Judges 19 begins by reminding us that everyone acted according to his own standard. No common standard of right or wrong (morality), no common leader (a king), or God (religion). These are three common cultural bonds in any stable nation.
Israel lacked all three, and the writer of Judges looks toward a day when the nation would have a king to lead the people in godliness and punish evil (Rom 13:1-5). This is still God’s purpose in our political leaders. Leaders matter! Leadership matters!
Before entering Canaan, God gave Israel instruction for the day He’d provide a king. There were two qualifications: (1) chosen by the Lord; (2) Jewish (vv 14-15); three commandments regarding trust (vv 16-17): not accumulating (1) horses; (2) wives; or (3) wealth; one cause: copying, reading, teaching, and obeying the Scriptures so that he would rule himself and others with God’s justice not mans’ (vv 18-20).

I. A Crooked Home (Judg 19:1-3). Only God has the right to command His creation how to think, act, believe, and live. When we replace the Creator, we have only each of the earth’s 9 billion people to assert their individual ideas of right and wrong (Rom 1). The Pharisees, for example, looked righteous, but looks are deceiving (Mt 5:20; 23:1-ff).
A Levite took for himself a concubine, a secondary wife usually taken for sexual purposes or to produce an heir. The Levite was unfaithful to his wife, and his concubine was unfaithful to him. Religious apostasy (Judg 17-18) always leads to moral depravity. Just because it’s in the Bible doesn’t mean God approves; He’s simply recording for our instruction, the conditions at the time.
Israel, a nation which had experienced the profound and gracious love of God (Deut 7:6-9) wasn’t a people of love or fidelity. Contrary to the Law of Moses, Jewish women were generally considered no more than property. A society which rejects God’s standard and definition of love and marriage will elevate sex and sexual confusion will reign. That’s how sin and Satan work, creating a counterfeit to God’s standard.
The concubine returned to her father’s house, but four months later the Levite finally goes to speak kindly to her and bring her home. Notice the importance of Bethlehem in these chapters (Judg 17:7-9; 19:1, 2, 18) setting us up for the Book of Ruth.

II. A Courteous Father (Judg 19:4-10). The concubine’s hospitable father was glad to meet his son-in-law and held a celebration of the couple’s reunion. The two men got along as best of friends while the woman fades into the background of the story. Five days later the Levite, his concubine, and his servants make the return journey to Bethlehem.
It was dangerous to travel in Israel, so five miles out, the servant suggested stopping for the night in Jebus (Jerusalem). It was a Canaanite city until David conquered it and made it his capital (2 Sam 5:6-8; 1 Chron 11:4-5). The Levite refused to stay in a city of foreigners where a Jew wouldn’t be safe; they continued to Gibeah, a Jewish city where the later King Saul was born and ruled Israel (1 Sam 10:26; 15:34).
Despite being obvious travelers, and a Levite, the people of Gibeah refused to take them in for the night. An old man from Ephraim took the party in.

III. A Corrupt City (Judg 19:22). As the old man entertained his guests, wicked men (lit sons of Belial) came to the house and demanded the Levite be surrendered for homosexual acts. The writer of Judges wants us to see that life in Israel was worse than in Canaanite cities. He compares Gibeah to Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19), only it was worse than living in Sodom and Gomorrah. At least the Sodomites were pagans, the people of Gibeah were Jews!