43 – The Levite & His Concubine – Part 2

NOTE: THE TRANSCRIPT IS NOT EXACTLY LIKE THE RECORDING.

The Levite will now get a response from the tribes of Israel.

Judges 20:1  Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was assembled as one man, from Dan even to Beersheba, with the land of Gilead, to Yahweh at Mizpah. 

Judges 20:2  The chiefs of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen who drew sword. 

Judges 20:3  (Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) The children of Israel said, “Tell us, how did this wickedness happen?” 

There were at least 5 places called Mizpah in ancient Israel. This is not the same Mizpah from Jephthah’s story which was in Manasseh. This Mizpah was in the Benjamin. Mizpah means simply “watchtower”. It appears that once these Israelite tribes got organized and descended on Mizpah in Benjamin’s territory, the leadership there summoned the men of Gibeah to answer for the crime.

Judges 20:4  The Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered, “I came into Gibeah that belongs to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to spend the night.
Judges 20:5  The men of Gibeah rose against me, and surrounded the house by night. They intended to kill me, and they raped my concubine, and she is dead. 

Some commentators suggest this Levite spun the story when he said they intended to kill him. What actually happened was the Benjamite homosexuals calling, “Bring out the man who came into your house, that we can have sex with him!” would have resulted in a kind of brutal homosexual rape that  most certainly would have killed him. He knew that which is why he gave them his concubine. He did not, however, say explicitly he had given his concubine to them. That was implicit in the fact that they had raped her which resulted in her death.  

As for the Levite, it was his job to protect her! He didn’t! He gave her to them to protect himself! Always, the master of the household has the responsibility to protect and provide for the concubine and other servants. That is why YHVH, still to this day, gives basic protection and provision for the religious groups/concubines who call themselves by His Name. And He even sometimes visits them as would a man with a wife and a concubine. When I say “visits”, I mean He brings His presence to them. This is why His presence is sometimes felt among those who are still acting unrighteously but they are still YHVH’s in the sense that they are of servant status.

Of course, we are all servants of YHVH. But some servants are righteous and are among the “Betrothed”, deliberately keeping the terms of the Mount Sinai covenant while others are unrighteous, deliberately picking and choosing and teaching others the same and then sometimes accidentally keeping some of the terms, the laws of the covenant. These latter folks are the “concubine”. But YHVH still has a legal obligation to them until it is time to pour out His wrath.

Judges 20:6  I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel; for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel. 

He might have added, “This was my way of getting your attention”. Well, now he has it. Watch what happens. Again, this is also a prophecy of YHVH destroying His concubine through exile of all of the tribes and almost total destruction at the end during the Tribulation. As we have discussed before, some of the concubine people along with Gentiles will survive the Tribulation and enter the Millennial Kingdom where they will live normal human lives, having children, and so forth, until the final Gog-Magog war at the end of the Millennium.

It is a false doctrine that the Tribulation at the end of the 6^th day going into the 7^th day is the end of and completes God’s entire plan. We have been brainwashed in Christianity with this idea that after the Tribulation there will be nothing but peace. There are too many scriptures to present for this and there is not enough time now but suffice to say the end of the 7-thousand-years cycle will end at the end of the 7-thousandth day, not at the end of the 6-thousandth day.

Also, the earth only crossed into the 8 billions in 2022. The expectation is that the earth will have over 9 billion people in 2037. That’s 12 years. Interesting, Noah got out of the ark with 8 people, including Noah. Ten percent of the population of the earth will remain after the Tribulation. If the Tribulation happens before 2037, there will be 800,000 people remaining. I find this intriguing but I am not prophesying about this. I only present it as a thought and something for us to watch for.

If the coming Tribulation at the end of the 6-thousandth day going into the 7-thousandth day is not the end to usher in God’s Kingdom of peace forever, then what is its purpose? Its purpose is to give Israel what Israel was supposed to have from the time of Mount Sinai – rulership of the earth under the authority of Israel’s King, YHVH/Yeshua. YHVH elevated Israel above all nations at Mount Sinai. The Firstborns were to be His personal administration from the Order of Melchizedek on earth. All of Israel’s mandate, whether one was a firstborn serving YHVH in His Tabernacle or not, was to then evangelize the nations, take them away from Satan and bring them to YHVH.

This did not happen. The golden calf stopped everything in its tracks. Israel got a substitute priesthood (which also failed) and has spent the next 3500 years going through YHVH’s “clean-up” process. Israel, meaning the righteous Betrothed, both those who are now dead and those who will be alive when Yeshua returns to set up His Kingdom on earth to reign from Jerusalem, will do YHVH’s original plan, His Plan A. Plan B is never an eternal plan with YHVH. He WILL have Plan A and Plan A was to give Israel the mandate which Yeshua later gave to His disciples:

Mark 16:15  He said to them, “Go into all the world, and preach the Good News to the whole creation.
Mark 16:16  He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who disbelieves will be condemned. 

To accomplish this, Yeshua will rule the world with an iron rod (Psalms 2:8-9). Psalms 2 is about the rule and reign of Yeshua, God’s anointed.

Psalms 2:8  Ask of me, and I will give the nations for your inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession.
Psalms 2:9  You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” 

Revelation 2:26  He who overcomes, and he who keeps my works to the end, to him I will give authority over the nations. 

See? The Tribulation will result in Israel ruling over the nations as was intended from the time of Mount Sinai.

Revelation 2:27  He [Yeshua] will rule them with a rod of iron, shattering them like clay pots; as I also have received of my Father: 

Revelation 12:5  She gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. Her child was caught up to God, and to his throne.

Revelation 19:15  Out of his mouth proceeds a sharp, double-edged sword, that with it he should strike the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. He treads the wine press of the fierceness of the wrath of God, the Almighty.

The purpose of the Tribulation is to restore Plan A from Mount Sinai. The purpose of the thousand years reign with the 2 different human species – homosapiens and monegenes – is to finally restore what was on the earth before Adam was made.

Thank you for letting me go down that rabbi trail. And by the way, this is a big creation, you know. We won’t be sitting on clouds, playing harps and singing praise music for eternity. Some will. That will be their job. But just as there are angels with different jobs, so will there be the redeemed with their different jobs. This is a WORKING Kingdom, not an idle Kingdom. I have no clue what the work will be.

Judges 20:7  Behold, you children of Israel, all of you, give here your advice and counsel.”
Judges 20:8  All the people arose as one man, saying, “None of us will go to his tent, neither will any of us turn to his house.
Judges 20:9  But now this is the thing which we will do to Gibeah: we will go up against it by lot;
Judges 20:10  and we will take ten men of one hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and one hundred of one thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to get food for the people, that they may do, when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, according to all the folly that they have worked in Israel.” 

They were preparing to punish Gibeah according to YHVH’s Word.

Deu 13:12  If you shall hear about one of your cities, which Yahweh your God gives you to dwell there, that
Deu 13:13  certain wicked fellows have gone out from among you, and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, “Let’s go and serve other gods,” which you have not known;
Deu 13:14  then you shall inquire, and make search, and ask diligently. Behold, if it is true, and the thing certain, that such abomination was done among you,
Deu 13:15  you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, with all that is therein and its livestock, with the edge of the sword.
Deu 13:16  You shall gather all its plunder into the middle of its street, and shall burn with fire the city, and all of its plunder, to Yahweh your God. It shall be a heap forever. It shall not be built again.
Deu 13:17  Nothing of the devoted thing shall cling to your hand, that Yahweh may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and show you mercy, and have compassion on you, and multiply you, as he has sworn to your fathers;
Deu 13:18  when you listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, to keep all his commandments which I command you today, to do that which is right in Yahweh your God’s eyes. 

There exists a commandment earlier Deuteronomy 13 that speaks of the ONE individual who would draw you away from YHVH. He does this by prophesying what comes true but then wants you to worship another god. By doing this, he attributes the outcome of the prophesy to his god, not to YHVH.

I bring this up to make a point. If this man or woman had who started the worship of Baal and Asherah in Gibeah had been tried and executed as YHVH said, the evil would have been put away from Israel, as YHVH said and this punishment of the entire city of Gibeah would have been unnecessary. Can you see how vitally important it is to STOP people’s sins in their tracks? If we don’t handle sins early, they will come back to destroy us later!

Judges 20:11  So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.
Judges 20:12  The tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, “What wickedness is this that has happened among you?
Judges 20:13  Now therefore deliver up the men, the wicked fellows, who are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel.” But Benjamin would not listen to the voice of their brothers the children of Israel. 

It seems the wicked men of Gibeah have taken refuge in other places throughout the tribe of Benjamin. They are bold when raping a woman but cowards when facing their consequences.

Judges 20:14  The children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities to Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel. 

The rapacious, ravenous entire tribe of Benjamin will now uphold the men of Gibeah’s right to commit such homosexual/bisexual rape! And they were willing to go to war over it. The entire tribe of Benjamin was willing to cause the first civil war in Israel in order to uphold a man’s “right” to sin, rebel against YHVH and commit such an abomination in Israel! Benjamin lives up to its Genesis 49 prophecy!

Judges 20:15  The children of Benjamin were counted on that day out of the cities twenty-six thousand men who drew the sword, in addition to the inhabitants of Gibeah, who were counted seven hundred chosen men. 

Twenty-six-thousand-seven-hundred men were willing to face 400,000 men who drew swords in order to uphold the rape and murder of the Levite’s concubine. Can you believe how hard people will try to continue sinning!? And to uphold others’ right to sin!? This is absolutely atrocious!

Judges 20:16  Among all these soldiers there were seven hundred chosen men who were left-handed. Every one of them could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.
Judges 20:17  The men of Israel, besides Benjamin, were counted four hundred thousand men who drew sword. All these were men of war.
Judges 20:18  The children of Israel arose, went up to Bethel, and asked counsel of God. They asked, “Who shall go up for us first to battle against the children of Benjamin?” Yahweh said, “Judah first.” 

The Israelites did not go to Shiloh to ask counsel of YHVH. They went to Bethel. Why? The people would go where the priesthood and the ark of the covenant were. Why were they in Bethel and not in Shiloh? Scholars don’t know. It seems the ark was in Bethel for a time and for an unknown reason. Perhaps because of the threat of war against Shiloh.

YHVH answered them: “Send Judah first”. Judah could have sent in their archers since archers were first into battle before swordsmen. But it was the swordsmen of Judah who went first. Big mistake, as we shall see.

Why did they not send in the archers first? It may have been a point of mercy toward the tribe of Benjamin. Archers would go first against mortal enemies like the Canaanites and Philistines but this was Benjamin, after all, their brother. Did they REALLY want to harm Benjamin? No. They wanted to put away the worst evil they could remember since they had come out of Egypt, that’s all, and that was only in Gibeah.

YHVH set up the Benjamites for a big defeat but He had also set up the other Israelite tribes to suffer losses. A possible reason is because we, as individuals, and as tribes are to police each other to put away the evil from Israel (Deuteronomy 13:5, all of chapter 17, 19:19-20, 21:21, 22:21-22, 23:9, 24:7). Chapter 17 tells us individual Israelites how to approach a sinning brother or sister. Yeshua taught us this again in Matthew 18:19-24.

Here’s an irony: even online chat rooms have rules you must obey to continue being allowed to chat! Here is Stack Exchange’s rules as just one example:

Welcome to The Stack Exchange Network chat! This is a public place to socialize with the community. By participating here, you are committing to our Code of Conduct:

    Be kind and avoid sarcasm — tone is hard to decipher online.

    If a situation makes it hard to act kindly, stop participating and move on.

    Flag harmful behavior, whether it’s directed at you or others.

Hmmm… Give it thought why people are willing to obey some random set of rules, i.e. chat rooms and church denominations, that requires the flagging of bad behavior online or in the pew when, for the last 3500 years, Israel has not been willing to “flag” bad behavior. These kinds of “play nice” rules are everywhere and have been everywhere in all cultures for millennia. Where did people get the idea that nations need a justice system, eh? From YHVH, of course. He started it in the Garden of Eden. Yet, the dogs began to pull on the chain the minute the rules were formalized. 

We rarely read of a single Israelite or a tribe putting evil out of Israel until here with the tribe of Benjamin. It happened in the time of Joshua after the failed battle of Ai. Israelites died for the sins of Ai. Joshua had to find out who the culprit among the Israelites was, remember? Achan and his entire family (who were aware of his sin) were executed. THEN, the next battle of Ai was successful. Israel has not learned this lesson for the last 3500 years. We don’t want to “offend” someone by approaching them because of sins we know they are committing. Nor do was want to appear to be confrontational. We would rather have our brethren’s approval over our lives than YHVH’s!

Just like at the battle of Ai, Israelite men will now lay down their lives for their brethren trying to get the evil out of Israel. If they had not done this, Israel’s future would have been at stake. Only God knows what He would have done with Israel if she had not come against Benjamin for his sins. 

Here are the details.

Judges 20:19  The children of Israel rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah.
Judges 20:20  The men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel set the battle in array against them at Gibeah.
Judges 20:21  The children of Benjamin came out of Gibeah, and on that day destroyed twenty-two thousand of the Israelite men down to the ground. 

The first defeat of Israel by Benjamin.

Judges 20:22  The people, the men of Israel, encouraged themselves, and set the battle again in array in the place where they set themselves in array the first day. 

They were not going to give up! Good for them!

Judges 20:23  The children of Israel went up and wept before Yahweh until evening; and they asked of Yahweh, saying, “Shall I again draw near to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother?” Yahweh said, “Go up against him.”
Judges 20:24  The children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day. 

Second battle.

Judges 20:25  Benjamin went out against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men. All these drew the sword. 

Total KIA: 40,000.

Now, there’s a significant number. 40,000. Forty years wandering in the wilderness after the rebellion of the first generation. Put that together. They are tied together. Israel was dealing with one of the tribes’ rebellion.

Consider also that 40,000 is 10% of the 400,000 who came against Benjamin. A tithe of Israelites, so to speak.

The wages of sin is death for everyone. The wages of not putting the evil away from Israel will be death for some random people who must give their lives to bring righteousness back. Forty thousand warriors died for the sins of the 12 tribes that turned their faces away from the evil being done in Benjamin.

But wait a minute! Didn’t the Levite know this was going on in Bejamin? He certainly trusted Gibeah over Jebus. We don’t know this answer. The Ephraimite who took him in understood the nature of those Benjamite men because he implored the Levite not to stay in the streets of Gibeah that night. The streets of any Israelite town should be safe! Even if the hospitality was not given, the street should have been safe enough to get the Levite, his concubine, his servants and his 2 donkeys away from the prowling wild animals outside the city for one night.

Can you imagine that there weren’t people from the other tribes that did not know about the homosexuality and murderous ways of Benjamin? Can you imagine that there wasn’t anyone who didn’t know about the Sodomy and violence of Gibeah? Not everyone has to know everything about a place or a person, you know. Any individual of the other tribes or any individual member of the tribe of Benjamin had the job, the mandate, given to each and every single individual of Israel to stand against what they knew, to report it and be the first to put their hand to execute the abominators, the murderers! When there is sin in the camp, NO ONE is safe! Not even those who try to save their own skins by being “non-confrontational”.

Judges 20:26  Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came to Bethel, and wept, and sat there before Yahweh, and fasted that day until evening; then they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before Yahweh.
Judges 20:27  The children of Israel asked Yahweh (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,
Judges 20:28  and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days), saying, “Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease?” Yahweh said, “Go up; for tomorrow I will deliver him into your hand.” 

We will stop here. There is still much to glean from this account but we must come back to it next time. Last week’s teaching was too long for as intense as it was. A lot of understanding is coming forth that we did not have before. At least, I did not have it. The concubine answers the question of why does God continue with people who call themselves by His name yet they reject Yeshua or they reject His Law or both? We now understand that His people, His household, is comprised of His Betrothed and a concubine who will not be in His Kingdom. And what’s more, the concubine doesn’t care that she’s a concubine. In today’s religious world, the concubine has been redefined as “the wife who is in covenant with God”. That’s why there are so many people trying to figure out who is who? Who is the Betrothed? Who are the unfaithful? How do you define those terms? And if Christians and Jews are “the unfaithful”, then why does the Holy Spirit visit them and help them? Well, those questions are answered in the story of the Levite & His concubine.

YHVH had a wife but He divorced some of those tribes and widowed others leaving Him with no wife. Then when He arose from the grave, He began gathering individuals who will be faithful to Him since His prior nation refused to be. Now He has a Betrothed and a concubine like this Levite. At some point, YHVH will once again have only a wife.

None of this is His doing. He never changed His mind about having 1 wife. It is His people who have forced Him into such positions that He must deal with getting back to Plan A.

So, just to make this prophecy clear, the total destruction is what will happen to the concubine, the unfaithful woman, of YHVH’s household. YHVH’s Betrothed, faithful woman who is destined to become His wife, will be saved from this destruction.

I am getting so much out doing the study of ancient Israel because YHVH is opening my understanding and I hope He is doing that for you, too.