When There Was No King

There are two particularly disturbing and sobering stories found at the very end of the Book of Judges. These accounts are not placed there by accident. The Book of Judges is structured in two main parts: the first section (chapters 3–16) describes a repeating cycle of Israel’s sin, oppression by enemies, crying out to God, and temporary deliverance through various judges. 

The final section, chapters 17 through 21, serves as an epilogue. These concluding chapters do not continue the cycle of judges but instead step back to give a broader picture of the moral and spiritual condition of Israel during this period.

The first of these concluding stories is found in Judges 17 and 18. It begins with a man named Micah who steals eleven hundred shekels of silver from his mother. When she discovers the theft and pronounces a curse, Micah confesses and returns the silver. His mother then takes some of the silver and has it made into an idol covered with silver. Micah sets up a shrine in his home, makes an ephod and household idols, and eventually hires a young Levite who was wandering in search of a place to serve. This Levite becomes Micah’s personal priest. 

Later, five men from the tribe of Dan pass through and recognize the Levite. When the Danites later migrate northward in search of new territory, they return with six hundred armed men, steal the idols and the Levite from Micah’s house, and threaten violence when Micah tries to stop them.

The Danites then conquer the peaceful city of Laish, rename it Dan, and set up the stolen idols as their center of worship. This idolatrous practice in Dan would continue for generations. The story that immediately follows, recorded in Judges 19 through 21, is even more tragic and disturbing. 

A Levite living in the hill country of Ephraim had a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah. After she was unfaithful (or rather just left him) and returned to her father’s house, the Levite went to bring her back. On their journey home, they stopped for the night in Gibeah, a town belonging to the tribe of Benjamin. No one initially offers them hospitality until an old man from Ephraim, who was living in Gibeah, takes them into his home. 

That night, wicked men from the city surround the house and demand that the Levite be brought out so they can rape him. The old man tries to protect his guest by offering his virgin daughter and the concubine instead. When the mob refuses, the Levite takes his concubine and sends her outside to them. She is raped and brutally abused throughout the entire night. At dawn, she collapses at the door of the house and is found dead.

In response, the Levite places her body on his donkey, returns home, cuts her body into twelve pieces, and sends one piece to each of the tribes of Israel along with a message describing what had happened. This shocking act provokes widespread outrage. The tribes gather, and a civil war breaks out against the tribe of Benjamin. The fighting is so severe that the tribe of Benjamin is nearly wiped out, with only six hundred men surviving. 

In the aftermath, the other tribes take extreme and tragic measures to preserve the tribe of Benjamin from extinction. These concluding stories in the Book of Judges are deliberately placed at the end to highlight a central and repeated theme. Four times in these chapters, the narrator states:

“In those days, there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

(Judges 17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25)

This statement is not simply commenting on the lack of a human monarch. It reveals the deeper spiritual problem: Israel had rejected God’s authority and leadership. Without submission to God’s Word and His appointed order, the people descended into religious confusion, moral collapse, sexual violence, injustice, and eventually civil war. The stories of Micah’s idolatry and the horrific events in Gibeah serve as vivid illustrations of what happens when a nation—or an individual—turns away from God and follows the desires of their own hearts. 

It is important to understand that these accounts are not recorded as examples for us to follow. They are not prescriptive; they are descriptive. Through these difficult passages, God is showing us the natural outcome of spiritual independence. When people turn from God’s leadership and begin to do what is right in their own eyes, the results are corruption, confusion, and destruction. 

These stories expose the reality of the human heart apart from God. They also warn us that sin is contagious. When one person embraces a wrong idea and finds others who agree with and encourage it, that sin can quickly multiply, creating a larger group that opposes God and harms others. This theme is not limited to the Book of Judges. Throughout Scripture, we see the same pattern repeated. 

God raises leaders, prophets, and deliverers to rescue His people from the consequences of their sin. Yet time and again, the people turn back to their own ways. This is why the Bible consistently warns us against trusting in ourselves:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

(Proverbs 3:5–6)

The Book of Judges ultimately teaches that we cannot trust our own hearts or our own wisdom to guide us. Without God’s leadership, we become spiritually lost. We lose the ability to clearly discern right from wrong, truth from deception, and wisdom from foolishness. These stories remind us that when we allow our flesh, the enemy, or our own selfish reasoning to convince us that we know what is best—for ourselves or for others—we open the door to confusion, moral decay, and eventual destruction. 

God uses even these hard and uncomfortable passages of Scripture to expose the reality of sin and to allow us to learn from history rather than repeat its tragic patterns. The warnings in Judges 17–21 are not meant to leave us in despair, but to drive us back to God. They show us our desperate need for His leadership, His Word, and ultimately, His perfect King—Jesus Christ—who alone can truly transform hearts and bring lasting order out of chaos. 

May we take these warnings to heart. Let us not allow the enemy, our flesh, or our own understanding to convince us that we can navigate life apart from God. Instead, may we daily choose to stay aligned with His heart, submit to His leadership, and trust in Him rather than ourselves.