The Times of the Judges Part 2

Today we're going to continue our sermon series through the book of Judges. And it's a book that spans approximately 325 years, from the time of the death of Joshua, some 25 years after Israel entered the Promised Land, carrying us up to the time just prior to the crowning of Israel's first human king, King Saul.

And what you'll recall from the last message is we laid the foundation for this book, sort of the overview of the package as we'll be walking through. We examine the cycle of sin, servitude, supplication, and salvation that we find introduced in the first two chapters of the book of Judges. And it's a cycle that's going to serve as the backdrop for the entirety of the book, as we see Judges introduced in this cycle.

Now, chapters 1 and 2 show that one of the root causes of this continuing cycle was Israel's lack of zeal for taking possession of their inheritance. God had opened the way into the Promised Land before them and said, drive the inhabitants out and take possession of this land I'm giving to you. But Israel seemed to be fine to a degree with compromise. Not fully doing what God had given them to do, they were willing to co-inhabit and coexist with the Canaanite people among them, and that led to behaviors of sin, behaviors of false religion, idolatry, Baal worship, syncretism, and ultimately forgetting the God of their fathers.

Now, Judges chapter 3 launches into the first Judges that come on the scene following the death of Joshua. But before we actually walk through the Judges, I want to take a sermon and actually jump to the end of the book of Judges. And I want to examine what we have recorded there. Because the last five chapters of the book of Judges occurs at the end of the book, but it's actually out of chronological sequence with the rest of the book. And what we find, and will find as we go through it, is that that section of the book actually belongs in the beginning, if you're talking about chronological order, not the end. It actually appears that these five chapters and the stories contained within them are incidental notices of Israel's history that don't follow the exact timeline and the cycle of the rest of the book. And as we go through it, we're going to make notices as to why the timestamp of it being at the beginning rather than the end is the accepted norm. So interestingly, those five chapters mention no judge in Israel. That's another reason that it's considered that this was one to take place at the beginning of the book, the time between the death of Joshua and the rise of the first judge within the nation. One thing that's clearly illustrated by these chapters is the depravity that the nation of Israel had fallen into. You know, they're supposed to be the model nation, a light to the nations around them as God worked and dwelled in their midst. But instead, what we find throughout this book is that they strayed from being that nation that God intended. And these five chapters show with brutal openness the moral and the religious decay that led for many to call for the appointment of a king in Israel. You know, we understand we go forward and you look at the time of Samuel and the people are crying out for a king and he goes to God and God says, well, they've not rejected you, Samuel, they've rejected me. So ultimately, they had a king and that was God, but they had taken their eyes off of God. And the call for a human king would have been somebody that could, you know, they could look to that sort of united the people under this presence that I guess they could see eye to eye. But the fact is, God was their king, but they had deserted, by and large, that relationship. Judges chapter 21 verse 25 gives us insight into why there was such turmoil and trouble during the times of the judges. So I want to turn there to begin today. Judges chapter 21 verse 25, and it's the final verse of the book of Judges. We likely all know it well. Judges chapter 21 verse 25 says, In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. And therein lies the underlying condition and the problem that will frame the portion of judges we will walk through today. Everybody doing what is right in their own eyes. It's an attitude that was prevalent in ancient Israel. It's also an attitude that's prevalent in the world in which we live today. And if I may be so bold, I would say it is an attitude that is prevalent to a degree in the Church of God today as well.

It is something that we need to watch for in our lives as the people of God, because if unchecked, that self-willed attitude will in fact be a serious stumbling block to our relationship with God. Again, doing what is right and good, but in our own eyes. Book of Judges is a very eye-opening book because it shows us what happens when we go our own way, when we do our own thing apart from the clear instructions of God. And it shows the consequences of everybody doing what seems right to them rather than asking the question that everybody should have been asking, what is right in the eyes of God? That truly is the question we must all ask as God's people, what is right in the eyes of God? The title for today's message is The Times of the Judges, Part 2, Everyone Doing What Is Right in Their Own Eyes.

Everyone doing what is right in their own eyes. It's the theme we will see played out and frankly we'll see the consequence of it through the message today. So let's launch into the last five chapters of this book. We'll see the outcome of this mindset for ourselves. Let's go to Judges 17.

I'm going to walk through some portions of Scripture that we probably don't go through very often unless we're doing a Bible reading program, reading from cover to cover. But these stories aren't just interesting stories. They're there for a very important purpose. Judges 17, beginning in verse 1, it says, And on which you put a curse, even saying it in my ears, he says, Here is the silver, it's with me, I took it. And his mother said, May you be blessed by the Lord my Son. Kind of an interesting response. You have this man Micah, and he stole his mother's silver. And upon finding it gone, she pronounces a curse upon whoever that thief would be. And yet now he declares, okay, I took it. And she said, blessed are you, my Son. 1,100 shekels was pretty much a small fortune. It would equate today to about 28 pounds of silver. I didn't do the calculation, but as you can imagine, back in that day, that would have been a small fortune. If you do a little comparison, it was actually the amount of silver that caused Delilah to sell out Samson.

And this was missing, and now it's recovered, and she pronounces this blessing. Verse 3 says, So when he had returned the 1,100 shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, I had wholly dedicated the silver from my hand to the Lord for my Son. Notice, To make a carved image and a molded image, now therefore I will return it to you. And so thus he returned the silver to his mother, then his mother took the 200 shekels of silver, gave them to the silversmith, and he made it into a carved image and a molded image, and they were in the house of Micah. So, you can see right off the bat, there's all kinds of messes, so to speak, going on here. You have this man Micah, the son who is a thief. Number one. Number two, Micah and his mother appear to be idol-worshippers, idolaters, but they believe in the true God. After all, she dedicated this silver to, as it says, to Yahweh, to the true God. To do what with it? Well, to make these household idols. And the implication is that they would use these household idols in their worship of the true God. So do you see a problem here? Hopefully we all can see what the problem with this is. Verse 5, it says, The man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and a household idol, and he consecrated one of his sons who became his priest. Okay, so there's a lot going on here. He builds this shrine, and the word shrine, or at least that is translated shrine from the Hebrew, is Beth Elohim. Beth Elohim, it means the house of God or the house of God, so Elohim being plural. You'll recall that Abraham and then later Jacob had this interaction at what the place had is called Bethel.

Bethel means house of God. This is Beth Elohim. This is what they called this shrine. And the indication is this may have been some sort of miniature representation of God's house, of the tabernacle that was actually set up in its rightful place of worship. But here Micah has made this miniature representation of the house of God. He also made an ephod, which was a priestly garment worn by the priest during religious ceremonial services.

At the tabernacle. And he also consecrated one of his sons, who was not a Levite, as a priest.

Again, hopefully we can see what is wrong in all of these cases. In doing all of this, Micah is setting up a sad perversion of worship of the true God. And he's taking these, well, he's taking obviously pagan ideas and illustrations and blending them in. But he's perverting what would be the true worship of the true God in the place that God had placed his name. And he's bringing idolatry into the mix as well.

What we need to understand in all of this was that this was all dedicated to God. And so from Micah's perspective, his mother's perspective, who dedicated it to the Lord, this is not something that they intend to be wholesale apostasy, you know, complete on its own. But it was still the worship of God united with idolatry, right? A syncretism, and as has been shown time and time again in Scripture, something God hates.

Very similar to Aaron fashioning this calf and saying, this is your God, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. We're worshiping the true God, but we're doing it through this idolatry. And this is what is taking place with Micah.

It was the type of behavior that caused the author of Judges to bemoan the fact that everybody just simply did what seemed right to them.

If we carry on in verse 6 of chapter 17, it says, In those days there was no king in Israel, everyone did what was right in his own eyes. And we see how that is playing out. The result will be chaos, as it always is.

Verse 7, it says, Now there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, the family of Judah. He was a Levite, and he was staying there. And that man departed from the city of Bethlehem in Judah to stay wherever he could find a place. And he came to the mountains of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, as he journeyed. And Micah said to him, where do you come from? So he said to him, I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am on my way to find a place to stay.

This actually shows us the low regard for the Levites and the Levitical priesthood in the time of the Judges, and early on. Because, as you recall, the Levites were set aside in God's service, and the other 11 tribes supported the Levites by their tithes, so that the Levites could work in the service of God and the people.

But it appears that this Levite was simply wandering about, looking for a place to make his way. And as he happens upon the house of Micah, he becomes a priest for hire. Verse 10, Micah said to him, dwell with me, and be a father and a priest to me, and I will give you ten shekels of silver per year, a suit of clothes, and your sustenance.

And so the Levite went in. Verse 11, the Levite was content to dwell with the man. The young man became like one of his sons to him. So Micah consecrated the Levite. The young man became his priest and lived in the house of Micah. Then Micah said, Now I know that the Lord will be good to me, since I have a Levite as a priest. You see the problem here? The twisted thinking, the backwards thinking. He says, Now I know that God will be good to me, the Lord will be good to me.

I have a Levite as a priest, and he's ministering in my shrine before these idols. And Micah is somehow in his twisted thinking, there's going to be a blessing from God. But what we find time and time again in the Word of God, God does not bless disobedience. He blesses obedience. And in the end, this is a recipe for disaster. To Micah, it looked good. It sounded good. It was right in his own eyes. I'll remind us of Proverbs 14 and verse 12. Proverbs 14, verse 12, which states, There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.

You know, it seems right to him. It's right and good in his eyes and in his opinion. But the end results, if it's apart from God, is the way of death. Only the true ways of God lead to life, and anything aside from that will fall short of the blessing that God would seek to provide. So this is what we have, this whole circumstance set up. It looks right and good, and it is dedicated to the true God.

But it is full of perversion and again syncretism. Let's notice how it all turns out for Micah. Judges chapter 8, verse 1, it says, In those days there was no king in Israel. And again, the implication to follow would be everybody is doing their own thing. And in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking an inheritance for itself as well. For until that day their inheritance among the tribes of Israel had not fallen to them.

This is another reason the time stamp for this section of Scripture is put back towards the beginning of the book and not at the end. 325 years later, the Danites were still seeking their inheritance in the land. That was a process that was taking place towards the beginning of the book of Judges. In verse 2 it says, As the story goes on, these men, these five spies, they recognized Micah's priest. They actually heard his voice and said, I'm a bad guy, and they recognized him and they asked him, you know, is our journey going to be for a blessing and success?

What is the outcome of these things? And he said, God is with you, go in peace. So the spies go up to the region of Laish. They bring back a positive report to their own tribe. Then you have the tribe of Dan. They muster 600 warriors. They're going to go north to Laish now to take that city as a part of their inheritance.

But as the story goes on, the 600 are marching north, and they come to the mountains of Ephirim. They come to the house of Micah. Let's pick it up in verse 14 of chapter 18.

Judges chapter 18 verse 14, it says, Now therefore, consider what you should do. 600 warriors of the tribe of Dan. They come across this shrine in this false worship. Consider what you should do. What should they have done?

I think we know. Right? Okay. What did they do? Verse 15, so they turned aside there. They came to the house of the young Levite man in the house of Micah and greeted them. And 600 men armed with the weapons of war who were of the children of Dan stood by the entrance of the gate. Then five men who had gone to spy out the land went up, entering there. They took the carved image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molded image. The priests stood at the entrance of the gate with the 600 men who were armed with the weapons of war. And when these went up to Micah's house and took the carved image and the ephod and the household idols and the molded image, the priest said to them, what are you doing? And they said, Dan, be quiet. Put your hand over your mouth and come with us. We're going to destroy these idols and we're going to kill you, the false priest.

Well, that's not exactly what they said. They said, come with us. Be a father and a priest to us. Is it better for you to be a priest to a household of one man, or that you be a priest to a tribe and a family in Israel? So the priest's heart was made glad, and he took the ephod and the household idols and the carved image and took his place among the people. You know, talk about a hireling.

This is someone that had no loyalty towards Micah, what he was doing in service of his family. But what would we expect? Because none of this was according to godliness anyway. False priests, false idols, false shrine, that's all set up. But in response to this, because they take his priest and all his trappings of worship, Micah goes out in pursuit. He gathers the men of his household and goes after the Danites. He's going to recover what is his. And essentially, he catches up and the 600 warriors turn to him and say, yeah, what are you going to do about it?

Right? So Micah eventually just returns home, having lost it all.

Lost his silver, lost his ephod, lost his priest, and the end he was left with nothing. So much for God's blessing and so much for the benefit of doing what was right in his own eyes, he lost it all.

As for the tribe of Dan, they went up and they conquered Laish. Verse 29, he says, And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan, their father, who was born to Israel.

However, the name of the city formerly was Laish. Then the children of Dan set up for themselves the carved image, and Jonathan the son of Gershrom, the son of Manasseh, and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land.

Verse 31, so they set up for themselves Micah's carved image, which he made all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.

So they take these false symbols of worship and they set them up north in Dan.

And it's interesting, in some of the roots of things we see later, go back to the book of Judges.

You recall when King Jeroboam the first was on the throne, he set up two areas of false worship in Israel, and one of them was calf worship in Dan, all the way up in the north.

And obviously, it would seem, the implication is what they had been doing all along was then just the continuation under Jeroboam.

False worship, syncretism, it was set up until the captivity of the northern Israel around 722 BC.

And furthermore, Israel knew about it. All of Israel knew about it.

And they did nothing according to the law of God to intervene and to stop it from carrying forward.

In fact, when Dan came across it, they said, hey, this is a great idea. Let's make this man our priest in these things our gods.

Again, they're tolerant of compromise in their midst.

If you go back to verse 30, about the middle of the verse, you'll find mention of Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh.

And if you have a marginal reference in your Bible, it likely says Moses in reference to the name Manasseh.

And that is because if you go and do a little study into this, the Masorite scribes who copied the text, they copied it very dutifully.

And whenever they made an edit in the text that they copied, it was clearly noted.

And there's a clear notation in the name, in an edit that was made later down the line. Originally in the Hebrew, it said M-S-H, for that name, M-S-H, which was Moshe, which was Moses.

Okay. It appears that upon copies here, these scribes apparently inserted the small nun, a small letter N in there, changing it from Moses to Manasseh.

And again, that's noted in a certain way back in the text. You can go and find that.

But if you take the additional mark back out, it reads as Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses.

It's an incredible lesson to how quickly you can turn aside from God to be the grandson of Moses.

And we do know that Moses had a son named Gershom. You can find that in Exodus 2, verse 22.

So again, this would make this Levite false priest, Jonathan, the grandson of Moses.

And it seems that the edit was made in order to spare Moses the dishonor of having Israel's first apostate and the first idolatrous priest come from his lineage.

But again, it's, I think, a humbling lesson to all of us that it really doesn't take long when compromise inters the midst a generation or two for people to easily turn aside from what is the truth of God.

This also is another reason why it's indicated this section of the Scriptures should be near the front of the book of Judges, not at the end, because the grandson of Moses would have lived shortly after the beginning of...

or shortly after the death of Joshua, or right around that time frame.

Again, the lesson, brethren, for today I want us to remember is that man defining for himself what is right and true is a recipe for disorder and disaster.

The statement that everyone did what was right in their own eyes encapsulated the generation of the Judges, and also it's a good estimation of the generation we live in today as well.

Because we live in a continuing and increasing secular culture that says, what is truth?

You know, and your truth may not be the same as my truth, and there are no absolutes anyway.

I mean, that seems to be the only absolute, is that there are no absolutes in our culture today.

People encourage one another with phrases like, find your own truth and follow your heart.

Well, that's very dangerous advice, brethren, and what we find is that it may sound notable, but it is not an upright way to live.

According to the Scriptures, that mindset brings about foolishness. It is the essence of what the word foolishness encapsulates.

It's somebody doing what is right in their own eyes. It is the essence of foolishness.

Proverbs 12, verse 15 states, the way of the fool is right in his own eyes.

Looks good to him, sounds good to him. God says, you're a fool, because the question is, what is right in the eyes of God, and what am I doing to follow suit?

Proverbs 26, verse 12 asks, do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There's more hope for a fool than for him.

So time after time, throughout the Bible, God condemns evil people who fail to heed his words, to look at what it is he's recorded and given to them, and who simply followed the dictates of their heart, rather than asking the question, what is right in the eyes of God?

As we move to chapter 19 of Judges, the scene changes, but honestly, the underlying issue remains much the same.

We see another series of events unfold that will lead to a chain reaction taking us through the end of the book, and it will essentially be one event after another leading to another.

And it's disaster, it's disorder, and it's the result of everyone doing what is right in their own eyes.

Because anytime humans substitute the clear word of God for their own thinking, and for their own what feels good to me, that is going to be the result.

Disaster and disorder.

And as we'll see, the events of chapter 19 is going to ignite a civil war in Israel that very nearly wipes out an entire tribe.

So let's go there. Judges chapter 19, pick it up here in verse 1.

It says, it came to pass in those days, again, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite staying in the remote mountains of Ephraim.

And he took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem of Judah, but his concubine played the harlot against him, and went away from him to her father's house in Bethlehem in Judah, and she was there for four whole months.

So we have the stage that's set here for the events that will follow. The concubine departs, goes back to her father's house. Her husband goes back to retrieve her in Bethlehem of Judah.

And while he's there, as the story goes, the father-in-law loves to entertain him.

So each day, as he's looking to leave, he says, no, stay a little longer, enjoy a meal, enjoy some drink. It's late in the day, and he stays the night.

Finally, by the fifth day, he says, no, I must depart. And yet it's late in the day.

Jumping down to verse 10, here on the fifth day, it says, however the man was not willing to spend that night, so he rose and departed and came opposite to Jebus, that is Jerusalem, with him were two saddled donkeys.

His concubine was also with him. And they were near Jebus on the day which was far spent.

And the servant said to his master, come, please, let us turn aside into the city of the Jebu sites and lodge in it.

But his master said to him, we will not turn aside into the city of foreigners who are not of the children of Israel. We will go on to Gibeah.

And recall, I mentioned last time that the Jebu sites remained entrenched in Jerusalem until the time of King David when his forces booted them out.

So this was still somewhat foreign occupied territory.

Verse 13, it says, so he said to his servant, come, let us draw near to one of these places and spend the night in Gibeah or Rama.

And so as they passed by, they went their way and the sun went down on them near Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin.

So now we're up to a city of their brethren and fellow Israelites.

Verse 15, it says, and they turned aside there to go into lodge in Gibeah.

And he went in and he sat down in the open square of the city, for no one would take them to his house to spend the night.

Kind of a backdrop for this story. I want to kind of give us a little insight into the concept of Eastern hospitality, because he went there looking for someone to put them up for the night.

Quoting to you from the United Church of God Bible commentary, it says, It says, And to cope with the arduous conditions of nomadic life and the elaborate system of social customs was developed.

One social custom required every person to kindly entertain a guest, to provide comfort, to provide lodging and food for a brief period, to any stranger who happened upon one's camp, even if that stranger was a member of an enemy tribe in a time of peace.

It says, And if the offense was serious enough, clan or tribal wars could be ignited.

As you traveled through the countryside, there wasn't exactly a Motel 6 off of every exit in Israel.

And so you expected people, when you stopped, they would put up travelers, they would house them and feed them, and give them protection for the night. So what we have here is the Benjamites in Gibeah seem to have a little bit of a problem extending this hospitality.

But as the story goes on, then eventually an old man who is also from the mountains of Vithirim, where this Levite had come from, takes them in. If we go down to verse 21, Judges 19 verse 21, it says, Or sexually, as the point is.

And I would say this is probably why no one else wanted to take this man in.

Because in Gibeah there appears to have been this gang of men that would go around, frankly, and gang rape men who wandered into that city.

So you have this old man who puts them in, or brings the Levite into his house. But outside are these, again, as the Bible would describe, they're homosexuals engaging in practices that are condemned in the scripture. And if this sounds familiar to us, it should.

Gibeah had obviously fallen into the practices of the Canaanites, the practices of the Baal worship around them, and they had become like another Sodom.

In addition to being a heinous and a grotesque demand, this was also a violation of the law of hospitality.

This man was the guest, and his concubine was the guest of this old man, and to violate that was to violate something that was very important in that region. And, frankly, it was something that was a terrible offense to hospitality itself and to the one who offered that hospitality.

And furthermore, they demanded a Levite.

This man was a Levite. He would have looked like a Levite. He would have sounded like a Levite.

When I go to Africa, and I mean Ghana, there's multiple tribes.

I maybe don't know the difference in the tribes, but they can tell the difference in one another in the tribes. The tribes of Israel could certainly know who each other were. This man was a Levite, sounded like a Levite, dressed like a Levite, and they were demanding this Levite, a priest, a man who was set apart as a representative of God in Israel, and they wanted to abuse him in this way.

And again, it shows the disregard and how low things had sunk, at least in certain parts of Israel, that they would have such flagrant disregard for God in this city. Again, it was as Sodom.

Verse 23 says, But the man, the master of the house, went out to them, and he said to them, No, my brethren, I beg you, do not act so wickedly, saying that this man is coming to my house. Do not commit this outrage. He says, Look, here is my virgin daughter and the man's concubine. Let me bring them out now, humble them, and do them as you please. But to this man, do not do such a vile thing.

It's pretty tough. It's tough to read this to you. It's tough to even go down that road. Obviously, this old man and the Levite were not clean in this story either. For him to offer his daughter, for the Levite to be willing to give up his concubine shows the level of moral decline that had come about even in their life. I mean, could you imagine to turn these women over to this mob?

To me, I expect to read and see something like, Over My Dead Body. But this was where everyone had gone with this. And it shows the low level as well of women in the estimation in the eyes of men at this time as well.

Verse 25, it says, But the men would not heed him, so the men took his concubine, brought her out to them, and they knew her and abused her all night until morning. And when the day began to break, they let her go. Just horrific. This poor woman. It's no wonder she left the Levite in the first place, if this was the kind of person that he was, to turn her out to a mom such as this.

He was not, frankly, a man of good standing before God either. Verse 26 says, And the woman came as the day was dawning, fell down at the door of the man's house, where her master was till it was light. And as her master arose in the morning and opened the doors of the house, and went out to go his way, there was this concubine, fallen at the door of the house, with her hands on the threshold.

And he said to her, Get up and let's be going. You know, not even, at least as is written, any compassion, any human compassion from this man towards this poor woman. Get up and let's be going. But there was no answer. So the man lifted her onto his donkey, and the man got up, and he went to his place. When he entered his house, he took a knife, he laid hold of his concubine, divided her into twelve pieces limb by limb, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel.

Every leader of every tribe received a package. Can you imagine what it would be like to open that package and read the correspondence that came with it? Verse 30, And so it was, that all who saw it, said, No such deed has been done, or seen from this day, that the children of Israel came up from the land of Egypt, until this day, consider it, confer, and speak up.

Something has to be done about this. And as you would expect, the whole nation responded in outrage over what had occurred. Israel done a number of things since leaving Egypt, a number of things that did not please God, but to come to something this low and this repulsive, was something that created outrage in the nation. And it illustrates how far things had sunk to the point that then certain parts of the tribes of Israel had reduced themselves to the level of Sodom and Gomorrah. The prophet Hosea later cites this episode as one of the most corrupt events in Israel's history.

Hosea 9, verse 9. You can write that in your notes. Hosea 9, verse 9. A reference in other places as well, just in retrospect of, you know, you think it's evil now, it's evil like in the days of Gibeah, is sort of how the reference goes, when Israel had come to such a point of decline that they were deplorable in the eyes of God. So that brings us to Judges, chapter 20.

And as I said now, this just gets the ball rolling for a chain reaction, as everyone does what is right in their own eyes. Judges, chapter 20 begins with a council consisting of the other 11 tribes of Israel that's held at Mispah. Benjamin was invited, but they did not attend.

And as the tribe and the leadership and the warriors gathered together, the Levite gives testimony as to what happens and what occurred. And upon hearing it, all of Israel determined to take action against the evil men of Gibeah. They're going to enforce the law of God, because God's law called for death in such cases.

And frankly, this is not just a perverted sexual activity, this was an idolatrous activity as well. You go back into Deuteronomy, and there's even instructions that if a city goes south, you can destroy the city and wipe idolatry out completely. If somebody has come in who's an idolater and has gained ground, then throughout the population, you had the right and the law from God to go in and wipe out that city completely. So they're going to demand these men be turned over.

They form a delegation. They go to Gibeah. They demand the surrender of these men. And what happens is the entire tribe of Benjamin then rallies to Gibeah's support. If we pick this up in Judges 20, verse 14, it says, We should understand in all of this, it's not like every individual of the tribe of Benjamin agreed with what went on and condoned that.

But all 12 tribes were sovereign tribes. They had their land and their territory and their elders and their leaders that oversaw enforcement of law, within their tribe. So you have the 11 tribes show up on Gibeah's doorstep and demand justice. Benjamin responds with, Hey, this is our territory and we'll enforce our own laws. Thank you very much. And Israel says, Excuse me, this is a national matter.

This is a sin against all of Israel and we're going to enforce the law. And Benjamin says, You're not going to enforce the law in our territory.

So what began then as began as a punitive action against one city escalates into all-out civil war in its 11 tribes, verses 1.

Verse 15 says, The men who were left-handed, everyone could sling a stone at a hair's breath and not miss. Pretty incredible, actually. Other than arrows, a stone would have been the artillery of the day. And you get somebody that can whip a sling around and let a stone fly. Some commentary say a stone up to one pound, they could fling at 90 miles an hour with incredible accuracy. So you could take somebody out before they got in close enough range for hand-to-hand combat.

And that's what David did with Goliath. And here Gibeah has 700 of these select men in their military.

So we have Benjamin here. They fielded an army of 26,000 against 400,000, which is the army that the other 11 tribes had brought. 400,000 men is the biggest army that Israel had assembled up to this point since being in the Promised Land. And sadly, it wasn't to go and fight or push out the Canaanites in their midst. It wasn't to go and fight the Philistines or any of the other surrounding nations. It was to fight their own brothers in their own nation. 400,000 men.

Verse 18, jumping down, it says, And the children of Israel arose, went up to the house of God to inquire of God. They said, Which of us shall go up first to battle against the children of Benjamin? And the Lord said, Judah first. You notice they didn't say, God, what should we do? How should we handle this? They said, God, we're going to war, and who should go first? So God said, Okay, Judah's your strongest fighting force. Judah first. So the children of Israel rose in the morning. They camped against Gibeah. And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin. And the men of Israel put themselves into battle array to fight against them at Gibeah. And the children of Benjamin came out of Gibeah, and on that day they cut down to the ground 22,000 men of the Israelites. Just, I can only wrap my mind around what hand-to-hand combat in the field with 22,000 casualties even looks like. It's gruesome, and it's brutal.

Verse 22, and the people, that is, the men of Israel, encouraged themselves, and again formed the battle line, at the place where they put themselves in array on the first day. Then the children of Israel went up and wept before the Lord until evening, and asked counsel of the Lord, saying, Shall I again draw near for battle against the children of my brother Benjamin? And the Lord said, Go up against them. So the children of Israel approached the children of Benjamin on the second day, and Benjamin went out against them from Gibeah on the second day and cut down to the ground, 18,000 more of the children of Israel, all those who drew the sword. Then all the children of Israel, that is, all the people, went up and came to the house of God, and they wept. And they sat there before the Lord. They fasted that day until evening. They offered burnt offerings and the peace offerings before the Lord.

So this might seem kind of confusing because we have a just war going on here. Right? Punishment is going to be executed, and you have 11 tribes that are fighting against the one. God had even told them, Judah, go first, but then they suffered these two stunning defeats as they come out against an army that they outnumber 15 to one. And we might wonder why.

You know, why would God allow that to happen? Why so many casualties on? I mean, aren't they the good guys? They're forcing the law of God. Well, the Bible doesn't exactly say why, but it could be that God wasn't especially happy with the 11 other tribes either. In fact, the way that they conducted themselves did what was right in their eyes, had idolatry in their midst.

I mean, they were going out to fight a just war in the sense of judgment coming on Gibeah and these men, but perhaps there were some things that God wanted them to learn as well. Perhaps the other 11 tribes needed to be humbled before they were in a position then to go out and do the work of God in His service. I mean, what about the idolatry in their midst?

It can be easy to sit back and point and look at somebody else's problem and justify why you've got to intervene and fix that, but perhaps if we're going to be instruments in God's hands, we should look at ourselves first and consider if we're right with God. Either way, what we do see is that they were driven to fasting and sacrificing to God, something that was quite uncommon during the period of the Judges, and seemingly these defeats at least drove them to a place of being humbled before God.

Verse 27, So the children of Israel inquired of the Lord, so that the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days, and Phineas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days. Again, this would be now Aaron's grandson, who is the high priest. Take that time frame from the end of the book of Judges and back it up to nearly the beginning. Eleazar, the son of Aaron, Phineas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, stood before it in those days before the ark, saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of my brother Benjamin, or shall I cease? And the Lord said, Go up, for tomorrow I will deliver them into your hand.

And the next day the tribes go out, they fight against Benjamin, God delivers Benjamin into their hands, and the defeat, frankly, is quite easy. God gives him the victory. The Benjamin army is defeated, justice is served on Gibeah, justice is served on the evil men of that city. But what we need to understand is the story doesn't stop there. And what happens next is not what God wanted.

Verse 46, Judges 20, verse 46 says, So all who fell in Benjamin that day were 25,000 men who drew the sword. All these were men of valor. It was their army. Verse 46, so all who fell of Benjamin, again 25,000, 47 says, But 600 men turned and fled towards the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, and they stayed at the rock of Rimmon for four months. And what did Israel do during those four months?

Verse 48, and the men of Israel turned back against the children of Benjamin, and they struck them down with the edge of the sword from every city. Men and beasts and all who were found, they also set fire to the cities as they came to them. Not only did they enact the punishment on Gibeah, something that God had given them permission to do, but they also struck down every man, every woman, every child throughout the nation, through the territory of Benjamin.

Killed them all. God didn't tell them to do that. They destroyed them all, except for the 600 who were up in the stronghold. It's a very sad story, brethren. It's a very difficult story in some sense to read. It is what happens when individuals do what is right in their own eyes. A tribe was wiped out because now not following what God had given them to do, but following the dictates of their own heart and what seemed right to them.

But now there's a problem. You go and you slaughter the whole territory of people, the whole tribe. You leave 600 men and no women. Now there's a problem. There's a problem of a tribe going extinct. There's a problem because there are supposed to be 12 tribes that would be counted in Israel. There's to be an inheritance for 12 tribes.

There were promises that were made to 12 tribes, and there's prophecies as well that are given for 12 tribes. And one of them has been hunted down to the point of near extinction. This could be why God allowed the other 11 to suffer the defeat they did up front. Clearly, their heart before God was not right either. Anyone who would wipe out a whole tribe of innocent old men, women, and children is obviously not right in the eyes of God.

And these were their brethren. So rather than go ask God what they should have done, they took it upon themselves to do what seemed right. And even from this point forward, how are we going to solve this problem? Rather than asking God what should be done, they do what is right in their own eyes. Judges 21, verse 1, says, "...Now the men of Israel had sworn an oath at Mispa, saying, None of us shall give his daughter to Benjamin as wife." You know, we're not even going to assist in the repopulation of that tribe.

Verse 2, "...Then the people came to the house of God and remained there before God until evening. They lifted up their voices, and they wept bitterly. And they said, O Lord God of Israel, why has it come to pass in Israel, that today there should be one tribe missing in Israel? And so it was on the next morning that the people rose early, they built an altar there, and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.

Then children of Israel said, Who is there among all the tribes of Israel who did not come up with the assembly to the Lord? For they made a great oath concerning anyone who did not come up to the Lord at Mispa, saying, He shall surely be put to death." You know, anyone that didn't send a portion of the army then to go and fight when they went up to fight against Benjamin.

Verse 6, "...And the children of Israel grieved for Benjamin their brother. And they said, One tribe is cut off from Israel today. What shall we do for wives for those who remain, seeing as we have sworn by the Lord that we shall not give our daughters as wives?" Again, Benjamin would not recover from 600 men into a full tribe without wives, which is another reason the time frame puts us near the beginning of the Book of Judges, because if you look at Benjamin during the time of the kings, they could not have recovered to those numbers so quickly.

But again, what are they going to do? They promised they would not give their daughters. They had made a foolish oath. Again, it seemed right to them. But how are we going to fix this? Well, another way that seems right.

Verse 8, They said, What one is there from the tribes of Israel who did not come up to Misba to the Lord? And in fact, no one had come from the camp of Jabesh Gilead to the assembly. For the people were counted, and indeed none of the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead were there. So the children or the congregation sent out there 12,000 of their most valiant men, and commanded them, saying, Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead with the edge of the sword, including the women and the children.

And this is the thing that you shall do. You shall utterly destroy every male and every woman who has known a man intimately. And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead 400 young virgins who had not known a man intimately, and they brought them to the camp of Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan. So again, what seemed right in their eyes, they now go and slaughter a region. Men, women, and children. And what happens of one rash action follows another rash action, blood after blood. They should have inquired of God, but they did not.

And they still didn't solve the problem. Verse 13, because they brought 400, okay, from that slaughter, there were 600 men. Verse 13, And the whole congregation sent word to the children of Benjamin, who were at the rock of Raimund and announced peace to them. So Benjamin came back at that time, and they gave them the women who they have saved alive from the women of Jabesh Gilead, and yet they had not found enough for them.

Verse 15, And the people grieved for Benjamin, because the Lord had made a void in the tribes of Israel. And so they put their heads together, and right, they cried out to God, afraid not. Came up with another bright idea.

Israel had made an oath. We're not giving our daughters, so what shall we do? Well, since we're not giving our daughters, we'll come up with this little system where they can take our daughters. And we're just not going to object. Verse 19, Then they said, In fact, there is a yearly feast of the Lord in Shiloh, which is north of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south to Lebanon. He says, Therefore, they instructed the children of Benjamin, saying, Go lie and wait in the vineyards, and watch. And when the daughters of Shiloh come out to perform their dances, then come out from the vineyards, and every man catch a wife for himself from the daughters of Shiloh, then go to the land of Benjamin. You can't make up a story like this. It's craziness.

Oh, it seemed right to them. They made an oath, and how are we going to get around this oath? Because we made the oath because we slaughtered a tribe. How are we going to get around slaughtering a tribe? It is the effect over and over and over, and doing what is right in their own eyes. This seemed right. Verse 22, Then it shall be, when their fathers or their brothers come to us to complain, that we will say to them, Be kind to them for our sakes, because we did not take a wife for any of them in the war. For it is not as though you have given your women to them at this time, making yourself guilty of your oath. You're saying, look, you're not going to break your oath if you just sort of let them kidnap your daughters to be their wives. And it shows, again, the result of you will tie yourself into a pretzel to try to get around fixing the last thing you did that was right in your eyes, because you were trying to fix the last thing that was right in your eyes. What should Israel have done? You know, at any point along the way, they could have stopped. What should they have done? Well, I want to quote to you from, again, the United Church of God Bible commentary on this point. It says, quote, Following through on the intent of their oaths would have put them into an untenable position from their vantage point. Of course, that was the problem. They were looking at things from their own vantage point. It says, what they should have been more concerned about was what God's will was. Thus, they should first have repented for making foolish vows to begin with. Then they should have returned to Phineas, the high priest, and inquired of God about what to do. If they were truly seeking the Lord, He would have given them an answer. And God's direct commands always override any vow. Indeed, if a father could void his daughter's vow and a husband could void his wife's vow, God can certainly void the vows of Israel who was his daughter by creation and his wife by covenant. Furthermore, no vow is binding if it obligates one to violate commands of God which are already given. The real solution in such circumstances is, as has already been stated, humble repentance, something that was sorely lacking in the period of the Judges when everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

They should have gone to God, they should have repented, they should have sought God's will, and God's answer, and not their own. Verse 23 says, And it wraps up with the summary statement once again.

Again, brethren, the lesson for us today is that man defining for himself what is right in good as a recipe for disorder and disaster. Again, it comes back to what is right in the eyes of God. What did God say to do and how did He say to do it? And then how are we going to follow through and do it in response to Him? So it comes back to what's right in God's eyes, not our own, because God was their king. God was their king. But the problem was they didn't look to God as king. And there's not a big problematic system in the Judges. Judges' time period was set up to work with the tribes and the leaders of the tribes and the elders without a physical king. It was set up to work because God was their king if they would have looked to Him. But they did not, and they did what was right in their own eyes. In my opinion, this mindset is the single biggest threat to the church of God today as well. Each person doing what is right in his own eyes. And I would just say the more things change, the more they seem to stay the same. So, brethren, for all of us, we need to watch ourselves. We need to consider what God's word says. The warning from the book of Judges is that we must all be on the lookout for this mindset. And it's one that has proven absolutely destructive time and time and time again among the people of God. Brethren, let us never forget that there is indeed a king in spiritual Israel today. There is indeed a king in spiritual Israel today. And in light of that fact, let us never live according to our own self-willed focus. But let us seek to do what is right and proper and good in the eyes of God.