Getting Biblical in Daily Life
Sexual Violence And Gang Rape
The sexual violence peppered throughout Judges is super disturbing. The rape of the Levite's concubine (which God clearly condemns) and the forced marriage of the daughters of Shiloh (which, arguably, he doesn't seem to mind) might prompt the question: Why would a benevolent God allow this to happen? This question—difficult enough when applied to an ancient religious story—becomes even tougher when we're reading about this stuff on the front page here and now.
It might seem hard to believe that sexual violence still exists not only under cover of darkness, but also in public. Each incident requires the cooperation or consent of dozens of direct or indirect participants, which begs the question: Is the callous anarchy of Judges so foreign to the 21st century?
Sex Scandals: We Just Can't Get Enough
At first blush, we might tut-tut at Samson's foolish indiscretion with Delilah and others, scoffing at what a meathead he must have been. But if the news is any indicator, it seems like the same thing happens to a lot of very smart, respectable people in high places. What causes sexual impropriety? Don't ask us. We can't even say definitively what constitutes sexual impropriety. Does Judges flesh out (no pun intended) any of the other Biblical rules of sexual conduct (see Genesis 38:6-26; 39:7-12; Exodus 20:14; Leviticus 18:6-23)? You be the judge. But such temptation is probably a permanent symptom of power, and will probably be making headlines for a long, long time.
Immigration
It might surprise you, Shmoop-ites, but even 3,000 years ago, immigration was an important issue. Here, though, the immigrants were Israelites, and they usually totally destroyed their new neighbors. Why? Because they had to preserve their traditions, and creating a homogenous society was the easiest way to do that. But the Israelites didn't always kick the neighbors out, and that's where their troubles begin. Judges is a story of a group of immigrants's trying (often in vain) to maintain their unique cultural identity.
God tries to keep them from cozying up with the Canaanites, commanding, "Do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of this land; tear down their altars" (2:2). But Israel disobeys (again), and soon "another generation grew up […] who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and worshipped the Baals; and they abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors" (2:10-12).
Many immigrant communities are in a similar position today. They move into a new country, hoping to preserve their cultural, religious, and ethnic traditions. They may form close-knit communities that try to prevent their new neighbors's culture from crowding out the traditions of their motherland. But often, as new generations grow up in a new country and adopt its identity, the old ways are lost. It's tough to stop this natural progression—as Israel saw—but preserving traditions is also really cool, so we can see why God back then—and many immigrant communities today—try so hard to do so.