Jump Start # 3504

Judges 21:25 “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

Our verse today not only ends the book of Judges, but it ends one of the saddest and darkest stories in the Bible. It begins two chapters before, in chapter 19, which starts, “Now it came about in those days, when there was no king in Israel…” This section begins with this and our verse ends this section, like bookmarks.

A Levite had a concubine. She had been unfaithful to him. From Bethlehem, the concubine’s fathers home, they head towards Ephraim, where the Levite lived. They reach Gibeah, where an old man invites them in to stay the night. It is here where the worst things take place. The men of Gibeah, Benjamites, surround the house and demand that the Levite be given to them for homosexual pleasures. The Levite passes his concubine out to the crowd. They ravish her all night and in the morning the Levite finds her dead at the doorstep. He cuts her into pieces and sends them to the tribes of Israel. Anger boils. Justice is demanded. When the tribe of Benjamin refuses to hand over the rapists, war breaks out. In total, 57,000 were killed between Benjamin and Israel. The tribe of Benjamin was nearly wiped out. To prevent that, women were taken from Jabesh-gilead and Shiloh to be wives to the men of Benjamin and to keep the tribe surviving.

There are layers of things in this story that bothers me. It seems that no one cares for the concubine, even the Levite who had her. One would think that the Levite ought to have come out to that crowd with swords waving and fought to the death for the protection of this woman. But he doesn’t. He is the one who opens the door and hands her to the lustful crowd. Her name is never used. The Levite refers to her as “concubine.”

This is a tough section to teach, especially to children. This is a tough passage to preach. God has put this story in His book for a reason. All Scripture is profitable, even this one.

Here are a few lessons:

First, without moral leadership and divine instruction, there is no depth to which man will sink. Hell has no bottom. Could that be the reason this story is book cased with “there was no king in Israel.” No leadership. No direction.

What does this tell us about the home? Leaving kids to make up their own rules and their own minds is to simply open the door to trouble and evil. I have seen on the nightly news multiple times, a tearful mother watching her teenage son, handcuffed, being put in a police car for shooting another person. The mother wails, “He’s a good boy.” Is he? Good people do not shoot others. Without responsibility, accountability and a moral compass, the worst is possible.

Second, the people of Benjamin where God’s people. You would think that they had heard about Lot and the wickedness of Sodom. The cycle of sin repeats and repeats when one ignores the lessons from God’s word. One would expect such wickedness from pagans, but not the people of God. All of this shows us that one can belong to God in name, but not in heart. The old man pleaded with the crowd to stop this foolishness and wickedness. But, with eyes full of adultery, as Peter uses that term, they would not listen nor be reasoned.

Third, a lot of people died because of this wickedness. A short civil war took place in Israel. Much so often, one deed leads to multiple consequences that have long and lasting impacts. People died because of this wicked deed. Many people died. Satan blinds our eyes to the consequences of sin. All we see is the pleasure. All we see is the moment. The only day on Satan’s calendar is “today.” He never thinks beyond this day.

Fourth, the concubine was treated like trash. Even in death, she wasn’t given a decent burial. Chopped up and sent among the tribes, she was abused in death like she was abused in life. No one seemed to care for her. She had no protection, help or savior. The justice that comes after her death seems too late. Reverence for life is missing in this story. This story lacks compassion.

And, could it be, that all of this is pointing to the One true King of Israel, Jesus. Without THE KING, we are lost. Without THE KING we act like animals. Without THE KING the way we treat one another is shameful and harmful.

Israel would soon get a king. That wouldn’t help them much. Another king, would follow, David. Within his own family, there would be rape and bloodshed. More kings. The nation doesn’t change much. It’s not until the true King of Kings, Jesus, is there hope. You and I find this story disgusting and wrong. If we could tear a page out of the Bible, this would it. We feel this way because we have a sense of right and wrong within us. We have a moral compass that we are following. We understand compassion and decency. We know the golden rule.

We have a King—and that makes all the difference.

Roger

Jump Start # 1458

Judges 21:25 “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

  Our verse today is how the book of Judges ends. The four hundred years covered by in Judges was a time of turmoil and ups and downs. There is a cycle that is repeated over and over throughout Judges. The nation would leave God. An oppressing nation would punish Israel. They would cry out to God. A judge would deliver them. And in a short while, the nation would repeat the cycle again.

Four times in Judges the statement, ‘There was no king in Israel’ is found. Twice the statement, “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” is used.

Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

1. This shows without a leader, without a shepherd, the sheep or the nation, tends to degenerate to doing what is fun, easy and profitable for self. Self becomes the standard. Self becomes the rule. This is why homes need parents. Not just adults to pay the mortgage and buy the food, but adults to be the standard. Allow a child to set his own bedtime and it will be chaos. Allow a child to decide if he wants to go to school and he will choose to stay home and watch TV. God has designed leaders to do just that, lead. The same principle is found within God’s church. Without leaders, the church flounders. We tend to do what is right in our own eyes.

God’s structure in the home and in the church is not a democracy. If a vote were taken at home, between paying the mortgage or using the money to go to Disney, the parents would be out voted. It’s not a democracy. Kids will scream, “It’s not fair.” They say that because they don’t get to do what they want. It is fair because they are too young to make the responsible decisions. Parents today must be the bad guys at times and set forth the rules.

2. Without a standard, everything is right and nothing is wrong. Anything goes. Your rules, your laws do not apply to me, because I make my own rules. Does any of this sound like what is going on in our streets today? An injustice takes place so the citizens riot. They burn buildings, they block traffic and get the crowd fired up to do wrong things. They do not see that they have broken laws themselves. Because someone else broke the law, then they can break the law.

The Jews did this at the trial of Jesus. They had a trial to make it look like what they were doing was civil and right. They could not find anyone to verify criminal chargers against Jesus so false witnesses were used. These false witnesses were not consistent. “Thou shalt not bear false witness,” was one of the 10 Commandments. They broke the law to try to find Jesus guilty.

The same happens when someone says something that isn’t appropriate. They should not have said what they did. For some reason, that gives others the permission to gossip about that person. They have no problems breaking the rules about gossip because the other person said something that he shouldn’t have.

Without a standard, everything is right and nothing is wrong.

3. There was a standard, it was not followed. Israel had the Law of Moses. That was the standard that defined the nation. That was the rule from Heaven. There was no need for everyone to do what was right in their own eyes because they had a rule. It was not followed. The law was supposed to be taught in the home. Each person was responsible for following the law. That alone, would have unified the nation and set forth the rules of the land. It didn’t. It didn’t because the people didn’t. The law was there. It was ignored by the people.

What we take from all of this is that you are I are personally responsible for the way we live. The laws of our country may not be enforced, but we can still go by them. There may be disorder in the statehouse, but we can follow what is right. God’s laws remain the same whether people follow them or not.

“I’m going to do what I feel like,” is nothing more than living like Israel in the book of Judges. “You can’t tell me what to do,” is the same thing. “You have no right to judge me,” is another indication of the same. Common expressions for a very old problem, are we going to follow and abide by what God says or not?

The child of God will do what is right, because that is what he is supposed to do. Doing what is right may not be easy, popular or even to his personal best interest, but it’s right. Simple things such as not throwing trash out of your car as you drive down the road. Not a big deal, right? It’s the principle. If I can ignore the rules about liter, I can ignore the rules about driving, I can ignore the rules about taxes, I can ignore the rules about safety. I can do what I want. There we are, back to the days of Judges. If a person can just obey the laws that they want, can’t we do the same in church? Can’t we do the same in marriage? Can’t we do the same in any area? There we go, back to the days of Judges.

Do what is right. Do what is right because God is the standard. Do what is right because lawlessness or a law unto ourselves isn’t right. If I can’t do what the law of the land says, how can I do what the law of Heaven says? Maybe, just maybe that’s the problem today. What God says doesn’t matter to folks. They will worship the way that they want to worship. They will apply the passages that they want to apply. And by so doing this, we have traveled back to the days of Judges and find ourselves doing what is right in our own eyes.

The horror of all of this is someday we will stand before God. People who feel that they are right, because they have lived a life of doing what is right in their own eyes, will find out that they may very well be wrong with God. Right in our eyes may not have been right in His eyes. Then, for the first time, people who thought they were right will find out that they were wrong. Isn’t this the very thing spoken about in Matthew 7:21-23, where Jesus says, “Depart from Me you who practice lawlessness?”

We must be sure that we are right with the Lord. There is but one way to do that and that is to follow and obey His word.

Roger