How shocking would it be to receive a courier parcel with a part of the female body packed in it? Twelve such parcels were received by twelve tribes of Israel. (Judges 19:29)
Single sexual sin of having more than one wife creates a chain reaction that ends up as a civil war in Israel. When the man was unfaithful to the Lord, the woman was unfaithful to him. She left him and stayed in her father’s home for about four months. The man went to her place and her father was happy to receive him and had a great feast with him for five days, and forbade him to go. On the sixth day he was determined to go, even though it could be a dangerous journey as they could not reach before sunset. (Judges 19:1-9)
They reached Jebus (Jerusalem) which was still under Canaanites; so, they rushed to Gibeah, belonging to the tribe of Benjamin. No one gave shelter, but an old immigrant from that same hill country gave shelter to the travellers. (Judges 19:16) Some worthless fellows banged the door and wanted the strange man out to be sexually exploited. The pleading of the old man was of no use. The man pushed her concubine out. The wicked men gang-raped her. She fell dead in the morning. (Judges 19:22-26) Instead of protecting and loving a stranger, the rogues, exploited and murdered. The man picked her up, went home, cut her into a dozen pieces and sent them to all tribes of Israel.
All the other tribes gathered from Dan in the North and to Beersheba in the South at Mizpah. The Levite altered the incident by twisting the facts and blamed the leading citizens and not troublemakers. (Judges 20:4-7) The national council demanded the surrender of wicked men. The Benjaminite’s condoned the sin of wicked men, defended them and refused to surrender for judgement. This resulted in civil war in which more than 70000 people died. The Nation of Israel tried to enforce righteousness by ruthless violence.
Do I realize that sin has miserable multiple consequences?