Okay, Judges chapter 20, please. Another relatively long chapter. I will try to get through it
all this evening and not keep you too late. Well, as you know,
at this point, we've said it many times now, the last five
chapters of the book of Judges, beginning in chapter 17, actually
occurred before the first 16 chapters. The whole book of Judges,
especially the last five chapters, shows us something of the humanity
and depravity of man when there's no king, no law, no accountability, And men do what's right in their
own eyes. We're getting to see some of
this in our own world today. Criminals commit a crime and
there's no repercussions, no penalty, no judgment for their
actions. And when this occurs, men and
women generally become more lawless. I just saw on the news today
where eight or nine squatters, you know what squatters are,
they just move in somebody's house and live in it. You can't
even hardly go to the grocery store anymore without worrying
about some kind of nonsense like that. But eight or nine squatters
moved into someone's home and when the police raided it, they
found it full of drugs and guns. And seven of that eight or nine
were immediately released with no repercussions, no consequence,
and with no fear of conviction. No wonder those in law enforcement
today are quickly changing careers. Don't blame you at all, John. And I don't see how anyone who's
even a casual student of the scriptures can look at the scriptures
and not see the depravity of man. Mankind is messed up. Last week in Judges chapter 19,
we reached an all time low in Israel's history with the horrible
sins of the Gibeonites who were of the tribe of Benjamin. And
these last two chapters in the book of Judges chapter 20 and
chapters 21 consist of one event, shows us just how far Israel
had fallen, chapter 19 included. We're given a view on man's nature,
making the conclusion of the book of Judges anything but a
happy ending. Throughout the whole book, we
search for a deliverer. The Lord sent 12, 12 judges in all, and some judges
did well and others didn't, yet each time Israel fell right back
into idolatry. And we have a tendency to shake
our head in disbelief and disgust, but we're no different. Absolutely
no different. But for the grace and mercy of
God. At the end of the book of Judges, Israel was still in the
clutches of Canaanite influences and then the influences of their
own sin. That's our problem. A little
word, big problem, sin. God's people are still searching
for an everlasting deliverer at the end of Judges, but he
does not come along until hundreds of years later when Christ himself
came into the world to save sinners. Now to pick up where we left
off in Judges chapter 19, the Levite's concubine had been raped
and left for dead by the wicked men in the town of Gibeah. And she died at the doorstep
where the Levite was staying. So the Levite, he takes her back
home with him, cuts her up into 12 pieces and sends her body
parts, bones and all, throughout the 12 tribes. And the reason
for doing this is that the Levite desires the tribes of Israel
to take action against these sons of Belial, as they're called,
who did this atrocity in Gibeah. And the Levite wants the men
of Israel to avenge the abuse and murder of his concubine.
And this absolutely escalates into a national crisis and a
full-fledged civil war for Israel, as we'll see. And I believe this
story is placed here at the end of the book of Judges to leave
its readers looking to Christ. My, we look at these things,
We say, what hope is there? Well, there is hope. At this
point in time, it's told that there's one coming. Well, that
one has come. And that's the one, the only
one who can deliver us. Israel had sunk into the depths
of both religious and moral depravity in idolatry before God sent the
first judge. That's what we're seeing here.
This happened before he sent the judges. And that's always,
I mean, always the result when men and women do what is right
in their own eyes. So we see in the first three
verses here of chapter 20, what takes place. Look at it. Verse
one, then all the children of Israel went out and the congregation
was gathered together as one man from Dan even to Beersheba
with the land of Gilead unto the Lord in Mizpah. And the chief
of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented
themselves in the assembly of the people of God, 400,000 footmen
that drew sword. Now, the children of Benjamin
heard that the children of Israel was gone up to Mizpah. Then said
the children of Israel, tell us how was this wickedness, they
asked this Levite. So our first scene here is somewhat
a question and answer gathering. That's a big one. 400,000 men,
they're chiefs. 400,000 men at this gathering,
and Benjamin, the offending tribe, was not there. And you can imagine
why. They too received one of the
12 sections of body parts and they didn't come. They knew what
was going on. They knew what had happened.
So the Israelites asked the Levite why he sent them the body parts.
And the question is, how'd this happen? How did this come about? How was or did this wickedness
come about? That's the question they asked.
Look at verse four. And the Levite, the husband of
the woman that was slain, answered and said, I came into Gibeah
that belonged to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to lodge. And the
men of Gibeah rose up against me and beset the house round
about upon me by night, and thought to have slain me and my concubine,
had they forced that she is dead. And I took my concubine and cut
her in pieces and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance
of Israel, for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel."
Wanted to make you guys aware of it, what's going on. And behold,
ye are all children of Israel. Give here your advice and counsel."
Now, the Levite, as you notice here, is described as the husband
of the murdered woman, but many commentators are not convinced,
and honestly, I'm not either, that he doesn't bear some of
the responsibility here. After all, she lay at the doorstep
a big part of the night as he is assumedly asleep. Would not a caring husband have
watched and waited for her return under the circumstances? Just
went on to sleep after your wife's been taken and being raped? And there's a question by some
Bible scholars as to whether it was him or the old man in
chapter 19 that suggested to the evil man to take her. We
know the man of the house, the host, the older man, suggested
his virgin daughter be taken, but some think it would have
been out of place for the host, this older man, to suggest to
the men to take the Levite's concubine, who was actually against. Several of the old writers think
that the Levite himself was the one who pushed her out the door
to save his own hide. And knowing a little something
about man's depravity and man's nature, I don't have a problem
at all believing that. Even Father Abraham lied about
Sarah being his sister out of fear for his own life with Pharaoh. If Abraham wasn't above lying,
this man wasn't above doing what he did. And there are also several
details this man gives that aren't exactly true. He made it sound
like it was all the men of the town who did this to his concubine
when it was specifically the sons of Belial. And this would
be a good time to tell you that the word Belial means worthless
and wicked. I must say it because it's true.
None of us are above being worthless and wicked if God will leave
us to ourselves. And we just, let's just be honest. If the Lord let me go, take his
restraining grace from me, I'm capable of doing anything and
everything. And so are you. Now, it wasn't the whole town,
but these worthless wicked men that did this evil. And then
this Levi also just suggested that these men who surrounded
the house did so with the intent of killing him. But that was
nothing but speculation. No doubt that he and his host
thought that they might. They were ruthless men, not above
it at all. And then the Levite ends his
little dissertation or his little speech by calling for advice
and counsel, but according to the book of Deuteronomy, such
charges and accusations, especially against the whole town, must
at least have two witnesses to be valid. And he's sitting there
by himself claiming all this. Now look at verse eight. And
all the people arose as one man, saying, we will not any of us
go to his tent, neither will any of us turn into his house.
They believe this to be an urgent matter. In other words, we're
not, we're gonna deal with this, we're gonna deal with it now.
Verse nine, but now this shall be the thing which we will do
to Gibeah. We'll go up by lot against it. And we'll take 10 men of 100
throughout all the tribes of Israel and 100 of 1,000 and 1,000
out of 10,000 to fetch vitriol for the people that they may
do when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, according to all the
folly that they've wrought in Israel. So all the men of Israel
were gathered against the city, knit together as one man." Now
we're told both in verses eight and verses 11 that the people
of Israel, the tribes of Israel minus the Gibeonites were united
as one man. They were in unity and they determined
to punish the Benjamites for this wicked act. So they send
out a 10th of their forces to take vengeance in Gibeah. Verse 12, and the tribes of Israel
sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin saying, what wickedness
is this that is done among you? Now therefore deliver us the
men, the children of Belial, which are in Gibeah, that we
may put them to death and put away evil from Israel. But the
children of Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of their
brethren, the children of Israel." Now, you've got to remember here,
as I said a moment ago, this is gonna be a civil war. These are of the same tribe.
These are, I mean, of the same nation of Israel, different tribes.
The tribes appeared to the Benjamites and asked him to give up these
sons of Belial, these wicked and worthless men, so that Israel
could deal with them, put them to death. And they said, purge
evil from Israel. I found that statement a bit
absurd. It certainly would have required
more than killing just these few men to rid and purge Israel
of evil. Genesis chapter 6 verse 5 says,
and God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually. You see, the wickedness of man
was and is great in the earth because the wickedness in man
is and was great. Every imagination of the thoughts
of men and women, men and women by nature is only evil and only
evil continually. Now that's God's definition of
what we are by nature. And if that's not total depravity,
I don't know what is. Not partial, every imagination
of my mind is only evil and all the time. Now I'm often deeply
grieved by all the sin and rebellion that I see in the world around
me, but I am never so grieved by this sin and rebellion than
when I see it in myself. And sadly, it's more often than
I care for. The Benjamites wouldn't listen.
The battle lines are drawn. Israel is gonna engage in civil
war. Verse 14. But the children of
Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities unto
Gibeah to go out to battle against the children of Israel. And the
children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities,
26,000 men that drew sword beside the inhabitants of Gibeah, which
were numbered 700 chosen men. And among all this people, there
were 700 chosen men left-handed Everyone could sling stones at
a hairbreadth and not miss. And the men of Israel beside
Benjamin were numbered 400,000 men that drew sword and all these
were men of war. And the children of Israel rose
and went up to the house of God and asked counsel of God and
said, which of us shall go up first to the battle against the
children of Benjamin? And the Lord said, Judah shall
go up first. Now the tribe of Benjamin, as
we see, had 26,000 men. Gibeah had 700. Israel had 400,000. You know
what I see there? This conflict is gonna result
in many deaths. They should have been fighting
their enemies together, but instead they're fighting against each
other. Do you see what sin and idolatry can do to us? In verse 18, the Israelites inquire
of the Lord, who shall go up first? If you remember, that's
exactly where the book of Judges began. In chapter one, they asked
the Lord who should go into battle first against the people of Canaan.
But there's a stark contrast here, one crucial difference. Here they're not fighting against
the heathen of the Canaanites, they're fighting against one
another. They'd been 400 years together
in bondage in Egypt. They had been under the rule
and the taskmasters in Egypt, all suffering the same things.
And now look at them. They didn't ask the Lord, should
we go up? And the only time that we ever
find Israel unified in agreement was when they fought against
one another. How sad the estate of mankind's fallen nature. The amazing thing is that the
Lord answered them. Why did the Lord answer them? Think about that. When bad things
happen in the midst of God's people, as it did here, why didn't
he refuse to answer them? Why didn't he just say, no, you're
not gonna do this? Well, it's a tough lesson for
many to learn, but we must learn this lesson. The Lord was setting
them up for failure. Men and women today have made
God an order taker. because of his love for mankind. You've heard the nonsense. God
is considered to be obligated to give men and women whatever
they desire. You know, God, we're gonna do
this. We're gonna do that and we want your blessing. That's
what's going on here. But an answer to our prayer does
not always mean that we're in God's will. Many times the Lord
gives men and women what they desire to teach them that they
don't know what's best for them. He sets them up for failure. There were times when the Lord
used false prophets to speak to Israel, tell them what they
wanted to hear, and he did so to teach them a lesson. Verse 19, and the children of
Israel rose up in the morning and encamped against Gibeah.
And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin. And
the men of Israel put themselves in a ray to fight against them
at Gibeah. And the children of Benjamin
came forth out of Gibeah and destroyed down to the ground
of the Israelites that day, 20 and 2,000 men. Here we have the first battle,
it was an overwhelming victory for the smaller side. That happens
a few times in the Bible. Abraham with just a couple hundred
men, I forget how many exactly, won the victory against the five
kings of the plains, remember? It's happened several times in
the Scripture. So it's then that the Israelites regrouped. And
in verse 22, and the people, the men of Israel encouraged
themselves and set their battle again in a ray in the place where
they put themselves in a ray the first day. And the children
of Israel went up and wept before the Lord until evening time and
asked counsel of the Lord saying, shall I go up again to battle
against the children of Benjamin, my brother? And the Lord said,
go up against him. Go right on. Let them have their
way. Lord, don't let me have my way.
I don't want my way. This time they go before the
Lord seeking, asking if they should attack again. It seems
that they're simply just going through the motions, endeavoring
to get God on their side, yet not at all repentant or sorry.
And again, the Lord sets them up for failure. Verse 24, and
the children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin
the second day. And Benjamin went forth against
them out of Gibeah the second day and destroyed down to the
ground of the children of Israel. Again, 18,000 men. All these
drew the sword. That's a pretty big loss. of men, and you know, it reminds
me, I've heard people say that they're doing something because
the Lord told them to. You ever heard anybody tell you
that? Well, I'm just doing what the Lord told me to. Really. I had a friend one time wisely
say, men need to be careful what they blame on God. The Lord told
me to do that, did he? Or are you just blaming it on
God? Most of the time, folks do something
simply because it's what they wanna do. Let's just be honest.
Nine out of 10 times, maybe 10 out of 10, people do things not
because the Lord told them to, but because they want to. But here we have an instance
where the Lord told someone to do something, and 18,000 men
of their own men Ended up dead the second time,
more than that the first time. So let me take the words of my
old friend and say myself, people need to be careful what they
blame on God. You know, I'm always suspicious
of folks who claim that they got a special message from the
Lord to do something. Verse 26, then all the children
of Israel and all the people went up and came into the house
of God and wept and sat there before the Lord and fasted that
day until evening and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings
before the Lord. And the children of Israel inquired
of the Lord for the covenant of God was there in those days.
And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before
it in those days saying, shall I yet again go out to battle
against the children of Benjamin, my brother, or shall I cease?
And the Lord said, go up, for tomorrow I will deliver them
into thine hand. And Israel said, liars and wait
round about Gibeah." So here we see the whole army went up
to Bethel and they wept. They fasted. They made an offering
and inquired of the Lord. And here there's even a mention
of a real priest, one who descended from Aaron. There's mention of
the Ark of the Covenant. But probably shouldn't be overly
impressed with their piety. It's just a religious show, but
God desires obedience more than sacrifice. He said that. And
this time they offer God an option. Shall we go out or shall we cease? And this time the Lord tells
them that he'll give Benjamin into their hands. Now here's
a lesson for us. Let us never lose sight as to
who's in control. The lot is cast into the lap,
but the whole we're disposing thereof is of the Lord. Everything
that God does is for the eternal good of His people. Everything. Though it may not at the time
seem like it, it may not at the time be pleasant, even painful
and hurtful for them, in the end, it's always for God's children's
eternal good. Always. So now we're introduced to Israel's
new battle plans, verse 30. And the children of Israel went
up against the children of Benjamin on the third day and put themselves
in array against Gibeah as at other times. And the children
of Benjamin went out against the people and were drawn away
from the city. And they began to smite of the
people and kill, as at other times, in the highways of which
one goeth up to the house of God and the other to Gibeah in
the field, about 30 men of Israel. And the children of Benjamin
said, they're smitten down before us as at the first. But then
the children of Israel said, let us flee and draw them from
the city into the highways. And all the men of Israel rose
up out of the place and put themselves in a ray at Baltimore. And the liars in weight of Israel
came forth out of the places, even out of the middles of Gibeah.
And there came up against Gibeah 10,000 chosen men out of Israel. And the battle was sore, but
they knew not that evil was near them. And the Lord smoked Benjamin
before Israel. and the children of Israel destroyed
of the Benjamites that day, 20 and 5,100 men, all these that
drew the sword." Felt very interesting there in verse 35, it says, the
Lord smoked Benjamin before Israel, and then it says, the children
of Israel destroyed of the Benjamites that day. Which was it that slew
the Benjamites? It was Israel, but it was the
Lord who was behind it. Now this time Israel, as you
just noticed, set an ambush. Very similar to, if you remember
back in our study of Joshua, that Joshua did with the city
of Ai. They lost the first victory and
this time Joshua did somewhat the same thing and won the victory. The Benjamites had Israel on
the run and the rest of the Israelites are lying in wait, hiding, and
they came out and they routed them. destroying them in their
city. And look at verse 36. So the
children of Benjamin saw that they were smitten, for the men
of Israel gave place to the Benjamites because they trusted unto the
liars in weight, which they had set beside in Gibeah. They knew
they'd been hoodooed and tricked. And the liars and wait hasted
and rushed upon Gibeah. And the liars and wait drew themselves
along and smote all the city with the edge of the sword. And
the remainder of the chapter reveals that only 600 Benjamite
men remained or survived. Wiped them all out except for
600. And they ran into the hills to
hide and were there for four months. Look down at verse 46.
So that all which fell that day of Benjamin were 20 and 5,000
men that drew the sword. All these were men of valor,
but 600 men turned and fled to the wilderness and to the rock
rimming and abode and rock rimming four months." Hiding, scared
to death. Now, there's some valuable lessons
for us found in this chapter. First, we again see the sovereignty
of God. Israel was on a daily basis given
to idolatry. They consistently worshiped Baal
and Baal Peor. Each tribe seemed to be doing
their own thing. And what was that? What was right
in their own eyes. And it's upon the rape and the
murder of this woman that Israel suddenly becomes united and decides
to seek justice. And God does not imply His laws
against idolatry to stir their conscience, but it's His law
concerning adultery and murder here that does. Their sin of idolatry was I mean,
we can't put degrees on sin, but idolatry is the first of
the commandments, you know, is against idolatry. Why does God do that? Well, during
this time of the judges, they were and would in no way be convicted
by their idolatry. You see, idolatry is justified
in an idolater's mind. How so, Brother David? Well,
they don't believe that they're committing idolatry. There are
people today that you know and that I know that are committing
idolatry. You couldn't convince them of
that for nothing. They become used to their idol
worship. Israel didn't give it any thought.
It was right in their own eyes. But murder and rape were different.
They were more definitive crimes, and it's the same today. Men
and women do not see that what they're doing is idolatry. Why?
Because they do what they do in the name of Jesus Christ. You'd be hard-pressed to convince
a man or a woman that in reality, their worship, that they worship
an idol, a god of their own imagination, that they call Jesus. Their Jesus in no way resembles
the Christ of the Bible. He's nothing more than an idol.
And people think you're crazy for saying that, but you know
it's true. This little G God doesn't resemble
the sovereign God of the scriptures. The God and Jesus of multitudes
today are nothing more than idols. But God always fixes it so that
His people call on Him. I once worshipped this little
Jesus I am. But God in His mercy and grace
crossed my path and He saved me by His grace. He brought me
out of that. He always fixes it so that His
people call on Him. And that's what I did. I remember
I told you this before when Teresa and I first heard the Gospel.
I told her somebody finally told us the truth. And that is a God
that I can worship. That is a God that can save sinners. He's not trying. He's not wanting.
He does what He wills in the army of heaven among the inhabitants
of the earth. None can stay His hand. None
can question Him. He's God. He's the real thing. God knows where and how to cross
His people's path. Each one of you could tell a
story. They'd all be very similar, yet
different. Now, let's recap just a moment. Three times Israel approaches
God with questions and God gives them a response. The first two
times, God sent them to experience horrific defeat and loss of life. But it was for their eternal
good. And there again, you tell somebody that, they'll think
you're nuts. The first two times, God sends
them, you saw what happened. The third time, He sent them,
they prevailed. You see, they had to learn how
to approach God. The first time, Israel already
had their own plan in place. They had their army. They had
their plan. They thought that they would
prevail. I mean, we got 400,000 men to
their 26,000 plus the little 700. Man, we got this in the
bag. We're just going to go before God. We're going to get His stamp
of approval, and we're going to go do our thing. Well, how'd
that work out for you? Not too well, did it? After all, they were doing the
honorable and just thing, but all they were doing was seeking
God's approval in their way of doing things, and they didn't
ask the Lord His. The second time they approached
God, they had been sent home with their tails tucked again.
They were sad. They shed tears. This time they asked for counsel
from God. This time they're not so sure
of themselves. Yet they still didn't ask God
why they had lost. Why did this happen, Lord? Why
didn't we prevail? They didn't ask. They're still
determined to do it their way. So the Lord sends them again
with the same results. And after the second defeat,
they come to the Lord once again, but this time, several things
are different. Several things. They came weeping,
as they did the second time. Crocodile tears the second time,
this time real tears. And they sat in silence all day
long. They didn't say, you know, well,
you know, they cried, but they didn't say nothing. This time they fasted. For what
they sought was more important than food. Both these things
are indicative of worship. This time they presented a bloody
offering. that address their sin and God's
justice. Did you notice that when we read
that? They did a lot of things different this time. This time
they brought a peace offering denoting a heart of thanksgiving. This time they approached God
with a mediator, with the ark of God present. It was the high
priest this time that asked the Lord the question, not they themselves. Look at verse 28 again. And Phinehas,
the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron, stood before it, that
being the ark of the covenant of those days, saying, he's asking
the Lord, shall I yet go out to battle against the children
of Benjamin, my brother, or shall I cease? And the Lord said, The
priest, the mediator, go up for tomorrow I will deliver them
into thine hand. This time they approached God
willing to wait on Him. Willing to depend on Him for
help. Not doing what they had themselves purposed to do with
the arm of the flesh. They did some things different.
We cannot and must never attempt to approach God except through
our great high priest, the one mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus. He must speak for us. He must
intercede on our behalf. Christ is the only one who fills
every requirement that God requires. We must seek the Lord to fight
for us. We must seek the Lord to help
us. He's the only one that can. We
must seek Him, worship Him, wait on Him if we're ever to be victorious. This is the spiritual lesson
that we find in this chapter. And again, right in the middle
of all this depravity and rebellion and trouble, we find the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's true that it's good for
us to be afflicted, that we might learn something of God, who He
is, what we are, what He's done for us, what He continues to
do for us. All the judges in the book of
Judges picture and typify the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the deliverer. One thing different, He never
dies. He never dies. He lives forever. And friends, without Him as our
King, we'll do what's right in our own eyes. And it's always
wrong. Lord, we believe, but help Thou
our unbelief. Deliver us from our will and
our way, and Your will and Your way be done. I think there's
a lesson there for us. May God enable us to learn it.