Moral Decay Follows Spiritual Apostasy

Transcript

GRS 2-58
2/25/2007
Moral Decay Follows Spiritual Apostasy
Judges 19-21
Gil Rugh

We’ve been studying the Book of Judges together and we have come to the closing Chapters of the Book in our study together and I direct your attention to Judges Chapter 19. If you’ve been with us through the study, you can appreciate why Leon Wood entitled his very fine commentary on the Book of Judges, “The Distressing Days of the Judges.” It’s a time of spiritual decadence, of moral decadence, disorder in the nation, everyman doing what is right in his own eyes, it’s the repeated phrase, there’s no king in Israel. You have a nation gathered but no central authority, no one tying the nation together, enforcing its laws. Religion has become fragmented. The religion of Canaan has become a common practice in the nation, what we have in the last five Chapters of Judges, beginning with Chapter 17, is just glimpse.

First into the religious condition going on in this period of time and then the moral conditions, so these five Chapters form something of an appendix to the Book. There are no judges mentioned in these closing five Chapters when we begin the Book of Samuel which is the next Book that picks up the history here. Samuel is the last of the judges in Israel and the greatest and is also a prophet. He has a unique role, but what we are getting here is a snapshot, if you will, it’s not chronological. In fact, these last three Chapters go back to the early period of the judges. We’ll pick up how we know that because an individual who is identified here. So what we’re doing is just pulling out of the days of the judges to show you something what it was like, religiously and then morally.

Just go back to Chapter 2, let me highlight a few things with you as a refresher since we’ll conclude the study. Back in Chapter 2; we find in the days of the Judges, it’s a time of religiously syncretism where Israel’s mixing the worship of Jehovah with the pagan practices of the nations around them. And so you have a disregard of the law of God on this matter, but that strange mixture and it’s always strange, because you would think people that are utilizing the word of God would have better sense than trying to mix the worship of God with the worship practices of pagans.

Chapter 2, verse 12; they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods from the gods of the peoples who were around them, bowed themselves down to them, and thus they provoked the Lord to anger. Down in verse 17, as you move along and we’re moving along here from judge to judge, verse 17; yet they did not listen to their judges, for they played the harlot after other gods, bowed themselves down to them. They turned aside quickly from the way in which their fathers had walked in obeying the commandments of the Lord; they did not do as their fathers. Over in Chapter 3, verse 7; the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and forgot the Lord their God, and served the Baals and the Asheroth.

Chapter 6, verse 25; now on the same night the Lord said to him, and here is the Lord appointing Gideon who will serve as a judge in Israel; take your father's young bull and the second bull of seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal which belongs to your father, and cut down the Asheroth that is beside it. Here God is calling Gideon to come out and rescue Israel from their oppressors and the starting point is you got to destroy the idolatry that’s in your father’s home. Cut down his idols, destroy them. You see something of the permeating influence in Israel in Chapter 8, verse 27, sadly, the end of Gideon's life. Gideon, remember, gathered the gold as a reward from defeated enemy and he made it into an ephod placed in his city Ophrah, and all Israel played the harlot with it there so that it became a snare to Gideon and his household.

Thoughts had, perhaps with good intentions but bad results, both with the people and for Gideon. Ephod becomes a snare because it becomes an object of worship. What started out as a reminder pretty soon becomes the focus and turns the worship away from the living God. Down in verse 33; then it came about as soon as Gideon was dead, that the sons of Israel again played the harlot with Baals made Baal-berith their god. Just that endless through the days of the Judges, Israel constantly trying to pull in the religion of Canaanites. Why would they do that? But remember, that’s where they lived. They hadn’t driven these people out as God told them to. So the pressure is always there, the appeal is always there, the desire to fit in is always there.

We can understand the pressure to compromise and the excuses and reasons that are often given. Over in Chapter 10, verse 6, then we have to move on. Chapter 10, verse 6; then the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals, the Asheroth, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the sons of Ammon, the gods of the Philistines, they forsook the Lord, they did not serve him. Just the pattern and you can’t serve the living God while you also worship other gods. I mean, God will not be part of a mixture, part of that syncretism that people try to justify.

So come over to Chapter 19. At Chapter 17 and 18, were a fuller unfolding of that religious apostasy, religious syncretism that took place, and so we had a more detailed unfolding and one example that’s pulled out, that gives us more insight and shows how in one particular family idolatry is established and out of that family the whole tribe of Dan joins in idol worship. So you have a detailed example of what is just been mentioned repeatedly through the Book. Now moral corruption always follows spiritual corruption. And so where we are going in Chapters 19, 20, and 21 is an example of the moral decay and decadence that was true in Israel. We’ve seen examples, I had just mentioned like the spiritual decay. Now what we’re going to get in these three Chapters is a more detailed picture and an example from one of the times in the earlier days of the Judges. Here is just an example so that you understand when you talk about the conditions here, how bad it really truly is.

Leave a marker in Judges, comeback to the Book of Romans, Chapter 1. You’re well familiar with Romans Chapter 1 but just as a reminder and background for what we’re going to talk about in Judges here, in Romans Chapter 1, remember, beginning with verse 18, we’re told that God has revealed himself in creation. So every being wherever they live, wherever they have lived at, in the most remote part of the world has been exposed to the Revelation God is given of himself. And in verse 18, the end of the verse we’re told that everyone suppresses the truth the God has revealed, they suppress it in unrighteousness. Now remember, the creation does not given off Revelation to save a person because you don’t learn that the son of God died on the cross to pay the penalty for sin by observing creation. But the creation does reveal God and his invisible attributes, verse 20.

Since the creation of the world, it’s invisible attributes, it’s eternal power, it’s divine nature have been clearly seen being understood to what is been made so there without excuse. None of us were talking this morning after the service and remarking you would think people like medical doctors would be those that most open to the truth of the word of God because they deal the magnificence of the human body and all that they has the function just perfectly but it doesn’t work that way. Any more than scientists are more open because they’ve examined creation in ways that others of us haven’t. You think they would be in all of the God who must bring but it doesn’t work that way. We’re told they suppress the truth that is clearly before them.

They don’t want to acknowledge, they don’t want to know what truth is, they’re without excuse. Though they knew God, they did not honor him is got their give thanks but became fuddle in their speculations, their foolish art was darken, prophesying to be wise that became fools, they exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for enemies in the form of corruptible man, birds, four-footed animals, crawling creature. So you see what man does, he rejects the living God but he wants a religion, so he makes his own God and worships the gods of his own making, the gods of his own mind. Note the result of that, they profess to be wise, they became false, they’re involved in the worship of false, therefore God gave them over in the lust of their hearts to impurity.

So their bodies would be dishonored, why? They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. For this reason, God gave them over degrading passions. This is what we are going to see in Judges, the Chapters we’re going to be looking at, the degrading passions and here you have various forms of homosexuality mention. It’s a form of immorality that is even another step down. Immorality is a misuse of what God has created, relationship between a man and a woman and the sexual expression of that in marriage. Homosexuality carries it to another degree because it not only carries on a sexual activity outside the bounds of marriage but now it carries sexual activity outside the bounds of what is natural, what is according to what God has created to be carried out the relationship between a man and a woman.

What happens? Just flows out, remember they have rejected God, so God turn them over. God didn’t cause them to do this but God removes his hand of restring to allow them to pursue what their desires are. They have suppressed the truth that is revealed in creation, they are without excuse, they determined they will worship the God of their making where there it’s actually a concrete idol or simply the religious system they have made and out of this flows the immorality. So God allows them to pursue the desires of their heart and it comes to moral decadence. Down in verse 28; they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind. And even in the order in the Book of Judges, Chapter 17 and 18 talked about the religious decay and decadence.

Now Chapters 19 to 21 will talk about the moral decay and decadence in the nation, the same order here. They do the things which are not proper and you have this list that not complete but show you the kind of things that come out of the heart of those who have rejected the living God. Verse 32; although they know the ordinance of God that those who practice things are worthy of death, they not only do the same but give hearty approval to those who practice them. God says, in their heart they are created in his image, they’re suppressing the revelation he is given. They have that sense of guilt that’s why they crave having others say that what they’re doing is good and okay, proper, but you cannot escape the consequences of your sin. So come back to Judges 19; this is where we are in Israel. A nation that God called for himself, it is the elect nation, but that does not mean every individual in the nation is elect.

What’s in the election, there are the elect individuals who come to faith in Christ. But the nation as a nation has gone down the road of religious syncretism of rejecting the revelation God has given and the worship that he has established of himself and now they come and we’re going to look at the moral decadence of the nation and it is striking. I mean, this carries us back to the days of Sodom and Gomorrah to find such activity and it’s coming in Israel, shocking as that is. All right, Judges 19, you see the moral degradation that goes in the nation and Judges 19 gives you the moral or immoral event that is foundation of our understanding, then the tragedy that’s going to result in thousands upon thousands of death in Israel and one tribe in Israel is going to come close to being annihilated, down to the last 600 men, no women, no children, 600 men left. That’s all there will be of the one tribe when we’re done.

All right, the first nine verses give you the historical setting of an unfaithful concubine. Verse 1; now came about in those days, when there was no king in Israel. It’s repeated statement, Chapter 17, verse 6; Chapter 18, verse 1, the Book will end on that. No king in Israel, these are days of anarchy, these are days when everymen does what is right in his own eyes. There is no king to enforce rule and order. There is no king in this nation to enforce God's requirements. There was a certain Levite, so he is a man of the priestly family and he was staying in a remote part of the hill country of Ephraim, he took a concubine for himself from Bethlehem in Judah. Concubine basically a second class wife; she is a wife, she will be referred to in Chapter 20, verse 4, as a wife but she is a concubine, she is a low level wife, if I can say that.

She is not on the same level as just a wife. So a concubine is bound to this man and there is a legal relationship with them but she’s not on the level of a full wife, I don’t know how to say it, a legal wife but in no sense she is legal in the sense she’s bound to him, she’s his concubine, she belongs to him in this society. And she’s not just a slave woman in the family, she does have a status above that but she’s not on the level of a wife. So he has a concubine. She’s unfaithful to her husband. These nine verses, she played the harlot, verse 2, and then she left and went back home to her father, and that’s down in Bethlehem, south, five or six miles below Jerusalem and the hill country of Ephraim maybe going north, the north side of Jerusalem, the north.

And now, she is returned home, perhaps fearful of the consequences of what she is done. She’s get involved in immorality, played the harlot and she is there for four months and then her husband, verse 3, so you see, he is referred to as her husband, Jesus, concubine have the proper setting here. He goes to speak to her tenderly. He wants to have her back. He’s willing to take her back into his home, he comes with his servant and a couple of donkeys, and she welcomes him, takes him into her father’s house and the father is glad to see him, perhaps, because he is glad that there could be a reconciliation here and his wife could be reestablished in the home. So his father-in-law, verse 4, the girl’s father detained him and remained with him three days, they ate and drunk and lodged there.

In the biblical world, Old Testament times, things functioned in slow motion compared to us today in the western world that would be true and part of the world even till today. So somebody comes and visit you’re everything goes on home, just sit, you relax, you visit, you got to prepare a meal but to prepare a meal just doesn’t mean you go to the refrigerator, you got to go out and pick out the right animal, then kill it, then bring it in and slaughter it, cut meat out and then prepare it. So this things all that dragged out, so why you’ve got servants come with you, visiting, you’re drinking some good wine, you’re relaxing; this is no worry, nobody is going anywhere, we’re not checking our watches. So you got three days of this going on.

Now on the fourth day, they get up early and the man’s ready to go and take his concubine and head back home and the girl’s father says, the last part of verse 5, sustain yourself with a piece of bread afterward you may go. Wait a minute; here you just can’t go in an empty stomach. So the process goes all because here you drag this out all day. So they both sat down and ate and drank together and the father said to the man, please be willing to spend the night, let your heart be merry. Because this just didn’t happen, we just didn’t have breakfast between 7 and 8 and you get on the road, I mean, this process goes on. Now it’s later in the day he says, come on, enjoy the evening, spend another night, you get up and get an early start in the morning. So verse 7, he response, does it on the fifth day, he got up rode to go early in the morning and the father said, please sustain yourself, wait till afternoon. So here we go again.

When the man arose to go, says I got to go, it’s get late in the afternoon, we got to get started. The father, girl’s father said, no, the day is getting late, spend the night here and then you can leave in the morning. But, verse 10, the says, I just got to put a stop to this, I’m never get home. So we’re going to leave. So that’s the setting, he is leaving, it’s later in the day and this is going to be the setting. He’s not going to be able to make it home and you don’t travel at night in these time. We think in some of our cities it’s dangerous at night and some of those parts of the city you wouldn’t go at night, just not the place to be at night. Well, in those time people didn’t just walk through the country side at night, it wasn’t the safe thing to do.

So he’s not going to make it. Verse 10; the man was not willing to spend the night, so he rose, departed, came to a place opposite Jebus, that is Jerusalem; and there he has a pair of saddled donkeys, his concubine is with him, he has his servant with him. When they were near Jebus, what is Jerusalem later, as we know is Jerusalem but it’s the city of the Jebusites. Remember this was a city that Israel had not conquered and taken possession of, they defeated the Jebusites, but not completely, they didn’t take the city. Now the Jebusites to be there, they will be establish there until David conquers it and becomes known as the city of David.

All right, they’re not going to stop here. This will account while they’ll get to the city that is significant. Jerusalem’s about five or six miles, basically north of Bethlehem. So you get an idea of how far they’ve come. Take about two hours to take such a trip and the servant says, let’s stop here, verse 11, let turn aside into this city of the Jebusites, and spend the night in it. It’s getting late. However the master said to him, we will not turn aside into the city of foreigners who are not the sons of Israel, we’ll go on as far as Gibeah, that’s another two miles or so north. We won’t stop; we won’t stay in a non-Israelite city. And they’re secured here and this is sensible because what could happen to you in a non-Israelite city, these are foreigners, they don’t have any love for Israel. Israel’s are conquerors.

There maybe is a superficial piece, we’re familiar with this some parts of the world, but it’s not the place you want to go and spend the night. Hence we go to an Israelite city, we stay with our own people and there should be security there. So we go to Gibeah, may be, Ramah, little further along from Gibeah but they go and up at Gibeah. They passed along, went their way, the sun set on them near Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin. So this is in the area of that Benjamin, the tribe of Benjamin control. So Gibeah is a city of the Benjamites, one of the tribes of Israel. The sets, it’s getting dark. Well, that determines we don’t travel on another two miles, return into the city and besides there’s things have to be done. You have to find a place to stay once you get into the city and if you get late in the evening there’s not a place to stay.

Remember the pattern, you go into the city, and people recognize you as a stranger, hospitality requires, somebody invites you to come and stay in their home; just didn’t go to a motel like that. You went into the city and if you couldn’t find a place you went and stopped at the city square, so to speak. And we go around the Nebraska town, so many of them have the city square and courthouse. These towns they had their central place, you weren’t there, people recognize you, you’re a stranger, you stakeout, I mean, these are cities like small towns. # Maryland, I stop in a small town, it seems like everybody recognizes we’re not natives there. They know each other; that’s what happens here. And then hospitality required, you invite them to your home and you provide for them. That’s how you traveled in those days and here we comes to the city of Gibeah.

They turned aside, verse 15, in order to enter in a lodge there. When they entered, they sat down in the open square of the city for no one took them into his house to spend the night. Something’s wrong here right away, I mean, it’s a breakdown in the hospitality; no one took them in their house to stay. This is an Israelite city, here comes a traveling Israelite, there should have been perhaps several offers for him but there aren’t any. Fact, we want turn there a bit in the Book of Job. When Job was defending his integrity, in Job Chapter 31, verse 32; one of his defenses is if I ever failed to offer hospitality to the stranger. That’s a demonstration of his integrity that Job goes before even the nation Israel established as a nation but one of that his defenses of his integrity, nobody could ever say that I didn’t open my home and provide hospitality for a stranger who came into our area.

So just a foundational requirement, but it didn’t happen at Gibeah. So here he sits with his servant, his concubine, his donkeys, nobody invites them into their home, I guess, you sleep in the square, but that is a great failure. So verse 16; then behold, an old man was coming out of the field from his work at evening, now the man was from the hill country of Ephraim; he is not a native of the city here, but he is living here. He has a home here. He has settled here, but he is of the tribe probably of Ephraim because that’s the country he’s from but he is living in a Benjamite city now and working here and working the field here. He has established a residence here. He was staying but the end of verse 16 tells us the men of the place were Benjamites. Nobody get confused here because this becomes significant in what’s going to happen.

He lifted up his eyes, saw the traveler in the open square of the city, the old man says, where are you going? And where do you come from? And he says we are passing from Bethlehem in Judah to the remote part of the hill country of Ephraim; I’m from there. I went to Bethlehem in Judah, I am now going to my house and no one will take me into his house. I have my own straw, my own feed for the donkeys, I even have food for my servant, the maid servant here, it’s concubine, may I can take care myself, I wouldn’t be a burden, you don’t have to feed my animals, you don’t have to feed me. I really just need a place where I could stay in a protected space.

The old man said, peace to you; hold me, let me take care of all your needs, however, do not spend the night in the open square, I mean, it’s just not. Even now you are in a city nighttime, you don’t want to sleep outside, I mean, I can identify that some of our cities, I used within school and downtown in one of our cities, I wouldn’t want to sleep on the sidewalk there at night, I don’t know whether I’d wake up or not, then if I did wake up but probably be naked. It’s just not a safe thing to do. Well, it wasn’t safe in those cities either, I mean, consider there no king in Israel. There’s a breakdown of law and order here and you don’t take somebody into your home in biblical times and not provide for them, that’s humiliation to you but he says, verse 20; only let me take care of all your needs, I mean, it would be a shame on me to have you come in to my home and you provide your own food and you provide for your animals. No, when I bring you in, you become my guest, now you’re fully under my care and I provide for you.

Verse 21, he took him into his house, gave the donkeys water, washed their feet, ate drank and while they’re celebrating, their hearts are merry, they’re enjoying their time together, the men of the city come to the old man’s house. They had not – not that they had noticed the stranger that came into the city, not they had noticed that he was alone at the square, at city square, and nobody was inviting him in, the old man was right, it wasn’t safe to be out at night. The men of the city have their eye on this man, not the woman, the man. And their intentions are evil. So when the old man takes them into the home, not it’s got a little later, the men of the city, worthless fellows, surround the house, pound on the door.

They spoke to the owner of the house, the old man, saying bring out the man, came to stay with you. This sound like Sodom and Gomorrah, bring him out so we can have a relation with him. I mean, now you are in an Israelite city, you might even understand this, if you had stopped at the city of the Jebusites, you’re in an Israelite city, a Benjamite city. These are Benjamites, Jews who are of the tribe of Benjamin. Remember, Saul will be of the tribe of Benjamin, first king, and then Saul in the New Testament whom we know better as Paul, was of the tribe of Benjamin. These are Jewish men. You talk about the corruption, the decadence that has overtaken Israel, I mean, you are in a Jewish city and you have the Jewish of the city, it’s a stranger that comes in, this is not even these kinds of associations that come between agreements in the shadow.

These are men that are coming beating on the door here, a strange man’s in town, bring him out, we’re going to have sex with. And we almost don’t even talk about it but here it is, that’s the condition in Israel. The man, verse 23; the owner of the house, went out to them, and said to them, no, my fellows, please do not act so wickedly; this man is come into my house, do not commit this act of folly. He is now here under my protection. Verse 24, probably is so for to us, it’s hard for us even to consider such a thing; here is my virgin daughter and his concubine; please let me bring them out that you may ravish them and do to them whatever you wish but don’t commit such of folly against this man. And now we understand women were on lower status and but here this man, who even not only put this man’s concubine out but his own daughter.

And you have to understand something worse than having something happened to your own child was something happen to a stranger who had come under your house and your roof and your protection. Now you would really like to think is the old man said to this other man; I’ve got here, take this sword, I’ll take my sword, we go out, fought our lives on the line, we either fight them off or die but it just doesn’t happen that way. You can go back and read in Genesis 19 about the situation and with lot of similarities. He offers these two women to these men, these men aren’t interested women; they’re interested in a man. That’s now why we read Romans Chapter 1; when you turn away from the living God, you don’t know how your corruption will manifest itself. And here you have men of Israel.

The men would not listen to him. So the man here, not the old man who has him under his home but the man who went to get this concubine, pushes his concubine out the doors and offering to the men and they take her and satisfy their lustful desire throughout the night and you wonder what kind of man does this but nonetheless it is practice of the day in a certain way. They abused her al the night, all night long, we don’t know, here you got a crowd of men. They let her go when the morning hours are coming, she makes her way back to the house and falls on the door, her hands there and she’s dead.

The master arose in the morning, you wonder what’s going in his mind, I mean, you’ve just pushed your concubine wife out the door to these men, what do you do then? Go to bed? Go to sleep? He didn’t do anything, when he rose in the morning, he opened the door of the house was going to go on his way. And here is his concubine laying at the door way of the house with their hands on the threshold. He said to her, get up, let’s go. And there’s callousness here, things in Israel are not the way they are to be and he understand though this woman really is part of his property and thinking of the day, any rate, there’s no response. She’s dead. So he picks her up, puts her on one of the donkeys and heads back home. When he gets home, he takes a knife, takes his concubine and cuts her into 12 pieces. And then sends one piece to each of the 12 tribes of Israel.

Remember, this man is a Levite, so he himself is not a member of a tribe. He is living in the realm of Ephraim, and may have said and may have said he was an Ephraimite living in the realm of Ephraim. He is a Levite as we read when the Chapter began. So he sends the 12 pieces to the 12 tribes and obviously there is a message with this because somebody had to take the pieces and carry them to a leader in each of these 12 tribes. And we don’t know what the message is, we don’t know what said because they don’t have the account of what happened but there is enough given because as Israel to marshal armies out, soldiers out from all the tribes and assembled an army 400,000.

So verse 30; all who saw it said, nothing like this is ever happened or been seen from the day when the sons of Israel came up from the land of Egypt to this day: consider it, take council, speak up. So they’re shocked into action. Whatever message is carried, it’s enough of an explanation that here we got a piece of a body. We’re told as Chapter 20 opens up, this Chapter is going to be about the destruction of Benjamin for their sin; all the sons of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, remember, in Chapter 17 and 18, we learned how Dan established itself in the northernmost part of Israel. So talking about going from north to south, you go from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south. So all of Israel include here, including all the land of the Gilead came out, the congregation was assembled as one man, to the Lord at Mizpah.

The chiefs of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, took their stand in the assembly of the people, 400,000 foot soldiers who drew the sword. This is quite a large army. 400,000 foot soldiers, that’s a large army. I mean, this is a serious matter and Israel took this with the visible body parts in whatever the message conveyed, is something that is going to require major military action to deal with. They just don’t come here looking for one man that may have committed a crime, in cutting up a woman. No, they understand with what has been brought to them that there is something here that’s going to require the army of Israel. So here you have an assembly of Israel. Israel functioning with no king, everyone doing what’s right in their own eyes, this somewhat disorder anarchy that exists but under certain situation, Israel still is Israel.

They recognize their national identity and are able to call together. An army made up on soldiers from all the tribes of Israel. So what happens now, they come and the sons of Israel, we have mentioned in verse 3, the sons of Benjamin heard this, the sons of Israel were gone up to Mizpah. And that just a word, the word is out. And the Benjamites know, what’s going on here and that Israel has responded to this call. So they want to know, what happened that this wickedness would take place that this kind of treatment of this woman would happen. So the Levite, verse 4, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered and said I came with my concubine. It’s just; again, it’s a husband wife but a secondary kind of wife.

I came to spend the night at Gibeah which belongs to Benjamin, but the men of Gibeah rose up against me, surrounded the house at night because of me, they intended to kill me. The entry is out of this night, he would have ended up like his concubine, instead, they ravish my concubines so that she died. I took out my concubine, cut her in pieces, sent her throughout the land of Israel, Israel’s inheritance. Now note this last, for they have committed, allude and disgraceful act in Israel. Now I’ve you here so you can say what are to be done. And you see, there is still this moral sense in Israel and even in spiritually degenerate people things often come to the point that they realize this is intolerable. God has built into us and as those who are in his image, even though it is corrupted and we’re marred by our depravity. There is still that awareness of right and wrong even when we reject the right.

So all the people agreed and the army will not go home. No man of us will go home until we’ve dealt with this and we’re going to go up to Gibeah and then they have how they’re going to go and the breakout of those whoever responsible to provide the supplies for the army and we will punish the guilty ones at Gibeah for all the disgraceful acts which have committed in Israel in the end of verse 10. And there is unity here in Israel. The tribes of Israel, verse 12, send men throughout the entire tribe of Benjamin, saying, what is this wickedness that is taken place among you? Now then deliver up the men, the worthless fellows in Gibeah that we may put them to death, and remove this wickedness from Israel. So first action is give Benjamin a chance to deal with it.

This happened in one city and not every man in this city was involved. So – but they sent word to out Benjamin because the tribe is responsible because it was members of their tribe. So they sent the word out, turn over the guilty men that they might be punished, they might be executed, and that will remove the wickedness. The sons of Benjamin would not listen to the voice of their brothers, the sons of Israel. The sons of Benjamin gathered from the cities to Gibeah. So now, from all the other Benjamite cities, their soldiers gathered together. They come to Gibeah ready to do battle. Now you’d say stupidity, bravado, they assembled an army of 26,000 men, remember the count of the Israeli army, 400,000. The Gibeonites have an army of 26,000.

It doesn’t matter, they’re ready to fight. Isn’t it amazing? You think now, wouldn’t you think that the tribe of Benjamin would be short that they would agree we cannot believe that such a thing would happen in one of our cities. And you don’t have to execute these men; we’ll send their dead bodies out to you shortly. We’re ready to die to protect these men which make them then in alliance with their sin. They share their guilt. Verse 14, they come out there and in verse 15, the number is 26,000 men who draw the sword, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, were numbered 700 choice men of all these people,700 choice men left-handed men, and remember, their battle, they have swords, spears, and slings, and we used to have slingshots where you pull the band back and shot, these were with the slings like you’ve seen of the chords with a pouch on the end and then you sent the stone, well these were left-handed, these men were so good with that sling where David in his sling that kills Goliath. They could sling a stone at a hair, and not miss it. The Gibeonites are confident about their military ability and we’re going to see something of it in a moment. So this is the army and then you have the reminder, verse 17, the men of Israel, besides Benjamin, numbered 400,000 men who draw the sword: all these were men of war.

So now we come out and we’re ready for the issues of the battle, verses 18 down through the Chapter here give you the stages of the battle. It is not going to go well for Israel at first. They enquire of the Lord and what they’ve done is have the ark brought up and down to verse 28, we are told that Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, Aaron son, stood in those days. That’s why I told you we were in the early days of the Judges because he is mentioned back in the closing Chapter of the Book of Joshua also. So we know that we are in the early days of the Judges because Phinehas is still operating here. Well, it’s not in time sequence; it’s just to show you the corruption. Remember the days of the Judges, when on for between 300 and 350 years. So it just shows you here we’re early and the corruption and decadence in Israel in this period of time is almost unbelievable.

Okay. The sons of Israel go out there and enquire Judah supposed to lead the way. Verse 19; they come out and camped against Gibeah, the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel arrayed for battle against them at Gibeah. The sons of Benjamin come out of Gibeah, and fell to the ground that day 22,000 men of Israel. I mean, here you have these Benjamites come out and they killed 22,000 of the Israelite soldier, it’s a major defeat. The men of Israel encourage themselves, arrayed for battle again, and prepared for battle again. The sons of Israel went up and wept before the Lord, and asked, what do we do wrong? I mean, we got to go out here; we got to carry the battle but something wrong. We lost, 22,000 of our men are dead, and again, the instruction from the Lord is to go up against him. The sons of Israel went out the second day. And so verses 24 to 29, you have the second battle and the results are the same.

This battle; verse 25, 18,000 men of the army of Israel are destroyed. Now we have 40,000 Israelites, I mean, Benjamin doesn’t even have 27,000 soldiers to put on the battlefield and they have killed 40,000; 10% of Israel’s army in these two battles. You know, it says they enquired to the Lord, it says that the Lord told them, the end of verse 18, Judah should go up first. We’re told at the end of verse 23, that when the ask if they should go again in the battle against Benjamin, the end of verse 23, the Lord said, go up against him and yet, both times they went up a shattering defeat. We’re not told why Israel had to lose 40,000. It does serve to humble them. Verse 26; the all the sons of Israel, the people went up and came to Bethel and wept, they remained there before Lord and fasted that day until even, they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.

Then the sons of Israel enquired of the Lord, for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days. They’ve prospered themselves before the Lord in humility and we’re not told why that they had to suffer this defeat, perhaps its part of God's discipline on them. Remember this is the only place; we went back and read beginning in the early Chapters of Judges, the religious syncretism that’s going on in the nation. So this is an isolated event in the moral decadence, maybe it hasn’t come to this depth but have an age of moral decay and religious decay. So this is part of the chastening of the Lord on the people. But now, we’re ready for the victory of Israel. So when they enquire the Lord, verse 26, Phinehas, who is the high priest of today; at end of verse 28; go up for, tomorrow I will deliver them into your hand. So Israel sets up an ambush in the third battle and there is total victory.

When it’s done there were only be 600 men out of 26,000 or whatever the exact number is, left in Benjamin. There will be a complete crushing and only crushing, its take no captives because what is happening for Benjamin supporting the men who deserve to die for their crime, all these people in Benjamin die because now, they share the punishment of the guilty men who are aware of the death by their supporting them and defending them, they end up paying the price. So they’re not even taken captive here. But there is a great slaughter and it is a slaughter of the men, the women, the children, were done. The tribe is an isolated except for 600 men and there is a danger of going – the tribe going out of existence because there’s no women for these men. That’s how complete this destruction has been.

What a price they paid to defend. Godless, say more men whose desire was to enter into this kind of gross morality and they’d willing sacrifice the tribe to defend such godless activity. So that account is from Chapter 20, verse 29, down through the rest of the Chapter and it’s the details of the battle and how the Lord instructed them to allure the Benjamites out of the city, then to come in behind them set the city on fire and to crush the Benjamites. Verse 47 of Chapter 20, says 600 men turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, and there they remained at the rock of Rimmon for four months. So in the sovereign plan and grace of God, 600 men escape. And here they are for four months isolated.

And Israel obviously could have gone out and killed them but that wasn’t in the plan of God. the men of Israel turned back, verse 48, against the sons of Benjamin, stuck with them with the edge of the sword, both the entire city, with the cattle, all they found they set it on fire all the cities which they found. This is like putting it under the band. According to the Book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 13, verses 12 to 18, this is what to happen for false worship and so on. That say use to be put under the band and you destroy everything including the animals, it’s devoted to destruction. To the some commentators, have implied that Israel perhaps was over reacting here and didn’t do the right thing but according to Deuteronomy 13, verses 12 to 18, this is what you were do to those who carried on such an activity. So I think Israel was within the bounds of what Deuteronomy 13 instructed. So when you’re done, you have 600 men out here at the rock of Rimmon and everything else that bound to Benjamin is dead; men, women, children, animals, they are annihilated. There is nothing left, but 600 men sitting out there in isolation.

All right, Chapter 21 tells you how provision is made so you don’t lose the tribe in Israel. The men of Israel had sworn in Mizpah, saying, none of us shall his daughter to Benjamin in marriage. So the people came to bethel and sat there before God until evening and lifted up their voices, and wept bitterly. I mean, it’s a great victory but it’s a tragic time. A tribe in Israel has all but been wiped out. They said O Lord God of Israel, why has this come about in Israel, that one tribe should be missing today in Israel? The next day they build an altar, offered burnt offerings, peace offerings. Now they have to come up and decide what are they going to do. First thing is as there any city that didn’t come up, didn’t sent men to the battle, verse 5; who is there among all the tribes of Israel did not come up in the assembly to the Lord? For they had taken a great oath concerning him who did not up to the Lord to Mizpah, saying, he shall surely be put to death.

In other words, it was not optional to join the armies of Israel against Benjamin because if you didn’t join the armies of Israel against Benjamin that mean you sided with Benjamin that means you have to pay the same price as the guilty parties. And they find out one city didn’t; we have an explanation here, verse 6, they’re sorry for their brother Benjamin; one tribe is cut off from Israel today. What shall we do for wives for those who left and we have sworn by the Lord not to give any of our daughters are married? You’ve got a real problem here. There’s only 600 men in Benjamin left and all the other tribes has sworn, they won’t give any of their women to marry men from Benjamin if they didn’t survive.

How the word you’re going to keep, you can’t go and get Canaanite woman because the laws says you can’t do that. So we got this tribe die out. So verse 8; they said, what one is there of the tribes of Israel that did not come up to Lord at Mizpah? And that takes you back to verse 5, why it was told is to verify. Anybody doesn’t come up is going to pay the punishment of death. Now they ask what on Israel, the tribes of Israel who did not come up to the Lord and, behold, no one had come up to the camp from Jabesh-Gilead to the assembly. So here’s a city, we’re just getting in both. So what they do is they sent 12,000 soldiers out and the instructions are, the end of verse 10; go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the little ones. Men, women, and children, babies, there’s an exception, this is the thing you shall do, verse 11, you shall utterly destroy every man, every woman who has lain with the man.

They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead 400 young virgins, would not had sexual relation with the man. Everybody else in Jabesh-Gilead has to die, little ones not but the 400 virgins. Now they were in part of this oath, tonight give the women so, let’s say we can have these women then. So 400 to 600 men, now we’ll have wife. We still have 200. What are we going to do? Then the whole congregation sent word to the sons of Benjamin who were at the rock of Rimmon proclaimed peace to them. And Benjamin, so these men come back and the 400 women are given to 400 of the men but that’s not enough, at the end of verse 14, they’re sorry for Benjamin. They don’t want a tribe to go out of existence, so the elders of congregation says, here is what we would. At Shiloh there’ll be a celebration, an annual celebration, and the virgin women come out and dance at this celebration. You, 200 men of Benjamin, who are still without a wife, you come up and kidnap one of these woman.

So we can give you a woman from Israel but that doesn’t mean you can take one. Now we get a little bit here of what is this mean and what is this and so on but nonetheless, it’s true. This is within the confines, God won’t bring them a judgment this but you see the kind of things going on here. So have these women go out and then when the fathers and the people of Shiloh say, hey, they stole our daughter, we’ll say, no, don’t make an issue of it. They didn’t have any choice. Family relationships were a little different thing those days. I mean, here you have 400 women now just been given to 400 men. What do you think of this woman who’s just had her parent slaughtered, maybe her brother, sister slaughtered, she’s carried away, and say now you’re this man’s wife. And you think what things going on.

Now you have there some women who are going to be kidnapped. They’re just gone out to dance. So here some men hiding in the bushes and the trees, run out, pick out one of them, run off, carry her away, and have a wife and the men of Israel will say, that’s all right, it had to be this way. So that’s the instruction that falls down and they even tell them how to do it down. Verse 20; go and lie in wait in the vineyards; watch the daughters of Shiloh come out to part the dance, then you come out of the vineyards, catch his wife. Again, this was the dance that the virgins would carry out. Verse 22; come about when their fathers or their brothers come to complain us, we will say to them, give them to us voluntarily because we didn’t take each man for the Benjamite a wife in battle, we should have made provision.

We should have thought about a least surviving and keeping enough women are alive to have been wives. So we take responsibility here to continue the tribe of Benjamin’s existence. So that’s what happens in verse 23. Verse 24, every other sons Israel departed from there, each man to his own tribe and to his family. In those days there was no king in Israel: every one did what was right in his own eyes. You see something of the situation and God’s grace even in the midst of it all.

All right, let me just mention a few things here in summary and we will be done. Incidentally, you might want to go down Hosea 9:9 and Hosea 10:9. Hosea; now we’re going way down in Israel’s history and there it refers back to the scenic Gibeah and that day it become a hallmark like Sodom and Gomorrah for bottoming out in equity. All right, some lessons from this. First, we’ve already noticed spiritual apostasy leads to moral decay. Our morality is a reflection of our theology; we see that in our own society. And it’s true, you reject the living God, what are the parameters from morality, what are the guidelines, spiritual apostasy leads to moral decay.

Number two, even the people of God are capable of more of vileness. Remember we studied First Corinthians Chapter 5, Paul begins that Chapter, but saying, here that there’s immorality limits and it’s the kind of immorality that unbelievers don’t even commit. A man is sexually involved with his father’s wife that is his stepmother. Even ungodly, unregenerate people view that is wrong. And here you tolerate it. And this man’s an accepted part of the group, the congregation. So the people of God are capable of the vile of sins. That’s why you don’t want to go there, you don’t want to get involve in that, just because I am a believer, I couldn’t do that or I could never do that. Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

Number three, discipline is necessary for the purity of God's people. Tolerated sin corrupts the nation, it will corrupt the church. Tolerated sins spreads, we see it going on in our society, the more sin is tolerated, the more it permeates and now what not only as tolerated, it is to be declared acceptable, not only is to be quite acceptable, it is to be promoted and we’re to this stuff. The way sin goes, that’s why you have to have discipline in the body of Christ, you have to have discipline in Israel, you have to have discipline otherwise the people of God become like the world around them.

Number four, the people of God are to stand as one against sin. There are parallels to this in the church, obviously, we have church discipline, we’re not Israel. But God expects his people to discipline sin and its means just like he picked at Israel to deal with sin in their midst and there is to be unity in that. What is it? For a person not to unite, not to join with Israel in opposition and the serious discipline of death for that sin was to say, we agree with it. All I mean, that I’m just neutral. Jabesh-Gilead couldn’t be neutral. Neutrality means agreement and we have the song, neutral you cannot be. Then he say, he’s not with me, is against me. What’s his neutrality? I just don’t want to get involve. I won’t be part of it. The people of God are to stand one against sin in their midst.

Number five, those who will not stand against sin among God's people are counted as guilty themselves for the sin. I have to think about that. Gee, I won’t stand against sin, I’m not going to be, then I’m kind of promoting it, accepting it, being part of it. Number six, discipline won’t be easy. There are casualties even in discipline. Israel lost 40,000 soldiers here and takes an attitude of humility. And the discipline Israel had to maintain humility before God. This is I’ll just also not that repeated expression, every man did what was right in their own eyes, there was no king Israel. God has established government for a purpose. Now Israel is an earthly nation and they would have an earthly government. The church is not an earthly nation but he also established human government for a purpose, Romans 13. And part of that is to keep order in the nation. We look around the parts of the world today where anarchy and total chaos. I say what they need is governmental authority to bring order, that is true for society accepting that God is implemented and establishing.

You can read Romans 13, so even bad government is better than no government. Even in countries like communist country, there was a certain order and we were in communist China, a number of years of ago there was order. We were comfortable walking down the street. They say you don’t have to be afraid, because the punishment for doing anything to a foreigner like you is so great, no one will harm you. Well, I was glad communist government although there is the downside because then in talking Christians I had to be very careful, because of the opposition to Christianity. But even there, there was an order about the society that when you have chaos and everyone is doing which right his own eyes, you’re afraid to go out your door.

Okay, we have to stop there. I have some other things but we’ll stop there. That’s the Book of Judges. Not much said about Israel’s history there, 300-350 years of history, a few highlights, God intervenes on certain occasion, the angel of Lord appears, but it is a time of religious syncretism, of moral decadence and we’re prepared for Samuel, the greatest of the Judges and the one who will establish the monarchy in Israel.

Let’s pray together. Thank you Lord for your grace. Lord we are in awe that thousands of years after the events we have just considered Israel as still a nation. Nation that you have chosen for yourself, even as they are under your discipline and under your judgment, you are not done with that nation. The worst for them is yet to come, but in your grace there is salvation. Thank you Lord for the ministry and role of the church of these days. We would learn these lessons been written for our admonition, our instruction. We pray that we might be careful to be faithful in our walk, maintaining purity, maintaining faithfulness, purity not only morally but spiritually as your people in these days. We pray in Christ’s name, amen.