Judges 19-21

“We will not turn aside into the city of foreigners … but we will pass on to Gibeah” (19:12).  Scripture makes it clear: the Levite avoided Jebus, city of foreigners, thinking that an Israelite city would be safer, but the worst possible evil befell them in Gibeah of Benjamin. There, among the so-called people of God, the Levite’s woman was raped and killed.  This “abomination and outrage” (20:6) caused a civil war; the same Israel that stood against mighty enemies nearly self-destructed. 

“And the people of Israel went up and wept before the Lord” (20:23).  The enemy “out there” is not as dangerous as that within ourselves; God calls us to humility, repentance, and dependence on His mercy.