“The Depths of Moral Decadence” – FBC Morning Light (4/26/2023)

Well a good Wednesday morning to you. Tonight at 7 o 'clock is our last service in the Eternal Issues Bible Conference at our church, and I encourage you to come if you're able to do so. It's been certainly a good series of meetings with Aaron Hoke, and preaching some good messages from the book of Genesis.

Judges as a Picture of Israel’s Moral Decadence

Well today we're in the Old Testament in our reading, in Judges 19 and 20, but also in the New Testament, John chapter 15 and Psalm 83. And I want to go back to Judges this morning, because yesterday I pointed out that the last chapters of the book of Judges illustrate just how decadent Israel had become, both spiritually and morally.

And the decadence, remember, is because there was no king in Israel, everybody's doing what's right in their own eyes. The king, the ultimate king, the Lord God, his ruling over his people has been shunned, they're not listening, they're not paying attention to what he has to say, and consequently they're plunged into decadence, spiritually and morally.

And these last chapters illustrate that decadence, and they do so telling us about two different Levites. Chapters 17 and 18, the spiritual decadence is illustrated through Micah and a Levite that he took to be his priest, and chapters 19 and 20 tell us about another Levite who had taken for himself a concubine.

Now, that in itself is problematic when you think about God's ideal for marriage. The Levite took a concubine, and there could be more than one reason why concubines were taken in that Old Testament era, in that culture.

One could be very, maybe selfish, I could say that, selfish, in that the man who takes the concubine wants to expand his family, and by expanding his family he can expand his wealth, because he can raise more crops, he can be more effective in his agricultural endeavors.

And so sometimes concubines were taken to expand one's wealth, sometimes to display that wealth, because after all, the larger your harem means you have to be pretty well-off, because you have to maintain all of that.

But another reason for concubinage could be more compassionate. In other words, a woman could be bereft of her husband and have no family to care for her. Remember, this is not a society where women went down to the factory and got a job, or got an office job, or something like that, and so there was very much a need for a family unit.

And when a woman has lost that, she becomes a widow and has no children, has no family to care for her, then she could become destitute. And so a man might take such a woman into his household, and she would serve the household.

There may or may not be any sexual relations related to that, most likely there would be, but nevertheless, the man who takes her as a concubine is doing so more out of a sense of compassion to care for and provide for the needs of this woman.

So we don't know exactly why this Levite took the concubine, but he did, and right away we learned that the concubine was unfaithful to him. So we get the sense that he didn't take this concubine out of a sense of compassion for her because she was bereft of family.

In fact, in her infidelity, verse 2 tells us that she played the harlot against him and took off, went back to dad's house, to her father's house. So she goes back to her father's house, and she's theirs for four months.

And the rest of the story has to do with the Levite going to get this concubine back and bring her back to his house, and how that all goes south. What I really want to highlight in showing the moral decadence of Israel is just the horrible attitude displayed toward women, and it's all illustrated by the concubine.

Because when the husband, the man, goes to the father's house, the father welcomes him in, the concubine is willing to go along with him back home, but before they can leave, the men of the city where the father lives in Bethlehem, Judah, the men of the city come and surround the house, and they want to have sexual relations with the man.

So there's decadence. But the father and the man say, no, look, here's the concubine, take her, do with her whatever you want. And the father actually says, you know, the father of the concubine is willing to give up daughters as well.

I mean, we've seen that before. So anyway, the concubine gets sent out to these men of Bethlehem to do whatever they want to do with her, and her husband knows it. So here's the thing, when a man took a concubine, he was responsible to protect her and to care for her and to provide for her in return for her services, whatever those were.

So the Levite totally disregards his responsibility to protect and care for her, he gives her away to these men to abuse her all night long. And then we read that the next morning, he got up to leave, even though she wasn't back in the house.

And the first thing that astounds me in this is, how in the world could the man sleep? How could he even close his eyes in sleep under these circumstances? So the fact that he could tells you, gives you a lot of insight into his heart.

Nevertheless, he gets up to leave, and he opens the door, and he's gonna leave her behind again, because she's not there. He's gonna just leave her behind and go home. But he opens the door, and there she is, lying on the threshold of the door, and she's dead.

He's dead. But before knowing that she's dead, he says to her, come on, get up, let's go. Are you kidding me? What an attitude toward this woman. And then he realizes that she's dead, so he puts her on the back of his donkey and heads on home.

He finally gets home, and then he dismembers her into 12 pieces, and sends her body parts throughout the... I mean, this is just absolutely appalling, isn't it? What a horrible disregard for the woman.

What moral decadence. And here's the thing, this was a Levite. This was one who was supposed to be a spiritual leader in the land. The Levites were supposed to lead the people of Israel spiritually and morally, and yet we come to the end of the book of Judges, and we just see how decadent society can become when God and his Word are utterly forsaken.

We are left with no spiritual or moral compass. Such was the case in Judges, and so also is the case in our era. Without the objective spiritual and moral standard of the Word of God, we are left to ourselves to do what we want in our own eyes, and it isn't going to be good.

It isn't going to be pretty. And so we see, even in our day. Our Father and our God, we read these stories, and they are just appalling to us, and we almost wonder how in the world could this even be, and yet all we have to do is look around, read the newspaper, and we can see how decadent a society can become when people have no spiritual or moral authority as grounded in your Word.

Oh Lord, I pray that we, your people, would hold forth the Word of Life, hold forth the truth, that others may rally around it. We pray in Jesus' name and for His sake, amen. All right, well listen, you have a good rest of your Wednesday, and again, if you can make it out at 7 o 'clock tonight for the last session of our Eternal Issues Bible Conference, I hope you'll do so.

Good day.