourth day of May, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you today, around the Global Campfire as we gather and take the next step forward together. And our next step forward leads us back into the Book of Judges. We are very near the end of the Book of Judges; we will conclude the book tomorrow. But that then and this is now. And so, we have another full step forward together in the Book of Judges. And so, let’s dive in, we’re reading from the English Standard Version this week, Judges, chapters 19 and 20.
Commentary:
Okay so, we are in the final story in the Book of Judges, and it is a profoundly dark chapter in the lives of the children of Israel, when Israel had no king, and everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes. Which is something that the Book of Judges repeatedly tells us so that we don’t forget what’s going on here. And this story definitely is a dark one, a story of a man and his…his concubine, sort of like a common-law wife. She was unfaithful to him. He lived in the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim. She left and went back to Bethlehem and then several months later he went to speak kindly to her, to see if the relationship could be restored and repaired. And that’s when we meet her father who wants the man to stay, and stay, and stay, and stay. And so, they all stay a lot longer than they were planning to stay, but eventually the guys like not going to be convinced to stay another single day. And so, they leave and as the sun is going down and they need to find shelter there are opportunities for them to find shelter. But the man makes the determination that they’re not going to stay with anybody that’s not from their homeland. They’re not going to stay in the city that’s not an Israeli city. And so, they end up in the Israelite city in the tribe of Benjamin, in the city of Gibeah. So, they’re waiting in the town square, they’re waiting for hospitality. If there’s no hospitality, they stay in the town square. But that seems to be a dangerous thing. And so, when an older man comes in and says where are you going and where have you come from, one of his words of counsel is don’t stay how here in the city, in the city square, come into my house. Which is what happens and then the house is surrounded, and all of a sudden, this story is, it has a lot of resemblance to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, except for one very distinct thing. These were all Israelites, the people of Sodom and Gomorrah were not, the people of Gibeon knew this story. And they surround the house, and they want the man. And as it turns out, it’s the man’s concubine who gets pushed out the door and there’s like no way to sugar coat what the story is, she is raped and abused to death. And she ends up on the doorstep with her hand touching the door dead. Like there’s no way to make that nice, it’s not supposed to be nice, the Bible isn’t telling us this story so that we feel flowery and great about it, it’s showing us where paths lead and how our choices matter. If we just begin at the beginning of the story, she was unfaithful. That’s where the story starts, she was unfaithful. She goes back to Bethlehem. Her husband goes after her, they reconcile. Had they just gone according to plan and gone on home, they would’ve gotten home. But the father-in-law is keeping pressing them to change their minds and stay longer and stay longer. And so, they end up leaving in the late afternoon, instead of in the morning, they could’ve stayed in Jerusalem. They wanted to stay among their fellow Israelites. So, they go to Gibeah. And then all of this stuff is perpetrated and it’s horrible, it’s absolutely horrible. And the story in the Book of Judges is letting us know, yes, you’re reading a horrible story here. The man takes the body of his concubine back to the hill country of Ephraim and does something pretty grisly. He divides her into 12 parts and sends her to all the different tribes of Israel. That sounds absolutely horrific and it is but it sounds that way, as we contextualize it. This is the equivalent of a message going viral. There wasn’t an Internet, there wasn’t, there wasn’t even a car. There wasn’t mass transportation, there wasn’t mass communication. But this would indeed get the attention of the recipient. If a body part shows up at the tribal headquarters, people are going to want to know what is going on here and that did spread as we would understand it today, virally because 400 thousand people gathered over this incident. So, the Bible is not condoning this incident, what we’re finding is that there is outrage over this, as there should be. So, 400,000 people gather to hear the story of what happened and when they are told what happened their response is appropriate. Nothing like this has ever happened in Israel before. Basically like, how could something like this even happen here? What are we supposed to do? And what they decide to do is bring justice, which sets up a scenario for civil war, because the Israelites approach the Benjaminite’s and say look, here’s what happened, give over the perpetrators, they deserve punishment, justice needs to be served. Only the Benjaminite’s won’t. And so, they gather all of their troops together to defend their tribesmen, even though their tribesmen had committed a atrocities so severe that everybody’s talking about it. And that creates the scenario for a war, a civil war among the people of God in the Book of Judges, where tens of thousands of people die. And as we left the story today, the tribe of Benjamin is all but completely annihilated. We will finish that story tomorrow as we finish the Book of Judges and then we will be moving into new territory in the Bible tomorrow. And this story is one of the darkest stories that we encounter in the Bible. And so, not to be complete spoiler, but I just need to tell parts of the rest of the story and then we’ll read the parts of the rest of the story and then move into new territory tomorrow. What we have right now are about 600 people hiding at the Rock of Ramon. That’s all that is left of an entire tribe of Israel. The tribe is missing, like they’re really, like there’s 11 tribes and 600 people in a tribe that has been destroyed because they stood up for injustice and it caused catastrophe throughout Israel among all of the people. Many people died. And the children of Israel, the rest of the tribes have already determined that they will not, they will not intermarry, like they’re breaking connection with Benjamin. So, they make this promise and then they realize that there’s a tribe missing and it’s a sad scene. And they figure out how to replenish the tribe. But Benjamin will be the smallest tribe now obviously. Very, very soon from now, we will begin starting to transition ourselves toward the children of Israel, especially after things like this happening, deciding that they want a king to unite the tribes, to be a monarch over them, to lead them into battle, to sort of be the figurehead, to keep them solidified as one people. And we will meet that king, his name is Saul. And Saul has a ton of stuff to teach us. But as Saul relates to this story, what we are going to find as a redemptive thread, after all of this mayhem that we’re reading about today, time will pass. The tribe of Benjamin will begin to regrow. And God will choose a king to reign over Israel, as Israel’s first king, King Saul. Saul came from a hometown; the hometown of Saul was Gibeah. The same city where all of this went down. And Saul will say yeah, but I’m from the smallest tribe, from the smallest family, who am I. So, out of these ashes that we are reading about right now, will come Israel’s first king. And we will get to that soon enough.
Prayer:
And Father, we invite Your presence into this. It’s really just, to have lived that would've…would’ve been really, profoundly, traumatic. To read of it is traumatic, to just be, turned inside out about the whole thing, makes us feel very like, this is…this is a story that doesn’t belong in the Bible, probably because it is. Probably because it’s a story that shouldn’t have happened and because it did, we now have it as a cautionary tale to remind us that our choices matter. And when we determine that we are going to stand up for injustice and evil, mayhem and destruction are very, very near us. And yet, as the decades would go by, and as things would continue forward, You chose Israel’s first king from the very spot of these ashes and this destruction. You continue to put things back together that are broken and most of the things are broken because we have a broken then. And we all make mistakes, and we all make choices that are wrong but when we’re not paying attention and we compound one wrong with another wrong, with another wrong, with another wrong, where will the path lead but complete catastrophe. And so, we come to You, Holy Spirit, realizing that although the story that we’re reading is extraordinarily graphic and dark one, our stories don’t reach this level of mayhem, we still know what it looks like to make wrong choices and then chase them with others that lead us down a path that is only going to end poorly. So, we come to You with open hands and open hearts and say, Holy Spirit, show us the path that we are on. Show us the path that we are supposed to be on and show us the route to get there and off any wrong path that we are walking willingly, knowing full well that no matter the ashes of our lives, redemption can come forth, because You put back together, what is broken. You are a Redeemer, You are The Redeemer of our souls and we give ourselves to You, believing fully that You will lead us on the narrow path that leads to life. Come, Holy Spirit, we pray, in the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
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And that’s it for today, I’m Brian, I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Prayer and Encouragements:
Hello, my DAB Family, this is Lib, I’m calling from the UK. I’ve come to just a give a little bit of encouragement for anyone who is struggling, anyone who thinks that God is far away and is not listening. You know it seems like life is just not happening the way it should. I had something happen yesterday, yesterday evening. Today is the 25th, so it happened on Monday, the 24th of April. My, we locked ourselves out. You know, there was key on the back of the door and my husband rushed out of the house on his way to work and forgot to take his key out. And I was on my way to work and then he called and said, my keys are in the door which means, when you come back you will not be able to come in. And I thought, oh well, as usual I go to my neighbor’s house, this is not the first time it’s happening anyway. And I’ll climb through their balcony and come in through my kitchen door. But then something happened in the evening when I was coming back with the children, and it was raining. And then I remembered, oh I can’t go in and I thought, I said Lord, I can’t climb, it’s raining. All I could see was myself falling off, you know, from that height, trying to climb through. And I went, I can’t climb, it’s raining. You know, and then when I was approaching the door with my boys right beside me and I just kept saying Lord, I can’t climb, I need a miracle. I turned the key the first time, it didn’t work. Turned it a second time, it didn’t work. And I just kept saying, Lord, I need a miracle. I turned it again and the door opened, and I screamed. You know, my greatest joy when that happened was my boys were there. So, for me it was a way, I saw it as building the faith of my children. You know, cause I always tell them anything that you want, ask the Lord, He will do it. So, for anyone who is struggling, ask the Lord.
This is the Burning Bush that Will Not Be Devoured for the Glory of our God and King. This is my second time recording this, my phone just totally shut down halfway through my prayer request, prayer, I’m sorry. For Darlene, her granddaughter, Sophia who’s struggling with Anorexia. So, right now, we pray in the name of Jesus. Father God, I pray that You hold back the evil that’s causing Sophia to not eat. I pray that in the name of Jesus, she will be healed. Father God, You understand what’s going on in her mind. I pray that You heal her mind and her body, in the name of Jesus. I pray for her spirit, I pray for a full deliverance, in Jesus name. Holy Spirit, I pray for a full restoration, that she will begin to walk in what You’ve called her to be, Father, greatness, Father, we speak greatness over her right now, in the name of Jesus. We praise You, oh God, that Lord, that she will be healed, not only physically but spiritually, Father. I pray that in the name of Jesus that she will be freed, Holy Spirit. I pray that You would send Your angels to protect her right now in Jesus name. Even in the hospital, I pray that You will help her to recover. I pray for a speedy recover, Father God. In the name of Jesus, complete. I pray for Devine healing over her. And I pray for her family. I pray for Darlene. I pray, oh Lord Jesus, that You will give them comfort as they go through this. I pray for wisdom for her parents, in the name of Jesus. And whatever it is, what be it emotional, mental, or even physical that she’s struggling with, Father God. You know. I just pray for healing. You touch her, in the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. I love you guys. Talk to you later.
Hi, this is Amy in Olympia, Washington. I’ve called in a few times before, but I think I would like to start going by Running for Jesus. But anyway, today I’m calling in for my friend and asking for prayer, on her behalf. Her name is Samantha and she’s in the hospital with COVID pneumonia. And she’s fighting for her life. And she’s only in her 30s and she has a special needs daughter at home and her husband is home with her daughter and they’re out of sick leave and it’s just this really discouraging and this seemingly hopeless situation for their family. And it’s not looking good for my friend. They tried to intubate her, and her lungs are so damaged that even that was too much. And so, she’s on a special machine that’s taking the blood out and oxygenating it and putting it back into her body. And they’re also talking about a possible lunch transplant. So, I’m just asking that, that you as a community will pray with me and help me pray confidently that…that God would heal her lungs. I know that He is a God of healing. But it’s just really hard to not feel scared and discouraged for them. And it’s just really discouraging for me like, I just keep asking like why. Like, how can a mom that’s healthy and so young have this happen to her. But yes, if you could just pray for me that God would heal her lungs and that I’ll be able to call back with good news.
Hi, Daily Audio Bible Family. I have lifted countless prayers for this community. I’m a retired single mom and I can’t, I can’t quote them all right now, but just trust and believe that I am daily tuned in and praying for the needs of so many people in this community. And I need the same in return please for my 20-year-old son who is in college but he’s not reaching his full potential because he is struggling with chemical dependency on marijuana. And it is interrupting his relationships and he’s, his, he has other issues that are causing him to go into these psychosis type moods and it is really, really not only separating him from the love of God but also just interrupting his life in every way. And I cannot reach him. And I’ve tried everything to reach him, and I have prayed every prayer and so has his grandmother. And I just need help lifting up my beautiful son to become what God really created him to be and to pull him out of a life of darkness. He’s overtaken with darkness and he’s often very depressed and on this hopeless and this is the only thing in the world that matters to me right now, is the success and the life, the life and the wellbeing of…of my only child. I just need these prayers. My heart is breaking, and I really need these prayers. And I appreciate this community so much.
This is Tilly from Florida, calling on the 26th of April for The Dude from Florida. Dude, I’m also from Florida. I’m on the east coast by Melbourne, Florida on a beach community. What you said bore witness to me in many ways, particularly when you mentioned how you’re, you wouldn’t want to hang around your siblings, other than that. You know, I have 5 siblings, one of them is already passed way. But fortunately, I still have my twin sister and that’s really the only person out of five that I even communicate with. So, I get it and won’t go into it. It’s generational. Father God, I lift up this gentleman to You. I feel his heart and probably could write his story for him. Dude, you’re lifting up before the Lord by me, a person well acquainted with the things that you’ve gone through and go through every day. And I felt that in his spirit, really strong. Father God, as he goes on his trips and for the rest of his life, give him the grace and the peace to forgive his family members and to walk in wholeness and beauty. Have Your Holy Spirit leading and guiding …
Good morning, this is Dana from South Carolina. Today is April the 26th, I was listening to people praying for Libby in Australia. So, I went back and listened on the 19th to hear her request. Libby, I’m praying for you. I too, as a child, had some things happen to me that didn’t realize I, there was an option of speaking out. That I now know as an adult, that that has affected me in a way that, that if I ask for help or that I feel like I’m weak. I always feel like that I have to always be in control of every situation. And I pray, if that’s the feeling that you’re having, that there, if you feel weak, or feel like you’re not in control because you’re asking for help, I pray that the Holy Spirit would just come in and remove that feeling of…of feeling that you’re weak or shame or guilt, that Holy Spirit would remove that and God would wrap His loving arms around you and there would be such a peace and such a presence that you can cry out and speak out. And I pray that those things that have happened to you, that it would be a testimony to other people around you that would help them to grow and to speak out so they too, could help another person. That that feeling of being alone or being weak or it’s just no longer there. And that you would be strengthened by that, and you could strengthen other people. In Jesus name. And I thank You Lord that You’re doing this for her. Holy Spirit, rest on her today. In Jesus name. Amen.