Last week we promised to reveal the meaning of The Levite and his concubine from Judges Chapter 19. Did you ponder the story and ask God to reveal all the answers to you? We did that here. Each morning as we awoke new possibilities were revealed to us from which we could interpret and explain this story.
Of course, you first have had to read last week’s lesson. You would have studied Judges Chapter 19 to understand the whole story. This is the link to that lesson:
BREAKING DOWN THE STORY
After much prayer, meditation and study, we will begin to break down this story into a meaning that may very well relate to the world in which we live today.
Let’s begin by thinking about the Levite.
The Levite was a man who had taken a concubine. That would mean that he was not completely true to his first love. Levites were supposed to have only one wife; but he was breaking this rule. Reminds me of Samson and the way he broke so many of his sacred vows.
This also reminds me of a prophecy spoken to The Seven Churches which is meant for end-times. We can read it in Revelation 2:1-7:
“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:
The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this:
‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary.
‘But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. ‘Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent. ‘Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’
The sin of the Nicolaitans that Jesus hated was the fact that they liked to mix Christianity with paganism. They often lived with one foot planted in a life of Christianity and the other foot planted in the things of the world. They could not separate themselves and come apart from the worldly things. The heart could fall in love with God; but later leave that for worldly living.
This is a perfect illustration of Americans of today.
LEAVING FIRST LOVE
So the man who had left his first love (the wife is never mentioned in this story and does not appear to be present) took a concubine despite the fact that his vows were that of a Levite.
His appetite was seeking after things that were not familiar or true to his vowed destiny and purpose. He was from the high country lands which were allotted to Ephraim and the concubine was from Bethlehem Judah. Their worlds would have contained contrasts. One huge contrast for the Levite would have been breaking his vows in order to marry two wives; one being the concubine.
WAS HE MICAH’S LEVITE?
Doesn’t this all sound a bit familiar?
Remember that Levite priest from the area of Ephraim who was persuaded to come to work for Micah in his homemade Chapel where he had appointed his own son as a priest? We studied that lesson a few weeks back. Micah was making up his own religion. Here is the link if you wish to review it:
Remember what else was in that chapel of Micah’s? There was an idol and an ephod which Micah had made for his own version of worship. The men from Dan came wandering through on their way to destroy another peaceful city and they had persuaded Micah’s hired Levite to go with them for more money and a larger congregation. They had stolen the idol and the ephod to use in their newly chosen place of worship.
That Levite had no values or morals. He always joined in with the highest bidder. Could he and this Levite have been the same man? I wonder. It is possible that he had aged and become more prosperous. Like all men who are full of their own glory from success, possibly he had ventured out on a new type of adventure and decided to take on this new concubine.
THE ANGRY CONCUBINE
However; she was not like him. They clashed. It seems that they had argued and she had run away from him. In her misery and confusion she too had turned from the ways of God and sinned with other men along the way.
Finally she reaches her senses, remembers her up-bringing and returns to her Father’s household to live in shame, but safety for the rest of her life.
Let’s pause right here.
THE SINS OF THE FATHER
It seems that a corrupt religious leader has corrupted a young virgin and turned her into a prostitute. She somehow has realized how she did wrong, in spite of the fact that it was forced upon her; and she had returned to the only place she had left to go – her father’s house. We won’t go into the fact that her father had not been very wise in creating this pathway for her and not protecting her in the first place. It all could have been prevented right there.
However; isn’t this much like what has happened to the Church of today?
WOLVES IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING
A pack of wolves; similar to the guise presented by this Levite who used his credentials instead of his heart to follow his own ideas instead of God’s destiny for his life; have also invaded the priesthood of Christianity.
These modern-day Levites are the sold-out priests (of every denomination) who have worshiped the idols of themselves, money, power and greed. They have clothed themselves with a false ephod and lead the people of America to all of the wrong altars. Gullible people (like this young girl who became a concubine) have followed them into places that they did not belong.
WASTED GENERATIONS
I’m reminded of American children who have for generations not known the stories of God as their childish minds were formed into the minds of adults. They have been shipped off to schools who have taught them the ways of ungodly cultures and wrong beliefs. Their college years have been ruled over by paid-off brain-washers who have filled their minds with lies, great confusion and false teachings.
Nothing about the raising of America’s children or the educational system we have experienced in the past few years resembles the promises that our nation’s founders made to God in the Mayflower Compact as God granted us yet another chance to prove that we will be true to Him in America.
So I see the Levite priest is symbolic of all that has gone wrong with the priesthood of the churches of America. The Catholic church seems to raise its head above all others. Some of the most devout and most godly people I know are Catholic; but the leaders that have come into that part of God’s people are very, very corrupt now. Everything disgusting and ungodly can be seen from them. They are like this sold-out Levite who is only concerned for his own well being.
DAUGHTERS FOR SALE
The Levite misses the concubine in spite of the fact that he knows she will never be true to him. He hears that she is again in her father’s house and he goes to seek after her again.
Here I see the concubine’s father as a type of Satan. He has once given his daughter over to the wrong man and when this man comes seeking her again the conniving father wines and dines him, entertaining him and trusting him with his daughter’s heart yet one more time. I suspect that the Levite was willing to pay this man from Judah a large sum of money for the diary of this wayward daughter. He might have even done so twice. Perhaps the father treated him so royally because he did not want to return the Levite’s money when things went wrong.
The Levite speaks kindly to this young girl who by now is probably totally confused about life in general. She listens and believes his words and probably agrees to go along with him back to his home. The Levite, the concubine, the servant and their donkeys finally begin to travel home.
They come to Jerusalem and the servant suggests that they stay the night there. At this time in history Jerusalem was still controlled by the Jebusites. It wasn’t yet part of Israel’s territory. For that reason; the Levite refused to stay the night. He wanted to travel on to a town that was mostly filled with Israelites.
THE TIME IN GIBEAH
After dark they arrived at a town called Gibeah.
In Gibeah they meet an old man who was also an Ephraimite. He offers them lodging for the night. They accept his hospitality. After dark the wicked men from the city who were Benjamites came knocking on their door. They wanted to have sex with the Levite and told the owner to put him outside with them.
At that time and in that culture of the Ephraimites it was more shameful to a man’s honor to have had homosexual sex, than for a woman to have been raped. A man’s honor (especially a guest) was usually put above a woman’s safety. Thus; the owner of the house suggested that the Benjamite men outside the door take his own daughter and the concubine instead of the Levite. At some point the concubine is shoved outside the door and she is raped repeatedly all through the night.
Nothing about the way the two men acted here was correct, righteous or godly. It was a case of men bowing to cultural wrongs despite what they knew was right before God. You could say these men had their own form of critical race theory going on. It didn’t work then any better than it works today.
THE VIOLENCE TOWARD THE CONCUBINE
Consider what happened to this concubine. She was a young virgin given to an older man by her own father in order to settle the older man’s sexual desires after he has tired of his first wife’s affections.
The concubine was basically sold for sex by her own father.
After trying this arrangement for awhile, she became angry with the man she never loved in the first place and ran away.
The word “prostitute” is sometimes used in this passage, but when taken in context it could simply mean that “she left her husband.” A woman living during those days who ran away from her husband was considered to be on the same level as a prostitute. Legally a woman needed a man to make all daily transactions for her. Any woman who left her husband usually was forced to resort to prostitution in order to make a living.
I am sad to say that such cultures still exist among certain sects of people today. The very people who are against such things are often fed false and misleading information as to how these cultures truly exist.
The concubine could have sold herself in order to survive before deciding to return to her father’s house; this part of the story is left unclear.
Still; the woman is thrust into one situation after another that makes her vulnerable to danger and sin without any initial intentions from her own heart. She was definitely a victim of circumstances beyond her control. Her sins; if any, were caused by the lack of concern and protection of the men who were in charge over her.
THE CONCUBINE IS SYMBOLIC OF THE CHURCH OF TODAY
Here again the concubine, though she stood symbolically for the state of the nation of Israel at that time, could also clearly represent the state of the laity of the Church of today. The girl’s father is still symbolic of Satan with his schemes. The Levite is still representative of the false and wayward leaders of the modern Church.
The churches of America today are clearly in need of truth from godly leaders instead of wolves in sheep’s clothing. Like the young concubine; the body of worshipers that exist in each of today’s congregations need to receive true teachings, strong and correct guidance, scriptural concepts and prayerful protection from the evils of the world. When they need a safe place, they are often receiving the opposite.
How can congregations live out what they do not know?
Without the true knowledge and wisdom gained from scriptural and true bible study and faithful and just leaders as pure and living examples; what becomes of the faithful in the end? They wind up confused and wondering like this poor pitiful concubine. They lose their purpose and their destiny. In the end they are abused and thrown out into the streets by the evil that is allowed to take over whenever faithful and truthful Christians burry their heads and sleep through life, hoping for peace to arise from no where.
The world and the evil culture rise up to persecute what they cannot understand.
THE ROLE OF THE TRIBE OF BENJAMIN
Then we can look at what happened with the wicked men from the tribe of Benjamin. They truly fulfilled the passage of scripture from long ago when Jacob’s dying words were spoken over their ancestor. Jacob said: “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he divides the plunder” ( Genesis 49:27 )
This generation of the tribe of Benjamin surely acted like ravenous wolves seeking prey. Benjamin had absorbed the abhorrent ways of the pagan cultures living around them. They were living like animals instead of human beings. Their lustful actions and the violence they traveled with proved this out.
BENJAMIN AND THE WAYS OF THE WORLD
I had never really considered Benjamin in this light. The thoughts from the old stories of Benjamin being the favored son after Rachel’s death were always in the front of my mind. Perhaps being the favored son only means that you become spoiled, greedy and selfish as you age. This part of the story is rarely ever pointed out; but it would be well to consider by parents who want to raise their children to be loving, godly and strong.
I think Benjamin in this story definitely represents the ways of the world. Benjamin’s story shows the influence that an ungodly culture can have upon those who start out godly but cave and give in to other ways and begin to follow the crowd.
We see so many similarities with the story of Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah. There are also parallels in this chapter that echo the future actions taken by Samuel and Saul.
A MESSAGE FOR A NATION
So after the most horrible night of her life; the concubine returns to the threshold of the house where her husband is lodging. He finds her laying there in the morning. She seems to be lifeless and does not return his greeting of “Let’s be on our way.”
The Levite takes the concubine home. We aren’t sure if she was completely dead or not, but he cut her body into twelve pieces and sent them out to every tribe of Israel.
Why on earth would he do such a thing as that?
If that makes you gasp with horror; it should. We have heard similar stories in other passages where sacrifices are cut in half before they are offered up on altars. In a covenant the one making the vows walks between the pieces of the sacrifices as if to say; if I break my vows; may I be cut in half and separated from my people like this sacrifice.
This act of cutting into pieces would signify a sign of remembering the act of Covenant. God had made a covenant with Israel. They had not honored it. The covenant was a promise to give them a land of milk and honey. God had fulfilled this part. Israel’s half of the covenant was a promise to always worship God and to act as His people following His laws and ways. They had been asked by God to take the land of Canaan from the pagan people living there who loved offering up human sacrifices to their fake gods. This had not happened. The land was still full of paganism and pagan ways.
In so many ways ,this concubine had become yet another human sacrifice fed forth to the carnal and pagan gods of the cultures of Canaan. In other ways she represented the breaking of the covenant between Israel and God.
The Levite, who had not lived up to his calling, could clearly see the truth of this message. It was a warning to all of the divided People of Israel. Finally, he was realizing that God was not going to be on their side forever. Israel could not continue to live in this sinful state. He was finally impressed with the fact that if they kept breaking God’s covenant and not fulfilling their promises, it would all be over soon. They had to learn how to form the nation that God had designed for Israel to be. If not; they would only continue to be further divided and destroyed.
Israel needed to be reunited under God.
The hard-headed Levite suddenly knew this to be true. I would like to think he must have been sick at himself. He stood in his own sins. From there he stared at the concubine that had been sacrificed from the lack of courage, wisdom and honor of the Levitical priesthood’s original beliefs.
The Levite suddenly knew how much he had dishonored God and misrepresented Him.
THE MESSAGE FOR TODAY
Today, this Levitical priest symbolizes the people of America who are led by a false priesthood. It is symbolic of leaders who do not have the backbone to stand up for what is right and true in the eyes of God. The government, the religious leaders, the civic leaders and even the nation’s parents and educators are all guilty as charged. Yes; I know there are some who are innocent. I pray for them to increase and multiply across the land. However; there are more wayward than devout. Just listen to the news and you will get the point. Nothing is being done to stop the evil that is progressing more and more each and every day. Ironically though, huge churches dot the landscapes and people warm their pews every week.
Until we as a nation begin to return to our first love (God and His ways) and keep the Covenant (the Ten Commandments) again; we will be just like Israel in this moment of their history. Like them, we come so very close to suffering defeat and being lost forever as a people.
The Covenant with God has been broken and there is only one way to fix it. The people must repent and turn. The truth must be spoken, taught and followed again.
TIME FOR RETURNING
Each tribe of Israel received a timely reminder of the urgency of this message during their times. It was a gory and ugly and horrifying way to learn the truth. The shock of it opened their eyes and made them look at themselves in horror, disgust and shame. They all sought each other seeking new answers. As they gathered together, they asked themselves what they could do. They wanted to remedy the sins of Israel and form a godly nation again.
It was time.
The time has also come for America.
Who is going to stand up? Which leader will begin to implement the change that takes us back to the promises of The Mayflower Compact we made with God so long ago?
Will our next generations have to be divided into parts and pieces? Will they be made to live like human sacrifices before we wise up and step up?
The people of Israel saw the pieces of the woman’s body as representing the need for sacrifice before God. It was the time of animal sacrifices; but no animal was good enough. However; that sacrifice of her innocence wasn’t good enough either. She was less than perfect. Her life was simply wasted. God looked down at His pitiful people in their repentance and knew the only perfect sacrifice. It must have broken his heart to make the needed decision.
There is nothing we can do as humans to stop some of the evil that we now face. However; there is One who came in order to be a perfect sacrifice for each and every one of our sins. Because Jesus was perfect; His sacrifice covered our sins. The grave could not hold Him. He is now sitting at the right hand of God . We know He is faithfully waiting to hear the command to come and save us again.
All we have to do is to confess our sins, turn and live in His grace. From that point forward we need to simply be trusting that He is coming again to save us from ourselves.
Jesus is waiting on our prayers. Let us not grow weary; but let us keep on searching for His answers. We can trust God with these impossible circumstances we face from all over the globe.
America must return to Her first love; and take the hand of Jesus again. He is the way, the truth and the light. We can face anything by holding His hand as we walk through the mess of the world.
Keep looking up.
He is coming soon.