Judges: Faithful God — Broken People: A XXX-Rated Culture

Text: Judges 19:1-21:25

Theme: These chapters teach us how sin escalates. As we read this passage we see how a personal sin escalates into the sinful behavior of a city (chpt. 19), which escalates into the sinful behavior of a tribe (chpt. 20), which escalates into the sinful behavior of a nation (chpt. 21) which leads to genocide.

To say that the moral climate of Western Culture has changed significantly in our lifetimes, is — to say the least — an understatement. A generation ago, behaviors that even the non-religious considered offensive are now readily accepted by the culture. Behaviors that were only whispered about fifty years ago are now openly celebrated. Today we live in an era were moral absolutes are considered a relic of the past. The retarding affects of Cultural Christianity upon our society are wearing off, and Confessional Christianity is often met with ridicule and derision. We live in an era where everyone does what is right in their own eyes.

Such eras are not new.

The last chapters of the book of Judges seem strangely out of place. The last judge mentioned in the Book of Judges is Samson. His story is told in Judges 13-16. But there are four more chapters following his story. These last chapters of Judges are a departure from the earlier narrative structure of the book. The first sixteen chapters give us a bird’s-eye view of things. At regular intervals we read “the people did evil in the eyes of the LORD,” but details of that evil are sparse with the main story being how God used various men and women to deliver Israel, and set them back on a path of obedience.

These last chapters give us a ground-level, detailed view of what life was like in Israel during those times, and consists of two episodes: Micah and the Danites (chpt. 17-18), and Israel’s war against the Tribe of Benjamin (chpt. 19-21). Chapters 1-16 showed us how God rescued Israel, but in these last four chapters we are given two case studies of the kind of spiritual condition he rescued them from. It’s not pretty. They show us just how far men can sink into depravity when left to their own resources. This view of humanity without God is so bleak that these passages are almost never preached upon or even studied. In 40 years of pastoral ministry I’ve never, ever looked to these chapters for sermon material until preaching through the Book of Judges forced me to consider their message for 21st century believers.

Our focus for this evening is on the sad story of a callous husband seeking retribution over the death of a wife who he seems completely indifferent to. His lust for justice ultimately turns into the near-genocide of the Tribe of Benjamin.

As we begin looking at these chapters, notice that there is only one person named in the entire three-chapter episode: Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron. In the previous story the only person named was Jonathan, the grandson of Moses. This tells us two important things: 1) that, chronologically speaking, these stories belong at the beginning of the period of the Judges, and 2) that within three generations of coming into the Promised Land the nation had degenerated and turned away from God.

These chapters teach us how sin escalates. As we read this passage we see how a personal sin escalates into the sinful behavior of a city (chpt. 19), which escalates into the sinful behavior of a tribe (chpt. 20), which escalates into the sinful behavior of a nation (chpt. 21) which leads to a near genocide of a people group. The outline of these three chapters is pretty simple ...

Benjamin’s Perversion (19:1-30)

Benjamin’s Purge (20:1-48)

Benjamin’s Preservation (21:1-25)

Some lessons to take away

I. BENJAMIN’S PERVERSION — A Gang Rape

1. the closing narrative of the Book of Judges begins with the story of a gang-rape of a woman by a group of men in the city of Gibeah in the tribal area of Benjamin

2. the back-story starts with a Levite from the hill country of Ephraim seeking to regain custody of a run-a-way concubine

“In those days Israel had no king. Now a Levite who lived in a remote area in the hill country of Ephraim took a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah. 2 But she was unfaithful to him. She left him and went back to her parents’ home in Bethlehem, Judah. After she had been there four months, 3 her husband went to her to persuade her to return. He had with him his servant and two donkeys. She took him into her parents’ home, and when her father saw him, he gladly welcomed him. 4 His father-in-law, the woman’s father, prevailed on him to stay; so he remained with him three days, eating and drinking, and sleeping there.” (Judges 19:1–4, NIV)

a. while we are not told, and we cannot be certain, a number of Old Testament scholars believe that the Levite of our current story is Jonathan, the grandson of Moses and the Levite of the previous two chapters

3. this Levite’s concubine was unfaithful to him, and runs back home to her father’s house

a. the Hebrew literally says, she played the harlot

1) she has an affair after which she runs away from her husband and returned to her father’s house in Bethlehem of Judah

ILLUS. A concubine was a woman, often a servant or slave, with whom a man had regular sexual relations, but to whom he was not legally married. A concubine did not have the rights of a wife and a concubine’s children were not rightful heirs. Even if a husband treated a concubine as a wife, she had virtually no legal rights, and her future, and that of any children, were often at the whims of the man’s primary wife.

2) while God never sanctioned multiple wives in Jewish culture, the attitude may have been, “If Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob could do it, why can’t I?”

b. four months after she has run away, the Levite traveled to Bethlehem where he initiated a reconciliation with his concubine

c. he was gladly welcomed by the woman’s father, with typical Near-Eastern hospitality, who entertained the Levite four days and part of a fifth before the Levite decided he could stay no longer

A. A JOURNEY HOME ENDS TRAGICALLY

“But, unwilling to stay another night, the man left and went toward Jebus (that is, Jerusalem), with his two saddled donkeys and his concubine. 11 When they were near Jebus and the day was almost gone, the servant said to his master, “Come, let’s stop at this city of the Jebusites and spend the night.” 12 His master replied, “No. We won’t go into any city whose people are not Israelites. We will go on to Gibeah.” 13 He added, “Come, let’s try to reach Gibeah or Ramah and spend the night in one of those places.” 14 So they went on, and the sun set as they neared Gibeah in Benjamin. 15 There they stopped to spend the night. They went and sat in the city square, but no one took them in for the night.” (Judges 19:10–15, NIV)

1. the deficient hospitality of the Gibeahnites is in stark contrast to the excessive hospitality of the concubine’s father

a. the Levite refused to stay in Jebus because it’s not an Israelite city, and they press on to Gibeah which is

1) they arrive at twilight and sit down in the village square

2) the laws of hospitality dictated that someone take them in, but they are apparently ignored

b. finally, an old man, also from the hill country of Ephraim who was now living in Gibeah, stops, inquires, and ultimately welcomes them into his home

2. later in the evening the trouble begins

“While they were enjoying themselves, some of the wicked men of the city surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they shouted to the old man who owned 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 outside and said to them, “No, my friends, don’t be so vile. Since this man is my guest, don’t do this outrageous thing. 24 Look, here is my virgin daughter, and his concubine. I will bring them out to you now, and you can use them and do to them whatever you wish. But as for this man, don’t do such an outrageous thing.” 25 But the men would not listen to him. So the man took his concubine and sent her outside to them, and they raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go. 26 At daybreak the woman went back to the house where her master was staying, fell down at the door and lay there until daylight.” (Judges 19:22–26, NIV)

a. it’s a horrific story that we can only imagine talking place after the zombie-apocalypse has arrived and society has completely broken down

b. the display of human depravity in this story is astounding

3. the laws of hospitality demand that the old man protect his quests at all costs

a. to invite someone into your meant not only providing hospitality, but to also offering them protection

b. the old man from Ephraim pleads with his neighbors not to do such a wicked thing, and even offers them his own daughter and his guest’s concubine for the men to ravage

1) he offers heterosexual rape as an alternative to homosexual rape

2) the old man’s proposal is overshadowed by the Levite’s self-serving action

4. the twist in the story is found in vs. 24 where the Levite himself took his concubine and sent her out to the gathered mob

a. it’s here where some modern translations miss the point

1) the NIV and KJV read, the man took his concubine and sent her outside

2) the NASB and ESV read more correctly, the man seized his concubine and sent her outside

b. the Hebrew word used here means to take by force ... this man grabs his concubine, overcoming her active resistance, and thrusts her outside to the waiting mob only to slam and bolt the door behind her

5. she is repeatedly, and violently raped — “ ... and they raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go” (vs. 25)

a. all over the village, lights go out, doors and windows are shuttered, and parents sing to their children to drown-out the screams echoing through night

1) the violence and fierceness of the attack is staggering, and calls for a triple-X rating

2) the indifference of the husband is numbing, and calls for our loathing

b. the scene of vs. 26 is heart breaking

1) the Levite’s concubine staggers back to the house where she collapses on the threshold more dead than alive only to very shortly die

2) the house before her is quiet ... there is no vigil behind the curtains ... inside sleeps a husband who is indifferent to her fate

3) in the morning he is ready to proceed with his journey as though nothing had happened

“When her master got up in the morning and opened the door of the house and stepped out to continue on his way, there lay his concubine, fallen in the doorway of the house, with her hands on the threshold. 28 He said to her, “Get up; let’s go.” But there was no answer. Then the man put her on his donkey and set out for home.” (Judges 19:27–28, NIV)

a) did you notice the subtle change in vs. 27? ... the Levite is called her master

b) in the end, the Levite considers her more as property than as wife, even if she is only a second-class wife

6. the chapter ends in a gory act — the dismembering of her body

“ ... the man put her on his donkey and set out for home. 29 When he reached home, he took a knife and cut up his concubine, limb by limb, into twelve parts and sent them into all the areas of Israel. 30 Everyone who saw it was saying to one another, “Such a thing has never been seen or done, not since the day the Israelites came up out of Egypt. Just imagine! We must do something! So speak up!”” (Judges 19:28–30, NIV)

a. in a culture that has always had great respect for a deceased body, the Levite is going to add one more act of disrespect

b. his actions are reprehensible

1) he is more concerned about the loss of his honor than the loss of his wife

2) he is more concerned with vengeance than with the vicious attack

II. BENJAMIN’S PURGE — A Gathering Revenge

1. in chapter 20 a local sin becomes the catalyst for national confrontation which erupted into a civil war in Israel with eleven tribes waging war against the tribe of Benjamin

“Then all Israel from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead came together as one and assembled before the LORD in Mizpah. 2 The leaders of all the people of the tribes of Israel took their places in the assembly of God’s people, four hundred thousand men armed with swords. 3 (The Benjamites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah.) Then the Israelites said, “Tell us how this awful thing happened.”” (Judges 20:1–3, NIV)

a. the Levite then proceeds to tell his story, carefully leave out a few facts, and aggrandizing a few others

b. careful readers of the Levite’s account will notice that the focus is entirely on himself

1) I ... my ... me ... me ... my ... my

2. he concluded with a challenge to the Israelites to speak up and give your verdict

a. at this point our Levite disappears from the story (to which we say good riddance)

A. THE OUTRAGE OF ISRAEL

“All the men rose up together as one, saying, “None of us will go home. No, not one of us will return to his house. 9 But now this is what we’ll do to Gibeah: We’ll go up against it in the order decided by casting lots. 10 We’ll take ten men out of every hundred from all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred from a thousand, and a thousand from ten thousand, to get provisions for the army. Then, when the army arrives at Gibeah in Benjamin, it can give them what they deserve for this outrageous act done in Israel.” 11 So all the Israelites got together and united as one against the city.” (Judges 20:8–11, NIV)

1. outraged by the behavior, the confederated tribes mobilized to demand justice and gathered a combined force of about 400,000

2. they sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, demanding that they deliver up the men who committed the crime to be executed, but the Benjaminites refused and decided to go to war to defend the men of Gibeah Instead

a. the tribe of Benjamin gathered a force of 26,000 to defend Gibeah

1) according to Judges 20:16, this included a “special forces” unit of seven hundred troops who were left-handed, each of whom could sling a stone at a hair and not miss

2) this might explain the mass casualties experienced by the eleven tribes in the initial battles

3. to make a long story short, the civil war is brief and bloody

a. in two days of battle the Benjaminites kill 40,000 fellow Israelites — that’s a 10% casualty rate

b. the eleven tribes regroup and re-strategize, and when they re-engage in battle they kill 25,100 of the Benjamite army — virtually the entire Benjamite force

c. that’s when the real carnage took place

“The men of Israel went back to Benjamin and put all the towns to the sword, including the animals and everything else they found. All the towns they came across they set on fire.” (Judges 20:48, NIV)

1) the eleven tribes follow a total war policy against the tribe of Benjamin

2) tens of thousands die, and in the end only 600 Benjamite soldiers survive having fled into the desert to the rock of Rimmon where they stayed four months

“The men of Israel had taken an oath at Mizpah: “Not one of us will give his daughter in marriage to a Benjamite.” 2 The people went to Bethel, where they sat before God until evening, raising their voices and weeping bitterly. 3 “LORD, God of Israel,” they cried, “why has this happened to Israel? Why should one tribe be missing from Israel today?”” (Judges 21:1–3, NIV)

1. the aftermath of the civil war included guilt and remorse

a. Judges 21:6 tells us that the Israelites now actually grieve for the tribe of Benjamin

b. rather than allow the tribe of Benjamin to become extinct, the Israelites contrived to preserve the tribe through murder and kidnaping

2. now that Israel had won the war, they are faced with winning the peace

a. the problem is that they’ve virtually exterminated one whole tribe — the thoroughness of their revenge had created a dilemma

1) 1st, few Benjamites were left alive, and they’re virtually all male

2) 2nd, the other eleven tribes had all vowed not to give their daughters to marry a Benjamite

3) 3rd, God had prohibited the Israelites from marrying outside of Israel

3. their ultimate solution is a case study in immoral intrigue

ILLUS. They looked back through the “minutes” of their Mitzpah meeting and took note of another oath they had taken: also at Mitzpah they had vowed to execute any Israelite who did not join them in the battle against Benjamin. A contrived solution was forming: Could they “kill two birds with one stone?” Rather than break their first vow, could they solve the problem be activating their second vow? If they killed some other Israelites, would that free up enough women to serve as wives for the surviving Benjamites?

a. Israel goes through their attendance roster and discovers that no men from the community of Jabesh in Gilead showed up for the battle

1) uh-oh

“For when they counted the people, they found that none of the people of Jabesh Gilead were there. 10 So the assembly sent twelve thousand fighting men with instructions to go to Jabesh Gilead and put to the sword those living there, including the women and children. 11 “This is what you are to do,” they said. “Kill every male and every woman who is not a virgin.” 12 They found among the people living in Jabesh Gilead four hundred young women who had never slept with a man, and they took them to the camp at Shiloh in Canaan.” (Judges 21:9–12, NIV)

2) the question of how these young women might feel about being orphaned from their families and “harvested” for enforced marriages is ignored

b. problem ... after they do this, their still 200 women short!

4. solution? we will just kidnap the rest

“The people grieved for Benjamin, because the LORD had made a gap in the tribes of Israel. 16 And the elders of the assembly said, “With the women of Benjamin destroyed, how shall we provide wives for the men who are left? 17 The Benjamite survivors must have heirs,” they said, “so that a tribe of Israel will not be wiped out. 18 We can’t give them our daughters as wives, since we Israelites have taken this oath: ‘Cursed be anyone who gives a wife to a Benjamite.’ 19 But look, there is the annual festival of the LORD in Shiloh, which lies north of Bethel, east of the road that goes from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah.” 20 So they instructed the Benjamites, saying, “Go and hide in the vineyards 21 and watch. When the young women of Shiloh come out to join in the dancing, rush from the vineyards and each of you seize one of them to be your wife. Then return to the land of Benjamin. 22 When their fathers or brothers complain to us, we will say to them, ‘Do us the favor of helping them, because we did not get wives for them during the war. You will not be guilty of breaking your oath because you did not give your daughters to them.’ ” 23 So that is what the Benjamites did. ... .” (Judges 21:15–23, NIV)

a. if you want to know what collusion really looks like, here it is!

5. here then is a picture of the escalation of sin

a. as we read this passage we see how a personal sin escalates into the sinful behavior of a city (chpt. 19), which escalates into the sinful behavior of a tribe (chpt. 20), which escalates into the sinful behavior of a nation (chpt. 21) which leads to genocide

b. the book fittingly concludes, In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit

IV. LESSONS AND APPLICATION

1. Not All Spiritual Leaders Are Spiritual

ILLUS. I think about this Levite, and I wonder “How did he make it past the ordination council?”

a. our Levite is not a good example of a spiritual leader

1) he has a concubine, which was permitted and regulated by law but not really approved by God

2) his main interests seem fully focused on himself

b. had he been a man of discipline and spiritual wisdom, he would never have caused all the trouble he did

1) he had no godly influence on the people whose lives he touched, and his evil treatment of his concubine was inexcusable

c. when spiritual leaders fail to obey God and set godly examples, the church and the community suffer, and ultimately the whole nation decays

2. Not All Husbands Are God-honoring, but Godly Men Will be Loving Husbands

a. God desires that husbands love their wives as Christ loved the church (Eph. 5:25)

b. any violation of this role of love and protection constitutes a breach of the example Christ himself laid down for men

3. Do What Is Right in God’s Eyes, Not What is Right In Your Own Eyes

a. the basic cause of Israel’s plight was their independence from God and their indifference to His law

b. nothing can be right when every man does what is right in his own eyes

c. it was a time of moral and spiritual darkness

4. The Only Solution to Cultural and Individual Depravity Is the Gospel of Christ