Judges 21

Hey, hey, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to coffee and devotions. This morning we are at Judges chapter 21. The last chapter of Judges kind of continues on in this story of what's happened with Benjamin. There's this evil story about, you know, this Levite guy and this girl from Bethlehem and she's his concubine and this gang rape. It's just a horrible story, right? Her gang rape. And then they go down and all Israel is gathered together and they they go and avenge that wickedness. But now what happens to the tribe of Benjamin? What happens is should we be saying that there's 11 tribes of Abraham instead of 12? I'll have some coffee. We'll pray and we'll get into the last chapter. Pretty sobering chapter still of the book of Judges. Let's have some coffee and we'll pray. Let's pray. God, we thank you so much for this day. Lord, you've given us a day that we can read your word and we pray that we would understand it. We pray that your Holy Spirit would please teach us, instruct us, lead us. God, we pray that you would guide us into truth. We pray that we would understand who you are. That we would be taught by your Holy Spirit how we should live. Lord, please let us walk in your ways in Jesus's name. Amen. Here we go. We're going to wrap up the book of Judges this morning. Now, the men of Israel had sworn an oath at Mispa, saying, "None of us shall give his daughter to Benjamin as a wife." Then the people came to the house of God and remained there before God till evening. They lifted up their voices and wept bitterly and said,"Oh Lord God of Israel, why has this come to pass in Israel that today there should be one tribe missing in Israel?" So it came to pass on the next morning that the people rose early and built an altar there and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. The 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 had made a great oath concerning anyone who had not come up to the Lord at Misb, saying, "He shall surely be put to death." And the children of Israel grieved for Benjamin their brother, and said, "One tribe is cut off from Israel today. What shall we do for wives? For those who remain, seeing we have sworn by the Lord that we shall not give them our daughters as wives. And they said, there is one, what one is there from the tribe of Israel who did not come up from up to Misba to the Lord. And in fact, no one had come up to the camp from Jabeshgilead to the assembly. For when the people were counted, indeed not one of the inhabitants of Jabes Gilead were there. So the congregation sent out there 12,000 of their most valiant men and commanded them, saying, "Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabes Gilead in the with the edge of the sword, including the women and 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. So they found among the inhabitants of Jesad 400 young virgins who had not known a man intimately and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan. Then the whole congregation sent word to the children of Benjamin who were at the rock of Ramon and announced peace to them. So the Benjam So Benjamin came back at that time and they gave them the women whom they had saved alive of the women of Jabashgilead. Yet they had not found enough for them. And the ch and the people grieved for Benjamin because the Lord had not or because the Lord had made a void in the tribes of Israel. Then the elders of the congregation said, "What shall we do for wives for those who remain since the women of Benjamin have been destroyed?" And they said, "There must be an inheritance for the survivors of Benjamin. That a tribe may not be destroyed from Israel. However, we cannot give them wives from our daughters, for the children of Israel have sworn an oath, saying, "Cursed be the one who gives a wife to Benjamin. Then they said, "In fact, there is a yearly feast of the Lord in Shiloh, which is north of Bethl, one on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethl to Sheckchham, and south of Leabona." Therefore, they instructed the children of Benjamin, saying, "Go, lion, wait in the vineyards, and watch. And just 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. Then it shall be when their fathers or their brothers come out 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 the women to them at this time, making yourselves guilty of your oath. And the children of Benjamin did so. And they took enough wives for for the number from those who dance whom they caught. Then they went and returned to their inheritance, and they built rebuilt the cities and dwelt in them. So the children of Israel departed from there at that time. Every man to his tribe and family. They went out from there, every man to his inheritance. In those days, there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Well, we got to ask ourselves our three questions. A, what's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do? So, what's this about? There's been this horrible war, right? Three waves of battles. There's only a tiny remnant left. Tens of thousands of people have died and the tribes are sad, right? Why is the Lord allowed a whole tribe to be destroyed? And they got a problem. They had made an oath. They knew that it was only a matter of time until those few who were remaining at the rock of Ramon would, you know, they get old, they die, and there wouldn't be any children. And so, they needed pro preserves wives. But they made an oath almost like we're back at the Jeepa story, right? They made this oath thing. None of us will ever give our daughters to be their wives. They're not going to do this inter uh tribal marrying. And so they got to find out a way for it. And guys, this is just a messed up story, right? This is where legalism just gets in the way of stuff. Instead of recognizing, man, we we made a foolish vow. We made an oath. That was wrong. And so what do they do? Well, what tribe didn't go out? No, JB. Gilead didn't go out. And so they they treat a town who didn't join in their warfare. I'm sure in their minds they thought these are the people who don't didn't care about this atrocity. They didn't care about this at all. They didn't send a single person here. And so they must not even really be Israelites. And so they send some of their most valiant men. And notice they destroy everyone of Jabes Gilead. This is of the halftribe of Manasseh on the other side of the Jordan River. They kill them. All the women and children. They only keep the virgins alive. They treat them with a with a law of warfare that they were supposed to treat non-Israelites with. I'm convinced that this is most likely a violation of the laws about taking slaves. They weren't allowed to do this. They were not allowed to treat the women this way. They weren't allowed to treat the Israel their fellow Israelites this way. But yet here they find it and then they okay they they go and they tell these guys at the rock of Ramon, hey, hey guys, we're at peace, right? And so they give them the all these ladies, but then they find out they don't have enough ladies for all the guys who are there. So what do they do? They concoct a second plan and they go back to their oath. Oh no, hand ringing. We we we made this oath. We made these vows. We can't do anything, but we don't want to lose a tribe. So, what do we do? Oh, we know what we'll do. We'll kidnap the ladies. And the rabbis, I'll talk about this in a second, but the rabbis say this is like the 15th of Av. And so, it's the the harvest time for the grapes in the summer. And so, they're coming out and and they're dancing, right? Shiloh is where the tabernacle was. This is supposed to be a time of great joy. and instead they're getting kidnapped, stolen away again. This is evil. This is wrong. But everybody just goes back home. Why is all this happening? Well, in those days, there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. That's what I have underlined, by the way. It's the best verse to summarize this section. Maybe you might underline, you know, uh verse verse two would al or sorry, verse three, I think would also be a a good one to underline as well, but the later Jewish rabbis would kind of try to clean this up a little bit and and and would say it's an atrocity and things like that, but they would say, "Oh, well, these women were coming out and they would be dressed in white and and this was the the lifting of intertribal kind of isolation, right? So you you were now allowed to marry from the children of Ephraim where Shiloh was. Now these children of Benjamin or these men of Benjamin could marry them and they they almost whitewashed this into this this joyous day. I know this is ugly. This is a horrible ugly event. We should not whitewash it. And I don't think the scripture whitewash it. I think in there's a reason why there's the estimation the very last words of judges in those days there was no king in Israel everyone did what was right in his own eyes not following the Lord making rash vows just doing stuff following biblical principle murdering entire towns wiping ing them off the face of the planet, treating their wives like women of war, kidnapping young girls who were who were joyful going to the tabernacle. Couldn't imagine sending my daughter to go to a church event. And on her way home, other religious leaders concocted a plan to find a legal loophole around some type of oath and my daughter get kidnapped and sold away forever. It's evil. It's wicked. It's wrong. This is the despising of the scheming of men. So what's this about? Right? This is this is a scheming of the tribes to get women for Benjamin. It's a hard story. So what are we called to do? There was still a king in Israel. Jehovah himself at Shiloh there at the tabernacle where those young women were dancing where the worship of God and the sacrifices of God were happening. There was a holy of holies with an ark and mercy seat upon that ark. God was on his throne and the people wouldn't see it. God was there and attached to the ark was the book of the covenant and no one's reading it. They're coming up with schemes. They're coming up with their own ideas. They're doing whatever they want, but they're now asking what does the Lord want? They had asked who will go up to who will go up to war against Benjamin first. They had done that. They had made sacrifices, but they had not asked the Lord if this was his plan. There's no mention of that anywhere here. How often do we do that in our own lives? How often do we try to fix our own sinful decisions by our own more sinful decisions? How often do we make rash declarations and rash vows and and head run headlong into just doing things and not stopping and asking the Lord God, the King of Kings, what do you say about this? How frequently do the problems in my life reflect my lack of piety and holiness? My lack of recognizing that Jesus is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And yet God still doesn't turn his back on these people. This is the amazing thing that I Sorry, my nose is disappearing here. This is one of the amazing things to me about all the Old Testament. You would, man. If I was God, I'm so judgmental that if I was God, I'd just be like, you know, just wash my hands of these people. I just these just silly, stupid people. Thank God he's not like me. But he's gracious and he's kind, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. Someday there would come a king would come a king from Bethlehem and he would rise up. And my question is, do we follow that king today? By this they will know that you are my disciples two ways. They'll see it by knowing we love one another. And if we keep his commandments, do we listen to him? Do we love others as we would want to be loved? Do we love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength? And when we fail, and boy are we going to fail, do we trust in Christ as our only hope? He is the substance of our faith. And he is the Lord of our lives. He redeemed you. Your king redeemed you. Follow him, Christian. May you not do whatever is right in your own eyes, but may you seek the will of Jesus Christ, your king of kings. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you are gracious towards us. You did not wipe your hands of us, thinking we were so stupid, that we don't deserve mercy. Lord, we don't deserve mercy, but you are good and kind and gracious and patient and loving. And so, Father, please teach us to walk in your ways. Let us let us father be more and more conformed to likeness of Christ. Fill us with your spirit. Empower us Lord to know that you are our king and to do what is right in your eyes in Jesus's name. Amen. Well, may you live your life today knowing that it is before the very face of God. And may you know that his face, if you are in Christ, is shining upon you. May he be gracious to you and keep you. I'll see you next time. Bye.