Let Me Do Me
Judges • Sermon • Submitted
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Intro: Let me do me...
Intro: Let me do me...
4 times from Judges 17 - 21, the writer tells us “There was no king in Israel, everyone did what was write in their own eyes.” In our culture some would say why don’t you just let me do me.... let me do me, this is the motto of our society, which basically means I want to do what I want to do, what I feel is the right thing, I want to follow my heart, my desires and I do not want you, your church, your Bible or your God to tell me what I can and cannot not do. Let me do me....
This is nothing new, this is what Adam and Eve told God in the Garden of Eden, this is what Cain says when he kills his brother, this is what Nimrod says when he builds the tower of Babel, what the people of Israel say when they build the Golden Calf while Moses is on the mountain receiving the 10 Commandments, This is what Achan says when he disobeys the Lord at Ai, and throughout the book of Judges we find Israel time and time again,
telling God, let me do me.
Now the writer of Judges, who I think is the prophet Samuel, wants you to know what it was like in the nation of Israel when the people of Israel say let me do me… Story after story we see the people of Israel falling into sin because they are rejecting the Lord and following other gods. In essence they are telling God… God let me do me.
Through the past weeks we have discovered that from Judges 1 to Judges 16 things have went from bad to worse. Then we come to Judges 17 - 21 and the writer wants you to know, if you think what you have read from Judges 1-16 is bad, no let me tell you it was worse.
In Judges 17-18 we see the religious corruption in Israel. As Justin pointed out last week, we find a people with no conviction, a people creating their own gods and The Levitical priests, who were the ministers of the Law and worship in Israel, ready to be hired to lead others in the worship of idols. we see the corruption of religious worship in Israel.
In our passage today, the writer continues, if you think Judges 17-18 is bad, it even gets worse. We discover what becomes of a people who reject God as king and continually tell God, let me do me.
Before we jump in I think it is important to note that these last 5 chapters are not in chronological order, in other words this doesn’t come after Samson. The reason the writer tells us these historical facts now, is because he wants you to see how bad Israel really was.
So when did this happen? Well we get a clue in our passage, the only name mentioned in these 3 chapters is Phinehas
and Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, ministered before it in those days), saying, “Shall we go out once more to battle against our brothers, the people of Benjamin, or shall we cease?” And the Lord said, “Go up, for tomorrow I will give them into your hand.”
The Aaron in this passage is Moses’s brother, and Phinehas was the grandson of Aaron. So what this tells us is 2 generations after Moses and Aaron, the nation of Israel, have become a wicked people, they have become like the Canaanites who occupied the land before them.
This should be a warning to us to be on alert, it is so easy to slip and fall and become a people who tell God “Let me do me”
I. A Levite, A Concubine, A Father A Tribe and A Nation.
I. A Levite, A Concubine, A Father A Tribe and A Nation.
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. 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. And his father-in-law, the girl’s father, made him stay, and he remained with him three days. So they ate and drank and spent the night there.
There is a Levite, who took for himself a concubine, which means he was already married. A concubine was a wife, but without the rights of a wife. They were household servants, who were married to the man of the house, in this case the Levite. She leaves him, which would bring dishonor on her and her fathers house, which is why when the levite shows up, the father is happy to see him. We discover the Levite tries to leave but the father encourages to stay, finally on the 5th day, the Levite says we cannot stay any longer, so they leave late morning early afternoon.
As a result, as they are traveling it becomes late and his servant says lets stay in Jebus (which in the future will be Jerusalem) but at this time it is occupied by Jebusites. The Levite refuses, he says,
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.”
I believe this is in here, to point out that the Levite and all travelling with him would have been safer in a Caananite town than a town in Israel, as we will discover.
When they arrive to Gibeah, they stay in the town square but are not approached by anyone in the town, which is unusual for this culture. In the middle east at this time and even now hospitality is a core value, but no one is hospitable to them, until a certain old man from the tribe of Ephraim who is staying in Gibeah shows up and invites them to stay at his house. He is pretty forceful about it, you will stay with me because you can not stay in the square. The old man communicates there is a fear for their lives if they stay in the town square.
This is when things get bad.
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.” And the man, the master of the house, went out to them and said to them, “No, my brothers, do not act so wickedly; since this man has come into my house, do not do this vile thing. Behold, here are my virgin daughter and his concubine. Let me bring them out now. Violate them and do with them what seems good to you, but against this man do not do this outrageous thing.” But the men would not listen to him. So the man seized his concubine and made her go out to them. And they knew her and abused her all night until the morning. And as the dawn began to break, they let her go. And as morning appeared, the woman came and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her master was, until it was light.
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. 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.”
As a result the 11 tribes of Israel, get together to investigates what has happened. The nation comes together as one at Mizpah. It’s interesting that throughout the book of Judges we have not seen the nation arise as one, since chapter 1, until this event. The Levite tells them what happened in Gibeah,
And the leaders of Gibeah rose against me and surrounded the house against me by night. They meant to kill me, and they violated my concubine, and she is dead. So I took hold of my concubine and cut her in pieces and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel, for they have committed abomination and outrage in Israel.
Interesting he didn’t tell them the whole truth, he didn’t tell them he threw her out to them. Hmmm.
The nation rises up in anger and go to the tribe of Benjamin and ask them to turn over the men of Gibeah who did this horrible thing, but they refuse and a civil war breaks out.
400,000 Israelites against 26,000 Benjaminites. 700 were left-handed warriors who can sling shot a stone and take out a single hair off your head.
The people of Israel, do not inquire of the Lord if they should to war, but who will go first. The Lord says Judah. They go to battle and are defeated the first day. The second day they ask the Lord if they should go up against Benjamin and the Lord says “Go up against them”
They are defeated again. Then they go to Bethel and weep before the Lord, they fast, offer burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. It is interesting because this is the first time we see the nation as one in repentance and worship before the Lord.
The Lord says go up a third time, I will deliver them in your hand.
This time the nation of Israel decimates the tribe of Benjamin, to the point that there are only 600 men left in the whole tribe.
This leads the nation to mourn the loss of 1 tribe in Israel, so the nation of Israel come up with a plan to find wives for these 600 men.
Of course the nation of Israel will not share their daughters with them, because they made an oath ay Mizpah not to let their daughters marry Benjamites. SO they inquire if there was a tribe who did not come to Mizpah and they discover the people of Jabesh-gilead did not come, so they sent a military force to decimate the clan of Jabesh-gilead and take their virgin daughters. Which only supplied wives to 400 men.
So they said, we cant give you wives, but there is a yearly feast in Shiloh were the virgin daughters of Israel come out to dance in the dances. We want you to hide out and when they come out, snatch one of them for your wife. The people of Benjamin did so… the book ends with
In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
LET ME DO ME...
II. Exegetical Insights: What in the World Does This Have to do With Us Today?
II. Exegetical Insights: What in the World Does This Have to do With Us Today?
A. When we tell God “let me do me” we become more like people of Canaan than the People of God.
A. When we tell God “let me do me” we become more like people of Canaan than the People of God.
1. Homework - Go home and read Genesis 19 and compare it to Judges 19
1. Homework - Go home and read Genesis 19 and compare it to Judges 19
2. You will discover these two stories are very similar and I believe it was written that way on purpose because an Israelite would recognize the similarities.
2. You will discover these two stories are very similar and I believe it was written that way on purpose because an Israelite would recognize the similarities.
3. What we discover in just a few generations after Moses, the people of God have become like Sodom and Gomorrah.
3. What we discover in just a few generations after Moses, the people of God have become like Sodom and Gomorrah.
4. Church, when we fail to worship the one true God and follow after him, we will become like the world. We may still walk through these doors sing songs and read the Bible, but when idols consume us we become more like what we worship and less like the people of God.
4. Church, when we fail to worship the one true God and follow after him, we will become like the world. We may still walk through these doors sing songs and read the Bible, but when idols consume us we become more like what we worship and less like the people of God.
a. When we tell God “let me do me” we devalue marriage.
a. When we tell God “let me do me” we devalue marriage.
1. God created marriage. We discover that in Genesis and Jesus reaffirms that in the NT.
1. God created marriage. We discover that in Genesis and Jesus reaffirms that in the NT.
And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
Yet we have seen repeatedly in Judges and particularly in Judges 19 that the men have multiple wives, they have concubines and they treat women not like people created in the image of god, but they treat them like property.
The NT revolutionizes the man’s role in marriage and is counter cultural in any culture. Husbands you are to love your wife like Jesus loves the church, with sacrificial love. We are told by Peter to live with our wives in an understanding way. Men this is our goal to love your wife, with sacrificial love, like Jesus loved the church and died for her.
b. When we tell God “Let me do me” the image of God is devalued in society, in Israel we discover that the women were especially devalued.
b. When we tell God “Let me do me” the image of God is devalued in society, in Israel we discover that the women were especially devalued.
1. We see how the women were treated in our narrative. They are not treated as equals, they are treated as second class citizens, as property. The levite wasn’t upset cause they killed his concubine, he was upset because he lost his property.
1. We see how the women were treated in our narrative. They are not treated as equals, they are treated as second class citizens, as property. The levite wasn’t upset cause they killed his concubine, he was upset because he lost his property.
2. The Levite wasn’t the only one, Israel decimated the clan of Jabesh- Gilead and sex trafficked their virgin daughters for wives of Benjamin and did the same to the daughters of Shiloh.
2. The Levite wasn’t the only one, Israel decimated the clan of Jabesh- Gilead and sex trafficked their virgin daughters for wives of Benjamin and did the same to the daughters of Shiloh.
3. We do not have to look very far to see how the image of God is devalued in our society. Women are trafficked like property, babies are aborted in the name of convenience, there are sex abuse scandal everywhere, people are telling God, i do not care how you made me let me do me.
3. We do not have to look very far to see how the image of God is devalued in our society. Women are trafficked like property, babies are aborted in the name of convenience, there are sex abuse scandal everywhere, people are telling God, i do not care how you made me let me do me.
4. God forbid that we cast the godly women aside as a church. We should honor the godly women among us and arise and call them Blessed as the writer of Proverbs 31 does.
4. God forbid that we cast the godly women aside as a church. We should honor the godly women among us and arise and call them Blessed as the writer of Proverbs 31 does.
c. When we tell God “let me do me” we tell God I do not care how I was created, let me do me.
c. When we tell God “let me do me” we tell God I do not care how I was created, let me do me.
B. The People of God Must Speak Out Against Injustice In Our World.
B. The People of God Must Speak Out Against Injustice In Our World.
Through out this recounting of history what we find is the prophet Samuel telling us a story, but i think it is interesting and important to note that we see a quote and some scholars believe in the original Hebrew the last phrase is written like a command,
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.”
Telling us as the people of God we are to consider injustice and speak out against it.
C. Sin is infectious and contagious
C. Sin is infectious and contagious
What we see in this passage is the sin of individuals, turns into the sin of a community, which turns into the sin of a nation. Sin is infectious. If we are not careful we will fall!
D. We see God is Gracious and Has a Plan.
D. We see God is Gracious and Has a Plan.
1. What did God do to Sodom and Gomorrah?
1. What did God do to Sodom and Gomorrah?
Destroyed
2. Why doesn’t God destroy Israel?
2. Why doesn’t God destroy Israel?
GRACE!
3. When we turn the page on Judges, God says now that you know how bad it was let me give you hope and we come to the book of Ruth. The love story of Boaz and Ruth written in the time of the Judges, when everything is chaotic, there is a people who are still faithful to God. There is a young gentile woman who forsakes the gods of her nation and serves the Lord and her mother in law Naomi. At the end of Ruth we read..
3. When we turn the page on Judges, God says now that you know how bad it was let me give you hope and we come to the book of Ruth. The love story of Boaz and Ruth written in the time of the Judges, when everything is chaotic, there is a people who are still faithful to God. There is a young gentile woman who forsakes the gods of her nation and serves the Lord and her mother in law Naomi. At the end of Ruth we read..
Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed, Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.
David the king of Israel, through this lineage Jesus the king of Israel would be born. As dark as the story we just went through the grace of God doesn’t destroy the nation of Israel because one Jesus will come from this very same nation and