Judges 19-21 (Part 2) Bible Study / Podcast

So let's turn to the book of Judges chapter 20. This will be part two of our overview of the book of Judges chapters 19 through 21.

This is a story about what happens when a nation, when a people turn away from God.

When a nation forsakes the Lord and his commandments, things don't go well.

And that's true. We're kind of living in that situation, aren't we? But that's, this is a story,

Judges 19 through 21. This is a story of really Israel at their low point. As the book of Judges comes to an end,

Israel has reached a low point in her young history as the nation enters into a period of civil war.

The tribe of Dan has gone apostate. We talked about that. Dan has permanently adopted idolatry under the leadership of the false priest,

Jonathan. And it may be Jonathan, the Levite, who we read about in this story.

You know, we've read about him in what, chapters 17, 18. So it may be the same man, the

Levite that we're reading about now. Either way, we saw last time how his concubine was abused and killed by really a group of Sodomites.

And when the Levite calls for justice for his concubine, the tribe of Benjamin actually defends the killers.

And they harbor these evil men. They refuse to hand them over.

So now all of Israel is ready to make war against their own countrymen, the tribe of Benjamin.

But of course, they don't really want to do that. So they seek the Lord's counsel and it's

God himself that says, no, you need to rise up against Benjamin and Judah is going to lead the way.

So let's begin reading. We'll read Judges chapter 20, verses 1 through 23.

Now, the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.

And the children of Israel said, tell us, how did this wicked deed happen?

So the Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered, my concubine and I went into Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin, to spend the night.

And the men in Gibeah rose against me and surrounded the house at night because of me.

They intended to kill me, but instead they ravished my concubine so that she died.

So I took hold of my concubine, cut her in pieces and sent her throughout all the territory of the inheritance of Israel because they committed lewdness and outrage in Israel.

Look, all of you are children of Israel. Give your advice and counsel here and now.

So all the people arose as one man. None of us will go to his tent, nor will any turn back to his house.

But now this is the thing which we will do to Gibeah. We will go up against it by lot.

We will take ten men out of every hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, a hundred out of every thousand, and a thousand out of every ten thousand to make provisions for the people that when they come to Gibeah in Benjamin, they may repay all the vileness that they have done in Israel.

So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, united together as one man.

Then the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, What is this wickedness that has occurred among you?

Now therefore deliver up the men, the perverted men who are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and remove the evil from Israel.

But the children of Benjamin would not listen to the voice of their brethren, the children of Israel. Instead, the children of Benjamin gathered together from their cities to Gibeah to go to battle against the children of Israel.

And from their cities at that time, the children of Benjamin numbered 26 ,000 men who drew the sword, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who numbered 700 select men.

Among all these people were 700 select men who were left -handed. Everyone could sling a stone at a hair's breadth and not miss.

Now besides Benjamin, the men of Israel numbered 400 ,000 men who drew the sword.

All of these were men of war. Then the children of Israel arose and went up to the house of God to inquire of God, Which of us shall go up first to battle against the children of Benjamin?

The Lord said, Judah first. So the children of Israel rose 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 battle array to fight against them at Gibeah.

Then the children of Benjamin came out of Gibeah. And on that day cut down to the ground 22 ,000 men of the

Israelites. And the people, that is the men of Israel, encouraged themselves and again formed the battle line at the place where they had put themselves in array on the first day.

Then the children of Israel went up and wept before the Lord until evening and asked counsel of the

Lord, shall I again draw near for battle against the children of my brother

Benjamin? And the Lord said, go up against him.

Okay, so this is a bad situation that continues to get worse.

As Israel continues in disobedience to God, breaking the covenant, there comes a point where there are really no good options anymore.

Israel has faced internal conflict now because now they're facing a civil war and they're engaged in civil war.

They faced this type of thing before. I'm just going back on a more personal one on one level.

Remember how the brothers of Joseph mistreated him and sold him into slavery.

Later on, during the ministry of Moses, the people worshiped the golden calf and the Levites killed was at 3000 idolaters among them.

So the children of Israel have been at odds against each other before.

Then there was Korah's rebellion against Moses. So there have been smaller conflicts.

There was almost a civil war that broke out in Joshua 22, where the tribes that remained east of the

Jordan built an altar that seemed to be a statement opposing the true altar of God at the tabernacle.

Thankfully, crisis was averted back then. So there's been the personal conflicts among the actual brothers.

There have been coup attempts against Moses and then almost a civil war in the book of judges.

But now there is a civil war. So things are getting bad. They're going from bad to worse.

And of course, there will be a larger civil conflict in the future.

Once the monarchy is established, the northern kingdom of Israel will split from the southern kingdom of Judah.

So there will be that great civil war where the two nations fight against each other.

But now you see here at the end of the book of judges, civil war, the tribes of Israel against one tribe, the tribe of Benjamin.

So as we go through these Old Testament stories, we want to make application where we can.

So if Israel is divided and they make war with one another, tribe versus tribe, we have seen this thing, this type of thing happen within the church.

Haven't we not? We're starting again, a church history series tonight at Morris Corner Church, which

I announced before we started this Bible study. We're starting a church history series.

And as I like to say, as the Bible says, there's nothing new under the sun, just as there was conflict within Israel.

There has been conflict, internal conflict within the church.

Obviously, local churches can be divided. You can have that division between individuals like you have the division between the brethren of Jacob with Joseph being sold into slavery.

And then you can have a division within larger churches and denominations.

But then you have like the obvious, the big wide scale division that happened between the

Catholic church and the Protestants. And of course, even before that, you have the split between the Catholic church and the

Eastern Orthodox church. So there's been division, even warfare amongst

Christian groups. There were actually wars that were fought between Catholic countries and Protestant countries.

And just like in Israel, blood was spilled. So what has happened or what's happening here in judges, what's happened in Israel has also happened in a sense throughout church history.

And I know what someone might say. You say, well, that's shameful. That should never happen within Christianity.

Well, that's true. But remember, wherever people are involved, there are going to be problems.

Wherever people are involved and there's power struggles and envy, there's going to be strife and conflict.

James talked about the reason for warfare. Why do people go to war?

Right. So this type of thing happens. Why? Because of sin, because of the fall. God demanded here that Israel attack the tribe of Benjamin and God in his word demands that the church also fight spiritual battles against heresy and false teachers.

Of course, when the church and state are united like it was within the Holy Roman Empire and even some of the

Protestant countries in Europe, when church and state are mixed together, which I don't think is a good thing, then the spiritual conflicts turn into bloody conflicts.

So now you have the 11 tribes. They're not acting on their own.

They're seeking God's counsel. And he tells them to move against their brother, the tribe of Benjamin, which they do.

And Israel ends up winning. So great is the victory that Israel runs now into a new problem in the next chapter.

Judges chapter 21, they have so routed the tribe of Benjamin.

So many people have been killed. Now the tribe of Benjamin is at risk of going extinct.

Judges 21 verses one through three says, now the men of Israel had sworn an oath that saying none of us shall give his daughter to Benjamin as a wife.

Then the people came to the house of God and remain there before God till evening. And they lifted up their voices and wept bitterly and said,

Oh, Lord, God of Israel. Why has this come to pass in Israel that today there should be one tribe missing in Israel?

Well, we know why it's happened because they have turned away from God and they were not keeping his commandments.

What is the verse that sort of summarizes the book of Judges that there was no king in Israel and everyone did that, which was right in his own eyes.

That's what you have in the church today or in churches today. Every church is teaching something different.

Everyone's, you know, the Bible is pretty clear on what's what, but you have people just making it up as they go along and they create new doctrines and they ignore what the

Bible says about practice and everyone's doing their own thing. And it leads to a point where things are such a mess.

There's no good option. And I don't want you to misunderstand. Obviously there are good options as far as churches to attend.

Uh, but you know, it's, it's, uh, it's, it's sort of like the wild west in Israel.

And today, yeah, a church can minister can get up and pretty much preach whatever he wants and get away with it.

I mean, you have, you have pastors within, uh, evangelicalism teaching evolution and denying the worldwide flood of Noah.

We're going to talk about that story later on, but, uh, yeah, when you stray from God and stray from his commandments, things are going to get worse and worse and worse.

That's why we need to find a local fellowship with faithful leadership that preaches chapter by chapter, verse by verse.

And we need to promote unity within a local church. You're not going to have unity worldwide.

Okay. There is no unity here in Israel. There is division, but a family could be unified.

You might even have a tribe that's more or less unified. And today we can have a church that's unified.

We can have a household that's unified and how good and pleasant it is when the brethren dwell in unity.

So don't get all distressed over the, you know, the, the big picture, how there's division and conflict nationwide or worldwide.

My encouragement to you is to work towards unity in your household, in your family, in your local church, you know, the things that you can actually control and then pray for the bigger situation.

But in Israel, you know, the big picture things, it's a bad time, civil war.

And while the battle was won, you could say the good guys, the 11 tribes that were going against Benjamin that was harboring these evil men.

Yeah, they won. But when it's a civil war, it's really hard to celebrate victory, isn't it?

Because how do you move forward? That's the difficult part. In here, the tribe of Benjamin was so decimated that they ran the risk of just ceasing to exist.

So many people, including women, had been killed unless the Israelites found wives for the remaining

Benjamite men. I mean, the number is just not working out. There would have been 11 tribes instead of 12.

So this is a, another crisis, even when they get a victory, there's still another crisis because they've so moved away from God.

Again, even when something good happens, it's, it's good. Relatively speaking.

And they can't give wives from amongst themselves because they vowed not to. And they still took oaths and vows before God seriously.

People today don't really take vows all that serious. But back then, one thing you can say about the

Israelites, they took their oaths seriously. So they couldn't give wives to the

Benjamites. So where are they going to get wives? And if they don't produce wives for the tribe, then the tribe ceases to exist.

So they're in a real pickle. Remember the principle from last time that I mentioned again at the beginning, when a person or a nation continues in sin, they keep digging themselves deeper.

At some point there, there, there is no good option. Okay. So what do they do? Judges 21 verses 20 through 22 says, therefore they instructed the children of Benjamin saying, go lie in wait in the vineyards.

Here's their solution, which is, this is not good.

Okay. Verse 21 in watch. And just when the daughters of Shiloh come out to perform their dances, then come out from the vineyards and every man catch a wife for himself from the daughters of Shiloh.

Then go to the land of Benjamin. So this is an Israelite feast. All the men come with their daughters because the wives are at home with the children.

So all the young maidens come up with the, with their fathers to celebrate this

Israelite feast. So there's, it's become a tradition that all the young women on a certain day, they go out and they, they dance and they spend time together.

So the Israelites are creating this plan when this happens, you know, lie in wait in the vineyard.

When you see all the young maidens go out, just basically go out and kidnap for yourself a wife.

I mean, that's what they're telling them to do. Verse 22, then it shall be when their fathers or their brothers come to us to complain, which they obviously will, that we will say to them, be kind to them for our sakes, you know, be kind to the men of Benjamin because we did not take a wife for any of them in the war for it is not as though you have given the women to them at this time, making yourselves guilty of your oath.

So what's happening here? In other words, you know, you've, you've made a vow to God that you will not give your daughters to the tribe of Benjamin.

But this is like a loophole. You know, you would have had to have done it either way to save the tribe, but you would have been breaking your oath.

So now the Benjamites by them just going out and taking the women without your knowing and without your consent, this way it gets done without you violating your vow.

So, I mean, this is just a total mess. This is obviously a really terrible thing to do, but they feel like, again, they have no good options.

What else can we do? This is the best solution and the alternative seems worse.

So they, Hey, deal with it. Verse 23 and the children of Benjamin did so.

They took enough wives for their number from those who danced whom they caught.

Then they went and returned to their inheritance and they rebuilt the cities and dwell in them.

So the children of Israel departed from there at that time. Every man to his tribe and family, and they went out from there and every man to his inheritance.

So this is again, a bad situation.

So this is how the book of judges comes to an end. Sorry, no happy ending in the book of judges.

If you want a happy ending, go to the end of revelation, but you ain't going to get one here. It really gives us a picture.

What's the application. It gives us a picture of what it looks like when a nation turns away from God.

You're not just going back to the initial passage that we read when the

Lord told Judah to go first, to go against their own brethren, the tribe of Benjamin.

I thought about that, how there could be some symbolic meaning for the end of days.

What happens in the book of revelation? There is the true church, the bride, and then there is the false church known as the harlot of Babylon and what happens at the second advent.

Jesus comes first. Jesus, who's of the tribe of Judah. Jesus comes first with his saints and they fight against the harlot, the false church.

So in there, I see some symbolism with Judah going first.

The Israelites following to move against Benjamin, who is acting as a, you know, they're of Israel, but they're not, they are

Israel, but they're not of Israel just as in the end times, the Lord will come first.

Judah, the lion from the tribe of Judah comes with the saints to fight against the false church, the harlot of Babylon.

So again, there's division in Israel. There's also division in the church today, but in the end of days, there's going to be that great division, the apostate church over and against the true church, the bride of Christ.

So there's a lot of applications we could make and things we could look at. But overall, the big takeaway is this is what happens when you forsake the

Lord, when a nation turns away from God, things are going to devolve. You're going to enter into the downward spiral and they're going to get worse and worse and worse.

If you don't deal with it at first, if you don't deal with it initially, it's going to get worse and worse.

And finally, you reach a point where there's really nothing you can do. You know, you can put a bandaid on it, but there's no fixing this.

So the book of Judges comes to an end and it's a very bleak picture. Things will continue to get worse and worse.

And you know, the only reason Israel came back, this is a low point. They're going to have a high point after this.

The only reason they were able to get out of this downward spiral is because they were in covenant relation with God and God had already determined he was going to work in and through them.

He was going to bring the Christ into the world through the nation.

So God isn't done with them because God still has work to do. The problem with our nation, we're not in covenant relationship with God.

We have no promises or guarantees and things have gotten so bad and we just kind of turn a blind eye to it.

We don't deal with it. You know, the churches aren't really, for the most part, preaching against the relevant issues of our day that need to be dealt with.

It's kind of just don't talk about that. And yeah, that's not going to help. So because Israel didn't nip it in the bud because they turned a blind eye, now they are fighting a civil war and one tribe almost gets wiped out.

And the only reason they came back is because God made to them a promise.

Here's the thing. Without God's grace, they would have stood no chance.

Without the grace of God, Israel not only would have Benjamin ceased to exist, the entire nation would have ceased to exist.

And it's the same for us. Without the grace of God, there is no hope. So in conclusion, the book of Judges really represents a low point.

It's an object lesson. You want to disobey God? This is how it's going to go. If the book proves anything, it proves that all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God.

But the good news is that after the dark stage of the Judges, after that comes the monarchy.

And even that, there were bad intentions. Israel wanted to be like all the other nations, but God was working in and through it all where the

Lord would raise up a man, David, God's anointed king, who will be a man after God's own heart.

God uses their rebellion and he works all things together for the good of those who love him and those who are the called according to his purpose.

The Lord raises up David. But before we get to the glory days of David, who is a type of Christ, the book of Judges closes with these words in chapter 21, verse 25, it says, in those days, there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.