Restoring Dignity to the Devalued

Introduction

In my hand I hold a $100 bill. Today at the end of the service I’m going to give this $100 bill away to someone here. Someone here today is going to leave with 100 MORE DOLLARS than what you showed up with.

So it will be important to pay attention and listen to the message today.

This piece of paper that has been printed on by our government is worth $100...

It is a Federal Reserve Note

It is legal tender for all debts, both public and private

You can go to the store and buy $100 worth of ice cream, or pop corn, or fried chicken, or gasoline for your vehicle.

Someone today is going to go home with this $100…if you still want it after I’m done with it...

But before we get to the $100 in question, I want to introduce you to Judges 19...

Scripture Introduction

Judges 19 contains one of the most horrific scenes in all of Scripture. The passage reveals the depth of depravity of what happens when “EVERYONE DOES WHAT IS RIGHT IN THEIR OWN EYES.”

One of the results of “EVERYONE DOING WHAT IS RIGHT IN THEIR OWN EYES” is that the Devil changes the “price tag” on things and he does a really good job of making people think that which is valuable isn’t really that important, and the things that really aren’t that important are of infinite worth.

Jesus put it this way, “What would it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul.”

What’s more valuable…$1 million or your soul?

What’s more valuable....your child making the All-Star team or your child making it to Heaven?

What’s more valuable....your child taking over the family business or your child doing God’s will with their future?

While we KNOW the right answers to these questions, WE OFTEN LIVE LIKE THE THINGS OF WORLD are far more valuable than the things that are ETERNAL.

We DEVALUE what’s really important, and begin to VALUE what isn’t important.

THAT’S WHAT WE SEE HAPPENING IN THE PASSAGE BEFORE US TODAY IN JUDGES 19...

In the passage before us today we see the:

Devaluation of Marriage

Devaluation of Women

Devaluation of Life

and then we will seek to answer the question, “How can I restore dignity to the devalued?”

A Devaluation of Marriage (19:1-15)

Marriage was the FIRST institution created by God in the book of Genesis. It was instituted BEFORE the government and BEFORE the church.

It wasn’t good for man to be alone, so God created Adam a helper that was suitable for him. The concept of “helper” is not a term that devalues women and their role in the marital relationship, but is a term that reflects how she fulfills that which is missing in His life, much like the Holy Spirit fulfills what is missing in one’s soul and spirit. The idea of “helper” is similar to the concept of God being our “help” in time of trouble.

God created marriage.

He created marriage to be between ONE man and ONE woman.

But society has perverted, devalued, denigrated, and sought to disintegrate and destroy marriage as God intended it. Can I say this is NOTHING NEW.

The devaluation of marriage has been going on for thousands of years and we see it in the passage before us. Notice:

Judges 19:1–3 NKJV

And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite staying in the remote mountains of Ephraim. He took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah. But his concubine played the harlot against him, and went away from him to her father’s house at Bethlehem in Judah, and was there four whole months. Then her husband arose and went after her, to speak kindly to her and bring her back, having his servant and a couple of donkeys with him. So she brought him into her father’s house; and when the father of the young woman saw him, he was glad to meet him.

After being there a few days and having several discussions with the girl’s father, this Levite decided it was time for him and his “concubine” to go.

Now, you may ask yourself, “What is a concubine?” I’m glad you asked. A good definition of a concubine is as follows:

Got Questions? Bible Questions Answered (What Is a Concubine? Why Did God Allow Men to Have Concubines in the Bible?)

A concubine is a female who voluntarily enslaves and sells herself to a man primarily for his sexual pleasure. Concubines in the patriarchal age and beyond did not have equal status with a wife. A concubine could not marry her master because of her slave status, although, for her, the relationship was exclusive and ongoing. Sometimes concubines were used to bear children for men whose wives were barren. Concubines in Israel possessed many of the same rights as legitimate wives, without the same respect.

By the way, although many men in the OT had concubines, IT WAS NEVER APPROVED BY, APPLAUDED BY, OR HONORED BY GOD IN ANY WAY, SHAPE, FORM, OR FASHION.

This is a COMPLETE PERVERSION of God’s intention for marriage and His desire for one man and one woman to be united in holy matrimony and have exclusive rights to one another.

As we go back to our story, the Levite decides to leave and take his concubine with him. Notice what happens next:

Judges 19:10–15 NKJV

However, the man was not willing to spend that night; so he rose and departed, and came opposite Jebus (that is, Jerusalem). With him were the two saddled donkeys; his concubine was also with him. They were near Jebus, and the day was far spent; and the servant said to his master, “Come, please, and let us turn aside into this city of the Jebusites and lodge in it.” But his master said to him, “We will not turn aside here into a city of foreigners, who are not of the children of Israel; we will go on to Gibeah.” So he said to his servant, “Come, let us draw near to one of these places, and spend the night in Gibeah or in Ramah.” And they passed by and went their way; and the sun went down on them near Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin. They turned aside there to go in to lodge in Gibeah. And when he went in, he sat down in the open square of the city, for no one would take them into his house to spend the night.

What follows next is one of the most SHOCKING and SICKENING stories in the entire Word of God. I would dare say many of you have no idea about what’s going to happen next. It is something out of a horror movie...

But when a person RATIONALIZES DEVALUING something God calls sacred, and holy, and pure…IT OFTEN LEADS DOWN A SLIPPERY SLOPE OF THE DEVALUATION OF MANY OTHER PEOPLE AND THINGS...

A devaluation of marriage for this Levite LOGICALLY LED TO THE NEXT STEP, AND THAT IS...

A Devaluation of Women (19:16-26)

Let me catch you up on what happens in vv. 16-21...

After the Levite and his concubine leave her home and begin traveling the time comes for them to find a place to sleep for the night. They make it to a place called Gibeah. You may remember Gibeah would be the hometown of King Saul and it had been alloted to the tribe of Benjamin.

It took them a while to find a place to stay, but they were finally invited in by an “old man.”

What happens next is one of the most horrific events in the entirety of Scripture. Scripture never hides the depravity of mankind. Scripture never tries to whitewash how sin has corrupted God’s good creation. This is hard to read and it may be hard to listen to...

Judges 19:22–26 NKJV

As they were enjoying themselves, suddenly certain men of the city, perverted men, surrounded the house and beat on the door. They spoke to the master of the house, the old man, saying, “Bring out the man who came to your house, that we may know him carnally!” But the man, the master of the house, went out to them and said to them, “No, my brethren! I beg you, do not act so wickedly! Seeing this man has come into my house, do not commit this outrage. Look, here is my virgin daughter and the man’s concubine; let me bring them out now. Humble them, and do with them as you please; but to this man do not do such a vile thing!” But the men would not heed him. So the man took his concubine and brought her out to them. And they knew her and abused her all night until morning; and when the day began to break, they let her go. Then the woman came as the day was dawning, and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her master was, till it was light.

This is a scene right out of Sodom and Gomorrah. Some of it is almost identical to what happened there.

The men of the city wanted the old man to send to send this man out in order that they could rape and sodomize him.

The old man tells them no, but instead is willing to SACRIFICE HIS OWN DAUGHTER and this man’s CONCUBINE and basically tells the men of the city to rape them instead.

He treats his own daughter worse than an animal and offers her up to this perverted men. Finally the Levite intervenes and basically throws his concubine out the door to be brutalized and raped by this perverted horde and Scripture reveals they do so throughout the night.

We live in a society today that continues to DEVALUE and even DEHUMANIZE women. The greatest proponent of this is the pornography industry:

One study reveals the following astounding stats:

53% of men who claim to be Christians have looked at porn within the last week

47% of Christians report that porn is a major problem in their home

90% of 8-16 year olds have seen pornography

Pornography is a major, major problem...

Pornography...dehumanizes, objectifies, and degrades men and [especially] women.

• Pornography promotes “sex without consequences”...It is sometimes called “the victimless sin,” but this perception doesn’t account for the damage done to the person’s soul and the erosion of relationships.

[Pornography] distorts the image of God in us—and our ability to see it in others

Porn is Satan recruiting us to degrade a woman into the opposite of who she is—from royalty to slavery.

Ray Ortlund

In this story we have seen the

The devaluation of marriage

The devaluation of women

Now we see...

The Devaluation of Life (19:27-30)

Notice what happens next in this horrific story

Judges 19:27–30 NKJV

When her master arose in the morning, and opened the doors of the house and went out to go his way, there was his concubine, fallen at the door of the house with her hands on the threshold. And he said to her, “Get up and let us be going.” But there was no answer. So the man lifted her onto the donkey; and the man got up and went to his place. When he entered his house he took a knife, laid hold of his concubine, and divided her into twelve pieces, limb by limb, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel. And so it was that all who saw it said, “No such deed has been done or seen from the day that the children of Israel came up from the land of Egypt until this day. Consider it, confer, and speak up!”

What a disgusting scene. No respect for her. No respect for her life. No respect for her now lifeless body that he mutilates and mails throughout Israel.

It seems he may have done so to incite a response against those who raped her, but in doing so he excuses his own sin by devaluing marriage and offering her up to be sacrificed on the altar of other men’s lusts.

When a person devalues something God calls sacred, it becomes a little easier to devalue something else God calls sacred. He devalued marriage…He devalued this woman…and now he devalues her life. He sacrifices her for his safety and now he mutilates her lifeless body.

We live in a society today where people call good evil, and call evil good. I think the Bible has something to say about that...

Isaiah 5:20 NKJV

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

We live in a society today that is willing to SACRIFICE babies for convenience, SACRIFICE children for selfishness, SACRIFICE marriages for a moment of lust driven pleasure...

THIS MAN WAS WILLING TO SACRIFICE HIS CONCUBINE FOR HIS SAFETY...

WE HAVE A SAVIOR WHO SACRIFICED HIMSELF FOR OUR ETERNAL SALVATION!

But that’s the society we find ourselves in…that’s the culture we live in...

The question is how does this change?

How to Restore Dignity to the Devalued

1. We Must Constantly Remind Ourselves of the TRUTH about People

What do I mean by this?

You will never meet a person who was not created in the image of God

You will never meet a person for whom Christ did not die

You will never meet a person God does not love

You will never meet a person less important to God than another

2. We Must Constantly Preach the Gospel to Ourselves

Who separated from God because of their sin—we were

Who was under the condemnation of God because of their sin—we were

Who was guilty of the torture and crucifixion of Christ—we were

Who was offered grace and mercy in spite of our sin and rebellion—we were

3. We Must Constantly Pray that God Would Help us to See Others Through the Eyes of Christ

He saw the multitudes and was moved with compassion

He saw beyond their labels to see the need of their soul

He saw beyond their occupation to see the work that needed to be done in their heart

He saw beyond the outside to what needed to happen on the inside

He saw beyond their ethnicity to invite them into the family of God

We don’t have a SKIN problem in our world we have a SIN problem in our world!

$100 BILL ILLUSTRATION

4. We Must Constantly Ask the Question, “What Can I Give to Help” Rather Than “How Can I Use Them to Get”

Unmarried ladies…beware of a man who is always using you to get what he wants, always talking you into things that you know are wrong, always manipulating you to his own gratification...

Salvation

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