At this point, the Book of Judges, as
far as its history, ends.
What remains in the Book of Judges is
not now in chronological order.
This is an appendix to the Book of
Judges as we get into chapter 17.
And it tells us, basically, of the moral
conditions of the nation of Israel during this
time after Joshua.
And the story, some of them, take us
clear back to the time immediately after Joshua.
So, if you can now shift gears in
your mind, and go in reverse, we've come
to the end of the historic chronological order
with Samson.
After Samson, there arises then Samuel.
We'll get that after we get through the
Book of Ruth.
But now, we're going to get into an
appendix, and we're going to go back in
the next few chapters and examine some of
the moral decay that was going on in
Israel during the time of the period of
the judges.
It just gives us an insight to the
moral corruptness that existed among God's people during
this time when they lacked a real consciousness
of God as their king.
So, the first story begins in chapter 17.
There was a man who lived on Mount
Ephraim, whose name was Micah.
And he said to his mother, You remember
those 1100 shekels of silver that were stolen
from you, and you cursed the person who
stole them?
He said, Let the person who stole this
be cursed.
He said, Hey, Mom, I did it.
And here are the 1100 shekels back.
And she said, Oh, blessed be thou, my
son of the Lord and all.
I had really intended to take that silver
and make some little idols for you.
And so she gave him a portion of
the silver in order that he might make
a little image.
And he gave them to the founder who
made a graven image.
And they were in the house of Micah,
molten images.
And the man Micah had a house of
gods, and he made an ephod and a
teraphim.
And he consecrated one of his sons who
became his priest.
For in those days there was no king
in Israel, but every man did that which
was right in his own eyes.
And therein is a insight into the moral
degeneracy.
They had lost the fact that God was
to be their king.
They lost the consciousness of that fact.
And every man, rather than being ruled by
God, was doing that which was right in
his own eyes.
It was a period of anarchy.
Everybody just did what he wanted to do,
what was right in his own eyes.
It is sort of what they are trying
to bring to pass in this existentialism.
Everybody just relate to experience as you feel
that you should relate to it.
There isn't any really right or wrong way.
If it feels good, do it, you know.
If it feels right, do it.
And this is the kind of chaotic condition
that was going on in Israel.
This kind of anarchy where everyone was just
doing what was right in their own eyes.
Not really following the government of God or
the law of God.
Now, Micah, in making these images, was not
making really pagan kind of images.
But images, no doubt, that would represent God
to him.
But in the second commandment, God had expressly
forbidden making any graven images or likeness of
God to bow down and worship.
So he was violating the commandment of God,
but trying to make an image of God.
He was not turning from Jehovah in that
sense of making an image of Baal or
Molech or one of the pagan gods.
But he was trying to make an image
of God.
And then, with the Teraphim and the Ephod,
seeking to tie the whole worship of Jehovah
together, making a little worship center in his
house.
Where he has his own little idols in
the house where he goes to pray and
goes to worship.
Now, this was expressly forbidden by God.
And yet, having lost the consciousness of God's
presence, he is wanting something to remind him
of the presence of God.
And thus he's made his little worship center
in his house with his little idols and
all, the place where he could go and
pray.
His own little private altar.
Now, whenever a person makes an idol, the
very fact that he has made an idol
indicates that that person has lost the consciousness
of the presence of God.
The second thing it indicates is that he
is desiring to regain that consciousness of God's
presence.
And thus he has set up this as
a reminder to him of God's presence.
And thus it is actually speaking of a
desire to regain something that is lost of
vitality of relationship with God.
Whenever a person has to set up an
image or an idol, it is a testimony
that that person has lost something vital in
his relationship with God.
And he needs some kind of a little
reminder to remind him of God's presence.
And thus it is always a mark of
spiritual deterioration.
Any image, any idol of anything is a
mark of spiritual deterioration.
So it is important to note that Micah
wasn't really turning his back on Jehovah, for
he even speaks of Jehovah.
But he has lost something vital in his
relationship with Jehovah, which causes him to make
these little images and set up a worship
center as a place for his prayers.
Now there was a young man who lived
in Bethlehem who was a Levite.
And he was living there.
But he departed from Bethlehem just sort of
looking for a place to live.
And he came to Mount Ephraim to the
house of Micah on his journey.
And Micah said to him, where are you
coming from?
And he said, I'm a Levite from Bethlehem.
And I'm journeying that I can find a
place.
Micah said unto him, if you'll dwell with
me and be a priest in my house,
I'll give you ten shekels of silver annually
and a new suit and all your food.
So the Levite went in.
Now here is a deterioration in the Levite
in that he is becoming now a professional
religionist, sort of selling himself for religious
purposes for an annual salary of ten shekels
of silver and a new suit and his
daily food.
And the Levite was content to dwell with
the man and the young man was unto
him as one of his own sons.
And Micah consecrated the Levite.
The young man became his priest and he
was in the house of Micah.
Then said Micah, now I know that Jehovah
will do me good seeing as I have
a Levite as my priest.
So it was a mercenary thing.
You know, I know I'm going to prosper
now because I got a Levite for a
priest.
And that's the only reason why he wanted
the Levite is so he could prosper.
In other words, it was the idea of
using God for gain.
Paul speaks in the New Testament of the
error of those who think that godliness is
a way to gain.
He calls it a pernicious doctrine.
He said turn away from such people who
say that godliness is a way to get
rich.
That godliness is a way to prosperity.
That godliness is a way to gain.
Paul calls it an evil doctrine.
Micah has that concept.
Oh, God's going to prosper now.
I've got a Levite for my priest.
So he's buying his way in a sense
into prosperity in hiring the priest.
Now, that is setting the stage for the
rest of this story.
You got now this Levite young kid from
Bethlehem as a professional religionist, the priest, personal
priest of Micah and his house.
Now, in those days there was no king
in Israel.
And the tribe of the Danites sought an
inheritance to dwell in for they were unable
to drive the Philistines out of that territory
of Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gaza and that beautiful valley
area.
And they were only at this point occupied
a small little territory, oh, 20 miles from
Jerusalem, 15 miles from Jerusalem towards Tel Aviv,
the little valley of Eshtol.
But this whole territory was still occupied by
the Philistines and they couldn't drive them out.
And so they were beginning to look for
another place to live.
And so they sent out six men to
sort of look out over the whole country
to see if there isn't another place that
they might move that the tribe of Dan
might inhabit in order that they could have
more territory for farming and all, because that
area that they had taken just wasn't sufficient
for their needs.
And so these men started north and they
came to Ephraim, to the house of Micah
and they stayed there.
And when they were by the house of
Micah, they knew the voice of the young
man, the Levite.
And so they turned in, they said unto
him, what brought you here?
And how much are you making in this
place?
And what are you doing?
And he said unto them, well, I came
to Micah and he needed a priest, so
he hired me and he gives me 10
shekels of silver a year in a new
suit, all my food and I'm his priest.
And they said, well, ask counsel of God
for us that we might know whether we're
going to be prosperous in our search.
And so the priest said unto them, go
in peace before the Lord is your way
wherein you go.
In other words, go in peace.
God is going before you and He's going
to prosper you in your way.
So the five men departed and they came
to Laish and they saw the people that
were there, how they dwelt carelessly after the
manner of the Sidonians.
They were quiet and they were secure and
there was no magistrate in the land that
might put them to shame for anything.
And they were far from the Sidonians and
had no business with any man.
So they found this city of people, they're
Laish, and the people were just really living
very carelessly.
They didn't have business or trade with anybody
else.
They were a long way from Sidon.
Actually, they were clear over the Lebanese mountain
range from Sidon and they were isolated and
really they looked to be an easy prey.
Now they dwelt in a beautiful section of
land.
Right past the city there flowed the Jordan
River and it was near the headwaters of
Jordan.
So there was no water pollution, the water
was clear, it's great and there's good farming
territory around there and it's just a beautiful
valley, fertile valley.
And they said, wow, look at this, you
know, be nice to live up here.
So they came back to their tribe and
they described the place that they had found.
It's beauty and its advantages.
Oh, there's plenty of water, good area to
live and all and it's beautiful and it
really is, it's one of the most beautiful
places in Israel.
And so they sent back an army of
600 men in order to take this city.
And so when they came back to the
Mount of Ephraim, they came back again to
this priest.
And these fellows went in and they said,
hey fellow, look, we need a priest, our
tribe.
Wouldn't it be better for you to be
the priest over a whole tribe than a
priest in just one family?
We'll give you a better salary.
So the young man went with them, but
he ripped off the little idols and all
that were there and took them with him.
And so when Micah came home, he found
that the idols had been ripped off, the
priest was gone, and so some of his
neighbors gathered together and they were having a
big conflict.
They said, well, they went that direction.
So Micah went chasing after them.
And these guys are 600 tough guys heading
off for war.
Micah came up and said, hey, what's the
big idea of ripping me off, taking away
my priest, and taking away my silver idols
and so forth?
And he was really laying it on them.
And they said, hey man, you looking for
trouble?
Might as well, you better go home.
There's no sense getting hurt.
And so he looked around and saw all
these guys with their swords and everything else.
So he decided to go home.
Wisdom, the better part of valor.
And so they went up with this young
man and they came to Laish and they
captured it.
They destroyed the inhabitants.
And the tribe of Dan, a good portion
of them, moved on up and inhabited the
upper part of this Hula Valley, where the
headwaters of the Jordan River come out from
Mount Hermon.
And thus that became the territory of the
tribe of Dan.
And the city was called Dan.
And the river itself was then named Jordan
or Out of Dan, because there is the
headwaters of the Jordan River and it comes
out of Dan.
And so the river became named Jordan Out
of Dan.
So that is just one of the little
stories that is told here.
And the second story that gives us an
insight to the confusion that existed, both civil
and religious, during this particular time has to
do with the story of a man who
was a Levite.
Now again, in chapter 19, it says, it
came to pass in those days when there
was no king in Israel.
Now, no king in Israel.
Israel was intended by God to be a
theocracy.
God wanted to be the king.
He wanted the people to submit to His
rule, to His reign.
But the declaration there was no king in
Israel meant that the people were not submitting
to God.
Thus there was confusion.
Everybody was doing what he felt was right
and there was great confusion.
These things that are told here are not
told in a sense of condoning what's happening.
In fact, they're told in the other sense
of condemning what they're doing, but just showing
the confusion that existed during this particular period
of the history of the children of Israel.
And the whole purpose is just to relay,
actually, the confusion that exists during this period
of time.
So it came to pass there was no
king.
There was a certain Levite who also was
living in Mount Ephraim and he took him
a concubine from Bethlehem Judah.
Now, this is wrong that a priest should
have a concubine.
Not his wife, just a concubine.
This is following, really, the pagan practices of
the people that were around him and even
the priest.
Now, his concubine left him, went out and
was a prostitute, returned to her father who
was living in Bethlehem, and so after a
few months he was missing her and so
he decided to go back and talk her
into coming back with him.
They had a live-in relationship, living together
without marriage.
Some of the people today think they are
so modern, so chick, you know.
We're just living together as though that were,
you know, chic, alright?
How about you, Ray?
CHIC.
Hey, this has been going on for a
long time.
You're old-fashioned.
Nothing modern about that.
Sin's been around from the beginning.
So he went down to Bethlehem where she
had gone back to her dad to talk
her into moving back in with him again.
And her dad took a liking for the
guy and he was good in his sales
pitch and she decided to go back with
him.
But the dad said, Oh, you know, stick
around and you know, let's just drink and
we'll have a good time.
And so they drank and got evening and
the guy said, Well, I better be...
Oh, no, you can't go tonight.
Stay until tomorrow, you know, and you can
get a start off tomorrow.
So he stayed to the next day and
so they got up and they started to
celebrate again and they kept drinking through the
day and came evening and said, Well, I
better be going.
Ah, you can't go.
It's getting dark.
You know, you might as well wait until
tomorrow and leave tomorrow.
So he spent the night again and you
know, same old thing.
And in the afternoon he said, Hey, I've
got to be going.
Ah, no, no, spend the night and tomorrow
get up real early and get a good
start.
He said, No, hey, I've got to go.
So he saddled up the two donkeys.
He took his servant and the concubine and
they started back towards Ephraim from Bethlehem.
It was getting evening as they came to
Jebus which was later to be Jerusalem, about
five miles from Bethlehem.
And the servant said, We better turn into
Jebus here and spend the night.
And he said, No, I don't want to
spend a night in a city that doesn't
belong to the Israelites.
Let's go on.
And so they came to Ramallah or Ramah
which is the sort of a northern suburbs
of Jerusalem.
And somehow that didn't appeal to them.
So they went a little further to a
city of the Benjamites, the city of Gibeah.
And he said to his servant, Come, let
us draw near and we'll spend the night
here.
And as the sun went down, they were
by Gibeah that belongs to Benjamin and they
turned in to lodging Gibeah.
And when he went in, he sat down
in the street for there was no man
that took him into his house for lodging.
Now in those days, they didn't have motels,
hotels kind of things.
And people were just gracious and they would
just take you into their home.
If you were a traveler coming along, hospitality
was the thing.
And they'd say, You know, come and spend
the night with us.
And so no one invited him to spend
the night.
And an old man was coming in from
the fields.
He'd been working rather late.
And he also was from Mount Ephraim area,
which meant that he was of the tribe
of Ephraim, not a Benjamite.
And he saw this fellow in the street
and he said, Hey, what are you doing
here in the street?
You can't spend the night in the street.
And he said, Well, no one's invited me
home.
He said, Well, come on home to my
house.
He said, Where are you from?
He said, I'm from Ephraim.
I've been journeying from Bethlehem and going back
to Ephraim.
Oh, I'm from Ephraim too.
Where are you from?
Do you know so and so?
Yeah, you know, that kind of stuff.
And so he invited him home to spend
the night with him.
And as it got dark, the men of
Gibeah came to the door and they began
to pound on the door and they said,
Send the man out that we saw coming
into your house that we might know him.
So now we find that very thing for
which God judged Sodom and destroyed it is
happening even among his own people there in
the tribe of Benjamin.
The very same thing that happened when the
angels came into the house of Lot in
Sodom and the men of the city circled
the house and said, Send them out that
we might know them or that we might
have sexual relations with them or homosexual relations
with them.
And here we see the moral depravity that
has taken place even among God's people, the
Benjamites.
And so it's giving you an insight into
the moral decay of Israel during the period
of the judges.
And again, an insight into the whole cultural
scene.
The old man said, Hey, this man's my
guest.
I've got a daughter who's a virgin and
here's his concubine.
We'll send them out and you do with
them whatever you want.
But don't, you know, touch my guest.
Women, be thankful for Jesus Christ.
What He has done for women's rights.
What Jesus has done for the women is
absolutely glorious.
You take the cultures of the world where
the Christian influence is not strong and look
at the place of the woman in those
cultures even today.
It is Jesus Christ who elevated the woman
from something of a chattel, a slave, something
to be pawned off by the man's will
and elevated her into an equal in the
sight of God.
For in Christ Jesus, there is neither male
nor female.
There's no superior sex or anything else.
There is just a beautiful equality in Jesus
Christ.
And Jesus elevated the woman from this place
of the pagan cultures where she was put
down and subjugated and treated like dirt.
And Jesus lifted the womanhood and gave respect
and dignity to women which the men weren't
willing to grant in their pagan cultures.
Go today to Israel and look at the
place of the Bedouin women and be thankful
for what Jesus Christ has done for you.
Lifting, bringing respect and glory and honor and
equality unto the women.
But He had not yet come.
They were following still the cultures of the
people around them.
Here's a man willing to give his daughter,
his virgin daughter to a lustful crowd.
Don't touch my guest that has come.
And so they sent the concubine out and
all night long the men raped her one
after another until in the morning she crawled
back to the steps of the house and
there she died.
In the morning when the priest came out,
he said, get up, let's get going.
What ails you?
There was no answer.
He touched her and found she was dead.
So he put her on the donkey, took
her back to Ephraim to his house and
there he butchered her body cutting it into
12 pieces and sending a piece of her
body to all of the tribes.
Now it had what he hoped it would
have.
It had a shock effect upon the tribes.
They were horrified to get a part of
a torso, a leg, an arm, a head.
And they gathered together and this man told
them the evil that was done by the
Benjamites, by those from the tribe of Benjamin,
the city of Gibeah.
He told them the horrible evil that had
befallen him while he was there.
And the people of Israel were incensed against
the Ephraimites, I mean against the Benjamites.
And so they decided to go against them
in battle.
And they gathered an army of 400,000
plus.
And they inquired of the Lord and they
said, Who shall go up first?
And the Lord said, The tribe of Judah.
So the tribe of Judah went up against
Gibeah, but the men of Benjamin were tough.
They had 700 fellows who could throw a
stone with a sling and never miss from
100 yards.
They could come within a hair's breadth of
their target at 100 yards with a sling.
700 of them, skillful, tough.
The tribe of Judah went up against Gibeah.
The men of the Benjamites came out.
Of course, the Benjamites, when they said, they
gave them first and all men, they said,
Turn over these lewd fellows who have done
this thing.
We're going to kill them.
And the Benjamites would not turn them over.
They said, You come and get them.
And so they were more or less challenged
for the fight.
And so the men of Judah, Israel, were
defeated by the men of Benjamin who killed
22,000 that day in the battle.
So the men of Israel came and they
encouraged themselves.
They set in battle again as they did
the first day.
And the children of Israel went up and
wept before the Lord until evening.
And they asked counsel of the Lord saying,
Shall we go up again to battle against
the children of Benjamin, my brother?
And the Lord said, Go up against him.
Now the children of Israel came near against
the children of Benjamin the second day.
And the men of Benjamin came forth against
them out of Gibeah the second day, destroyed
down to the ground 18,000 men.
And again, they retreated.
And now they fasted and prayed and cried
unto the Lord.
Now, I must confess at this point, I
have confusion.
Why would God send them into a battle,
say, go into battle in which they're going
to get defeated?
I don't know.
That confuses me.
But the first two days when they went
in, they got whipped and though God had
said go, even said the tribe that was
to go first.
I don't understand that.
You say, oh, well, you know, that's horrible.
You don't understand.
Well, perhaps so.
But I don't know everything.
And God said, my ways are not your
ways, saith the Lord.
My ways are beyond your finding out.
Even as a woman this morning asked me
after the service, she said, why would God
choose Samson if in his foreknowledge, he knew
he was going to fail?
That's a good question.
I don't know.
However, as I say, there are a lot
of things in life that I don't know
about God.
And I'm sort of glad I don't know
because that causes me to respect God.
I know He's smarter than I am.
Now, if I knew everything God knew, I'd
be as smart as God and how could
I respect Him?
Not only that, it gives me a chance
to exercise faith, which I don't like, but
I'm forced at times to exercise it.
You see, to believe what I don't know
is faith.
To believe what I do know is reason,
intellect.
Now, I know a lot of things and
I believe them because my intellect tells me,
well, that's right.
I can balance it in my intellect.
I can rationalize it.
So I say, well, I believe Jesus is
the Son of God.
Great deal.
There's plenty of historic proof for that.
I believe Jesus rose from the dead.
Big deal.
There's plenty of historic truth for that and
proof.
If you can prove anything in history, you
can prove that Jesus rose from the dead
if history has any value for proof of
past events.
If you want to prove that Hannibal crossed
the Alps, you can prove that Jesus rose
from the dead just as much as you
can prove that he crossed the Alps or
that Washington crossed the Delaware.
So big deal.
I believe Jesus rose from the dead.
I can prove it historically.
It is the things that I can't prove
that I have to just believe by faith
that God honors.
I say that I believe Jesus is the
Son of God.
Great.
The devils believe that too.
What does that make me?
Nothing.
But when you come to those areas of
faith or belief where there is not the
proof and I have to just believe in
faith that this indeed did happen, that he
died, yes, that's a historic fact, but that
he died for my sins, that's something I
accept by faith.
That God laid upon him my sins when
he died, I accept that by faith.
That he rose, that's a historic fact.
But in his resurrection, he provided justification for
me.
That's faith.
That's what makes me saved is believing what
I don't understand.
I don't understand how or why he would
die for me.
I don't understand how I can be justified
by his resurrection, but I believe it because
the Bible declares it.
And thus there are many things in my
Christian experience that I believe though I can't
rationalize them.
And the things especially when a person says
to me, why did God?
And someone the other day started out their
question, they said, why did God?
I said, that's all the further you need
to go.
I don't know.
I don't know the whys of God.
My ways are not your ways, saith the
Lord.
My ways are beyond your finding out.
And thus, when I cannot reason or intellectualize
anything, I then by faith, if God said
it, I believe it.
By faith, not by reason.
I take a step higher than my reason
and I step into that realm of faith,
believing it because God said it.
God who cannot lie has declared his truth
and I believe it though I can't rationalize
it or understand it in my mind.
So why did God say, yep, go and
then allow him to get defeated?
I don't know, but it's there.
I believe it.
The third day, they fasted, they prayed, they
waited upon God.
Shall we go again?
Yes, go again.
Now this time they changed their strategy a
bit.
They had some guys sort of hide around
the city and when the men of Benjamin
then came out, they retreated, drew them on
out further from the city and then these
men came in the city, set a big
fire and the men of Benjamin turned around,
saw their city was on fire and the
fight was gone out of them and they
killed 20,000 of them there in the
field.
Some of them tried to flee.
They grabbed them, killed 3,000 in another
place, killed a couple thousand in another and
pretty much wiped out the men from the
tribe of Benjamin.
In fact, there were 600 men who escaped
the slaughter, but the rest of them were
wiped out.
Now, these men in chapter 21 had made
a oath.
They had sworn in Mishpah saying, there shall
not any of us give his daughter unto
Benjamin for a wife.
These Benjamites do these things, none of us
will allow them to marry our daughters.
It was a vow that they made.
Now, let me say that most vows like
this one are stupid.
Most of the vows that are given in
the Bible are stupid.
This is a stupid vow.
Saul made a stupid vow.
When he saw Jonathan wiping out the Philistines
with his armor bare, he said, curse it
be the man who eats anything today until
Saul be avenged of all of his enemies.
Stupid vow.
Because later on in the day as they
were chasing the Philistines, the guys were so
hungry and they were getting faint and weak
because they didn't have any food.
They were running out of energy and they
could have really slaughtered a lot more of
the Philistines that day.
Had a total victory, but this stupid vow
of Saul, which really had no sense behind
it.
Curse it be any man who eats anything
until Saul, sort of an exalting of himself.
And of course, Jonathan, his son, didn't hear
his old man saying that.
He was busy fighting the Philistines.
And running through the forest, he saw this
honeycomb and he put his spear out and,
you know, reached through.
And then he's licking on his spear as
he's chasing the Philistines.
And the honey, the quick energy, he was
revived, you know, and had all that energy
and really got after them and was able
to go.
And then later on, his old man said,
somebody broke my vow today.
Who was it?
No one would rat on him.
So he said, divide in two companies.
All of you and my son and Jonathan
will cast lots.
Lots fell on Saul and his son.
He said, Jonathan, what have you done?
Hey, dad, I didn't know what you said.
I'm going through the forest and I saw
the honeycomb and I put my spear in
and ate it and I was revived.
Hey, dad, it was sort of foolish for
you to say that.
Look how faint the guys are.
We could have wiped out the Philistines totally
today if the guys had strength, but they
ran out of energy.
Saul said, put him to death.
What a stupid guy.
No wonder.
Well, he admitted himself at the end of
his life.
He said, hey, I've played the fool.
That's no understatement.
Jephthah made a stupid vow.
We studied that last week.
Remember, the first thing comes out the door
of my house, I'll sacrifice it to burn
offering unto the Lord.
The Bible says quite a bit about keeping
your mouth shut.
When you go into the temple of the
mouth, when you go into the temple of
the Lord, you know, put a lock on
your mouth lest you sin with your mouth.
I don't think it's a proverb, but it
ought to be.
It is better to keep your mouth shut
and let people think you're a fool than
to open it and dispel all doubts.
The problem we get into with our mouths.
Now, here was a foolish vow.
They wiped out the Benjamites.
Only 600 guys left.
The rest of the Benjamites are wiped out.
And now they think, oh, we're not going
to have a tribe of Benjamin.
The tribe of Benjamin is going to get
wiped out.
Oh, that's horrible.
Oh, we can't do that.
What should we do?
Well, is there any city that didn't send
anybody?
Someone said, well, I didn't see anybody come
from Javish Gilead.
So they checked and said, anybody here from
Javish Gilead?
Nobody there from Javish Gilead.
All right, then let's go to Javish Gilead
and we'll kill everybody except the virgins.
And we'll bring them back and let them
marry these guys.
They didn't enter into the vow, you see.
No one from Javish Gilead was there to
enter into the vow.
So, horrible.
You know, it's covering one stupidity with a
greater.
But, you know, you get into these kind
of things where you begin to follow one
sin with another.
You do one and then it leads to
another, another, another.
You get further and further down the line.
It's tragic.
And so what they did was horrible.
They went to Javish Gilead and they wiped
out the city, killed all of the married
women, killed all of the men, and they
got the virgins and brought them back.
But there still wasn't enough.
There's still some guys that weren't married.
What are we going to do?
Well, Shiloh was the religious center at that
particular time.
And they would have the feast in Shiloh.
And during the feast, the young virgins would
come out and do some traditional folk dances.
And so they said to the men of
Benjamin, who still didn't have wives, during this
feast when these young virgins come out, you
guys hide in the bushes and you watch,
you see a cute gal that you like,
grab her and take off with her.
Sort of a reverse of Sadie Hawkins kind
of a day.
And when the men from Shiloh come to
us and say, hey, they've kidnapped our daughters,
we'll say, oh, that's all right.
Just let it go and we'll protect you
in it.
So that year when they had the feast
and the young virgins from Shiloh came out
and were doing their little ritual traditional dances,
these Benjamites were hiding and they each spied
them a gal that they liked the looks
of and they grabbed them and took off
with them.
And thus the tribe of Benjamin was spared
and they weren't deleted as a tribe in
Israel.
But again, no condoning of the Scripture.
In fact, a condemning of it in the
Scripture.
It was wrong.
It was stupid.
But that's just the way things were going
because they had lost their consciousness of God
as king.
And so it gives you just a little
insight into the civil and religious confusion that
existed during the time of the judges.
And again, the chapter ends as this section
began.
In those days, there was no king in
Israel.
Every man did that which was right in
his own eyes.
But I'll tell you, when people do that
which is right in their own eyes, quite
often it is very, very wrong because of
the mentality and the moral level of many
people.
You can't just let people live as they
want.
They will revert to an animal state.
How important that we submit our lives to
God as king.
Next week, the beautiful little book of Ruth.
Shall we stand?
Let's turn back to number six.
For a long time, I've been wanting us
to learn this chorus that Crystal taught us
tonight as sort of a departing kind of
a chorus.
I think it's beautiful.
You know, as sort of a conclusion to
the service and departing from one another to
pronounce this blessing of God upon each other.
And I don't know if Crystal's still here,
but if she is, she can probably help
me.
I don't think I know this chorus, but
I think I can start it if you
can finish it.
Ah, all right, Crystal.
I'll sing the after part.
No, tell you what.
Let the men sing the first Lord bless
you and let the women echo it.
And keep you, the women echo it.
And then we all sing together those other
parts.
So men join with me, women join with
Crystal.
Then we'll all sing those parts together.
The Lord bless thee and keep thee.
The Lord make his face to shine up.
The Lord lift up.
The Lord bless thee.
And keep thee.
The Lord lift
up.
The Lord bless thee.
And keep thee.
Take his face to shine a light.