The Purge

Lead Vocalist (Kelly)

Welcome & Announcements (Hopson)

Good morning family!

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4 announcements:

1) This is the FINAL WEEK to sign up for Fellowship Groups

Our fellowship groups are small groups that meet in homes once a week for fellowship, prayer, and to discuss the weekly sermon

The next round of groups begins the final week of August and will conclude just before Thanksgiving

These are one of the best ways to get to know your church family, and they’re open to anyone who is a member or is regularly attending PBC.

Register by scanning the QR code on the screen, or on the announcement wall

2) Please pray about signing up to help our Audio-Visual Team

We have a handful of volunteers that are moving away, and we really need some new faces to serve on this important team.

There’s a special training coming up on August 17 at 9:30, so now is a great time to get started!

If you’re a member at PBC and you don’t have a regularly place of ministry where people are depending on you to serve, this may be a GREAT place to get started.

Register by scanning the QR code on the screen, or on the announcement wall

3) Save the date for 8/25 MM

Potluck at 5PM (we will eat what you bring)

Meeting at 6

4) A word about today’s sermon

We believe the entire Bible is the Word of God, and all of it is profitable for all of God’s people

But because the Bible is a true book, it deals with real life. And sometimes real life is horrible.

There are portions of Scripture that handle mature themes that may not be appropriate for some children, and today as we conclude the book of Judges we’re in one of those passages

So, our PBC Kids team has prepared a special Bible study time open to all children ages 12 and under.

You don’t have to send your kids out, but you’re free to if you would like.

I will dismiss the children after we finish singing, immediately before the Scripture reading and pastoral prayer.

Now please take a moment of silence to prepare your heart for worship.

Call to Worship (Psalm 117:1-2)

Prayer of Praise (Lorna Shandley)

Come Praise and Glorify

In Christ Alone

Prayer of Confession (Colin Smith), Moral relativism

Assurance of Pardon (Titus 3:4-5)

I Will Glory in My Redeemer

Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross

Scripture Reading (Judges 20:1-13)

Parents, if you would like them to dismiss your children 12 and under, you can do so now.

They can head to the back with Pastor Sterling and Ms. Tasha.

While they’re leaving, please turn in your Bibles to Judges 20.

Our sermon text will be chapters 19-21, but we’re just going to read 20:1-13 right now.

You can find the passage on page 259 in the black Bibles under the seats, and if you don’t have a Bible please take that Bible as our gift to you.

Pastoral Prayer (Hopson)

Prayer for PBC—Welcome Team ministry

Thank you for Bibi’s leadership

Thank you for the 13 saints joyfully serving on the team!

Help them to welcome everyone with the love of Christ

Give them eyes to see when people are hurting as they enter these doors, and give them wisdom and words of comfort to help them

Prayer for kingdom partner—Thrive

Thank you for their commitment to provide for the physical, economic, educational, emotional and spiritual needs of our neighbors.

Thank you for the many ways PBC has been involved in helping them

We pray that you would use this ministry to bring good fruit among the neediest people on the Peninsula

Prayer for US—Healthcare workers

Strength to care for the sick

Protection from sickness themselves

Protect them from weariness

May the know you, the Great Physician

Prayer for the world—South Sudan

This is a country that looks a lot like our text in Judges this morning.

Amidst years of civil wars, unimaginable atrocities like cannibalism, gang rape, death by burning, and child abduction have all been all reported.

Thank you for this providential reminder that the evil we read about in our Bibles is not an ancient problem, but a real and present danger.

We pray for leaders like President Salva Kiir to repent of all the ways they have abused their people. Change his heart!

We pray for the most vulnerable citizens of South Sudan—women, children, and the poor.

We pray for churches!

Pray for the sermon

Help us to listen

Rescue some sinner from a path of great evil

Help your people not to bury our heads in the sand, but to speak against evil for the good of our neighbors, and the glory of Your Son

Help us to love Jesus more as we see the sin that He carried for us.

SERMON

START TIMER!!!

There’s a popular film series that tells the story of a dystopian future America where the government aims to cut down crime by sanctioning an annual 12-hour period known as "The Purge." For these 12 hours all crimes, including murder, are legal, and emergency services are suspended. The Purge is promoted as a way to reduce crime and unemployment rates by allowing citizens to release their pent-up aggression and violence.

I’ve not seen the films, but the concept is horrifying because we know human beings are capable of great evil. Because of the incredible depravity of the human heart, it wouldn’t even take 12 hours to bring about catastrophic injustice upon a society.

And it’s also horrifying because we know you cannot purge evil by permitting evil.

That’s a lesson the people of God learn firsthand in our text this morning from the final three chapters of the book of Judges.

Turn to Judges 19.

This passage is one of the darkest, most depraved stories in the entire Bible.

It is the second part of a two-part conclusion to the book of Judges.

Both conclusions highlight something mentioned four times in the section, a reality which haunts us as the final sentence of this epic book.

Judges 21:25—In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

This is a time of relativism, where people did whatever they wanted.

Last week we saw how abandoning the truth perverts worship.

The Big Idea we’re going to examine from our text today is how Abandoning the truth perverts morality.

With God’s help this morning, we’re going to take three steps into the depths of the evil in our text.

First, we need to See the Carnage caused by perverted morality. Here we’re simply going to walk through the text to understand what happened.

Second, we need to Survey the Damage when the dust settles on perverted morality. At this stage we can learn a few principles to help us respond to a story like this.

Finally, we need to Search for Hope amidst the rubble of perverted morality. Here we’ll look to the purpose of a story like this, and how it points us to our need for a Rescuer.

Let’s begin with step one...

1) See the CARNAGE

In a room this size, I know there are some of us who would rather not study a passage like this.

You would rather not know about the horrors that have haunted our world since our first parents fell, evil which continues to plague our world today.

Some of us would rather bury our heads in the sand until something good and sweet comes along.

But God’s Word will not allow us to sit idly by and ignore the evil that surrounds us. It calls us to open up our eyes and SEE. Even if we are shocked and staggered in the process.

Judges 19:1—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.

Immediately we’re off to a bad start.

Once again we meet a Levite, a spiritual leader in Israel.

And once again, this Levite is behaving badly.

The Levite we met last week had perverted worship. This Levite has perverted morality.

The text says he has a concubine, which was basically like a second-class wife.

A concubine had to meet her husband’s sexual desires, but she didn’t enjoy the financial privileges, social status, or inheritance that would be given to a wife.

And the fact this Levite has a concubine implies he also had at least one other wife.

Judges 19:2–3a—And his concubine was unfaithful to him, and she went away from him to her father’s house at Bethlehem in Judah, and was there some four months. Then her husband arose and went after her, to speak kindly to her and bring her back.

Many Hebrew scholars agree, the word “unfaithful” doesn’t mean this woman cheated on her husband.

K. Lawson Younger—“The more likely reading based on the ancient versions is “his concubine was angry or quarreled with him.” The text does not explicitly blame either party for this separation. But in light of the Levite’s later conduct, it seems most likely that the blame rests with the Levite. The young woman initiates a separation and goes straight for her father’s house in Bethlehem.” [1]

Regardless of who is at fault, this couple has been separated for four months. Until finally, the Levite decides to win his woman back.

In verses 4-10, we read how the Levite visited his father-in-law’s house.

Even though the Levite said he wanted to speak kindly to his concubine and win her back, the text doesn’t mention him talking to her at all.

The woman seems to fade into the background while her father and her husband wine and dine together for five days.

And finally, at the end of five days the concubine is given back to her husband and they leave for home.

But because they left her father’s house so late, they cannot make it home before dark.

The Levite refused to stop in a foreign city, thinking they wouldn’t be safe there.

They needed to travel to the city of Gibeah, a city filled with God’s people from the tribe of Benjamin.

God’s people, after all, had much better morals than the pagans around them.

But in verses 14-20, something is eerily wrong.

After enjoying five nights of hospitality at his father-in-law’s house, the Levite experiences the exact opposite in the city of Gibeah.

In a culture where hospitality was extremely important, nobody welcomes them into their house for the night.

So the Levite plans to camp out in the town square.

Until an old man comes along and pleads with them not to spend the night in the town square.

Judges 19:20–21—And the old man said, “Peace be to you; I will care for all your wants. Only, do not spend the night in the square.” So he brought him into his house and gave the donkeys feed. And they washed their feet, and ate and drank.

Finally, there’s someone kind in the city of Gibeah!

But the kindness will not last...

Judges 19:22—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.”

Often when the Bible says that someone wants to “know” another person, it’s not talking about hanging out and learning each other’s stories. It’s a euphemism for sexual intercourse.

This mob of lustful men wants to know this man intimately.

Immediately this story should remind you of a famous story in the book of Genesis.

Two angels visit the city of Sodom, and a group of men from the town bang on Lot’s door and demand he release the angels so they can have sex with them.

Something eerily similar is happening in Gibeah, but this time it’s not a pagan city.

These are supposed to be the people of God!

Just like Lot tried to persuade the mob in Sodom, this old man in Gibeah tries to persuade the mob outside his doorstep…

Judges 19:23–24—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. Let 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.”

Notice the twisted morals of the old man.

“Don’t rape this man, he’s my guest! How about my daughter here—she’s a virgin! And his concubine too! I’ll bring you two women and you can violate them however you want!”

This is absolutely vile.

Judges 19:25–26—But the men would not listen to him. So the man [the Levite] 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.

This Levite is a spineless excuse for a man.

To save his own skin, he grabs his concubine and pushes her outside, leaving her to be gang-raped all night by a crowd of evil men.

One commentator writes: “The narrator does not dwell on the harrowing details, but if ever a human being endured a night of utter horror it was the Levite’s concubine on that night, which must have seemed as interminable as eternity and as dark as the pit itself.” [2]

—Arthur Cundall

Eventually the mob lets her go, and she crawls to the threshold of the house where her master was spending the night. But she didn’t even have the strength to knock on the door.

Judges 19:27–28—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. 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 callousness of this Levite is stunning.

There’s this poor woman—bloodied, bruised, violated, and ashamed—lying near the threshold of the house.

He doesn’t speak tenderly to her. He simply tells her to get up.

It’s almost as if he believes she’s gotten what she deserved.

But when the woman doesn’t respond, he picks her up and puts her on his donkey.

Now at this point in the story, I’ve always assumed the concubine was so horribly abused that she died.

But notice the text doesn’t say she was dead.

At least not yet.

Judges 19:29–30—And when he entered his house, he took a knife, and taking hold of his concubine he divided her, limb by limb, into twelve 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.”

Perhaps this poor woman died from her abuse the night before.

Perhaps she died on the way home.

Perhaps she died at the hands of the Levite himself, as he mutilated her body.

However she met her final end, she is now gone.

But the Levite remains, and he is about to unleash unspeakable evils on the people of God.

In chapter 20, verses 1-3, the twelve tribes receive the Levite’s grim delivery, and they all gather at a place called Mizpah.

Practically everybody but the tribe of Benjamin is there, a massive army of 400,000 men!

They ask the Levite, “what happened?”

We read his answer just before the pastoral prayer, so we won’t read it again now.

But if you were paying attention, you might have noticed some differences between the story in chapter 19 and the Levite’s version in chapter 20.

He says the men of Gibeah tried to kill him, but the text said they wanted to have sex with him.

He says they violated his concubine, but conveniently omits how he pushed her outside into their hands.

He implies—without directly stating—that the mob killed his concubine. But the text suggests the Levite may have killed her.

But he lays all the blame at the feet of the city of Gibeah and the tribe of Benjamin.

It’s hard to imagine why the Levite would do all this. Until you see the end result of his manipulations. The nation is spun headlong into a civil war.

The rest of chapter 20 recounts the nitty-gritty details of that civil war, which took the lives of 65,000 men in just a matter of days.

Even though the people pray to God for guidance, the text makes it clear this is no holy war.

This was a war motivated by vengeance, not justice.

The tribe of Benjamin must pay for what happened.

But even after the Benjaminites have clearly lost, the eleven tribes go for the jugular.

Judges 20:48—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.

There was no protection for women or children. Everything breathing was cut to pieces.

This is genocide.

At the end of the book of Numbers, there were 46,000 fighting men in the tribe of Benjamin.

If you include older men, women, and children in the mix there could have been nearly 200,000 people total in the tribe.

But now, after this civil war is over, there are only 600 men alive.

Just to visualize this, imagine a war broke out in Hampton Roads, and the surrounding towns all attacked the city of Poquoson and only left 39 men alive out of 13,000.

That’s about the same percentage of people that would have survived the slaughter of Benjamin.

In chapter 21, the eleven tribes realize they’ve created a serious problem.

Judges 21:2–3—And the people came to Bethel and sat there till evening before God, and they lifted up their voices and wept bitterly. And they said, “O Lord, the God of Israel, why has this happened in Israel, that today there should be one tribe lacking in Israel?”

This prayer seems repentant. They are weeping bitterly. And they’re talking to God. So far so good.

But their question betrays them. They ask God, “WHY?!?”

The problem is not the question, but that God’s people are completely and willfully blind to their sin!!!

Barry Webb helpfully writes, “The real reasons why there are no wives for the remaining Benjaminites are, first, because the Israelites themselves have slaughtered them all—not in the battle itself, but in the orgy of destruction that followed it, in which all the towns of Benjamin and all the people in them were destroyed (20:48); and second, because of their oath (also without warrant) not to give any of their daughters in marriage to Benjamin (21:1). It is they, not God, who are to blame, and the attempt to deny it will only make matters worse. Blaming God for trouble we have brought on ourselves is an age-old strategy. But it never works because God cannot be fooled. If healing is to happen at all it must begin with us taking responsibility for our own actions. God can see right through the implied blame-shifting of the Israelites here and is unmoved by their tears. They get no answer from him.” [3]

In the remainder of chapter 21, the eleven tribes come up with two diabolical plans to remedy the wrong they’ve created.

In verses 8-15, they slaughter an entire town—men, women, children, infants—everybody in Jabesh-Gilead is killed except for the virgin women.

400 teenage girls are kidnapped and brought to the men of Benjamin to marry.

But they still need 200 more girls!

So in verses 16-24, they kidnap 200 girls from a feast near the tabernacle and give them to the men of Benjamin to marry.

Tim Keller summarizes it this way: “An assembly which had gathered to do justice for a single raped and murdered woman ends up planning and promoting the murder of a whole town, and the abduction and rape of the girls of two Israelite towns. And everyone returns home (v 24)—apart from the unmarried women of Jabesh Gilead and Shiloh.” [4]

After this catastrophic perversion of morality, the book ends with this summary statement:

Judges 21:25—In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

This entire story is a devastating picture of how abandoning the truth perverts morality.

And because this story is recorded for us in sacred Scripture, our responsibility is to see this carnage.

But that’s not all.

Moving on to step two, let’s...

2) Survey the DAMAGE

About a year ago as I was preparing to study the book of Judges, we studied this book during family worship.

When we came upon chapter 19, we tried to be as delicate as we could with some of our young children.

We told them about a man who pushed his wife outside so bad men could hurt her.

When we concluded our study in the book a few days later, I asked each of the children what they learned from the book of Judges.

And Ella—who was 7 at the time—replied, “We shouldn’t push!”

Well, not pushing is certainly a good lesson to learn from our text, but we’re going to try to dig a bit deeper.

Consider with me 7 lessons from the text:

A) The Bible doesn’t RECOMMEND everything it REPORTS.

Some people have accused the Bible of being a vile and bloodthirsty book.

They’ve looked at disgusting and depraved passages like this, and then project those feelings onto the Bible itself.

But just because the Bible reports something doesn’t mean it recommends it.

Whether it’s Abraham’s polygamy, Jacob’s deception, Moses’ murder, David’s adultery, or the genocide in Judges 20-21, the Bible is filled with stories simply telling you what happened.

When people say the Bible celebrates these things, take a careful look at what the text says. Typically the Bible is simply reporting what happened, not recommending we go and do likewise.

This may be an opportunity for some of us to rethink the way we approach the Bible.

Rather than cringing at these dark stories, we should be grateful the Bible actually includes them.

After all, there is no doubt that vile things like this really do happen in our world.

Some of you, perhaps, have even been victims of great evil like what’s described in these chapters.

Would you rather have a Pollyanna god who pretends evil like this doesn’t exist, or the true God who sees and speaks into the chaos?

A second lesson we must learn is...

B) Moral RELATIVISM doesn’t lead to FREEDOM.

One of the darkest lies in our world today is that a world without an absolute standard of morality is a world of freedom.

Just think of the famous words sung by Elsa in Frozen: “No right no wrong, no rules for me. I’m free!”

That sounds oh so pretty, but the book of Judges shows you where that logic actually leads.

If there is no right or wrong, if there are no rules, how can anything in these chapters be wrong?

If everybody gets to determine their own standard of morality, you can’t blame the Nazis for the holocaust! After all, didn’t they think they were doing what was right?

And you can’t say, “Well, the community gets to determine what the standard of morality is.” Because that wouldn’t have prevented the Holocaust either!

The only way you can justly condemn evil in our world is if you have a standard of right and wrong. So what’s your standard, friend?

For the Christian, our standard is the Word of God! It tells us what is right and wrong.

A third lesson we must learn is...

C) Ideas have CONSEQUENCES, and bad ideas have VICTIMS.

That’s a phrase I’ve heard many times by John Stonestreet, the president of the Colson Center for Christian Engagement.

It’s not only a catchy saying, it’s absolutely true!

Think of some of the ideas underneath what happened in this story:

A husband cannot possibly be satisfied by one woman, so he should get a concubine on the side.

Offering up a female slave to satisfy the lusts of a depraved mob is better than offering up a man.

It’s okay to kill and kidnap as long as we’re doing it for a good reason.

These bad ideas were not harmless, they all created victims.

And that’s true of every bad idea in our world today!

Tell people marriage isn’t between a man and a woman, and you’ll create victims.

Tell people the unborn aren’t human, and you’ll create victims.

Tell people they should make their physical appearance match their feelings, and you’ll create victims.

All this means the battlefield of ideas is not insignificant!

Fighting for ideas that are good, beautiful, and true may well be a matter of life and death!

And this is even more important when you notice who the victims of bad ideas usually are...

D) The GREATEST evil usually harms the WEAKEST people.

Think of the victims in these chapters.

There’s a concubine, who was basically a slave. A second-class citizen with limited rights, and she’s treated like property.

There’s the women and children in Benjamin and Jabesh-Gilead who are slaughtered in a genocidal rage.

There’s the 600 teenage girls in Jabesh-Gilead and Shiloh who are kidnapped and forced into unwanted marriages.

The worst ideas harm the weakest victims!

Please don’t mishear me: I am not suggesting women are weak-minded or anything like that.

But I am saying in this society these women had very little recourse to protect themselves against this evil.

And that’s typically the way evil works. It rarely attacks the strong. It goes after the easiest targets it can find!

Once again, we see the same things in our world today.

The most vulnerable people in our world are the pre-born. And they are discarded like common trash at a rate that should make our stomachs churn.

The second most vulnerable group in our world today are children. And young people in our world are being chemically sterilized and surgically mutilated by the thousands, while politicians, advertisers, and entertainers applaud them for their courage!

Christian, you need to open your eyes to this sort of evil happening in our world today.

These aren’t scare tactics, they are real people who are being victimized by great evil!

But be careful, Christian. Because when you truly become convinced of evil like this, you can quickly become like the Israelites in chapters 20-21.

We need to remember...

E) You can’t PURGE evil by PERMITTING evil.

The Israelites responded to the rape of a single concubine by government-sanctioned genocide, kidnapping, and rape.

Much like the government in The Purge films responded to violence by permitting violence for a 12-hour period.

But two wrongs don’t make a right, and you can’t purify a culture by permitting evil.

I think as Christians we are far more tempted to do this than we think.

This election year we have a truly disastrous choice in front of us.

On the one hand, there’s a political party absolutely committed to the destruction of the unborn.

On the other hand is a political party tolerating some of the very same things, just to a lesser extent.

Certainly one of these options is better than the other, but both options should grieve us.

Christians cannot turn a blind eye to this evil, just to win an election.

I believe Christians need to be willing to do what the tribe of Benjamin did not.

When the tribe was confronted in chapter 21 about what happened in Gibeah, they refused to call out the sin in their own tribe.

We need to be people who can call out the sin in our own tribes, because...

F) SILENCE in the face of evil is EVIL.

Martin Luther King Jr. once famously said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

Sitting silently while great evil is committed around you is itself a form of evil!

And that’s exactly what happened in our text.

Surely many people in the city of Gibeah heard that poor woman screaming for help that night. But her screams fell on deaf ears.

Later the townspeople of Gibeah and the tribe of Benjamin refused to hand over the men who were guilty of these atrocities.

They could have comforted themselves by saying, “Well we didn’t do anything to that poor girl.”

But their silence allowed the evil to fester.

What about you, Christian?

I am not saying we need to speak against every evil we see in our world today.

We don’t need more people virtue signaling on social media, speaking into every cultural issue as if they’re subject matter experts.

But we do need Christians who aren’t afraid to speak against the evil they see in their own communities.

And we especially need to speak when the evil is found in our own tribes.

Ephesians 5:11—Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

There’s one final lesson we need to learn as we survey the damage in this text...

G) The PRESENCE of chaos doesn’t mean the ABSENCE of God.

One of the interesting things in chapter 20 is that God actually speaks!

Three times—in verses 18, 23, and 28—God’s people inquire of the Lord.

And three times, God answers them.

But that fact is actually a bit troubling, because God seems to be giving them answers that lead to further bloodshed.

I believe God is disciplining His people in these verses.

Throughout the book of Judges they have worshipped false Gods, worshipped the true God falsely, disobeyed Him over and over again, living as if He doesn’t exist.

So God is allowing them to see where that road leads.

Chaos doesn’t mean God is absent. It could mean God is disciplining His people. Or He’s allowing unbelievers to get what they want.

If you're not a Christian, the worst thing God can do is to give you what you want. To give you a life without Him.

If you’re a Christian, don’t assume the chaos around you means God is absent.

Charles Spurgeon reportedly said, "God is too good to be unkind, too wise to be mistaken; and when you cannot trace His hand, you can trust His heart."

Let’s do that together as we conclude this morning.

After seeing the carnage and surveying the damage, we must take our final step and...

3) Search for HOPE

There’s a beautiful scene near the end of The Two Towers when King Theoden surveys the damage done to his fortress at Helm’s Deep. Saruman’s army has slaughtered his people and laid waste their defenses.

King Theoden looks at Aragorn and says, “So much death. What can men do against such reckless hate?”

Aragorn looks into the eyes of the king and replies, “Ride out with me. Ride out and meet them.”

Theoden says, “For death and glory!”

But Aragorn corrects him: “For Rohan. For your people.” [5]

What can we do against such reckless evil in our world today?

We too must ride out and meet it.

We cannot bury our heads in the sand.

We cannot numb our minds with entertainment, pretending it’s not there.

We must challenge it head on!

But we do so, knowing we are following a King who has already won the battle.

And we see a glimpse of this King in the next-to-last verse of the book of Judges...

Judges 21:24—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.

If you read these chapters in preparation for today’s sermon, you might not have grasped the massive significance of this verse.

After all this depravity—sexual sin, rape, murder, genocide—you would think God would finally give up on His people.

But He doesn’t. The story ends with God’s people returning home, still breathing, still part of the covenant people of God.

I love the way Dale Ralph Davis explains this: “So the Book of Judges ends with a miracle. How after chapters 19–21, indeed, after chapters 1–21, can you account for the fact that there is still an Israel? It can only be because Yahweh wished to dwell in the midst of his people in spite of its sin. It can only be because Yahweh’s grace is far more tenacious than his people’s depravity and insists on still holding them fast even in their sinfulness and their stupidity.” [6]

And God is able to show such tenacious grace to His people because One day, He will send the true King.

As diabolical as the end of Judges is, what happened to King Jesus was far worse.

Because this wasn’t an ordinary king. This was the eternal Son of God!

He died on a cross—violated, mutilated, disregarded, and scorned—so that we who crucified Him could be forgiven!

Because Jesus faced our evil head on—and won!—we can follow after Him and do the same!

We can ride out and face the evil in our world with justice, love, and joy because our King is coming again to make all things new!

Prayer of Thanksgiving

Your Will Be Done

Benediction (2 Cor 13:14)

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”