When Enough is Enough

The infamous tragedy of the Levite and his concubine recorded in Judges 19 was a wake-up call that united the nation to stamp out the abominable conduct of Benjamites in Gibeah.  The gang-rape and murder of the concubine by men of Gibeah was savage, and when the Levite posted her corpse in pieces throughout the tribes the whole nation took notice and united to take decisive action.  Such a shocking thing had not been done or even heard of before, and when the Levite sent notices with decomposing body parts of his concubine to all the tribes it illustrated the sinful rot in the nation that literally was slaughtering their citizens.

I do not believe the Benjamites or those in Gibeah were worse than any other tribe in Israel, for many times the book of Judges explains how in those days every man did what was right in his own eyes.  Because mankind is naturally sinful, what happened during that fateful night in Gibeah was just a small sample of how wickedness had corrupted the nation.  God used the incident to galvanise and unite Israel to stamp out the guilty and take a look in the mirror.  It was easy for the other tribes to find fault in the Benjamites and condemn them for their conduct, but it would take a miracle to erode the tribalism and self-righteousness that ignored the faults of their own people within the borders of their inheritance.

In the parable Jesus told of the prodigal son, the young man was corrupted by pride, selfishness and ingratitude long before he demanded his inheritance from his father and wasted it all on profligate living.  While the prodigal was boozing and carousing he was incapable of seeing his own wretchedness.  It was not until he found himself feeding pigs and coveting their slop he realised how far he had wandered from the favour of his father's house enjoyed even by servants.  It was in that moment he came to himself and decided to take action to rectify the ruin he welcomed into his life by his foolish choices.  The killing of the concubine brought the nation of Israel to a crossroads where they finally decided to take action against those who did wickedly--even at great personal cost.

The historical account of Judges 19 and the parable of the prodigal Jesus both describe occasions when people said, "Enough is enough."  It was not sufficient to grieve, become angry or speak strongly against evil but practical action needed to be taken:  the nation mustered to fight against Gibeah, and the prodigal son left the pigs and went home to humbly beg for a servant's position because he had been an unworthy son.  In both these cases God used circumstances to prompt his people to be confronted with their own sinfulness and need for repentance.  These passages show how subtlety we can slide into sin and often it requires extreme and shocking circumstances for us to be moved to challenge and overthrow the sinful status quo we have long accepted as part of life.

Praise the LORD He delights to restore the repentant soul, and His ears are open to our cries.  As it is written in Psalm 34:15-19:  "The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry. ¹⁶ The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. ¹⁷ The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. ¹⁸ The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit. ¹⁹ Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all."  With our great God the hopeless have an everlasting expectation of good that cannot be cut off.