Sermon          

Listen to these comments about the Bible, ‘Scratch the surface of Scripture wherever you wish and you will uncover a slice of life.’ AR Wood. ‘There is no ancient history in the Bible.’ DT Young. And Jim Packer writes, ‘Scripture is the most up to date and relevant reading that ever comes my way.’ And after reading the final three chapters in Judges who could disagree? In these three chapters you find many so called modern matters, adultery, wife abuse, blatant homosexuality, gang rape leading to murder, family in fighting and even kidnapping. Now these three chapters constitute a connected theme and truth similar to our last study namely sin spreads. Like the stone thrown into the pond or pool widening concentric circles. Benjaminite families affect the tribe of Benjamin which in turn affects other tribes namely the nation of Israel.

In chapter 19 we read of the depravity of Benjamin. This is a grisly and horrific passage but the Bible never squeamishly closes its eyes to the depth of human depravity. The chapter tells us of a Levite who should have been faithful to one wife, decides to take a girl friend a concubine which was allowed by the law as a concession but not approved by God. She is unfaithful to him. She goes back home to Daddy but after four months the Levite decides he wants he back and so he heads to her father’s home. The scene here is one of undisciplined indulgence where a three day binge extends to a fourth and fifth day. Eventually the Levite and his girlfriend leave her father’s home and head towards Jebus or Jerusalem but because this is a gentile city they pass on to Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin. Here they receive hospitality from an old man during which a gang of homosexuals demand sex with the Levite. The old man rejects their request but offers then either his virgin daughter or the Levite’s girlfriend. The girlfriend is then gang raped all night long and at day break she makes her way back to where the Levite was, falling at the door and laying there until daylight by which time she had died. Her master the Levite gathers her up heads home where he dismembers her body cutting it into twelve pieces and sends a piece to every tribe of Israel. We see in this chapter sexual depravity, heterosexual and homosexual.

There is the heterosexual with the Levite and his concubine. Whose heart would not go out to this girl as she was brutally assaulted and used throughout a night of unspeakable terror? Yet it all began when she was unfaithful v2. Look at the cowardly callous and candid way her Levite husband treated her? Why was all of this happening? Answer because there was no King in Israel and every man did that which was right in is own eyes.

Now remember that in OT the King represented God including his laws. There is a price to be paid for jettisoning God’s law emotionally, physiologically and physically on all matters including sex seen in this relationship between the Levite and his concubine. They treated each other as mere pleasure machines. Those words ‘There was no King in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes’ according to David Jackman is more than a political comment rather it is a ‘theological diagnosis.’ God was to be Israel’s King seen in the giving of his law at Mount Sinai. However here his professing people reject such in matters of sexual heterosexual activity. Such activity must be confined to marriage and listen young people especially Christian young people if you are having sex outside of marriage you are sinning and make no mistake you will ultimately be the looser.

I read in preparation for this sermon this pithy sentence ‘it doesn’t matter what you believe so long as believe it doesn’t matter.’ If you believe in the Lords Jesus Christ and are a Christian you must behave as a Christian in all matters including sex. The gift of sex designed by God is to enrich and deepen the exclusive relationship of one man and one woman in marriage as a total self giving to one another. Off course we now have those who question the exclusive relationship between man and women the heterosexual promoting the homosexual, which is no new sin seen in its mention not only here in Judges 19 but also Genesis 19. This too is a rejection and reversal of God’s purpose for human sexuality. Homosexuality is a choice not a sickness seen in Judges 19 where ‘the wicket men of the city’ v22 first choice was a man! So it is a lie to say they cannot be blamed, that it was natural for them, the way they were born. The scriptures of Judges 19 show that these wicket men were quite capable of heterosexual acts but their first choice was homosexual a deliberate choice.

Homosexuals are very militant often promoting themselves as good members of a society that are being unfairly judged particularly by the Church. Yes we should avoid victimization and should not single homosexuality out for more attention those other sins. Yes it is an abomination a word that God reserves only for a select number of especially heinous and hideous sins, but it is not incurable or unforgivable! Sexual depravity whether hetro or homo is incompatible with Christianity and it all comes about when there is no King in our lives, King Jesus. A monarch has laws and once we ignore those laws in all matters of life then we just end up doing those things that are pleasing in our eyes and people just become expendable and cheap objects. So the baby in the womb becomes a feotus not he or she but it and a women has a right to do away with it if it is inconvenient. Then if old people increase and become a drain let the state’s medically approved agents put them out of their misery. Euthanasia and abortions on demand are symptoms of the same disease that surfaces in sexual sins as seen in Judges 19.

The answer to it all is God’s Son where forgiveness is possible and then God’s scriptures which we obey in love. Yes even after conversion to Christ, they may well be the temptations to return to earlier sins sexual or other but with the power of the Holy Spirit we can live lives pleasing to God. Judges 19 was about Benjamin’s depravity which has consequences seen in chapter 20 where we read of Benjamin’s destruction. This chapter begins with the retelling of the events in the previous chapter. On hearing this we read in verses 1, 8 & 11 that all the Israelites were united as one man and according to one statistician that would have been 400,000 similar in size to the land forces deployed by Iraq in the 1990-91 gulf war. However there was one tribe missing Benjamin because it was some of their men who had gang rape this girl. Gibeah was part of their tribe. And so we have here some of God’s people fighting against others of God’s people and it is still happening into-day’s church. In this chapter we read of self afflicted genocide with 40,000 Israelites cut down in the first two days of battle and then 25, 100 Benjamites on the final day. Davis writes ‘Why couldn’t Israel get that united against the Canaanites, or the Midianites or the Ammonites or the Philistines. Why is it that when Israel can really get itself together it is against Israel?’ Christians we need to fight with each other not against each other, against the enemy not ourselves. Yes Benjamin had their own sense of unity but it was sinful because they did not recognize their guilt. They were harbouring guilty people who they should have handed over; they were perverting the course of justice. They were not prepared to hand over the guilty or punish the offenders themselves and this lead to three separate battles before the end of the war.

As ever the consequences were concentric as we will see in chapter 21. We need to recognize guilt in ourselves and others. We see this even in our gardens where failure to root out the weeds at an early stage when they are small leads to later problems. The weeds get bigger and harder to remove, larger tools are needed which means some good soil is lost clinging to the weeds, some bad seed is unavoidably scattered, giving birth to a new set of problems in the future. Yes for one part of God’s people Benjamin there was no recognition of guilt and this is true to-day where adultery is redefined as having an affair, theft at work is the perks of the job and greed is sanitized as upward social mobility. However for another part of God’s people there was no restriction on revenge. Some scholars suggest that this is the reason why Israel’s first two attempts failed it was pure personal revenge. Certainly after their second failed attempt we read in v26 that unlike earlier events now they include sacrifice. Now their motivation was not bitter revenge but respect for God as seen in his law which demanded the death penalty for rapists especially gang rapists. When we are motivated by bitter revenge there is no restriction. David Jackman writes, ‘Any root of bitterness or morsel of revenge is a denial of the Cross and the character of Christ.’ So chapter 20 has been about the destruction of Benjamin because of their earlier depravity in chapter 19 and now in chapter 21 we read about desperation of the Benjamites. The Israelites refused on oath to allow any of their daughters to marry a Benjamite v1 but it seems that they were beginning to regret their revenge on their fellow tribe v6 which was close to the point of extinction. Only 600 Benjamite men had survived and v7 reads. What where they to do? They resorted to legalism and found and exploited two legal loopholes, the first one is recorded in verses 8-14. They had vowed that anyone who had failed to fight against Benjamin be put to death 21;8&9 and no one had come from Jabesh Gilead and so 12,000 troops carry out this vow but spare 400 virgins. But they still needed another 200 virgins and they could not provide then because of their earlier vow. The second legal loophole is described in verses 19-24 grab a girl and Israel would turn a blind eye and they would not be breaking any of their vows, it was the despairing Benjamites who were responsible for this kidnapping not the Israelites. What both sides needed to do was repent which is a hard pill to swallow.

The Sermon on the Mount is Christ’s famous dismantling of legalistic interpretations of God’s law on adultery, murder and many matters. We can be like these desperate Benjamites and Israelites ingenious finding loopholes in order to defend illegalities. Yes Christians we must be committed to legality but not legalism. These people tried to shift the blame as did Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden, and also like Adam & Eve tried to avoid or cover up the consequences of their own action. The Book of Judges ends with its recurring theme in 21; 25 and in this study we have seen that such means depravity heterosexual and homosexual, destruction because there is no recognition of guilt and no restriction on revenge and desperation which leads to legalism. However this anarchy had to give way to monarchy, Israel’s judges gave way to Israel’s kings and Israel’s kings climaxed in Christ, the King of Kings and the Judge of all the earth and so we need not be distressed because one day ‘the Kingdoms of this world will become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ and he shall reign forever and forever.’ Thank God the Kingdom of God is near repent and believe the gospel. Hy. 9 GG Hy. 8GG. Hy 300 CH Par 26;1-8