One of the things I tell people who want to become serious students of the Bible is that they should read the historical narratives in both testaments like they’re fiction. Yes, you read that correctly—fiction. I don’t say that because I think they are fiction. I say that because of the way our minds work when we read fiction, as opposed to a textbook, for example. We instinctively know when reading a novel that a locale, a line, and even a word might pop up later in the story. We are alert to the fact that the author is doing things to direct our reading.
That’s precisely how we need to read the historical books. They aren’t textbooks. Israel’s history is presented to us as story, and the people who wrote the stories were clever storytellers. The problem is that the hints they drop to lead the reader in one direction or another are often lost on us because we live in another time and place.
One of the best examples is the offensive story of Judges 19, where a certain Levite allowed his concubine to be repeatedly sexually abused. The woman died from the incident, prompting the Levite to exact vengeance. But not until he’d dismembered the woman’s body. On the surface, the repulsive episode reminds us that in the time of the judges “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judg. 17:6; 21:25). But there’s more to it than that.
To catch the meaning, we need to recall that Judges was written centuries after its events—during the period after the days of Solomon, when the kingdom split in two. The Levite in our story was from “the hill country of Ephraim” (Judg. 19:1)—which readers immediately associated with the heart of the apostate northern kingdom. The Levite is thus cast as a villain from the first verse. The concubine, on the other hand, was from Bethlehem of Judah (Judg. 19:2)—the town of David, the ideal king. The woman had run away to her home and now the Levite had come to Bethlehem to bring her back (Judg. 19:3–9). On the way home, the Levite’s servant suggested they spend the night in Jebus—another name for Jerusalem, which would become the city of David (Judg. 19:10). The Levite rejected the idea, since the city was under the control of foreigners (gentiles). Instead, they went to Gibeah (Judg. 19:12ff.). Gibeah was a city in the territory of Benjamin, the tribe of Saul, who was Israel’s first king and an enemy to David. It was in Gibeah that the horrible abuse occurred. The men of Gibeah—associated with Saul—are the rapists and killers. The Levite sends pieces of the woman to the rest of the tribes and demands revenge (Judg. 19:29–30). The resulting incident that closes the book of Judges is that the tribe of Benjamin is nearly exterminated but is spared.
Ancient Israelite readers would see a victim associated with David suffering at the hands of people associated with Saul. The writer was prepping them for loyalty to David and his line. By the time they read the last line of the book (“There was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”), he had them right where he wanted them.