Untitled Sermon (12)

Intro: The end of Judges! I’m not sure whether to be sad or relieved…FYY- the stories today are very disturbing, and PG13. hey describe a state I like to refer to as “functional atheism.” Yes, we believe that God exists, that He created the heavens and the earth, that the Bible is accurate, and that paradise awaits, but we often live—at a functional level—as if there is no God. We worry too much. We control too much. We demand too much. We regret too much. We run after God replacements too much. We do all these things because we have forgotten God’s presence, power, and glory. This week CBS news reported a substantial rise of Christianity in the US. its estimated that 70% of adults in the US, say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus. AMEN, BUT… We are also seeing an all-time high of addictions-up 17% since 2021 porn-up 64%, abuse- 21% , divorce- up 52%, Why? With an increase in faith, shouldn’t that lead to a decrease in apostacy? Judges shows us why: Judges 2:10-11:“And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.” “the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals.” More than a theme in Judges: 2 things are the cause: failing to disciple the next gen, and compromising with the culture.

Yes, we will cover 5 chapters, BUT, we are least going to feed you afterwards-if we still have an appetite. These chapter cover 2 stories.  This is really the 3rdmain section ofthe book ofJudges. Chs.1-      The political & theological prologues. Chs.3-16èthe program of the various Judges themselves. Chs.17-21èthe epilogue of devastation & deviation). These five chapters are strange, and unique. In fact, the writer changes his writing style. He tells the story from afar, almost distancing himself from the action. Giving us a glimpse into the everyday life of ordinary Israel during a time that is dark and spiritually void. A people who talk about the God of Israel, but do not know Him. WHAT you see in these stories are 2 fallouts from functional atheism. 1. Using God instead of worshipping v17-18 2 Redefines God instead of submitting

19-21. Timeline: THIS PORTION IS NOT CHRONOLOGICALLY AFTER SAMSON!! First story occurs with the beginning of the book of Judges. There is evidence for this with particular wording. 18:1-the tribe of Dan looking for land- that’s Joshua 19. 2ndstory is before the period of Judges:  Judges 20:27-28. Phinehas is mentioned in Numbers! He is the grandson of Aaron – he even survived the wilderness wanderings. The period of Judges was for 350 yrs, doubt Phineas was 350 yrs old! What happens when God's people fail to acknowledge Yahweh's sovereign authority over their lives. 17-18 is religious apostasy (idolatry) 19-21 it was moral anarchy  (immorality).

1.Using God instead of Worshipping. CH17:1-6: We meet a man, I use the term man, loosely, because, it appears he is living with his mom.  Micah- whose name means- Who else is there but God? Has stolen money from his mother. They live in Ephraim- the heart of Israel, in the middle of everything. He has stolen 1100 pieces of silver, same amount Deliah received for selling out Samson! Now, Micah hears his mother utter a curse on whoever stole her money. When you utter a curse what you are doing is announcing your desire for some horrendous fate to come to the person who commits a crime. You would do it publicly. You would walk to the city center, wherever there was a bunch of people, and announce, “whoever did this, may they be cut off from their family.” Micah sees his mother do this, and confesses!  He brings the money. Let me ask: Is Micah’s confession, repentance or fear of consequence? Does Micah fear the Lord, or fear the curse? He brings the money back…Now, Micah must have the youngest, because—Moms- the youngest could never do wrong! They would never!! YES, THEY WOULD!! Micah’s Mom tries to cancel out the curse, by now uttering a blessing. The blessing would typically be for protection and long life prosperity. She dedicates it to the Lord, then turns around and gives 200 of it back to Micah, who then and has it melted down into a metal image. He makes an idol. This is idol worship… because it snowballs- I have a personal idol, now I need a personal priest. Son - get over here. You are going to be the priest and serve your old man. Your grandma gave me some money again and I went to the idol store and got some more gods. I need you to make sure everything gets taken care of here. The writer wants you to see the silliness here. Micah builds his own church, hires his own priest (his son nonetheless) and has his own god. This is in direct violation of the 2nd commandment: that we do not make any images or likenesses of God. This is because: An image cannot possibly capture the full range of God’s glory, and so inevitably in your image you highlight the parts of His nature that appeal to you and conceal other parts that don’t. I don’t like the righteous judgment and justice of God, so I’m only celebrating grace/love. I’m going to create a system that functions to my comfort and liking, and call it worship. The primary sin of our culture, right? It’s not that we completely reject Jesus, we just want Him to be a certain way. It’s a rejection of God and a choice of yourself.It’s using Him instead of Worshipping.

V7-13 Summary: After Micah makes the statue and puts it in his house, he meets a Levite travelling through town. He is from Bethlehem, from the family of Judah who is a Levite. That likely means his father was from the tribe of Judah and his mother was from the tribe of Levi. The writer has set it up in such a way that if you were from Bethlehem, you would be embarrassed here.  Levites are from the tribe of Levi. They were the tribe out of the twelve tribes that did not receive an inheritance, rather, they were set apart to serve God and mediate the covenant sacrifices and care for the synagogues. They were the teachers and counselors and keepers of the law. They served God for the good of the people.  There were 48 towns scattered throughout the land of Israel that were designated Levite towns. They were places of sanctuary and sacrifice. Micah thought-“Oh good, a Levite! This is perfect! BY APPPEARANCE, he checks the boxes. Sort of. This Levite is out of sync with his calling, and left! Doesn’t matter: you went to seminary, you’re supposed to BE THIS… You can be my priest for my statue of God!” And the priest says, “Well, technically you shouldn’t do that… but how much you paying?”Micah said, “A lot.” And the priest said, “Hmm… let me pray about it-yes!  

But v13: Micah assumes two things here: a) that this God exists to serve him; and b) if Micah does the right things, this god is obligated to bless him. He has setup His own authority. The great substitute for true faith in God is this kind of religiosity built on those two premises: God exists for you; and if you do the right things, God owes you. Its shrinking God down to a space we can control. Its our authority instead of surrendering to His. The blessing of God comes under the authority of God. We are not the authority in our lives- nor should we want to be! Listen to what God says about the gods and the authorities we set up for ourselves:  “Cursed be the man who makes a carved or cast metal image, an abomination to the Lord, a thing made by the hands of a craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ (Deut. 27:15). We function as if we want a god we can control and is convenient.

CH18 SUMMARY: The tribe of Dan have failed to occupy the land they were given. So, they are tired of wandering around homeless and they are looking for an easy place to move into. They have their eye on a place called Laish. The people there were peaceful, loners. So, Dan is heading there to kill them and live in their city. On the way, they come to Micah’s house. They meet his priest. They ask him to pray for them and their success. The Levite does.  They send some scouts to the land to check it out. The scouts goes back to get the 600 soldiers, they pass by Micah’s house again… and they make the priest an offer he can’t refuse.  “Hey, come be our priest. We are bigger. We have more stuff. You can write books and we will give you a cozy office.”  So, they take the priest and the IDOL.  They steal everything Micah has. 

V24: When you shrink God down to a size you can control, you always live in fear of losing Him. If your god can be taken away, lost, stolen… you have the wrong god. The Danites conquer Laish, renamed it Dan, and set up for themselves more idols. We find out the name of this Levite priest- Its Jonathan, Moses grandson. That’s not many generations removed from Gods rescue- failing to disciple, cultural compromise has its consequences. True worship is grounded in relationship not ritual.

V31: about 10 miles away was Shiloh - the place of true worship, but here, we can setup worship in our own preference, with our own style. You see the far reaching effects of sin, became the idolatry of an entire tribe, setting up a rival center of worship to the house of God in Shiloh. Micah's error was self-styled worship, Jonathan's was self-determined service, and the Danites' was self-seeking security. Using God, instead of Worshipping.

2. Redefine: Ch 19-21 is about a story that provokes a civil war in Israel. It’s not a continuation of Micah, but an extreme example of moral anarchy. Its shows what happens when God is absent: No king in Israel meant more than the absence of a political monarch; it’s a rejection of God’s leadership over them.

CH19 summary:A Levite (not Jonathan)*…took a concubine. In ancient times it was common for men to keep concubines. Hagar was Abraham’s concubine.  In essence, a concubine was a legal mistress. She was legally bound to the man, but with fewer privileges than a wife. She was considered his property. But a Levite? This man is supposed to be a professional instructor of God’s faithfulness! RED FLAG! We seethat, for some reason, she leaves him and returns to her father’s house. Mistreatment/abuse? The Levitetakes several of his servants and they go to try to reconcile the relationship andbring her back home. After spending some days with her and his father-in-law, the Levite andconcubine finally begin returning home, and, asnight begins to fall on their travels, the Levite isinsistent that they make it to an Israelite city and not stay inone of the cities of the foreignnations.It’s supposed to be safer! They get to the city ofGibeah that fell in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin. They are in the town square, and no one will take them in… Finally, an old man approaches, and after some questions, offers a place for the Levite and his servants. in ancient times hospitality was a sacred trust. A house guest became the God-given responsibility of the host.

V22-24: While dining, they are interrupted by savages demanding the host turn over ALL the guest so they can, yes- have their way them all… Now, Biblical history. This is similar to Genesis 19:4-8. In that passage Lot offered hospitality to two visitors (angels); a mob eager for homosexual relations with the visitors surrounds his house; Lot counters by offering his two virgin daughters to the crowd; his visitors rescue him and strike the mob with a baffling blindness. Unfortunately for the concubine, there were no delivering angels that night in Gibeah. Different outcomes, but the similarity between Genesis 19 and Judges 19 s unmistakable. And deliberate. The Benjaminite’s, who are Israelites, worshippers of Yahweh, were acting the same as pagan Sodomites! Professing YHWH, but functioning like pagans. This is the writer’s way of accusing the people of God. THIS IS WHAT YOU HAVE BECOME. THE WORD SERVES AS A MIRROR. YOU ARE SODOM- a parent offering his child to a mob, a husband offering his wife. THIS IS GOOD VS EVIL, ITS EVIL ALL AROUND. GODS GRACE- confronts the untruth in your life. Do you see how far you have deviated? PG13

V25-29: A horrific scene. The old man pleaded with them, don’t do this.

But they wouldn’t take 'no' for an answer. So to appease the men of the city and perhaps out of fear for his own life, the Levite forced his concubine to go out to the men. The Levite threw his concubine out of the house like one tosses a scrap of meat to dogs. No honor, protection, self-sacrifice. Just evidence of how this man views himself, and God's will. Now we can understand why this woman left him in the first place! The men of the city violently raped and abused the Levite’s concubine. In the morning, the Levite opened the door his concubine was lying on the ground right outside of the door. The Levite CALLOUSLY tells her to get up; she doesn’t, & so he loads her up as cargo. Perhaps she was dead; perhaps he kills her, not sure. When he arrive at his home, he cuts his dead concubine up into twelve pieces, sending twelve pieces of her body throughout all the Promise Land to the different tribes of Israel. Now those that receive it will all be “unclean”, almost forcing them to respond in retaliation. Nothing like this had ever occurred. The root of it all is each man doing ‘whatever was right in his own eyes. It seemed right in the eyes of Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, It seemed right in the eyes of the sons of Jacob to sell Joseph into slavery, It seemed right in the eyes of King David to commit adultery with Bathsheba and cover it with murder, It seemed right in the eyes of Judas to betray Jesus, There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death (Proverbs 14:12). Where is the Gospel in this story? I don’t want do gymnastics with the text, but this is pointing us to something. YOUR NEED FOR RESCUE, not from circumstance, but SIN. A TRUE KING, who wont betray. Who protects His bride. Who won’t give her over to the enemy. He gives himself up. A king, WHOSE body is torn apart for us. Do you see the enemy within us? Israel was conformed to these practices- decentenzied from truth by culture. Professing Him, while living by their own sight. God lovingly shows them the mirror- this is who you have placed in authority of your life. When you remove God’s kingship, and authority, and redefine, this is darkness in which you live. BUT LIGHT HAS SHONE INTO THE DARKNESS. The end of 30 is the application- consider it, take counsel, and speak. Consider what our sin has done, see the provisions of His grace, and let it transform and flow from your lips- out the heart the mouth speaks.

Ch20 SUMMARY: First time Israel in united. They are shocked.

The Levite tells them the story, just happens to leave out his sin- convenient. No repentance or remorse. Israel wants blood, they amass an army of 400,000 soldiers to march against the Benjamite’s, demanding the savages who did this, but Benjamin won’t give them up. BLOOD IS THICKER THAN BRAINS. So a massive fight breaks out and, at first, the armies of Benjamin are winning.

BUT THEN V26-27:First time, Israel utters the name of the Lord. The Lord says, I will give them into your hand. BUT… The men of Israel destroy EVERYTHING. This is not justice; it is genocide. Justice would at the very most demand the execution of savages! BUT – doing what is right in THEIR EYES-slaughter of the whole Benjamite society. This is the work of bitterness—that redefines Gods call, Gods commands. Only 600 Benjamite’s escape, and hide in the mountains.

21:1:They take a vow! No one intermarry with our own tribes, just the ones God told us not too…Well, a few months go by, and tempers cool, and these 600 Benjamite’s come out from hiding. I guess everyone forgot, and moved on to the next drama posted on Israel uncensored.The remaining Benjamite’s are in a pickle. Their families are dead.  The anarchy of God's people complicated the problems that apostasy had initiated. A vow- God did not require- leads them into sin. SEE JEPTHAH. They cant see their own sin, just use more sin to cover the old sin.

V2-3: THEY BLAME GOD! Why did you let this happen?” Blaming God instead of aligning with His will. An unsatisfied life is the byproduct of an UNsurrendered will.Living by emotions instead of transformed thinking. Always produces this instability. You caused this God, so I WILL FIX it. A human solution to a human problem-should end well! So, they think-  “During the war, who didn’t fight with us?” Nobody came from Jabesh-gilead: So they send 12,000 of their best warriors to Jabesh-Gilead with orders to kill everyone there except 400 virgins to serve as wives. But it’s not enough. BC SIN DOESN’T KNOW WHEN ITS ENOUGH. (bad at math) Still 200 short. There is this tribe up in Shiloh where the women have this tradition where in the fall all the women come out into the fields to do this ritual dance… and none of the men come. It’s a perfect setup for kidnapping.

V23-25: ARE WE CONVICTED YET? Israel has employed a human solution to a human problem: DEATH and DESTRUCTION and its leads further into deviation from TRUTH. They use their oaths to break God’s law.. And they tried to normalize & justify it. (WE.DO.TOO) Then they all just went home…as if everything was OK.

Closing: Notice, none of this had anything to do with Baal worship, this is all done by using God, and redefining Him, We celebrate the growth of Christianity, but the goal is NOT to have Christianity pervade our culture, its to have Christ permeate our being. Cultural Christianity is not a substitute for transformation. Its submission rather redefining for our preferences, its unrelenting worship, self-sacrifice instead of using God for personal prosperity. Israel were the people of promise, the people of deliverance. They experienced miraculous power of God. Given a home. Given the very words of God. Given His very presence. But, in all of this, it wasn’t enough. They were still ruled by their hearts. Their theology did not inform their doxology.. Israel was Home- yet lost, IN light yet dark, Called/Set apart, Yet hopeless. THEY NEEDED SOMETHING MORE. Not to be rescued from circumstance, but Sin. This is a mirror for the church- A people that forget their FIRST LOVE, WILL FORGET ITS PURPOSE. Its not about activity, it’s about affection, abiding. All the failsafe’s we institute fail, all the human kings we empower fail. We NEED Something greater. Someone greater. We are the problem, not the solution.  THIS IS PERFECT SETUP FOR ADVENT. Our stories are not unlike Micah with idol factory worship, or Israel being ruled by passions, craving fleeting pleasures of the culture. The horror of our lives is  rewritten THROUGH HIS SON. Advent means “arrival.” The advent season is a time of expectant waiting and preparation. This story ends with Israel longing for their kinsman redeemer. A true JUDGE, A SAVIOR. BUT GOD, Out of Bethlehem, a true priest will come from the lineage from a Canaanite prostitute, a Moabite foreigner comes HOPE.

Better than OTHNIEL: He is strong, valiant, and slays the enemy to win for Himself a godly bride. Better than EHUD: He comes in weakness to display the strength and glory of God. Better than DEBORAH: He sings a song over us, and will unite His people and win the nations. Better than GIDEON: He never lose sight of God’s beauty and He never quits fighting for our faith. Better than JEPHTHAH: He Himself provided the sacrifice that saved His children;

Better than SAMSON: He was born of the promise; He lived His calling. We did not choose Him. He chose us, sent from heaven, clothed in humanity. He was spread out in death, but rather than destroying His enemies, He made a way of deliverance.

The call—Remember- Israel failed to disciple the next gen, to remember Gods grace and provision. Repent- Israel failed to turn back, wanting rescue from circumstance and NOT SIN. Return- Israel failed by doing what was right in their own eyes. All all of this evil, rewritten, retold through His unfathomable love and mercy, who came, born of a virgin, abandoned by His own people, sacrificing Himself for the JUST punishment we deserve. Becoming what enslaves us, so that you may be FREE. Now.. seated at the right hand of the Father, constantly interceding on your BEHALF--declaring “MINE!” He is the Word of God made flesh. He is the light of the World. He is the Good Shepherd.  We were hopeless;He is the hope. THE HUMAN PROBLEM RECEIVES A DIVINE SOLUTION.