Another blood-curdling tale from the Book of Judges, where an Israelite man is trapped in a house by a hostile crowd, and sends out his concubine to placate them:
“So the man took his concubine and sent her outside to them, and they raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go. At daybreak the woman went back to the house where her master was staying, fell down at the door and lay there until daylight. When her master got up in the morning and opened the door of the house and stepped out to continue on his way, there lay his concubine, fallen in the doorway of the house, with her hands on the threshold. He said to her, ‘Get up; let’s go.’ But there was no answer. Then the man put her on his donkey and set out for home.” (Judges 19:25-28)
Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man intimately. But all the girls who have not known man intimately, spare for yourselves. Numbers 31:17-18
Just look at the state of the whole nation of Israel in that story. The husband of that concubine was a Levite; not a priest, but a Levite. I hope you have heard the study on the temple and The Priests, The Levites, and The Camp of Israel. The Levites represent our spiritual condition in Babylon. We actually bear the things of the tabernacle, but at that point in our walk we are not allowed into the holy place where the sons of Aaron were actually allowed into God's presence.
So we are told this man was a Levite, close to being a priest, but not a priest, and not allowed to come into God's presence upon pain of death.
That 'concubine' was a 'concubine' simply because that is the way we treat Christ. We say we 'keep all His commandments' but we don't, and therefore we aren't quite His wife, but a concubine.
Several hundred years later Abraham's decendants had taken the land and were still living under the judges. Had the kingdom improved over all those years? No, it had not. The fact of the matter is that "wicked men and seducers had waxed worse and worse." This story is not far from the end of the book of Judges, and I want you to see how this book ends:
This story is in the 19th chapter. There are but two more chapters in the book of Judges. Here is the last verse of the book of Judges:
Jdg 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
Just because something is recorded in the Bible does not mean it is condoned.
Numbers is about winning a war.
Autumnleaves 