All right, so tonight we come into the last lesson in the book of Judges. So if you turn to Judges chapter 19, and we're going to look at three chapters tonight, 19, 20, and 21. He said, well, three chapters, yes, because they all go together, those three chapters. And tonight we're going to look at a passage of Scripture that is very disturbing, but it's in the Word of God, and we need to look at it. So tonight we're going to look at when sin goes unchecked. Look in Judges chapter 19, verse 1. So we're going to look at Judges 19 verse 1 tonight. And we're going to dissect chapter 19, 20, and 21. And next week, Lord, we will pick up on the book of Ruth. So, it says, And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel, there was a certain Levite sojourning on the side of Mount Ephraim, and took to him a concubine of Bethlehem Judah. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank You, Lord, for Your Word. We can open, we can read it, we can study, and Lord, we can even make application out of it, Lord. And I just pray tonight, give us something we can take home, we can live it, so we can glorify Your name even more. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. So tonight we're going to look at these three chapters. And I said last week, I said that it is amazing how When you go to the book of Judges, it is an interesting book because all the way until these chapters you see that the Lord saying, the Bible saying that the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. And that's pretty much what we see. And what we see in those chapters is that judges, the children of Israel, will leave the Lord, will go and live like the people of the land, and do wickedness. And when in their wickedness, they will cry out to God. I mean, after they sinned against God tremendously. And what happened there was that they'd be oppressed by the people of the land. And because they'd be oppressed, they'd come to the end of themselves and ask the Lord to forgive them. And the Lord would send a judge. These judges are not like the judges of today that we look at them. They have like a cape and they sit in some court somewhere. That's not the type of judges that the Bible is talking about here. So these judges were kind of protectors, so to speak. They were ruled for those years and as long as that judge was alive, the children of Israel were okay. Until the judge died and they all go back to the same cycle. I see many times that's the way some Christians are. They're following the ways of sin and they make a mess out of their life and then they repent of their sin and they come to church for a little while and they're there for a little while then they go back to the same cycle again. They make another mess and they go back and they continue doing that. And when we live like that we never have really victory in our Christian life. Because if we live in the middle of the fence, and I say today I'm going to try to stay in the middle. Listen, if you walk in the fence, you're either going to fall to one side or the other. You can't keep up walking in the fence. You're going to fall. So the children of Israel did that. But when we come to these chapters right here, God gave us a glimpse at the wickedness of the people. When we say like, you know, the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, God's going to show us the evil right now in this chapter. Alright? That's why some people say, I don't understand why this chapter is in the Bible. Oh, I understand why it's in the Bible. Alright? And when we begin to read this, you're going to say, wow. But look at this. These chapters teach us sin, that sin escalates. When sin goes unchecked, only escalates creating great damage. As we read these chapters, we see how personal sin escalates into the sinful behavior of a city, which escalates into a sinful behavior of a tribe, which escalates into the sinful behavior of a nation, and it leads to genocide. That's what happens here in these chapters. So, to say that the moral climate of the Western culture has changed significantly significantly, I'm sorry, in our lifetime is to say the least. We understand if you look at the condition of our nation, even the world, we can say morality is gone, out the door. If you look back like 10, 20 years ago and look at today, you say, what happened? You know what? When you open the gates, and let sin in, and the gates still open, all kind of sin keeps flowing in. It doesn't stop. And that's where we live in today. That's what happened in the book of Judges right here. When you open the floodgates, everything comes right in. Now let me put it this way. Let's say you have a big river. And that river is full. That river is began to expand itself. You say, all right, we're going to open the flood gate so we don't see no floods going to the land. We're going to open the flood gate. When you open that flood gate, trees are coming, roots are coming, rocks, everything goes down. The same thing is sin. When we Christians, we open the floodgates or the gates of sin, there's no sin. When I'm going to stop, it just keeps going. That's what happens here. So to say that the moral, like I say, even today, that time morality is gone. Today in our world, morality is gone. So today we live in an era where moral absolutes are considered part of the past. Listen, there was a day that you didn't dare curse an older person. He wouldn't dare say anything bad in front of a lady. There was a day you just didn't say that, you didn't speak that way. There was a day that you would walk, help a lady in a grocery store, an older lady. You would open the door for a person, let the person go in. You wouldn't just walk in the store and shut the door and didn't care if the door hit somebody in the nose or in the face. You would just stay there, open the door and the person would walk in and the person would sit down. It was a day, that's the way life was for all of us. Today, We just don't care. Morality is gone. A person is here cursing life and everything else, using words that I don't even know how to say it, in front of anybody, of a child, of a woman, anybody. And if you turn around and say, could you please change the way you're talking, they get mad at you. I was in a restaurant with my wife, not far from here. And this couple sitting in there, and they were going at it. They were going at it. And I had it. So I look at him, I said to the lady, because she was the worst. I said, could you please talk softer so I don't want to hear all the garbage that's coming out of your mouth. I'm came here to have dinner. Could you please change the... She looks at me and she said, what's the matter with you? This is America. And I said, lady, you know what you need? You just need a bar of soap in your mouth. You need a metal brush and just wash your mouth because your mouth is like a septic tank. I thought the guy was going to do something, going to get up and be mad. He didn't. He looked at her and he go, He agreed with me. But see, that's the stage of our society. We came to a point, we're so desensitized that it's like normal. And you say, what's wrong with you? That's the way everybody speaks. No, it's not true. Some people don't speak that way. Listen, even to this day, I am 54, my mom is 76. I don't say anything in front of my mother. I don't speak that way, but we just don't. She's still my mother. That's the way I was raised. But morality is out the door. That's what we see right here as well. So such errors is our error rate. The last chapter of the book of Judges seemed strangely out of place. The last judge mentioned in the book of Judges is Simpson. We just look at his life. The story is told in Judges 13 to 16, chapter 13 to 16. But here are four more chapters following his story. These last chapters of Judges are a departure from the early narrative structure of the book. So the first 16 chapters give us a bird's eye view of things. A regular uh, in times right here we read the people did evil, like I said, in the sight of the Lord. But now God allows us to look into this chapters and see what kind of evil is going on. So let's look at this from several points tonight about this chapters. So let's look at point number one. We see perversion in the lands. Look what it says, let's look at chapter 19. Chapter 19 of the Book of Judges begins with the story of a gang rape of a woman by a group of men in the city of Gibeah in the tribal area of Benjamin. So the back story starts with a Levite a priest, the hill country of Ephraim, seeking to regain custody of a runaway concubine. So let's look at these chapters. Look at verse two. We're already with verse one. And look at verse two. And his concubine played the whore against him and went away from him into her father's house in Bethlehem, Judah. And it was there four whole months. and her husband arose and went after her to speak friendly unto her and unto bring her again saying his servant with him and a couple of asses and she brought him into her father's house and when the father of the damsel saw him he rejoiced to meet him and his father-in-law, the damsel's father, retained him and then he abode with him three days so they did eat and drink and lodge there so while we are not told And we cannot be certain of a number of the Old Testament scholars believe that the Levite of the current story is Jonathan here, the grandson of Moses. And the Levite of the previous two chapters... Levi's concubine was unfaithful to him and runs back home to her father's house. So we see right here a concubine is not literally his wife, is, I want to explain where concubine is, but she's unfaithful to him and she runs away and she goes to see, to go to her father's house. No, he goes after her. That's what we see in these chapters here. So Now, a concubine was a woman, often a servant or a slave, with whom a man had regular sexual relations, but to whom he was not allegedly married to. A concubine did not have the rights of a wife, and a concubine's children were not right heirs of the person, or if that man, whatever he had, would not go to them. So even if a husband treated a concubine as a wife, she had virtually no legal rights and her future and that of any of her children, I'm sorry, will often belong to the real wife of that guy. So let's put it like this. So I was married with my wife and I had a concubine. If that concubine have children that from me, literally that children didn't belong to her, it was to my wife. That happened to Abraham, remember? And many others in the Bible. The concubine had no rights. even though she lived there. And some of them would like them so much, would call them their wives. But they were not. But this was done in the Old Testament. So concubines were something that were very popular in those days. So why God never sanctioned, God didn't approve this. Don't want to say like, oh I'm getting myself a concubine. No. God didn't approve this stuff. People just did it. So four months after she runs away, the Levites travel to Bethlehem, this Levi, where he initiated reconciliation with her, with his concubine. So what we see right here, a land that forgot hospitality. So he goes and grabs her so he can go back. Let's look at verse 10, what it says right now. But the man would not tarry that night, but he arose up and departed and came over against Jebus, which is Jerusalem. And there were with him two asses settled, his concubine also was with him. And when they were by Jabesh, the day was far spent, and a servant said unto his master, Come, I pray thee, and let us turn unto this city of the Jezebites, and lodge in it. And his master said unto him, We will not turn aside, either, unto the city of a stranger that is now the children of Israel. We will pass over to Gibeah. and he said on to this so this they're going to he said I don't want to stay here we're going to a city the city that Bible talks about is in Bethlehem Judah or so I know I'm sorry so no it's not as in Benjamin so they're going there so they need to find a place for the night interesting here there that hospitality was a very big thing in those days we're going to see something here. During the period of Georgia it was dangerous to travel in the daytime even more at night. Those were dangerous times. So the Levite didn't want to stay in Jerusalem because it was in the hands of the pagan Jezebites. So he prayed, he pressed on four miles to Gibeah so he could be with his own people. but the men of Gibeah turned out to be wicked and as the heat and around them. So he thought, I'm going to lodge with my own people. He was in for a surprise. And the Bible describes about what kind of surprise he's going to have here. So he has to begin with, with nobody in Gibeah turned, came to open the visit. Those days were like this. They come to the center of town and they will wait there. And somebody in town will come and accommodate them for the night. They will show hospitality. Hospitality is not very common in America these days. A lot of people are not very hospitable, especially here in the Northeast. They're not very hospitable. In the South, you see people are more hospitable. They're more kind. I don't know, I guess it's, I don't know why, but I noticed that. When I go south, I come north, I see a big difference the way people are. I'm not saying that you're not hospitable, but many people aren't very hospitable. You ever knock on somebody's door and they only open about this much in the door? Hi, how are you? Can I help you? You don't even... Yes, and you're trying to introduce yourself to them and it's still like this much and it's cold outside and it's raining. I come from a culture like if somebody knocks on your door, you open the door, you invite a man. Especially if you know the person. And here in America, it's like it's raining, it's snowing and you're over there going, hi, how are you? And they leave you there. So hospitality is one of the sacred laws of the east and no stranger was to neglect it. But one man show up and only one man show up concern was a Ephraimite right here. Nobody came. So this man comes and show this man hospitality. So hospitality let me tell you is a dying thing. There are many people who don't show it. They don't care. That is not part of what they do. So Let it be. Let's look at here. Land loaded with wickedness. Look at George's 1922. It says, now as they were making their hearts married, like you know, these people got there. These people invite a man. So inside this man's house, as they get married, you know, the night's going on. They're having a good time together. Look it says, behold the men of the city soot sounds of bilia. These people are not saved. Literally, they're sons of the devil. That's what the Bible calls them here. So you understand what the Bible is talking about here? Okay. I know we live in a day and age where we have to be politically correct. I'm going to be very politically correct right here. These are all homosexuals. They came to the door. They knocked on the door. They were about to knock the door down. And He said, bring the man that you have in your house. Bring him out. We want to know him. And folks, Let me then look at what it says in verse 23. You see the man comes outside and begs them and say, no you're not going to do this. This is wrong. You're not going to do this. Just go your way. Don't we, it's not a passage in the Bible about a lot that happened the same thing? Isn't a lot when the angels came and came into Sodom and the men of the city knocking the door and said the same thing? Bring the men out that we may know them. And the angels just blind their eyes and Lot get out of the city and his family. Same thing right here. It's interesting. So folks, the Lord allows us to see in the last chapter the wickedness that was going on in the land. So God opens the doors right here so we can see the wickedness of the land right here. So there was no leader in Israel. There was no priest. The priesthood was in disarray. Everybody was doing what was right in their own eyes. When there was no, listen, when there was no rules to follow, no laws to obey, no spiritual guidance, the result is wickedness. When we discard God and take Him out of everything, the result is wickedness. When we disregard sin, the result is total wickedness. Let me tell you something. If we had no authority in America, we had no governors, no president, no policemen, no laws, what do you think would happen to America? It would be disarray everywhere. Everybody was doing right in their own eyes. Everybody will show power. In my house I rule. The other one across the street, in my house I rule. And it will be chaotic stuff. We think, listen, the Bible says that the heart of man is desperately wicked. Everybody thinks they're right. It doesn't matter. Listen, you talk to people, everybody has to have an opinion, don't they? Well all of us have an opinion. And you can talk to somebody and they're definitely wrong. And go convince them that they're wrong. And they tell you, you told you that I'm wrong, I'm right. But anyway, the law of hospitality demands that the old man protect his quest at all costs. To invite someone into your house means not only providing hospitality, but also to offer protection. So that man, that man was just doing what was right. I said, don't do this. He was actually protecting the death of that man because that's what the hospitality is called about. So the old man from Ephraim pleads with these people not to do such a wicked thing. And he even offers them his own daughter. Now in this passage we see the wickedness of the man of the land, the wickedness of this old man in the house, and the wickedness of the Levi, the priest. So we see sin coming from the frank direction. So these men come knocking on the door. They're homosexuals. They're angry. They want to know the guy that is in the house. The man in the house, the owner of the house says, no but I'll give you my daughter. Then we see the wickedness of the Levi that literally grabs a concubine and gives her away. Who's wrong in this thing? All of them. All of them. So the twist in this story is found in verse 24, where the Levi himself took his concubine and sent her out to be gathered by this mob. Look what it says in verse 24. How wicked can you be? You're not going to touch this guy, but you can do whatever you want to this one. Folks, it's very rare to hear preaching on a passage like this in the Bible, okay? You just don't hear it, but it's here. So the Hebrew word used here means to take by force. Literally this Levite took her concubine by force. Literally she probably fought and said, I don't want to do this, I'm not going. He grabbed her and out the door you go. So now, can two men in their right mind do such a thing? There are a bunch of wicked men outside the house who are acting worse than animals and they grabbed this woman and gave them to be abused by them. And one of them is a Levite. Let me tell you. I know the old man wants to save his neck. So is the Levi. So he offers them something else. Let me tell you, if you were there, what would you do? It's easy to read the passage, isn't it? If you were there, what would you do? That's exactly what I thought. I was like, you know what? I want my dead body. All right, where's the two by four? Oh goodness, I'm just kidding. But anyway, but they don't seem to even to talk about it. They just go, okay, that's the solution right here. So definitely the men outside of the house were wicked and evil, but the other two men inside were not much better. us what we say like you know we like to point fingers at others look at you oh look and we forget to turn the finger around and say what about me how quick we are to point fingers at others and say look at what you're doing look what you're doing and God says well turn that finger back towards you what about you what are you doing it's exactly what these guys this guy's a levi this guy's a priest Actually this passage is very similar, like I said, to the one where Lot is faced with the same dilemma. And what he does, he offers his two daughters. See what sin can do in your life? What happens to Lot? You end up laying with his two daughters and have children from his daughters. See what happens when we allow sin to have dominance in our lives? Why would Lot do that? Lot got drunk. You say, well I can handle alcohol. I don't think Lot could. We think we can heal. No, we cannot. See, when we allow sin to have dominion over us, to overtake us, we do things we would never imagine we will do. And we just do it. Let me give you a story. We have a kid. None of you know where the kid is, but went to Pensacola Christian College. There's one rule in the college. You don't go out the college, out of those grounds, with a person of the opposite sex. They went and got a pass to go out. I mean, a couple of boys. They lie. They went out with the girls. They came in. One of the girls comes in, said that she, the boys tried to assault, sexually assault her. See what Sen does? I don't know if charges were pressed. Press against them, but he's no longer in college. They tell him, go home. When sin goes unchecked, when we're allowed to go, we justify it, we justify it, we justify it, and it gets worse and worse and worse and worse. That's what we see here. So, this concubine is abused repeatedly and violently raped all night. What is the people in the village? Obviously this woman was screaming. Obviously there was commotion in the streets. Where's the neighbors next door? Where's the people in the streets? Nobody came. Somebody was being violated over there in the middle of the streets. Obviously there was noise, there was hollowing and screaming. Where was the people in the village? You see that? There was two men, a Levi and an old man in the house. They didn't even get out of the house. There was these men outside abusing and raping this woman. Where's the neighbors? It's not my problem. They closed the doors. It's not my problem. It's not what we do. The scene of verse 26 is heartbreaking. Look what it says. Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, early in the morning, when the sun came up. You know what? If you look at this verse, most wickedness happened at night. It's not by mistake that Satan is the prince of darkness. Sin is done at night. They're all night abusing this woman. When the sun comes up, they run. And look what it says right here. So she died. These guys abused her all night and literally killed her. But it goes more in here. The Levite's words in verse 28 reveals to us our cold and callous and uncaring heart this man have. Look at verse 28. And he said unto her, I mean, she's laying there. It's daylight now. He comes outside and look what it says. And he said unto her, up and let us be gone. But none answered. Then the man took her up upon her ass, and the man rose up and got him into his place. So he literally didn't even check if she's alright or not. He just looks at her and says, get up! Let's go! That shows how much he cared. And how callous and wicked his heart is. This is a Levi, folks. This is not a regular guy. This is a man of God, supposedly. He comes out, he has no concern about a human being that's been raped all night. And literally she's dead. So the preceding actions by this Levi are even more wicked than the previous ones. Look at verse 29. And when he was coming to his house, he took a knife, and lay hold on his concubine and divided her together with her bones into twelve pieces and sent her onto all the coasts of Israel." It's pretty brutal, isn't it? If you're like, why in the world he did that for? Literally he cut her body in twelve parts and sent each piece to each tribe of Israel. And look what it says here. Let's see, verse 20 and 30. There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt unto this day. Consider it. Take advice and speak your minds. So nothing like this ever been done with the children of Israel. But it happened there. The Lord just allows us to see the wickedness that goes on in that land. When God says they did evil in the sight of the Lord, you have to think what kind of evil these people are doing. So we see not only homosexuals did what they did, rape that woman all night, but we see a man outside offering a daughter. We see another man that grabs a concubine, put her outside. We see people in the village that do nothing about it as a crime is going on. And in the morning when she gets up, when he gets up, he just says to her, let's go. And now, it goes even worse because it's horrifying what we see here. He cuts her in pieces. cold, callous heart. See, in a culture that was always had great respect for the deceased body, this Levi is going to add one more act of disrespect, as actions are horrifying. He's more concerned about the loss of his honor than the loss of his wife. He's more concerned about vengeance than he is with the vicious attack of his wife. Our hearts look at this and say, why in the world is this guy so sensitive to this? And he says, this guy is angry and mad. You know what this guy wants to do? He wants to create a civil war now. But let me tell you this, if somebody is to blame about this, it's not more the people outside, it's him. Who sent a woman outside? He did. So he's part of the crime. Why didn't he say, over my dead body, that woman's not going anywhere. He didn't. So how naive was it for you to expect that she would be alive the next morning? Finding her dad and her dostas, but feeling guilty about it, he put her corpse on a donkey and made her way home. How sad. Of course, he wanted to mobilize the support of the other 11 tribes and punish the men of Gibeah. who had killed his wife, but in fact he was the one, like I said, who was to blame. He did that. He created that. So number one, we see the perversion of the land. Number two, we see the war in the land. We go to chapter 20, the next chapter. This chapter is preceded after one another. So the Levites' gruesome announcement produced the results that he wanted. Leaders and soldiers from the entire nation except Benjamin, and Jabesh, Gilead, came together to Masphoth to determine what to do. So when the tribes of Israel received that pieces of her body, they got angry. Wouldn't you? They said, what's going on in our land? Why this brutality? They got all together, the 11 tribes. Benjamin was out, but the 11 tribes came together. And you know what? This man planned this. Now we're going to have civil war. We're going to go and we're going to go after the tribe of Benjamin. See letter A we see the appeal. The eleven tribes had agreed as one man to attack Gibeab. But first they sent a representative throughout the tribe of Benjamin calling for the people to confess their wickedness and hand over the guilty man. Now let me tell you this. People do this all the time. If they're guilty, give them back. Let them go pay for what they did. But no, they said, we're not going to give the people to you. They refused to give those men, the men that commit the crime, they refused to give them back. So some people may have interpreted the stubbornness of Benjamin as an act of patriotism. They were not only trying to protect their own citizens, but they refused to cooperate definitely as an act of rebellion against God. When sin isn't exposed, when it isn't exposed, confessed and punished, it pollutes society and defiles the land. Listen, when sin goes out unconfessed, it pollutes the land. It messes up society. It happens to any society. The wicked men of Gabia were like the cancerous tumor in the body that had to be cut out. Let me tell you, if we go on on sinning and sinning and our sin doesn't get checked, we just continue doing more and more and we just contaminate everything. Listen, you can sin and drag people with you. Listen, There are much sin in our country that is going unchecked. There are many parents who now have reprimanded their children for the wrong that they're doing. There's many guys that don't look at their own sin. They justify it. And you know what it does? It continues to pollute society. Listen, why we are where we are in America today. Why morality is at an all-time low. You know why? Because it continues to go unchecked. The floodgates are open and sin continues to come in. And what you see is a society where morality does not exist. And we see the disrespect that goes on. Like I said, profanity. It was unheard amongst people when I was a kid. It was unheard. You just didn't speak that way. You respect an elderly person. You respect the kids. You respect a lady, a man. Not today. They're going to be next to you just using all kinds of words. And you look at them like, what planet did you come from? You know why? Because morality is an all-time low. That's what happens when we allow sin to continue unchecked. So let's see the result right here. Let it be the result. Georges chapter 20 verse 13 it says, And now therefore deliver us up, the man, the children of Bilhel, which are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and put away evil from the land. But the children of Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of their brethren, the children of Israel. But the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the city unto Gibeah to go unto battle against the children of Israel." So see the result of sin, what happened here? That crime happened, that Levite cut that woman in pieces, knew what he was doing, and he started something here. You have 11 tribes against one tribe. This tribe stubbornly said, we're not going to give you these guys. And the other guy said, if you don't give one way, you're going to give the other way. We're going after you. You know what's about to happen here? The tribe of Benjamin is about to disappear. Because they're so determined they're going to clean the land of wickedness. So when God's people refuse to obey God's Word, the result is always tragic. The spiritual life of a church is crippled and eventually destroyed when the congregation shuts its eyes to sin and will not discipline the offenders. Listen, sometimes Things go on even in churches and people close their eyes to it. They don't want to talk about it. They don't want to say something. You know what happens? It keeps spreading. It keeps contaminating. Let me give you a story. There's this church of 800 people. Almost 900 people. Alright? The pastor falls in sin with a woman. All right? He goes up in the pulpit and says, I had a, what do you call it? I'm going to quote his words. I had an emotional relationship with this woman. You had what? Okay. And the people, oh yeah, we love you pastor, we don't want you to leave. And he gets up, yes, and he stayed. You know what happened? Sin went unchecked. They let it spread. It spread. It spread. You know what happened to that church? That church died. It's gone. God says even to you and me, if you keep going this way, I'm going to chastise you. Don't you think God walks in his churches and looks at what's going on? We can see this way as well. So the spiritual life of a church is crippled and eventually destroyed when the congregation shut its eyes and will not discipline the offenders. Let us see the attack. From verse 18 to verse 20 of chapter 20, we see the children of Israel rose up to the house of the Lord and asked counsel of God and said, which of us shall go up first in the battle against the children of Benjamin? And the Lord said, Judah shall go first. And the children of Israel rose up in the morning and encamped against Gibeal. And the men of Israel went up to battle against Benjamin. And the men of Israel put themselves in array to fight against them in Gibeon. Let me tell you what happens here. Now we have brothers against brothers. The children of Israel fight against each other. This is civil war. You know why? Because sin went unchecked. You see that? When you allow sin to escalate to go unchecked, it grows and it grows. And as it grows, it pollutes the minds of people to a point you see brother against brother now. And there's no way that Benjamin can survive this. You've got 11 tribes against one tribe. There's no way. But too stubbornly they say, oh no, we're going to stand up for our people. Oh, your people is guilty. need to be punished. Sin's going unchecked right here. Look, God gave them permission to go to battle, but God in His mercy towards the children of Benjamin, allowed Benjamin to win. You read these chapters and you go, God is good. But look what it says. And the 11 tribes, look. God gave them permission to battle with the tribe of Judah leading the attack. The first day God allowed the Benjamites to win and kill 22,000 Israelite soldiers. You say, Lord, what are you doing? The eleven tribes wept before the Lord again and sought His will. So they were doing right. They wanted to do the Lord's will. Perhaps it was one reason why God permitted the Israelites to lose the first battle. It was to give them an opportunity to reflect on the fact that they were fighting their own flesh and blood. But in the second day of the war, Benjamin won again and killed 18,000 of his brothers. You're talking about one tribe against eleven tribes. 11 tribes again sought the face of the Lord, this time with fasting and sacrifices along with tears. The Lord answered their prayers and now only told them to attack again, but also assured them that this time they would win. The strategy he would use on the third day was similar to which Joshua used in Joshua chapter 8. So self-confidence became the two days of victory. And guess what? It would happen there. Over 25,000 Benjamites were killed on the battle, on their highways, or highways, or they, and they fled to the wilderness. So Gabriel was taken, his inhabitants were slain, and the city was burned to the ground. In fact, the Israelites army wept out several others, I mean, wept out or killed several other cities with this operation that they did. There's one thing interesting right here. Go to chapter 21. We see the brokenness of the land. Look what it says in verse 2. And the people came to the house of God and abode there till evening before God and lift up their voices and wept sore. So what happened when we sin chose as ugly head? When there was the tribe of Benjamite was just gone, the children of Israel went to the house of God and cried because it is no victory. We just killed our brothers. And look what it says in verse 3. And said, O Lord God of Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel that there should be today one tribe lacking in Israel? So they're looking and it says, one tribe, but we killed our brothers. Benjamin is gone. Once the anger cools off, the eleven tribes realize that they had just about eliminated a tribe from the nation of Israel. And this made them wept. You see, that's what happens. Sin, when it goes unchecked, it escalates. And when we try to fix it, it brings a lot of consequences. say, well but they killed the people. Yeah, they're crying because that was their brothers. They killed women and children. Because they say, how you know that? Let's look down a couple of chapters here, a couple of verses. See On their anger, like I said, they made them weep. But there were 600 soldiers who were left from Benjamin who needed wives. So, if they needed wives, what happened to their wives? They were killed. They killed everyone. And they found out that 600 soldiers were left out of the tribe of Benjamin. There was no woman, there was no children. If these guys died, Benjamin would be gone. It would be no more the tribe of Benjamin. Let me tell you. The children of Israel were one nation. Imagine for an example, all right? How hard it was in American Civil War. We were not there. But imagine how hard it could have been when America was in civil war. Americans killing Americans. Imagine if we go to a civil war right now. I don't want to happen, don't get me wrong. But imagine if it happened. Brothers killing brothers. In the end, who wins? No one. Broken hearts. Imagine if you have a cousin or a brother, let's say during the American Civil War. Let's say you had a cousin or a brother or aunt or uncle in the south and you in the north. And you're fighting against them. And you kill a brother in the battlefield. Is anybody going to win? No. That's why the children of Israel are in the house of God crying. Because their pain is in there. That's what sin does. It brings pain. But there's one thing right here, the children of Israel that made a pledge right here or a covenant that they will exterminate or kill the children of Benjamin. But there were 600 soldiers that were left from Benjamin who needed wives if they were going to reestablish their tribe. But the 11 tribes had sworn not to give them wives. Where would these wives come from? Nobody had come to war from Jabesh or Gilead, which means two things. They hadn't participated in the oath and the city deserved to be punished. It was possible that when the 12 parts of the concubine's body were sent to Israel, a warning was issued and any tribe of the city that didn't respond and help fight Benjamin would be treated the same way. If that was the case, then the men of Jabesh Gilead knew that there was a stake when they remained at home. and to ensure the slaughter of the city was their own fault. So we see right here, the executors found 400 virgins in the city, women who could become wives of the two-thirds of the soldiers that were on the rock, the Benjamites. These men had been on the rock for four months. If you can read that in Judges chapter 20 verse 47. But now they could take their brides and go home. What a price was paid for those wives. But such are the wages of sin. A whole tribe was killed. 600 people is left. So what they did, they have a plan right here. So what price? So the elders had held another meeting to discuss how could they provide wives for the children of Israel. So 11 tribes, what they say right here is this. Alright, okay, we're not going to kill these guys. If we kill them, if they don't have any wives, they don't have any people born out of their blood, and guess what? They're just going to disappear. So we're going to have to come up with a plan so they can have wives. So they allowed these women to go to them, but let me see what it says right here. The tribes would be violating their own oath because they would be given the girls as brides. The girls were being taken was a matter of semantics. They both agreed to follow the plan. So the 600 men got their brides. The 11 tribes kept their vow. The city of Gilead was punished. The tribe of Benjamin was taught a lesson. and the 12 tribes of Israel were saved. How they did this? Somebody remembered that many of the virgins from the tribes participated in an annual feast at Siloam. If there remained 200 men of Benjamin, so what they did, they let those guys come and literally take the woman. They did nothing about it. They had this feast and the virgins were there, the women were there, and the purpose is that the men of Benjamin would come and take them. And that's what happened. They allowed that because the children of Israel didn't want to take it. Very interesting here. And that's how the tribe of Benjamin came to be and began to grow again. But what I want to see and I conclude with this, here is this. The book of Judges closes with this verse. Look at verse 25 in Judges 21-25 it says, In those days there was no kingdom of Israel. Every man did that which was right in their own eyes. That's the way it was in those days. And the book closes showing us what sin does in the lives of people. Listen, I don't know where you are in your life. But let me tell you, if you're living in sin, you think you're going the right way? We're not. Because the more we sin, the more we justify. The more we sin, the more we justify. But let me tell you this, every sin brings consequences. What happened here is this. It started with a Levite, an old man, and homosexuals. And that's what happened, the crime. He even proceeded. He caught that woman in 12 pieces, sent to the 12 tribes of Israel, with the purpose to have a civil war. And he got it. A tribe almost disappeared because of their own stubbornness. Because they didn't want to give the guilty man up. You see what Sam does? He goes unchecked. That's what sin does. And let me tell you, if we think, me and you, we can get away with sin, we are mistaking. Look what the Bible says, be sure your sin will find you out. There's nothing that is done in the dark that will not be shown in the light. You say, but some people did all kinds of things, they died. But it is revealed even after they leave. But let me tell you, oh but they didn't pay for it. God is the judge. They might not pay here at the society but they pay on the other side because the judge is waiting for them. See people think they can get away. No we cannot. We either confess it and forsake it and reap the consequences and trust God. But if we keep going on sin, that's what happens. And let me tell you, if you open the floodgates and allow sin to come in, it gets worse. And let me tell you folks, that's where our society is right now. We live in a society right now, I think it's worldwide, where the floodgates are so open and everything goes. It is amazing what we see and we scratch our heads and say, Is people knowing what they're doing? Is this thing alright? Everything goes these days. And they say to you, who are you to tell me I'm wrong? Well, there's a God in heaven that says, you are wrong. And let me tell you, there's a God in heaven that says, my word does not change and sin still sin. Well, we conclude this book and we start next week in another book, the book of Ruth. So now, I think about this Levi and I wonder, how did this man make it past the Ordination Council? This Levi is not a good example of a spiritual leader at all. Because of his actions and self-centered attitude, thousands of people lost their lives. Sometimes we say, it's my prerogative. I do what I want to do. What I'm doing, I'm not hurting anyone. Really? Let me tell you like this. What we do drags other people. It does. What we do drags other people. Let me put it like this. Okay, I'm a father. I'm a husband. I'm a father. I'm a grandfather. Maybe one of these days I'll become a great-grandfather. But think about it. What I do right now, if I do something wrong, don't you think it's going to affect all these people? Yes, it will. Yes, it will. So well you know I already raised my kids, I can put my guards down. No, no, no. You have an example to give to this generation, that generation and that generation. So we have that example to give. And when we think that what we do does not affect other people, we are justifying our own sin. That's what happens here. People who are doing right in their own eyes. Listen, it pays to live for the Lord. It pays to live a life of righteousness and holiness. Even in a wicked world. Let me tell you something folks. I conclude with this. You think that our society is just bad right now. Don't you think through the ages society has been bad? and bad. And the people that live in those ages, they would say the same thing. Goodness, this society is wicked. We say the same thing today. But let me tell you something. We were born for such a time as this. This is our time. You're not going to live 100 years from now. You're living now. And you know what we're doing now? We'd be an example to the wickedness that is outside. We'd be an example of godliness and morality and holiness to people that need to see the light of Christ. Because if we live like they do, What's the difference? But they need to see Christ in us, holiness in us, so they can look at us and say, oh, I like that, I want that. And that's what we need to do.