Judges 19:1-30 The interest payment on consequences

Judges 19:1–30 (CSB)

1 In those days, when there was no king in Israel, a Levite staying in a remote part of the hill country of Ephraim acquired a woman from Bethlehem in Judah as his concubine.

2 But she was unfaithful to him and left him for her father’s house in Bethlehem in Judah. She was there for four months.

3 Then her husband got up and followed her to speak kindly to her and bring her back. He had his servant with him and a pair of donkeys. So she brought him to her father’s house, and when the girl’s father saw him, he gladly welcomed him.

4 His father-in-law, the girl’s father, detained him, and he stayed with him for three days. They ate, drank, and spent the nights there.

5 On the fourth day, they got up early in the morning and prepared to go, but the girl’s father said to his son-in-law, “Have something to eat to keep up your strength and then you can go.”

6 So they sat down and the two of them ate and drank together. Then the girl’s father said to the man, “Please agree to stay overnight and enjoy yourself.”

7 The man got up to go, but his father-in-law persuaded him, so he stayed and spent the night there again.

8 He got up early in the morning of the fifth day to leave, but the girl’s father said to him, “Please keep up your strength.” So they waited until late afternoon and the two of them ate.

9 The man got up to go with his concubine and his servant, when his father-in-law, the girl’s father, said to him, “Look, night is coming. Please spend the night. See, the day is almost over. Spend the night here, enjoy yourself, then you can get up early tomorrow for your journey and go home.”

10 But the man was unwilling to spend the night. He got up, departed, and arrived opposite Jebus (that is, Jerusalem). The man had his two saddled donkeys and his concubine with him.

11 When they were near Jebus and the day was almost gone, the servant said to his master, “Please, why not let us stop at this Jebusite city and spend the night here?”

12 But his master replied to him, “We will not stop at a foreign city where there are no Israelites. Let’s move on to Gibeah.”

13 “Come on,” he said, “let’s try to reach one of these places and spend the night in Gibeah or Ramah.”

14 So they continued on their journey, and the sun set as they neared Gibeah in Benjamin.

15 They stopped to go in and spend the night in Gibeah. The Levite went in and sat down in the city square, but no one took them into their home to spend the night.

16 In the evening, an old man came in from his work in the field. He was from the hill country of Ephraim, but he was residing in Gibeah where the people were Benjaminites.

17 When he looked up and saw the traveler in the city square, the old man asked, “Where are you going, and where do you come from?”

18 He answered him, “We’re traveling from Bethlehem in Judah to the remote hill country of Ephraim, where I am from. I went to Bethlehem in Judah, and now I’m going to the house of the Lord. No one has taken me into his home,

19 although there’s straw and feed for the donkeys, and I have bread and wine for me, my concubine, and the servant with us. There is nothing we lack.”

20 “Welcome!” said the old man. “I’ll take care of everything you need. Only don’t spend the night in the square.”

21 So he brought him to his house and fed the donkeys. Then they washed their feet and ate and drank.

22 While they were enjoying themselves, all of a sudden, wicked men of the city surrounded the house and beat on the door. They said to the old man who was the owner of the house, “Bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him!”

23 The owner of the house went out and said to them, “Please don’t do this evil, my brothers. After all, this man has come into my house. Don’t commit this horrible outrage.

24 Here, let me bring out my virgin daughter and the man’s concubine now. Abuse them and do whatever you want to them. But don’t commit this outrageous thing against this man.”

25 But the men would not listen to him, so the man seized his concubine and took her outside to them. They raped her and abused her all night until morning. At daybreak they let her go.

26 Early that morning, the woman made her way back, and as it was getting light, she collapsed at the doorway of the man’s house where her master was.

27 When her master got up in the morning, opened the doors of the house, and went out to leave on his journey, there was the woman, his concubine, collapsed near the doorway of the house with her hands on the threshold.

28 “Get up,” he told her. “Let’s go.” But there was no response. So the man put her on his donkey and set out for home.

29 When he entered his house, he picked up a knife, took hold of his concubine, cut her into twelve pieces, limb by limb, and then sent her throughout the territory of Israel.

30 Everyone who saw it said, “Nothing like this has ever happened or has been seen since the day the Israelites came out of the land of Egypt until now. Think it over, discuss it, and speak up!”

“ The Interest Payment on Consequences “

Note: Some consequences come with interest rates

Judges 19:1 (CSB) 1 In those days, when there was no king in Israel, a Levite staying in a remote part of the hill country of Ephraim acquired a woman from Bethlehem in Judah as his concubine.

Here's a Levite man living in the northern part of Israel

And he inquires this woman to be his wife

And she is living down south in Bethlehem

Judges 19:2 (CSB) 2 But she was unfaithful to him and left him for her father’s house in Bethlehem in Judah. She was there for four months.

So she had an affair on him

She cheated on him

And she went back home to live with her father

In Bethlehem

The story goes on that this Levite man

Wants to go get his wife back

So he basically travels from where he's living

In the hill country of Ephraim

All the way down south to Bethlehem

To retrieve this woman to be with him once again

So he gets there and her father is very hospitable

And the father really takes good care of his son in law

But now it’s time for this husband to get back with his concubine

And several times the guy is like “ Hey I have to go now “

Give me my wife and let me go back home

But the father is like “ you can stay another night “

And he says “ OK I’ll stay another night “

But he gets up in the morning and tells the father

That I have to go now

And this happened like for several days

And now the husband tells his wife father

“ Hey “ with all due respect

I appreciate the hospitality but I got to go now

I got to get back home

So can you release me now

Eventually the guy is on his way back home

And this is where all the tragedy occur

Here this man is with his concubine

And he's traveling from Bethlehem which is in the southern part of Israel

All the way to the north of Ephraim

“ Let’s pick up the story here”

Judges 19:11–12 (CSB) 11 When they were near Jebus and the day was almost gone, the servant said to his master, “Please, why not let us stop at this Jebusite city and spend the night here?” 12 But his master replied to him, “We will not stop at a foreign city where there are no Israelites. Let’s move on to Gibeah.”

Here his servant is like “ hey “

It's getting late we need to spend the night somewhere

Why don't we stop here in this city

And this guy is like

It's not safe here

And there's no Israelites here

And I don't know what these people is going to do to me

So let's see if we can make it a little farther

Down the road to Gibeah

Because at least in Gibeah I know we'll be taken care of

Because in that city the tribe of Benjamin is there

And there are some of our people there

They will be able to take care of us and make sure nothing happens to us

So he THOUGHT ………………

Judges 19:13–14 (CSB) 13 “Come on,” he said, “let’s try to reach one of these places and spend the night in Gibeah or Ramah.” 14 So they continued on their journey, and the sun set as they neared Gibeah in Benjamin.

So they go there and to their surprise

Nobody is willing to take them into their home

Now you got to understand this

Hospitality was a huge thing in the Israelite culture

And at the end of the night this old man comes out to the Square

And he says “ why are you still here “

Has anybody taken you into their home

And they was like “ NO SIR “

Nobody has taken us in

The old man said “ hey you can stay with me for the night “

And the Levite is like that's great

But I just wanna let you know

We don't need anything from you

We got all of our supplies

We got enough food for our donkeys

We have enough food for me and my wife and my servant

We just need a place to lay our heads

And a pillow and that's all we need

And the old man is like no big deal “ we’re cool “

So this Levite man and his servant and his concubine

Are standing the night and this man's home in Gibeah

And then this happens

Judges 19:22 (CSB) 22 While they were enjoying themselves, all of a sudden, wicked men of the city surrounded the house and beat on the door. They said to the old man who was the owner of the house, “Bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him!”

This is where the story takes a twist

They are some perverted men

Who are living in Gibeah

These are some Benjamites and they are going to this old man's house

And when these Benjamites

Get to this old man's house

They said “ Hey we know that you have a guest in your home “

Bring him out

So that all of us can have sex with him

Judges 19:23–24 (CSB) 23 The owner of the house went out and said to them, “Please don’t do this evil, my brothers. After all, this man has come into my house. Don’t commit this horrible outrage. 24 Here, let me bring out my virgin daughter and the man’s concubine now. Abuse them and do whatever you want to them. But don’t commit this outrageous thing against this man.”

Now what happens next is unthinkable

Judges 19:25 (CSB) 25 But the men would not listen to him, so the man seized his concubine and took her outside to them. They raped her and abused her all night until morning. At daybreak they let her go.

Here is a group of perverted men

And they are taking turns having sex with this woman

They are raping her all night long

Up until the morning time

And now they finally let her go

And this is what happens to this poor woman

Judges 19:26 (CSB) 26 Early that morning, the woman made her way back, and as it was getting light, she collapsed at the doorway of the man’s house where her master was.

Can you imagine this

She is so wore down

She is so beaten up

She is so abuse all night long by these men

To where she barely has enough strength

To crawl her way back to this man's house

And she finally collapse on this man porch

And she just lays out on the porch

Judges 19:27 (CSB) 27 When her master got up in the morning, opened the doors of the house, and went out to leave on his journey, there was the woman, his concubine, collapsed near the doorway of the house with her hands on the threshold.

Judges 19:28A (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.

The woman had been abuse so much that she had died

Judges 19:28B (CSB) 28 “Get up,” he told her. “Let’s go.” But there was no response. So the man put her on his donkey and set out for home.

Judges 19:29–30 (CSB) 29 When he entered his house, he picked up a knife, took hold of his concubine, cut her into twelve pieces, limb by limb, and then sent her throughout the territory of Israel. 30 Everyone who saw it said, “Nothing like this has ever happened or has been seen since the day the Israelites came out of the land of Egypt until now. Think it over, discuss it, and speak up!”

And now this man takes his concubine home

And cut up into 12 pieces

And undoubtedly attached a letter to each piece

Of his deceased concubine and send a different piece of her body

To the 12 tribes of Israel

With a letter telling them exactly what had been done to his concubine

By their own brothers

One of the 12 tribes of Israel the tribe of Benjamin

And when these other tribes saw and read what had happened to this woman

They said “ WOW , nothing like this has ever happened throughout our history “

There's a lot more to the story in chapters 20 & 21 [ Read it ]

Here's some life lessons that we can learn from this story

The interest payment on consequences

Lesson # 1

When there is no accountability in our lives, we have a strong tendency to drift

Judges 19:1 (CSB) 1 In those days, when there was no king in Israel, a Levite staying in a remote part of the hill country of Ephraim acquired a woman from Bethlehem in Judah as his concubine.

Note: When you and I have no one to answer to there's no fear that we have to explain ourselves or to be accountable to anybody for our decisions and our actions we drift from God and the things of God.

[ We have to be ACCOUNTABLE Believers ]

Note: There was “ NO KING “ — No KING No accountability

Note: But there was law but the people wasn’t up holding the law or enforcing the law

Example: That old Deacon that said “ I don’t care what the bible says , this is how we’ve been doing it “ [ NO LAW ]

Note: We are living in a society where they don’t want to give an account to anyone

The interest payment on consequences

Lesson # 1

When there is no accountability in our lives, we have a strong tendency to drift

Lesson # 2

Be careful to treat everyone you know as an image bearer of God.

Judges 19:22–24 (CSB)

22 While they were enjoying themselves, all of a sudden, wicked men of the city surrounded the house and beat on the door. They said to the old man who was the owner of the house, “Bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him!”

23 The owner of the house went out and said to them, “Please don’t do this evil, my brothers. After all, this man has come into my house. Don’t commit this horrible outrage.

24 Here, let me bring out my virgin daughter and the man’s concubine now. Abuse them and do whatever you want to them. But don’t commit this outrageous thing against this man.”

Note: This man mentality was that this man's life and this man virtue was worth more than his own daughter and this man's concubine.

The interest payment on consequences

Lesson # 1

When there is no accountability in our lives, we have a strong tendency to drift

Lesson # 2

Be careful to treat everyone you know as an image bearer of God.

Lesson # 3

The farther away we drift from God the more we are vulnerable of doing things we never imagine we would do.

Example: Adultery & Murder

Quote: Those ole people used to say “ if you lie you’re steal and if you steal you’re kill “ —- those all the people was real drastic with that phrase……….

Note: The Book of judges as a whole you will see a nation of people who have been slowly drifting away from God and what you see happening in judges chapter 19- through 21 is the combination of drifting away from God and it shows just how far away as a nation as a whole they have drift from God.

Note: That’s why we have to stay under the influence of the Spirt

Galatians 5:14–16 (CSB) 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself. 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another. 16 I say, then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh.

Galatians 5:19–21 (KJV 1900)

19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Ephesians 5:18 (KJV 1900)

18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

Note: Stay Close to God

Note: If you drift you will find yourself doing some things you said you would never do

Note: Watch what you say about what other people are doing because you never know about you.

Now the story gets worse in Judges chapter 20

What happens in Judges chapter 20 is now there's a Civil War

Between the 11 tribes of Israel

And they're fighting against the one tribe of Benjamin

Because of the Benjamin tribe

That performed this outrageous act of sin

On one of their old fellow Israelite brothers

In Judges 20:21 there's this huge battle

Judges 20:21 (CSB) 21 The Benjaminites came out of Gibeah and slaughtered twenty-two thousand men of Israel on the field that day.

Thousands and thousands of lives was loss as a result of this battle on both sides

And what ends up happening is that there are only

600 Benjamite men that are left

So in chapter 21

The other 11 tribes start to feel bad

I start to feel pity for the tribe of Benjamin

Because they are basically afraid that this tribe of Benjamin is going to be extinct

Because they're 600 men who are alive of the Benjamite

But there's no women of Benjamin for them to get married to

And procreate with

So now they have another problem because now they're worried

That one of the 12 tribes of Israel is going to be extinct

Note: Don’t that looks like life right NOW, you retaliate because you have good reason to but it causes another problem

Now this leads to the 4th lesson

The interest payment on consequences

Lesson # 1

When there is no accountability in our lives, we have a strong tendency to drift

Lesson # 2

Be careful to treat everyone you know as an image bearer of God.

Lesson # 3

The farther away we drift from God the more we are vulnerable of doing things we never imagine we would do.

Lesson # 4

Every poor decision we make has consequences we cannot choose

Although what these Benjamites did was wrong

But the other 11 tribes coming and actually fighting

And killing them was a decision that they made

And now they have to pay for the fallout of that decision

And the Benjamites also have to pay for

The fallout of their poor decision as well

STATEMENT : “ You can choose your sin but you can’t choose your consequences “

So what happen is this

These Israelites go and slaughter men from this tribe

Jabesh-Gilead and they slaughter these men

And there’s 400 women who have never been with a man

So they take those 400 women and they give those 400 women

To the 400 of the 600 Benjamite men

For those Benjaminite men to procreate

But what’s the problem

Simple Math

There was 600 Benjaminite men who was not able to find

Wivies because all the wivies had been murdered & killed

And 400 of them have now had a wife given to them

From this Jabesh-Gilead tribe

So now the problem is that there are 200 Benjaminite men who do not have wivies.

[Note: This is why one poor decision follow another poor decision]

Because what happens next is that these Israelites

are basically saying you know that

We all took an oath and said we could not GIVE any of

our daughters to the Benjaminites

But it doesn’t say anything about if they are taken

Quote: Tony Evans “ We try to see how for we can go without sinning not realizing we have been sinning the whole time instead of just trying to be better christians “

Note: So now what happens is that they have to make another poor decision.

Judges 21:19–21 (CSB)

19 They also said, “Look, there’s an annual festival to the Lord in Shiloh, which is north of Bethel, east of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah.”

20 Then they commanded the Benjaminites, “Go and hide in the vineyards.

21 Watch, and when you see the young women of Shiloh come out to perform the dances, each of you leave the vineyards and catch a wife for yourself from the young women of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.

Judges 21:22 (CSB) 22 When their fathers or brothers come to us and protest, we will tell them, ‘Show favor to them, since we did not get enough wives for each of them in the battle. You didn’t actually give the women to them, so you are not guilty of breaking your oath.’ ”

Judges 21:23 (CSB) 23 The Benjaminites did this and took the number of women they needed from the dancers they caught. They went back to their own inheritance, rebuilt their cities, and lived in them.

Note: Look at all the poor decisions

Note: Look at all the people that was effective that didn’t have nothing to do with this from the beginning.

The interest payment on consequences

Lesson # 1

When there is no accountability in our lives, we have a strong tendency to drift

Lesson # 2

Be careful to treat everyone you know as an image bearer of God.

Lesson # 3

The farther away we drift from God the more we are vulnerable of doing things we never imagine we would do.

Lesson # 4

Every poor decision we make has consequences we cannot choose

Lesson 5

God has Grace for us even in the midst of our most destructive Decisions

Note: Notice how the book of Judges ends (Judges 21: 23-25)

Judges 21:23–24 CSB

23 The Benjaminites did this and took the number of women they needed from the dancers they caught. They went back to their own inheritance, rebuilt their cities, and lived in them. 24 At that time, each of the Israelites returned from there to his own tribe and family. Each returned from there to his own inheritance.

Note: Verse 25 characterize the whole book of Judges

Judges 21:25 (ESV)

25 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.