Judges 17-21 - A Dark Hour for Israel

This section begins with the story of a man named Micah. He reveals to his mother that the eleven hundred shekels that were stolen from her, and that he has heard her utter a curse about, were in fact taken by him. She is so relieved to have the shekels back that she seems to forget all about the curse and instead uses two hundred of them to make a idol, which she then gives to Micah. He has stolen from his own mother and yet he somehow manages to profit from his crime even after he has confessed to it. He's a sneaky one. That a mother would go easy on her own son is hardly surprising, but it does suggest that God's law has been forgotten. And there is worse to come, as Micah sets up a shrine, makes an ephod and some more idols, and installs one of his sons as a priest. It seems true worship has been abandoned here too.

It is at this point that we read that "in those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit". So it is not just Micah and his family who have lost their way. Disobedience is endemic and justice no longer governs Israel. The implication is that things have gone wrong because Israel has no king, but we live in a culture of many kings - in politics, in the media, in the bizarre world of celebrity - and yet still everyone does as they see fit. The theory doesn't quite work. The people do not go wrong simply because they have no leader, they go wrong because they have forgotten their true leader. Much the same may be said for us. We screw up not because our leaders are wrong but because we follow the wrong leaders. Whatever circumstance we find ourselves in, whatever power we find ourselves under, we are responsible for our own actions and we have a true king in God. There are no excuses.

Micah already has his son working as his priest, but when a Levite passes through the town, he seizes the opportunity and appoints him in his place. He thinks that the Lord will now bless him, but he doesn't realise that it takes more than a priest. It's all well and good Micah appointing a priest from the tribe God elected for that role, but it means nothing if his own worship is not true and his behaviour is not honourable. We can't pick and choose the commands we follow and we can't rely on others to put us right with God. We must seek God for ourselves and follow him with all our heart and mind and energy.

Micah's plan soon fails anyway, when the tribe of Dan move into the area looking for land to claim as their inheritance. The Danites steal Micah's idols and convince his priest so serve them instead, then threated him with violence when he tries to reclaim what is his. Micah acts quite sensibly for perhaps the first time in this story and backs down, leaving the Danites to attack and burn a peaceful and unsuspecting town and settle there. They continue to use Micah's idols, and I'm sure they brought them as much success as they brought Micah.

And now we reach the part I've been dreading. These closing chapters of Judges are truly horrific and I really wish I didn't have to read them or write about them, but sadly we cannot always ignore the things we do not like. In fact, it is usually the things that distress us most that we most need to confront. So, the basic story is as follows. A Levite man takes a concubine, but she runs away and returns home. After a few months, the man travels to her father's house to bring her back. On their way home, they stop in a town called Gibeah and are offered hospitality by an old man. In an echo of the story of Lot in Sodom, the men of the town come to the house saying they want to have sex with the Levite. The old man says this would be a disgrace because he is a guest, and offers them his daughter and the Levite's concubline. They don't listen, so the Levite decides to take some decisive action and throws his concubine to the men. They rape her all night, and at daybreak she staggers back to the old man's house and dies on the doorstep.

It scarcely seems possible, but things get even worse. The concubine does not even receive honour in death, as the Levite chops her into twelve pieces and sends them to every area of Israel. Unsurprisingly, the Israelites want to know what this is all about, and so they gather to hear the Levite's story. They condemn this "lewd and disgraceful act" and decide to send a tenth of their men against the Benjamites, as it was men from the tribe of Benjamin who were responsible. They tell the Benjamites to send out the guilty men but they refuse, and so the two forces meet in battle. On the first two days, the Benjamites hold their ground and kill thousands of the Israelites, despite their significantly smaller number. Then on the third day, the Israelites set an ambush and destroy the Benjamite army, then attack the towns of Benjamin, killing all that they find and burning the towns. By the end of the day, six hundred men who escaped the battle are all that remain of the tribe of Benjamin.

The men of the remaining tribes declare that they will not give their daughters in marriage to the Benjamites. However, it is not long before they begin to soften, mourning the loss of one of the tribes of Israel, and wondering how they can provide wives for the survivors in the light of their oath. The next day, they meet to determine if anyone failed to assemble to fight Benjamin, as they had sworn to kill those who failed to fight. They discover that no one from Jabesh Gilead was present and decide to kill two birds with one stone. They send twelve thousand men to the town, and kill all the men and all the women who are not virgins. Four hundred virgins survive, and these women are given over to the Benjamites.

This still leaves two hundred Benjamites without wives, and so the people again grieve for Israel, saying that the Benjamites must have wives so that they may have heirs so that the tribe may not die out. What they need is a loophole, and sure enough they find one. They realise that they have said they won't give their daughters to the Benjamites, but that doesn't mean the Benjamites can't take them, and so they instruct the men of Benjamin to hide in the vineyards at the annual festival, then run out and grab any girl they like when they come out to dance. This is exactly what they do, and so the future of the twelve tribes is assured.

Where do I start? This is a story which begins and ends with the abuse of women and takes in almost every violation imaginable. It is a story which tells of the consequences of the objectification and commodification of women. And worst of all, it is a story which is not too far away from reality for many women. Daughters are still given away in marriage to husbands they did not choose and from whom they would wish to run. Women are still used as bargaining tools, still raped, still killed, still taken by force. Whether it is honour killing in the Middle East, systematic rape in Somalia and the Congo, female genital mutilation in countries across Africa and Asia, sex trafficking in Eastern Europe, acid attacks in Pakistan, male guardianship in Saudi Arabia or the ubiquitous glass ceiling in the West, women everywhere face problems unique to their gender and are made to suffer simply because they are female.

The Israelites rightly condemned what happened to the Levite's concubine, but they utterly failed in their response. All they did was create more bloodshed and force hundreds more women into the situation the concubine was trying to escape in the first place. So often we are guilty of the same thing. We react with shock and disgust to an article about the latest figures on honour killings, and then we turn the page and forget about it. We are moved to tears by an interview with a survivor of FGM, and then we remember we need to take the meat out of the freezer and we forget the woman we wept for a moment earlier. We nod approvingly when we read about a charity which helps women out of the sex trade, but fail to do our bit to challenge the raunch culture that keeps that trade alive. It's not always easy to know what to do, but we must know that we have to do something.

I believe it starts with awareness. The statistics and the stories do not make for pleasant reading, but they make for even less pleasant living. It's very tempting to turn away from those things that make us feel uneasy, but why should we when the victims cannot? We need to know what is happening, however uncomfortable that process may be. And when we know, we naturally react. Unfortunately there will be those whose reaction is apathy or approval - that's why the abuse continues - but most of us must surely react with deep sadness and anger. The key is then turning that reaction into a response. That may mean supporting organisations who already work with women. It may mean taking issue with a sexist joke and challenging somebody's way of thinking. It may mean some level of political activism or direct involvement. Or it may mean something as simple as talking openly to people about these issues so that they too become aware and the cycle might start again with them. Whatever it means for you, make it mean something for those women for whom abuse is a fact of life.