Judges Chapters 19 - 21

Let’s turn to Judges chapter 19. From chapter 17 to the end of the book of Judges are, more or less an appendix, to the book.

A)They do not follow a chronological order. They are just giving you little insights to the conditions of the nation at this particular period of their history.

B)The emphasis over and over again in these appendixes is pointing out the fact that there was no king in Israel, / it was a period of anarchy

1) this doesn’t only mean that Israel had no one political monarch, but that they refused to recognize God’s leadership over them.

C)For everyone was doing that which was right in his own sight. It was a period in which existential philosophy had its opportunity to show itself in the practice of life. We see how morally debased the people had become.

D)In these final Chapters we read about a Levite who took for himself a concubine;

1) a concubine was recognized as a man’s legal partner, but she did not have the same status in the home or in society as a wife.

E) A concubine was, in this sense, a legal mistress. And though we see prominent men in the Old Testament taking concubines

1) we never see such a family life blessed by God.

A lot to cover tonight I want to summarize the gruesome events of Ch. 19&20

A)This Concubine – was unfaithful to her husband – v.2 she played harlot and went down to her fathers house in Bethlehem – stayed 4 months

B) Then her husband the Levite decided – to try & reconcile

1) Travels up there – Reconciled together – seeks to leave & the girls Father keeps delaying their departure – “Stay another day”

C) When they finally leave it is pretty late in the day and they couldn’t get all the way home so they stopped in the city of Gibeah to spend the night

1) They stopped in Gibeah because the people of Gibeah were from the tribe of Benjamin – they were neighbors & Brothers – not strangers

Well in that Culture during that time – they had no hotels / no motel 6

So people would open their homes

A)So they find a man who opens his home and asks them to come and stay the night – { That is when things turn ugly } RD v.22 -23

B) Now what we see here is very reminiscent of what happened in the city of Sodom – God sent 2 Angels ( as men ) to destroy that city

C) When these two men were received by Lot, into Lot’s house, the men of Sodom, in the evening, encircled the house and demanded that Lot send these two men outside,

1) that they might actually have homosexual relationships with them.

D)God destroyed Sodom because of this sin, but here the same thing is now happening, only in a Israelite city, among the tribe of Benjamin.

1) The same heinous sin that perpetrated the destruction of Sodom is now happening among God’s people.

The moral decay into which the nation had sunk is obvious and evident here.

A)As the homosexuals of the city are so brazen as to openly parade themselves in the streets of the city, and demand their rights, which are not really rights at all. { TODAY – Homo influence & Agenda is growing

B) The old man recognizes it as wickedness and as folly. Don’t do this wickedness, don’t do this folly.

C)Now because of the custom of hospitality and because women in that culture and time had very little rights,

1)the man did something that is quite unthinkable to us. He offers his virgin daughter & the man’s concubine

D) We would think – a man would do anything to save his wife & daughter – but this shows us the affects of a society that has left out God !!!

You see our culture has been vastly affected by the Gospel

A)One thing that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has declared and has promoted is equal rights. Recognizing women as equal with men, in the sight of God.

B)For in Christ there is neither male nor female. { All one in Him

C) The influence of Christianity in the world has given honor & respect to women { Non Christian countries very different

1) Now in our Society that has changed a lot as well over the last 70 yrs as we have sought to push out Christianity and the Christian influence

D) The lines are being blurred women are being degraded women are seen as an object for men to lust after and to gratify his lust w/ thru porn & such

1) The woman’s place of honor and respect, glory and modesty is rapidly disappearing.

E) Not only that – Rom 1 – turn from God – turn to a debase mind – turn to that which is not natural –{ That is how far gone these people were

RD V. 25-28 - { Sad she was dead –

F) What he does next is horrific – v. 29-30

CH. 20 V. 1-7

A)The people are so outraged that an Army of 400,00 comes together

B) Now at first they call on the men of Benjamin to hand over the culprits give us the guilty men – the perverted men – we will punish them

1) Benjamin refuses – they are going to protect the PERVERTS –

C) So they muster up an army of 26,700 to go up against 400,000 - shows you how far gone they are

Well when the men of Israel hear that the Benjamites are not going to hand over the culprits & they want to fight – they react emotionally

A)They did what was right in their own eyes – they make 3 vows

1) No one is to go home until Gibeah is attacked & Destroyed

2) Anyone who doesn’t go up against Gibeah will be destroyed

3) No one will allow his daughter to marry a Benjamite

B) They set off to battle – Pray who go first – God says Judah

C) Now what is interesting is they lose the first two skirmishes – first one 26,000 men from the tribe of Judah / next 18,000

1) SO in 2 days they lost 40,000 men – 1/10 of their army

D) Now I don’t know the reason for why they lost those first two battles

1) God doesn’t tell us – I am not going to speculate

However I think it does illustrate that when we allow sin to rest in our lives or in our nation – how hard it can be to get rid of it

A) Who knows how long they turned a deaf ear & a blind eye to the sin of Homosexuality that was growing there in Gibeah / yrs probably

B) Now they were going to find that – it wasn’t going to be easy to get rid of it !! – There would be loss & death

C) We fail to realize that when we give place to sin / when we lose ground in our carnality / when we drop our guards with sin

1) it is hard to gain that ground back – we think that it is going to just be a little thing – but in reality – Hard / work {

D) Denise & I – my mistake with the Church – it took time to get back to normal – it took time to rekindle what was lost -

Pick it up in v 26- 35

They were victorious thru faith & perseverance – The promises that God has given to us – will always result in Victory –

A)But we need to make sure that we are patient – Abe patiently endured to obtain the promises

B) We need to hang in there & keep going until we see the Victory

C) V. 36-48 gives us the details of the battle – that the Benjamites were defeated by Ambush { Killed all the men & woman only 600 men left

Ch. 21 :1- 7

Now they realize that they made a stupid vow – the tribe of Benjamin is going to be wiped out – it will be no more – losing a part of heritage

A)What are we going to do – Well instead of admitting it was a stupid vow and changing it – they again doing what is right in own eyes seek solution

V.8-15 –

B) Two wrongs make a right – God demolish this city & take all the virgins and give them to these 600 men – Problem there wasn’t enough – short 200

C) Again trying to fix their mess – instead of seeking the Lord -

V. 16- 22 Go Steal a wife

V. 23-25

Here we leave the Children of Israel in this dire place – we are reminded of all that they have given up – because they simply would not obey

A)Read Exodus / Joshua – Promises made to these people – dating back to Abe – they FORFIET THEM ALL – simply because not obey