Judges 2024

Chapter 20 and 21 of judges. Okay. Let's go verse 1. Then all Israel from Dan to beersheba and from the land of Gilead came together as 1 and assembled before the lord in Mispar. The leaders of all the people of the tribes of Israel took their places in the assembly of god's people.

400000 men armed with swords. The Benjaminites heard that the Israelites had gone up to misper. Then the Israelites said, tell us how this awful thing happens. So the Leviite, the husband of the murdered woman, said, I and my concubine came to Gibia and Benjamin to spend the night. During the night, the men of Gibia came after me and surrounded the house intending to kill me.

They raped my concubine and she died. I took my concubine, cut her into pieces, and sent 1 piece to each region of Israel's inheritance. Because they committed this lewd and outrageous act in Israel. Now all you Israelites speak up and tell me what you have decided to do. All the men rose up together as 1 saying none of us will go home.

No. Not 1 of us will return to his house. But now, this is what we'll do to Gibia. We'll go up against it in the order decided by casting lots. We'll take 10 men out of every hundreds from all the tribes of Israel.

And a hundred from a thousand and a thousand from 10000 to get provisions for the army. Then when the army arrives at Givier in Benjamin, It can give them what they deserve for this outrageous act done in Israel. So all the Israelites got together and united as 1 against the city. The tribes of Israel sent messengers throughout the tribe of Benjamin saying, What about this awful crime that was committed among you? Now, turn those wicked men of Gibia over to us so that we may put them to death and purge the evil from Israel.

But the Benjaminites would not listen to their fellow Israelites. From their towns, they came together at Gibia to fight against the Israelites. At once the Benjaminites mobilized 26000 swordsmen from their towns in addition to 700 Abel young men from those living in Gibia. Among all these soldiers, there were 700 select troops who were left handed, each of whom could sling a stone at a hair and not miss. Israel, apart from Benjamin, mustered 400000 swordsmen all of them fit for battle.

The Israelites went up to Bethel and inquired of God. They said, who of us is to go up first to fight against the Benjaminites. The Lord replied, Judah shall go first. The next morning, the Israelites got up and pitched camp near Gibia. The israelites went out to fight the Benjaminites and took up battle positions against them at Givia.

The Benjaminites came out of Givia and cut down 22000 Israelites in the battlefield that day, but the Israelites encouraged 1 another. And again, to up their positions where they had stationed themselves the first day. The Israelites went up and wet before the lord until evening, and they inquired of the lord. They said, Shall we go up again to fight against the Benjaminites, our fellow Israelites? The Lord answered, go up against them.

Then the Israelites drew near to Benjamin the second day. This time, when the Benjaminites came out from Givia to oppose them, they cut down another 18000 Israelites. All of them armed with swords. Then all the Israelites, the whole army went up to Bethel, and there they sat weeping before the lord. They fasted that day until evening and presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the lord.

And the Israelites inquired of the lord. In those days, the ark of the covenant of god was there with thinnier, son of Eliza, the son of Aaron ministering before it. They asked, Shall we go up again to fight against the Benjaminites so our fellow israelites or not? The Lord responded Go for tomorrow, I will give them into your hands. Then Israel set an ambush around Gibia They went up against the Benjaminites on the third day and took up positions against Libya as they had done before.

The Benjaminites came out to meet them and were drawn away from the city. They began to inflict casualties on the Israelites as before. So that's about 30 men fell in the open field and on the roads. The 1 leading to Bethel and the other to give you. While the Benjaminites were saying we are defeating them as before, The Israelites were saying, let retreat and draw them away from the city to the roads.

All the men of Israel moved from their places and took positions at Bail Tamar. And the Israelites ambush charged out of its place on the west of Gibia. Then 10000 of Israel's able young men made a frontal attack on Gibia. The fighting was so heavy that the Benjaminites did not realize how near disaster was. The law defeated Benjamin before Israel.

And on that day, the Israelites struck down 25100 Benjaminites All armed with swords. Then the Benjaminites saw that they were beaten. Now the men of Israel had given way before Benjamin. Because they relied on the ambush they had set near Gibia. Those who had been in ambush made a sudden dash into Gibia spread out and put the whole city to the swords.

The Israelites had arranged with the ambush that they should send up a great cloud of smoke from the city. And then the Israelites would counter attack. The Benjaminites had begun to inflict casualties on the Israelites about 30, and they said we are defeating them as in the first battle. So when the column of smoke began to rise from the city, the Benjaminites turned and saw the whole city going up in smoke. Then the israelites counter attack and the Benjaminites were terrified because they realized that disaster had come on them.

So they fled before the israelites in the direction of the wilderness but they could not escape the battle. And the Israelites who came out of the towns cut them down there. They surrounded the Benjaminites chase them and easily overrun them in the vicinity of Gibia on the east. 18000 Benjaminites fell all of them valiant fighters. As they turned and fled towards the wilderness to the rock and rim on, the Israelites cut down 5000 men along the roads.

They kept pressing after the Benjaminites as far as Gidham and struck down 2000 more. On that day, 25000 Benjaminite swordsman fell, all of them valiant fighters. But 600 of them turned and fled into the wilderness to the rock of Rymon. Where they stayed for 4 months. 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. The men of Israel had taken an oath at Mispur. Not 1 of us will give his daughter a marriage to a Benjaminite. The people went to Bethel where they sat before god until evening, raising their voices and weeping bitterly. Lord, God of Israel, they cried.

Why has this happened to Israel? Why should 1 try be missing from Israel today? Early the next day, that people built an altar and presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the Israelites asked who from all the tribes of Israel has failed to assemble before the lords for they had taken a solemn oath for anyone who failed to assemble before the lord at misper was to be put to death. Now the Israelites grieved for the tribe of Benjamin, their fellow Israelites.

Today, 1 tribe is cut off from Israel, they said. How can we provide wise for those who are left since we have taken an oath by the lord not to give any of our daughters in marriage. Then they asked, which 1 of the tribes of Israel failed to assemble before the lord at Mispur? They discovered that no 1 from JayBesh Gilead had come to the camp for the assembly. For when they counted the people, they found that none of the people of Jabish Gilead were there.

So the assembly sent 12000 fighting men with instructions to go to Jay Besh Gilead and put to the sword those living there, including the women and children. This is what you are to do, they said. Kill every male and every woman who is not a virgin. They found among the people living in JBesh Gilead 400 young women who had never slept with a man and they took them to the camp at Shiloh in Cainham. Then the whole assembly sent an offer of peace the Benjaminites at the Rock of Rimon.

So the Benjaminites returned at that time and were given the women of Jabish Gilead who had been spared. But there were not enough for all of them. The people grieve for Benjamin because the Lord had made a gap in the tribes of Israel. And the elders of the assembly said, with the women of Benjamin destroyed, how shall we provide wise to the men who are left? The Benjaminite survivors must have heirs, they said.

So that a tribe of Israel will not be wiped out. We can't give them our daughters as as wives since we, his rights have taken this oath, cursedly anyone who gives a wife to a Benjaminite. 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 Lebanon. So they instructed the Benjaminite saying go and hide in the vineyard and watch. When the young women of Shiloh come out to join in the dancing, rush from the vineyards, and each of you sees 1 of them to be a wife.

Then return to the land of Benjamin. When their fathers or brothers complain to us, we will say to them, to us the favor of helping them. Because we did not get wise for them during the war. You will not be guilty of breaking your oath because you did not give your daughters to them. So that is what the Benjaminites did while the young women were dancing, each man caught 1 and carried her off to be his wife.

Then they returned to their inheritance and rebuilt the towns and settled in them. At that time, the Israelites left that place and went home to their tribes and clans each to his own inheritance. In those days, Israel had no king. Everyone did as they saw fit. Cheers Orie.

I honestly don't know who I've offended. That they've given me 2 chapters and judges, and they've chosen these 2 chapters as as the chapters that they want me to preach on. Let's pray before we start. Lord, even though these words, just seem absolutely crazy to us, lord, we know that they are there for our good to learn from the mistakes of those before us, lord, to see how living without a king, is is complete foolishness lord. Peace help us to see how Jesus is arcing.

I'm in. Brilliant. For those of you who don't know me, my name's Richard. I'm a member of Cornerstone. And for those who do know me, you know, that I normally start off with police story.

My wife told me I do too many police stories. So today, I am not doing 1. I love board games. Absolutely love them. Sorry.

I know. Early in my marriage before we had kids and I could spend money on things off as a nappies and after school clubs. I had a huge collection of games. And in fact, if you go into the backhaul in somebody's cup you're still through shelves filled with my board games from when we used to have a, a board games club here before COVID. I love all games from classics like Pluto, monopoly, a bit more involved ones, like settlers of Catan, and, ticket to ride.

And then I've even bought Kickstarter ones where I have a 50 page manual, 400 miniature men. I've never played it. It is sat by my bed for the past 2 years, and I have to crawl over the sheets to get into bed each night because I don't know where else to put it. I've even played a singular game here with people from Cornerstone that lasted a year and a half. In recent years, I've taken an even deeper plunge into games.

And I have played something called Dungeons and Dragons. Now, for those of you who don't know what Dungeons and Dragons is, essentially, you create a character has various abilities, various traits, quirks, and strengths. You have to create its personality and you play that character in a fictional world where there's people, monsters, problems, moral choices. You can decide to go into a town, chat with a town spoke, you can go to the shop, haggle with the shopkeeper for a couple of hours, or you can just go into a dungeon and search for dragon treasure. In every game in dungeons and dragons, there is someone who's slightly different to everyone else, a game's master, someone who runs the game.

They're not necessarily involved in any of the decision making that everyone else makes, but they're there to tell the story. They're there to narrate the people that this they speak and that they meet. And they're generally involved in the running of the game. And I actually run a game for a few people here at church. And for that group, I am the games master.

And what I say is final. The group understands that any action that they take has a consequence, whether good or bad Some of the group really play into that and understand that there's a repercussion to the actions that they make. They think very hard about everything that they do except for 1 person. Now I'm not gonna embarrass them by saying their name, but for the purposes of the story, I'm just gonna make 1 up and we'll call them Carl. Carl with a k, just to just to clarify, just to not using anyone at church's name.

Carl likes to push my buttons. He knows that his actions have consequences. And he's fully aware that as a games master, the world that I have created punishes people who acts against the law of the land. But Carl and the character that he has created doesn't care. For example, the group might be talking to a witness or a respect for a murder, on a trail, for a mystery.

The group's all really interested in questioning this individual. Carl just walks up behind him and knocks him out. In the middle of the room whilst surrounded by law enforcement. No warning, no reasoning. The faces of the other players drop.

That's the third person he's done that to today. And of course, his consequences to Karl's actions, his character gets chased by the police, he gets thrown in a cell, Cole tells me it won't happen again and he promises to do better. Next week, we play the game and the group are in hot pursuit of some bandits. They come to a house of a child who knows the secret way into the mandate hideout. The kid seems adventurous and wants to join him and claims that he can help in the fight.

The rest of the party want the child to stay with his mum. Because they want to keep him out of carbs out of harm's way. I mean, the 2 words are synonymous at this point. What does Carl want? Carl throws the kid into the front of the battle lines, armed with only a farmer's sickle and a kid's bow.

Now, to be fair to the little kid, he gets a few hits in some of the monsters and he actually manages to take something out. And the group slowly gets their hopes up that actually the kid will make it out alive. Now in my game, Karl is yet to explain to this fictional character's mother why it was a closed casket funeral. Carl will tell me that it won't happen next week. He promises that he'll do better.

And regardless of how many times Carl's character is punished for his actions. I know that next week he will return to his old ways. The behavior circles back in itself, rebellion, consequence, remorse, commitment, rebellion, consequence, Remor's commitment. And I know whilst it's not the perfect picture, this circular action might help remind us of how of where we are in these last 2 chapters and judges. The israelites have been in this constant cycle of rebellion.

The first chapters repeat the phrases over and over again that the Israelites are evil in the sights of the lord, that his anger burned against them that he turned them over to their enemies and that when they finally cried out, he sent them a deliverer, only for them to rebel over and over again. And the cycle to restart. And just like in my game, any commitment to change is only temporary. Secondly, not only do we have repetition at the start of judges. We now have repetition at the end of judges with this phrase.

In those days, Israel had no king and everyone did as they saw fit. In fact, it's even in today's passage, the very last verse of the book. And both Rory and Phil over the past few weeks have pointed this out that Israel has no ruler and no law. There is no right. There is no wrong everything is permissible, and everyone does as they see fit.

Finally, it's important to remember what's come before. What Rory led us through last week in Judge's 'nineteen. I'm not gonna go through it all right now because we're gonna touch on it later. But suffice to say that the Benjaminites committed 1 of the most horrific crimes that you'll read in the Bible, with this verse in verse 30, such a thing had never been seen or done, not since the day that the Israelites came out of Egypt. Can you imagine that years and years had passed since the exodus that things have come and gone and people have come and gone and this is the crime that is the worst of all of them.

These are people who ignore god, rebel against god, and act like they are god. Forcing their will on others. And that's where we pick up today's story, the last 2 chapters in judges, and my first point. A failure to trust god. And we're actually gonna see 3 occasions in this, first chapter that we're going through today where they fail to trust god.

But before we get into any of that, we actually start off on a positive note in verse 1. And after this horrific crime, we that inverse 1, all Israel from Dan to Toshiba, and from the land of Gilead came together as 1. Fantastic. The people are uniting coming together as 1. Perhaps we've judged Israel unfairly And you can understand why, right?

Disaster, tragedy, anything like that brings people together. If you think about COVID, how that brought people together. But it's not that simple. You see, this is the first time since Ophneil, 1 of the first judge back in chapter 3 where the lord's people have banded together. However, this isn't to drive out law the lord's enemies, the amalekites, the midianites, or anyone like that.

Put to destroy god's people as we'll read later to destroy their own spiritual brothers and sisters. Back in deuteronomy 7, god tells us people that when they enter the promised land, they are to clear it. And unite under his banner to drive out their enemies. And here, instead of uniting under the banner of god, They are uniting under the banner of revenge. There is no unity here no unity with God.

There is a complete disunity. And this sets the tone for the rest of chapters 20 and 21 Although god should be the center, although god should be their priority, their desire is to be in control. They want to dictate the situation. So with an army of soldiers ready to fight, they ask the obvious question. What happened.

In verse 4. So the levite, the husband of the murdered woman said, I, and my concubine came to Gibier and Benjamin and spent the night. During the night, the men of Gibier came after me and surrounded the house intending to kill me. They raped, by concubine, and she died. Now just like a child bends the truth to look good, in front of their parents.

This levite too is being very liberal with what's happened. It's heavily edited and prepared to make him look like he is the innocent victim, and he has no part in what's happened. What he claims is isn't exactly the truth. And we read back in chapter 19 what actually happened. 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 a house so we can have sex with him.

There is no indication here that they wanted to murder him. If he told the story how it actually happened, it wouldn't look as good. Men came to the door They wanted to have sex with me. I said, no. So I threw my concubine out the door and locked it behind her.

And when I went to check her on the morning, she was dead. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to minimize this vile thing for for for less than it actually was. But I'm just trying to highlight that the men of Givir were undeniably evil and the levite was really no better. He is self seeking, self serving, and he is failing to trust god.

If he really trusted god, he would tell them. What really happened. And whilst we may be comfortably sitting in our seats thinking that this story doesn't apply to us, maybe we should look at it again. A sinful people, we keep secrets. From others, we hide the truth, we manipulate the truth, even from ourselves to make our make ourselves feel better.

We don't act when we should. We have allowed ourselves to be influenced by the world and what's going on around us. By our work, our home and our culture. Sometimes we act like the ones that we we act like the ones that we have We act like we are the ones who have no king, and we do what we want, thinking that we know best, manipulated the truth to ensure a favorable outcome And that, and to not give god the honor that he deserves. And that isn't where the lack of god, lack of trusting god ends.

In verse 12. The tribes of Israel sent messengers throughout the tribe of Benjamin. Saying, what is this awful crime that was committed among you? Now turn these wicked men over to get wicked men of Give you over to us so that we may put them to death and purge the evil from Israel. Now according to old testament law, anyone who murders someone is punishable by death, So this is a perfectly reasonable request.

This is in Genesis chapter 9 verse 6, in Exodus 21 verse 12, Viviticus 24 17, 35. So god's people should know that the punishment for murder is death and what these tribes are asking is not to be unexpected. But the Benjaminites would not listen to their fellow israelites. From their towns, they came together at Givya to fight against the israelites. And you know what as harsh as it sounds, I kind of understand what the benjamins do here, even though it's completely against god's law.

There's things that I should put to death that I should hand over to god that I just don't want to. And under the lens of my spiritual life, we can become obsessed with things that we really don't want to give up. Things that might start out not being sinful to begin with, but end up being all consuming. A desire for a better job becoming a need for more money, a desire for a unified family, becoming the priority over your church family. A desire for recognition sees you neglecting your spiritual life for your work life.

When god asked you to hand these things over to put them to death. What do you do? It's hard. We resist. We don't want to listen.

We fight back. And it's just what the Benjaminites are doing here. This is the second time that they are failing to trust god. And instead of, instead they are prioritizing some deep routed desire for tribal unity. And like the Benjaminites, we are guilty of not trusting god enough to hand everything over to him.

And here, the sin keeps growing on itself as a result. The indifference of the levite followed by the sexual perversion of the gibeonites leading to a full blown civil war. With both armies ready for battle in chapter 20 verse 18, we have this between the Israelites and God. The Israelites went up to Bethel and inquired of God. They said, who of us is to go up first to fight the benjamites?

Benjaminites. Now this verse purposefully mirrors chapter 1 verse 1, where the Israelites are about to fight the Cadanites. And it says after the death of Joshua, the Israelites asked the lord, who of us is to go up first and fight the canaanites. Now, At first, it looks like nothing's changed. They're still asking god, but there's actually a lot of nuance in the words that they use.

And we can see real separation in the fact that they have no king as we have been told. In chapter 1 verse 1, if you read it through, you see that they refer to him as lord, They use his covenant name. They are in a relationship with him. They love him. They are fighting who they have been told to fight by their lord.

Now if you ignore the name father, now now instead in a chapter 20, they ignore the name of their their covenant name and instead refer to him as any other god. And more than that they aren't fighting who he's told them to fight. There is no where we read that he's instructed them to fight the benjamites. They are fighting their own people of their own will. They are trying to solve the problem by themselves.

God had a clear promise for them to clear out the promised land. This wasn't part of that plan. They don't ask god, please show us what you want us to do. Let this situation be in your will. But they say, this is what you're doing.

We will give you a little bit of authority that we want to give you. It's just as if god is an afterthought in the whole situation. And it takes the Benjaminites defeating them twice to finally ask god the way that they should ask him. And the lord answers, they set up an ambush and overpower the Benjaminites, Benjaminites, and they turned to the rest of the city in verse 48. The men of Israel went back to Benjamin and put all the towels to the sword, including the animals and everything else they found.

All the towels they came across they set on fire. Now, justice, as we just discussed, would have been demanding the execution of the guilty parties, and perhaps even those who came out to fight for them. But this isn't justice. This is bitterness. This is revenge.

This is genocide. What gives them the right to kill every man, woman, and child? This isn't a command from god. At the moment, they themselves are god. By trying to solve the problem on their own, they are showing their lack of trust in their father.

And this chapter is a whole case study into the rejection of god and how Israel no longer trust in him. Where does that leave us? Well, personally, I find myself doing pretty much everything the Israel have done, maybe not to the same scale, I manipulate the truth, like the levite. I fail to have my shortcomings over to god, like the Benjamin I I and I desire to act on my own accord like the Israelite army. The Israelites needed a king that they could trust, 1 that they could turn to, 1 that they could confide in, 1 that they could be honest with.

We need a king that we can turn to, that we can trust, 1 that we can be honest with. 1 to hand our shortcomings over to, 1 to help us see who we are in comparison to him. And that moves us on to our second point. A failure to acknowledge sin. Now after their supposed victory at the end of chapter 20, so we see the Israelites assemble together and make 2 promises.

The first being in verse 1, not 1 of us will give his daughter in marriage to a Benjaminite. As a result of the horrific sin committed by a minority of them, those assembled together make a nice. An oath which essentially ends the land of the bet of Benjamin, even in the 600 who survived in the wilderness. They then make a second promise in verse 5. For they had taken the solemn oath that anyone who failed to assemble before the lord at Miss Park, to be put to death.

Now the Bible doesn't tell us why they make this oath, and it doesn't seem again like it's from god. So we can assume that it was intended as a statement or solidarity. If you weren't there before the lord at Mispa, then we can assume that you weren't against the sin committed to the woman. Kinda like if you're not for us, you're against us. However, there's a difficulty with these 2 oaths with the verses sandwiched between them in particularly verse 2.

The people went to Bethel where they sat before god until raising their voices and weeping bitterly, lord god of Israel, they cried. Why has this happened to Israel? Why should 1 try be missing from Israel today? Whoude, why is there a tribe missing? Why?

Why would you allow the tribe of Benjamin to be destroyed? Now, I'm a pretty forgetful guy. When I'm at work and we have actions after a meeting, I have to get whoever charge to send me what I'm supposed to do in an email because there is no chance that I'm gonna remember it. Naomi, my wife claims that she tells me what we're doing. She tells me what the calendar is and where we should be next week.

I don't remember that, and it could be that she's told me that. I mean, I doubt it, but it could be. But if I'd just been involved in the massacre of an entire tribe, I'm 90 percent sure I'd be able to answer the question. Why is there a tribe missing? And it's not just any tribe.

These are people that they may have known. This is people that they may have loved. Why has this happened? Well, because we just murdered thousands of people and we made it impossible for the 600 remaining to reestablish themselves by making 2 oaths without consulting god. The thing is, as obvious an answer as it seems to us, We are often in the same position too.

It's much easier to point the finger to point the blame than to take it. And the assembly here are pointing the finger directly at god. Why god have you allowed this to happen? Your our god, aren't you supposed to look after us? Our poor brothers, how could you allow this?

And sometimes we too are guilty of pointing our shortcomings onto god. Lord, why did you give me this trouble? Why did you put that temptation in front of me? And instead of repentance, or asking for strength, we instead find solace in blame. It's not my fault.

Not my fault. The Israelites plan to solve this on their own. And it has highlighted just how much they have failed. Their short sightedness just points to their own sin. The Israelites need a king that they can give their sin to, 1 that they can be open to, 1 that they can be honest with 1 that will forgive them.

We neither king, who we know is without fault. That we can turn to, that we can confide in, that we feel confident will never let us down. And that brings us to our third point. A failure to learn from sin. The whole situation that has led to this point was the assault and murder of the concubine in chapter 19.

Now, with Israel looks forward, it has to deal with the 2 oaths it's made. And they discover in verse 8 that no 1 from Jabish Gilead has come to the camp for the assembly. You know when something seems like a really good idea when you first think about it. But actually, when you really dig down deep, it's not so great. Like, I have a sensitive stomach.

But I love spicy food. And I know that if I eat too much spicy food that I'm gonna have stomach cramps the next day, but I always go back to the spiciest food that I can get. Now, Here the Israelites realize that they have a problem with their own making. As a result of wiping out the town They have 700 men left from the entire tribe of Benjamin, who ran away into the wilderness during the fight. And at the same time, they made an oath, which is essentially gonna wipe them out.

Because no 1 at the council is allowed to give a daughter as a wife. So they came up with an idea, which initially might seem smart and solve 2 problems with 2 birds with 1 stone. But like me and the spicy food, it just shows that they really haven't learnt anything from the past couple of chapters. The plan's basically as follows. Since Jabish Gilead didn't turn up to the assembly and they made an oath that anyone wasn't there is to be put to death.

Coupled with the promise that no 1 from any of the tribes is allowed to give their daughter a marriage. If they kill, everyone from Javish Gilead, take the daughters and marry them onto the benjamites, it solves the problem. It restores the tribe. Now, I'm just gonna give you a second to think about the last time we've read about a sexual assault, abuse and murder. And it was a long time ago, a whole 2 chapters ago.

It's the whole situation that led to this problem right here. When they killed the concubine and they sexually assaulted and murdered her, As a result, they have massacred an entire town and are going to sexually assault and murder the town. It feels like a comedy sketch. It feels like something from Monte Python. Guys, this horrific thing has happened.

We've got a plan. The plan's backfired. You know what, solve it? Doing the horrific thing that made us that we needed the plan for. But it's okay.

This time, we all agree about it. So you know what? It's not so bad this time. You can't you can't make it up. The men who claim to be the protectors the justicers of the women killed in chapter 19 are the same 1 instigating the exact same crime.

And this isn't god's plan for marriage. In Ephesias, we read that husbands are to love their wives as themselves. This here in judges, this isn't marriage, how the way that god intended. This is marriage for sex. This isn't marriage for mutual growth in Christ.

This is marriage for repopulation. There is no indication of love here. And it doesn't stop there. Even after the massacre of the town, there just aren't enough women left over for the remaining benjamites. But to me, After a day of massacring multiple towns, forcing hundreds of likely unexpected mourning women into marriage, It feels like an appropriate time to stop.

Take stock of what's happened and reflect on choices Those 200 men, they can glorify god in their singleness. There's no 1 left now in Israel who can marry. Under the both made in verse 1. Now, back in the 19 seventies when the Soviet Union was still a thing, There was a Bulgaria human rights dissident who was expelled to West Germany and tried to find a legal loophole to get back up his country. So once a month, he'd pick a random prisoner in a, in a in a in a Soviet Union prison and send them a letter.

But before he'd send it, he would take it to the post office and he shoo it against tampering. Now naturally, the Soviet government would get the letter and they would open it, they would photocopy it and pass it on to the prisoner. However, since the letter was insured against tampering, They'd have to pay out insurance every single time they opened it. The posting the the they otherwise, they they risk being kicked out of the international postal union. Now, the postal union agreed to let this man do this once a month.

So every month for years, he'd send a letter to a random prisoner. And a month later, he'd receive a check from the USSR for 400 dollars. 400 dollars in 19 70 is 3 and a half thousand dollars today. Now, this is the kind of legal loophole that I can get behind. Not hurting anyone.

No 1 no one's getting any kind of injury out of it. However, the loopholes and the mental hoops that the assembly must have had to jump through to get to their solution is just crazy. This isn't some communist dictatorship. There's there is a victim here. These are real lives, real people.

But they care more about being the ones who solve the problem rather than the consequences. And technically, their oath was not to give their daughters in marriage. If the daughters were taken without permission, That's a different story. From verse 19, we read, but look, there is an annual festival of the lord in Shylo. Which lies north of Bethel East of the road that goes between goes from Bethel to Shechem, south of Lebanon.

They instructed the Benjomites saying, go and hide in the vineyards and watch. When the young women of Charlotte come out to join the dancing, rush from the vineyards, and each if you seize 1 of them to be your wife, then return to the land of Benjamin. When their father's brothers complained to us, we will say to them, tell us the favor of helping them, because we did not get wise for them during the war, You will not be guilty of breaking your oath because you you did not give your daughters to them. That's what the Benjaminites did. They decided to prevent themselves from breaking the ape.

They'd use a leap, loophole. Where the men just took the women. No permission given, just women taken. The assembly which had got to, gather to discuss and bring justice for a single raped and murdered woman has ended up with a destruction of 2 towns, the abduction trafficking and rape of morning survivors. And they all return home happy.

Well, apart from the traffic victims who now are forced to live a life of sexual servitude, while the tribe of Benjamin rebuild itself. Such a thing has never been seen or done, not since the day. The Israelites came out of Egypt. This was the sin that they pointed out. But now they've gone and committed the same sin on a national scale.

You can imagine the daughter at home, her father is out to war, Her mother is cooking, her brothers are there as well, income men and murder the family. They murder her mother and her brothers in front of her. They take her off to some unknown town, marry her to some unknown man. She has no idea what's going on. She might not even be older than the age of 14.

There is failure to learn from the sins committed. And again, judges isn't just pointing out the flaws of the Israelites, about the flaws written within this book. Is pointing at our flaws. How often do we fail to learn from our sins? Things that we do again and again, or do we convince ourselves like this, believe it, that actually we're doing things for good?

They're noble, or at least they serve a greater purpose. You know, it could be gossiping at work, lying to ourselves time by convincing them that if we build these relationships we might actually get an opportunity to preach Christ. It could be speeding on the way to church. Every time someone uses this, as an example, speeding or road rage, I sit there and I nod in the congregation, Okay. Yep.

I won't do that. 2 minutes later, I'm completely breaking what I just said I wouldn't do. Sometimes there's not even things we can convince ourselves of for anyone's good. Just watching things we shouldn't be watching. Thinking things, we shouldn't be thinking, straight up worshiping things other than god.

We need to learn from our sins. The assembly here showed us what happens when you take it to the extreme. But instead of failing to learn from their sins, they needed a king that could love that they could love so much that they actively sought to eradicate the sin from themselves. 1 that they could sacrifice their own needs to and put that king above themselves. So where does that leave us?

As we saw though this book is a historical recording during the time of the judges, under the statement of verse 25, in those days, Israel had no king. Everyone did as they saw fit. We need to know that this is how everyone in the world acts today. There is no king, and everyone does what they want. Now this brings us back to my opening picture.

The underlying issue isn't that we keep repeating the mistakes. The real issue is that we all want to be the Gamesmaster. We all want to be the 1 who runs the show. The 1 who makes the rules, the 1 who governs what's right or wrong, we want to be king. The passage shouldn't read in those days Israel had no king.

The passage should read in those days Israel was its own king. And the Israel and like the Israelites, we want to rule our own lives. And we suffer from the same problems. We failed to trust god. We failed to acknowledge our sin.

We fail to learn from our sin. And we know that just like the Israelites who have forsaken God, we can accept Jesus as our king. Jesus never failed God. Jesus always turned to him. In the garden of Ghassemane, facing his death, He didn't put his own choice above the god, but said, father, your will, not mine.

On the cross when he could have turned it any second, he asked those, asked god to forgive those. Who were guilty of his death. Jesus never failed to trust god. Jesus never sinned. And Jesus died for our sins.

This is the king that we can trust in, a king that we confess to, a king that will set us free. Revelation chapter 1 verse 5 to 6 reads. And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of of the dead and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom priest to his god and father to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Oh, man.

Let's pray. Lord, thank you that you are our king. That unlike the Israelites, we can look to you to forgive us when we are struggling, we can get to you for guidance When we don't know what to do, lord, we don't have to do it on our own, but we can look to you in confidence that you are the 1 true god. We pray that we would never put ourselves above you, always seeking your glory and always seeking your cross, amen.