My 'One Year Bible' Journey

Today I read from the following books;

JUDGES 19:1 - 20:48
JOHN 3:22 - 4:3
PSALM 104:24-35
PROVERBS 14:22-24

- Today was probably the most brutal daily reading yet! I actually love it, its got suspense and violence, its intense! -

In Judges today it talks about a Levite who lived in the hills got a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah. It says that the concubine was unfaithful to the man and returned home to her father. For 4 months she was home (probably thinking she was in the clear now) when the man and his servant and donkeys came knocking on her fathers door.

It says the father welcomed him in and fed him. It states that for 4 days the man was trying to leave with his woman but the father was talking him into staying another night and enjoying more food and drink. Finally on the fifth day the man left in the afternoon. He refused the fathers offer to stay another night and left. They traveled to Gibeah but no one welcomed them into their house.

- this is very interesting, maybe I'll research it later but it sounds like the "hotel" wasn't around back then, if a stranger came into town it sounds like people would offer for them to stay at their house. That's crazy. I can't imagine seeing people stroll into my town and saying, ya here come stay with me and my children, it seems reckless in today's day and age. -

They agreed and went with the man, when they were inside the mans house a group of local thugs surrounded the house and started banging on the door. They yelled for the guest (the Levite) to come out so the thugs could "have sex with him" (crazy right?) The actual scripture reads;(they are yelling at the owner of the house, an old man) "Bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him."

The owner of the house refused and asked the thugs to not violate the man and disgrace him in that way, but he did offer to bring out his very own virgin daughter and the Levites concubine for the men to "use them and do to them whatever you wish". (father of the year strikes again)

So they sent out the woman and went to bed. The men then raped and beat the women all night long and left them on the doorstep to the mans house. The next morning it states that the Levite woke up and went outside, he found his concubine on the ground and told her to get up, she didn't respond so he picked her up and put her on his donkey and they left.

- this next part is by far the craziest, most brutal thing I have read in the Bible so far... -

It says that the Levite reached his home (the concubine was dead from the raping and beatings) he took a knife and cut up his concubine limb by limb into twelve parts and sent them into all the ares of Israel!

- I looked up a more detailed description of what a concubine is considered. I already knew the gist of it but this is a good explanation.

"Concubinage refers to the state of a woman or youth in an ongoing, quasi-matrimonial relationship with a man of higher social status. Typically, the man has an official wife in addition to one or more concubines. Concubines have limited rights of support as against the man, and their offspring are publicly acknowledged as the man's children, albeit of lower status than children born by the official wife or wives. " this was taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concubine -

When the people of Israel saw the woman's body parts strolling through town they were blown away. No one had ever done or seen anything like this before. They called a meeting and once they heard what had happened to the woman in the town of Gibeah, they decided to attack Gibeah.

Over 400,000 Israelite soldiers were there to fight. The Gibeahites and Benjamites only gathered 26,700 men. One the first day of battle the Israelites got whooped. 22,000 Israelites died that day, it was by far the Benjamites victory. One the second day the Benjamites won again and took out another 18,000 Israelites. That night the Israelites went up to a mountain and cried out to God. They asked if they should continue to fight. The lord told them to fight the next day and that he will deliver them into his hands.

The next day The Israelites took all of them out, the Israelites also killed everyone in the town and set the town on fire. All of the Gibeahites and Benjamites died that day.

In John today it talks about John baptizing on one side of the Jordan and Jesus baptizing on the other side. (Almost sounds like a competitive business, haha) When some men asked John about this and told him that Jesus was on the other side doing the same thing but everyone was going him, John replied back in a very humble way that he was simply doing Jesus' work, he recognized that he was only a man, but Jesus was the son of God.