When God Goes, Everything Goes

you

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Another quick thing. I meant to say during announcements

Was I just wanted to reach out and thank everyone that showed up to help out with the wear blue run to remember on

Monday the event went off so well all the way around

We were able to bless people with about 2,000 hot dogs

And just we had a a really good time remembering those who had paid the ultimate sacrifice for your freedom

followed up by a run

Followed up by a hot dog, so I mean it doesn't get much better than that

and I I had the opportunity to talk to a couple different people who are were either spouses or children of

soldiers who have paid that ultimate price and

remembering their names and

Celebrating the life that they have is so important so although. It's a somber day

It starts out somber and there is that opportunity to remember it

It is a celebration of who they are

Who they were on this this earth and who they still are in eternity, but it was a great opportunity

So I want to thank you guys for the all you that showed up to help out

It was noticed and it ran really smooth the the hot dogs and everything and it was a blessing to be a part of that

So thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much

Today we are gonna finish the book study in judges

If you're new today

We are finishing up the book of judges

we usually start with chapter 1 verse 1 and we work our way through any book that we're preaching and so

Today we find ourselves at the end of the book of judges. This has been a really hard book to preach

I had never preached it before I studied it in college

I've read it since but I had never preached it and when I'm preaching it

I'm studying it in a different way and it was tough. It's heavy

There's not a lot of good in this book and we knew that going into it by reading

Commentaries and books we knew what we were getting ourselves into but it was

heavy and today

Is probably one of the ugliest passages in all of Scripture

We talked about it a little bit last week

And yet as a pastoral staff as we looked at these final three chapters

I even mentioned I think last week that there are times

Where this book is preached and people just skip the final five chapters

Because it's just so heavy and so much darkness and there's not really anything good there. But as we were talking about

This book and the way that that God chose to have the author end this book

To us it really points out when God goes

Everything goes

We've been studying and looking at the children of Israel living apart from God

right and

They had so many things that they could point back to where they saw God's hand and yet they still choice

Chose to conform to the nations around them

and that's why we we we said as we're looking at the book of Judges the

Consequences of conformity is really what we can learn from throughout this book

The world wants us to become more like them and less like Jesus

And when you get together here on Sunday morning, or you're maybe studying with your family or your spouse or a friend

You're saying I want to look more like Jesus, but the world is pulling you and that's why we're like Judges is a good book

Let's let's do this. Let's study this difficult

Difficult book and it's been hard

So today we are gonna be looking at the last three chapters

And and we're gonna see when God goes everything goes last week. We saw

Israel having a tough time with God right chapter 17 and 18 here. We're gonna see Israel having tough time with each other

So again, these last two weeks are pointing towards when you take God out of the picture. What is mankind?

when you look around at the world around us and we see just this horrific things happen and

That's a lot of times. That's where there's an absence of God or any standard of morals, right?

And so when God goes out of the picture everything goes that's kind of what we decided

today's sermon

Most of the kids have already left

Just reading God's Word will be mature

Okay, and I promise you that I have been praying all week long about how to present this

But I want to give you a heads up. This is this is a heavy dark passage

But I think it's gonna encourage us in the end

What we really need to be looking at which is a life with Christ

Having God in our life so that by his grace

We look more like him and less like the world around us

And so I just want you to know we're gonna do our best today to take these

Chapters and to see what God has for them. He put them into scripture for a reason. So let's be challenged by that

Let's pray this morning as we dive in. I don't think we can put enough prayer over this passage

So I'm gonna pray one more time before we get started father. God. We do just come before you today

We ask that you go before us in this passage you prepare hearts even now that you

Allow our minds to hear Holy Spirit what you want us to hear from this passage

Even if it's different than the words that I'm gonna utter

Holy Spirit. I know that you can do that. So as we look at this difficult passage

I pray that each one of the people who is here today will hear from you and will be challenged

By your word and it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen

All right, so we are gonna dive right in here. Give me just one second

Awesome there we go starting out in chapter 19

verse 1 in those days when there was no king in Israel a

Certain Levi was sojourning in the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim

Who took to himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah 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 for some four months

Then her husband arose and went after her to speak kindly to her and to bring her back

he had with him his servant and a couple of donkeys and she brought him into her father's house and

When the girl's father saw him

He came with joy to meet him and his father-in-law

the girl's father made him stay and they remained there for three days, so they ate and drank and

Spent the night there now immediately the author reminds us

We are in a time the book of Judges. We are in a time in those days. There was no king in

Israel we've seen that a few times throughout this book. This is again a historical account

So it's reminding the readers when this took place now. This isn't just a reminder that they hadn't

started with a human king in

Israel because that was one of the things they wanted to conform to the nations around and we want a human king

God said no no no I'm it's a theocracy. I am your king

You don't need a king and they kept saying we want a king. We want a king

We want a king and so God went through priests and then and and then we had prophets and then we had the judges

Well, we just studied and ultimately there will be kings. So when this was written again

This is this is acknowledging that there was no human king yet in Israel

But also I think even more so it's pointing towards a people who should have viewed God as their king

Theocracy and

They were saying we don't want to have anything to do with you

And so again, if you've been with us through judges

You've seen this cycle of God's saving and then they would rebel and they would sin and they wouldn't want God anymore

And then and then there would be a heavy hand of oppression

of them from some outside nation and then they would finally get to a point where they would pray for

God to save them and God would insert a judge

to met out his

judgment and it was this vicious cycle that just kept going and going and going and

So again, God wants to be their king. They don't want to have anything to do with that

The other thing we want to notice here is that we have a Levite here

Okay, and he should have been the example to all of Israel of how to live with God and instead

We can see just from the description here that he had veered off course

Also, it says that he had a concubine

back in that day and age

People would get married and they would have a wife and then if they wanted more

Outside of God's plan outside of God's best if they wanted more they would take on for themselves

concubines and or mistresses and here we see this

This Levite who should have been leading God's people

Instead says I want what everybody else has

Look around us look at these nations

These men have two or three or five or ten wives. I want one of those

I want myself to have one of those so he took to

himself

The author says right he took to himself

He was focused on what he wanted not what God wanted for him. So to satisfy his appetite

For what he wanted

He took a concubine and in that day and age a lot of times the

Description concubine would denote that it was probably somebody from a lower-class

Area lower-class citizen. There was probably a price paid for her that now she was his

property

Okay, they viewed their wives as property in that day and age

And so the concubines were even more so but that's gonna work into this

Story a little bit later now in the story here. We also see that she didn't want to be his property

So she had affairs

She committed adultery and ultimately she ran away from home from her house

With the Levites her husband. She ran away and she went back to her father's place

And and she goes to her father's house now in this day and age

Like I said where women especially were viewed more as property and less as people

This could have been trouble for her and for her father-in-law

So we're gonna see how he

Responds when the Levite shows up he meets him and says come in. Let me feed you have something to drink

Stay here. He's probably trying to smooth things over and he's hoping that by feeding him

He might be able to change what's going on here, let's continue on and on the fourth day

They arose early in the morning fourth day

So they'd already been kind of partying or at least eating and drinking and having conversation for three days on the fourth day

They arose early in the morning and he prepared to go but the girl's father said to his son-in-law

Strengthen your heart with a morsel of bread and after that you may go

So the two of them sat and ate and drank together and the girl's father said to the man

Be pleased to spend the night and let your heart be merry

And when the man rose up to go his father-in-law pressed him till he spent the night there

again

And on the fifth day he arose early in the morning to depart and the girl's father said

Strengthen your heart and wait another day or until the day declines

So they ate both of them and

When the man and his concubine and his servant rose to depart his father-in-law the girl's father said to him behold now

The day has waned towards evening. Please spend the night

Behold the day draws to its close lodge here and let your heart be merry and tomorrow

You shall arise early in the morning for your journey and go home

But the man would not spend the night. He rose up and

Departed and arrived opposite of J. Booth's that is Jerusalem. It wasn't a

Occupied by Israel because Israel hadn't done what God had called them to do which was clear the land. So this was still Canaanite

Property, but it was Jerusalem

He had with him a couple of saddled donkeys and his concubine was with him

When they were near J. Booth's the day was nearly over and the servant said to his master come now

Let us turn aside to the city of the J. B sites and

Spend the night in it and his master said to him

We will not turn aside into the city of foreigners who do not belong to the people of Israel

But we will pass on

To Gibeah and he said to this young man come and let us draw near to one of these places and spend the night at

Gibeah or at

Rhema so here we go on the fifth day. We finally see this guy gets out of town. He's like nope

I'm gonna take my servant. I'm gonna take my concubine my wife, and I'm gonna leave

Thank you father-in-law, but it's time for me to get out of here

The only problem is it was late night, or it was getting late in the afternoon, so they don't make it very far

and so again

They get to J. Booth's and and they say the the servant says let's stay here tonight

And he's like nah, they're they're foreigners. They're not of Israel, so let's keep going. We'll find a better place

To go he didn't want to stay there because he wasn't sure if it would be safe

And so again they decide to continue on and go to an Israel a town down the road

So let's keep reading so they passed on and they went on their way and the Sun went down on them near

Gibeah which belongs to Benjamin and

They turned aside there to go in and spend the night at Gibeah

And he went in and sat down in the open square of the city for no one took them into his house to spend the night

There we go and behold an old man was coming from his work in the field at

Evening the man was from the hill country of Ephraim

Same place as the Levite and he was sojourning in Gibeah the men of the place were

Benjamites and he lifted up his eyes and saw the traveler in the open square of the city and the old man said where are

You going and where do you come from?

And he said to him we are passing from Bethlehem in Judah to the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim from which I

Come I went to Bethlehem in Judah and now I'm going to the house of the Lord

But no one has taken me into his house

We have straw and feed for our donkeys with bread and wine for me and your female servant and

The young man with your servants. There's no lacking of anything 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 the house and gave the donkeys feed and they washed their feet and they ate and

drank now here we see the

Concept of hospitality, which is a little bit different than what we experienced today. This culture was different

There were no Best Westerns or

Holiday Inn

Expresses or any place for anyone to stay so rather one would get to a city and they would go to the square the

middle of the city

where people would gather to trade to talk to spend their time and

Usually someone would offer for them to stay the night with them the old man comes along

He's from Ephraim, but he's been working there and he so he comes back late at night

he sees this man and the concubine and the servant and the donkeys and and

The the Levi even offers his so I got stuff for my donkeys

I got stuff that I can even feed you with I just need a place to stay and of course

We see the old man say no. No. No, I can take care of you, right?

But he the more importantly we see the words that he utters there. He says only do not spend the night in the

square

This is the inside of the city in a Jewish town, right?

This should be a safe place. Obviously be better for you to be in a house

You're in at least a Jewish town and yet this man old man from Ephraim says don't spend the night here

Do not do that. He knows that this place is not safe

so let's continue on here and read what happens next as

They were making their hearts married now. They're at the house 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 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 whatever seems good to you, but against this man do not do this outrageous

thing

But the men would not listen to him

So the man 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. I'll tell you this by the end of the week. I've read this at least a dozen times

It's no easier to read this morning

This is an awful awful passage

What was going on here?

And so pastor Kevin and I as we both sat there feeling almost numbed by this

We said why is this in God's Word? Why is it in here?

Why do we need to read this and learn from this and I think where we got to?

Together through a lot of prayer and thinking about this passage is that I think that God wants us to understand

Just how bad it gets

When we don't have God

we need to be

confronted by the depths of our own depravity and

Sin, and I think a lot of times we as Christians are willing to almost laugh off our sin

We do something we know is not right

There may be some small consequences or none at all here on this earth

And we don't feel that it really is something against God because he doesn't reach out and slap our wrists

There's no immediate consequence, right?

And so you've sinned in one area and you got away with it in your mind

or you've justified it somehow and you just keep doing it and

The further and further and further you fall away from God

So we have this disgusting story here where these wicked men come and demand the opportunity

To know the man who is staying in the house

It is the politest way that the Bible can write that they wanted to have sexual relations with this man

They wanted to forcefully and aggressively take this person

It's not a word. I like to use often especially from the stage, but it would have been rape

Okay, and so I mean this is a dark passage

This is is not good and it should a lot of us probably were hearken back to Genesis chapter 19

Genesis 19 · chapter mention

I'm not gonna go there and read it. We don't have time today, but the the same thing happened in Sodom

When the angels showed up to lots house the gentleman there of the city

It says saw the men and they were beautiful and they wanted to know them and and they pounded on the door now

In this case or that case you had two angels there and they were able to pull a lot back in and get everything together

and escape at night and

Unfortunately, there were no angels in this story that we read today

But Genesis 19 should have popped up into our minds same kind of idea again

that was a

sinful

non

Israelite town

Where they had fallen to that place and yet here we see what should have been a safe town

They became the same and again

We've seen over and over and over throughout the book of Judges the children of Israel God's chosen people

turn their back on God and say I want what the world has and

God loves his people and he's he's patient with him and he would send judgment and then he would send a Savior

Through the judge right and it was this pattern that we had to see painfully over and over and over again

God's people the people here that we are talking about

They've been given the covenants of Abraham and of Moses and those things would have been passed down

They would have known of the prophets. They had a tabernacle. They knew the story of the Exodus

God had saved them

But they end up no better than the Canaanites the pagan nations who didn't have any of these blessings

So the question is it still remains why in the world

This host would do something this horrific

to even offer his daughter

To try to suffice these men right or the the Levites concubine

and sadly, it's because

They like the nations around them

We're looking at

They didn't give the value that God gave to women in Genesis

Right. We see that God created man and woman equal and yet the world told them. No

Men are in charge. We're superior women are our property and you can do whatever you want to with your women

That's what was being told to them the masses were telling them

All the way back in the beginning we see in Genesis

We learned that man and women are both created in the image of God and they have intrinsic value

And they should be taken care of and honored

This was not God's view for the covenant people

We should be sitting here this morning repulsed and upset and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and

We should be sitting here this morning repulsed and upset and and again

I was literally sick to my stomach on Tuesday as I was reading this it was it was hard

This week to read this because again, we see how they dehumanize

women

in this story and yet

We as a nation trying to justify

dehumanizing people women a lot of the times but those that we consider less than

And our and and our the the the nation around us, right?

The people that want us to conform to be like them tell us that it's okay

And our culture tries to do that to us. And so this morning I want you to say I am not going to allow

myself

to veer towards a culture that objectifies

Women or anyone else and tries to make them into less thans?

The potential for someone's uh, the object let's say if someone's lust is somebody's daughter somebody's sister

Somebody's wife or future wife

And he or and she could be he too

They're created in God's image

And we need to know that we need to believe that and we need to hold to that

It's not just created so that my eyes can be gratified, right?

Can be gratified right I can see what I want to see no this person is in the image of God

And yet sinful man says no i'm looking for pleasure for myself

What can I do to satisfy myself?

And so again we have to look at ourselves

Through the lens of these difficult verses

And challenge ourselves ask holy spirit, where am I failing in this same

area

It may not look exactly like this

But where am I conforming to the world when you are calling me to be transformed to look more like you?

The church of all places should be a a safe place

Right and yet and yet there's been great tragedy that has happened in the church

And I know these things are hard to talk about

They're not nice to talk about some of you may have even had experiences in churches like that

It may have taken you forever to get back into a church because you've experienced something like that because what?

happens often

Is that when something comes out like that where there's some sort of abuse

Leadership tries to keep it out of the news sweep it under the carpet

And yet I need us as a community as a as as as a church body to say we will not do that

We will not do that. We will keep our people safe and we will hold people accountable in a godly way

As we talked about this this week we we looked into some statistics nearly half of women and more than one in six men

Have experienced some fourth form of contact sexual violence in their lives

More than half the women and one in six men

In 2017 moody bible institute out in chicago started a unique major

preparing students to minister to victims of sexual exploitation

We kevin and I were talking about several people who've gone from the grace works

Over the last 16 years and have taken that course and are now doing ministry in that area

So as uncomfortable as this is to talk about

We as believers need to be the first people to stand up and say no

We are not going to be allow women to be treated like this. We're not going to allow anyone to be treated like this

No one will be treated as property

No one will be treated as property. No one will be discarded by society

So there are things to learn even in a tough passage like this verse 27

We got to keep moving 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 thres threshold and he said to her get up

Let us be going

But there was no answer

That he put her on the donkey and the man rose up and went away with his home and when he entered his house

He took a knife

And taking hold of his concubine. He divided her limb by limb

Into 12 pieces and sent her throughout the territory of israel

And all who saw it said such a thing has never happened or been seen from all the day

That the people of israel came up out of the land of egypt until this day

consider it

take counsel

And speak now, unfortunately this girl's story ends

Abruptly, she ends up dying

Right when he calls to her and tells her to get up. There's no answer

So you have this worst night of her life ending in her death

And then the levi goes home and he cuts her into 12 pieces

Sending him out throughout the territory. This is a call to war

King saul will do something similarly in first samuel 11

Down the road a little bit in history, but he does it with two bowls

Right, he sends it out and he says this is a call to war

right

The message here that levi's trying to get across is this is going to be done to anyone who does not join me

in vengeance

against gibia

But again

This was so inhumane what he's doing. He's sinking to their level

I'm, not saying there shouldn't be consequence for what had happened, but this is not the way that it should have happened

We see the levi here is concerned about vengeance when he was the one who sent his wife out there in the first place

But he doesn't tell that whole story

He's upset

He lost something

Do I dare even speculate that he was upset because he lost property

that cost him

Again, I don't know that for sure, but there's so much irony in the story and and and again

It's just so grotesque such a thing has never happened or been seen

Until this day

Is the way the author writes this?

The levi though his actions his attitudes what he did

They're just as bad as the gibianites the people who did it

And may this be our attitude towards sexual sin and and the victims thereof what the author here says

considerate take counsel

and speak

you today

Whether you're hearing it from me or through holy spirit. Hopefully both right we are now

possessing information

That should be encouraging us to consider it

Find if you if you want to do more research read books talk to people take counsel

And then ultimately we have an opportunity to do something about that. The author here says and speak we're getting through the first

First chapter was tough. It's like I got a lot to read here, but there's a lot less to talk about

That was the hardest part. We're going to look at chapters 20 and 21 here quickly to see how this book ends

Then all the people from israel came out from dan to beir sheba

Including the land of gilead and the congregation assembled as one man to the lord of mizpah

And the chiefs of all the people of all the tribes of israel presented themselves in the assembly of the people of god

400,000

Men on foot that drew the sword now the people of benjamin heard that the people of israel had gone up to mizpah

And the people of israel said tell us

How did this evil happen? So there's a call to war they assemble

400,000

Right and they assemble as one man unto the lord

Right and this phrase will be repeated a couple of more times. This is how they were called by god

to

Respond to the canaanites who were inhabiting the land the first time that they went in and yet they chose not to

But here now we have a civil war and they respond

They asked the levite. How does this?

Or how did this happen?

But notice how he leaves out his own wickedness

and his guilt

In the retelling and the levite the husband of the woman who was murdered answered and said I came to gibeah that belongs to benjamin

I and my concubine to spend the night and the leaders of gibeah rose against me and surrounded the house against me by night

They meant to kill me and they violated my concubine and she is dead

So I took a hold of my concubine and cut her into pieces and sent her out throughout all the country of the inheritance of israel

For they have committed an abomination and outrage against israel

Behold you people of israel all of you give your advice

and your counsel

here

And all the people arose as one man saying none of us will go to his tent none of us will return to his house

But now this is what we will do to give you we will go up against it by lot

and we will take 10 men of every hundred throughout all the tribes of israel and a hundred of a thousand and a thousand of

10,000 to bring provisions for the people

That when they come that they may repay gibia of benjamin for all the outrage that has been committed in israel

So all the men of israel gathered against the city united

as one

And the tribes of israel sent men throughout all the tribe of benjamin saying what evil is this that has taken place among you

Now therefore give up the men the worthless fellows

In gibia that we may put them to death and purge evil from israel, but the benjaminites would not listen

To the voice of their brothers the people of israel

Then the people of benjamin came together out of their cities to gibia to go out to battle against the people of israel

And the people of benjamin mustered out of their cities on that day

26,000 men who drew the sword besides the inhabitants of gibia who mustered 700 chosen men

Among all these were 700 chosen men who were left-handed

Everyone could sling a stone at a hair and not miss and the men of israel apart from benjamin mustered

700,000 men who drew the sword all of these

were men of war so we see that there is a request for the

Benjamites in gibia to give up the worthless men that did this

Turn over the dozen or the two dozen or however many were there. That's what we want to do

We want to purge israel of this problem

And yet and this is israelite to israelites

They say no

They'd rather fight their brothers and do what god had called them to do which was to clear the people out of the promised land

It's so

crazy

And again as we were thinking about this story, it did hearken back to churches standing there and defending abusers

When they should have been rooting those people out

And so our prayer this week and our prayer today and our prayer will continue on is that god will continue to bring shepherds to

This church and people to this church that will not stand for that sort of thing that we will protect the victims

At all costs and and my prayer for the the nation and for the world is that the church?

universal will repent of such things and fiercely

Protect the flock

What we have been called to do

May we as a church zealously protect kids and women from ever being abused

And men, whoever it is. We need to protect them

And that's why we have risk policies. Even when katie this morning said something i'm like yes three months

But let's get you through the training

Let's do a little bit of a background check because if you were we're asking you to trust us with your children

We want to be able to say we've done everything that we can

To know that your children are being watched by people who love god first and love the church body

And we will not apologize for that

So we want to be those kind of people and we're praying that the church

Universal all around the world will stop defending abusers and people who are taking advantage

of those

That we've seen but we have the 400 000 trips. We have the 26

6 700 benjamite troops

Let's keep going and see what this story goes next the people of israel arose and went up to bethel and inquired of god

Who shall go first to fight against the people of benjamin and the lord said judah will go first

Then the people of israel rose in the morning and encamped against gibia and the men of israel went to fight against benjamin

And the men of israel drew up in battle line against them at gibia

The people of benjamin came out of gibia and destroyed on that day 22 000 men of the israelites

But the people the men of israel took courage and again formed the battle line the same place where they had formed it on day

One then the people of israel went up and wept before the lord until evening and they inquired of the lord

Shall we again draw near to fight against our brothers the people of benjamin and the lord said go up against them

So the people of israel came near and the and people of benjamin on the second day and the benjamin

And then benjamin went out against them

Out of gibia the second day and destroyed 18 000 men of the people of israel

All of these were men who drew the sword

Then all the people of israel the whole army went up

And came up to bethel and wept and they sat there before the lord and fasted that day until evening

And offered a burnt offering and peace offerings before the lord and the people of israel inquired of the lord

For the ark of the covenant was there in those days and phineas the son of eliezer son of aaron

Ministered before it in those days saying shall we go out once more to battle against our brothers?

The people of benjamin or shall we cease and the lord said go up for tomorrow

I will give them into your hands again. It's a crazy story, right benjamin

They're the ones that did something wrong. What is happening here?

40 000 israelites one tenth of the army gone in two days

So this is kind of crazy

But notice the question the first time who shall go up first for us to fight against the people of benjamin

And the lord answered judah shall go

first

There wasn't a lot of room

In the question that they asked for god to say no

Or to say wait

Or whatever else he might have said they didn't inquire of the lord what to do

They went in with their own plans

We've talked about this before how many times do we start doing something and then we pray for god to bless us

in what we're doing

When maybe we need to go to the lord and say hey, what do you want me to do today?

What do you want me to do with my life?

What do you want me to do over this next season of my life?

And so again, we don't know for sure but there was great loss to israel on the first two days

They asked the second time shall we again draw near to fight against our brothers the people of benjamin?

The lord said yeah go up against them

But he doesn't tell them either of those times that they will win

So we say why this cat and mouse with god? What is he thinking? What is god trying to to to teach them?

And if this had been easy, they may not have realized the gravity of a civil war against their own brother

This is one of the 12. This is the tribe of israel

They wanted to god wanted them to wrestle with the costs

But finally the third time god guarantees a victory and that's where we find ourselves in the story

So israel sent men in ambush around gibeah and the people of israel went up against the people of benjamin and on the third day

And set themselves in array

against gibeah

As at the other times and the people of benjamin went out against people and were struck away from the city

And as it was the other times they began to strike and kill some of the people in the highway

One of which goes up to bethel and the other to gibeah and in the open country about 30 men of israel

and the people of benjamin said they are routed before us as

At the first but the people of israel said let us flee and draw them away from the city

into the highways

And all the men of israel rose up out of their place and set themselves in array at baal tamar

And the men of israel who were in the ambush rushed out of their place

from mahara

gaba

And there came against gibeah 10 000 chosen men out of all of israel and bat and the battle was hard

But for the benjamites did not know that disaster was close to be upon them

And the lord defeated benjamin before israel and the people of israel destroyed

25 100 men of benjamin that day and these were men who drew the sword so the people of benjamin saw that they were

defeated

Then

The men of israel gave ground to benjamin because they trusted the men in ambush

Whom they had set against gibeah and the men in the ambush hurried and rushed against gibeah

The men in the ambush moved out and struck the city with the edge of the sword

Now the appointed signal between the men of israel and the men in the main ambush

Was that when they made a great cloud of smoke rise up out of the city the men of israel should turn in battle

Now benjamin had begun to strike and kill about 30 men of israel

They said surely they are defeated before us as in the first battle

But when the signal began to rise out of the city in a column of smoke the benjamites

Looked behind them and behold the whole city went up in smoke to heaven

Then the men of israel turned

Uh, the men of benjamin were dismayed for they saw that disaster was close upon them. Therefore they turned their backs

Before the men of israel in the direction of the wilderness

But the battle overtook them and those who came out of the cities were destroying them in their midst

Surrounding the benjamites they pursued them and trod them down from noah as far as opposite of gibeah on the east

18 000 men of benjamin fell all of them men of valor and they turned and fled towards the wilderness of the rock of ramon

5 000 men of them were cut down in the highways and they were pursued hard to get them and 2 000 men were there

struck down

So all who fell that day in benjamin were

25 000 men who drew the sword all of them men of valor

But 600 men turned and fled towards the wilderness and the rock of ramon

And remained at the rock of ramon for four months 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 they found and all the towns that they found they set on fire

Now, this is brutal. This was an incredible

Battle, this was destructive

after killing all but

600 men they turned back the people of benjamin and struck down the people from the town

So not just the soldiers

This was genocide. This is not what god had called them to do again

Looking around seeing what the world offered and saying this is what we want

These men seem to want the victory from god, but they're not interested in the character of god

God would give them if they had searched for it what they should have done

and yet

When you're driven by vengeance, it turns into hatred

Which turns into this chaos here?

and so

As a as a church when we look at a story like that

We need to make sure that we understand a few things

There are a few things that we need to do you and I whether it's between brothers and sisters in christ

Or as a church body as we move forward. We need to call out sin appropriately lovingly, but firmly

Right, we need to do it with restoration of that person in mind not vengeance or anger

Now those things seem like they should be common sense

But again when we look to the world that's going to tell us something different

the second thing we need to do so that's when we're when we're needing to

to

Exercise loving church discipline when we need to confront something the second thing though

We need to do is we need to recognize the true enemy and that's not our brothers and sisters in christ

Ephesians 6 12 says we don't wrestle against flesh and blood but against

satan and his demons the principalities

We also need to make sure that we're forgiving one another being patient with one another believing the best

about one another

And then we need to as a church say we are not going to waste time fighting amongst ourself

We are going to continue to advance the gospel

Forward now in the last chapter, which we are going to work look at super quick in judges

The israelites seem to gain a tiny bit of conscience

over what they've done

But they still don't consult god about it. They do what they want to do and they just dive deeper into sin

So we're going to finish the book here quickly

21 verse 1 now the men of israel had sworn at ms. Padman

One of us will give up his daughter in marriage to benjamin 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 oh god

Oh lord the god of israel. Why has this happened in israel that today?

There should be one tribe lacking in israel. So again crazy ridiculous prayer

They turned against the benjaminites. They utterly destroyed them. There are 600 men left

There is nothing left of this and they pray to god. Why has this happened? Why is one of the 12 tribes?

going away

and the next day the people rose early and built their an altar and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings and the

People of israel said which of all the tribes of israel did not come to the assembly of the lord for they had taken a great

Oath concerning him who did not come up

To the lord from uh to mizpah saying he shall surely be put to death

And the people of israel had compassion for benjamin their brother and said one tribe has come off from israel this day

What shall we do for wives for those who are left the 600?

Since we have sworn by the lord that we won't give them any of our daughters

for wives

And they said

what one

Is there of the tribes of israel that did not come up to the lord at mizpah and behold one?

No one had come to the camp from jabesh gilead to the assembly

For when the people were mustered behold not one of the inhabitants of jabesh gilead was there

So the congregation sent 12 000 of their bravest men and commanded them go and strike the inhabitants of jabesh gilead

With the edge of the sword also the women and the little ones

This is what you shall do every male and every woman that is laying with a male you shall devote to destruction

And they found amongst the inhabitants of jabesh gilead 400 young virgins who had no not been known

By a man laying with them and they brought them to the camp at shiloh which is in the land of canaan

Their problem now is they were so murdery that they had gotten rid of everybody. There was no one left in

The uh the tribe of benjamin and they needed to find wives for

right for

These 600 men so they find a tribe that did not send people and they went and destroyed them

Again, they're heaping sin upon sin. It's not solving any problems. It's creating more

Then the whole congregation sent word to the people of benjamin who were at the rock of ramon and proclaimed peace to them

And benjamin returned at that time the 600 soldiers and they gave them the women who they had saved alive from the women of jabesh gilead

But they were not enough for them and the people had compassion on benjamin because the lord had made a breach

in the tribe of israel

Then the elders of the congregation said what shall we do for the wives?

For those who are left since the women are destroyed out of benjamin

And they said there must be an inheritance for the survivors of benjamin

That a tribe not be blotted out from israel yet

We cannot give them wives from our daughters for the people of israel had sworn kirspie

Who gives a wife to benjamin?

So they said behold there is yearly fast of the lord at shiloh

Which is north of bethel on the east of the highway that goes up from bethel to shechem to south of lebanon

And

They commanded the people of benjamin saying go and lie in ambush in the vineyards and watch

And if the daughters of shiloh come out and dance in the dances

Then come out of the vineyards and snatch each man for himself a wife from the daughters daughters of shiloh

Yeah, that's a great idea, right? I mean, this is crazy and they go to the land of benjamin

Uh, take them back to the land of benjamin and when their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us

We will say to them grant them graciously to us because we did not take for each man of them his wife in battle

Neither did you give them?

Uh else you would now be guilty. So here's their logic

If the virgins are taken rather than given it won't be breaking the oath

So they're twisting

The oath they're twisting what they said even in their oath that was ill-conceived

They're gonna lie and they're gonna do whatever it takes to accomplish what they want

We're getting towards the last verses right here

And the people of benjamin did so and took their wives according to their number from the dancers who they carried off

Then they went and returned to their inheritance and rebuilt the towns and lived in them

So 600 men the 400 virgins plus 200 more 1200 people total and the people of israel departed from there

At that time and every man to his tribe and family and they went out from uh there every man to his inheritance

Okay, this is the end of the book of judges. This is chaos

This is showing what life is like when you say no to god and and and you're just

Concerned with yourself look at verse 25 in those days. There was no king in israel

Everyone did what was right in his own eyes

They got their wives

The book ends in despair people acting without god people finding their own solutions

But a lot of times the solutions are worse than the initial problem

the book of joshua

Started off with israel as one people united in vision and spirit going into the land

The book of judges ends with israel fractured into many pieces

When god goes everything goes

Romans 12 2

Do not be conformed to this world

But be transformed by the renewal of your mind

That by testing you may discern

What is the will of god?

What is good?

and acceptable

And perfect. Let's pray father god as we look at this

book

judges

May we never look at it again the way we probably did before we studied it

Help us to see the consequences

Of conformity and not to just brush them off not to say maybe the world's got this one right and we were wrong

But help us to be a people

Dedicated

To your word to finding out your will and to applying it to our lives

Help us to be a people who run to you

When we're looking for direction

Help us to be a people who identify and acknowledge and see

The ways that we are tempted to conform to what the world says is all right

And help us to stand strong against it

Help us to look more like jesus each day less like ourselves help us to live

In the beauty of the gospel message help us to care for people

Not only in our church body, but in our community and in this world

Help us when when people see us help us

To to stand out that we are different because we look like you

Because we're committed to doing good things in your name to point people towards you

Help us to think this week

not only about these last three chapters or five chapters, but about the entire book of judges how you

Never walked away from your people. You loved them even through their

constant

complaining and wandering and sin and rebellion

You

Continued to provide a way and we thank you lord that you provided a way for us sinful people

Through your son jesus christ that we exchange our sin and our filth for his righteousness

So that when we die

Even if it's today that we can stand before you and when you ask us why you should let us into heaven

That we will not talk about ourselves or what we may have accomplished

But that we will say because of the blood of jesus christ his righteousness applied to me

The sins that I had committed that he has taken away

That is the only reason that I should be able to spend eternity in heaven with you

Help us to be a people that love you that know you that pursue you

And that show other people what the true jesus looks like and it's in your

Powerful and mighty and precious name we pray. Amen

As the worship team starts, uh last couple of songs together

We have an opportunity also to worship through communion. We have a couple of tables set up in the back

So if you came prepared to to do that today, we want to invite you during these next couple of songs

To do that. Thanks for being here this morning. We look forward to the wrap-up next week

I need some people to be be part of that because it's going to be a special time and then i'm looking forward to

A new testament book

Like I said, we have it narrowed down about four of them trying to pick it a lot smaller sections and judges

And it's going to be great as a church body

We're going to have an opportunity to learn so much no matter which book we we we choose and we'll let you know more

About that next week. So stand with me if you're able and let's worship. God

I stand

amazed in the

Presence of jesus the

King

Then wonder how he could love me a sinner condemned

Singing how marvelous how wonderful

Shall ever be

Marvelous

How wonderful is my savior's love for me

He took my sins and my sorrows

He made them his very own

He bore the burden to calvary

And suffered and died alone

Singing how marvelous how wonderful

Am I singing

How marvelous

How wonderful

Am I

Singing how marvelous

How wonderful

Am I

Singing how marvelous

How wonderful

Am I

Singing how marvelous

Shall

ever be

Singing how

wonderful

Am I

Singing how

marvelous

How wonderful

Am I

Singing how

marvelous

How wonderful

am I

Singing how

marvelous

How wonderful

Am I

Singing how

marvelous

How wonderful

Am I

Singing how

marvelous

How wonderful

My song

Shall ever be

How

marvelous

How

wonderful

Is my

Savior's

love for me

He

Jealous

for me

Love's

like a

hurricane

I am a tree

bending beneath

the wave

of His

wind and

mercy

And

all of a

sudden

I'm unaware

His affections

eclipse my glory

And I realize

just how

beautiful You are

and how great Your

affections are for me

Know

how He

loves us all

Know

how He

loves us

How He

loves us

He

Jealous

for me

Love's

like a

hurricane

I am a tree

bending beneath

the wave

of His

wind and

mercy

And all of a

sudden

I'm unaware

Just how

beautiful You are

and how great Your

affections are for me

Know

how He

loves us

Know

how He

loves us

How He

loves us

Yeah

Yes He

loves us

Oh, how

He loves us

Oh, how

He loves

us

Oh, how

He loves

Yes

He loves us

Oh, how

He loves

us

Oh, how

He loves us

Oh, how

He loves

For we are His portion

and His our price

Drawn to His

portion by the grace

in His eyes

If grace is an

ocean we're all

sinking

So heavenly

turned like an unforeseen

kiss and my heart

turns violently inside

of my chest

I don't have time to

maintain these friends

when I think about

Yes He

loves us

Oh, how

He loves us

Oh, how

He loves

us

Oh, how

He loves

Yes He loves us

Oh, how

He loves

us

Oh, how

He loves

us

Oh, how

He loves

us

Oh, how

He loves

us

him

me

you

him

me

him

him

me

you

His

His

In

Is

He

He

Him

Him

Him

Him

Him

Him

Him

Me

Slim

Slim

Slim

Slim

He is Lord, Lord of all

When darkness seems to hide His face

I restore His unchanging grace

When every high and storm begin

My anchor holds within the veil

My anchor holds within the veil

Christ alone, cornerstone

Wing made strong, in silver's love

Through the storm, He is Lord, Lord of all

Christ alone, cornerstone

Wing made strong, in silver's love

Through the storm, He is Lord, Lord of all

He is Lord, Lord of all

Christ alone, cornerstone

Wing made strong, in silver's love

Through the storm, He is Lord, Lord of all

And He shall come with trumpet sound

O may I then in Him be found

Dressed in His righteousness alone

Faultless stand before the throne

Christ alone, cornerstone

Wing made strong, in silver's love

Through the storm, He is Lord, Lord of all

Amen

Well, let's walk in our day like He is Lord. Amen?

Thank you. See you guys later.

Thank you.

I'm holding on to a hope that won't fade

Come, Jesus, come

We've been waiting so long

For the day You return

To heal every hurt and right every wrong

Come, Jesus, come

There'll be no hope

There'll be no change

Come, Jesus, come

We've been waiting so long

For the day You return

To heal every hurt and right every wrong

Come, Jesus, come

We've been waiting so long

For the day You return

To heal every hurt and right every wrong

We need You right now

Come and turn this around

Come, Jesus, come

One day He'll come

And we'll stand face to face

Come and lay it all down

Cause it might be today

The time is right now

There's no need to wait

The past will be washed

By rivers of grace

Come, Jesus, come

We've been waiting so long

For the day You return

To heal every hurt and right every wrong

We need You right now

Come and turn this around

Deep down I know

This world isn't home

Come, Jesus, come

Come, Jesus, come

Come, Jesus, come

Come, Jesus, come

Come, Jesus, come

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