Judges 20

But because the time we were going to have to look at this in a in a somewhat of a general way But before I do that, I just want to let everyone know so Brother Mike brother Keith and I have been having some discussions about some different thoughts and plannings Going forward and I know we've had some discussions with some of you about where we go next.

So we should finish the book of Judges next week and Then what we're going to do is We're gonna go through the book of Ruth Ruth is in between Judges first Samuel and Ruth is four chapters.

And so I'm going to take us through the book of Ruth for Again, four weeks and then maybe one week to summarize So at the most five weeks and then brother Mike's going to begin to take us through first Samuel So and if you think about it, it kind of fits we've been in In Joshua we were in Joshua for a year and a half and then we've spent a good year and judges besides Doing the one another's and and going through the book The God who is there so so that's where we're gonna move We're gonna move forward and it'll give us a better perspective of this block of history and of the account.

So It'll be it'll be Ruth and then we will go through first Samuel Okay, so with that let's read the the text in Judges chapter 20 And then we'll just have some time for some comments then all the children of Israel came out from Dan to be Sheba as well as from the land of Gilead and the congregation gathered together as one man before the Lord at mitzvah The leaders of all the people and all the tribes presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God 400,000 foot soldiers who drew the sword Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel had gone up to mitzvah Then the children of Israel said tell us how this wicked Deed happened and if you remember and again, good morning if you remember last week brother Mike led us through this horrific account of the concubine being raped and then the actions that the Levi took The master took to rouse if you will or arouse the the children of Israel, so That's what he's talking about verse 3.

Tell us how this wicked deed happened.

Hi We're in Judges chapter 20 if you want to join us Yes, ma'am so verse 4 So to Levi the husband of the woman who was murdered answered and said my concubine and I went to Gibeah Which belongs to Benjamin to spend the night? The men of Gibeah rose against me and they surrounded the house at night because of me and 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 inherits of Israel Because they committed lewdness and outrage in Israel Look all of your children all you children of Israel give your advice and counsel here and now Then all the people arose as one man saying none of us will go to his tent nor will any of us turn back to His house But now this is the thing which we will do to give you we will go up against it by lot we will take ten men out of every hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel and 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 give you in Benjamin They may repay all the violence that they have done in Israel So all the men of Israel gathered to gathered against the city united together as one man Then the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribes 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 this 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 for their from their cities to give you to go to battle against the children of Israel And from their cities as 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 there was 700 select men who were left-handed Everyone could sling a stone at a hare's breath and not miss Now besides Benjamin the men in the Israel numbered 400,000 men who drew the sword and all of these were men of war The children of Israel arose and went to the house of God to ask counsel of God and they said which one of us shall Go up first to battle against the children of Benjamin.

The Lord said Judah shall go up 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 and 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 saying Shall I again draw near for battle against the children of my brother Benjamin and the Lord said go up against them So the children of Israel approached the children of Benjamin on the second day Benjamin went out against them from Gibeah on the second day and cut down to the ground 18,000 more of the children of Israel all these drew the sword Then all the children of Israel that is all the people went up and came to the house of God and wept and they sat there Before the Lord and fasted that day until evening and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord so the children of Israel inquired of the Lord the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days and Phineas the son of Eliezer the son of Aaron stood before it in those days saying shall I again go out to battle against the Children of my brother Benjamin or shall I cease and the Lord said go up for tomorrow I will deliver them into your hand Then Israel sent men in ambush all around Gibeah and the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day Put themselves in battle array against Gibeah as at the other times Well, the children of Benjamin went out against the people and were drawn away from the city and they began to strike down and kill Some of them some of the people as at other times in the highways One of which goes to Bethel and the other to Gibeah and in the field about 30 men of Israel And the children of Benjamin said they are struck down before us as first But the children of Israel said let us flee and draw them away from the city to the highways So all the men of Israel rose from their place and put themselves in battle array at Baal Tamar then Israel's men in ambush burst forth from their position in the plain of Gibi of Giba and 10,000 select men from all Israel came up against Gibeah and the battle was fierce But the Benjamins did not know that disaster was upon him And the Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel and the children of Israel destroyed that day 25,100 Benjaminites all these who drew the sword so the children of Benjamin saw that they were defeated Then the men of Israel had given ground to the Benjamites because they relied on the men in ambush who they had set against Gibeah and The men in ambush quickly rushed upon Gibeah the men in ambush spread out and struck the whole city with the edge of the sword Now the appointed signal between the men of Israel and the men in ambush was that they would make a great cloud of smoke rise up from the city Whereupon the men of Israel would turn in battle Now Benjamin had begun to strike and kill about 30 of the men of Israel for they said surely they are defeated before us as in the first battle But when the cloud began to rise from the city in a column of smoke the Benjamites looked behind them and there was the whole city Going up in smoke to heaven When the men of Israel turned back the men of Benjamin Panicked that they saw that disaster had come upon him therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel in the direction of the wilderness but the battle overtook them and Whoever had come up out of the cities they destroyed in their midst They surrounded the Benjaminites and chased them and easily trampled them down as far as the front of Gibeah towards the east and 18,000 men of Benjamin fell and all these were men of valor Then they turned and fled toward the wilderness of the rock of Rimnon and they cut down 5,000 of them on the highways then they pursued them relentlessly up to Gidom and killed 2,000 of them so all who fell of Benjamin that day were 25,000 men who drew the sword and all these were men of valor But 600 men turned and fled towards the wilderness to the rock of Rimnon and they stayed at the rock of Rimnon for four months Then of Israel turned back against the children of Benjamin and struck them down with the edge of the sword from every city men and Beasts and all who were found.

They also set fire to all the cities they came to so that is the narrative that God has given to us and I just Just one thing One of the things I want us to think about is this This is the amount of people that are gathered together from all the tribes of Israel This is the amount of people that are gathered together from the tribes of Benjamin Now just just as a show of hands or whatever.

How many of us would be prepared? With this to go against that how many of us could how many of us would dig ruck row? I? Certainly would it wouldn't matter to me how Valiant these members that they were valued.

I just want us to think about this as we go through this because this is um a Lot goes on in this chapter as a lots going on among all the tribes.

But again, there's a war It's about to be waged.

And and again, I would submit that I put this I have no idea what Benjamin's thinking Because again, they got 26 Almost 27,000 men and they're going against all the tribes of Israel, which are 400,000 So as we walk through this just keep that in mind and maybe that'll give us some perspective so so we get to this waters words waged against Israel and It's it's waged against their brethren And that's another thought we need to consider because certainly Benjamin is one of the tribes and that's the way the narrative starts, right? And it even includes those that are on the other side of the Jordan remember now how the Jordan some of the tribes settle on the other side of the Jordan Reuben Gad and half of Manasseh and so The word has gone out right remember the the concubines pieces have been set sent to all of Israel and and that's rather Bizarre isn't it to cut up a woman's body and send pieces of it throughout all of Israel and you would think It got everyone's attention right and and so that's how the narrative starts and as we think about it and it says that they All the children of Israel came out from Dan to be Sheba as well as from the land of Gilead and that's again where we get those on the other side of the Jordan and the congregation together gathered together as one before the Lord and mitzvah Mitzvah was a place where many of these important meetings would take place.

So so the word goes out the pieces are sent and All Israel gathers together and they meet at mitzvah and they're about to Talk about war and so we find ourselves right now in in the in the opening in the preliminaries and then As we go through we'll see how it works out.

So They all gathered together and all the leaders of the people the tribes of Israel presented themselves at the assembly of the people of God There it is 400,000 soldiers who drew the sword And in verse 3 is interesting now children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel had come up to mitzvah and Benjamin doesn't come up And that's something to think about why doesn't Benjamin come up to the meeting? Well, certainly the men are from Gilead right those that's the town of Benjamin But nevertheless, it's it's something to think about where? For whatever reason and maybe we could talk about a little bit as we go through this Benjamin decides it's better to fight the 400 than to turn over the men who did it.

Yes Lance He sent all the pieces out to all the tribes Not only that but if you think about it if If you think about it, if the word has gone out through all of Israel, do you not think Benjamin knew it certainly did They were aware of what was going to take place.

In matter of fact, we'll see that even a little further on how It was more their choice not to join and Putting to death these vile men and that their resistance will ultimately Almost lead to what their extinction and but for the mercy of God as we get to the end We'll see that those 600 men and then as brother Mike comes back next week for the last chapter How those 600 men are those that will continually raise up the seed of the tribe of Benjamin? Otherwise Benjamin would have been totally wiped out Here's another thought and just something to think about when the children of Israel came into the land of promise If you remember it talks about how many men were in the army originally there was There was like 603,000 soldiers when they first entered the land of promise because they they counted them all right so somewhere along the line and you think about it you think about as we go through the book of Judges and how We went through the book of Joshua This is really let's just say there's a two hundred thousand man loss So so Israel has suffered They did not what they were when they first came into the promised land and and they're being whittled down Because of the wars and certainly we understand that because remember what God said They were to drive out the inhabitants the other nations before them.

And so certainly there was loss so just something to think about so the children Benjamin had gone up to I mean the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel had gone up to Mitzvah.

And so again Lance I think that kind of tells us they knew about it.

They knew what was going on and And tell us what will tell us how this wicked deed happened So I know brother Mike touched on this lesson, but I'm gonna look at verse for a little For a moment the Levite the husband of the woman who was murdered answered and said my concubine and I went to Gibeah Which belongs to Benjamin to spend the night true or false? Anybody remember the narrative from last week? True, right? That's what they did Okay, and the men of Gibeah rose against me and surrounded the house at night Because of me they intended to kill me, but instead they ravaged my concubine so that she died true or false Well, I think brother Mike used the word redacted Redacted statement, I'm gonna go a little bit further and say it was a lie Because half half half a truth is what a whole lot So you think about this now remember what happened previous to this when we were talking about? The priest that had gone up to be with Micah.

He was a what? Levi and now here we have again another Levi remember what the Levi's job was to do what? Teach the people give them God's law so Yeah, very he's really trying to be slick with words Isn't he because the reality is and if you think about it, I know you talked about it last week What would you and I have done if people were knocking at the door said send the send the man out? How many of us would say no just because you remember them the owner of the home was gonna do what? He was gonna send his daughter and the concubine out and they and Ultimately this man this Levi.

He decides no just take my concubine which one of us would do that as men And then to lie about it and in his lie arouses all these tribes, so He's not of the worthy character that I think we Should assign to him.

So again, he decides to Make them think that he's the victim and really in one sense.

He's what? He's the criminal he's the one that pushed his wife out pushed his yeah, I mean she he pushed her out the door I would have gone down swinging wouldn't you I mean you you might get to her but you're gonna go through me and and God be with me and Again there's something is really off in this whole scenario Nevertheless, it has its effect and that's something if you think about Benjamin Refuses to come down and I I just want to ask you.

What do you think is the reason behind Benjamin again? They realize this To some extent.

I mean they realize all of Israel is much bigger than them What would be a reason for them not to put these vile men to death? thoughts Yeah, I mean this does Levi's got lots of issues, right Being in Genesis the sons of Israel Even before and after all you see just as much sin and perversion within the family and tribes With alcohol.

I think it was to me also saw that You know, they come to really like that The law is not there to save us, but it is supposed to be there to guide us and correct us of our sins And even here it doesn't Yeah, I mean this this There's so many issues that ran through the book of Judges and remember when this is taking place, right? This is this is not post Samson This is pre Samson and of course even though the fact of what it says in verse 28 where it talks about Phineas and him being the son of Eliezer and him being The relation to Aaron that this this is taking place early on in the book of Judges, right? and so we have to think about that and in that constant thought that came up through the Through the final chapters of Judges was what no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes, right? I Want to suggest a couple of things.

I want to suggest one of the reasons why Benjamin doesn't go up is because of pride That's just one thought that I had that they see themselves as They're not gonna give in they're gonna hold their ground they're gonna say We don't care.

That's what you were saying.

We don't care what happened We're we're gonna we're gonna be our own and we're not going to take part in this or here's another thought Maybe the men in Gibeah who did that horrible thing.

Maybe they were important people Maybe they were officials Maybe they were prominent.

Maybe Benjamin's thinking.

Hey, we can't we can't allow this The the the word doesn't really tell us specifically why they don't come I would say they were wrong for whatever way they were thinking But there probably are some reasons that they thought of that that that kept them from going up because again Not only was the act heinous But the doc did the deck is stacked against them So there's got to be something that's holding them from delivering these vile men To be punished for what is what an evil act right? It wasn't it wasn't like There's no argument over Well, did they do what's right? Or did they do what's wrong? They did something terrible even to the point of it's saying nothing like this has ever been done and that certainly includes the sending out of of the the parts of the concubine so So just let's keep going through So the men of Gibeah rose up against me in verse 5 and they surrounded the house at night and they tended to kill me But instead they ravished my concubine.

I took my concubine.

I cut her in pieces I sent it throughout all of Israel and now he says to them Verse 7 look all you children of Israel give your advice and counsel here and now Then in verse 8 all the people of rose is one man saying we will not go to his no man will go to his tent No, will any of us turn back from his house? Now but now this is the thing which we will do to give you we will go up against it by the line And and and they actually make provision.

So in a sense they make a vow So none of us are going to return home until we take care of business here And not only that they lay plans and that's what it says Where it talks about in verse 10 says we will take men out of the every hundred Throughout all the tribes and a hundred out every thousand a thousand of every ten thousand to what to make provisions to the people That when they come to give me and Benjamin they repay them for all the violence that they have done in Israel So basically they set up supply lines Think about this is a war campaign.

And so the children of Israel put it together in their minds and They begin to make their provisions.

They got things set up and again, they realized that they have The advantage or they think they have the advantage, right? Because of not only the numbers but because they are United as one man and I thought about that and I thought about isn't it true how sometimes? Good things unite people And sometimes bad things unite people, right? This is a terrible act and yet it it does unite them and up to this point If you remember the book of Judges, they were scattered all over the place weren't they? There was a judge up here There was this issue this issue and went on all of a sudden this terrible act has united them as One with the exception of Benjamin and the exception of the men at Davis Gilead, which we'll see So something to think about We ought to be united when we need to be united as Believers, well, we ought to consider what we do and so again, they make a Vow and they say well, that's it.

We won't rest until this happens So verse 11 all the men of Israel were gathered against the city united together as one man and the tribes of Israel sent Through the tribe of Benjamin saying what is this wickedness in verse 12 that has occurred now therefore deliver up those men the perverted men We're on give you that we put him to death 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 go to battle against the children of israel again I really don't fully comprehend this as far as What they're thinking other than perhaps they have some reason for them to resist To the point of saying no no when we're not going to do this and basically if we have to we'll take you on Um Again, it must have been a pretty deep conviction you would think whether it's the right conviction or not That's not what i'm saying.

It must have been something very very strong in their minds To say no, we're not we're not going to deliver this uh, these men up to you and this we're not going to give them over to you so you could punish them, so And really from verse 12 through verse 17.

They lay their plans, right? Uh verse 13 now therefore deliver up the men And then 14 instead the children of benjamin gathered together from their cities to go to battle From their cities from that time the children of benjamin numbered 26 000 men Who drew the sword besides the inhabitants of gibia whose seven were 700 select men and that's where I came up with the number 26 7 Which is an interesting thought as we get to um, we can get to it at the end Because when you begin to read the narrative of how many of them died you're going to find something um there's There's 1100 missing Because you'll find you'll see that they kill it They kill x amount and they kill x amount and they kill x amount and then 600 men escape And it really comes out to 26 100 I mean 25 6 And there's 1100 men missing And I just think that it's been excluded because I do think that These 1100 could certainly have been killed in some of these Skirmishes and battles that's not mentioned and for the reason that god gives us because sometimes you think about it God gives us Absolute specifics where you can match it up perfectly, right? But god sometimes gives us Leaves us in a little bit of a a thought To try to figure out so anyway, they devised their plans and they got 700 select men and 700 select men who were left-handed I'm all for left-handers, by the way Anybody else here for left-handers? I would think you would be there So we're both left-handed.

We got four right-handed kids and One left-handed grandchild and The great grandkids i'm not sure what the heck they are yet But it does mention the left-handed.

Uh, and you know what they say just before left-handed people are in their right mind so, you know so first verse 17 So besides benjamin the men of israel numbered four hundred thousand men who drew the sword all these were men of war and the children Of israel arose and went up to the house of god and this is where I wanted to spend a few minutes Because I want to ask you a question The first time they go out They suffer a big loss right and it talks about how many they lost 22 000 Again, you got 400 against 26 And change they go out in the first battle Lo and behold 22 000 of them are killed Then they go out the next day and this So just kill another 18 000 of them.

So Before we get to the third day of battle, they've already lost 40 000 That could be where some of these 1100 got lost but again god doesn't tell us specifically But I want to ask us to think about is as it starts to uh unfold as the battle begins to uh, Display itself.

I want you to think about what it says in verse 18 the children of israel arose Went up to the house of god to ask counsel of god Now i'm going to say what I think and then you You can think for yourself or through it yourself.

I don't think that they asked god the right thing here Because look what they said they asked counsel of god and they said Which one of us shall go up first to battle the children of benjamin? And the lord said judah shall go up first But as I Looked at this and as I consider this that wasn't the question they should have asked Not who should go first Should we go actually and if you get to that if you think about that it kind of makes It kind of helps me understand again on the first day of battle they go out And god lets the children of benjamin kill 22 000 of them So instead of them asking god if they should because remember they made a vow right This is what we're going to do We'll take care of this Did they ask counsel of god or did they just ask god who goes first? And I want you to think about that and consider it Even after we get through this chapter that we need to be very I think we need to be very careful about Our prayer life And what we ask god for And that we don't ask god for what we want.

We ask god for what he wants Because again God answers them.

He tells them judah goes up first Well judah was always the one that was supposed to go up first, right? Remember after joshua died and the elders died who took the lead? judah So as they approach god and they ask god Um, he says uh judah goes up first So the children of israel verse 19 They rose in the morning and they camped against gibeon 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 gibia And then the children of benjamin came out on that day cut down to the ground 22 000 men of the israelites Now verse 22 is also Uh 22 and 23 is also interesting 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 So they suffered a defeat They go back to their camp And they just decide okay, we'll just do this again Let's go back again Although it does say the children of israel went up and look at verse 23 is interesting They wept before the lord until evening and asked counsel of the lord saying shall I draw near for battle again against the children of My brother benjamin and the lord said go up against them I still see in this they never really asked god if they should That they are they're inquiring now and remember they lost 22 000 that's a shocker to me And I would be a bit uh tentative about day two And so they they approach god, but did they really ask god's counsel? Or In my understanding they just say, uh, we tried this again And not asking them whether they should or not god says to them go up against them So the children of israel approached the children of benjamin on the second day verse 25 And benjamin went out against them from gibia on the second day and cut down 18 000 more of the children of israel all these who drew the sword Now when we get to verses 26 27 and 28, I think we're getting down to The reality here because look what it says All the children of israel that is all the people went up and came to the house of god and wept They sat there before the lord and fasted that day until evening They offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the lord So the children of israel inquired of the lord the ark of the covenant of god was there in those days And phineas the son of eliezer the son of aaron stood before them in those days Saying shall I go up to battle against the children of my brother benjamin or shall I cease? To me this is where I think they are really seeking god's direction And they're seeking god's direction um in a way that befits approaching god They offer sacrifices they they come to eliezer the son of aaron who was the high priest and I think in part one of the reasons why they suffered so much defeat is I think there was Too much of them in the battle And I thought about this how many times in our life do we suffer defeat? Because there's too much of us in the way Right.

There's too little of god too much of us And and many times we we are defeated Not because god is not concerned about us because certainly he loves us He numbers the hairs of our head but because god first has to get us To realize that it's not us in the battle.

It's him in the battle right again The lessons in in the in the old testament we need to be careful that we don't We don't try to take them and jam them into the new testament and and make everything line up perfectly Because I think if you try that you'll fail we need to understand the old testament in its historical sense and And use the principles from the word of god to help us to interpret but be careful Not to again try to make um If you will everything fit into paul's epistles And paul's principles, so I believe at this point they are whittled down to the point where they realize We just can't do this no matter how big we are no matter how small they are We're not gonna we're not going to be able to accomplish this without god's blessing and again, um at the bet all of us could we Remember days in trials and tribulations where we felt defeated We felt like god almost had let us go But it wasn't until we finally were out of the way And and trusted the lord and so Uh, look how it turns out verse 29.

We only got a few minutes left again, it's a big chapter, so I know i've Jumped around so verse 29 They sent an ambush against gibia and the children of israel went up against the children of benjamin on the third day Put themselves in battle array against gibier as the other times the children of benjamin went up against them and were drawn from the city and they began to strike down and kill some of The people as other times In the highways and and all that and they killed 30 men so now maybe it's benjamin now Now benjamin says hey, you know what we crushed them the first two days.

Let's just we'll just do it again Again, um lots lots to think about as you work through this this, uh war campaign So they think that they are going to there's that that verse in isaiah where people who were Not truly following god's law word Where it says that they think tomorrow will be as today Or today tomorrow will be as today and much more right that this is this is attitude Now, what would you think if you if you these if you these guys these guys? That's a northern term by the way these guys, um Um They they take 22 they take they got 40 000 What do you think they thought about when I got up on the third day? So i'm coming No problem Bring it on.

Yeah, we took care of the first two days.

We'll we'll take care of this And it's interesting how it says that in verse 34 It says that well in verse 33 the men of miserable now, they set an ambush Were they were they really being led by the counsel of god at this point something to think about? And it says in verse 34 10 000 select men from all israel came up look at the end of verse 34 The benjamins did not know that disaster was upon them They have they think this is going to be just another another day of crushing the children of israel and It begins to turn so the lord defeated benjamin verse 25 And israel destroyed that day 25 100 Benjaminites all who drew the sword so the children of benjamin saw that they were defeated and the men of israel and it goes on and talks about how they kind of set this ambush up and they They drew them out of the city and then they they sent up the cloud of smoke and and now basically they got him surrounded And that that's pretty much where their demise begins to uh Come quickly and so the men of it and ambush in verse 37 they rush upon gibia spread out and struck the whole city with the edge of the sword and and again, they signal and and all these things are starting to happen and If you read through the following verses, I think what it does is it tells us what happened? Then it gives us basically a recount of what happened Because if not, if you don't think of it that way you look at this it'll say 22 000 18 000 and then another 22 000 another 18 000 and another 5 000 But if you add all that up, that's more than they had from the beginning So I think what it's doing is it's telling us what happened and it kind of gives us a little bit more detail And so you come down and now the children of israel have their uh Enemy in sight in verse 41 the children of israel turned back and the men of benjamin panicked There it is again, they saw the disaster come upon them and therefore they turned their backs before the men of israel but the battle overtook them and whoever came out of the cities, they destroyed in their midst and They surrounded them in verse 44 and 18 000 men of benjamin fell and all these were men of valor Probably some of the left-handed guys, too Then they turned and fled towards the wilderness of the rock of rimnon and they cut down 5 000 And and so again if you add all this up as I said to you um it winds up being this there's 1100 that are missing and so um That's just for us to uh, keep in mind so at the end Verse 46 all who fell at benjamin that day were 25 000 men who drew the sword 600 of them turned and fled towards the wilderness towards the rock of rimnon and he stayed there for four months The children of israel turned back Against the children of benjamin struck them down with the edge of the sword in every city men and beasts and all that were found and they set fire to all the cities they came to so A lot of things have taken place now when we come to Uh the final chapter we'll find out how god And I say this with with great Emphasis god in his mercy will allow the tribe of benjamin to survive And we'll see how these because they made their vow so now the men from the other tribes can't marry the women from the tribes of benjamin until they find these 600 men who lived in Uh, jv s gillian who never came to the battle besides benjamin and god provides wives to them And then there's this story of and that's a pretty wild story When we get to next week and I don't want to step on brother mike's feet they basically sent 600 men To go and chase 600 women and grab a wife But there was a show um Seven brides.

Yeah, absolutely And that's got to be a pretty wild scene, right I don't know about you, but i'll be i'll be on the front of the line I'd be looking for my blonde.

I would but god's gonna spare them and it's It's a wild scene, isn't it? If you read the book of judges, you know, it's going to settle down in ruth And then it's going to settle down further and for a salmon But these these were terrible times brothers and sisters.

So, um Again, I don't have time for Comments Unless you want to just grab me on your own Let's just close it with a word of prayer and continue our worship Okay Our father in god, thank you for your truth Thank you for who you are the great father of lights the one with whom there is no shadow or variableness Lord, you never change.

You are the great The great one who is without bounds that you are boundless lord.