All day kind of going over this,
and almost,
almost not looking forward and,
to teaching it just because this is one of those
is just hard to wrap up with a smile on your face.
But so that we can keep things consistent
because we've been doing judges on Sunday morning again.
That's why it's got a little different feel for me.
That's why I'm up here.
That's why I got the mic.
So we can record it and we can put it on our on our, in our teaching library,
as if it is part of the Sunday morning service.
And it fits within our little framework of how we, how we publish stuff.
And just to let you know
on our app, I didn't start recording
my Bible studies until about 2020.
That was one of the good things that came out of Covid for us.
I started recording my Bible studies, and since 2020,
there are, 18 of the 66 books of the Bible that we have, verse
by verse, chapter by chapter on our, you can access through our app.
And so, we're going to pretty soon have those all on a consolidated list
so you can pick the book of the Bible if you want to.
If you want to study through that, it's almost 25%
of the Bible that we have verse by verse, chapter by chapter.
And if God allows me the grace of living long enough and teaching long
enough, it'll be fun to see how far we can get through all 66. But,
so anyway, I just want to make sure you're aware of that.
But that's why this this format is just a little bit different,
because I want to keep it the same in the same format as our Sunday
morning stuff.
So judges chapters 19, 20 and 21.
If, if you
if you follow the flow of judges, it starts at a on a high note.
It starts really at the end of Joshua's life.
Who took over for the great liberator and leader, Moses.
Moses pastor.
But he was up on top of Mount Nebo, looking out over the promised land.
And God wouldn't allow him to enter the Promised Land
because of some missteps.
We'll just put it that way.
And God said you'll get them to the end, but you won't be the one to lead them in.
Joshua, my servant, after you will lead them in.
So I've actually been to Mount Nebo,
where Moses,
passed and looking down,
from that same mountain on the promised land, just imagining
both the glory, the joy, the sheer privilege of being the one
to lead God's people and the heartache and not being able to make it in.
So we come after this great man
and and the baton pass to Joshua, and Joshua takes
the baton as a great leader of the nation, leads them into the promised land.
And then this, this, this process, over 350 years
of them moving into the promised land and God reaching up judges
after judge after judge to to to walk with his people,
and the conquering of portions of the promised land.
And that's the book of judges is after this, this highlight of Joshua, this step
by step process where God raises up a judge to lead the people.
And we just see this incredible spiritual
degradation and slide downward
till we get to the events of chapters 19, 20 and 21.
And you think how 350 years, how far people have fallen
is, is just amazing to me,
knowing from where we started, the theme throughout the book.
And it's it's it's encapsulating the last chapter,
the last verse of the last chapter, chapter 21, verse 25.
And it says, in those days, Israel had no king.
Everyone did as you saw fit.
That's the theme throughout the whole book.
They're just doing as they saw fit.
What were doing, what was right in their own eyes.
And that got him into trouble every single time.
And then they were cry out for help and God would raise up a judge
and they would cry out in pain and despair and difficulty and repentance.
And then God would step in and deliver, and they would love God for a little bit,
and then they would do what was right in their own eyes and get into trouble
and pain and desecration and degradation and defeat.
And they would cry out to God in repentance, and God,
because his merciful and gracious would raise up another judge.
And it seemed as though God never got tired of that process, which just amazes me.
And every time
God raised up a judge, that judge as a leader would work
with God's people for God's deliverance of God's people.
Until Samson, Samson never worked with anybody as is.
He went, but he went it himself.
He was a lone wolf leader.
And I don't know if you if you if you've been with us through this study,
don't know if you picked up on that.
Every leader, Gideon, 300 men like like every leader.
They worked with God's people
because they understood that God would raise up a leader to lead people.
Samson thought God raised up me.
And I will do it all.
Samson was,
It's he's an interesting study,
but it's it starts with Samson, this
this incredible slide that we'll see the the culmination of what began in Samson.
We'll see it in these three chapters.
But Samson had the anointing of God on his life via strength.
But he was not anointed.
So he wasn't godly.
He had an anointing as a leader and strength.
But there's nothing about him that we would say
he was an anointed one.
He loved to fight.
He didn't know what to do if he wasn't in a fight.
He was not a man of peace.
He always had to fight with somebody.
He was a leader
who could not work with others.
He had problems with women.
There was in Samson an awareness of God,
but no personal holiness and no spiritual life.
And if I look at Southampton and this is just my little comment here,
if I look at Samson, he looks very much like another one who just got elected.
Does not like working with people, loves a fight,
has problems with women.
And it has an awareness of God,
but not a spiritual reality
in Christ has an anointing on him.
But I would not say he is the anointed of.
And yet somehow Samson makes it
into the Hall of Fame of faith.
It's amazing to me.
And so one of the things that just reminds me,
if I could never, ever, ever judge a book by its cover right?
Who knows what God's doing with those he raises up?
Who knows?
Seven times in eight chapters.
The book of judges says the people cried out to God
seven times in eight chapters.
They repent.
They seek God's presence.
They seek God's help and and
and people stopped
crying out to God and they stopped repenting.
Under Samson.
That's when they stopped.
He, as a leader, didn't
humble himself before the Lord.
He was a strong man
who loved to fight.
He was a great leader,
but he never humbled himself before the Lord.
Until the very end of his life.
And it was a real strange heart prayer that he uttered
right before he died.
And nowhere
from chapter 11 on do we see in the book of judges God's people
crying out to God in repentance
and asking for his presence?
After Samson,
we saw we saw that Micah and the Dan ites,
and those are the ones who who ushered into the people
of Israel idolatry.
And they suffered greatly because we talked about that
in our study on, the previous Sunday, where they seem
to be kind of written out of the final listing of God's tribes,
those who would be left in the world to be God's testimony and witness,
those are left out who were not God's testimony witness
who led the nation to idolatry. And so God says, you know what?
You don't get to be a part of this seemingly.
And then after the nights
and idolatry, come chapters 19 and 21,
20 and 21, and chapters 19, 20, 21 are some of the darkest,
most evil and vile days
in the nation's history.
And it seems to be.
There's a subtle warning, and we'll look at it.
I'm gonna I want to I want to flesh it out and
and put it under the microscope a little bit for us.
But there seems to be this idea, this, this
real scary possibility that we can be.
Some come so calloused
to our own, in our own, in our own sin that we stop seeking God.
I'm repenting where God gives us over
to the complete annihilation because of our sin.
It's real interesting.
You look all through the, through the book of Judges.
They cried
out to God in return the kind of repentance.
I think it's judges
three, nine, three, 15,
four, three, six six, six seven, 1010 and 1015.
Those are the seven instances where they cried out to God
and no more.
After chapter ten. So.
Chapter 19, let's jump in to.
In those days, Israel had no king.
That they keep coming back to this statement as if that's the excuse.
Well, you know what? Let's just say,
they're not really they didn't have a king.
They didn't have someone to tell them what to do. They had someone leading.
They had no one to follow.
They had a king
supposed to be God,
ever present help in times of trouble.
I'll never leave, never forsake you.
I don't change Washington shadows.
I'm always with you. They had a king.
Was so interesting that
rather than draw close to the King of Kings,
they want to defer to someone they could see
as a nation.
They lost the ability to seek God, to pursue God, to feel God, to hear God,
to rely on him.
It's almost like an excuse.
Well, in those days, Israel had okay
care.
Now a Levite who lived in a remote area in the hill country of Ephraim,
took a concubine from Bethlehem and Judah, but she was unfaithful to him.
She left and went back to her father's house in Bethlehem, Judah.
After she had been there for months, her husband went to her
and to persuade her to return.
Excuse me.
He had with him his servant and two donkeys.
She took him into her father's house, and when her father saw him,
he gladly welcomed him. His father in law.
The girl's father prevailed upon him to stay, so he remained
with them three days, eating and drinking and sleeping there.
So this is the start of this of of what's going to get really, really, really bad.
A Levite from the remote area in the hill country, Ephraim,
the last Levite we saw with the deer night
was from Bethlehem, which was is not one of the Levitical towns.
This guy is actually from a Levitical town, so at least he's
starting off well, okay, at least from outward appearances.
He's doing is supposed to be that he's he's who he's supposed to be
and he has his concubine. Now, let me explain.
Really?
Concubine is a concubine is his wife.
But he wasn't able to pay the endowment for her, the dowry for her.
And so it's not a legal wife yet.
Until he pays the father for her.
So it's a concubine.
Okay, so he hasn't made the transaction necessary
to legally be a legitimate wife.
So she's called a concubine. Okay,
so this is.
There's nothing like this.
Isn't one of those mistresses or something like that.
Like this is a legal thing.
He just hasn't been able to pay the dowry for her yet.
And so she's called a concubine.
She was unfaithful to him.
Okay, so we all know what that means.
It's the guys. What?
Sounds like she left her and went to her father's house in Bethlehem and Judah.
After she had been there for months, her husband went to her
to persuade her to return.
So she's unfaithful.
There's obviously bad juju going on in their relationship.
She leaves and goes home.
And what does her father do?
So she he lets her.
Yeah. Come on, you messed up, sweetie.
But come on, come to Papa.
So again,
you look at that and you think that's wrong.
Daddy, you're doing this wrong.
They gotta work. They gotta sort this.
This is a marriage thing.
You don't just run away and we call her you and protect you and all this stuff.
Like you.
You messed her up. You got to stay.
You messed up.
You gotta fix it.
So he takes her, man.
She's there. For how long?
Four months.
And her husband went to her to persuade her to return.
This is one of the,
I think, one of the beautiful pictures that we see in these three chapters.
You have an unfaithful wife, and the husband pursues her.
Here's why.
It's a beautiful picture, because all through Scripture, God's
people are called the what the Bride of Christ.
And we're going to see this
all through Scripture that idolatry,
chasing after other gods
or going through other things to get to God
is in Scripture is talked about as spiritual adultery.
Okay.
So all through the Old Testament.
The Scripture talks
about pursuing other gods
as cheating on God.
It's adultery in God's eyes.
Spiritually,
and he talks all about his adulterous people
who have served other gods,
who has chased other gods.
And if you go to Jeremiah chapter three,
there's a real interesting passage here, and God is talking about his people.
Let me just read a few of these verses.
If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him and marries another man, should he?
Should he return to her again?
Would not the land be completely defiled?
But you have lived as a prostitute with many lovers.
Would you now return to me the first Lord?
He's talking to his people.
You're saying you have prostituted yourself with all these lovers?
What he's saying is
you have given your spiritual love and allegiance to other gods.
Another thing you.
You've committed adultery against me.
God says.
Have you seen what faithless Israel has done?
She has gone up on every high heel
and under every spreading tree, and has committed adultery there.
I thought that after she had done all this, she would return to me,
but she did not, and her unfaithful sister Judah sought.
I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce
and sent her away because of all her adulteries.
Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear.
She also went out and committed adultery, because Israel's immorality
matter mattered. So little to her.
She defiled the land.
A committed adultery with stoning would.
It's.
It's this imagery that when we chase after other things other than God,
God sees it as spiritual
adultery, immorality, fornication.
Like it's he sees it.
It's very, very serious in his eyes.
And when it says that because Israel's immorality mattered so little,
she defiled the land and committed adultery, restoring woods,
because they carved these idols out of stone and wood, and worship them,
and use these little medallions to go through, to try to get to God.
He said, you just keep committing until time and time and time
and time and time again,
and you don't even have any shame
for your immorality.
In spite of all this, for unfaithful sister
Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only in pretense.
He she, he.
If you were to just come back to me with your whole heart, you act like you.
You're mine because you look like it religiously.
But you're not mine.
You look the part,
but your heart is far from me.
And he says this in verse 14, return faithless people, declares the Lord,
for I am your husband, and I will choose you,
and I will give you shepherds
after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding.
And it just amazes me that that the perversity
of immorality and spiritual adultery, that God's
people have a tendency to perpetrate against him.
And he says, I have every right
to separate myself from you legally.
I got every right.
But if you just return.
I've chosen you.
I mean, the tenderness
and the acceptance to continue chasing
after the one who continues to walk away.
And that's that's part
of the redeeming part I see in the story that this this Levite says, look, sweetie,
I've still chosen you
right?
And so she goes.
And Father Law, it said, hey, just stay with here.
Just relax a little bit.
I'll just take some time off.
Verse five.
On the fourth day, they got up early and prepared to leave,
but the girl's father said to his son in law,
refresh yourself with something to eat, then you can go.
So to him sat down to eat, drink.
Why don't you start eating and drinking?
You just stay too long like it just.
And so they do. Just stays too long.
And the man got up to go.
Father in law persuaded him. So he stayed there that night.
Verse eight, on the morning of the fifth day, when he rose to go,
that is his father in law, the girl's father said, refresh yourself,
wait till afternoon.
So the two of them eat together, and I guarantee you they drink together.
Verse nine, when the man with his coffee iron and a servant got up to
leave his father in law, the girl's father said, now, look, it's almost evening.
Spend the night here.
The day's nearly over. Stay and enjoy yourself.
Early tomorrow morning you can get up and be on your way home. It's.
You know, we got to be so careful when we let people talk us into doing what we.
And he knew he should be on the way.
Days ago, he knew,
and he, he lets his father talk him in just a little bit longer.
But they're going to hurt.
Have a little more and one more drink.
What's going to, you know.
And so he ends up staying long and he should stay
and but unwilling verse ten, unwilling to stay another night,
the man and, left and went toward Jebus, that is Jerusalem,
with his two settle donkeys and his concubine.
I want you to know
that he should have left in the morning when it was light,
and there were time to travel.
And you wait and wait and wait.
So in essence, it puts him in it, puts him behind schedule, makes a stupid decision
to head out in the evening time, and it's going to get him into trouble.
Listen, when he, you know, it's time to go, it's time to go.
Hey, when when you know you got to do it, just do it.
Don't put it off.
He's procrastinating. He's going to get in trouble because of it.
Then when the man.
Oh, no.
Verse verse 11, when they were near Jerusalem
and the day was almost gone, the servant said to his master, come,
let's stop at this city of the Jebusites and spend the night.
His master replied, this is the leave I is master, replied, no,
we won't go into an alien city whose people are not.
Israelites will go on to give me a.
So he says, we wouldn't be safe in the city that isn't of our people.
Let's go to city of our people.
It's getting late.
We don't want to be out too much longer,
but we need to push on and get to a city of at least our people,
because at least we should be able to trust our own people.
Yeah.
Come on, let's try to reach
give me a or rama and spend the night in one of those places.
Verse 14.
So they went on, and the sun set as they neared Gibeah.
And Benjamin, watch this.
Verse 15.
There they stop to spend the night.
They went and sat in the city square, but no one took them
into his home for the night.
Culturally,
when a stranger entered a city that wasn't theirs,
they would enter the city and sit at the city gate or the city square.
Hospitality was was of preeminent
importance in ancient Middle East cultures,
and so the expectation was for anybody traveling,
you go to the city square, someone is going to invite you in.
It's just what you do.
Hey, it's not like our
our culture.
Like we don't let anybody in our house, even if we even know
if you like you, you're not welcome to come inside.
Like we'll stand on the front porch when you can talk, and that's fine. But.
But they're strangers.
Aliens.
And there's all kinds of spiritual ramifications about that.
God says you're aliens in this land.
Remember what it's like to be an alien
and be hospitable to people and all the stuff.
So they go to City Square.
No one takes them in verse 16, that evening, an old man
from the hill country of Ephraim, who was living in Libya,
the men of the place for a bunch of mites came in from his work in the fields.
When he looked and saw the traveler in the city square,
the old man asked him, where are you going?
Where did you come from?
I want you to notice that this man is coming in from the fields.
He was
living in Gambia, but he wasn't a give me a night,
okay?
This is real important.
He was living in the area, but he was a foreigner too.
And he wasn't a given night.
And he sees these people who are not giving.
And it says where are you coming from?
Where are you going? Because you don't belong here.
He knows something about this area.
The people of Libya were incredibly
vile, nasty, evil people.
Hey, they were just they were horrible
people.
This man knows it.
He knows they don't belong.
And he's not one of them.
He's just walking amongst them.
And so the Levite says we are on our way.
This is verse 18 from Bethlehem in Judah to a remote area in the hill country of
Ephraim, where I live.
I have been to
Bethlehem in Judah, and now I'm going to the house of the Lord.
No one has taken me into his house.
We are both strong fodder for our donkeys and bread and wine for ourselves.
Your servants, me, your maid servant, and the young man with us.
We don't need anything.
Verse 20 says, you are welcome at my house.
The old man said, let me supply whatever you need.
Only do not spend the night in the square.
So he took him into his house and feathers his donkeys.
After they washed their feet, they had something to eat and drink.
Now he knows what these people are like.
So he invites these people.
And the Levite, his concubine and his Levite servant.
Verse 22.
While they were enjoying themselves, some of the wicked men of the city
surrounded the house.
Pounding on the door, they shouted to the old man who owned the house,
bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him.
Hey, so we're talking about
homosexual gang rape.
It was so.
The vileness and the evilness of this was so well known
and accepted the man inside the house.
Is it shocked that they would ask this?
He knows it's wrong.
He's not going to hand the guy over.
But he knew this.
So the evil was so prevalent that
this guy knew this couple could not stay the night out in the square
because he knew something.
There have been some
who suggested that God's anger and we'll see it in a little bit.
But there's been some issues.
The God's anger against this act was against the act of rape,
not the act against homosexual sex.
And that's not consistent with Scripture.
Not that Scripture endorses rape,
but the issue is also the homosexual homosexual act.
That's why he destroyed destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
If it were just rape, he would destroy every city where rape occurred.
And he doesn't.
So it is very much
this, this homosexual acts and lifestyle
and perversion.
The owner of the house went outside
and said to them, no, my friends, don't be so vile.
Okay, good.
At least you know this is a vile thing they're asking.
Don't do this disgraceful thing.
So, so, so far.
Like, okay, at least he's sticking up for this guy.
But have you read this passage?
This is horrible.
Look, here's my virgin daughter and his concubine.
I'll bring them out to you now, and you can use them
and do to them whatever you wish.
But to this man, don't do such a disgraceful thing.
How. How evil
does your heart have to be?
To endorse.
Gang rape.
Against your own daughter.
I, I don't have
I don't have room in my mind.
I don't have that cognitive ability
to to to understand the reality of this.
Imagine being this little girl.
Look at her father,
who's supposed to be the protector.
Did you know that
the destruction of sin knows no bounds?
It evil is is is the
the greatest example of progressivism.
Progressivism knows no bounds.
It just keeps getting worse and worse and worse.
There's no limit.
That's evil.
There's no limit to the
demonic
spirit that is at work.
The satanic spirit that that work here.
That's the only thing I can think of that that Satan has so entered
these people, this community, this home.
But the man would not listen to him.
So the man took his concubine and sent her outside to them,
and they raped her and abused her throughout the night.
And at dawn they let her go.
This is
this is the woman that you're supposed to be.
You saw her out.
At your betrothed to.
And you're.
And you're just going to take on.
Throw out of this mob and.
I mean, if I don't know how much you want
to put yourself in this story.
But how do you stay inside?
And here.
The mob and her screams.
And not do it.
And at what point does.
Does she keep fighting?
And it's just the whole thing.
The abuser.
Thursday night and at dawn. They let her go.
At daybreak, the woman went
back to the house with her master, where the master was saying.
Fell down at the door and lay there until daylight.
When her master got up in the morning and opened the door of the house,
he stepped out to continue.
On his way there lay his concubine, fallen in the doorway of the house,
with her hands on the threshold.
He said to her,
get up, let's go.
But there was no answer.
The man put her on his donkey
and set France out for home.
There's.
There's
there's no empathy.
There's no.
There's no sad. There's no grief.
There's no compassion.
There's no I mean, can you know what has happened to this guy's heart?
The Levite, for goodness sake, the tribe of Levi, the priest
says, get up.
Let's go.
There was no answer because she was dead.
When he reached home, he took a knife and cut up his concubine
limb by limb into 12 parts, and sent them
into all the areas of Israel.
How did this chapter begin?
With what words?
There's no king in Israel.
So what he's doing here, as grotesque as this is,
there's no authority
to appeal to for justice.
There's no agency
to say.
You have to level some justice against these people.
And the only way in his, in his
whatever mind
is to cut her up in 12 pieces.
And some have adjusted suggested different
whether it was cut at the ankles, at the knees, at the hips.
So they're six at the wrist, seven eight
at the shoulders, 910 to the head, 11, 12.
So they suggested many different ways
of how they how they cut this body, how he cut this body up.
And to send these bodies to a representative of the 12 tribes.
That's what he's doing and saying.
Since we have no king, there's no agency to turn these guys into this.
Look, this is
we as a people have got to do something.
And everyone who saw such a thing has never been seen or done
now, since the day the Israelites came out of up, out of Egypt.
Think about it.
Consider it.
Tell us what to do.
I mean, you read that chapter in
Where's the Redemption in that chapter?
I mean, other than a veiled
pursuit of a husband to a wayward wife,
but even that doesn't hold up because he throws her out to a mob
to be brutalized and then finds her dead, like, get up, let's go.
Oh, no. Okay, fine.
They're just.
It's just you look at the, At what?
Evil like sin results.
You think? What are.
If there's ever a time, say,
God, where are you?
Right.
Chapter 20.
Then all the Israelites, from Dan to Beersheba,
and from the land of Gilead, came out
as one man in a symbol before the Lord in Mizpah.
The leaders of all the people, the tribes of Israel, took their places
in the assembly of the people of God, 400,000 soldiers armed with swords.
So at least they mobilized at least like, okay,
this is this is too far.
The binge my that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah.
Then the Israelites said, tell us how this awful thing happened.
So the Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, said, look what he says.
I and my concubine came to give you in Benjamin to spend the night.
During the night the man of Gibeah came near
me and surrounded the house, and tended to kill me.
They raped my concubine and she died.
Okay, why don't you tell the whole story?
I mean, think about how
much he leaves out right?
He'd eat.
He knows that he can't come clean about himself
because they would probably kill him to.
I took my concubine, cut her into pieces in one piece to each region.
Israel's inheritance.
Because they into this loot, interest rates will act in Israel.
Verse seven.
Now all you Israelites speak up and give your verdict.
He wants justice somehow.
He wants, he want.
He wants the hammer of of of righteous justice to fall.
Somehow.
He doesn't know what to do. He knows how guilty he is.
And he's asking the people, somebody do something, please.
What has nobody done yet?
For how they even mentioned God's name.
But how bad does it have to get
for people to
say, maybe there's a spiritual thing at work?
And what we're seeing are the results of of the evilness.
Of the evil one.
Let's cry out to God, because this is so far beyond what is normal.
This is so far beyond what should ever be accepted.
This is not this should not be
a normal part of humanity.
It's so interesting when the slide,
when the slide, the downward slide is slow and methodical.
How used to it we get right?
There are so many things in our own culture
that has been such a slow,
methodical downward slide
that evil and degradation has become normalized.
What's it going to take?
When you think back
a generation ago, two generations ago,
and what is normalized now, if that generation looked at that
and thought was going to be normal, they say, no, no, that's that cannot be
right.
But this is what happens
when when evil is not when sin is not called out,
it's not corrected when the Word of God isn't present.
I mean,
so finally it's gotten so bad, they're like, okay,
we got to do something.
Verse eight, all the people rose is one man saying, none of us will go home.
No, no, not one of us returned to his house.
But now this is what we will do to give.
You will go up against it as the law directs.
Verse ten will take ten men of every hundred from all the tribes
of Israel, 100 from a from a thousand,
and a thousand from 10,000 to get provisions for the army.
Then when the army arrives and give you and Benjamin, they can give them
what they deserve for all this vileness done in Israel.
So all the men of Israel got together and unite as one man against the city.
And so these 1211 tribes of the 12, they're leaving Benjamin out.
The 11 tribes are getting together and amassing this army
to go up against the people of Gibeah,
because that's where this horrific thing took place in the tribe of Benjamin.
And the 11 tribes are getting together against the tribe of Benjamin.
Verse 12.
The tribes of Israel sentiment throughout the tribe of Benjamin, saying,
what about this awful crime that was committed among you?
Now surrender those wicked men of Gibeah, so that we may put them to death
and purge the evil from Israel.
So the 11 tribes together gather this massive army, and they go to
the tribe of Benjamin and say, give us the people in Gambia who did this.
They're going to be put to death.
You would think the people of Benjamin would say, yeah,
no, we get it.
But the Benjamin will not listen to their fellow Israelites.
Verse 14, from their own, from their towns, they came together.
I give you the fight against the Israelites at once.
The Benjamin is mobilize 26,000 swordsmen from their towns,
in addition to 700 chosen men from those living in Gibeah.
Among all these soldiers, there were 700 chosen men
who were left handed, each of whom could sling a stone out of here and not miss.
These were the elite fighters.
These were the Seal team six.
These were the Delta forces.
Anybody remember about the judge who was the left handed judge?
Ehud.
Benjamin.
The elite of the elite.
They amassed together to say,
okay, now the Civil War is what's brewing here, Benjamin,
against the 11 tribes.
For 17,
Israel, apart from Benjamin, mustered 400,000 swordsmen.
All of them fight him.
And the Israelites went up to Bethel and inquired of God, notice that?
Inquired of God. Look at what they said.
They said, who of us shall go first to fight against the Benjamin?
The Lord replied, Judah shall go for.
And so it looks like they're seeking God right?
What did they say?
What was their question?
Who should go?
God says, go ahead, send you to watch what happens
the next morning, the Israelites got up and pitched a camp near give you.
The men of Israel went out to fight the Benjamin
and took up battle positions against them.
I give you the Benjamin came out of give me and cut down
22,000 Israelites on the battlefield that day.
But the men of Israel encourage one
another, and again took up their positions where they had stationed themselves.
The first day the Israelites went up and wept before the Lord until evening.
And they inquired of the Lord.
They said, shall we go up again to battle against the giants?
Our brothers?
So God, who should go first?
He says, go ahead, send Judah.
They go out and they get slaughtered.
Why would God let that happen?
And ask if you want.
Yeah.
Charlotte, what do they say?
They said, we know what to do.
We know what's best.
We're not even going to talk to God about it.
Who do you want to go first?
God sent you to go ahead.
See how it goes. They get slaughtered.
So the image shows up.
But verse 23, the Israelites went up again.
And what?
What they do.
They wept before the Lord until evening.
And they ask God what they ask him.
Should we do this? God?
Right.
Shall we do this again?
Sometimes.
I'm not saying this is the reason.
Please don't read into what I'm saying.
But sometimes.
It takes extreme
personal pain and loss.
To to drive us
to weep before God
and to stay in his presence.
That's what they're doing.
Look at what's happened.
This poor woman.
Their countrymen at slaughtered,
their families being destroyed.
Until they wept
and repented and sought God's presence.
No longer is it the prideful, arrogant.
Oh, I'm gonna take this in a matter of my own hands. God, you're going to help me.
Now it's Lord.
We don't know what to do,
and we don't have the answer.
And we're going to be here in your presence.
Until you give us direction.
I mean, how many times have
has something happened in our world, and we know what we're going to do?
We're just going to we're just going to take this is just.
Rather than saying,
Lord, I have to admit to you, I don't know.
This is a road I've never had.
I've never walked yet,
and I don't know what to do.
Is there something here that you desire from me?
Is there something you want me to is.
Or what do you want?
Should I even.
The Lord answers. Go.
Go up against them.
The Israelites drew near to Benjamin the second day.
This time when the Benjamin came out from Gibeah
to Posen, they cut down another 18,000 Israelites, all of them armed with swords.
Then the Israelites,
all the people went to Bethel, and they sat weeping before the Lord.
They fasted.
They had uniforms in burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the Lord.
And the Israelites inquired of the Lord in those days,
the ark of the covenant of God was there with Phineas the son of lions,
or the son of Aaron, ministering before they asked, shall we go up again
to battle with Benjamin? Our brothers are not.
The Lord responded, go for tomorrow I will give them into your hands.
Sometimes God lets us get completely and utterly destroyed.
Completely and utterly destroyed
so that we have nothing left.
They go to Bethel,
which is the house of God,
and instead of just being sorrowful and asking, should we go now?
They fast.
They offer burnt offerings, fellowship.
But what it is, is they start worshiping.
So first all they said was, God, will you help us?
Who goes first?
And they got absolutely defeated and in great pain.
They said, Lord, should we do this?
They're still did you know, they're still just seeking
God's hand, not simply his presence.
They get wiped out again this third time.
Now they're seeking communion with him,
offering worship.
God, it's not enough for us just to know your hand is going to be with us.
We need to take a step back here, and we just need to worship you
and honor you.
We've been so driven by
our sense of justice and what has to happen.
What we need is just simply to
to rest in your presence right now.
I mean, I get it when horrible things happen
or horrible news comes, we want to know, well, what's the next step? What do we do?
What do we do?
And sometimes say, God, you got to help.
You got to step in. You got to intervene.
And sometimes God says, listen,
right now I don't need to do anything. You.
Need to come to me.
And worship me.
Nothing changed for these people yet, right?
There's nothing's been avenged.
And God
says, listen, you just come to me in worship.
Worship is going to be your primary weapon right now.
Worship is going to be your weapon.
And so now the Lord responds.
Verse 28, go for tomorrow.
I will give them into your hands.
Then this will set an ambush around you.
They went up against the bench of my house on the third day,
and took up positions against you, as they had done before.
The mites.
Verse 31 came out to meet them, and were drawn away from the city.
They began to flee casualties on the Israelites as before,
so that about 30 men fell in the open field and on the roads,
the one leading to Bethel and the other two Gibeah, while
the Benjamin two were saying, we're defeating them as before.
The Israelites were saying, let us retreat and draw them away from the city
to the roads.
All the men of Israel
moved from their places and took up positions, and they all Tamar
and the Israelite ambush charged out of its place on the west of you.
Then 10,000 of Israel's finest men made a frontal attack on give you a.
The fighting was so heavy that the
you might not realize how near disaster was.
The Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel,
and on that day the Israelites struck down 25,100.
Benjamin's,
all armed with swords.
Then the judgment saw that they were beaten.
Now the men of Israel had given way
before Benjamin because they relied on the ambush they had sitting there.
Gibeah.
The men who had been in ambush made a sudden dash into Gibeah,
spread out, and put the whole city to the sword.
So Israel's fighting the Benjamin.
It's drawing them away from the city.
This secret
seal Team Six force moves into Gibeah, because the army is drawn
away from Euboea and puts the whole city of Libya to the sword.
Start slaughtering everybody,
the men of Israel, verse 38, had arranged with the ambush,
so that they would send up a great cloud of smoke
from the city.
And then the men of Israel would turn in the battle.
The Benjamin had begun to flee the casualties on the men of Israel about 30,
and they said, were defeating them as in the first battle.
Verse 40.
But when the column of smoke began to rise from the city, the Benjamin turned
and saw the smoke of the whole city going up into the sky.
Verse 41.
Then the men of Israel turned on them, and the men of Benjamin
were terrified, because they realized that disaster now come upon them.
So they fled before the Israelites in the direction of the desert.
But they could not escape the battle.
And the men of Israel who came out of the towns, cut them down there.
They surrounded the Benjamin, chased them,
and steadily overran them in the vicinity of Gibeah on the east.
18,000 Benjamin spell all of them valiant fighters,
as they turned and fled toward the desert of the rock of Ramon,
the Israelites cut down 5000 men along the road.
They kept pressing after the Benjamin as far as get them, and struck down 2000
more on that day, 25,000 Benjamin swordsmen fell, all of them
valiant fighters, but 600 men turned and fled into the desert
to the Rock of Ramon, where they stayed for four months.
This is
one of their tribe, one of the 12 tribes.
It's a very small tribe,
and it's absolutely annihilated in the Civil War.
The men of Israel went back.
Verse 48
to Benjamin and put all the towns to the sword,
including the animals and everything else.
They found all the towns they came across.
They set on fire complete annihilate
portion of this tribe.
Nearly complete annihilation.
Other than seeking
God so that they don't get destroyed in battle.
Has anybody
turned to God? Repented.
What are we doing wrong, father? How do we make this right where we are?
As if there's anybody turn to God at all.
Nobody.
This is all just self-will.
Determined revenge.
Nobody's thinking.
Chapter 21.
The men of Israel had taken an oath at Mishal.
Not one of us will give his daughter in marriage to a Benjamin.
So 12 tribes of Israel.
If if they cut Benjamin off,
they've killed most of the most of the men.
Right.
There's
this tribe is going to
is going to basically die out.
There saying we won't allow
any weddings to take place
with anybody from any other tribe.
The people went to Bethel where they said before
God until evening, raising their voices and weeping bitterly.
Look at what they say,
oh, Lord, the God of Israel!
Why has this happened to Israel?
Have you ever been in the wrong and blamed
God like it's his fault for what happens?
How dare they say, why has this happened?
Look at what you've done, what you allowed.
Someone said this, and I try to.
I tried to reiterate this.
You know, when I'm coaching with guys.
And I was just talking to staff about it today.
That culture is created
not just by what is demanded, but it's also created
by what is allowed.
And so if you're proactive and thoughtful
and purposeful, you can you can set culture by what you by.
You're exposed to what you know by what you demand.
But if you're not careful,
your set culture by what you allow
and what have they allowed?
A complete negligence as far as the pursuit of God is concerned,
a complete
vacuum of seeking the Lord and God's Word.
Why did this happen?
Because the culture you create, you allowed.
That's what happened.
I don't blame God for it.
And they say, why should one try to be missing from Israel?
Day early the next day, the people built an altar in prison,
or burnt offerings or fellowship offerings.
Do you notice
how they're kind of going through the religious practices?
But their hearts aren't really attached to God at all?
This is the danger of religion
because religion makes us think because of what I'm doing,
I'm close to God.
It's what Jesus says, you know, you worship me,
but your hearts are far from me.
Like it's a warning to us.
Let's not go through the practice
and miss the person of Christ.
So they're doing all the things, but they're so far
from the heart of the father.
The Israelites asked.
Verse five,
who from all the tribes of Israel has failed to assemble before the Lord?
For they had taken the solemn oath that anyone who failed to assemble
before the Lord at Mizpah should certainly be put to death.
Now the Israelites grieved for their brothers.
The Benjamin's.
Today one tribe is cut off from Israel.
They said, how can we provide wise for those who are left,
since we have taken an oath, to the Lord
to not give any of our daughters a, in marriage.
And so they're like, this is so bad.
One of the tribes is going to die away.
And there's a few, you know, men that that weren't necessarily guilty.
And they're still in Benjamin,
but we've already promised before
God that we're not going to give our daughters to marry them.
And so that tribe is going to die off. What do we do?
Like we've already made this oath before God and
we can't give our daughters to this tribe, so this tribe can continue.
It was so vile.
We put them to death. And.
But why would God allow that to happen?
But we really don't have an answer. And.
And I'm not gonna let my my daughter go marry one of these guys.
You know what I'm saying? Like this. This whole, like,
what do we do?
And then they asked
which of the tribes to fear which of the tribes of Israel fell to some of them?
For the Lord?
It is for they discover that no one from Jacob's
Juliet had come to the camp for the assembly.
For when they counted the people, they found that none of the people
were there.
And so what they said was,
we're going to get everybody together to inquire of God, what do we do?
And any tribe or and said, don't show up, we're going to put them to death.
And so when they do their little investigation, what tribe didn't show up?
The people from Jabez, Gilead
and Benjamin didn't show up.
Gilead was the place where this woman was raped.
Nobody from that community showed up.
And so they got a problem because now they've said,
anybody don't show up, we're got put them death.
So the assembly sent
12,000 fighting men with instructions to go to the Iliad and put to the sword
those living there, including the women and children.
This is what you are to do.
They said kill every male and every woman who was not a virgin.
They found among the people living in Gilead 400 young women
who had never slept with a man.
And they took them to the camp at Shiloh in Canon.
So they had destroyed the the army of Benjamin.
Now they're destroying the people of Gibeah.
Okay, so so the tribe of Benjamin
and the people are being absolutely annihilated and destroyed.
They find in Gibeah,
400 young women who were virgins.
So they left them alive.
So they got 400 women.
They really have no other
men there to
marry these four gals.
Because they said, kill every male.
In the whole assembly, verse 13, send
an offer of peace of the Benjamin to the rock of Ramon.
So the Benjamin returned at that time, and were given the women a Jewish Julian,
who had been spared.
But there were not enough for all of them.
So the all the other 11 tribes say this is going on for him.
Let's make a treaty with the tribe of Benjamin.
Let's not fight anymore.
So they all agree to these peace terms.
So Benjamin is like they're okay with their brothers now
and these other tribes, and they say, so these, these,
these 400 women,
like, go ahead so your tribe can continue,
but there's not enough,
there's not enough women
for the Benjamin men that are left.
And so without the women
man thing going on, they're not going to have enough babies
over the years to be able to keep the tribe going.
So they're still men.
They're without wives.
The people grieve for Benjamin because the Lord had made a gap
in the tribes of Israel.
And the elders of the assembly said, with the women of Benjamin destroyed,
how shall we provide wives for the men who are left?
The Benjamin survivors must have heirs,
so that the tribe of Israel will not be wiped out.
We can't give them our daughters as wives, since we Israelites have taken the oath.
Curse. Be anyone who gives a wife to Benjamin.
So they got these guys in Benjamin tribe, Benjamin.
They don't have enough women
from the city of Gibeah for these men to have wives.
So they're not going to have kids,
and they're going to lose one of the tribes of Israel.
Like, what do we do?
We already made a promise to God that we're going to let our wives go.
They're like, our kids are going to intermarry.
What do we do?
It's people.
But look,
there's an annual festival to the Lord at Shiloh, the north, to the north
of Bethel, and east of the road that goes from Bethel
to check them and the south to Lebanon.
So they instructed the Benjamin, saying, go and hide in the vineyards and watch.
When the girls of Shiloh come out to join in the dancing
and rush from the then rush from the vineyards.
And each of you sees a wife from the girls of Shiloh
and go to the land of Benjamin.
These things are terrible.
Like they look like they're like, okay,
so we can't give you our daughters,
but we're going to send them out to this festival
and they're going to be there all alone.
And so you hide in the bushes,
and if you see one you like when they're dancing, just run out and grab.
And then you take them back to Benjamin.
And that way
we won't be guilty of breaking our oath because we didn't give her to you.
You took her.
Okay, now there are some commentators
who will say that these women
were ones who wanted to be taken
and wanted to go, and so they kind of set the stage.
If we don't know that, that's I think that's a really gentle way
of reading, but it's a
pretty horrific scene.
So that is what the Benjamin did.
While the girls were dancing, each man caught one and carried her off
to be his wife.
It just reminds me of the old caveman cartoon where,
you know, Carol,
it's horrible.
Then they return to their inheritance and rebuild the towns and settle in them.
At that time, the Israelites left that place and went home to their tribes
and clans east to his own inheritance.
And how did I how does the whole book end?
Okay.
And no King.
And so what does this
particular agreement all through the book
defeat, repent, cry for help, deliverance.
And then chapters 19 and 20.
They truly,
though at different times they got a different ways.
They never repented.
They never humble themselves.
They eventually wanted God's help,
but they didn't want to surrender.
They wanted God's hand,
but they were very far from God's heart.
And these three chapters highlight.
I think the results and ramifications of
when we do what is right in our own eyes.
Usually what is right in my eyes,
left to myself,
is not what is right in God's eyes.
And unless I am on a very short leash
with my God.
I will wander very far away.
And we have to be very careful
to stay.
In that attitude
of submission and repentance.
Because, like I said, sin is one of those
progressive things that knows no bounds.
And I guarantee you
that none of these people in this account would have ever thought
it could get that bad.
Just like we think.
But sin, left unchecked
gets that bad.
And sin left unchecked
doesn't just destroy me.
But through me.
Right?
Destroying others.
You and I have a king.
And his name is Jesus.
And we must stay in a very short leash.
Of submission and repentance
and humility.
And seeking God's presence
before we seek his hand.
And seeking his heart.
Before we seek his help.
Because if we seek his hand and his help,
but not his his heart, and just be.
We'll ask God to do
what is right in our eyes.
And God is under no obligation
to do what is right in our eyes.
Right?
And sometimes when we're in those positions of sin.
Where are you now?
How could he get this bad?
God says, listen.
Your job right now
is to come close to me and worship.
That's.
That's the only thing I want from you right now
is you just worship me.
The Book of Judges
really doesn't have a happy ending.
And it doesn't end on a high note.
I think it ends with a warning.
With a warning about
the pervasiveness of sin and how bad it can get left
unchecked.
And to not lose sight that we have a 18
and his name is Jesus.
And our responsibility,
our opportunity is to seek his heart.
Not try to direct his hand.
Does that make sense?
You understand?
I'm saying.
Most of us want to direct his hand.
God do this.
Step in. Intervene.
Make right.
And I think God would say, my hands are my hands.
Your heart needs to be mine now.
Rory, do me a favor.
Back in that bucket on that little thing, right.
There are communion cups where you make sure everybody gets one.
I wasn't necessarily planning on doing this,
but I just have a thought right now.
Just pass those out, maybe give some to John
and pass them around over here or something.
I wish judges ended on a high note.
I wish it, I wish it ended with
God gave this judge and led everybody and they repented and and,
you know, they had a party and everybody got baptized and went to church.
You know, I don't know,
they finally got a coffee shop and a fountain,
and everybody was happy.
I wish it ended like that.
But I think rather it
ends with this very somber, sober,
worn veil, almost a veiled warning.
Don't let us not allow ourselves.
To have this.
Can I have one?
Oh. Thank you.
Good.
Toss.
Let's not allow ourselves,
to let our sin go unchecked
and think that we have any right
to try to direct God's hand.
All we have is the opportunity to worship.
And there are times
when everything within us would love to direct his hand.
I get it, I understand I'm there.
But there are times
when our greatest weapon
is just a heart of worship.
And one of the.
Biblically instituted
acts of worship is communion.
Worship is expressing love to God.
Worship is giving thanks to God.
And above all else that God has done, he's given us his son.
And I don't know
of a greater thing to worship God for
than the giving of His Son.
I don't know if the thing
that that's that's worth
is, is more worthy to give thanks for than his son.
And and what Jesus did on the cross.
I think it was it was C.S.
Lewis. I shared that quote a couple of weeks ago.
That or maybe it was just as Sunday,
and he basically said
that,
when things are good,
thank God, because they're good
and when they're bad, thank God.
Because
basically he said, thank God because,
he's going to make it right
and let the bad draw you there to heaven.
When he does make it right,
let it remind you that this is not our home,
that we're made for a better country
and a better land.
And it may get very, very, very bad here.
It will get very, very bad.
And we will experience the pain of sin.
But through Christ, because we are made for a better country
and a better land, that's our real home.
And and that's worth giving thanks over.
And so what I would like us to do is just remember Jesus and
and for a moment.
Not that we neglect or ignore those things.
Very real things going on in our lives
that are painful and difficult and scary and
and not that we minimize any of that.
But for a moment, let's just take all of that
and just set it aside.
But let's just take all of that, say, Lord, I'm not even going to
I'm not even thinking about that right now.
As bad
you go through chapter 19 as, let's just take all that bad stuff
and let's just set it aside for a moment.
And I just want to center
down on you and your son.
I just want my attention to be there
and and let's just take a moment
and put our attention there.
And so do me this favor.
I wasn't sure I.
I don't know how we're going to go through this communion time,
but let me just try this. Let's try this.
I just want you to close your eyes for a moment.
And I want you to just
to think through to to to visualize,
to repeat in your mind.
All that God has done,
all that Jesus has done, all that he has absorbed, all that.
All that he is.
The sacrifice that was paid.
His incredible love for you.
Just sit in the remembrance.
Of Jesus's life.
When he went through on the cross.
For you.
Thank him.
That because of his life, you can have life.
And just remember him
and thank him for him.
Let your mind go to the place
that remembers
what you we have gained because of his
blood.
Forgiveness of all sin.
That though we're guilty,
we've been acquitted.
That God has taken
your sin and put on his son.
And taken his son's righteousness.
And put it on you.
And that because he is
the God who has died and raised.
You can have confidence that he will never leave us
nor forsake us.
He will never forsake you.
Jesus, we remember you.
You didn't have to humble yourself and come to earth
and take on human form.
But because of me, you did.
Because of us, you did.
You didn't have to be obedient unto death, but because of me.
Because of us.
You were.
By your life.
You've given us life.
And by your blood.
You've given us relationship with you.
And we remember you.
We thank you.
Now stay in this moment for just a moment longer.
And as you remember Christ, his death,
his blood, his resurrection.
Whatever there is
that need to be repented of.
Stay on a very short leash.
And repent.
Feel sorrow for your sin.
For your doubt.
For your anger.
And utter those words in your soul.
For this God who loves you.
Father, I repent.
You are enough.
And I am fully yours.
Jesus.
As we take the bread and the cup, we remember you.
And we thank you.
You are good.
And you are ours.
And we repent.
I thank you that you'll never leave us.
I think that you never forsake us.
And I thank you that you redeem
even those things that we look at right now
as unredeemable.
Do that as we remember you.
In your name, I pray. Amen.
I want you to take the bread.
And remember Jesus's words.
This is my body
that I'm giving for you.
Every time you take this, I want you to remember me.
And what I've done.
And take the bread and remember him.
And the cup.
And remember his words.
This cup is the new covenant of my blood.
Shed for you.
For the forgiveness of your sin.
Every time you drink this,
do it and remember me.
Take the cup.
From Jesus.
Thank you.
Thank you for your life.
Thank you that you've given your life to us and for us.
And, father, as we wrap up, judges, I guess that it my prayers real simple.
Redeem that which in our eyes
looks unredeemable.
Buy it back.
Create goodness out of it somehow.
Give back what's been stolen.
Give back what's been sacrificed.
Redeem.
That which has been degraded and destroyed.
We have no answers.
We don't know what to do. Most of the time.
And so we just want to draw close to you.
Because we know that you are the Redeemer
and our Redeemer.
You are asking.
We will never.
We could never utter those words.
We have no king because you are yet.
And we just want to be close to you.
So we honor you as our King.
We remember you as our Savior.
And we thank you that you are the one who redeems.
And we pray these things in your name, Jesus.
Amen.
Thank you
for letting me meander through three chapters of judges.
That, that, and parts of Lamentations are some of the most horrific
chapters of Scripture to study and try to do it
in a.
Encouraging way.
So thank you, for going through this with us.
And I do want to invite you.
We're taking the next Wednesday off
because it's right before Thanksgiving.
The Wednesday after that, we're about halfway through the just over
halfway through the book of Genesis, and we're
get to the real meat of some stuff in the in the life of Joseph and stuff.
It's going to be really, really.
And so you're all invited back in two weeks to Bible study.
You think I plan this to do this?
You know, so we get you here on Wednesday night.
Come on. Take.
But, But I'm telling you, those of you who couldn't
run was invited to our Wednesday about setting.
It's a good time to gather in it. Yeah.