Judges: Life with no King

When there is no king...

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There is a crisis of leadership. (Judges 19:1)

The last Levite we encountered was looking to further his ow prosperity and position in the tribe of Benjamin. In the beginning of Judges 19, however, we encounter another Levite, one who is not advancing himself in prosperity, but he looking for love in all the wrong places.

Judges 19:1 ESV

1 In those days, when there was no king in Israel, a certain Levite was sojourning in the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim, who took to himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.

With no king in the country, the Levites were looked at as quasi leaders. They were the mediators between the people and God. They were to live by a strict code that allowed them to function as priests. They were Israel’s holy role models set apart as examples of piety. And yet, this Levite takes for himself a concubine from Bethlehem.

A concubine was, often a servant or slave, with whom a man had regular sexual relations, but to whom he was not married. A concubine did not have the rights of a wife and her children were not rightful heirs, though a wife might offer a servant to her husband as a concubine to have children on her behalf. (Manser, Martin H. 2009. Dictionary of Bible Themes: The Accessible and Comprehensive Tool for Topical Studies) Essentially, concubines were side chicks or pieces of property to the man.

If you look back at Genesis 2:24, you never God adding or allowing any kind of plurality in the marriage covenant or bedroom. He makes Adam one helpmeet, one woman who would complement his life, and he would do the same for her. So, in he says

Genesis 2:24 ESV

24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

The two shall become one flesh. God’s plan for marriage has always been and will always be a covenant relationship between one man and one woman. Having concubines is not part of his plan. Furthermore, every time you see a family with concubines it is to their peril. Sarah tries to manipulate God’s messianic line by giving her servant girl as a concubine to Abraham, only to become jealous of her when she conceives and bears a son. She throws her and her son out of the camp, making Hagar a single mother without a protector (Genesis 16). There is not one family in the bible who has concubines that does not have trouble. So why was this man of God getting himself a concubine?

The Levite got himself a concubine because everyone did what was right in their own eyes, even the priests. He was no example for the people because he looked and acted just like the people. He was as pagan as the next Canaanite, which made the religious leaders worthless to Israel.

Israel has suffered greatly under worthless religious leadership. God chastised the shepherds of Israel in Zechariah 10 for leading Israel into idolatry. Jesus lamented over Israel because they were sheep without shepherds. He criticized the Pharisees and priests because they put burdens on the people that they themselves would not carry. And at the heart of the problem with this levite and the Pharisees is they lacked a single-minded heart untied loyal love for God that worked itself out in Godly character. Howard Hendricks observes,

“The greatest crisis in the world today is a crisis of leadership, and the greatest crisis of leadership is a crisis of character.”

Howard Hendricks

We have a leadership crisis in America. Its not because we don’t have leaders. Its because we have leaders who don’t have godly character. We have a leadership crisis in the home. Its not because there are no fathers. Its because we have men who lack godly character abandoning their home. We have a leadership crisis in the church. Its not because we don’t have pastors. We have pastors who do not have a single minded heart united loyal love for Jesus that works itself out in godly character.

We need our church leadership to love Jesus whole heartedly. We need them to live lives that show by example a single minded hearted united loyal love for Jesus. We need our men in the church to follow the leadership example and step into leadership roles in the church, in the community, and in the home. its the only way we change our culture.

There is a crisis of inhumanity (Judges 19:2-8).

Several years ago i picked up Eli Wiesel’s book, Night. It is his first hand account as a young Jewish man living through the holocaust. It’s s terrifying book. On exert from the book speaks to the atrocities the German soldiers afflicted on Jewish children. It reads,

“Not far from us, flames were leaping up from a ditch, gigantic flames. They were burning something. A lorry drew up at the pit and delivered its load-little children. Babies!

Around us, everyone was weeping. Someone began to recite the Kaddish. I do not know if it has ever happened before, in the long history of the Jews, that people have ever recited the prayer for the dead for themselves ....

Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp ....

Never shall I forget that smoke.

Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent sky.” Eli Weisel

How is this possible? How could one human being inflict such darkness, such evil, on someone so innocent as a child? This happens when there is a crisis of inhumanity.

To act inhumane is to act without compassion to suffering or misery. Its to look at human beings as objects to be used to at worst, worthless animals. A crisis of inhumanity does not look at people through the lens of God’s word. It does not see humanity as God’s valued image bearers. At best people are property, and at worst they are no different than pesky rodents who need to be exterminated. In Judges 19:2-8, there is a crisis of inhumanity across the land, beginning with all people, the Levite.

We already know it is odd that the Levite has a concubine. What is worse is how he treats her. To the Levite, his concubine is no more than a piece of property used for his sexual pleasure. Watch how her interacts with her.

In verse 2, she runs away from him. She heads back home to her father. She was gone four months before he went to find her. She was not a high priority. In verse 3, he decides he wants to go get her back by speaking kindly to her; “Baby, I’m sorry for being jerk. I can’t help what I say, or that I slap you around. I promise I won’t do it again.” The father is a piece of work as well. He sees the Levite coming and rejoices. If it were me, I would be taking the Levite to pound town for treating my daughter in such a horrible way. The father, however, receives the Levite and shows him a great deal of hospitality, which was the custom. He over does it a bit by making him stay five days. Its likely that he wanted to make sure that his daughter would not suffer the death penalty for running away. Notice, the woman says nothing. Her opinion is not mentioned, and neither the father or the Levite invite her into the discussion.

The Levite leaves with his concubine later than he wanted. He does not want to get caught at night in a Canaanite town Judges 19:12). Had the tribe of Benjamin followed through and ridded the land of the Canaanite’s like they were supposed to, thus would not be a problem. He does not want to stay with foreigners. He feels safer with his own people in Gibeah, a town of Benjamin. Well, that does not go well. A group of worthless men rise up and want to rape the Levite. Instead the Levite consents to giving the wicked mob his concubine (Judges 19:25). What makes this worse for me is what the Levite does next.

You read in Judges 19:26

Judges 19:26 ESV

26 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.

Judges 19:27 ESV

27 And 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.

The man went to bed while his concubine was brutally attacked. All night this woman was treated like a expendable object to be used and thrown away. When he sees her he says,

Judges 19:28 ESV

28 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.

There is no compassion. No remorse. No conviction. Just coldness. There is a crisis of inhumanity across the land.

You might ask, “how does this happen? How can someone treat another person with such evil?” To put it simply, we are depraved. We have a depraved nature. Depravity is the effect of the curse of sin. Sin gives our nature the capacity to think of creative ways to be evil and the will to carry out such evil on each other, with out compassion or remorse. R.C. Sproul says,

Total depravity means simply this: that sin affects every aspect of our human existence: our minds, our wills and our bodies are affected by sin. Every dimension of our personality suffers at some point from the weight of sin that has infected the human race.

R. C. Sproul

Jesus says that sin comes from your heart.

Matthew 15:19 ESV

19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

How does a german soldier think it is a good idea, or a morally right idea, to use s Jewish baby as a target for shooting practice? Jesus says that evil thought came from his heart. How does a group of wicked men molest and abuse a helpless woman all night until she dies, and think that its an ok thing to do? Jesus says that sexual immorality and murder came from their heart. The crisis of inhumanity begins and is sustained by fallen depraved sinful hearts of humanity. And when there is no king, when everyone is left to do what is right in their own eyes, to be completely autonomous, a law unto themsleves, humanity is in crisis. Dean Ulrich is right to say that,

Judges describes the oppressive and inhumane results of the autonomous self.

Dean R. Ulrich

There is a generation in our country right now who is getting drunk on the ideas of socialism and communism, the same ideas that Hitler espoused too in Nazi Germany. He was godless, and he wanted a godless society. Craig Gay wisely reminds us that

A completely secular society is, therefore, not simply “godless,” but impersonal and inhumane as well.

Craig M. Gay

If there was every a time for the church to have a single minded heart united loyal love for Jesus, it is now. The gospel of Christ is the only cure for a crisis of inhumanity. Jesus took on our humanity, coming to our darkness, to be the light of the world. He gave himself over to the fullness of our inhumanity, even to suffer death on a cross as a criminal, in order to die as a substitute in your place. He took your sin on the cross and the penalty of your treason, in order to give you life. He was raised on the third day and sits at the right hand of God. He invites you to come to him for both salvation and transformation, saved from God’s wrath and transformed into his image. And that transformation gives you eyes to see your fellow man with love and dignity, not malice and hatred.

There is a crisis of unrighteousness (Judges 19:22-30)

As we have already seen, the Levite passes on a Caananite town in favor of a Benjamite town, because he believes it is safer to be with his fellow countrymen than the foreigners. Why does he believe that? Its because Israel has the Torah. They knew the commands of God. The law is summed up as “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” It would’ve been inconceivable for such a thing to happen in Israel as to what happened to the Levite’s concubine.

The Levite much have suspected that something was off when he could not find a place to stay. It is commanded in Israel to show hospitality, especially to your brothers. Another clue arrives when the man warns them not to stay in the court yard by the gate. This whole scene looks ominously familiar. It sounds a lot like Sodom and Gomorrah. And sure enough, when the Levite goes to the mans house for the night, they are attacked by a group of wicked men who want to sexually abuse the Levite. Israel has become like Sodom and Gomorrah.

As many of you know, Sodom and Gomorrah’s rebellion was so bad it brought God’s severe judgment. Both cities were destroyed by fire hurled down by God. This is a crisis in Israel. As Keller notes, “Here are the people of God, who have been given the covenants of Abraham and Moses, the law and the prophets, the tabernacle, the exodus, and more recently the savior-judges. Yet despite all this, they are no better than the Canaanites and pagan nations who had received none of these blessings. God’s people prove to be no better. They have become like Sodom.”

Half hearted devotion to the Lord leads to forsaking his commands, his law, his values, and his morals. When you take the glasses of God’s Torah off the eyes of your heart, man is left to define right and wrong according to its eyes. As we’e ve already seen, man’s sinful nature affects every aspect of our decision making and actions.

Dr. Thomas Schreiner was one of my New Testament professors at SBTS. In regards to unrighteousness, in once wrote,

Human unrighteousness most fundamentally consists in a refusal to worship God and a desire to worship that which is in the created order. Unrighteousness involves the refusal to give God his proper sovereignty in one’s life.

Thomas Schreiner

That is the center of the crisis of unrighteousness; a refusal to worship God and give him proper sovereignty in your life. Think about the unrighteousness we lament in our culture; the sexual immorality, corruption, disregard for life, lawlessness, and acceptance of vices such as drugs and gambling. Consider how violent and uncivil we’ve become as a society. Consider how little the church and God’s word is valued in America today. It’s no coincidence that as the value of God’s word and his people decrease the unrighteousness increases. You might be tempted to blame the atheist or the secular humanist for these troubles, but the fact is the blame sits directly on the churches shoulders.

The Levite is an much to blame for the wickedness of these men as anyone, and so it is with the church. When we stop pursing the Great Commission we stop making disciples. We stop making disciples we stop discipleship, teaching them to observe God’s commands. Whether we stop engaging the world with the gospel because of complacency or fear, I don’t know, but the end result is the same. The church becomes filled with half hearted devotion and the kingdom of god does not move forward as it should. This results in a crisis of unrighteousness, and not just unrighteousness, but injustice as well.

There is a crisis of injustice (Judges 20-21:25)

Chapters 20-21 are filled with one bad decision after another. The Levite takes his dead concubine home. Then he cuts her up into twelve pieces and sends her to all the tribes of Israel. He does not do this because he is enraged at the inhumanity. He’s upset that he lost his property. He wants justice, as he sees it, on the men of Gibeah. First, he does not tell the entire truth about what happened. It was not the whole town of Gibeah that assaulted him and his concubine. It was a few worthless men. He does not mention how he threw his concubine out the door to the wicked men while he went back to bed. he claims they wanted to kill when in fact they wanted to rape him, wicked nonetheless, but not the whole story. Based off of that, 400,000 men of Israel gather to hit up Gibeah.

If justice was in the land, the people of Gibeah would plead their case and give up the few worthless men who acted wickedly, but instead, they double down and defend the men. They mount up an army of 26, 700 men, with seven hundred of them being left handed warriors-these were skilled men of war, to defend wickedness.

I’ve seen this in the church. There is a person who is either living in sins or sins agaisnt someone to a degree it needs to be dealt with by the leadership. The family of that person begins to defend the sin. Churches have split because their family blood was thicker in their eyes than the blood of Jesus. Timothy Keller makes the point,

“One idol that is most destructive to human unity is the idol of our blood or kindred; the attitude of my family/country, right or wrong.” Timothy Keller

They go to war, and what you have is a civil war between brothers. The anger that burns between two brothers can burn with vengeance that has not boundaries or mercy. The Benjamites win a couple of battles. Even though they ask God for instructions, he is not guaranteeing their success. There is enough sin on both sides for God to discipline them. Finally, Israel sets up and ambush and defeats Benjamin. Israel, however, does not just defeat Benjamin, they slaughter Benjamin, to the point that there are no more women or children.

Judges 20:48 ESV

48 And the men of Israel turned back against the people of Benjamin and struck them with the edge of the sword, the city, men and beasts and all that they found. And all the towns that they found they set on fire.

This was not about justice. This was uncontrolled vengeance fueled anger that rooted itself in a half hearted devotion to the Lord. There is no forgiveness with anger like this. There is no mercy. No compassion. Sinful vengeance opens the boundaries of anger to let it flame as far as it wants. It sets no limits. That is injustice. Justice demands that the punishment fit the crime. The reason God gave Israel the “Eye for an Eye” principle was to make sure that justice was wielded appropriately for both the victim and the perpetrator. For example, if stole ten dollars out of your wallet, the law demanded that I paid you back twenty dollars: ten dollars belonged to you and an additional ten dollar fine. The Law protected me from you exhorting me for more money, or out of your anger, slaughtering me and my family because I was a thief. Listen, when there is no king, when everyone gets to do what is right in their own eyes, justice is in the eye of the beholder. Chapter 21 is proof of that.

The last chapter of Judges is riddled with one bad decision after another based on their understanding of justice. They make a rash oath, and you know, being men of honor, they have to keep that oath, which was to not give their daughters in marriage to Benjamin. So, what do they do? They kill and kidnap other girls from another community. More death and more destruction. Furthermore, they rationalize their injustice with wacky loop holes. Fro example, they justify the kidnapping in verse 22,

Judges 21:22 ESV

22 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.’ ”

The short of it is, since you did not give us your daughters, but they were abducted, you are not guilty of violating the oath. You are all good. Problem solved.

Have you ever been around someone who rationalizes sin? They justify their act of rebellion against God believing that God will side with them in the end. That person is spiritually dark. There is no life in them, even if they have an affinity for religion or even Jesus. You cannot mortify sin if you are justifying sin.

Look across our land, church. Is there a belief that what is unrighteous is righteous and what is righteous is unrighteous? Is sin being rationalized? Then there is a crisis of injustice. It’s not just the country that has a crisis of injustice. Before we look there, we must look at ourselves. Darrel Block

Judges for You Solutions Causing Problems

“No other book in the Old Testament offers the modern church as telling a mirror as this book. This book is a wake-up call for a church moribund in its own selfish pursuits. Instead of heeding the call of truly godly leaders and letting Jesus Christ be Lord of the church, everywhere congregations and their leaders do what is right in their own eyes.”

(Daniel I. Block, Judges-Ruth, page 586)

We have the King.

God has not left us in the book of Judges. Judges shows us we desperately need a King. But as every deliverer in judges proved to us, our king cannot be typical, a king we choose. We are sinful and do not seek the Lord (Romans 3:11; 2 Tim 2:13). We are inclined to do what is right on our own eyes. Would couldn’t recognize him even if he stood right before us because we don’t have eyes to see him. Jesus came to his own people and they did not receive him. We cannot choose him. He had to choose us. God had to work on our behalf, and he had to do all the work. We are not able to save ourselves. We are dead in our sin and he must make us alive (Ephesians 2:3-5; Titus 3:4-6). To do that, God had to work through weak and feeble people, and he had to put on our flesh to be like us, shed his own blood as a perfect sacrifice, and be able to purge us of our sin, deep sin that is rooted in the depths of our hearts. Our king has to have the power to transform whole lives and societies, even the universe itself. the curse of sin must be lifted and the hearth and humanity fully delivered if justice and righteousness and humanity and leadership are ever to be perfect and live perfectly. The only King to do that is Jesus.

Jesus is our King. He leads with perfect leadership. He’s transformed us from sinful image bearers to sons and daughters of the most high God. He rules with perfect righteousness and justice, and he will untie heaven in earth under his reign when he returns to gather his people and restore the earth. Until then, we must go in the power of His Spirit, whom He has given us, to joyfully advance the kingdom of God by making much of Jesus; making much of him in our leadership, our humanity, our righteousness, and our justice. That is how we will transform our culture and our country. We do not live doing what is right in our own eyes. We live to do what is right in God’s eyes.