Epilogue - Part 2
Notes
Transcript
“The Death of a Nation”
Exegetical Point: There was no king in Israel, and great division and wickedness abounded.
Homiletic Point: We have a King, and he is the only antidote to all of our ills.
Intro
Intro
Kids, How do your parents check your health? They look for symptoms of being sick right?
They will listen to see how much you cough. They might check your temperature several times over a few hours, to see whether or not you get better or worse.
In some sense the book of Judges is a health record of God’s People Israel. We have been tracking their health over the course of several generations, basically since they have arived in the promised land.
Has it been going well for Israel (kids)? Would you say that their health has been getting better or worse?
Without a godly king to lead God’s people, the people have kept turning away from God. They kept doing what was right in their own eyes.
How would you check the health of a nation? What would you use as a marker?
It is comon to look at nations on the basis of GDP - how much money do they make, how is their economy going, etc....
We could check the health of a nation by measuring their evironmental goals. This is quite popular at the moment. How much of their grid is renewables? How much is their government promising to do by by a certain date in the future?
Some might suggest a health check on the basis of their human rights record. How are people treated? Are they protected from their own government overeach? Is there restitution for wrongs? This is closer to the truth, but it’s not quite the best measurement.
If you want to check the health of a nation, you must start with the question: “Where do they stand before God?”
Are the people being faithful to God? or rebelling against them? This is the true measure of the health of a country! And in many respects, the health on this front will affect the other measurements as well! People who are faithful to God will recoginise people’s rights, treat the world around them with approriate care and are often prosperous with the blessing of God.
But the key thing is whether or not the people are doing what is right in their own eyes, or whether they have submitted to the LORD. If you can’t get this right, you can’t have a truly healthy community or nation.
Judges - has shown us the pattern of people in their progressive departure from God. Israel (the ancient people of God, not the modern state!) has been walking further and further away from God with each successive generation. Initially things didn’t look to bad when they first settled in the land. They had made great strides in driving out God’s enemies and receiving their inheritance. But they lost momentum, and then they started getting mixed up in false worship.
Cycle - Rebellion, Judgement from God, Turn back to God, God delivers.
More or less saw this happen 12 times, one for each tribe. Things got progressively worse.
But here we are in the epilogue of the book, with two stories that are set around levites. I think the fact that there was 12 Judges from around Israel, and these two Levite stories at the end are meant to show that the whole nation is sick. Things have got so bad that the ones that had a reputation for their holiness, even among God’s own people they were especially set apart to serve God, even these people have wandered far from God and do not know His ways.
This is the second part of the epilogue, it is a story that covers 3 chapters 19-21.
It starts and ends with a similar refrain that really drives home the point that Judges is trying to make. it says:
In those days, when there was no king in Israel, a certain Levite was sojourning in the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim, who took to himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.
No King in Israel! The author of Judges (by the HS) really wants us to see that many of the problems that Israel has faced could be mitigated, they could be rduced or resolved if they had a Godly king.
With that i mind, lets look at the story. It is our last health check for kingless-Israel. We’re going to see how God’s chosen people are going in three different areas.
Health of Marriage
Health of Marriage
The story opens with a troubled marriage - a man and his concubine.
Concubine - second wife. Usually lower position, less rights and honour. See Sarah & Hagar!
Concubines never sanctioned by God, and do not fit with the ideal pattern of marriage.
That said, God made provision under the Old Covenant for when a man’s brother died without offspring, he was to take his widowed sister-in-law as a wife to raise up offspring for his brother’s line. This was a very specific situation and not a general allowance for polygamy.
Interestingly the polygamy, or at least implied polygamy has in creased across the pages of Jeudges. It has increased as the state of the nation got worse. Gideon had many wives, Jair had 30 sons, so presumably he had multpile wives, and Samson is recorded having marital relations with at least 3 women.
God uses polygamists, liars, fraudsters, murderers and the like without condoning their behavior.
In this case a man has taken a second wife/concubine.
In those days, when there was no king in Israel, a certain Levite was sojourning in the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim, who took to himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.
So a Levite, one of the preistly tribe is living a nomadic lifestyle - traveling around the countryside without a permanent home. He’s taken a concubine from Bethlehem.
If you know the history of other famous polygamists in the OT, you would be unsurprised to hear of strife in the marriage. This is a pattern.
In this case whatever the issue is, this lady to runs away, back to her family home:
And his concubine was unfaithful to him, and she went away from him to her father’s house at Bethlehem in Judah, and was there some four months. Then her husband arose and went after her, to speak kindly to her and bring her back. He had with him his servant and a couple of donkeys. And she brought him into her father’s house. And when the girl’s father saw him, he came with joy to meet him.
Unfaithful - uncertain meaning. She could have cheated on him, she could have been repulsed by the man.
So after a couple months the husband goes to get his wife back, to make amends and get reconciliation. We would say he wants to “kiss and make up”
The Father in law is eager to make amends and show hospitality. Vested interest in geting his daught to go back to her husband but also just good hospitality.
After a few days the Levite has seemingly straightened everything out with his concubine and is ready to hit the road.
Father-in-law goes out of his way to be hospitable in a way that was culturally appropriate. Stay one more day, let me feed you, etc.
And when the man and his concubine and his servant rose up to depart, his father-in-law, the girl’s father, said to him, “Behold, now the day has waned toward evening. Please, spend the night. Behold, the day draws to its close. Lodge here and let your heart be merry, and tomorrow you shall arise early in the morning for your journey, and go home.”
Initially the Levite agrees, when he tries to leave in the morning the father is law gets him to stay for breakfast, which turns into afternoon departure, so then the father says, ah, too late to leave now, why not stay another night?
Where is all this happening? - in Bethlehem. Good guys come from Bethlehem. Guys from Bethlehem will go out of their way to look after you.
After a few days of trying to leave, eventually the Levite has to put his foot down and actually hit the road.
This story opens with a disfunctional second marriage. It seems to me to be setting the scens fro what’s to come. There’s disunity, there’s division where there should be unity and covanent love.
Now while the issue seems to be resolved here, the disivion has set the tone for the remainde of the epilogue.
It might be worth taking a moment to reflect on the state of marriage in our own day. Is marriage held in high esteem?
No!
At least these folks had the good sense to marry those women and commit to them. In our society some people won’t bother to even learn each other’s name before they pursue the act of marriage. Both fleeting and long term marriage relationships are pursued without any covanent comitment.
Our culture praises virtual polygamy - the internet provides a virtual harem.
You’re looked down on if you don’t have multiple partners before you “settle down” and if you grow tired of the spouse you have, you are praised for leaving that partner. It’s called “self care” and “being true to yourself”.
We undermine marriage on every front, we either don’t marry when we should marry, we marry people we shouldn’t marry, or we call marriage what isn’t marriage (i.e. homosexual partnerships)!
What can we do as Christians?
Marry well - see proverbs, Song of Songs.
Keep your covenant vows - even to death.
Teach your children to honour marriage.
If things keep going the way they are, Christian marriages will be increasingly rare. Own it, and pursue faithfulness in this area.
SIDE NOTE: We do not treat people differently based on the sins of their parents. With divergance from God’s design for marriage, comes divergance from God’s design for family. But we don’t treat kids of concubines different from children born out of wedlock or “legitimate” kids. This is an important principle to get right in our mind. As our society tries very herd to rebel agaisnt God in this area the next generation is going to be full of children who were born of surrogacy, gene editing, and other forms of human trafficking. We can at the same time say that your parents did the wrong thing, but you are of equal value in your humanity as any other person. The shame of our parentage does not diminish our worth or our place with God.
Although marriage is in a dire state in Aus, and there was messed up marriage in ancient Israel, we should remember that the messed up views of marriage are a symptom of a greater problem.
Health of Community
Health of Community
Levite, concubine & Servant head out of Bethlehem and past Jerusalem. At this time Jerusalem was not an Israelite town, instead it was called Jebus and the Jebusites lived there.
The Levite, his concubine and the servant needed somewhere to stop for the night but the Levite refused to stop there because he thought it would be safer to find a town of his own people.
And his master said to him, “We will not turn aside into the city of foreigners, who do not belong to the people of Israel, but we will pass on to Gibeah.” And he said to his young man, “Come and let us draw near to one of these places and spend the night at Gibeah or at Ramah.”
A reasonable expectation right? Find a town of God’s people as opposed to God-haters. You would think you’d be better off going somewhere where God’s Law should be foundational for that society.
If you’ve been following along with us in Judges you would know that is a tall order. As the book has unfolded we find that God’s ways a more and more distant. Everyone does what is right in their own eyes.
So this little travelling party pushes on to another town, they pull in at Gibeah.
So they passed on and went their way. And the sun went down on them near Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin, and they turned aside there, to go in and spend the night at Gibeah. And he went in and sat down in the open square of the city, for no one took them into his house to spend the night.
A Bejamanite town.
The custom was to wait in the public square and hope that someone offers you hospitality for the night.
No-one from Gibeah would would help. But a old guy from Ephraim comes to the rescue.
Although the traveling party had all the supplies they needed, the man still insisted on having them at his own place.
And the old man said, “Peace be to you; I will care for all your wants. Only, do not spend the night in the square.” So he brought him into his house and gave the donkeys feed. And they washed their feet, and ate and drank.
Guys from Ephraim ain’t half bad, or so it seems.
While Ephraimites are living it up, the local criminal gang comes knocking.
As they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, worthless fellows, surrounded the house, beating on the door. And they said to the old man, the master of the house, “Bring out the man who came into your house, that we may know him.”
These men are literally Sons of Worthlessness or sons of wickedness.
“men of the city” - Probably not the whole town, but a representative proportion of the town.
“know” - euphamism for sexual activity. They demanded to rape the Levite.
Where is all this happening? - in Gibeah. Dodgy guys come from Gibeah.
This is just like the story of Sodom from Genesis, when two angels came to visit Lot and his family. A gang gathered around and demanded to rape the angels. One of the most morally repugnant events in human history is now being repeated, not in a foreign city, but in “safe” Israel.
Host refuses to send out the man, and offers an almost as bad alternative. Orders of honour - not saying it was right, just telling you why the host acted this way.
The husband does the most awful thing - he sends his wife out. Instead of putting his own honor and life on the line, he sends his defenseless wife to suffer humiliation and abuse.
She is raped all night.
As dawn arrives she struggles back, falling down on the doorstep. She is looking for refuge and safety but she is shut out.
The man who should be protecting her is inside in safety sleeping, while this poor lady is thrown to the wolves and suffering unimaginable horrors.
He acts to save himself, and so others must suffer for his comfort. I’m not saying he should have given himself to the mob, but I’m certainly saying that he shouldn’t have sent his concubine out in his place!
This is the state of affairs in Israel - men who demand homosexual acts with tourists and husbands who not only refuse to protect their wives, but send their wives into the atrocity.
Then, as if this couldn’t get any worse, this happens:
And her master rose up in the morning, and when he opened the doors of the house and went out to go on his way, behold, there was his concubine lying at the door of the house, with her hands on the threshold. He said to her, “Get up, let us be going.” But there was no answer. Then he put her on the donkey, and the man rose up and went away to his home.
He is basically indifferent to the poor woman. The man who came to Bethlehem to “speak kindly” to his wife a few verses ago, isn’t even concerned for her welfare, even after she suffered all this abuse for him.
She is there, dead, arm stretched out as if reaching for safety. He basically has to step over her to walk out of the house, and all he can say is “Get up, we need to leave”
How callous. How infuriating!
Here we should be directing all our anger and disbelief toward the men who did this to her, but this Levite is rivaling the rapists for how outrageous his actions are.
Is this what a Godly community should be like?
Instead of marriage protecting this woman, it has lead to her abuse.
Instead of a host keeping his guests safe, he offers to send one of them out to suffer,
Instead of a community helping travelers it wants to hurt them,
Instead of pursuing God’s design for sexuality, they pursue perverse and unnatural passions.
Instead of protecting the vulnerable, it used and killed them.
Instead of care, there is indifference.
Instead of love, there is selfishness.
The state of our Community
How much is this like our community?
No, we do not have men demanding to “know” tourists, but the proliferation of homosexuality is still rife.
We have a society of men who will not stand up to protect their families
We have a society who kills the most vulnerable for the sake of comfort,
We have a society that is hell-bent on mutilating and abusing the vulnerable.
We have a society that in times past claimed to follow the LORD most high, but is now indistinguishable from Sodom & Gomorrah.
Although our morality is seriously messed up. It is the symptom of a greater problem.
Health of the Nation
Health of the Nation
Levite goes home. Outraged by what has happened he sends a message to Israel
And when he entered his house, he took a knife, and taking hold of his concubine he divided her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel. And all who saw it said, “Such a thing has never happened or been seen from the day that the people of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt until this day; consider it, take counsel, and speak.”
The grisly message calls the nation to action
Then all the people of Israel came out, from Dan to Beersheba, including the land of Gilead, and the congregation assembled as one man to the Lord at Mizpah. And the chiefs of all the people, of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, 400,000 men on foot that drew the sword.
Israel comes to find out what’s happening.
Good sign! Perhaps there is yet hope!
The listen to the Levite’s story
Israel collectively sets out to bring justice.
And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, “What evil is this that has taken place among you? Now therefore give up the men, the worthless fellows in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and purge evil from Israel.” But the Benjaminites would not listen to the voice of their brothers, the people of Israel.
Benjamin refuses. They refuse to punish evil!
This means they have to go to war.
The people got to God! Good news!
Series of battles - benjamin defeated.
And the Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel, and the people of Israel destroyed 25,100 men of Benjamin that day. All these were men who drew the sword.
Benjamin is now brought low.
The tribes refused to marry their daughter to Benjamin because of the atrocity and the response.
Israel’s solution? Kidnap and kill their own countrymen!
For when the people were mustered, behold, not one of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead was there. So the congregation sent 12,000 of their bravest men there and commanded them, “Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword; also the women and the little ones.
Not enough? Kidnap some more!
And when their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, we will say to them, ‘Grant them graciously to us, because we did not take for each man of them his wife in battle, neither did you give them to them, else you would now be guilty.’ ”
They promised not to give us their daughters, but if we kidnap them, then they haven’t broken their promise!
In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
The state in our Country
So What?
So What?
State of Marriage
State of Community
State of Nation
We need a King!