Judges 19 Bible Study (A Levite and His Concubine/Gibeah's Crime) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

Judges chapter 19 is our text tonight as we are reaching the other side of the tunnel of this gloomy, dark, sparing book. Chapter like this. And trust me, to try to pull out practical principles from a story that you're about to discover is not an easy task. But we're gonna trust that the Holy Spirit is gonna lead us through this, and we will draw what we believe he has for us to draw from. And what you and I are about to read is a familiar phrase in in verse one.

We read in chapter 19 verse one, in those days when there is no king in Israel. We've seen that before, we've heard that enough for it to be something that we can confidently say is the umbrella theme of this book. But remember this, just be reminded of this, this is not just speaking about a broken political system in Israel's day. This is speaking about God's lack of authority and sovereign rule over this nation. There wasn't a human king instituted at this point.

God was their king. And so when we say that there is no king in Israel, obviously there was no spiritual guidance of a man who feared God, but more importantly, there was a lack of an acknowledgment, enthronement of the Lord of hosts. And so again, we see this phrase because we are being warned what is about to transpire, what you're about to read of is a result of this. It's a result of a person, a people, a tribe, a nation refusing to make God their king. And that is true for you as an individual.

That is true for America, for any other nation in this world, any time of history. And so we see here that there's another story of a Levite. Don't mistake this Levite for the Levite that we studied about last week. This is a completely different individual and we're about to find out that he is no better, if not worse than the Levite that we studied last time we were together. And so we read again from verse one.

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. What do we see already at fault here? There's two things, but what's the first thing from our last time we studied about a Levite? What is he doing wrong here? He's sojourning.

He's traveling along and he's supposed to be somewhere. He's supposed to be at the house of God, either as a priest or serving and assisting the priest, and he's not doing that. He's just wandering around. And not only is he wandering around, we would think that he is wandering around looking for a place. Right?

That's what we learned about the last Levite. He was looking for a place. He was looking for somebody to hire him because evidently he wasn't working at the tabernacle, maybe there was no work at the tabernacle, whatever the case may be. But in this case, this Levite is not wandering looking for a place. Scroll down to verse 18 of the same chapter and read what he says later on.

This is the priest, the Levite speaking. And he says, and he said to him, we are passing from Bethlehem and Judah to the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim from which I come. I went to Bethlehem and Judah to do what? And I am going to the house of the Lord, but no one has taken me into his house. Assuming that he is honest, we would say that this is a refreshing sight.

Is it not? Here's a man, a Levite that wants to go where God wants him to be. Either to fulfill his duty as a priest or to worship the Lord in the only place that you're allowed to worship the Lord at the time. But as we read on in this chapter, we're gonna realize whether that was a true motive or not, it's irrelevant to the series of events that are gonna take place. His ambition to go to the house of the Lord means nothing based on the actions that he's going to prove that contradict any conviction that he might have.

But let's just assume that that is what he wants. He's he's on his way to the house of the Lord but on the way, we read in verse one that he finds a concubine. A concubine. You've read that word if you read the old testament, but what is a concubine? It's simply this, it is a lawful marital relationship but a concubine was a wife of secondary status.

She was a female servant. Now let's make it clear right off the get go. God did not approve of this kind of relationship. This is not something authorized by God, instituted by God. This was something that they had developed most likely from other cultures that were around them.

But this Levite has a concubine and a concubine was taken care of by her husband, but she did not have the same rights as a wife. And oftentimes a man would take a concubine for one or two reasons. One, to either have sexual pleasure or to have somebody to bear children because his wife was barren. Either way, it's not justified. It's not something that God praises.

It's not something that God commends. In fact, with this great question that many believers have about polygamy in the Bible, I challenge you to do just one thing. Okay? We can spend the next thirty minutes talking about polygamy in the bible. We've done that in the past in Deuteronomy.

So go through Deuteronomy if you want to see an extensive answer, but realize this, a simple observation. Point to any example of a man in a polygamous relationship and you will not find God's blessing in that family. Specifically, in that family relationship, in that marital relationship. And even the greatest men of God had concubines and just look at the disaster of that relationship between him and his wives. It never ended well.

And so that alone showed throughout the scriptures that this was not something that God approved of. And the lack of blessing is enough proof of it. God had instituted from the beginning. One man, one woman for life. Death is the thing that separates and there's no other relationship that lines up like it.

He finds a concubine. What is he doing with a concubine? He's supposed to be monogamous. But then we read on in verse two, 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 for 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. So at one point in this relationship, adultery is committed. This concubine cheats on her husband and she's obviously either ashamed, grieved, embarrassed or angry to to walk away from that relationship and to go back and move with her father. And if the story stopped here, we could praise the husband because even though we know that unfaithfulness brings a major blow to so many factors that make a marriage whole, he still strives to reconcile.

We all know in the New Testament that God in Christ told us that adultery was the main license for any person, a righteous person, to divorce a spouse. But just because Christ gave that license doesn't mean you have to. Doesn't mean it's a it's a finality to that relationship. Even as something as hurtful and painful as adultery is not beyond the scope of healing, if you're walking with Christ and trusting in him again to bring restoration. But that's not the point of this.

That's not the point of the story. In fact, when he comes to speak kindly to her, we're gonna realize that those words mean nothing. Because what you say holds very little weight in comparison to what you do. If you've read the story, you know what this man is gonna do with the same woman. Right?

And so let me just give you a strong word here. To those who are easily persuaded by the speech of others, especially my young sisters in this house, doesn't matter what he says. Doesn't matter what kind of claims of love he showers you with. Let him prove it with his life. Let him prove it with his honor towards you and his fear of God and his relationship with you.

No matter how much he speaks or writes or makes poetry and tries to manipulate you to do something in the name of his perverted view of love. He can speak how he wants, then improve it with action. This man's words are gonna fail very quickly as we read on. And so he comes and we might think like, yeah, this this Levi is looking pretty good. I mean, we just heard he wants to go to the house of God.

He wants to restore a shattered relationship. It wasn't his fault. But we get the idea that there's something off about this relationship. He shows up to the house, the woman opens the door, there's no reaction on her part, and what you see in fact is the father more excited than she is. He's filled with joy.

Come in, come in, come in. And he hasn't come in and when you read the next few verses, there is this intense invitation on the father's part to remain and to be showered with lavish hospitality. And you're wondering what's the guy's motive? Now here's what we learn. What was the punishment for adultery in the Old Testament?

Death? Leviticus twenty ten tells us that both parties in the adulterous relationship should be put to death. And it could be that the father-in-law was so happy to know that this man wants to reconcile the relationship instead of instituting that law, that he makes sure to just cover him with so much love and appreciation, so that in the future he would never execute such a law and bring disgrace to his house. But the woman is irrelevant in this story now. She's pushed in the background.

And what you read here, let's just read it from verse four down. 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. And on the fourth day, they arose early in the morning and he prepared to go, but the girl's father said to his son-in-law, strengthen your heart with a morsel of bread and after that you may go. So the two of them sat and ate and drank together and the girl's father said to the man, be pleased to spend the night and let your heart be merry.

When the man rose up to go, his father-in-law pressed him till he spent the night there again. So listen, this could have been summarized in one verse. Could have been summarized that he spent four or five days with his father-in-law and he got up and moved on. But instead, we see this extensive detail drawn out interaction to prove something. And and yet we learn something perhaps from the father's side, but maybe there's something being said here of the Levite who is a priest.

What do you think you can draw out of this Levite with this interaction with his fallen love? Something of his character. He's easily persuaded. Not only easily persuaded, I mean, if you're supposed to be a spiritual leader and you know the condition of your nation and apparently we read later on that you're on your way to the house of the Lord, it doesn't seem like you're a very determined fellow. Doesn't seem like you have much discipline.

In fact, as we just heard, you're probably easily persuaded when lavish hospitality and treatment is offered to you. Not that celebration or fellowship is wrong, but this is extensive. This is something that says something of not just his attitude, but perhaps the general attitude of the spiritual leadership as a whole. There's no urgency. There's no concern.

There's no focus. I can't help but compare this man to another story and this is the beauty of comparing different texts. Do you remember Abraham's servant? When Abraham called his servant to go find a wife for his son Isaac? And when the servant was successful in finding somebody from his his master's own people, he finds the wife for Isaac and then he is told here in Genesis twenty four fifty five.

Her brother and mother said, let the young woman remain with us a while, at least ten days. After that, she may go. Now look how the servant responds in verse 56. But he said to them, do not delay me. Since the Lord has prospered my way, send me away that I may go to my master.

Different caliber of character there. Again, the father-in-law is hospitable and he's enjoying that. There's nothing saying wrong, but I think there's there's a reason why this is given to us. And in part, it says something about the Levite. Doesn't seem like he he's firm.

And just like the Levite that we studied last week, perhaps he doesn't have the backbone that the spiritual leadership of this day needed. And so what happens? Well, after finally staying one day after the next, we read that he moves on. Verse eight, and on the fifth day, he rose early in the morning to depart, and the girl's father said, strengthen your heart and wait until You mean he's not giving up? Strengthen your heart and wait until the day declines.

So they ate. So he does it again, both of them. And when the man and his concubine and his servant rose up to depart, his father-in-law, the girl's father said to them, behold, now the day has waned toward evening. Please spend the night. Behold, the day draws to its close.

Lodge here and let your heart be merry, and tomorrow you shall rise early in the morning for your journey and go home. I mean, I read this and I thought, how long do you want the guy to stay? I mean, you're not stopping here. But the man, verse 10, finally puts an end to this cycle and he says that it it says here that he rose and departed and arrived opposite of Jebus, that is Jerusalem. So he puts an end to this delay and he moves on.

And when he moves on, we are told that he comes to a place called Jebus, that is Jerusalem. He had with him a couple of saddled donkeys and his concubine was with him. Now this is an interesting place. Verse 11 says, when they drew near to Jebus and the day was nearly over, the servant said to his master, come now, let us turn aside to the city of the Jebusites and spend the night in it. The Jebusites were a tribe of people that were foreigners that still occupied a certain portion of the land of Canaan.

It wasn't until David's day that the Jebusites would be conquered and that Jerusalem would be the city of David. And so there is a there is a concern here, the fact that this has not been conquered yet, it's still occupied by pagan individuals. And so this Levite says something to his servant because now, we heard earlier in Judges that even during the day it was dangerous to travel in the land. How much more the night? And because of the delay of the father-in-law and the lack of discipline on this man's part, the journey came to a close very early, at least in part, because night was falling and they needed a place to lodge or else they were gonna be in trouble.

And so the servant says, let's just stay here in Jebus. Let's just stay right here. And look what the man says in verse 12, and the 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. There's no way. There's no way that we're gonna be vulnerable and expose ourselves in the night to those who do not have a relationship with our God.

Instead, we will head towards Gibeah, to our people, and surely, we'll be safe there. This is tragic. Do you know why it's tragic? Because this man didn't realize how wrong he was in his assessment of his own people. We should be like the Levite and having full assurance without a doubt that if we give ourselves not just to God, but God's people, we will ensure for ourselves a love, care, forgiveness, compassion, and mercy that will outshine the worlds.

And what do we find often? To our surprise that sometimes, the very place that's supposed to reflect the hands and feet of Jesus beat us with those same hands and feet. And so this man is gonna find out very shockingly that he was wrong, but we have to make a determination within ourselves that we will not make people doubt for a second that if they enter into this family, that they will experience something of the world. Do you think God is concerned about this in our day? You better believe it.

I wanna let you know that this is more than just a challenge for us in our personal lives to be great Christians. This is a challenge for the church. We have a corporate responsibility as believers in our own context how to deal with sojourners, visitors, the world, and people who are brothers and sisters from different local churches. There's a verse that came to mind when I was when I was reading this and it really blessed me because it it showed something of God's heart. Go to James for for a quick moment.

I want you to see this. In James chapter two, notice here in verse two. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, you sit here in a good place while you say to the poor man, you stand over there or sit down at my feet. Now, what James is teaching to God's people is something called partiality. Not having favoritism, not treating somebody better for external carnal reasons for the sake of your personal agenda and treating somebody else with less care, love, compassion and attention because you don't think they deserve it.

But you know what I take out of this in a very simple way? God cares about every single individual that steps into the assembly. Every single one. Whether he's rich, whether he's poor. You know what this is saying?

When they walk into your assembly, we're not even talking about people who are members of your church. We're talking about those who just come by and visit. Come by and visit. We want true religion. Right?

We want true spirituality. We don't like this. It's not spiritual enough. It's not it's not mystical enough. It's not supernatural enough.

Take a breath. It's not as wavy and crazy as you might think. It's very real and gutsy to be like Jesus. And what are we hearing here? When somebody comes into the assembly, when somebody visits on a Friday night, when somebody comes in on a Sunday morning, they should be given a special attention.

They should be given a grace, a love that will mark them even upon their first visitation. That's not to be weird or strange or to love bomb them in a way where they feel overwhelmed, but very practical means of just showing the love of Christ in which you've heard so many times from this pulpit that even Jesus on the Sermon of the Mount taught about how we should greet differently than the world greets. If you greet a brother, you're no different than the world, he says. What happens with this Levite? Let's go back to judges.

He's assuming that if he's gonna go to his own, that there's gonna be something of a security, of a safety, of a partnership, of assistance. And we scroll down here to verse 15. And they turned aside there to go in and spend the night at Gibeah. That belonged to the tribe of Benjamin. And he went in and sat down in the open square of the city for no one took them into his house to spend the night.

Now to you and I, that might not sound like a big deal. You go down to the city of Chicago and you you expect to be ignored by everybody. I mean some people in here have gone street evangelism, open air preaching and you know exactly what that feels like. You can be screaming at the top of your lungs and people will walk right by you as though you don't exist. This doesn't move us, but to anybody of this day reading this would have had their mouths on their and their hands on their mouths in utter shock.

Because hospitality was such a high virtue and still is in many portions of the Middle East. And it should be for the Christian. So to read this would have been appalling in this day. You're telling me, you're telling me that a sojourner walked through Gibeah and not one person inquired of him? Or at least invite him to come into the home?

In fact, they come to the open square and this man with his young male servant with his concubine are sitting there. Nobody giving them attention. People walking by, people going to their own homes and it's getting darker and darker. And all for a sudden we see something in verse 16. And behold an old man was coming from his work in the field that evening.

The man was from the hill country of Ephraim and he was sojourning in Gibeah. So this man is not even from the tribe of Benjamin. This man is not a citizen of Gibeah necessarily. He's from Ephraim, an outsider. And we're being told repeatedly an outsider, not somebody from this place, an outsider is finally going to give some kind of indication of care and love towards a stranger.

He lifted up his eyes and saw the traveler in the open square of the city and the old man said, where are you going? And where do you come from? And finally, the man answers in the way that you and I heard earlier. He's saying, we came from Bethlehem, we came through Ephraim, we're going to the house of the Lord. And he goes on to even say, and we have all this stuff.

Like, you don't even have to take care of us. We have all this stuff. We have food, we have our donkeys, we have sir we're we're good. We just need a place to stay overnight. Look how the man answers in verse 20.

The old man said, peace be to you. I will care for all your wants. Only do not spend the night in the square. You notice we skip through a lot of verses. Usually, we we were a lot slower with verses in our study.

Right? We're already down to verse 20 here. There's a reason. It's because this is such a unique story, you can't chop it up too much because it's building an anticipation here. There's a suspense that's being created.

It's such a unique story that you just have to read it. Honestly, if I just spend the next few moments reading the story, it will affect your soul based on just reading it. Guaranteed. Just reading this story alone will leave you appalled and shook. And I think the purpose of this is just to almost play it out like a scene in a play or a movie and just to just to read you can't stop.

I mean, if you're one of those people that read a few verses a day, that can't work with this chapter. You gotta read all of it to understand what's happening here and what we're we're headed towards. Are we in the desert here? Are we in some Canaanite village? You have a man saying, as an Israelite to a fellow Israelite, whatever you do, don't stay in the square overnight.

What are we headed towards? Where is this man? What are we about to face? Something very familiar. Verse 22.

As they were making their hearts merry so I just want you to see the scene. Okay? Here's a Levite, a young Levite with a young servant, his wife that obviously doesn't love him it seems. Two donkeys, a couple of stuff here and there, and this old man comes from his day of work and he says, come with me. And they they enter into the house and things seem fine.

The the the city is quiet, people seem to be at home, and in the middle of the night here you see this Levite being married with his new host that's that's taking care of him and people are warm and comfortable and thinking, this is good. I mean, it can't be so bad. Right? I mean, how much worse can it get? And then we see here, and they said to the old man, the master of the house.

Why? Verse 22, as they were making their hearts merry, behold the men of the city worthless fellows, surrounded the house beating on the door. That's not it's pounding on the door with desperation, with no regard for who's inside, with a rudeness, with a fierceness, pounding on the door. And they said to the old man, so this old man here is being married with his new guests and all for a sudden in the middle of the night there's a pounding on the door that's shaking the hinges and this man stops, he pulls himself from the table, he approaches the door and he opens it very slowly because he knows what Gibeah is like at night. And he sees a band of men outside.

And the man quickly exits and no hello, no greeting, no sorry to interrupt you, they said to the old man, the master of the house, bring up the man who came into your house that we may know him. Now, the bible has integrity. The bible uses veiled language oftentimes to describe sexual activity. And when we read here that they may know him, it wasn't so they can sit down and have an interview with the guy. Speaking about an intimate knowing, speaking about sexual relations.

They're asking to rape the man. Bring up the man who came into your house that we may know him. And the man, the master of the house went out, verse 23, to them and said to them, no my brothers. Can you imagine saying that to your brothers? No my brothers, do not act so wickedly Since this man has come into my house, do not do this vile thing.

Here's my question. Have we read something like this before? We have. Please remind me. Sodom and Gomorrah and Genesis 19.

We have Judges 19 and this is almost a point for point picture reflection of Genesis 19 and the Holy Spirit is doing something very masterfully here. It's not that the Bible is repetitive or not creative enough to describe something differently. There's a purpose here in being repetitive. And what's the purpose here? Israel has gotten so bad they are no different than Sodom and Gomorrah.

That's how bad it's getting here. It's getting so vile, so wicked, so twisted, so depraved that the people of God who have a covenant with God, who are supposed to be vessels to the world, a light to the nations are now no different than a city that was burned with sulfur and fire from heaven. As a corrupt pagan people that dive into gross immorality as a result of the rejection of God. So we're seeing a repetition here in history. In Genesis 19, I mean Israel wasn't even born as a nation yet.

We're talking about Canaanite pagan people that are giving themselves over to homosexual acts, to gang rape, to all these disgusting things, and now you come to the period of judges and the very people that were supposed to reflect a whole different attitude are now imitating it. You think it ended there? I want you to go to Hosea chapter nine. I mean, if you don't wanna turn there that's fine, but listen to this verse in Hosea nine nine. This makes an interesting study to see something about our human nature.

In Hosea nine nine, do you realize Judges chapter 19 became a memorial? A memorial for this nation to look back on, to be ashamed of. Look what it says in Hosea nine nine. Hosea the prophet says, they have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah. That's what we're dealing with here in this text.

The days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity. He will punish their sins. So even in Hosea's day, which was much further than this time in Judges, the people were again imitating what we see originally Sodom and Gomorrah. It was a repeated societal thing.

And in Hosea's day, it was just like Gibeah. And in Gibeah's day, it was just like Sodom. So here is my argument tonight. Do you think it's possible for it to resurface again in history? Answer, yes.

Yes. Of course. That's the point. Sodom becomes a symbol in the Bible of a depraved culture at any point in history. In fact, I'm gonna disappoint you maybe tonight, because if you thought that in biblical redemptive history things are only gonna get better and better before Jesus comes back, I'm gonna shatter your dreams not because I want to but because the Bible does.

It's only gonna get worse and worse. And in fact, if you do a word study on Sodom in the New Testament, you'll find something that Sodom, this ancient city, that name appears in the last book of the Bible which describes the future before the imminent return of Jesus Christ. So what do we read in Revelation 11? God sends two prophetic witnesses and these men are gonna be so powerful, they're gonna they're gonna operate in the same kind of enablement that Moses and Elijah had in their day. And it's gonna be profound, it's gonna be supernatural, and in fact, they're gonna be preaching for so long and causing so much havoc in a righteous way that when they die, the world's gonna have a celebration.

It's actually going to turn into a party where people give gifts to each other. And if you study Revelation, you see very little celebration on the part of the wicked. And where you're gonna find is when these two witnesses die. And the rest of time they're in agony, they're crying out, they're pulling their hair, they're gnawing their tongues, but the only place where you see glee and excitement is when these two righteous prophets die. And they're like, and they start giving gifts to each other.

Now, are we talking about ancient Israel? Are we talking about some primitive barbaric time in history? We're talking about the future. We're talking about a day to come. And look how God describes the location in which they ministered and where they died.

In Revelation eleven eight, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom. And Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. So it's being very specific that this is gonna be in Israel. Future time in the physical state of Israel, symbolically, it's going to be referred to in the eyes of God as Sodom. Why?

Because clearly the activity of that people in that day is gonna reflect what you and I read in Sodom and Gomorrah. It's quite a profound statement. And we see here that there is almost a perfect reflection of what happens in Genesis 19, but a little bit different. You know why it's different? There's no angels here to be merciful.

There's no intercessor by the name of Abraham praying for the righteous to be delivered. Nothing of the sort. In fact, we read on in verse 24. The old man says, behold, here my virgin daughter and his concubine. How low do you have to come to offer your daughter and a random man's second status wife to be gang raped?

Behold, here my virgin daughter and his concubine, let me bring them out now. Violate them and do with them what seems good to you. Well, that's been the whole problem with Israel up to this point. Doing good what seems right to them. Doing what they think is right in their own eyes.

Doing what seems good to you, but against this man, do not do this outrageous thing. So, he still wants to defend his integrity as a host that he wants to even give up his daughter. Parents, would you ever do give up your daughter? To a bunch of men possessed with lust, with animalistic instincts. And I'm not even gonna ask the man's permission, I'm gonna have his concubine be given over to you as well.

Here's my question. There was another guy in the scene. Go back to verse 13 of Judges 19. Look what the Levite says here, and he said to this young man. So there was a young servant who was a male in that scene.

Why didn't you offer him up? You guys understand what I'm saying here. Right? Why did you just go straight to the woman and not give up the man? Because that's how they viewed women.

Nothing more than property. Objects to satisfy their sexual appetites and if they could be shields for the sake of self preservation, they would be shields to their self preservation. They have so had a demented view of this sex that has been created in the image of God as equally as a man that they were willing to give them up with no hesitation. But not the men. No.

No. No. Not the men. So you see here that there is a perverted understanding of the value and the estimation of woman and not just because it was this time of history. From the beginning, God has elevated woman and has crowned her with a description that he gives himself concerning as a helpmate.

That same Hebrew word God uses for himself. So don't be offended in this age where woman seems secondary when the very word used as a helper, God uses for himself in relationship to his people. And they're about to be thrown under the bus. And now this is an extreme illustration but let me say this, Christian men have to be very careful and protective of how the culture may influence their perception of women. You may not come to this degree of intensity of horrific desperation, But in this pornified age, you'd be amazed to know how men can view women just as objects and just as means and instruments to satisfy themselves.

And when you can get rid of them, you can get rid of them so that you can move on to the next one. Right? These women have just become things to satisfy their selfish ambition and that is the theme of this chapter. So what happens? You're gonna see it.

In verse 25, it says, but the men would not listen to him. Like they weren't convinced. No. We don't want what you have to offer. There's no reasoning here.

There's no logical argument. We want to satisfy our lust and you're in the way. And so the Levite who's hearing this obviously, understands that they're not being persuaded by speech and so he takes matters into his own hands. And what does he do? He takes his concubine, takes his wife without saying a word to her, to the old man or to the crowd, brings her to the door, removes the old man, launches her into that crazed mob and shuts the door behind her.

You don't believe me? Verse 25. So the men will not listen to him. So the man seized his concubine and made her go out to them. So then go back to verse three and read this with me.

Then her husband, the same person, arose and went after her to speak kindly to her and bring her back. Do you think that speech meant much now? I'll go further than that. I don't think him speaking kindly to her in the beginning was a true love and care and concern for reconciliation. I believe from the beginning, the reason why he wanted her back was for selfish ambition.

Maybe because of his pride, maybe because he wanted to satisfy his own lust, but I see a consistent man here. I see a man who is selfish from the beginning and he's selfish now here in the end. And all you and I are hearing, whether it's from the citizens of Gibeah, whether it's the old man, whether it's the Levite, every single character in this play stinks with selfishness. Stinks with self ambition, self preservation, self glory, vain glory. It's about me.

And if if there's gonna be harm my way, I'm gonna put you in front of me. And if you're the thing that's gonna satisfy me, even at the expense of your peace, your joy, your love, your purity, I'm going to take advantage of you. That's exactly what's happening here. Everything from indifference to being hospitable to satisfying perverted lust. When your heart is not dominated by the love of God, anything is possible in that range.

Anything is possible. You walking by somebody that needs you, you being careless to the needs of those in your own family, whether it's blood or spiritual, all the way to the point of treating woman as objects to satisfy your appetites. This is why we need the love of God to dominate our hearts. And so this man kicks his own wife out into the crowd. And what do we see?

Well, we continue. Get ready to brace yourself. And they knew her and abused her all night until the morning. And as the dawn began to break, they let her go. So you think that this was an atrocious thing.

Right? I mean, instead of being a husband who protects his wife and stands up for his wife, he not only kicks her out. Look what we see next. It's amazing. Verse 26, and as the morning appeared, the woman came and fell down at the door of the man's house where her master was until it was light.

I don't wanna be too descriptive here, but I want you to see it because the whole point of this book, especially this chapter, your your stomach is supposed to turn. You're supposed to have a gut wrenching feeling now. And here's what's happening, this woman has been abused all night and she is stumbling toward the house where she was supposed to be protected and felt safe, and she can't even reach to the knob of the door, she falls on her face with her hands extended to the thresholds of the door clearly demonstrating her desperation to be rescued. It's supposed to make us feel sick. It's supposed to make us feel faint.

It's supposed to make us feel angry and upset. It gets worse. Why? Look at verse 27. This is why we have to read carefully.

And her master rose up in the morning. Do you know what that means? Please tell me what that means. He was sleeping sound and whole and uninterrupted, knowing that he had just given up his wife to be gang raped all night. He could put his head on that pillow and sleep.

This is a Levite. This is supposed to be a spiritual instructor in Israel's day. And here's a man unmoved, calloused, heartless. It's gonna get worse. And her master rose up in the morning.

I wonder, did he have breakfast too? 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. So what would you do if you open the door and there is supposedly your wife, or at least one of your wives, and she is extended on the floor, who knew, who knows what she looked like? And that's the first sight as the sun rose on a new day. No ripping of the garments.

No beating of the chest. No sense of grief that he was the one who had given her up to the lion's den. No. In fact, verse 28, he said to her, get up. Let us be going.

What are you doing down there? Come on. Let's go. Can you imagine? That was the reaction he had, the first thing.

You're making us delayed here. We need to get going. Get up. Let us be going. And what does he realize?

She's not responding. Behold the degrees of depravity that sin can take a man when he allows iniquity to reign in his heart long enough to make him unmoved by horror. You're looking at the potential of what sin can bring a man's conscience to. You're not looking at some strange image here. You're looking at you and me.

If our sins and our passions are unbridled and unrestrained by the power of the Holy Spirit, there are things that we cannot even imagine that would be a constant reality. And if you think that that is some far stretch thing, have you ever studied about the Nazis? Wasn't too long ago that they were roaming in this world. Men who were scientists, men who were doctors, men who attended operas, and men who wrote in their journals about their day, and in the middle of their journal entries writing about how they massacred so many people like it was a walk in the park. You think this is some strange thing?

No. This is this is an image, just a glimpse of the hell on earth that will come one day when the Holy Spirit, who is called the restrainer, will remove his restraining power from the world. So the Antichrist can come and have full reign and men will be at each other's throats in a way that will make Chicago look like a playground. That's what's coming. This is an honest commentary of your potential and mine.

If it's not for God's salvific grace, obviously, but even his common grace of hovering over this world like he did in Genesis one, and having some kind of influence in our culture, in our society. We live in this day with the power of the Holy Spirit. Remove him. What do you have? Hell on earth.

So this man is giving us a hint of that. And he realizes that she's not getting up. Verse 28, but there was no answer. Then he put her on the donkey and the man rose and went away to his home. And now you think, well, you just told us that you're on your way to the house of the Lord.

You you told us that I mean, this is the same person that confessed earlier, I'm going to God's house, goes to show that you can go to God's house and still have a heart like this. Right? If he was honest, if he was actually going to God's house to sacrifice or worship or resume where he left off as a priest, does that mean anything to God or to us if that's what your heart really is? Come to every bible study you want, attend seminary, get a degree, be on the worship team, be a preacher. That means nothing.

You need the Holy Spirit and his power in your life or your religious activity means nothing. Means nothing to God, means nothing to those who are closest to you. I've talked to enough people who have parents and siblings that have all the religious activity on their resume, but they are evil in their hearts. You learn that long enough when you're in ministry. You don't even have to be in ministry.

You've probably seen it. So this man takes up his wife on the donkey and I mean if you have any more motivation to go to the house of God, because the house of God was not just where you worship God, there was in a sense where you received instruction and legal justice. Hey, if you're a Levi, you want to do this God's way, I'm sure. You want to go, you want to present this case, and you want to do this and leave vengeance to God through his system, through the theocracy of Israel. That's not what he does.

He takes matters into his own hands. And he goes to his own home, not God's house, he goes to his own home. And when he goes to his home, what does he do? Verse 29, he entered his house, he took a knife and taking hold of his concubine, he divided her, limb by limb into 12 pieces, and he sent her throughout all the territory of Israel. He takes his deceased wife, his murdered wife, his raped wife, place it on a table in the home and cuts her up into 12 pieces.

And he takes every part and he sends it to a different tribe in Israel because he thought this nation needs a message with shock value and they need to be awakened to where we have come to. Does it justify what he's doing? Absolutely not. He could have done in a less gruesome and despicable manner, but he does this nonetheless. And I think to myself, you cut up a human being with the 12 pieces, And the only kind of correlation you can make here, the only kind of thing that comes close to this is what you see in Leviticus one.

Let me read it to you. You don't have to turn that. Let me read this to you. Leviticus one verse five, it says, then he this is instructions for worship in Israel's day. Then he shall kill the bowl before the Lord and Aaron's sons the priest shall bring the blood and throw the blood against the sides of the altar that is the entrance of the tent of meeting, then he shall flay the burnt offering and cut it into pieces.

You know what I take from this? This man is treating his wife no better than an animal. The only thing that you cut up in pieces in this day was a beast as an act of worship. But he found liberty, he found the ability to be able to do that to a human being. It's amazing.

We tell people in our day that they came from animals, and then when they act like animals, we condemn them and try to throw them in jail. Isn't that amazing? Your ancestors are animals. Okay. And so I start acting like an animal.

Well, what are you doing? Well, you told me I'm an animal. We're a confused bunch. And here's how it got so bad in this day, that this nation, this person in particular, saw it no different. In fact, treating animals better than they would humans.

And let me conclude with this thought. Do you think that it can't happen today? I argue that it can happen in any generation. And I'll tell you how it happens. I'll tell you how it happens.

Because the bible shows us how it happens. But you're gonna really need to hold on to your bible now, and if you see what I'm about to show you here, it will make much sense to why it is that you can read things in history or you can look on the news every night and see the carnage and try to reconcile how is it that humans can treat humans like animals. Go to Genesis chapter two, please, as we conclude this bible study on this note. I want you to see something. In Genesis two, when we come to God's initial creation of mankind, we read of the detailed process of how man, humanity was created.

In verse seven of Genesis two, Genesis is the first book. Then the Lord God formed the man, now read carefully, of dust from where? The ground. Right? And breathe into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living creature.

Now, what do we notice there? Where did he come from? What was the substance? Dust. Ground.

Right? Now go to verse 19. What do we read? Now out of the ground, the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called, every living creature, that it was his name.

Okay. So let's rehearse this. Man came from what? Dust, the ground. Animals came from what?

The same substance. The same substance came from the ground. Compare the verses. What's the difference between you and I and your pet dog that's waiting for you at home? What is it?

Verse seven, the breath of life was breathe into his nostrils. The breath of life. That word breath is synonymous with the word spirit in the Hebrew. So what does man possess that an animal does not possess? A spirit.

I'm sorry, I might disappoint some people in here that have great dreams for eternal purposes for your animals. Spirit. Now, what is the part of us that has the ability to relate and know and interact with God? What is it? The spirit man.

Yes, obviously the whole man, the soul included, but the very thing that is dead in us is the spirit. That is what is quickened by the Holy Spirit. And then we are born again by the spirit from above, and then we can have a vibrant real true relationship with God who is spirit. Right? And then what's happening?

Well, we are being sanctified in soul and in body and even even in spirit, but positionally we are right before God. But the spirit of a man is not limited to how he relates to God. That is the primary function of the spirit. There are other functions and one of the main functions of the spirit in a man is found in Proverbs. Now you have to go there please.

It's found in Proverbs chapter 20 and I want you to see this because it will make sense in light of the point that we're making. Proverbs chapter 20 and come to verse 27. What does it say? The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord searching all his innermost parts. And what's the synonymous word for spirit there?

In the Hebrew, it's breath. So we're talking about the same word as Genesis chapter two. So the thing that humans have is the spirit that God breathes into us. Now, of man is the lamp of the Lord is more than we think. It's the lamp of the Lord.

And this lamp within each of us has a function and the function is that it searches all the innermost parts of who we are. It searches our motives. It searches our our desires. It searches our the secret things that are hidden that are not loud and obvious to others. It deals with the inner man.

Here's another word to use, it's the conscience. The spirit in a man also is the system within us that tells us what is right and what is wrong. Praises you when you do right, condemns you when you do wrong. Right? We all have that.

That is something that all men have and are without excuse. If they don't have the law, Romans tells us, they have their conscience that bears witness to the law of God. The law of God has been embedded in each human being. That's why you know it's wrong when you take something that doesn't belong to you. That's why you feel the way you feel when you commit sexual immorality.

Where does that come from? The spirit in a man. There is an element that if we're not born again, that our spirit is dead to God, but there's also something that all men have in that spirit and that is a conscience. You know that, that alarm that goes off. Where is that from?

Is that something in your brain, your frontal lobe? No. It's the lamp of the Lord in you. And it's the conscience that causes you to do some introspection. It caused you to examine your heart and see where you're at in life and how you are in your relationships and all these things.

Here's the danger. Go to first Timothy now, verse two of chapter four. And I want you to see what can happen to this conscience. In first Timothy four verse two, speaking about false teachers, but not limited to false teachers. This is a quality that is known in false teachers mainly, but is possible for any man or woman.

Says here, through the insincerity of liars whose what? Consciences are seared. So I as a human being am capable of so ignoring and suppressing my conscience to the point where, like a hot iron on flesh, it can sear it. It can fry it. And what happens when you put a hot iron to flesh?

It burns up the skin and depending the degree of the burn, it can permanently damage it to where it becomes insensitive. There's no nerves there. There's no response to touch. There's no response to activity upon that area. And that is what Paul is speaking about here.

It's possible with your own conscience that you so burn it and you so damage it to where there is little, if not any, any kind of movement or conviction to your conscience anymore. And he's saying that's what false teachers are like. If you wanna know what false teachers are like, a lot of them, they don't have this concept of conviction for what they're perpetrating, what they're spewing out of their mouths. Their consciences are seared. What makes you different from an animal?

The spirit. What is the function of that spirit in part? Proverbs tells us that it's the lamp of the Lord. It's your conscience that's operating. You can sear that conscience.

You can blow out the lamp of the Lord. So let's do this equation. If as humans, I possess a spirit and I sear that conscience element to who I am, what do I become like? At least potentially. The very thing that was created from the same substance but lacked the very thing that makes me distinct.

You can become like an animal. You can become like an animal. And so that's why we see carnage. We see perversion in the sexual world. We see a love that is growing colder and colder as we are reaching the culmination of the age.

And would you know it, that one of Satan's strategies in your schools, and in our media, and in our music, and in our movies is what? For you to ignore your conscience. For you to be the moderator of your own subjective reasoning and moral compass. Do you think that's an accident? No.

It's not an accident. It's a strategy. If I can get you from the youngest age possible to sear your conscience and to ignore that alarm within you that says, this is not right. There is a creator who tells you otherwise. Don't keep going in this.

If I can get you to bend it to the point where that snaps, what do you have? You're gonna have some people acting like animals. In fact, this is where we're ending, maybe. Romans one. I wanna show you something that echoes this argument from Paul's wonderful essay in Rome Romans.

I want you to look at verse one, excuse me, chapter one and come down to verse 21. I want you to see where where something begins. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking. And their foolish hearts were darkened, the lamp of the Lord. When you don't have a lamp, when you don't have a light, you blow that thing out.

What happens? Darkness comes in. But notice where it begins. Although they knew God, how do they know God? In a personal relationship?

No. The verses prior through his creative power, through creation, the universe testifying of his existence, of his abilities, of his power. Although they knew God, listen, they know there's a God. They know there's a God. Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God.

Listen to You're gonna see something quite amazing where this this place starts of what we're about to discover depravity of mind. Depravity of mine as the conclusion of Romans one begins here, refusing to give thanks to God. Can you imagine that? When a people, when a person refuses to honor God and give thanks to God, that is the starting point of a spiraling degrading depravity. By refusing to acknowledge him, they became futile in their thinking.

Verse 22, here is here is a description of our generation claiming to be wise, they became fools. They're claiming to be wise. They're claiming to be intelligent. They're claiming to be discovering new things and bringing liberation and freedom, and being sensitive, and claiming to be wise. They actually became fools.

That's why you, as a person who's been enlightened, who has some understanding of truth, if not pursuing greater truth, you you see these up breaking things, you see these news breaking things and you go, this is insanity. While in their mind, they're actually thinking this is wisdom. You come down here, I want you to see, we're gonna skip the steps. Look at verse 28. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, the same idea, refusing to honor him, refusing to give thanks to him By the way, it kind of shows you the importance of thanksgiving.

Right? You think it's just because God deserves praise. No. It actually has to do with your mind to a certain extent. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what not ought to be done.

A debased mind, a twisted mind, disillusioned mind, as a result of failing to acknowledge God. And the context here of a debased mind is sexual perversion and sexual confusion. Where women give up natural relations with men, with other women, and men give up rational or natural relationships with men, rather with women to be with men. And then it comes down to not just homosexuality, but actual confusion. A twisted thinking to now where you have people who think that they are 10 genders one day, and then 25 the next.

And why not people don't even understand if they are this or that? What is this is the result of one main thing. Verse 21, they refuse to honor God and give thanks to him. And as they continue down that path, God said, you don't wanna acknowledge me? Then I'll give you over to a depraved mind.

Here you go. You wanna suppress the truth with your unrighteousness? You wanna silence your conscience? You silence your conscience, you inherit confusion. You silence your conscience, you inherit chaos.

Welcome to America in 2021. And now we come to the final verse of Judges 19. He chops up this woman, gruesome scene, gives her up to these different tribes so that they can get the message of how low they've come as a people. And then notice here, we read in verse 30 is the final verse. 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. This shock value message worked. It shook them. And it probably shook us. But, I have one thought from this verse.

It's a simple thought. I wonder if these people at this time had a chance to have a day in our generation, what their reaction would be like. If they could peek over into the future and see what we would be experiencing. I wonder what they would come to as a conclusion. Because we're slaughtering babies by the thousands every day and we're just moving on like nothing's happening, well at least most of us.

And there is so much confusion in our educational system and men and women going into surgery rooms to change their sex and to try to change their organs. And we have all this child molestation. I mean, I know we're American, we're so caught up with our social media, but if you just do a little bit of research you'll find that child prostitution in places like Pakistan is unbelievable. Men coming in and just dealing with people like they're just nothing, like just instruments, little boys prostituting themselves. No sign of their parents, they're just on the streets, you can pick one up whenever you want.

And we look at this text like this and we go, oh, how horrific. Oh, how barbaric. Oh, how primitive. Oh, how ancient. Thank God we are sophisticated and we are developed now.

No. We just found more creative and hidden ways to be perverted. If anything testifies to our sin nature, is that no matter how much we advance technologically or scientifically, all it does is assist us in fulfilling our sin nature. Anything we create or invent, whenever we touch it just becomes perverted. Think of anything in this world that we have come up with and try to see how pure it remains.

It doesn't. Say, brother, is this where the chapter ends? It's where the chapter ends. It's where the chapter ends. It's for you and I to be sobered by it.

But if there's any consolation I can provide, is that if you as a person in this place tonight wanna avoid a path to destruction or if we as a nation wanna avoid the potential of reflecting Sodom, we need a new spirit. You're not just a bag of meat stuffed in skin. You're spirit man. Spirit, soul, and body. And the condition of your spirit will determine what you do in your soul and in your body.

Here's your solution tonight. You might think that you would never reach such a depraved state. Fine. But sin has a way of finding its own creative and unique way of destroying your life. I'm telling you tonight that at this bible study, we're not here just to gather information or study history.

We're here to see how this book, this chapter on this night relates to our lives today. Did Jesus Christ change your spirit? Or are you entangled in perversion? Maybe not even in person or in external manifestation, but internally. The theater of your mind, the desires of your heart, the things that you do on a screen, the things that you entertain in your life indicating that Christ does not dwell in you.

That you've not been changed. And see what happens when Christ comes and lives in you, he heightens your conscience. He heightens it. So whatever you had even before you were saved, no matter how much you think you're a good person, when Jesus Christ by his spirit comes and lives inside of you, There's a heightening. There is a sense of sorrow towards sin that you never knew before.

There's a sense of grief over things that wouldn't have bothered you beforehand. But now that you know Jesus and he makes his home in your heart, you begin to relate to things so much more differently. And the average person might see it as not such a big deal and something that you can entertain yourself with and all guys do it because all guys do it. You see it differently. You have a different frame.

You have a different frame of conviction and that was created by God as you've called him to live inside of you by repenting of your sins. The only hope for a place not going down the path like we read in judges, in Hosea, in Revelation 11. The only hope is the only solution. And that's Jesus Christ. The only one who has the ability to abide in us and change us.

The law has proven over and over again that whatever we do on the outside in our own strength will always fail. Do you want the canopy of the old testament? Do you want to know why we have all these stories and all these examples and all these books? Here's the main purpose. Here's the main reason.

Man can't do it in his own strength. He can't. Manifest the glory of God on a mountain. Bring the law written by the finger of God. Threaten man with the greatest threats whether it's being stoned by death or being excommunicated.

Man does not have the ability to fulfill the righteousness of God. And if you're not convinced of that, God gave us a whole book and God gave us a whole series of stories and examples to see the requirement of the holiness of God with the sacrificial system and abiding by so many different rules and laws. And then men, even the greatest men, not being able to keep up with it because there's something lacking in them and that's a changed heart. You're gonna exhaust yourself if you do it in your own power. And here's what the gospel message is.

Don't do it in your own strength, but whatever strength you have left, come to the foot of the cross and fall at it. Even if you, like that woman, have to crawl to it, you crawl to it. Here's the difference. That woman came to that door and no mercy, no salvation came to her. She died that night.

But you come to the foot of the cross and that blood will touch you and it will heal you and redeem you in a moment. It will transform you and it will bring you back to your feet no matter how much you have been abused by others or if you've abused yourself, no matter what bruises you have in your mind or on your body, no matter what scars have occurred in your life throughout your childhood, if you come to that place by faith, you don't have to get on a plane and fly to Jerusalem. No. Even in this place right here, right now, if you just by faith come to the cross, say, Lord, heal me. Forgive me.

Change me. I repent. In a moment, the resurrected Jesus Christ will come and change you. It's available to you. Lord, we know that this chapter was dense, dark, heavy, but we believe your wisdom in it.

Thank you for a people that endured the book of Judges up to this point. And we know that there is still a couple chapters left where we ask, Lord, for this moment now that we would reflect on who we can be apart from you. What we are capable of without you. And Lord, thankful that you've saved us from ourselves. Grateful that we could have been like a Levite who claimed that he desired the house of God, but in his own house degraded a woman.

Lord, if there's anything that we are left with, if there's one takeaway, it is that apart from your mercy, we are finished. Apart from you transforming our hearts, we are capable of selfishness and self preservation. And a me centered life that we see in the story. But, God, we ask that you do the opposite work in our hearts. That now we look outward and we crucify this flesh, and we esteem others more valuable than us, and we lay down our lives for their good, and we live for the glory of God.

Lord, we ask that you would heal the heart that doesn't know you tonight, that you would visit them with conviction. And then even if they're in that place where they're close to being seared, Lord, you have the ability to take a seared mind and renew it. And we ask, Lord, that no matter what anybody has done in this place, in private or in public, they would know that they are not beyond the reach of the grace and mercy of Jesus and that, lord, you're willing to forgive them. Lord, we are fully aware that you're willing to forgive anybody of anything if they truly repent and confess their sin and trust in Christ. Lord, we sit in astonishment at the wisdom that we can glean from in this chapter, and we give you praise even though we feel our hearts broken and we feel our stomachs turning, while we realize that you have saved us from much and that you're able to save to the uttermost and that you can rescue anybody from this type of life if they just trust in you.

Lord, help us remember that when there was no king in Israel, things became chaotic and that you're the true king that we need for peace and order in our own lives, in our marriages, in our businesses, in our churches, in our society. Lord, please be merciful to us in America, and give us a chance to understand the gospel, and to herald it from east to west, and north to south. But we trust in you. We worship you. In Jesus' name, amen.