Clough Judges Lesson 18

Chapters 19-21

[tape begins in middle of sentence]…Gideon in Judges 8:27, and then later to Micah and the Danites, Judges 17-18, but David who was not a priest put on the ephod and apparently suffered no ill effects, 1 Chronicles 15:27. What made the difference? The difference was the ephods; every time you see the word “ephod” does not mean it’s the same one. Gideon’s was homemade, also homemade and unauthorized was the ephod that we saw last week. The ephod that David wore has two problems. Number one, it wasn’t the ephod of the high priest and evidently never was intended to represent the ephod of the high priest. But number two, David himself was a unique individual in history, and until we get into 1 and 2 Samuel I do not feel qualified at the moment to point out the specific nature of David’s unique ministry and person. David stood for Messiah in a way in which no man has ever stood before or since in history. One has only to read, for example, Psalm 110 to see that David’s ministry and his person and his actions pictured the person of Christ in a way that no one else did. And therefore we’re involved with a special issue in 1 Chronicles 15. But in no case is the ephod in 1 Chronicles 15 the ephod of the high priest nor was it ever intended to be the ephod of the high priest. That is the difference. However, it does show that David did exercise some sort of a priestly function at that point in his life.

In Judges 19 we enter the last section of the book of Judges, and we are going to cover three chapters tonight because all of these three chapters are part and parcel of each other, one complete unit. And this represents the last comment by the historian. Who wrote the book of Judges? We don’t know. Most hypothesize that it was Samuel and some of Samuel’s seminary students who studied under Samuel. These men lived in the days of David and Saul; they lived to see the kingship come into existence historically, they lived to see its benefits but not its detriments. The men who wrote Judges have no concept of what the kingship would eventually be like. For example, when they say “every man did that which was right in his own eyes” and so on, because there was not yet a king, implies certain naïveté on their part because later on the kingship under Rehoboam and others would collapse and still even the king would do everything that was right in his own eyes. But at this point this is a key that leads to the book of Judges that it was written early and not late as liberal critics love to say. This book was written as kind of a postmortem analysis of why the nation could not sustain itself with a maximum degree of political freedom.

As such, as I’ve emphasized from the beginning of the book down to the end, even though you will find the pages of this book are not the most inspiring of Scripture, and certainly not the most devotional of Scripture, yet nevertheless the pages and chapters of this book show you the proper way to analyze history. The book of Judges, I repeat, is the first historical work ever written. The Pentateuch and Joshua is not a historical work in this sense, in that those two works depicted the rise and the coming into existence in history of God’s finished work, as it were, through Moses and Joshua. The Exodus and the conquest both are the finishing touches that God is putting forth in His political salvation of the nation Israel.

Now after, you might say, God has finished His complete work toward the nation He then allows the nation to function for three to four centuries with this maximum freedom that He gave it at its national birth. But after three or four centuries we have seen the nation decline, gradually power is centralized into a highly centralized government. People lose their freedoms and so forth; therefore the book of Judges gives you a Christian Biblical philosophy of history that is very, very important to understand things that are happening in our own generation. The role is simple from Judges and this: you always have centralization of power when the population is spiritually decadent. The two go together. If you have a population that is strong spiritually, there’s a maximum number of people that believe in Jesus Christ plus of those a maximum number know a maximum amount of Bible doctrine and apply it daily in their life, where you have a strong spiritual grassroots of the nation you have maximum political freedom. It will always work; it always has worked this way and always will work this way.

This is why before the kingdom of God becomes a physical reality in history God must begin with a catastrophic judgment to destroy the spiritually decadent. And that’s why we have the tribulation; the tribulation is a purge of the world on a global scale by which God removes the debris, the weak people and gets rid of all the people who have rejected, all the spiritual decadence. And when He gets rid of these then you have an upper class left; an upper class being defined in the Bible as those who are recipients of God’s grace, those people who have received Christ as Savior and are going on with Him; those are the upper class. And in any given national entity where you have a low class group of people you will always have a loss of freedom, and as long as you continue to have spiritual deterioration you will also have a continued loss of political freedom. This has been seen in recent economic policies on the part of our country; the idea that the government can tell the farmer what to do, tell the businessman what to do, and butt into everybody’s business in 1015 different ways. This has come about because individuals in the nation want it.

Now it’s true that communists and others are plotting to remove the political freedoms of this country. We’d be naïve if we didn’t accept the existence of plots. But the major plot of history is the satanic plot and he is the one, Satan, who deliberately wishes to destroy political freedom. He wishes to do this because if he can destroy freedom he can destroy things like private property, and if he can destroy private property what have you done? You have made it impossible for people to show charity. Under communist systems no one can express charity because no one has any property to give. You can’t give anything to the Lord which you don’t own and so therefore private property is always soundly Biblical. Don’t buy some liberal clergyman telling you that private property is a sign of selfishness. It may be used selfishly but unless you have private property you cannot have charity. The two go together. So private property is the sine qua non of true Biblical charity. Private property is the means by which the individual matures in his use of the property. You can’t be judged in stewardship of things if you do not own things. So therefore communism removes everything that you own, and since it does, then you have a decreased responsibility as an individual. So communism, welfarism and extreme forms of socialism are all attacking the first divine institution which is volition.

So we always have interference and this is satanically caused and it’s caused by the rejection of the Word of God. You have the first divine institution is volition; the second divine institution is marriage; the third divine institution is family; the fourth divine institution is government. All these divine institutions are authorized by God and men who tamper with these in any way are asking for suffering. People who want to disarm the military are tampering with the fourth divine institution. Usually what happens in history, you have the kingdom concept grow because sinful man does not like to live in a fallen world subject to God. He always wants security; the name of the game is security and security is always brought about in history, supposedly, by some sort of a plot and the plot is on the part of Satan plus all of his puppet organizations, like the communists and so forth, you always have an expansion of the fourth divine institution. You can always spot this kind of thing. You’ll have an expansion of government power but when you expand government power inside this box what must you do the other three institutions. You always have to destroy them. So when government expands usually the first thing to go is volition; that means there is a decreased amount of personal choice available to the individual; as government expands the individual’s freedom declines and this is because the average person wants it. Don’t kid yourself, the average American loves to vote for clods.

The book of Judges is important because the book of Judges shows a period very analogous to our own when the nation Israel collapsed, essentially because the grassroots people had lost the tremendous spirituality that the first generation had. And beginning in Judges 19 we have this narration:

Judges 19:1, “And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the side of mount Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Bethlehem-judah. [2] And his concubine played the whore against him, and went away from him unto her father’s house to Bethlehem-judah, and was there four whole months.” The interesting thing to start with is that this is a Levite. Notice again, as with chapters 17-18, both these sections that deal with the grassroots focus on a man who is a Levite. Why? Because the Levite was, you might say, a floating missionary to the nation. A Levite was the only man in Israel who had no title to the land; God had cut their title to the land, they were kind of just floating and they had to be sustained by the population. Now Israel had a fantastic national budget system. One-third of Israel’s budget went to welfare, that is, helping the poor and so on who suffered from various catastrophes, as is normal in a fallen world. We have to deal with physical evil.

You have a very, very wise form of welfare given in Deuteronomy, not like the present one. One third of their budget went to welfare; two-thirds of their budget went to the Levites. The Levites had two duties: one was to deal at the national shrine and this included the court system because justice and law in the court was always a function of God’s presence. So you have the shrine in the court, that was one job of the Levites. The second job of the Levites was to teach Bible so they were the actual Bible teachers of the day and they were to circulate in the population. Now you can imagine with a budget that was two-thirds of the national budget devoted to Bible teaching and court systems and so on what a tremendous nation, at least in theory, they had. It was tremendous. And by the way, do you notice something, no expenditures for the military. Do you know why? Because every Jewish man had his own arms and knew how to use those arms. They didn’t have an army, the people were the army. Every person was in the army and this is the wonderful system that Israel had.

Now the Levites who functioned on two-thirds of the national budget, had a fantastic salary as far as provision in theory, these people were the ones that were closest to the grassroots, they were the ones who could comment on this and the fact that in Judges 17-18 and chapters 19-21 all deal with Levites have suggested to scholars that these stories were circulated in Levitical circles before they were written down. In other words, these men who got together were probably the first men who could see where the nation was going and they related their experiences and we’ve seen in chapters 17-18 a very poor example of a Levite. Here we see a little better of an example. But nevertheless, it shows you a man who is able, you might say, to take the temperature of the nation because he’s not bound to one geographical area. This is why, there’s a special notice all through Judges 19 about this man’s fluid attachments, in other words, he’s not pinned down to anything.

For example, in Judges 19:1-2 you notice that he took to him a concubine out of Bethlehem dash Judah. Now Bethlehem-Judah shows that he had relationships to the area of Judah. Here’s a chart of Israel, down here was Judah; Benjamin is up here. Tonight the story is going to focus on Benjamin but remember this Levite originally comes from Judah and he is going to Jerusalem, up here. In verses 2-3 he has a family dispute with his concubine, by the way, again showing the moral looseness of the marriage relationship allowed by God under the Law. This concubine was playing around and went home to daddy. And in Judges 19:3 he decided to go back and speak kindly, it says, in the Hebrew it says “speak to her heart.” This shows that he initiated reconciliation.

Judges 19:3, “And her husband arose, and went after her, to speak friendly unto her, and to bring her again, having his servant with him, and a couple of asses: and she brought him into her father’s house; and when the father of the damsel saw him, he rejoiced to meet him.” And from verses 4 on through 9 we have the father-in-law, the father of the concubine, actually he’s really not a father-in-law, but it says so here, he is very happy that his “son-in-law” (in quotes) has come for his daughter, probably glad to get rid of her again, and so he welcomes this boy. [4] “And his father-in-law, the damsel’s father, retained him; and he abode with him three days: so they did eat and drink, and lodged there. [5] And it came to pass on the fourth day,” notice the leisurely pace of the Oriental here, “on the fourth day, when they arose early in the morning, that he rose up to depart: and the damsel’s father said unto his son-in-law, Comfort thine heart with a morsel of bread, and afterward go your way. [6] And they sat down, and did eat and drink both of them together; or the damsel’s father had said unto the man, Be content, I pray thee, and tarry all night, and let thine heart be merry.” So for all of these verses he kept saying to the man, stay here, stay here, stay here.

Now there’s nothing terribly unusual about this, the only thing unusual about verses 4-9 is the fact that the narrator bothers to point this out. This was just normal Oriental hospitality. Now the fact that this man goes through all these verses, because remember there’s an economy of verses in the Old Testament, and when the narrator stops to give you these little nitpicking details there’s a reason for it and the reason is going to come out later on, but the reason for verses 4-9, going through all this what looks like extraneous material, slowing the story down, is that the narrator wants to show a point and the point is that this girl’s father in Judah is very, very hospitable because he’s going to use this as a contrast later to the inhospitability of the Benjaminites. So this is the meaning all of this, this is just the hospitality of this man and it’s to demonstrate a point, to set you up, you might say, for the point of the story. [Judges 19:7, “And when the man rose up to depart, his father-in-law urged him: therefore he lodged there again. [8] And he arose early in the morning on the fifth day to depart; and the damsel’s father said, Comfort thine heart, I pray thee. And they tarried until afternoon, and they did eat both of them. [9] And when the man rose up to depart, he, and his concubine, and his servant, his father-in-law, the damsel’s father, said unto him, Behold, now the day draws toward evening, I pray you tarry all night: behold, the day grows to an end, lodge here, that thine heart may be merry; and to morrow get you early on your way, that thou mayest go home.”]

In Judges 19:10-11 he leaves, “But the man would not tarry that night, but he rose up and departed, and came over against Jebus, which is Jerusalem; and there were with him two asses saddled, his concubine also was with him.” Those two notices are there and they’re going to be used later too. [11] “And when they were by Jebus, the day was far spent; and the servant said unto his master, Come, I pray thee, and let us turn in into this city of the Jebusites, and lodge in it.” Now at this particular time in history, this is an earlier time than Samson; probably this story occurred about 1350, this occurred within two generations after the death of Joshua, so chronologically this story is early, even though logically it’s late in the development of the book.

The stronghold is Jerusalem, now Jerusalem remained in Canaanite hands until David cleaned it out. And he didn’t work on it until 1000 BC, so right now it’s still in Canaanite hands and it hasn’t been cleared. The people lived and worked together, but the Jews never were to make a treaty with these people, and they were to exterminate them at the first opportunity. But when he says in verse 11, he suggests they stop in at the Jebusite city you have another building up… this narrator is very clever here, you see far in verses 4-9 he’s pointed out the hospitality of the girl’s father in Judah. Now in verses 9-10 he’s even saying look, let’s go to a Canaanite city, at least in a Canaanite city they’ll be hospitable to us. Now just imagine this; these people are sentenced to divine execution; these people are under the sentence of holy war; these people are going to one day be clobbered by David. And yet even these people are going to be hospitable, or at least appear to be hospitable, such that his servant can say what he does in verse 11.

But, Judges 19:12, the Levite is loyal, “And his master said unto him, We will not turn aside hither into the city of a stranger,” that refers to the Gentile status of Jebus, that is the fact that he is not going to compromise, he has been instructed out of the Word of God not to enter into alliance with these people because if he’s going to clobber them tomorrow there’s no sense taking food from them today. So he said we will not go in there, “that is not of the children of Israel; we will pass over to Gibeah. [13] And he said unto his servant, Come, and let us draw near to one of these places to lodge all night, in Gibeah, or in Ramah.” So he is going to go back to Jewish cities; these belong to the tribe of Benjamin. Then in verses 14-16 we have the third thing brought in. We’ve seen two things already, the hospitality of the girl’s father in Judah, we’ve seen the potential hospitality of the Canaanites, and now he’s going to show you the inhospitality or the lack thereof of the Benjaminites.

Judges 19:14, “And they passed on and went their way; and the sun went down upon them when they were by Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin.” And you’ll notice here the narrator gives you these little hints in the text; he is kind of feeding you these notices, saying look, look, look at this. And this little notice at the end of verse 14 is another one of these things you have to train your eye to see when you read the Old Testament. “…which belongs to Benjamin. [15] And they turned aside thither, to go in and to lodge in Gibeah: and when he went in, he sat him down in a street of the city: for there was no man that took them into his house to lodging.” Do you see what he’s trying to point out? In other words there’s a certain mental attitude these people have. Now we’re going to see a pretty gross thing happen in a few verses but the point the narrator is trying to get you to see is that this thing that we would say oh, shock, etc. is a product of a prior mental attitude that is showing itself all over the board. Now this is a lesson you can learn spiritually. Every once in a while some believer will wind up in trouble, and somebody says oh, gee, I thought he was a believer. Can a believer do that? Sure, they do it all the time. I’ve seen plenty of it. They’ll come out with some shocked look all over their face because someone did that??? And they’ll get on the telephone and say did you know so and so did that, we ought to pray for so and so. But the interesting thing, we study these examples in personal counseling; it is always a product of years of neglect of the Word of God. These sudden things don’t come on overnight. Parents who fool around with their kids and then the kid get in trouble when he’s 18 or 19 and they have this shocked look on their face, how could Johnny ever do that? It’s because Johnny over the past 5 or 10 years has been slowly insidiously developing a certain attitude, areas of rebellion against the will of God in his life and so forth, and it gradually takes its toll. So when you have some flagrant violation of morality, just remember something, that usually, 9 times out of 10, has been coming on for months and years at a time. These things do not suddenly come on. These sudden things are not usually sudden at all.

Same thing here, this attitude of inhospitality is a violation of the suzerainty vassal treaty. God is a suzerain; it means that He has established relationships with all the tribes. Here we have the tribe of Judah, we’re going to have Ephraim in the picture in a moment and then we’ll have the tribe of Benjamin. All three of these tribes are equal vassals. All three of these tribes have been instructed by the suzerain to love their neighbor as themselves. This is the norm under the Old Testament Law. And it wasn’t because, say Benjamin… let’s get a fourth tribe, the Levites, they’re also in this suzerainty vassal treaty. Now here comes a Levite over t Benjamin; Benjamin is to reciprocate hospitality to the Levite because of what the suzerain said, not because the Levites wear a label, I have civil rights, you owe this to me. Oh no, the Benjamites on a human level didn’t owe the Levite anything, not a thing. What you read in verse 15 is what they should have done, if God wasn’t there. But the matter of the fact is that God is there and God has spoken and God says you will treat these people like I tell you treat these people and you will obey Me.

So this is why this becomes a sin, and verse 15 is the first evidence we have that a terrible state exists in the city of Gibeah. This has affected the whole town, and so right away, without even going into the immorality we know something that is tremendously out of joint spiritually. And if you will sharpen your eyes spiritually you can see this in your own life, and you can see it in groups of Christians. As you mature in the Word of God you should be able to spot potential troublemakers. People who are unstable always reveal their instability in numerous ways. And you can read them and you should never be shocked. If you go on in the Christian life and you begin to read your own soul and other people, you should not be shocked when something sudden happens. We’re not to judge people in the sense that we’re not to attribute sins to them, etc. but the point is that we can at least evaluate their character. And in picking your Christian friends you want to avoid these kinds of people; unstable Christians should never be your friends.

In Judges 19 we have this situation begin to develop in Gibeah. We can analyze it and safely say that this has gone on for some time and the commentator is simply saying look, look, look, look at these people; look at what they’re doing; look at their revulsion against the Word of God and if you have a perspective that is really Biblical, you will look at verse 15 and say I don’t have to read any further, there’s going to be trouble, right here, I don’t even have to read the rest of it. The lesson is very clear to me right here because these people are so out of it. Let’s go on.

Judges 19:16, “And, behold, there came an old man from his work out of the field at even, which was also of Mount Ephraim; and he sojourned in Gibeah; but the men of the place were Benjamites.” Do you get the impression the narrator again is pointing his finger, see, see, see, look, here we have a man from the tribe of Ephraim, we’ve got a Levite, his concubine comes from Judah, all of these people are setting to a place in Benjamin for a drama and it’s there for a contrast, he’s bringing in, as it were, all these men from other tribes to show you that what you are observing in Benjamin is abnormal. What you are observing here in Benjamin, the city of Gibeah, is a high degree of carnality not shown among the other tribes. So he brings in all these men for contrast. And then so you won’t lose the point, he says at the end of verse 16, “but the men of the place were Benjamites,” just so that his notice of the first part doesn’t escape you and you don’t say oh, they were Ephraimites; and he says no, the people that were there were Benjamites.

Judges 19:17, “And when he had lifted up his eyes, he saw a wayfaring man in the street of the city: and the old man said, Where are you going? And where are you coming from? [18] And he said unto him, We are passing from Bethlehem-judah toward the side of mount Ephraim; from thence am I: and I went to Bethlehem-judah, but I am now going to the house of the LORD;” he was going to Jerusalem, “and there is no man that receives me to house.” And so the man, in verses 19 and following, takes him aside and gives him a place to stay. [19 “Yet there is both straw and provender for our asses; and there is bread and wine also for me, and for thy handmaid, and for the young man which is with thy servants: there is no want of any thing.”]

Judges 19:20, “And the old man said, Peace be with thee; howsoever let all thy wants lie upon me; only lodge not in the street.” In other words, he has compassion on the man and this other man, being from another tribe, Levite, here he is an Israelite, living in a town of the Benjaminites and yet he is going to provide hospitality. Why? Because he has known the law of the suzerain. The suzerain or the Great King says you will treat My vassals as My vassals; you will express your love for Me by how you treat My people. And so this is an act of faith on the part of Ephraim. By the way, this is in that same category as that mysterious phrase in the gospels that some often wonder about, when Jesus says at the Second Coming, He’s saying those who give a cup of cold water in My name, them will I receive, and you wonder, is this salvation by works. No, it’s just a situation that during the tribulation a very similar thing will happen and people will express their faith by their works toward believers and that’s what Jesus means, He who gives a cup of cold water in My name, meaning that you will take your life in your own hands even to provide the physical necessities for believers during the tribulation. So this man does this under less than tribulation conditions, though there are similarities.

In Judges 19:20-21 are some of the things that are emphasized; notice again, none of the things are things that normally rate even a mention in the Word of God, these were standard things that would be done in any Oriental home. But the reason they are mentioned in verses 20-21 is the narrator again wants to draw the black and white contrast between the horrible acts of the people of Gibeah, the Benjamites, and the hospitality of other. “So he brought him into his house, and gave provender unto the asses: and they washed their feet, and did eat and drink.

In Judges 19:22-25 we have the incident, “Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spoke to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him. [23] And the man, the master of the house, went out unto them, and said unto them, Nay, my brethren, nay, I pray you, do not so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into mine house, do not this folly. [24] Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seems good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing. [25] But the men would not hearken to him: so the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go.”

Now there’s several parallels here to a place called Sodom and Gomorrah, and this is a very interesting tale and evidently was saved in the circles of the Levite priests as a memorial to the fact that Sodom and Gomorrah was the place, actually it was five cities involved, Sodom and Gomorrah just being two of the five, these cities were taken upon in the ancient world as the epitome of evil. The Sodomites were people who had rejected the gospel and they most clearly showed the result of negative volition toward God-consciousness. They had rejected first God-consciousness as expressed in the creation. They had rejected also primitive monotheism as inherited from the tower of Babel, what there was left of it. They were also near enough geographically to Salem or Jerusalem so they must have benefited from the Word of God that was going forth under the ministry of a Gentile king, Melchizedek. So the people in Sodom and Gomorrah had heard; there was no such thing as people who didn’t hear. But these people went on negative volition and after, repeat, after they went on negative volition they developed all sorts of aberrant patterns as described in Romans 1, mainly of which is homosexuality.

Homosexuality in the Word of God is a sin. It may be classified as a disease by certain people; it may be that people are born with a disposition toward this thing but the Word of God never excuses this thing as a sickness. This thing is a sin, and yet we have certain Christian periodicals coming out, letters from a Christian homosexual and all the rest of the stuff that goes on; in other words, again trying to break down the categories of the Word of God. Now one thing to remember about homosexuality; homosexuality is no worse a sin that anything else, so it’s not kind of a sinners skyline this is a particularly bad sin. The point still remains that we have to fight for in our day that it is a sin. That’s all we’re saying, we’re not saying it should be isolated and held up as the worst sin of all sins. It’s just like any of the other sins, but nevertheless it is a sin.

And usually you have homosexuality develop after negative volition because homosexuality is a satanic distortion of the second divine institution. When men destroy themselves spiritually they destroy their ability to respond, and they destroy their ability to adhere to covenants and the institution of marriage first weakens by promiscuity, adultery and so on, and then when you have promiscuity plus adultery, and people play around with that for a while, they get kind of bored and like to try new things. And so they go into homosexuality. When I was growing up I lived near a place that was one of the most famous homosexual centers in the United States, the greatest group of oddballs you’d ever want to see. But the point is that this always develops where you have negative volition. That’s the key; it doesn’t develop because somebody got dropped on their head when they were a baby or they were maladjusted. It may develop because their parents didn’t take a good swat to them on the rear end once in a while to establish some authority in the home, that may be but this cannot be pawned off as somebody’s psychological illness; this is a direct result of negative volition toward the Word of God.

And so Sodom and Gomorrah was known in the ancient world for this, and therefore the influence of Sodom and Gomorrah spread to Egypt and in Egypt homosexuality was always looked upon askance; homosexuality in many of the ancient nations was always looked down upon with the exception of one group of people called the Persians, and later on influencing the Greeks. And these people worshipped the thing, they loved homosexuality and incest, they did it for salvation by works system, incorporated it in some of their religious system and so forth.

But the point I’m trying to make is that Sodom and Gomorrah was a lesson that was burned into the ancient minds, and so the irony here of Judges 19:22-25 is that here’s a colony, geographically in the middle of the kingdom of God, and they are exactly replicating the whole behavior pattern of Sodom and Gomorrah. That’s the whole point. [Tape turns]

…personally received Christ; that’s what it’s showing; just because these people were born in the nation didn’t make them saved individuals. These people individually had to accept Christ and individually had to take in the Word of God or they would resort to the same unredeemed behavior pattern of Sodom and Gomorrah. And so in verse 22 they have a title to them, “the sons of Belial,” now this is a word that is often used in a technical sense in the Old Testament and I want to show you this but before I do I want to show you how the after effects of this incident lasted in Israel’s history. So hold the place and turn to Hosea 9:9, this story that you are reading became a proverb and a by-word in the nation in later years.

By the way, I show this illustration with relish because this is the one that topples the literary critic’s view of Judges. The literary critics always say Judges is written very late, but they all agree that Hosea was one of the first prophets, and yet they can’t explain these two verses in Hosea because Hosea looks back on this event as something far, far back before his day. And yet if the liberals are correct Judges wasn’t even written when Hosea wrote this. “They have deeply corrupted themselves,” Hosea is talking to his nation centuries later, “They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah; therefore, he will remember their iniquity, he will judge their sins.” So it becomes a proverb and a byword for degeneration.

Turn to Hosea 10:9, “O Israel, thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah; there they stood; the battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not overtake them,” again the proverbs and the bywords of Hosea. So that shows you that this became an embarrassment to the nation and was looked upon and used by the prophets for a sign of degeneracy.

Now turn back to Deuteronomy 13:13 and I’ll show you the meaning of the technical expression, “the sons of Belial.” This is not the only meaning of this phrase but it is one of the meanings of this phrase and I want you to look particularly at the context of Deuteronomy 13:12. We covered part of this last week when I showed you that there were to be no unauthorized worship centers but beginning in verse 12, I want to look carefully at this chapter because it’s Deuteronomy 13 that the armies of Israel are going to use to formulate their policy toward Benjamin. “If thou shalt hear a report in one of thy cities, which the LORD thy God has given thee to dwell there, saying, [13] Certain men, the children,” or “sons of Belial,” have gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which you have not known.” Stop there for a moment.

This is a specific illustration used to make a general principle. Now obviously Moses in Deuteronomy 13 isn’t going to list every sin that’s going on that is possible for a city to do. He’s only going to list the first one, and what first sin would be the key sin of all sins. It would be the sin of departing from the way of Jehovah, and so that is the sin that is mentioned in verse 13, “who have said let us go and serve other gods.” Now the point is that the city that we are looking at, Gibeah, they have already done that. They have obviously by their behavior pattern clearly showed their negative volition; they have clearly said “let us go and serve other gods.” And since they have said “let us go and serve other gods” it means that they have committed this particular sin of verse 13. But I want you to notice that just because verse 13 does not list homosexuality that therefore the people were wrong in using this chapter. This chapter gives you the general framework by citing a specific key sin.

Deuteronomy 13:14, “Then thou shall inquire, and make search, and ask diligently;” in other words, if rumor comes to you that something is going on you are not to just go rushing in there at forty miles an hour, you’re supposed to just calm down and send a commission to investigate. “And behold, if it be the truth, and the thing certain, that such an abomination,” now that’s the key phrase, “an abomination.” As I explained in going through the Deuteronomy series wherever you see that word “abomination” in the Hebrew it refers to a particular sin that has national consequences. It is, you might say, a particular virulent form of a social sin. “…an abomination is wrought among you, [15] Then you surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword,” now this is one of their own cities, this is not a Canaanite city in verse 15, this is a Jewish city. Jews are going to slaughter Jews; the Israelites have been given the ministry of killing and wiping out any city that would be guilty of this. Do you know why? Because this sin, under the analogy of the suzerainty vassal treaty, is treason. It would be like back in World War II of saying some town around says we’re for Hitler, and we’re going to send a bunch of food and blood and everything else to the Germans. And the whole town would be guilty of treason. We’ve lost the meaning of the word so I can’t use anything after 1945 as a good illustration.

But nevertheless, this would be analogous to this kind of a situation. And you will “smite that city,” and notice what you will do, “you will destroy it utterly,” and notice what they’re going to destroy because otherwise this action that you’re going to read about in the next two chapters of Judges is going to look awful cruel unless you realize here it is here, “destroying it utterly,” and the Hebrew word for destroy is charem, it’s the word you should see from harem, and it originally meant that you protect your girlfriends by drawing a circle around them. In other words, you have a harem, it’s where you collected your trophies and you saved them, and you protected them. So the charem happened to mean protection. All right, it was later taken over and used for devoting a city to God, and so here you have a city that’s on negative volition; when it was “charem-ed” it was a declaration that that city was totally given to God.

Now I want you to see this, otherwise you’ll say this is just vengeance or something; it is not at all. What is done is that everything inside the circle becomes Jehovah’s. Now what do you do with that which is Jehovah’s? You’re going to offer it to Him, aren’t you? And so the way you offer is you slaughter and you burn. That’s the way anything is offered to God. So therefore they would slaughter and burn, and that was how they offered the city to God and that’s why they called it charem. They drew a circle around it, dedicated it to God and then killed everything in it and offered it up. Now that is not the concept of modern war; it’s the concept of holy war authorized at certain times and places in history. Nothing cruel about it. The cruelty is the people who went on negative volition in the first place; they earned it. And so therefore as a surgeon’s scalpel… it’s a beautiful illustration, just like a cancer that grows in the nation, and God, this is His scalpel and He’s going to cut that thing out before it spreads and metastasizes to the rest of the nation. So he’s going to cut the thing out and this is described in Deuteronomy 13, and that’s charem, translated in the King James as “destroyed” in verse 15. “…destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword.”

Deuteronomy 13:16, “And you will gather all the spoil of it in the middle of the street thereof, and shall burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof every whit,” now why are they burning the spoil? This also should tip you off that this is not just vengeance. If this were vengeance… put yourself in the position. If this were a case of vengeance what would you do? If you went into a city can you imagine an army that just wanted to execute vengeance, what would they do. They’d go in there and kill all the men, take all the girls, and take as much of the gold and the possessions as possible. That would be vengeance. But the armies were precluded from taking anything from these cities that had this official circle around them. And this prevented all looting, this prevented all plunder. Everything had to be devoted to God, so this is not cruelty. “And they shall burn with fire the city, and everything in it, for the LORD thy God, and it shall be an heap forever; it shall not be built again.” That is the official direction of the Law.

Turn back to Judges and we’re going to see what happened. This is going to explain a lot of things that’s going to happen in this narrative. This woman is raped all night and it’s not a very pretty picture. But I want you to notice something, particularly any girls who have the tendency to downgrade authority. You are always the first people to suffer and this illustration should be burned indelibly on your mind. The next time you’re with some of your girlfriends and you love to malign and link up with all the left-wing causes and you love to see the police hamstrung because of “police brutality,” (quote, end quote) and all the rest of it, you just keep this illustration in mind because this is your destiny. Any time you have a weakness among a government where it cannot protect women you always have this kind of thing going on. So women actually should be the last people ever to criticize the service, criticize the police in an illegitimate way, or criticize the idea of government authority, because you women have the most to lose, you are the ones that will always suffer the most and this is an illustration. You should take this home and read it through 25 times if you have tendencies in this direction because this could by you. Women, thousands and thousands of them down through history have gone through this horrible thing because the power of law and order has broken down, and oftentimes the women were the ones that brought it on themselves.

Judges 19:25, “But the men would not hearken to him. So the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto them,” now why did he do this? This goes back to another concept of women’s rights and that in the ancient world the man had priority in life over the woman. And you saw this with Abraham and Sarah, you saw it numerous other times, and we can just be thankful we live in a new dispensation of the Church where we have male and female equal in Christ. Verse 26, “Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her lord was, till it was light.” Then in verse 27-28 he comes out, “And her lord rose up in the morning, and opened the doors of the house, and went out to go his way, and, behold, the woman his concubine was fallen down at the door of the house, and her hands were upon the threshold.” It looks cruel in verse 28, it’s just the way it’s translated it’s not meant to be cruel, “And he said unto her, Up, and let us be going.” And the point there is that obviously he thought that she was still conscious. “But none answered. Then the man took her up upon an ass, and the man rose up, and gat him unto his place.”

And then in Judges 19:29 he does a thing that you often have wondered about, some of you ask questions about it. He takes his concubine and takes a nice big butcher knife and chops her up in twelve little pieces. Now what is the meaning of this act that is performed on his concubine? We have to turn to 1 Samuel 11:7 for this act. Here is the meaning of that act. Remember the man who does this has Bible doctrine; the man who does this is operating according to the Law of Moses. And this is not a revengeful act, it’s not some kind of a thing to get everybody emotionalized about it, it has a meaning. First of all, some of you get the impression that the twelve pieces, he shipped a piece to each tribe. Judah might have gotten a foot, Ephraim might have got her head and something like this, they opened up the package and ooh, look what we have in the mail; this kind of thing. Well, this wasn’t what happened. He took the twelve pieces and went around, all twelve pieces, to every tribe, why did he do this.

In 1 Samuel 11:7 we have the answer, Saul, when he wants to call the assembly, he wants to call the nation to holy war, he uses the same thing and here he uses oxen. “And he took a yoke of oxen, and hewed them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the borders of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying, Whosoever comes not forth after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done unto his oxen. And the fear of the LORD fell on the people, and they came out with one consent.”

It was a method of activating the nation under a national emergency of the covenant. Whenever the covenant was threatened to be broken and you wanted to call a national crisis or a national assembly this was the method. And you would do two things. You would take something, we’ll just call it X and you’d cut it into twelve pieces; the twelve pieces symbolizing the twelve tribes. This something would be related to what would be destroyed.

Now first let’s deal with the twelve pieces, why is it divided in twelve pieces? Because if the nation did not deal with the national crisis at hand they would become twelve independent tribes. In other words, the national unity would be destroyed; the nation would pass out of historical existence. And so the significance of breaking it into twelve is the fact that he is saying if this covenant is not enforced, if you do not come out and wage holy war, then this is what’s going to happen to our nation. That’s the first thing to remember about it, the twelve, meaning that we’re going to lose the glue, the nation is going to fall apart into pieces if this covenant is not enforced.

The second thing about it is that whatever it was that was chopped up would be that which was most duly threatened. This is why in 1 Samuel 11:7 Saul, it says “whosoever cometh not forth, after Saul and after Samuel, so shell it be done unto his oxen,” it’s a threat, if you do not obey this call for activation on a national mobilization, then we’re going to do this to you. Now what’s the significance of the concubine? The significance of the concubine is that if you don’t come out and cut this thing off that’s going on in Gibeah; this business of your wives and loved ones is going to happen to you too. So you’d better just come here and get rid of Gibeah and deal with the problem while we’ve got it confined to one town before this thing spreads through the nation and this is what’s going to happen to your wives, and this is what’s going to happen to your concubine. So this is a threat, it ties the threat to the immediate results of the situation.

Judges 19:29, “And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, together with her bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her into all the coasts of Israel. [30] And it was so, that all that saw it said, There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt unto this day: consider of it, take advice, and speak your minds.”]

Let’s turn back and see the national assembly that was called; this is mobilization for war. In chapter 20, we won’t go through all the details, but the idea is that in verse 1 they come together as one man. By the way, it shows you this was written earlier in the period of the Judges; by the time of Samson’s ministry they’d never have gotten this far.

Judges 20:1, “Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was gathered together as one man, from Dan even to Beersheba, with the land of Gilead, unto the LORD in Mizpah.” In other words, it’s a total national mobilization. [2, “And the chief of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen that drew sword. [3] (Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel were gone up to Mizpah.) Then said the children of Israel, Tell us, how was this wickedness? [4] And the Levite, the husband of the woman that was slain, answered and said, I came into Gibeah that belongs to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to lodge. [5] And the men of Gibeah rose against me, and beset the house round about upon me by night, and thought to have slain me: and my concubine have they forced, that she is dead. [6] And I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel: for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel.”]

Judges 20:7, he describes what’s happening, he says, “Behold, ye are all children of Israel; give here your advice and counsel.” In other words, he calls a national council. Where did he get this knowledge from? Deuteronomy 13. What did Deuteronomy 13 say? Call a council and investigate. Now that’s what they’re going to do and beginning in verse 8 they do investigate as according to the instructions of Deuteronomy 13.

Judges 20:8, “And all the people arose as one man, saying, We will not any of us go to his tent, neither will we any of us turn into his house. [9] But now this shall be the thing which we will do to Gibeah; we will go up by lot against it.” Verse 10, “And we will take ten men of an hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and an hundred of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to fetch victual for the people, that they may do, when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, according to all the folly that they have wrought in Israel. [11] So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.”

Then in Judges 20:12 they conduct their investigation, “And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin,” you see, the problem was that Benjamin occupied a narrow area down in here, Gibeah was one of the cities in that tribe but what they did is they went all through the tribe and they said look, this is your responsibility, this is Benjamin’s volition and it’s your job to clean this thing up. So in verses 12-13 they do an investigation and they warn the tribe; they give them a chance, they don’t just clobber them, they always give them a chance. Grace before judgment. “…saying, What wickedness is this that is done among you? [13] Now therefore deliver us the men, the children of Belial, which are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel.” So they give them the option, but they refuse, “But the children of Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of their brethren the children of Israel. [14] But the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities unto Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel.”

In Judges 20:15 we have a notice that that among the army of Benjamin they have 26,000 plus, “And the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword, beside the inhabitants of Gibeah, which were numbered seven hundred chosen men.” They had 26,000 men and you wonder, how have the got the courage, or the stupidity, to think that they, 26,000 men can win against 400,000. It looks like the odds are a little against them. The reason is the topography. Benjamin is in hill country and they are experts, of all the tribes of Israel they have a secret weapon that is lethal in fighting in hill country in that day and that is mentioned in verse 16.

Judges 20:16, “Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men left-handed.” Remember the characteristic of the tribe of Benjamin, is left-handed. Which, by the way, shows you that these tribes were genetically pretty homogenous. And everyone “could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss.” So they were experts. And you can imagine how they felt up here, first of all they had water, they had areas for food supply, and they were in control of the hills, and the armies that would come after them had to come through narrow passes and had to come up and climb the side of the hills. So they figured let them, I don’t care if they have four hundred or five hundred thousand, we can handle them. We’ll just get our slingers up here and let them have it the first time they come. And these men were deadly marksmen and you’re going to see the tragic effects of this. [17, “And the men of Israel, beside Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men that drew sword: all these were men of war.]

Judges 20:18, “And the children of Israel arose, and went up to the house of God, and asked counsel of God, and said, Which of us shall go up first to the battle against the children of Benjamin? And the LORD said, Judah shall go up first.” Now in verse 18 you’re going to have prelude to another disaster; not only is Benjamin going to get wiped out but in the process many, many young men are going to lose their lives in battle and the reason they’re going to lose their lives in battle is because right here in verse 18 you have a group of people who are responsible, who are out of it spiritually, and being out of it is shown by the way they call upon God. Instead of asking for the God’s name, Yahweh, or if you have the King James Version it would be capital LORD, that is God’s name as related to the nation Israel through the covenant. And so when they come and they ask counsel of Elohim, they are asking for the Creator, this is just the general idea of God. In other words, it fails to take into account the special covenant relationship and it fails to take into account that it is God’s sentence by Deuteronomy 13 upon this. Now so far they’ve followed Deuteronomy 13 but evidently here they miss the boat and they begin to execute vengeance.

Now here’s the difference in war between vengeance and doing the Lord’s will. Now these tribes here are just spoiling for a fight. These people just want vengeance, they just want to kill this tribe, clobber them and they have no recourse to the spiritual direction of God. So they just say okay who’s going to go first, God tell us. That’s their attitude.

And so in Judges 20:19-20, “And the children of Israel rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah,” and they get clobbered. Benjamin clobbers them the first time. [20] “And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel put themselves in array to fight against them at Gibeah. [21] And the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites that day twenty and two thousand men.”

Judges 20:22, “And the people the men of Israel encouraged themselves, and set their battle again in array in the place where they put themselves in array the first day.” And verse 22 is another of those clever little notices, in other words, they didn’t learn a thing. So in verse 23, “(And the children of Israel went up and wept before the LORD until even,” at least they advance a little bit, they begin to call upon God by His proper name, “and asked counsel of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up again to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother? And the LORD said, Go up against him,)” and get clobbered. Now here’s a beautiful illustration in verse 23 of something that often happens in Christian lives and that is that you ask a stupid prayer request and you get a stupid answer. God has a sense of humor sometimes. And this is one of those times where these people make a very stupid and incomplete prayer request. What they should have said is why did we get clobbered the first time. That was the first thing they should have asked. Like certain Christian organizations who always bellyache why nobody gives money to them. What they ought to ask is why don’t people give money? What’s wrong with us, are we spiritually right, are we in the center of the Lord’s will? What’s going on, there’s something wrong? Instead of taking a spiritual check, it’s just Lord, who’s the best PR man for our outfit so we can raise more money.

And it’s the same thing here; they did not take spiritual stock of why they got defeated the first time. So they say well, let’s try it again. And the Lord says okay, you want to try it, go ahead. So they go and they get clobbered again. [Judges 20:24, “And the children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day. [25] And Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the sword.”]

And then Judges 20:26, they finally wake up that something might be wrong here, “Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the LORD, and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.” They offered sacrifices, the sign of grace. For the first time in this whole episode we find believers who obviously are beginning to think in terms of grace, are beginning to think in terms of this battle isn’t theirs, it’s the Lord’s, and any victory they have isn’t theirs either, it’s given to them by the Lord. So these offerings are a sign of grace.

Judges 20:27 “And the children of Israel enquired of the LORD, (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,” then it mentions the high priest, so they evidently did this in the right way, [28] “And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days,) saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease?” And then the Lord gives them a total answer to a very intelligent prayer, “And the LORD said, Go up; for to morrow I will deliver them into thine hand. [29] “And Israel set liers [men in ambush] in wait round about Gibeah.” Now rather than go through all the rest of the verses of Judges 20 I’ve summarized it on a chart here so you can see what’s going to happen.

[Judges 20:30, “And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and put themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times. [31] And the children of Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to smite of the people, and kill, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goes up to the house of God, and the other to Gibeah in the field, about thirty men of Israel. [32] And the children of Benjamin said, They are smitten down before us, as at the first. But the children of Israel said, Let us flee, and draw them from the city unto the highways. [33] And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and put themselves in array at Baal-tamar: and the liers in wait of Israel came forth out of their places, even out of the meadows of Gibeah. [34 And there came against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was sore: but they knew not that evil was near them. [35] And the LORD smote Benjamin before Israel: and the children of Israel destroyed of the Benjamites that day twenty and five thousand and an hundred men: all these drew the sword.

[36] So the children of Benjamin saw that they were smitten: for the men of Israel gave place to the Benjamites, because they trusted unto the liers in wait which they had set beside Gibeah. [37] And the liers in wait hasted, and rushed upon Gibeah; and the liers in wait drew themselves along, and smote all the city with the edge of the sword. [38] Now there was an appointed sign between the men of Israel and the liers in wait, that they should make a great flame with smoke rise up out of the city. [39] And when the men of Israel retired in the battle, Benjamin began to smite and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons: for they said, Surely they are smitten down before us, as in the first battle. [40] But when the flame began to arise up out of the city with a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them, and, behold, the flame of the city ascended up to heaven. [41] And when the men of Israel turned again, the men of Benjamin were amazed: for they saw that evil was come upon them. [42] Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel unto the way of the wilderness; but the battle overtook them; and them which came out of the cities they destroyed in the midst of them. [43] Thus they enclosed the Benjamites round about, and chased them, and trod them down with ease over against Gibeah toward the sunrising. [44] And there fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men; all these were men of valor. [45] And they turned and fled toward the wilderness unto the rock of Rimmon: and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men; and pursued hard after them unto Gidom, and slew two thousand men of them. [46] So that all which fell that day of Benjamin were twenty and five thousand men that drew the sword; all these were men of valor. [47] But six hundred men turned and fled to the wilderness unto the rock Rimmon, and abode in the rock Rimmon four months. [48] And the men of Israel turned again upon the children of Benjamin, and smote them with the edge of the sword, as well the men of every city, as the beast, and all that came to hand: also they set on fire all the cities that they came to.”]

I summarized this particular battle only because historically Moshe Dyan who is the minister of defense of Israel says that the two books that he has learned most about warfare are the book of Judges and the book of Joshua. Moshe Dyan as a young man was trained by a British man in the Jordanian army. The British train the Jordanian army; it was a very good army when the British trained it. And this British officer also trained Moshe Dyan, and Moshe Dyan has been quoted as saying that in his life he can remember this officer sitting down with him with a Bible and going through the book of Joshua and Judges, and Dyan says one thing I learned from that, no matter how many men are against us, no matter what the odds are, I learned one thing from the book of Joshua and Judges, and that is no matter what the military situation is, if I can see all the facts somewhere there’s a way to win, regardless of the numbers. We had that demonstrated in June of 1967. And here is one of the battles that Dyan studied. It’s in four stages, and here’s the topography. The place begins at Gibeah. At Gibeah we have indicated the holding force of the Benjamites. Up here is Mizpah; here is a town called Geba, which by the way is often confused with Gibeah, and here’s the Rock Rimmon. This force here is the Benjamites, and they are going to split their force in half and they’re going to send one force against the Gebites, by the way, this is the same strategy they used against Ai earlier in Joshua’s campaign. In stage two of the battle they conduct a thing against them, this force moves out to the northwest of Gibeah, and pursues them. Meanwhile, the ambush people, this force that’s sitting in Geba, comes in behind them, while they are chasing the first force northwest. This force goes down to Gibeah and begins to burn; when they burn Gibeah, that’s the signal to the first group that’s faking; this first group is faking a fast retreat to the northwest and while they are retreating and retreating and retreating they have guards and their rear guard is constantly looking for smoke, and the signal is that when the ambush people have done their job they’re going to come in here while the main force of the Benjamites is northwest and clobber the city and burn it. And the signal is to the rear guard, when you see that smoke going you do a 180 and come back on them. So at this point they do this; this force turns around and clobbers them. While they are running back this force come northward and hits them here with the result that the Benjamites, because the topography is high over here, have to flee to the east, and eventually the scattered remnants of their force flee up here to the Rock of Rimmon. It’s a very clever little tactic and it was used by Joshua earlier, and as I say, some of these battle tactics in the Bible are still very, very useful.

In Judges 21 we have the final solution to the problem; the Benjamites have been largely destroyed and punished for their sin, but in Judges 21:2-3 we have a weeping over another problem. This shows you again a mistake that was made during the heat of the battle, probably that first day. The explanation is in Judges 21:1; verse 1 is a parenthesis introduced by the word “now.” “Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpah, saying, There shall not any of us give his daughter unto Benjamin to wife.” They made a very rash vow and it was a foolish thing to make but I want you to notice once a believer makes a vow to God, God’s Word holds him to the vow. And so he has to perform it.

Judges 21:2, “And the people came to the house of God,” and here’s the trouble; if you’ve got 600 surviving men, all the women have been destroyed. That’s what that taskforce went into the city for, they destroyed, there’s not one girl left from the tribe of Benjamin, not one, they’re all dead, slaughtered by this ambush force. They went into the city and just completely wiped it out so now you’ve got 600 males and you don’t have to be a student of modern sex education to realize you’ve got a problem, 600 boys and 0 girls. So now we’ve got a problem, where are they going to get the girls from to survive. Now the tribe of Benjamin is going to survive because of grace. We haven’t got time to go into the details but Genesis 49:27-28 gives you the blessing of Jacob on the tribe of Benjamin and that guarantees the eternal security of that tribe. So even though the tribe of Benjamin is now down to 600 and you might say is in a very inglorious state, out from this tribe is going to come the first king of Israel, Saul. Saul is going to come from this tribe. So since God knows this He is going to preserve alive this tribe. How is He going to do it; on one hand we’ve got an oath; the oath says no Jewish girls are going to marry those guys. On the other hand we have the prohibition of the Law that says they can’t go out and marry Gentile girls. So now it looks like they’re stuck. What are they going to do? Beginning in verse 2-3 the tribes begin to worry about this 600.

Judges 21:2, “And the people came to the house of God, and abode there till even before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept sore; [3] And said, O LORD God of Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be to day one tribe lacking in Israel? [4] And it came to pass on the morrow, that the people rose early, and built there an altar, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. [5] And the children of Israel said, Who is there among all the tribes of Israel that came not up with the congregation unto the LORD? For they had made a great oath concerning him that came not up to the LORD to Mizpah, saying, He shall surely be put to death. [6] And the children of Israel repented them for Benjamin their brother, and said, There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day. [7] How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing we have sworn by the LORD that we will not give them of our daughters to wives? [8] And they said, What one is there of the tribes of Israel that came not up to Mizpah to the LORD? And, behold, there came none to the camp from Jabesh-gilead to the assembly. [9] For the people were numbered, and, behold, there were none of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead there. [10] And the congregation sent thither twelve thousand men of the most valiant, and commanded them, saying, Go and smite the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the children. [11] And this is the thing that ye shall do, Ye shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that hath lain by man. [12] And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young virgins, that had known no man by lying with any male: and they brought them unto the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan. [13] And the whole congregation sent some to speak to the children of Benjamin that were in the rock Rimmon, and to call peaceably unto them. [14] And Benjamin came again at that time; and they gave them wives which they had saved alive of the women of Jabesh-gilead: and yet so they sufficed them not. [15] And the people repented them for Benjamin, because that the LORD had made a breach in the tribes of Israel. [16] Then the elders of the congregation said, How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing the women are destroyed out of Benjamin? [17] And they said, There must be an inheritance for them that be escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe be not destroyed out of Israel. [18] Howbeit we may not give them wives of our daughters: for the children of Israel have sworn, saying, Cursed be he that gives a wife to Benjamin.”]

So they conceive a scheme developed largely from verses 19 and following that’s called historically the rape of Shiloh. It’s a very unusual thing and it does have some moral questions to it, but the solution that they conceived beginning in verse 19 and following, the rape of Shiloh, is that when the Jews would come together for the Feast of Tabernacles the girls would go out and dance, and by the way, some of these men got their wives from Jabesh-gilead. You can read that yourself, it’s very straightforward. I want to add some closing notes on the rape of Shiloh. This is where they were able to pick up 200 extra girls, and these girls were picked off during this ceremony and they’d be dancing around there and one of the Benjamites would say hey, I like her, and then he’d just grab her; then they’d wait for a few more to come close and they’d just grab her and this went on until they got 200 girls. You say why did they do this? The reason they did this was because it was the only way to work out these two oaths. On the one hand all Gentile girls were out; on the other hand the oath said, if you read carefully verse 1, that we will not “give” our daughters to the Benjamites. So they worked out a system where they didn’t give it; leave it to the Jewish mentality to think this one out but the fathers did not give the girls; the girls were taken from the home so they very cleverly got around the oath of Judges 21:1 by having the Benjamites just grab the girls as they came by. They had obviously a problem cooling off the girl’s fathers, so they explain this whole thing in verses 19 and following, you can read it for yourself.

[Judges 21:19, “Then they said, Behold, there is a feast of the LORD in Shiloh yearly in a place which is on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah. [20] Therefore they commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards; [21] And see, and, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances, then come ye out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin. [22] And it shall be, when their fathers or their brethren come unto us to complain, that we will say unto them, Be favorable unto them for our sakes: because we reserved not to each man his wife in the war: for ye did not give unto them at this time, that ye should be guilty. [23] And the children of Benjamin did so, and took them wives, according to their number, of them that danced, whom they caught: and they went and returned unto their inheritance, and repaired the cities, and dwelt in them. [24] And the children of Israel departed thence at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they went out from thence every man to his inheritance. [25] In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

But I want to conclude the book of Judges 2 and then we’ll be finished. What have we learned from this book? We’ve learned many lessons from history, but one lesson I want to leave you with because it forms a framework for later books and later work that we’ll do is the curse of the last three verses of Judges 2. Remember Judges summarizes the entire book. It’s a very bad sentence that’s executed upon the nation. God promised the nation that He would give them the land. But in Judges 2:21-22 he says, “I will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died; [22] That through them I may test Israel, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not.”

Those two verses are a divine announcement that starting from the period of the Judges the land of Canaan would not be given to Israel in the sense that it was a continuation of the work of Joshua. This means the doctrine of premillennialism has to be true. Why? Because God has promised a literal land of Canaan to Israel. That land of Canaan, by the Abrahamic Covenant, must be given to Israel. We know the boundaries of that nation; it’s given in Genesis 15. Now is God’s Word going to fail? And yet here in verses 21-22 it ways that Israel all during her history, from this time, let’s say about 1200, on down to 586 BC, during that period God would not drive out the nations. This promise of the Abrahamic Covenant has never been fulfilled.

Now every once in a while you get somebody from the Church of Christ or somewhere else that likes to argue that these promises were fulfilled under Solomon and David. Oh no they weren’t. The nation occupied the land, yes, but they never possessed it by holy war. Holy war stopped at Judges 2. And it’s going to be continued again under the Lord Jesus Christ at the Second Advent and He will purge the land and give it back to them, but this verse proves conclusively that at no time in history, including the present day, has the land promise ever been fulfilled. And if it’s not going to be fulfilled in the future, then God is a liar. So this holds the idea, there must be a future millennium in which the promise of the land of the Abrahamic Covenant comes true.

And this book, the book of Judges, gives us the first thing in the whole history of the Old Testament where we begin to see something, and later on we’ll see this thing widen and widen and widen. What are we seeing here? We’re seeing the fact that there comes into the existence of the national conscience the idea that if we are to be redeemed it must be by a coming Messiah. This is one of those first intimations that you get in the flow of history, that Messiah must come, and Messiah must bring in the land, because they themselves will not be given the land as they operated under the Joshuan economy. And this is why from this point forward, never again, no matter what book we study in the Old Testament, never, never again will there ever be mention of possessing the land of Canaan. That is an issue that died in this book. Isaiah never calls our attention to it, Hosea never does, Elijah, Elisha, none of the prophets ever call or resurrect this issue; it’s dead, dead forever until Messiah comes and then the issue will once again be alive.

With our head bowed….