So we're officially at the end of our journey through the book of Judges in the Old Testament, and the writer has one more point to make at the end of this story, and he saves the most vulgar story he could tell until the very end of his book that he's writing.
Now, what's interesting about that is the story doesn't even fit in the chronological order of the storytelling.
So it's almost like he, as a writer, is holding back the most vulgar story he could tell out of chronological order, and then just puts it on at the end as like shock value mic drop and he walks out.
I mean, it's kind of what it feels.
It doesn't make any other sense.
Why would you hold back this story?
Tell it out of order, tell it at the end, and then end your book.
So Judges 1 through 3, we already read of Judges 19, 1 through 3.
Let's reread those as we work our way through Judges 19, 20, and 21.
In those days 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 and Judah.
And his concubine was unfaithful to him, and she went away from him to her father's house at Bethlehem and Judah, 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 father girl's father saw him, he came with joy to meet him.
So a concubine was a slave mistress.
So clear violation of God's word in Genesis chapter 2.
So what we see is that God's people, especially in the Old Testament, we see it a lot, they're conforming to their culture in huge ways, taking on multiple wives, taking on concubines.
This was not God's heart in the beginning of Genesis.
So this concubine, for some reason, we don't know why, she's had enough of her owner, husband, quote unquote husband, her owner, has an affair, runs off, and runs home.
Eventually, the owner, a Levite, so a Levite's supposed to be a holy man in this story, which is ironic.
He eventually follows her four months later.
Four months, that's how much he cares, right?
Like it takes four months to figure out she's gone or figure out he wants her back.
Four months later, he goes and he stays in the dad's home for many days.
Finally, the Levite, the concubine, they depart.
They end up in a town that belongs to Israel and the tribe of Benjamin.
And a man in that town take them in for the night.
And here's what happens.
Buckle up.
Judges 19, 22.
As they were making their hearts merry, so they're in the house there with that man in this town in the tribe of Benjamin.
As they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, worthless fellows, surrounded the house, beating on the door, and they said to the old man, the master of the house, Bring out the man who came into your house that we may know him.
Now we could read right over that, but the scene is this in the text of what that means to know him.
It means that all these worthless men in this town find out there's a new guy in town.
And they come and surround this house and they pound on the door, demanding for this guy to be put outside with them so they can sexually abuse him.
Now, the owner of the house, rather than having any bravery or decency, he begins to negotiate.
And his negotiation is hey, why don't you take my virgin daughter and the concubine?
Like this is this is his thinking that this is a reasonable way to work your way through the situation.
And then finally, the owner of the house forces the concubine out with those other men.
And one of the more disturbing Bible verses hits us in Judges 19, 25 through 26.
But the men would not listen to him.
So he's trying to do that new negotiation.
Wouldn't listen to him.
So the man sees his concubine and made her go out to them, and they knew her and abused her all night until the morning.
And as the dawn began to break, they let her go.
And as morning appeared, the woman came and fell down at the door of the man's house where her master was until it was light.
So the lady was raped and abused all night.
So close to death that she laid lifeless in the doorway.
And then, if we kept reading the text, the verses, the Levite, her owner, her husband, comes out in the morning, sees her, steps by her.
The holy man, the Levite, right?
Steps by her and says, Let's go.
Get up.
Shows no compassion.
This is the story that the writer saves until the very end of the book, out of chronological order, as to make a point.
Now we can remember a very important point before we look at some points in the actual text here in Judges 19.
And I think a good starting point for us is point number one: every human being is a child of God and holds royal splendor.
Genesis 1.27.
So God created man in his own image, and the image of God, he created him, male and female, he created him.
The word image is the Hebrew word selen.
So our creation, all of us, me and you, Uncle Ted, Uncle Eddie, cousin Eddie, the concubine, the owner, all of us, all of us are created in the image of God.
We are a reflection of something greater.
That's known as the Imago Dei.
We're all reflections of him, which makes us, makes all of us little royalty.
That's what we are.
That's why we're so offended and should be offended when we read a story like this.
Now, the good news for us is that maybe you're here and you've been abused or oppressed or violated or subjugated in some way.
And you need to hear the truth about your worth.
Because it's possible that you live out of a lie.
But the truth about your worth is your Amago day.
That you are royal splendor created by God.
Just because you're here.
Like just because you're here and you're his.
Nothing that you do.
Just because you're his.
Second point is this thinking about these characters in this story.
The godly person can be ungodly and also needs deliverance from God.
Now maybe we don't relate with the Levite in this story, but I think all of us can relate to being ungodly at certain times, if not in deeds, certainly in motive.
But thinking about these characters in this story, the men that surrendered the house, these are men of Israel.
These are God's people.
And then the Levite, the holy man, what he does is he takes his concubine.
He says, come on, he takes his concubine.
And he takes his knife and he butchers her into twelve pieces.
And he mails her to the twelve tribes of Israel.
For all the tribes to know what happened to his property.
And it's so clear that you could only do something like that if you didn't view this other person as a human being, but as property, like a lamp.
Like you just took apart a lamp and mailed it around.
See, these people of God are so immersed in a culture of paganism.
They desire and they act in ways that are so distant from the heart of God.
It took me straight to Romans 12, 1 and 2 in the New Testament.
I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
So by the mercies of God, this is what this passage is saying, by the mercies of God, any of our growth and grace or godliness, all of that is by God's mercy for us.
Our entire Christian life, from initial relationship with our Heavenly Father to the journey that we walk with Him is by His tenacious grace to us.
And part of that is the grace and mercy to not be conformed to the world around us, but to have our mind renewed by what God has for us.
And we see that in his word.
So I'm wondering if some of you have sayings that you say, if you have kids, you say to your kids over and over and over and over again.
Like one is I say, like we give out allowance monthly, and what I always say, and I say it so many times when children know it at this point, is I say, we give, we save, we spend.
Like it's every month.
Like I give them the allowance, we give, we save, we spend.
Right?
And do you have you probably have a few of these?
The other ones I have is when all the lights are on in our house, and like we're about to leave.
Do you know what I sing as I walk around?
Every lot in the house is on.
What are you saying?
Money?
You just think money?
Oh, you see money.
I'm seeing, yeah, money's just going on.
And I just sing every lot in the house is on.
And they're gonna have it in their heads like the rest of their life.
You know, like that's what's gonna be.
Is dad walking around seeing that country?
It's just that one line over and over and over again.
As my money is leaving the house, right?
Like that's what's going on.
And you have your little sayings, right?
Like you have something, like you say to your kids over and over and over again, and if something was said to you from your parents, right?
You can remember something that was said to you over and over and over again.
And we do this, right?
We do this because this is what's important to us.
Like the thing that's important to us is what we say over and over again.
There's a reason why our church says over and over and over again, like we are created beautiful in God's image, but we are more broken than we originally thought.
Well, that's a freeing diagnosis to come in touch with, yet we're more loved by God than we could dare to dream.
We say it over and over and over again because it's really important to us.
Now think about this text.
Two weeks ago, we were in chapter 17, 18, the writer told a whole nother story, and he barely weighed in his opinion.
Barely weighed in his opinion.
Except for Judges 17, 6.
In those days there was no king in Israel.
Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
Judges 18 1, he finally weighed in again.
In those days, there was no king in Israel.
And to start this most vulgar chapter in the Bible, again, in those days when there was no king in Israel, Judges 19, 1.
So chapter 20 starts.
All the tribes of Israel, they unite, they have a little civil war against the tribe of Benjamin.
Desolate Benjamin.
Then the story turns in chapter 21.
It's a really odd turn of events.
Because this group of people just fought a civil war against Benjamin, and then immediately they feel sorrow for Benjamin's plight and situation.
So Judges 21, 1 through 3.
Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpah, no one of us shall give his daughter in marriage to Benjamin.
They just wanted Benjamin gone, right?
Then verse 2.
And the people came to Bethel and sat there till evening before God, and they lifted up their voices and they wept bitterly.
And they said, O Lord, the God of Israel, why has this happened in Israel that today there should be one tribe lacking in Israel?
So here's what they do.
The eleven tribes that enacted all that judgment toward Benjamin that allowed that thing to happen to that concubine.
They're filled with sorrow.
They hold an assembly.
One of those eleven tribes doesn't show up, which is like maybe a lesson about not showing up to a church meeting, because what happens here is the other ten tribes decide, hey, let's go attack that tribe that didn't come to the meeting, and they attack them, and they take 400 virgin girls from that tribe, take them and give them to Benjamin, and then they realize that's not even really enough women to repopulate this tribe of Benjamin.
So let's give Benjamin permission to go steal even more women from Shiloh so they can repopulate.
What, like what?
Like what?
Like if you're just reading that, you're like, like some of you are like, that's why I don't read the Bible.
Like you just told the story why I don't read the Bible.
Like, how are they getting to these decisions, right?
Now, in case you're wondering how God actually feels about all this and what how the writer feels about this, we can think about Judges 17, 6, 18, 1, 19, 1, and then Judges 21, 25.
In those days, there was no king in Israel.
Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
So point number three is this the king of our hearts reigns with lavish acceptance, forever justification, and ongoing care.
So the writer's hitting hard their need for a human king.
That some of that's political at the time.
He's weighing in their need for a human king.
We need a human king.
We're going off the rails.
The prophets come later and teach us we need a lot more than a human king.
Political leaders are not enough.
And we have a greater king, right?
Like we have one that reigns not just over our society, but over our actual hearts.
Now, if we think back over the last many weeks, we've been talking about these idols and the idolatry of our hearts that we've seen all these different characters in judges.
Desires, good and bad, that can become kings of our hearts.
Let's just remember these as we put all this together.
Romance or sex idolatry.
If I don't have him or her, I won't be okay or enough.
So I need him, and if I get him, I'll be okay.
If I get her, I'll finally be okay.
I'll be enough.
Power idolatry.
If I don't have power or influence, I won't be okay or enough.
Money idolatry.
If I don't have that amount, that salary, that investment, I won't be okay or enough.
Religious idolatry, if I don't adhere to those religious activities, I won't be okay or enough.
Meaning, I only have meaning as I observe a particular set of religious activities.
Pleasure idolatry, if I don't have this pleasurable experience, I won't be okay or enough.
Autonomy idolatry, if I don't have complete independence and self-reign, I won't be okay or enough.
Now how that's how it brings us into this.
I read this quote this week by author Rebecca Pepper.
Whatever controls us is our Lord.
The person who seeks power is controlled by power.
The person who seeks acceptance is controlled by the people he or she wants to please.
We do not control ourselves.
We are controlled by the Lord of our life.
All of us.
We all have a Lord.
We all have a king.
There's this little phrase, it's always been, it felt so religious to me.
Almost, I never could connect with it really until the last week or so.
You've heard it if you've been around church.
Jesus is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
That just felt so religious to me.
Jesus is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lord.
It's like one of those things I just heard so many times growing up.
I never really connected with that.
But it shows up in Revelation, it shows up in 1 Timothy.
And I just reflected on that the past week or so because that is such a good confession that we overly depend on little K Kings and little L lords in our hearts.
And yet it's also a celebration that we do have a true king.
We need one, and we have one that created us.
And that there's a love better than anything this world can offer.
And then we can go and remember Jesus as he's coming, he's marching into Jerusalem, that triumphant entry, ultimately to his death.
In John 12, 12 through 15.
This is what we celebrate on Palm Sunday.
The next day, the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.
So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel.
And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion.
Behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt.
So we need a king.
We need a king.
That's the writer's point and judges.
We need a king.
I think the writer only knew that in part, but as we put it together in the meta-narrative of the scriptures, it takes us that we don't just need a king for our society, we need a king for our hearts.
I love verse 15.
Fear not.
This is the kind of relationship we have with the king of our hearts.
Fear not.
So fear is over as perfect love casts out fear.
So what that means is with King Jesus, we are free of fear.
And of course, we're learning how to be free of fear.
The word behold, what an invitation that is for us to stop and embrace.
Not just obligatory religious ritual.
Your king is coming on a donkey.
So our king comes riding on a symbol of peace.
So with King Jesus, he doesn't come to make demands for us to be good enough, then we'll be okay with him, but to love us and die for us and take on our sin and forever welcome and accept us.
And all of that is objective.
It's not necessarily how we feel this morning or about it at a given time.
It's objective because it's based in Christ's word for us.
He can change our hearts.
That Christ fully knows us and fully loves us.
So the writer and judges was right.
And he saves this vulgar, nasty, awful story to say to the people, you need a king.
And then the meta-narrator of the scriptures builds this out for us to understand.
Yes, we do.
And this is how bad it can get in society.
And there's also a lot of stuff in my heart that needs to be dealt with by a redeemer, by a king.
And that there is a love, that there is a love better than anything this world can offer.
Let's pray together.
God, thank you that Christ as our king is Christ as our peace.
Thank you that you rule us and reign in us as love, as a redeemer.
That you are not waiting to zap us as a powerful, vengeful king, but you desire to reign in us as a friend and an advocate.
Help us to come in greater awareness and astonishment of how good you are for us and to us, and to rest not in our work, but in your work for us on the cross, where all of our sin is handled and all of our righteousness is provided for us.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.