Israel Defeated by Satan

A Levite traveling with his concubine stops for the night at Gibeah. A crowd from the town gathers and threatens him, demanding that he be brought out; to save himself, the Levite hands his concubine over to them instead, and after being abused all night she dies on the threshold.

The Levite was the one who should have been teaching the people God’s word. For such a man to give up his own wife to save his life meant that the first button, the one that should have held Israel together, had already come undone. When the first button is fastened wrongly, every one after it is out of line as well; so too, when the Levite fell, the whole nation went down with him.

Setting things right again from the first button takes time, but the quickest way back is for God’s people to repent and turn around. However much the world is shaken, and even when no one is there to lead them, they must be people who lift high the lamp of the word for themselves.