Master of the House

“Master of the House” - Judges 20:22-23

This phrase is peculiar, especially in the context of this passage and this story. It could mean nothing more than the fact that this phrase is 100% Jewish in nature, and this “old man” is a Jew living in the city of Gibeah belonging to the tribe of Benjamin. This phrase was even used as a song title in the musical “Les Miserable” (The Miserable Ones) written by Schonberg and Boublil. Shonberg was a Jew who escaped Nazi Hungary and grew up in France.

But this phrase is more peculiar in the fact that it appears 7 times in the AV1611 and 4 out of those 7 times this phrase is used in direct connection to Jesus Christ and Israel during the “time of the end” (Matthew 10:25; Mark 13:35; Luke 13:25; and Luke 14:21). The first mention is Exodus 22:8 connecting the “master of the house” to potentially being a “thief” (cf. Luke 12:38-39; 1 Thess. 5:2-4; 2 Peter 3:10).

How this phrase, which is clearly most often connected to either God the Son or God the Father, is connected to the “master of the house” who offers his daughter and a concubine, is a mystery. Although, I will add that the men who “beat at the door” could picture of the ones outside of the door in Matthew 25:10-13 after the “master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and (they) begin to stand without, and to knock at the door…” (Luke 13:25).

This story in Judges looks most likely connected to a period found (“time of the end” cf. Daniel 11 & 12) within the middle watch of the tribulation period, but how all of those pieces fit together remains mostly a mystery (to me), for now.