TEXT: Judges 17-21

SUBJECT: Judges #11: We Need a King

Today with God’s blessing, we will complete our study of the Book of Judges. The reading was a long one, chapters 17-21, but I could think of no way of dividing it without also obscuring its message—if not losing it altogether.

The key verses are 17:6, 18:1, 19:1, and 21:25, all of which say—

Israel was God’s chosen people, chosen to serve Him and to become a light to the Gentiles. To secure their worship and witness, He redeemed them from slavery and gave them a land flowing with milk and honey. He provided laws for living well and sacrifices when they didn’t. He sent wise men to teach them, prophets to rebuke them, and judges to save them from their enemies. With all of these privileges, Israel did not serve the Lord. I’m not saying they failed to serve Him perfectly, but they did not serve Him at all!

Read the first sixteen chapters and you’ll find words to this effect cropping up over and over—

The evil they chiefly did was idolatry--worshiping every god except their God—

Why were they so prone to this evil? As Evangelical Christians, we’re likely to say it’s because they were sinful, as all of us are—There is none righteous, no not one. There is truth in this--all men are sinners, Jews and Gentiles, back then and today. As good Calvinists, we put a finer point on it: not only were they sinful, but they were totally depraved and completely unable—The carnal mind is enmity against God, it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. There is truth in this as well.

But we cannot leave it here. Of course they sinned because they were sinful and totally depraved, but these are not the only reasons they sinned, nor the ones named here. They also sinned because—

Israel was they way they were, partly, because they did not have a king. They needed a king, and until they got one, this is how they would live!

How’s that? The whole Book of Judges gives us the big picture, with the last five chapters filling in the ugly details. Before we get to them, however, let’s have a brief look at the historical setting.

A quick reading of the chapters makes you think the stories occur after the death of Samson, when things were at their worst in Israel. A closer reading, however, says otherwise. Only one well-known man is named in the chapters—

Does that name ring a bell with you? He was Aaron’s grandson, and a full-grown man when Israel was still in the wilderness. Unless he lived to an incredible age, the stories told at the end of the Book occur near the beginning, when Israel was at its best!

But without a king, its best is not very good.

First we have the story of Micah. He lived with his family in the mountains of Ephraim, not far from Shiloh, where the Tabernacle was then standing. Unlike most Israelites, he could travel to the Sacred Tent and meet the Lord on His terms.

But he didn’t want to do this. He stole eleven hundred silver coins from his mother, but, feeling guilty, he confessed his sins and gave the money back. His mother was so proud of her boy that she gave him part of it, and with it he made a carved image and a molded image. He then ‘sanctified’ his spare bedroom, to become a temple for his gods.

Now, if you have a temple, you’ve got to have a priest, and so, Micah ordained his son to the office. A false priest serving a false god in a false temple. This is pretty bad.

But it gets worse. While Micah’s son was making a living off the priesthood, there was a Levite in Judah who wasn’t. In the Law, the Lord commanded His people to remember the Levites, who had nothing to live on but the generosity of God’s People. By giving to them, the Israelites were giving to the Lord. But this young man had nothing because the people forsook him and the God in whose Name he served.

One day the poor man ran into Micah, who promptly defrocked his son and made the young Levite his priest, promising to pay him ten shekels and a shirt every year. The Levite jumped at the offer and went to work with his employer’s idols.

Now that he had a real chaplain, Micah felt sure of God’s favor—

Some time later, the Tribe of Dan was looking for a place to live. What’s discouraging about their search is that the Lord had already given them a place, in the southwest corner of the land, and on the Philistine border.

The Danites, however, could not take this land because the Philistines were tough—and more to the point—because the Tribe had no faith. This is one of the major themes in the Book: Israel obtains the inheritance through faith. They hold the land as long as they believe God; when they stop believing Him, the land slips away from them. Instead of inheriting the place the Lord gave them, they looked elsewhere.

Five scouts were sent north and, on their way, they dropped in on Micah who introduced the Levite to them. They asked the young man to inquire of the Lord for them, which he pretended to do, and sent them on their way with his blessing.

In the north the scouts found Laish, a city without a wall, without an army, and without allies. The spies went home and brought back an army. On their way there, they dropped in on Micah a second time, hired his priest, and stole his images. When the man came back to get them, the soldiers talked him into going home without them—

The woman had an affair with another man, and when her husband caught her, she ran off to daddy who lived in Bethlehem. After four months apart, the Levite went back to get her, and, having forgiven her great sin, he spoke kindly to her. After one night in her father’s house, the man said he was going home. The father, though, was a good man, and invited him to stay another night. He did, and first thing in the morning he would leave. But again, the father talked him into staying another night, then another. On the fifth day, the man meant to go home at sunrise, but the father wheedled him till the afternoon, when finally the Levite said, ‘Thanks anyway, Dad’, and left.

The time of his departure is significant because it means he couldn’t get very far from Bethlehem that day. He and his woman and their servant traveled as far as Jerusalem, where the servant suggested they find an inn and bed down for the night. But in those days, Jerusalem did not belong to Israel, but to the Jebusites, and the man would have none of it—

Because the Jebusites are an ungodly people, the Levite is afraid to stay with them. He must push on to Gibeah, a city in the Tribe of Benjamin, because only among God’s people will he and his lover be safe.

GIBEAH

There were few hotels back then because they were not needed. Hospitality was so woven into the character of these people that strangers were welcomed into private homes and kept with great care. This was the rule in the Near East of that time—and today.

But the men of Gibeah were exceptions to the rule. The Levite, his wife and servant found nowhere to stay. Until an old man came by and took them in, perhaps fearing what would become of them if he didn’t.

The old man’s worry was fully justified. The men of Gibeah surrounded his house at dinnertime and began beating on the door. They wanted to get to know the Levite better—and I mean ‘know’ in the Biblical sense! When the host would not unbolt the door, the men threatened to break it down and abuse them all.

Fearing for his life--and his dignity--the Levite pushed his concubine through the door and into the mob, who proceeded to have their way with her all night, finally killing her.

What a sorry picture this presents of God’s People without a king! The Levite feared the Jebusites because they didn’t know God, and trusted the Benjamanites because they did. But it was the Benjamanites who did the shameful things that night! Had they stayed with the Gentiles, they might have slept well and gone on their way refreshed and well-stocked for the trip. But there was no safe place in Israel.

If the Benjamanites were wicked perverts, we can scarcely think better of the Levite or even his host, who offered up their women to save their own skins.

The Levite took up her dead body and proceeded to cut it up into twelve pieces, one sent to each of the Tribes of Israel. When the Israelites got their gory packages, they were horrified—

The leaders gathered to discuss what should be done. An army was raised and marched on Gibeah. At the gates they demanded the criminals be turned over to justice. But the men were not turned over, and the Benjamanites from other towns backed the decision.

This means war—civil war, brother against brother. The armies of Israel attacked Benjamin on the first day, and lost twenty-two thousand men.

The next day they attacked again, and eighteen thousand fell to the Benjaminites. Though outnumbering the men of Benjamin by fifteen-to-one, Israel was no match for them, for they, too, were guilty, and the Lord was not with them.

Finally, they confessed their sins and fasted before the Ark of the Covenant, and this time, the Lord heard them—

The third day they attacked Gibeah as before, and fled from the defenders. Seeing they had another victory, the Benjaminites chased Israel away from the city. But what they didn’t see was the ambush that lay behind the city. With the soldiers gone, the Israelites set the city on fire, and, when the signal was given, the armies of Israel turned back on Benjamin, and wiped them out—twenty-five thousand killed in the battle.

Enraged with their brethren, the armies of Israel then rampaged through the whole Tribe of Benjamin, and—

If Israel won the victory that day, they won no glory or joy. They had been hasty and too harsh on the Lord’s People. While justice was necessary, what they did to Benjamin was not just! It was cruel and excessive, and made worse by a stupid and sinful oath Israel had taken in the heat of the moment.

They swore to not give their daughters to Benjamin, and this means, there was hardly anyone to bear children, and so, in a generation or two, there would be no Benjamin.

After weeping hard and thinking harder, they came up with a plan to solve the problem—or at least to address it. First, no man had come to fight from Jabesh Gilead, and this they took for treason. Israel then marched on Jabesh Gilead, killed all the men and their wives, and took their unmarried daughters for Benjamin’s brides. This made four hundred men very happy, but what’s four hundred among thousands of men who needed a wife?

The second plan was better: There was a festival every year in Shiloh where the girls danced. The men of Benjamin were to hide in the bushes, and when a pretty—or maybe a slow—girl danced by, he was to catch her and run off with her. When the men of Shiloh protested, the leaders of Israel would talk good sense to them.

Happily the plan worked, and before long the Tribe of Benjamin was saved, their cities were rebuilt, and everyone went back to his own inheritance.

Israel has survived, but they have not flourished—and they cannot—because they don’t have a king. This is how the Book ends, with an implied request—

The Judges were God’s gift to Israel. But, as good as they were, they not good enough. The Judges failed for at least four reasons:

They only came now and then. One Judge did not succeed another, but they were separated by years if not decades. When Israel had no Judge, they ran wild and brought the judgments of God crashing down on their heads. Now and then leadership was not good enough: they needed a Man in charge at all times.

They were not always good men. If Gideon saved the people from the Midianites he also set up an idol and led the people astray. If Jephthah wiped out the Ammonites who oppressed Israel, he also wiped out the Manassites, who belonged to Israel. If Samson made war on the Philistines, he also made love to them! As far as we know, all the Judges were believing men, but believing men are also sinners, and in places of authority, their private sins have public consequences.

They could enforce the Law of God on the people but they could not make them love it. Idolatry is not in the idol, but in the heart of the one who worships the idol. A Judge can chop down a visible image, but how does he make people love the Invisible God? It cannot be done; neither teaching nor example nor promises nor threats can change the heart. Only God can do that, and the Judges, at their best, are not God.

They died. Othniel was the best Judge, it seems to me, and he ruled Israel very well and for forty years. But when the forty years were up, he died, and the people rebelled against the Lord for at least eighteen years. A mortal Judge won’t do. Israel needs a King who will not die.

This means they—and we—need a King who is also God. For a long time they did not have that king. They had David and Solomon who were great improvements on Gideon or Samson, but they, too were men, good men, gifted and wise and brave men, but only men!

We need a King who is always there for us; a King who is worthy of our trust; a King who can rule us from the inside-out; and a King who never dies. This seems like a fantasy, and it would be, except for one thing: There is such a King!

His name is our Lord Jesus Christ, and what the Judges were not, He is.

If the Judges were not always there for their People, He is—

He doesn’t always seem to be there for us, but He is there, whether He seems to be—or not. Perhaps He is nearest to us when He seems farthest way. When we say that Christ is near, we mean the whole Christ is near—and not only part of Him. This means His Almighty Power and Infinite Wisdom, and Eternal Love is always there for us. It is the last one we most often doubt, but what does Paul say about His love? He says—

Had this been written by a new convert sitting on a soft chair or a warm day drinking a cool lemonade, we might say—‘We’ll see’. But Paul was none of the above. The things that had tried to separate him from Christ’s love were things like extreme loneliness, too much work, poverty, sleepless nights, a thorn in the flesh, false friends, prison, beatings, riots, being stoned and left for dead! They broke his body; they broke his heart; but they did not break his Savior’s love!

Unlike the Judges, and even the best kings, Jesus Christ is there for us. Always—

This means He can be counted on! He will never betray us, never mislead us, never go back on His Word.

If the Judges could enforce the Law, our Lord can make us love it. Moses was the greatest man of the Old Testament era; while the Lord spoke to the prophets through visions and dreams, He spoke to Moses face-to-face. The prophecies men like Elijah or Jeremiah received were pretty much commentary on the Law Moses laid down. He was incomparably greater than the other men of that time.

And our Lord is that much greater than he. For the best Moses could do is show them the Law, urge them to keep it, and punish them when they didn’t. But what can our Lord do? Jeremiah 31:33-34 says—

The lesser kings of Israel could only rule from the outside and demand visible obedience. But the Great King can rule from the inside and produce what God has always and only wanted—

Best of all, unlike the Judges, our King never dies. Or, I should say, He did die once, but in rising from the dead, death lost all its power over Him. Instead of being subject to death, He is the master of death!

If He lives forever, He lives forever…for us. To pray for us, to protect us, to teach us, to lead us, and, and finally, to make us live forever—with Him.

If our King is blessed, so are His people—