Israel was shocked into action. They were not shocked that a woman was raped; that would’ve been a fairly common occurrence in Israel at that time. They were not shocked to discover that bad men do bad things, that was common knowledge; they were shocked by the arrival of a cut up body. People who had developed the ability to turn a blind eye to evil were still shocked when something totally unexpected happened.

Israel needed to be shocked because they had grown complacent in their unrighteousness. They had a problem that was and is common to most people who are not in a right relationship with God. They believed they were good people. They recognized that bad people existed, and that bad people did bad things, but they did not believe that included them. This illustrates the difficulty that we have in evaluating ourselves and others. What is the point at which someone goes from being a good person to being a bad person, and when do they step over the line from being bad to being evil? This is a rhetorical question because we cannot and will not come to an agreement upon the answer. I think that most people would agree men who rape strangers are the worst of evil. I would hope that most people would agree that raping a woman to death is evil. Is it evil to standby and do nothing while evil people do their evil deeds? Can good people do bad things and still be good people? What is required of us in order that we might look in the mirror and still consider ourselves to be good people?

When the assembled Israelites heard the story of what happened in Gibeah they recognized the evil and knew that if they were not willing to surrender completely to that evil themselves they would have to take a stand.

We live in a world that needs to be shocked. Evil is running rampant. What will it take for people to take a stand?