All right, there we go. Judges chapter 20, starting in verse one. This is God's word. It says, then all the people of Israel came out from Dan to Beersheba, including the land of Gilead and the congregation assembled as one man to the Lord at Mizpah. And the chiefs of all the people of the tribes of Israel presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God. 400,000 men on foot that drew the sword. Now the people of Benjamin heard that the people of Israel had gone up to Mizpah, and the people of Israel said, tell us how did this evil happen? And the Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered and said, I came to Gibeah, that belongs to Benjamin, I and my concubine to spend the night. And the leaders of Gibeah rose against me and surrounded the house against me by night. They meant to kill me and they violated my concubine and she is dead. So I took hold of my concubine, and cut her in pieces and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel, for they have committed abomination and outrage in Israel. Behold, you people of Israel, all of you, give your advice and counsel here. And all the people arose as one man, saying, none of us will go to his tent and none of us will return to his home. But now this is what we will do to Gibeah. We will go up against it by lot, and we will take ten men of a hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, a hundred of a thousand, and a thousand of ten thousand, to bring provisions for the people, that when they come, they may repay Gibeah of Benjamin for all the outrage that they have committed in Israel. So all the men of Israel gathered against the city, united as one man. And the tribes of Israel sent men throughout all the tribe of Benjamin saying, what evil is this that has taken place among you? Now therefore give up the men, the worthless fellows in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and purge the evil from Israel. But the Benjaminites will not listen to the voice of their brothers, the people of Israel. Then the people of Benjamin came together out of the cities to Gibeah, to Gibeah to go to battle against the people of Israel." That's the reading of God's word. Let's pray together. Father, I thank you for your word today. I thank you that we can read these stories, these histories, and we can see your hand all along throughout it. We can see you guiding your people that you have chosen. And because of that, we can have hope for the future. We can have hope for your people today. Thank you for your grace upon us, understanding that it's nothing of ourselves, nothing of our own that we bring, but it's simply the cross of Christ and grace there. Give me strength now, for I am your servant. Apart from you, I can do nothing. In Christ's name I pray, and amen. All righty, so if we remember last time, we had jumped off with the story of the Levite and the concubine. And what had happened is we were told a story in 19 there about a traveling Levite who had a concubine, a wife of some sort that was of lower class, most likely because she didn't have a dowry, and so she was of lower class than the normal wife of the time. And so she was considered a concubine. And so the concubine was unfaithful to the Levite and she had fled away from him for some, I believe it was four months, and went to live with her father. The Levite had then tracked her down to her father-in-law's and tried to redeem her back. The father-in-law had then insisted that he stay multiple nights, which he had done. And then he had rose up finally and said, after eating and drinking with his father-in-law, no, we will not stay, we have to go. And so as they went away, they come across multiple cities, but darkness was falling upon them because they had not went out early in the morning, they'd went later in the day. And although his servant wanted to stay in Jebus, which was the home of the Jebusites, where Jerusalem would be, the Levi did not want to do so. He thought that they should take refuge in Gibeah, which was home to the Benjaminites, some of his own people, some of the tribe of Israel, thinking that surely they would be better off with their own people than with this pagan people, the Jebusites. But that's not what we found in our text. What we found in our text is, first of all, no one would take them in. No one at all would take them in, although that was something commanded by the Lord, to have hospitality for the sojourner. No one would take the men, and that forced them to go out into the town square. While they were in the town square, they were met by an old man who was coming back from the fields, and he had urged them not to stay in the town square, somewhere that would seem to be safe within the city walls, but was not, as we've seen later in our text, The other man was a sojourner himself. There wasn't even a Benjaminite that took them in, but it was a Ephraimite, a guy from Ephraim, and he had told them to come into his house and he would take care of them. It seemed as though that had ended the conflict there. They had a place to stay and they were relaxing and dining, but while they were doing so, we were told that worthless fellows surrounded that house and they sought to molest the Levite. banging upon the door, telling the guy from there to give them the Levite so they may molest him. Remember, that's that word we spoke of last time. They wanted to know him. They wanted to have an intimate relationship with him. And so to appease them, the man offers his virgin daughter and the man's concubine. They're not appeased by that, and they seek to break down the door. And so the Levite throws his concubine out of the door, slams the door, and goes to bed. And his concubine was molested to death all night. We're told he finds her the next morning with her hands upon the threshold of the door after the man had abused her till death. He then takes her, loads her up on his donkey, takes her home, cuts her into 12 pieces, and sends her throughout all the tribes of Israel. As a whole, it seems. Some commentators think that each part went to a different tribe, but it seems as though as a whole, dismembered, she went throughout all the tribes. probably his servant took her there. And that was to show that Israel was a divided people. These 12 nations that were supposed to be united, that were supposed to be united under God's law, was indeed a divided people, because this horrendous thing had happened, and not in Jebus, not by the Jebusites, but by the Benjaminites. one of their own people this wasn't as if they were in a foreign country and this happened that would be wrong just the same but these were their own brethren who done this thing to them And so that was what that symbolized. And we talked last time about Saul, the King Saul, doing the same thing. When they had sought in 1 Samuel to seek a union between that king, remember the king had said, well, that's fine. Just give me your right eye of all your males. Pluck out your right eye and give it to me and I will take care of you. This had caused distress among the people. And when Saul heard of it, remember what he'd done, he was out in the field with his oxen and he took his oxen and he cut them into pieces and he sent them throughout all the territory. Right? What was that? That was to rally the people. Right. And the call was, come with me. or be your ox will be like these oxen you your your goods will be divided because that's how the children of Israel were they were divided people and so he was uniting them like that and after that we've seen in uh first Samuel there that we were told that the children of Israel went against that king as one man a phrase that we will see a lot in our text today And so after the Levite had sent his concubine throughout all the tribes of Israel, we left off with verse 30 of chapter 19, and it had told us that nothing like this had ever happened. Let's just go ahead and read it again. 19 and 30. And all who saw it, that is, seeing the woman dismembered, said, such a thing has never happened or been seen from the day that the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt until this day." So they had never seen nothing like this so gruesome before in the land. And we're told to consider it, take counsel, and speak. So now these people are going to rally together and figure out what will be done about this dismembered woman. And really, why is this dismembered woman being carried around and presented to all the tribes? So now we are going to see this inquiry from the people. So verses one and two there, it says, then all the people of Israel came out from Dan to Beersheba, including the land of Gilead and the congregation assembled as one man to the Lord at Mizpah. And the chiefs of all the people of the tribes of Israel presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, 400,000 men on foot that drew the sword. So there's that word. It's a word that we're going to see reoccurring throughout this chapter. excuse me, and that is they assembled as one man. They assembled as one man. We're told they all come out. We're told that it is from Dan to Beersheba. That is just each side of Israel there. So all of Israel is what it's telling us here is coming out to Mizpah, this place where they meet. Remember Mizpah is the place where they're going to anoint King Saul to be king. It's this meeting house. If you're this meeting place of all the tribes of Israel, it's where they come. And we are told these tribes come here to decide what will be done. And they meet as one man. They're in unison. They are together. The dismembered woman has brought this dismembered people together. That's what we are seeing here. She was divided into 12 parts. Israel was divided into 12 parts. But now we see the people are coming together in unity over this horrendous thing, over this vile thing. And we can see this throughout history. We see this even in America's history time and time again, that a people that are divided when calamity comes upon them, what do they do? They unite. They unite over this vile thing. If you want to think in recent history, not too long ago, although I was very young when it happened, when you think about the events of 9-11. When you think about those events happening, what was going on? This horrendous thing had happened. Tons of innocents had died. Thousands of innocents had died. And so what did the people do in America? They united together. You had prayer called for on the airways. You had people being kinder to one another. You had people uniting over this terror that had happened. And so that's what we are seeing here. Although their differences and although they are idolatrous and they are scattered apart into these twelve tribes and not in unison over God's law, this thing was so horrendous, this thing was so gruesome, that they can all unite together and say something has to be done about this. This is not right. So that's what we're seeing there, united as one man. It'll reoccur multiple times and we'll try to pay attention to it when it does within the chapter. So 400,000 Israelites are presented. We're told they're presented before the people of God, the people of God. Don't let that go away. pay attention to it. Well, all we have seen throughout the book, we're on the last two chapters, and all we have seen throughout the book is Israel's down spiral into idolatry, after idolatry, after idolatry. That's what we've seen through the book. Remember that cycle that we've talked about time and time again, where the children of Israel do what's evil in the sight of the Lord, that is the evil in Hebrew there. And that is idolatry itself. They do the evil. And so what does God do? He sells them into the hands of those enslavers. He sells them into the hands of the pagan people. They then, after so many years, cry out to the Lord. And what does the Lord do? He saves them. He saves them out of that hand, out of the hand of those enslavers. But then when that judge dies, or even sometimes within that judge's life, by something that the judge himself does, we've seen that with Gideon and the ephod, him putting it up and it being a snare to the people, that the people go back into a worse idolatry than they had seen before. Okay, all this being said, after all that, and decades on decades of decades of them being idolatrous, we now see the children of Israel still being referred to as the people of God. The people of God. Showing a great, gracious nature in God. How gracious can he be that these people who have turned against him time and time again can now unite under that same gracious God that they did when they came out of the land of Egypt? Do you see it? Why He would not cast off such a people, we do not know. What we do know is because He swore by Himself, because He could swear by nothing greater. Yahweh had swore by Himself to Abraham that He would multiply this people. And so God has brought them through all of this, even through their idolatry and the things that they have done. God is still their God. A very gracious thing. So, 4-7 there says, And the Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered and said, so they had asked the question there in verse three, tell us how did this evil happen? This is their inquiry. They're wondering why this woman was sent the way she was. See, they're not fully understanding what's going on yet. And so they're asking the Levite, why'd you do this? And the Levite, verse four, and the Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered and said, I came to Gibeah, that belongs to Benjamin, and my concubine to spend the night. And the leaders of Gibeah rose against me and surrounded the house against me by night. They meant to kill me and they violated my concubine and she is dead. So I took hold of my concubine and cut her in pieces and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel. For they have committed abomination and outrage in Israel. Behold, you people of Israel, all of you, give your advice and counsel here. So the children of Israel, they question this Levite to see why this has been done. And he retells this story. He retells the story that he had went to Gibeah there, the home of the Benjaminites, and that the men had sought his life, which they had. They had sought to molest and kill him. But he admits one thing. Did you notice it? What did he admit? He admitted his own fault. The Levite admits his own fault. He does not include what his hand had done within the story. He had not sought to protect his wife. He had simply pushed her out to the mob, give her to the mob to save his own skin. And that's what he had left out there. That's what he left out within the text. It's a very common thing for a man to do, to leave out the part that makes him accountable. This is what man wants to do time and time again. If you retell stories, you want to leave out what makes you accountable. We can see this a lot because children wear their hearts on their sleeves, I guess you could say, and are open with these things. But when you question children about what they had done, they always leave out the part that makes them accountable. Not only that, but we can see it throughout the Bible, many, many places. Remember in Exodus 32, it struck me as I was studying this, Exodus 32, This is the incident of the golden calf. Remember, Moses had been speaking with God. The children of Israel had been scared to go see God, so they had told Moses, you go, at least we die. You know, they're freaking out, because it's the tempest and the cloud and the thunder. And God says, come meet with me. And they say, no thanks, because we're afraid we're going to die. Rightly so. That's the one thing they got right. Maybe they would have. They were a sinful people. They understood that. You see, God was a holy God. But during that time, remember when Moses comes down, what did the children of Israel done? They had built that golden calf. They had told Aaron, Moses' brother, make us gods that we may worship. And this man Moses, he's gone. make us gods." So Aaron had done so. He had got all their jewelry together, fastened them pagan gods. But when he is confronted about it, remember Moses comes down and confronts him about it. He's like, what did you do? This is his account that he gives of it. 32 21 there. And Moses said to Aaron, what did these people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them? And Aaron said, let not the anger of the Lord burn hot. You know the people that they are set on evil. For they said to me, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. So I said to them, let any who have gold take it off. So they gave it to me and I threw it into the fire and out came this calf. Out came this calf. It was miraculous. I threw it in the fire and boom! Calf. It wasn't my fault. It was majestic. Above my hands, Moses. I was just going to burn it. As it would be, that calf came right out of there. That's not what happened. He fashioned that calf. You see what I'm saying? But all throughout history we can see this. Men, when faced with their sin, go one of two directions. They either confess and repent of that sin and fall upon their knees as the sinner that they are, or they double down. Time and time again. That's what the Levite done. That's what Aaron done. I'm not accountable. These things were out of my hands. The people forced me for one, and then this calf just appeared. Right? These things were out of my hands. We can even go back further than that. Genesis 3. Yeah, what happened in Genesis 3 this is the same thing. This is our history that repeats time and time again Genesis 3 Adam and Eve did they eat or not eat? They eat we all understand that story when the man the federal head of all mankind is confronted and For what he has done for why he is hiding. What does he say? Let's just read it together nine of three. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you? And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. He said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree which I commanded you not to eat? The man said, the woman who you give to be with me, she give me the fruit of the tree and I ate. He didn't say yes. I have done what you've told me not to do. I've sinned against you and you alone. He simply says, well, it was the woman you give me. God, you threw a wrench into the play. It was all good until you give me this woman. We had a good thing going and that's what's really ruined this. Not recognizing his own sin. We see the same thing with this Levite. We, as a church, as a people of God, are not to be that way. We are to be a people who confesses sin. We are to be a people who confesses sin to be sin. Out in the world, Sin must be sin. Confess it to be sin. When the world promulgates and promotes homosexuality, we confess sin to be sin. Not only that though, that's easy for us in our lives a lot of times. Not for some, but for us that's easy to look at others and say that's sinful. The hard part is to look at ourselves. And when we're in wrong, say yes. I am sinful. I repent, I confess that sin, and I turn from that sin. Something that's very hard for us to do, but it was something that this Levite was called to do. Numbers chapter 5. That's what the Lord tells us in Numbers chapter 5. We'll look two places here. Numbers five and five. Honey, would you mind grabbing me some water? Thank you. 5 and 5, And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the people of Israel. When a man or a woman commits any of the sins that the people commit by breaking faith with the Lord, and that person realizes his guilt, he shall confess his sin that he has committed, and he shall make full a restitution for the wrong, adding a fifth to it, and giving it to him whom he did the wrong. This is what God called them to do. He called them to confess their sin that they had done. Now, this is pointing towards sins maybe that someone wouldn't notice, you know, if you took something you didn't know was somebody else's or something of that, but you realize that sin, you are to confess it. I realize that what the Levite did was a little more heinous, but in the same lot of God's revelation, that man was called to confess his sin. When He had went home and dismembered His concubine and sent her throughout all the tribes there, He was to realize that what He had done was wrong. He had inadvertently killed His wife to save His own skin. And so what was He to do? He was to confess that sin to the people and then let judgment come. Confess that sin to the people. Even within the New Testament, in 1 John, what does He tell us there? First John chapter one. Remember dealing with sin there? What John says to us. First John one nine, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But listen to the second part here where he says, if we say we have not sinned, We make him a liar and his word is not in us. Oh, okay. Yeah. There you go. There you go. Christians borrow. So this is what John is telling us here to confess our sins. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Now that does not mean that upon confession, somehow we gain merit with God, right? This is not as Luther thought. If I spend six hours in confession, I'll get a little more grace today. Right? That's what he thought, that's what Luther did for the first part of his life. But, that a truly regenerate heart, this is what John is pushing at here, a truly regenerate heart is one that openly confesses and repents of sin. A truly degenerate heart openly confesses and repents of sin when he sees it in his own life. That is the sign of a true believer. Are you willing to openly confess that sin? Are you willing to openly turn from that sin? And on the other hand, he says, if you say you've not sinned, if you say, well, there's no fault here. If you say I threw it in there and the calf came out on its own, right? Same ordeal. If you say no fault of mine, then what does he say there? You make him a liar. You make God a liar, because what has he said? All of sin. All of sin, you make him a liar. His word is not in us. So we cannot say we are Christians and not confess and repent of sin. That's why things like church discipline are put into play for the unrepentant. To restrain the unrepentant and to purge that evil from among us. That's the new covenant equivalent. Because what we're going to see in our text is the children of Israel seeking to purge the evil from among them. Right? There's Benjamin here. They have sin. So they are going to go against them. They want to push this out. And so we are called to do the same through the new covenant. When we find unrepentant sin within our midst, we are to purge that evil from among us. That is what we are to do. And we ourselves are to be open to any criticism, understanding that we are sinful people. We are sinful people. And quick to repent of it when we see it, when we see fault. Eight through 11. I thought this was going to be really short. Eight through 11. I really did. I got three pages right here. I usually got six and I'm doing longer than I normally do. Okay. Eight through 11 here. And all the people arose as one man saying, none of us will go to his tent and none of us will return to his house. But now this is what we will do to give you. We will go up against it by lot. We will take 10 men of 100 throughout all the tribes of Israel, and 100 of 1,000, 1,000 of 10,000, and bring provisions for the people, that when they come, they may repay Gibeah of Benjamin for all the outrage they have committed in Israel. So the men of Israel gathered against the city, united as one man." So the children of Israel are uniting here against Benjamin, As one man, they're going to seek to come against him. Remember, we had spoke of that before. This is this unity that we are seeing. They are all united together against this outrageous thing. They are doing what they were told to do in Deuteronomy 13. Remember, we looked at Deuteronomy 13 in the past, but it spoke of family relations. And if family seeks to bring you away from the Lord, what you do in that circumstance. deuteronomy 13 and 6 there if your brother the son of your mother who your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly saying let us go and serve other gods which neither you nor your fathers have known some of the gods of the peoples who are around you whether near whether near you or far from you from the one end of the earth to the other, you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him. We shall kill him, your hand shall be first against him, to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people." So this is what Yahweh had told them. When you go into this land and these people do these idolatrous things, when they seek after other gods, which is what Benjamin had done, and theirs was truly seen in the worship of self and their homosexuality and things of that nature that had went against God completely, a full rebellion against God, do not go along with them. Your hand is to be the first against them, even your own brother, even your own wife. Do not go along with them, but you are to put them to death. You are to purge that evil from among you. And so that's what we're seeing all of the tribes of Israel, except Benjamin, going to do now against Benjamin. Verse 12 through 14. Trying to push through here. 12 through 14. It says, and all the tribes of Israel sent men throughout all the tribes of Benjamin, saying, what is this that has taken place among you? Now, therefore, give up the men, the worthless fellows in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and purge the evil from Israel. But the Benjaminites would not listen to the voice of their brothers, the people of Israel. Then the people of Benjamin came together out of the cities of Gibeah, to go out to battle against the people of. So the people of Israel, all the tribes but Benjamin, called Benjamin to hand over these men who violated this concubine, who sought to molest the Levite and did molest his wife. They called for those worthless fellows. Remember, we've seen this before, that term, worthless fellows. It has occurred throughout the book of Judges. These have always been terrible, idolatrous men, remember? We've seen that before. So they tell him to hand over these worthless fellows, these idolatrous people, so they can purge that evil from among them, something God had called them to do. But they are met with nothing but hostility. They are met with no remorse of sin, no confession of sin from the people of Benjamin, right? They don't confess, you're right. These men are worthless fellows. Indeed, they've done this horrendous thing. We will give them to you. We will repent of harboring these people for as long as we have. But what we find is great hostility and such that there's no talking afterward. They come straight out to battle them. They come straight out to defend this sin. And this is what we see throughout history. That's what we see today. It is one thing when people sin and are confronted about it and repent of it. It's another thing for a person to live in that sin and fully defend that sin. It's what we see in our culture. Not only do people live in sin, but they fully defend that sin, and entire months out of the year are devoted to tell us that they have pride about that sin. You see? It's the same evil. It's the same evil that we are dealing with today as the church. People that are so hostile to the Word of God, when confronted with it, when confronted with the Gospel, when called to repent of their sin, this is how they respond. No more words. No more words. We'll go straight to the fighting, straight to hostility. This is what the world offers us today in the same lot. And so this is what Benjamin offered at the time. We won't discuss it. We will just kill you. And so they come out. fighting. They come out to fight the people. This will drop off here, but this is going to lead us into this civil war that we see. We've talked about before, we're going to see this full-out civil war between the tribes of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin Singular. This is what will happen here toward the end of our book. This has all been culminating together in this great war that we will see there. These people has decided, the people of Benjamin have decided to call what is evil good and what is good evil. That's what they've decided to do. And Isaiah tells us about this. We'll leave off here with Isaiah 5. Isaiah 5 and 20. It's what Isaiah says. He gives us the woes. These are the woes here within the book, the woes to the wicked. Verse 20, woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. This is people that would desire to twist what is good. What God has revealed to us to twist it and call that very thing that's an abomination to God, something that is good and pleasing. That's what we see in our. world today. It's what the people of Benjamin were seeking to do. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes. Have we not seen that throughout the book of Judges? Doing what is right in their own eyes and shrewd in their own sight. They're shrewd. They think that they're high-minded, right? They think we are intellectuals. We have somehow got above this, when our generation, this Christianity, this moral compass that has been pushed upon us. We've exalted ourselves above it and we are higher minded than that, individuals. But really all they're doing is calling what is evil good and good evil. It's what the children of Benjamin were doing then. It's what the people in America and throughout the world are doing today. So we'll leave off there. We'll pick up again in not next week, but the next. We're not having Sunday school next week with this story. Let's pray together. Father, I thank you that I'm able to speak of you. Although I'm a sinful man, I'm able to speak of your grace upon us. I'm able to exalt you and all that you are and all that you've revealed to us. I pray that you would give us strength in the days to come, that we would confess sin for what it is within our culture, that we would confess sin for what it is within our own lives. We would turn from it and cling to the cross of Christ. We pray all this in the name of Christ. Amen.