Judges 19:1-21:25 "Jesus: The Right to Our Wrongs"

1:08And so it's good in church to talk about hard things like the things that we're going to talk about today. Last week, Pastor Joshua preached chapter 17 and 18 in the book of Judges, where we heard the account of Micah and the Levite. This Levite is a religious leader who is wandering around looking for the most comfortable and profitable situation possible. Setting a bad example for the nation of Israel, wasn't he? Instead of calling them to worship God and to put God first, to obey him, he is sending this message with his life that said, Live as you please, live as you want, live for money.

1:55I suppose that when we see the charlatans on TV and on YouTube, it at least reminds us that there is nothing new under the sun. But how far the nation had fallen. I want to remind you that after Joshua and the Israelites moved into the promised land, this is what we find in Joshua chapter 24, verse 24. Take a look at what the people say: The Lord our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey.

2:30And yet, here we are, just a few generations later. There is no king in Israel, certainly not God, and everyone is doing what is right in his own eyes. So, friends, here's the plan for this morning. I want to walk you through all three of these chapters, 19, 20, and 21, to help you understand what's going on. Now, hopefully, you read ahead for this morning. If you didn't, let me encourage you to. You need to get into that practice. Pastor Mike and I are going to preach a couple of messages the next two weeks from the book of Acts. Then we'll be back in Romans for the rest of the school year, starting in Romans 9:1. And so I would just encourage you to start reading ahead to prepare yourself to hear God's word on Sunday morning. We're going to walk through the chapters, and after we do that, we're going to consider what we learned about Israel and what we learn about ourselves.

3:25And then we're going to end with doing what I think the author of Judges wants us to do, and that is to look to God, our Savior, in the person of Jesus Christ. So let's begin with summarizing these chapters. You look back at Judges 19:1 through 21 that we heard in the scripture reading, we are introduced to yet another Levite wandering around. He has married a concubine, which almost certainly means he's already married to another woman. In ancient Israel, concubines were legally united to a man, but they did not have the status, the rights, or the household authority that a wife had. Well, to no one's surprise, there are problems at home, just like there are in every other situation in the Bible when a man takes a concubine.

4:25They are in some kind of a tiff, and the Levite's concubine walks out and goes to her father's house. Down in Bethlehem. Well, the Levite goes after her, and his father-in-law welcomes him with open arms. His father-in-law goes above and beyond to be hospitable, as we heard. He presses them to stay for three days, and then a fourth day, and then a fifth day. Finally, the Levite is determined to get on with his life, so he takes his concubine and his servant and his animals and he heads out. They come to Jerusalem, which was called Jebus at the time, because it was under foreign control. And the servant wants to spend the night there, but the Levite insists that they go to Gibeah because, after all, that's an Israelite town.

5:11And surely nothing bad will happen to them in an Israelite town. Ironically, not one person in the city of Gibeah offers them hospitality. They are preparing to sleep out in the open in the public square when an old man comes across him. Now, he's not from Gibeah, he is a sojourner from Ephraim, just like them. And when he learns that no one has offered them hospitality and they are planning to sleep outside, he says to them, Oh no, you can't do that here.

5:45And he brings them into his house and he shows them great hospitality. So let's pick up in chapter 19, verse 22. As they were making their hearts merry, behold, The men of the city, worthless fellows, surrounded the house, beating on the door. And they said to the old man, the master of the house, Bring out the man who came into your house that we may know him. And the man, the master of the house, went out to them and said to them, No, my brothers, do not act so wickedly, since this man has come into my house. Do not do this vile thing. Behold, here are my virgin daughter and his concubine.

6:30Let me bring them out now. Violate them and do with them what seems good to you. But against this man, do not do this outrageous thing. But the men would not listen to them. So the man seized his concubine and made her go out to them. And they knew her and abused her all night until the morning. And as the dawn began to break, they let her go. And as morning appeared, the woman came and fell down at the door of the man's house where her master was, until it was light.

7:02And 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. 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 home. And when he entered his house he took a knife, and taking hold of his concubine, he divided her. Divided her limb by limb into 12 pieces and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel. And 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.

7:53It is without question one of the most shocking, disgusting, disturbing things that is recorded in the Bible. I can't read the text without feeling angry every single time. The selfishness, the cowardice, the callousness displayed by every man in that section of Scripture is simply appalling. But I think that's the point. The author of Judges is trying to shake his readers out of their spiritual lethargy to say to them and to us today, wake up. Don't you see how bad things have gotten?

8:40That takes us into chapter 20. And whatever we might say about the unacceptable, cruel, inhumane thing that the Levite did with his concubine's dead body, it certainly worked. The entire nation was outraged, and they came together in unity, something we've almost never seen in the book of Judges. Turn over to chapter 20. Verse 12. Look there. And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, What evil is this that has taken place among you?

9:13Now, therefore, give up the men, the worthless fellows in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and purge evil from Israel. But the Benjaminites would not listen to the voice of their brothers, the people of Israel. Well, not only will the Benjaminites not give up these criminals, they gear up to go to war against the other 11 tribes of Israel. So the Israelites muster 400,000 men. The people of Benjamin muster 26,000 men. Israel has Benjamin outnumbered 16 to 1, and yet they lose the first two battles in the civil war. It's not even close.

9:56The Israelites are confused and dismayed. They feel like they're in the right. They've got these guys outnumbered, and yet they've lost two straight battles with significant casualties. It's almost as if God is saying, when God's people fight each other, no one wins. The 11 tribes weep and fast before the Lord. They make offerings and they pray, and they ask God, Should we go back out to battle and fight them again? And so in verse 27, God says, Go up, for tomorrow I will give them into your hand.

10:31So they set an ambush, they defeat the Benjaminite army, but they go even further than that. They chase down all of the survivors, and they kill all of the soldiers except for 600 men. They kill all of the women, all of the children, every animal, and they burn every city in Benjamin's territory to the ground. That takes us to chapter 21, where the 11 tribes are gathered back together, weeping because one of the 12 tribes, Benjamin, is all but eradicated and by their own countrymen. What's worse is that in the heat of the moment, the Israelites made an oath that none of them would allow their daughters to ever marry a Benjaminite man again. So what is to be done? Without wives, these 600 remaining Benjaminites can't have children, which means that in time, the tribe is going to cease to exist entirely. There's only going to be 11 tribes left.

11:32And then they remember that they made a second oath, that any city that didn't send representatives to fight would be put to death. So let's pick up in Judges 21, verse 8. And they said, What one is there of the tribes of Israel that did not come up to the Lord to Mizpah? And behold, no one had come to the camp from Jebesh-Gilead to the assembly. For when the people were mustered, behold, not one of the inhabitants of Jebesh-Gilead. Was there. So the congregation sent 12,000 of their bravest men there and commanded them, Go and strike the inhabitants of Jebesh Gilead with the edge of the sword, also the women and the little ones. This is what you shall do. Every male and every woman that is lain with a male you shall devote to destruction. And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead 400 young virgins who had not known a man by lying with him, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

12:34So they go and they slaughter all of the people, except for unmarried women in this one town. But there aren't enough of them. There's only 400 unmarried women in the town, so there's still 200 Benjaminites who are going to be left without a wife. So what is to be done? Look down at verse 19 of chapter 21. Somebody has this bright idea. So they said, Behold, there is a yearly feast of the Lord at Shiloh, which is north of Bethel, on the east of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem and south of Labonah. And they commanded the people of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in ambush in the vineyards and watch. If the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, then come out of the vineyards and snatch each man his wife from the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin. And when their fathers or their brothers come to complain, To us, we will say to them, Grant them graciously to us, because we did not take for each man of them his wife in battle, neither did you give them to them, else you would now be guilty. And the people of Benjamin did so and took their wives according to their number from the dancers whom they carried off. Then they went and returned to their inheritance and rebuilt the towns and lived in them. And the people of Israel departed from there at that time, every man to his tribe and family, and they went out from there, every man to his inheritance. In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

14:14Well, there you have it, folks. The book of Judges makes you feel like you need to take a shower to wash it off. It is that hard to read. Why is such a depressing book in the Bible? Well, God inspired the author of Judges to write these things down for a purpose, and that purpose was not just to highlight the train wreck that Israel became in these years so that we could stare at it. And it wasn't just to highlight generations of people who all did what was right in their own eyes, though it certainly does that.

14:54Friends, the point of the book of Judges is to highlight how, since Adam and Eve, every Every one of us from birth has done what is right in our own eyes. We have not done what is right in God's eyes. We've done what is right in our own eyes. And in the final chapter of Judges, we see that we have all done these things in various ways. And so let me show you where we're going this morning. How have we all done what is right in our own eyes? These chapters highlight three ways: by following the lusts of our hearts, by elevating cultural norms over God's commands, and by perverting justice.

15:44And so, what we're going to see this morning is that we have all done what is right in our own eyes, and so we must be saved by the one who always did what is right in God's eyes. And that one is Jesus Christ. And so, now let's walk back through the text and see how we have all done what is right in our own eyes, beginning with how we have followed the lusts of our hearts. So, turn back to Judges 19.

16:18Back in this chapter, we see that nearly every man in the story is doing what is right in his own eyes, following the lusts of his heart. You start with the Levite, he takes a concubine. That is almost always done strictly for the purpose of pleasure. That was never God's intention for marriage. We learn immediately at the outset of the Bible with Adam and Eve that God's intention for marriage was for one man and one woman to become one flesh for life because that is a picture of Christ's relationship with the church, as we learn in Ephesians chapter 5. That one flesh union of marriage is supposed to be a picture of Christ, one bridegroom, and the church, one bride, united together forever.

17:14But the Levite is not content to have just one wife. So he takes a concubine following the lusts of his heart. And then you've got the men of Gibeah, who are a living illustration of following the lusts of your heart. They show up to this man's house with the intention to rape this Levite. But when that plan is foiled, they settle for raping and murdering the Levite's concubine. We're reminded of what we learned in Romans 1 last fall. Take a look at this.

17:53Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies. Among themselves because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. You see, friends, when we do what is right in our own eyes, we end up following the lusts of our hearts. That is what we do naturally. We end up dishonoring our bodies among one another. And sometimes what that means is we commit adultery in our hearts with our eyes.

18:37Sometimes what that means is we commit adultery with acts that we do with other people, maybe with people of the opposite gender, maybe with people of the same gender. But the reality is that whenever we end up sinning in those ways, it is all sin against God, against those people, and even as 1 Corinthians 6 says, against our own bodies. It is all sin. And it happens when we follow the lusts of our hearts and do what is right in our own eyes rather than what is right in God's eyes.

19:18And so I wonder: how have you, or how are you, doing what is right in your own eyes? How have you been doing it? Doing what is right in your own eyes by following the lusts of your heart. Satan is a liar, and Satan is the father of lies. And what he wants to do in this area of your life is he wants you to believe that what you are looking at online, what you are doing with your boyfriend or girlfriend, those thoughts that you're entertaining about your coworker or your classmate, Satan wants to convince you that all of that is harmless, that it is victimless, that you can follow the lusts of your heart and still follow Jesus.

20:22But friends, that is not true. Jesus Himself said, No one can serve two masters. You're going to love one and despise the other. You cannot follow Jesus and follow the lusts of your flesh, the lusts of your heart, no matter how hard Satan tries to convince you otherwise. You cannot do both. And so, first, we see that we've done right in our own eyes by following the lusts of our hearts. The second thing, Thing that we see in the text is that we have done what is right in our own eyes by elevating cultural norms above God's commands.

21:10In these chapters, we see at least three ways that the Israelites did this. First, by placing hospitality over chivalry, second, by placing loyalty above law, and third, by placing oaths above objectivity. First thing they did was place hospitality over chivalry. Now, you may know this, but in the ancient Near East and really in the Middle East today, hospitality is everything. We see that in Judges 19, when the Levite's father-in-law goes absolutely out of his way to bless him. Even though his daughter is in a tiff with his son-in-law, he goes out of his way to joyfully greet him and shower him with food and wine and insists that they stay at his house for days and days. When the old man comes across them in Gibeah, he offers the Levite and his traveling party everything that they need. They offer to pay their own way, and the old man is like, no, of course not. I'm going to open my home to you. Hospitality was a huge deal, and that's what makes the inhospitable actions of the people of Gibeah. So offensive. You've got this group of people traveling from out of town. They're about to have to sleep outside in the public square. There are almost no inns or hotels in those days. And yet, no one will open their home to them.

22:46Hospitality was everything. But, friends, in ancient Israel, the cultural norm of hospitality was placed above God's commands. It achieved the status of inviolable rule so that offering your own daughter or your concubine or your guest's concubine was considered preferable to having anything bad happen to your guest. But to do what these men did required them to break God's commands to protect the weak and the vulnerable. They had to break God's commands to love and serve your wife, to honor her, to live with her in an understanding way, to treat her as the weaker vessel, as 1 Peter 3 talks about.

23:46And so they placed hospitality over chivalry. Second, they placed loyalty above law. In Judges 20, the people of Israel are rightly outraged by the action. Of the men of Gibeah. And they rightly demand that the Benjaminites hand over the worthless fellows so that they can put them to death. But as we saw, the cultural norm of loyalty was elevated above God's commands. It achieved the status of inviolable rule so that starting a civil war was considered preferable to handing over people from your own tribe who were guilty of rape and murder.

24:32That is the sin of partiality. It is treating people differently based on their status rather than treating everyone equally under the eye of God. God communicated to the Israelites that showing partiality was sin. God communicates to us as Christians that showing partiality is sin, especially when people are living in unrepentant sin. You definitely should not show partiality to anyone professing to be a believer in Jesus Christ who is living in unrepentant sin. And then, third, they placed oaths above objectivity.

25:17In Judges 21, the civil war has ended, and all that's left of the whole tribe of Benjamin is 600 men. No women, no children, no animals. To make things worse, The tribes made a rash oath that nobody was going to give his daughter to a Benjaminite ever again. And then they put another oath on top of that that anybody from this one city who didn't come and fight with them is going to be put to death. And you probably know that in ancient Israel, keeping your word was a huge deal. To break an oath was unthinkable. We saw that just a few weeks ago with Jephthah and his daughter.

25:59But now the Israelites feel bad for the remaining Benjaminites. And so they rationalize some loopholes in their oaths. They slaughter an entire city and they allow the kidnapping of young women just to ensure they would not have to break their rash oaths. In this case, the cultural norm of oath keeping was elevated above God's commands. Leviticus 5 is very clear. If you make a rash oath that is going to result in sin, you repent and you offer the appropriate sacrifice. You do not keep your rash oath at all costs, especially when it's going to result in sin. This is why Jesus says, do not swear at all. Do not ever make an oath. Simply let your yes be yes and your no be no.

26:58And so, friends, in all these ways, The Israelites elevated cultural norms above God's commands. But we've done the same thing, haven't we? Think about historically the issue of slavery. Many professing Christians celebrated, or at least tolerated slavery because it was an accepted cultural norm. That's just what you did. Or think about the practice of duels. Professing Christians killed one another over perceived offenses, R.I.P. Alexander Hamilton. Today, there are many cultural norms that we've elevated above God's word.

27:49You think about our sexual practices as a culture. Hookup culture, cohabitation, those practices have been normalized even among professing Christians. Sex before marriage is not only tolerated, it's expected as a routine part of dating. Think about slandering politicians. People vilify politicians. Professing Christians do this. The names that people called President Biden, the names people call President Trump, That's not acceptable. It's not acceptable to speak of senators and congressmen and congresswomen in that way. Those things should not be among Christians. I don't care who says what on Fox News. That is not acceptable.

28:50And especially since the pandemic, casual church participation has been normalized. Churches all across our country, churches all across the world, sent the false message that church is nothing more than a TED Talk and a concert. So you can watch it on YouTube at home, and it's no different than participating actively in the body of Christ face to face with other believers in Jesus Christ, despite the fact that the scriptures tell us the opposite. Many people rarely attend. They skip for all sorts of reasons. They don't join. They don't give. They don't serve. Casual church participation has simply been normalized. So, friends, how have you, or how are you, elevating cultural norms above God's commands? It may be one of the ways that we've mentioned here, but it may be one of hundreds of other ways. But anytime we submit ourselves to cultural norms, Rather than to God's commands, we are committing idolatry.

30:08So, the first way we've done what is right in our own eyes is by following the lusts of our hearts. The second way is by elevating cultural norms over God's commands. And the third way is by perverting justice. In Judges 20, everybody agrees that the men of Gibeah must be punished for what they did. And justice is a very good thing. God is a God of justice. Justice must be sought. And they start off on the right foot. They go to Benjamin, they demand that they hand over the men responsible for this sin, for this crime. But the Benjaminites won't do it. And admittedly, that leaves the rest of the nation in a tough spot. Only the men of Gibeah are responsible, but now the whole tribe is protecting them, making them guilty too.

30:59So maybe there's no choice but to go to war with the tribe of Benjamin. But here's the thing: after Israel clearly had defeated the Benjaminites, they strike the city of Gibeah and burn it down. The whole city. Not just the houses of the men who did this, the whole city. They pursue and kill 25,000 more Benjaminite soldiers. They kill every person that they come across, and they burn every other city in Benjamin to the ground. And now they feel bad, and so they add injustice to injustice. They wipe out the entire town of Jabesh Gilead for not showing up to fight, and they force those remaining women to marry Benjaminites. Then they authorize the kidnapping of young women to provide wives for the rest of the men. They perverted justice out of emotional zeal.

32:06Look at Proverbs 28, verse 5. Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the Lord understand it completely. So, friends, how have you, or how are you, doing what is right in your own eyes by perverting justice? As we saw a few weeks ago with Samson, the most common way that we pervert justice is by seeking revenge. I want to remind you of what Paul says in Romans 12. He says, Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, declares the Lord.

32:57It is so tempting to fight injustice. Justice with injustice, to take matters into your own hands and say, I will settle the score myself. Part of the reason it's so tempting to do is because many times we don't get justice in this world, and the justice that we do get in this world is often slow in coming and it's incomplete. But we cannot solve one injustice with another. When we pervert justice, we are doing what is right in our own eyes rather than what is right in God's eyes. And as we saw today, that is sin that only leads to heartache.

33:49Brothers and sisters, through all we've seen in Judges 19 through 21, we've been reminded that we have all done what is right in our own eyes by following the lusts of our hearts, by elevating cultural norms above God's commands, and by perverting justice. And because we've done what is right in our own eyes, we need to be saved by one who always did what is right in God's eyes. You see, unlike us, Jesus did not follow the lusts of his own heart.

34:30He never once looked at a woman lustfully, committing adultery in his heart. He never once used another person for his own sinful gratification. He did not make his bride, the church, a concubine, giving her second-class status. And he certainly did not ask his bride, the church, to lay down her life for him. Instead, as we see in Ephesians 5:25, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Jesus didn't follow the lusts of his own heart, friends. He laid down his life for his bride, the church, for you and me.

35:24Unlike us, Jesus didn't elevate cultural norms over God's commands. You may know that the religious leaders of Jesus' day elevated the doctrines of men and they taught them as though they were on par with the word of God. They left the commandment of God and held to the tradition of man. But Jesus did the exact opposite. He let go of the tradition of man and he held on to the command of God. As we see in Matthew 5, look at what he says about the reason he. Came, do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished.

36:23And friends, unlike us, Jesus did not pervert justice. Instead, Jesus was the victim of perverted justice. He was falsely accused of things that he never did. He was unlawfully tried and then unlawfully executed at the request of a mob who demanded that a murderer and insurrectionist be released in his place. But his life was not taken from him. Jesus says, nobody is going to take my life from me. I'm going to lay it down willingly of my own accord. And that is exactly what he did. In his death, Jesus received the judgment that we deserved, taking all of the wrath of God on himself for our sin.

37:20And friends, through faith in Jesus, you and I are counted righteous, which is only fair because Jesus was perfectly righteous and he died in our place. Look what Romans 3 says. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

38:25So, friends, as we close the book of Judges, a book filled with stories of people who did what was right in their own eyes rather than what was right in God's eyes, I want to challenge you to do two things. First, look in the mirror. Look in the mirror. Understand that many people in the book of Judges did evil things, but so do we. We have all done evil and do evil against God. God, against each other, and even against ourselves. We have all done what is right in our own eyes rather than what is right in God's eyes. That is sin, and sin must be paid for by somebody, either by the sinner or by one who is worthy to stand in a sinner's place.

39:26And that brings us to the second thing I want you to do, which is look to Jesus Christ. Look to Jesus Christ, the only one who always did what is right in God's eyes, the one who laid down his life for you and me. Friends, Jesus obeyed every one of God's commands perfectly from the heart, every day of his life, so that he would be qualified to lay down his life in the place of people like you and me who do what is right in our own eyes rather than what is right in God's eyes. He died on the cross, he was buried, and he rose again on the third day so that all who trust in him would be forgiven and treated by God as though you had always done what is right in God's eyes, just like Jesus.

40:21And so, friends, maybe for the first time or maybe yet again this morning, look to Jesus, the one who always did what is right. God's eyes. Let's pray together. Father, it would be easy for us to read the book of Judges and to be left in a place of despair. When we read about the evil that these people committed over and over again, our thoughts are drawn to all of the evil that we have committed as well.

41:27And if there were no Savior, despair would be the only appropriate reaction. How could people like us, who have done so much evil, ever be saved? How could we be forgiven? How could we be counted righteous? How could we stand before a holy God? Oh, but Lord, we praise you that we do not have to despair. Because you sent your Son, Jesus, for us. Thank you. God, I pray for all of the hard conversations that are going to have to take place after the sermon today.

42:19Some of those conversations will be private between each one of us and you. Other conversations will be with spouses, with children, with people inside the church, with people outside the church. Holy Spirit, I pray that you would move in our hearts and minds and help us to walk in repentance and faith, no matter the cost, no matter what it looks like, because we cannot follow Jesus and the lusts of our hearts. Help us to believe that and to live in light of it. God, I pray that today would be the day of salvation for children who are now realizing that they need a Savior, for college students who are seeing that they are in the bonds of sin and need a deliverer, for single men and women who are recognizing their need for hope and that the hope They're looking for can be found in Jesus.

43:33For married men and women who are despairing for a variety of reasons and they need encouragement, I pray, Lord, that you would meet each person, meet them with the Savior, meet them with your word, meet them with your spirit. Thank you, God, for hearing our prayers and for answering them. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.