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If you have your Bibles, would
you turn with me, please? To Judges, the book of Judges,
chapter 19. If you're visiting with us this
morning, I almost feel like I need to apologize. We are in the last
chapters of the book of Judges, chapters on which you have likely
never heard a sermon, and if you have read them, you probably
know why. Throughout the book, we have
seen the people suffering because they did what was evil in the
sight of the Lord. As we come to these last chapters,
actually the last five chapters of the book, we are given to
see just what the evil was that they did in the sight of the
Lord. What did it look like? And so as we come to this passage, two weeks ago, chapters 17 and
18, we looked at the godlessness of the people. That's what was
set before us. Not that they were atheists,
that they believed in no God, but they became idolaters. They
made God something he is not. They wanted to add to God. They
wanted to worship him. However, they were pleased to
worship him. And so we looked at a Levite
who was more interested in his personal status and personal
gain than he was in serving the Lord. At Micah, who made his
god and made his ephod and made his priest, most of which and
much of which came out of goods that he had stolen. And so he
was, you know, this is designer worship. I'll do it my way. And
we saw the tribe of Dan doing the same things, stealing what
had been stolen, taking the idols, the ephod, the shrines. the priests
taking it all, setting up their own place of worship, acting
in dramatic unfaithfulness. And so they were a people calling
on Yahweh, but not as Yahweh, not as the Lord, the only true
and living God. It was godlessness. Where does
godlessness lead? These next three chapters are
unparalleled in their expression of depravity. more disturbing
than Jephthah and his vow, more distressing than David with Bathsheba
and Uriah. It's worse in its nature and
it's worse in its consequences. And remember, these are the nations
that were not around Israel, but Israel. The actions portrayed
in these chapters are, by modern standards, absolutely appalling. but understand they were appalling
by ancient standards too. I will try to be delicate given
my audience, but there's nothing delicate about this account.
If you remember Sodom and Lot, then you have a good reference
point. So let me approach this a little
differently. It is a, it's a long chapter.
I'm not going to read all of it. I would like to read portions
of it and give us an outline of events if you will, and then
we'll come back into the passage. So some of it has been printed
for you if you don't have a Bible. Judges chapter 19. Let's see
if we can get an understanding of the events. Pray with me as we do this. Father,
open our hearts and ears. Lord, let me speak your word,
not mine, Father. I enter these passages with fear
and trembling, but I pray, Father, that we would hear the truth
and not just be broken by it, Lord, but find healing as well.
This we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. In those days when there was
no king in Israel, a certain Levite was sojourning in the
remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim, who took to himself
a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah. And his concubine was
unfaithful to him, and she went away from him to her father's
house at Bethlehem in Judah and was there some four months. Then
her husband arose and went after her to speak kindly to her and
to bring her back. He had with him his servant and
a couple of donkeys, and she brought him into her father's
house. And when the father saw him, he came with joy to meet
him. And his father-in-law, the girl's
father, said to him, stay. And he remained with him three
days. They ate and drank and spent
the night there. And so it begins. We meet a Levite and his unfaithful
concubine, who then deserts him. Both those offenses, by the way,
both of those actions are punishable by death. But a Levite with a
concubine? The godlessness of Israel has
indeed made its way into the religious establishment. After
four months, he wants her back. So he follows her to her father's
house. And verse three tells us he speaks kindly to her as
a husband. Now, given what will happen later
in the passage and the way we hear him speak, I think we are
to understand that this was not his usual manner. He doesn't stay just for a few
nights. He ends up staying for five nights. He keeps invited
to stay, to stay, to stay. But on the fifth day, after a
bit of the day has waned, they get a late start on the journey
home. So at verse 10, we pick it up.
The man would not spend the night. He rose up and departed and arrived
opposite Jebus, that is Jerusalem. He had with him a couple of saddled
donkeys and his concubine was with him. When they were near
Jebus, the day was nearly over. And the servant said to his master,
come now, let us turn aside to this city of the Jebusites and
spend the night in it. And his master said to him, we
will not turn aside into the city of foreigners who do not
belong to the people of Israel. But we will pass on to Gibeah.
And he said to his young man, come and let us draw near to
one of those places and spend the night in Gibeah or Rama. So they passed on and went on
their way. And as the sun and the sun went
down on them near Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin, that is
the tribe of Benjamin. And they turn it turned aside
there. to go in and spend the night at Gibeah. And he went
in and sat down in the open square of the city, for no one took
them into his house to spend the night." They pass by Jerusalem,
a city that this man says, foreigners, he's not going to spend time
there. He's going to leave that behind.
Instead, he goes into the territory of Benjamin to Gibeah. but no one takes them in. A dreadful
breach of hospitality. An old man coming down at the
end of his work day finds them there in the square and bids
them to come to him. Now he's not from Benjamin, he's
another man from the hill country of Ephraim. But at verse 20,
the old man said, peace be to you, I will care for all your
wants, only do not spend the night in the square. So he brought
him into his house and gave the donkey's feed and they washed
his feet and ate and drank. It was the sojourner himself
who asked, offered the hospitality to the Ephraimite. It was he
who had compassion on him and who was fearful to leave him
in the square. Verses 22, through 26 are the
return to Sodom. And the parallels between Judges
19 and Genesis 19 are very clear and very intentional. Men surround
the house with their unholy demand, bring the man out. The host makes
an unholy appeal. I'll give you my virgin daughter
and his concubine. They reject it. And this time
there's no angel to draw back the hand of Lot or this Levite. And the Levite, fearful of him
for his own, thrusts the concubine, his wife, out to this wicked crowd. And she is subjected through
the night to horrific abuse. She dies on the doorstep of the
house at dawn. The abusers obviously fear no
consequences. They're strangers. What are they
going to be able to do? And the passage then concludes
with the staggering indifference of the Levite and a call for
retribution against the people of Benjamin. Verse 27 to the
end. And her master rose up in the
morning and when he opened the doors of the house and went out
to go on his way, behold, there was his concubine lying at the
door of the house with her hands on the threshold. And he said
to her, get up, let us be going. But there was no answer. Then
he put her on the donkey and the man rose up and went away
to his house. And when he entered his house,
he took a knife and divided her up limb by limb into 12 pieces
and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel. All who
saw it said, such a thing has never happened or been seen from
the day that the people of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt
until this day. Consider it. Take counsel and
speak. Why is this here? Why must we
read this? Why is this preserved for us? Why is such a terrible thing
even left in the Bible? Because the Word of God does
not shy away from the condition of the human heart. It does not
pretend that we are all basically good. nice people who left to
ourselves and when pressed will really do what is best for everyone.
No, we want to be our own kings. And when there was no king in
Israel, they were not in submission to any king, the king of kings,
and their wickedness quickly matched, indeed outpaced the
wickedness of the people that they had been sent to judge. A way of introduction, let me
give you the setting, if you will. We've seen the flow, the
events of the passage, but we need to understand the setting,
because this does not take place at the very end of Judges, as
if that downward spiral just got worse and worse and worse
and worse, and this is where they ended up. No, the setting
is very early in the period of the Judges. We know that from
the next chapter, verse 28. This took place in the days of
Phineas, the high priest, son of Eleazar. Eleazar died when
Joshua did. So if Phineas lives for another
40 years, at most, this is 80 years from when they crossed
into Israel, at most. Remember, we're answering He's
answering the question. He's writing with a theological
concern, not a chronological one. He is answering the question,
what did they do that was evil in the sight of the Lord? That's
his purpose, to show the path and the consequences of sin,
the judgment we deserve, a desperate need that we have for a true
deliverer. He helps us to see, I trust as
well, ultimately the mercy and grace of God. So remember, this
is not at the very end. It's almost where they started. His point, very simple. Godlessness, and
again, not just atheism, but worshipping anything other than
the true God, godlessness leads to wickedness. And we see it in perverted relationships, in perverted morality, and distorted
and perverted reasoning. Godlessness distorts relationships. It perverts them. Godlessness
leads to a view, the loss of the view of men and women made
as image bearers, made in the image of God. And so it leads to relationships
where we see individuals as objects, not image bearers. Again, that
Levite sees his, he speaks to her initially as a husband, but
in verse 27, it's the master who is leaving, by the way, Read
verse 27 again. No concern whatsoever. Well,
if she comes back, she comes back. I mean, she ran away once.
She's probably getting what she deserved. He's leaving her there. Such is his view of this woman. She's a concubine. She has no
real claim on him, on his posterity or anything else. If she has
children, he doesn't even have to claim them. They don't receive
anything from him. When we lose that view, of men
and women as image bearers. They become objects. And objects,
brothers and sisters, are property. They're not persons. The old
man does it with his virgin daughter. Property. Take her. The Levite
thrusts her out. It's just property. It's not
someone to be protected and cherished. Godlessness leads to wickedness.
And we lose the view of that image bearer. And the child in
the womb is an object. It's a lump of cells. It's nothing living or real,
even though scientifically, medically, absolutely it is. And biologically,
absolutely it's a human being. But it's an object. And an object
is property. And I do what I want with my
property. And if my property doesn't benefit
me, I get rid of it. The sexual abuse that is portrayed
here is staggering. And of course,
it ends up being foisted, perpetrated on this woman by one who was
supposed to protect, by one known all too well, which is, of course,
usually the case in sexual abuse. Again, the Bible does not shy
away from difficult issues. As a culture becomes more secular,
as godlessness spreads and deepens, we ought not to be surprised
by callous attitudes towards sexual immorality. Sexual abuse
around the world is rampant in what I would term godless societies. Those are societies you can say,
well, they believe in God. But do they believe in the God
who created, who made them, who set apart breathing out, breathing
life into a man and a woman to make them living beings to be
made as image bearers? No. Godlessness leads to wickedness. And so we are becoming a schizophrenic
culture. We demand rights and privileges
for women while turning them in a multi-billion dollar industry
into objects. We have a culture that has and
is going through a sexual revolution and what it's bringing forth
is not freedom but bondage and greater abuses because godlessness
leads to wickedness. And I grieve to read a passage
like this and to have to preach it because I know, I know, all
I have to do is look at the number and I know that there are many
here who have experienced such abuse. And we grieve. Don't hide it. Don't feel like
here that has to be hidden away. No one can know. No one can know
the struggles that I'm still facing and dealing with, the
things that I'm still wrestling with as a result. No. Find someone, brother, sister,
in whom you can confide, who can encourage you, help you,
guide you to that place where you can be encouraged and strengthened. and no healing and hope. We can talk about it here. Clearly
the Lord is not afraid to acknowledge it and to set forth a way for hope
and for life. This must be a place that is
safe, where healing and hope can be restored, where grace
and be experienced and peace becomes a real possibility. We
go in and we look at the New Testament and we want a view
of women. Look what Jesus does, the way
he responds, the way he draws women to himself, where he's
surrounded by them, dependent upon them. In so many instances,
they provided for him. When someone comes, a woman of
ill repute weeping at his feet, what does he grant? Forgiveness,
healing. His goal was to restore them
and to renew them. Yes, he confronts the woman at
the well in Samaria and how gracious he is to do it. And she finds
rest and peace and life. We can go on through the New
Testament because we saw even in Timothy how Paul, well, we
can go to Galatians. What happens there? There's no
difference, male, female, slave. Gentile, Jew, Freeman. No. God does not make that distinction. And so women are held up. And
they are to be a part of the church. And they are supposed
to be a part of the life of the church. And they are to be engaged
in ministry. And they are to receive the teaching. And they
can be used in many ways, including instructing other women and others
who, in the faith, they're lifted up. What a picture we get. But here, yes, godlessness leads
to wickedness. It does so in our morality. The
moral compass expressed in these passages is, you would think,
you want to say incomprehensible. But no, apart from God, apart
from Christ, apart from the work of the spirit, this is what morality
will be. Again, what's a Levite doing
with a concubine? Consider the gross immorality
of these men. We're right back to Romans 1
in terms of the exchange made of what was natural for what
is unnatural. But it seems perfectly reasonable
and natural to them. The moral compass, the moral
consciousness has just been destroyed. He comes into Gibeah where Hospitality
should be the hallmark of the Israelites, and instead the place
is inhospitable. They're received not with care,
but to be taken advantage of. We're shocked by the unimaginable
coldness of the Levite. And the language there is as
blunt and cold as it comes across. here in an English translation.
Get up, let's be going. It's meant to seem and be that
harsh. Godlessness destroys morality. And godlessness, it may be underneath
all of that, is that what godlessness destroys ultimately is our reasoning. Our relationships and our morality
flow from that impaired reason. Again, Romans
1.25, they exchanged the truth about God for a lie. This is exactly what's happening
and what's being said before us. They become their own arbiters
of truth. What would have been unthinkable
becomes acceptable. They trust their own judgment,
their own reason, their own logic. They will define their own purpose,
not according to the word of God, but according to their own
word. And so this passage is encapsulated,
if you will, by verse 1 and by verse 30. Such a thing has never happened
or been seen from the day that the people of Israel came up
out of the land of Egypt until this day. Consider it. Take counsel
and speak. We haven't seen such things,
they say. Never in Israel. His reasoning is so foul that
he takes her and cuts her up and sends out packages to the
tribes. Imagine being the postman with
that package in the days of no refrigeration. And they receive it and it's,
how can this be? Because evil is good and good
is evil. I may have told you some few
years ago, two or three years ago, I don't remember now, we
were out visiting our son in Chicago. It was Memorial Day
weekend. They had a neighborhood block
party picnic, and I ended up speaking to a man well in his
90s, had lived in the neighborhood more than 50 years, fought in World War II, commanded
an artillery unit. And at the end of the war, he
was in Germany, right near the end of the war. And as they were
pressing in, they came to a work camp that had been abandoned
by the Nazis. And the conditions, he would
not describe the conditions. What he did describe is what
he had to do. There was a town less than two miles away, less
than two miles. And he went and found the mayor,
and they said, of course, we know nothing about it. Oh, no, we
have no knowledge of this whatsoever. We have no idea what could be
there. calling evil good and good evil. Godlessness leads
to wickedness. I'll deny everything. I'll pretend
that it never existed. He gave them until 8 o'clock
in the morning to be at the camp. Clothing, bedding, cleaning supplies,
food, shovels, and ready to work. His men would be in the town
at 8 o'clock. If anyone was left in the town or if there was anything
in the town that needed to be in the camp, he'd shell it into
oblivion. Such was what he had seen. So don't, we can't sit here and
say, well, this could never happen. Oh, yes, it can and does. Godlessness. leads to wickedness. Larry, is there hope? What hope
is here? Back to verse 1. Back to verse
1. When there was no king in Israel. Ah, but this writer is looking
back because there was a king. There was a king whom God used
to bring them out of such bondage and of course that king is looking
ahead to the true king. There was no king in Israel,
there was no physical king at that time, but there was no king
in their hearts. First Samuel 8 verse 7, God says
to Samuel, they've not rejected you, they have rejected me as
king. They have rejected me from being
king over them. See, there was no king in their
hearts. There was no rule. There was no one. There was no
guide. There was no protector. There
was no deliverer. They had become a godless people
that wanted no oversight and no care. But there is a king. God, we know, has sent Jesus
Christ, king of the Jews, he was declared, and is of the line
and lineage of David. King who comes from heaven, who
left his throne to come to this wicked place full of nothing
but strangers to bring forgiveness, to bring
grace, to bring hope, to bring life, to bring salvation. How?
By giving his own life and by rising from the dead to return
to his throne so that he might rule over all those who come
to Him, who trust in Him, who look to Him, who serve His, to
serve Him as King. And so there is hope for us. Godliness isn't going to rest
in you, it isn't going to rest in me, apart from the King who
brings it, who gives it, who makes that new creation out of
us. And in that new creation, in
the service to that king, where does that lead? Godliness, it
leads to life. And so he will restore those
relationships because he's torn down the barriers between the
Jew and the Gentile, between God and man. Relationships can be renewed. He teaches us and instills in
us what is true and right and just and pure and commendable
and lovely and praiseworthy and excellent. And so morality and
moral consciousness and life can be renewed and restored. And we do become a very different
people. Why? Because he is at work renewing
our minds. We take every thought captive.
We bring into conformity our minds with the word of the King,
with the word of God, so that we are brought into conformity
with the person and the character of Jesus Christ. Such is the
work of the King, to deliver us from bondage and shame and
sorrow, to give us eyes to see the hope that is ours in Jesus
Christ, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. There can
yet be life, brothers and sisters. No, do not toss out Judges 19
or 20 or 21. It is who we are apart from that
King. But with our King, not godlessness, not wickedness, but life and godliness and eternal
life. Father, give us the eyes to see
what you set before us. Help us, Lord, to see the purpose
in these pages, in these accounts, Lord. Remind us, Lord, of where we
would be apart from grace, apart from a King who has come to deliver
and to rescue and to save. Help us to see, Father, that
there but for the grace of God go I and save. Hear us, we ask and
pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Benjamin's Folly
| Sermon ID | 422181955199 |
| Duration | 32:54 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Judges 19 |
| Language | English |