Book of Judges, chapter number 21. Tonight, we're gonna read a little bit and then talk about it, and then we'll read a little bit more and talk about it. Instead of reading the whole chapter and then working back through, we're just gonna read a portion of scripture and then expound it. Judges 21, verse 1. Now the men of Israel have sworn in meniscus saying, there shall not any of us give his daughter unto Benjamin Dwight. And the people came to the house of God, and abode there till even before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept sore, and said, O Lord God of Israel, why has this come to pass in Israel, that there should be today one tribe lacking in Israel? And it came to pass on the morrow that the people rose early, and built there an altar, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. And the children of Israel said, who is there among all the tribes of Israel that came not up with the congregation unto the Lord. For they had made a great oath concerning him that came not up to the Lord to miss the saying, he shall surely be put to death. And the children of Israel repented them for Benjamin their brother and said, there is one tribe cut off from Israel this day. How shall we do for wives for them that remain? seeing we have sworn by the Lord that we will not give them of our daughters to wives. And we'll stop there. I've entitled this 21st chapter of Judges trying to right a wrong, trying to right a wrong. But then I want to follow in behind that by saying trying to right a wrong the wrong way, the wrong way. I'm going to ask a question that I already know the answer to. Have you ever done something you regretted? I'd just say about everybody in the building could say. Have you done something you regretted, said something that you shouldn't have, hurt someone, made a mess of a situation, and then you tried to fix it, and it seemed like no matter how hard you tried to fix it, it just got worse? I've done that. Have you? There are certain things, once they're done, they can't be undone. Certain words that once they're said, they can't be unsaid. And I think that's very similar to what the children of Israel experienced in this 21st chapter, as they have gone to war against Benjamin. And let me just run you through this real quick. They've gone to war again. This horrible atrocity had been committed. This woman, this concubine, had been raped, and then her husband took her body, cut it into parts, sent it to all the twelve tribes of Israel, and then all the tribes except Benjamin, the eleven tribes, descended upon the little town of Gibeah where this atrocity was committed. And rather than Benjamin dealing with this grievous sin, Benjamin goes to war against the other eleven tribes. And if you remember our narrative The first day, Benjamin wins. The second day, the tribe of Benjamin wins. But then the third day, the 11 allied tribes win and almost completely destroy the tribe of Benjamin. As a matter of fact, just look back to the last verse of chapter 20. The men of Israel turned again upon the children of Benjamin and smote them with the edge of the sword, as well the men of every city, as the beast and all that came to hand. Also they set on fire all the cities that they came to. So seemingly, the civil war, this brutal civil war, the 11 tribes just sort of swept through the land of Benjamin. killing everything and everyone in their path. Though the text doesn't specifically say, we are inclined to think that they wiped out everything, everyone from the tribe of Benjamin, except for 600 men. that had fled to the Rock of Rehman earlier in that 20th chapter, just a few verses up. Out of the thousands of men they sent out to battle, out of all of their cities, seemingly the only thing that was left from this tribe, we read this morning in Genesis, we read of the tribe of Israel, Benjamin, seemingly they are now down to 600 men. I get the impression from the text that they've killed the women, they've killed the children, they've destroyed the cities. I mean, Benjamin has been nearly annihilated. And this is one of those things that once it's done, it can't be undone. This action, this brutal chain reaction that started in town of Gibeah and made its way to Israeli civil war has now almost completely annihilated, decimated one of the 12 tribes. And they are now down to just 600 men. And once the bloodthirsty, foaming mouths of the 11 tribes, once things sort of settle down, sort of as we would say, when the dust settles and they start taking stock of what's happened, Now they feel bad. I've done things before, and at the moment, you're so angry and so mad, you don't care, right? But once you sort of cool down a little bit, you start feeling bad. And that's how it is right here with them. They have nearly annihilated this tribe, and now once the dust settles, they realize what they've done. They've almost decimated one of their brethren. And the entirety of the tribe is almost gone. So now they say, what are we gonna do to right this wrong? What are we gonna do to right this wrong? But unfortunately, they go about righting this wrong the wrong way. They go about it the wrong way. While I agree, and this is just some of these things. His opinion, some of it is subjective. We don't know all the ins and outs of all the details. We know what the inspired narrative tells us. That's all that we know. I'm strongly convinced that the way that this is written is to lay some guilt at the feet of the 11 tribes for going too far. I agree that this wickedness in Gibeah needed to be dealt with. And they obviously needed to go to war against Benjamin. Because rather than Benjamin dealing with that wickedness, they turn on their own brethren. So they needed to. Israel, the 11 tribes I speak of, they needed to deal with this issue. But I don't believe they needed to go as far as they did in nearly annihilating, just going through the whole land and just wiping out one of the 12 tribes. And we find out in verse 1 that before this big bloody battle took place, These eleven united tribes had sworn an oath in Mizpah. Verse 1 says, they'd sworn an oath in Mizpah saying, there shall not any of us give his daughter unto Benjamin the wife. Now that's important. That's going to play out through the remainder of this chapter. We hadn't been told this until now, but now we learned before the battle ever began, when they had gathered together and missed, but they all said, none of us, no matter what happens in the battle, none of us will give our daughters to the Benjamites to marry. Now, we're not gonna do it. We're not gonna give our daughters to them to marry, period. Whatever happens, happens, but because of Benjamin, defending this wickedness of Gibeah, we're not going to allow our daughters to marry them. And so this oath has an important part, plays an important part of this text. But now listen, I want to emphasize this to you. As they seek to right this wrong, they're going to go about it the wrong way. And here's why. There are no human solutions to spiritual problems. Learn that. There are no human solutions to spiritual problems. There are only divine solutions to spiritual problems. So they have nearly annihilated, killed all, if not all, of Benjamin. Something has to be done. This is what they're finding out in verse 2, 3, 4. What are we going to do? We've got to do something. One of the tribes has almost been decimated. Verse 2, the people came to the house of God. They abode there till even. They wept sore. They lifted up their voices. And I find verse 3 almost ironic. I'll say interesting, and to say it like that, verse 3, and said, O Lord God of Israel, why has this come to pass? Why has this happened in Israel that there should be today one tribe lacking in Israel? Can you hear them? They're saying, how did this happen? How could this have happened? And I want to say, because you went and killed everybody. That's how it happened. You know, I know there's grief in what they're saying. And obviously, we read from the text that in verse 6, the children of Israel repented them. They felt remorse because of their behavior in going so far in dealing with this thing. But it's almost silly that they would say, how did this happen? Well, it happened because you killed all of your brothers. Can I just remind you again that they showed more brutality? towards the tribe of Benjamin than they did towards the Canaanites. They would give the Canaanites quarter. They never really fully decimated them. You go through these tribes and the different Canaanite people groups, and I don't know if any of them were ever utterly wiped out to the point like Benjamin was here. So they ask, what are we going to do? Verse 4, it came to pass on the morrow, the people rose early, they made an altar, they offered burnt offerings, peace offerings. Verse 5, the children of Israel, they start asking some questions here in verse 5. When we got ready to go to war, was there anybody who didn't show up? Because they had made another oath. They had sworn an oath that if there was anybody who did not show up to battle, they would be put to death as well. You see that in verse 5? For they had made a great oath, halfway through, for they had made a great oath concerning him that came not up to the Lord to miss the same, he shall surely be put to death. This is atrocious, and I'll be glad, honestly, when we're done with this part. But every tribe of Israel had received one of those bloody body parts. And so there was this call to action. There was this, it was like a trumpet sounding. Everybody assembled, people from everywhere assembled to deal with this atrocity, but not everybody does. We'll get into that in just a minute, but I want you to see verse 7 because this is where they start asking How do we fix this? How do we write this wrong? Verse 7 how shall we do for wives? How will we provide wives for them that remain these 600 men that are hiding in the rock remnant? That's all the Benjamites that are left these 600 men What are we going to do? How will we get them wives? Notice verse 7, seeing we have sworn by the Lord that we will not give them of our daughters. Now, think about this. They're forbidden from marrying the Canaanites. And now these men have said we will not give any of our daughters to them to marry. What are we going to do? So they come up with solution number one. And solution number one is they go to Jabesh Gilead. Look at verse number eight with me, and we'll just read this, verse eight. And they said, what one is there of the tribes of Israel that came not up to Mizpah to the Lord? And behold, there came none to the camp from Jabesh Gilead to the assembly. For the people were numbered, and behold, there were none of the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead there. And the congregation sent thither 12,000 men of the Valentists and commanded them saying, go and smite the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the children. This is the thing that ye shall do. Ye shall utterly destroy every male and every woman that hath lain by man. They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead 400 young virgins that had known no man by lying with any male, and they brought them unto the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan." Stop there. Here's solution number one. They're trying to right this wrong, but again, they're trying to right this wrong the wrong way. They start doing a head count. They start looking around. asking, was there anybody who did not show up to battle? When we went out to war with Benjamin, was there anybody from the 12 tribes who didn't show? And from this little village on the other side of the Jordan River, a little town called Jabesh Gilead, for whatever reason, We don't know, and you just guess, and that's all it would be, would be speculated. Why none of them came, but no one from Jabesh Gilead had reported when there was that call of duty, when there was this call to war, call to arms. And so what do they get in their heads? You know what we'll do? We'll go to Jabesh Gilead. Now, this is an Israelite city. This is not a Canaanite city. This is an Israelite city. So solution number one, to provide wives for Benjamin so that they aren't completely wiped out. Solution number one is to go to Jabez Gilead and kill everybody and everything except for the young virgin girls. Now somebody could argue, you try to look at this thing objectively, somebody could argue that somebody from Jabez Gilead should have showed up. someone or someones should have answered the call to arms and shown up for the battle. Why they didn't, we don't know. But I want you to consider how brutal that these men are and what lengths they're willing to go to to try to right this wrong. They go to this city, and it's almost as if the narrator is saying, here's J. Besh Gilead, minding their own business, and here comes 12,000 of the most valiant Israelite soldiers who attack the city. And what do they do? They kill man, woman, boy, and if you're a virgin girl, they let you live. Now, that's brutal, isn't it? May I say again, perhaps even more brutal than they treated the Canaanites? As we've made our way through judges, we began all the way back. But as we've made our way through judges, we've come across some hard stories. This is another one. Remember, this all began Well, this Levite got in an argument with his wife, and she took off and left. And when he went to go chase her down, on his way home, he stopped in that town of Gibeah, and those men ended up forcing themselves on her, and I think raping her and killing her. So how do the Israelites, after all these things start, after the dominoes fall and this chain reaction goes on, how do they try to solve this? By going and killing a bunch of people of their own Israelites, going and killing a bunch of people in Jabesh Gilead and stealing their women. Their solution. is to kill a bunch of their own people, snake out the virgin women, and give those virgin girls to the 600 men that are hiding in the mountains. I don't say this to any way to try to curry favor, but the violence against women in this last few chapters has just been atrocious. It's just been atrocious. And you still see some in this Middle Eastern part of the world, the violence against women is still just atrocious, the way that they're treated, it is. What prompted them to do this? The fact that they refused, because of an oath, to give their own daughters to the Benjamites. Solution number one is, let's go kill a bunch of the Jabesh Gileadites and give their daughters to them. Solution number one. And this is what they do, look it with me if you would, then. They only found, remember there's 600 men, but they only found 400 women in Jabez Gilead. So 200 of these guys, they don't have a wife. I don't wanna make light of the thing because it's such an ugly story, but you got 600 guys whose wives have all been killed. Israel's gonna show up with 400, they're probably fighting each other to get out there and find him one of these wives. 200 of the men are left out. Look at verse 13. And the whole congregation sent some to speak to the children of Benjamin that were in the rock remnant, remember they're hiding in these caves, and to call peaceably unto them. And Benjamin came again at that time and they gave them wives which they had saved alive, they're the women of Jabesh-Gilead, and yet so they sufficed them not. They didn't have enough. And the people repented them for Benjamin, because that the Lord had made a breach in the tribes of Israel. Then the elders of the congregation said, now they're going to start asking again, what are we going to do? Verse 16. Then the elders of the congregation said, how shall we do for wise for them that remain, seeing the women are destroyed out of Benjamin? And they said, there must be an inheritance for them that may escape to Benjamin. that a tribe be not destroyed out of Israel. So they take the 400 they have, give them to these Benjamite men, they make peace with them. They say, we don't want to have war anymore. But then they start asking, now what are we going to do? We don't have enough women. What are we going to do? We refuse to give our daughters to them. What are we going to do? So they come up with solution number two. Solution number two. Solution one, go to Jabesh Gilead, kidnap a bunch of their women. Solution number two. You see verse 18, how be it we may not give them wives of our daughters? It's interesting, and I'm gonna come back to this. But it is interesting what people choose to care about. Now you just think about that a minute, and we'll get back to it, okay? How be it we may not give them wives of our daughters, for the children of Israel hath sworn, saying, Cursed be he that giveth a wife to Benjamin. Here's solution number two. Then they said, Behold, there is a feast of the Lord in Shiloh yearly in a place which is on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from Bethel to Shechem and on the south of Lebanon. Therefore they commanded the children of Benjamin saying, go and lie in wait in the vineyards and see and behold if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance and dances, then come ye out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin. And it shall be when their fathers or their brethren come unto us to complain, that we will say unto them, be favorable unto them for our sakes, because we reserve not to each man his wife in the war, or you did not give unto them at this time that you should be guilty. Solution number two. They tell the Benjamites, those that don't have husbands, and maybe some of them that did have husbands, but they told them, at least the ones that don't have husbands, go to Shiloh. And there's some conversation as to exactly when this is. This is probably somewhere around the fall of the year, the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. And as people were required to appear before the house of God three times a year, because of the timing of this, they believe it to be somewhere around the fall. When these young ladies would come out, as they would make their way to the house of God, here is their instruction. As you see these ladies come out and they're dancing, they're singing, this is a jubilant time. They're making their way to Jerusalem. This should be a normally very spiritually high point for the people, as they're making their way to Shiloh, where the tabernacle is set up. Their solution is, when you see some young girls that are out dancing or singing or just sort of praising God or making their way towards the tabernacle to worship, go kidnap them. That's their solution. Go kidnap them. Now I can pretty it up some and say, well, go take them, but that's what it is, is kidnapping. There is no human solution to a spiritual problem. There's a spiritual problem in Israel, and they're trying to right the wrong, but they're trying to do it the wrong way. Their solution is just go grab one of them girls and take them. Don't be too abstract from the text that you don't take the time to think about it. Some 14, 15, 16-year-old girl who's out with her family making her way to Shiloh, singing and dancing and happy. The next thing you know, some Benjamite man comes along, snatches her up, and he's going to take her home and says, you're going to be my wife. Now, don't get the wrong idea. Our American idea of marriage is very different than what it was in that culture. Our idea of marriage today is meet somebody, fall in love, meet on matchonly.com, whatever that it is. Fall in love and all this romantic stuff. And during that culture, most of the marriages were arranged. It was worked out and for the favor of both families, that kind of thing. It wasn't so much about romance. It was about what was practical or what was good. But that still doesn't justify the fact that these men went and snatched a bunch of young girls to take home and be their wives. And here's what they say, and this is what's twisted about this. Verse 22, and it shall be, when the fathers are their brethren, when they come out to complain, when the fathers, and you would too, right? If it was your daughter, some grown man snatched up and run off with, you'd complain too. Your sister, when the fathers or their brethren come unto us to complain, we'll say unto them, well, just be favorable unto them for our sakes. Just don't worry about your daughter, don't worry about your sister. Be favorable and let them go for our sakes, because we made an oath. Because we made an oath saying we're not gonna let our daughters marry them. And what he really says, you follow verse 22 out, really you're not breaking your oath either because you didn't give them, the men just came and took them. And that's really what verse 22, close to verse 22, that you should not be guilty. Not only we not broken our oaths, but you won't be held guilty for breaking your oath either if it's one of your daughters that gets snatched and taken away. It's interesting. Here's what I'm trying to get at. It's strange, isn't it, what we could justify? You heard the old sayings, the end justifies the means. How many atrocities have been carried out in the world by people thinking that way, that the end justifies the means? Curiously, abducting and forcing themselves on women is what set this whole battle in motion to begin with. But now these Israelites are similarly doing the exact same thing. Right? Forcing yourself on a woman against her will is what set this thing in motion and now these 11 tribes are putting a stamp of approval on it and condoning it. What's worse? Now think about this. What's worse? Encouraging these men First of all, going to J. Bess Gilead, killing all of them to get some women, and then encouraging these men to go out and kidnap their own wives. Is that better than just breaking the silly oath you made before you ever went to war? Do you get what I'm trying to say? They were so legalistic and narrow in their minds that somehow they justified all of this wrong in order to try to make it right. They made this oath, we will not give our daughters under the Benjamites to marry. And they were more concerned about keeping that oath than they were about the damage done in Jabesh Gilead or the damage done to those families whose daughters were kidnapped. It's curious what people choose to care about. They were more concerned about honoring this oath than they were about honoring those women. And here's the thing. Do you know that in the Mosaic Law, there was a sacrifice or an offering that could be made? If you made what's called a rash vow, if you made a vow you shouldn't have made, God gave you an out. You could bring a certain sacrifice to the altar, make that offering there, and God would forgive you and release you from that vow. That was in the Mosaic Law. But either they didn't know that or they didn't care about it. So they justified this cruel conduct. Battle against J. Bess Gilead, snatching out all their young virgins, and now kidnapping girls on the way to shallow. They'd rather do that than deal with this rash vow that they made. It's just the end justifies the means, and there's no telling what kind of atrocities are accomplished. What was worse? I mean, really, what's worse? First of all, there's a warning there, right? Don't make rash vows. Don't let your mouth get out ahead of your mind. Don't make rash vows like this. Do you find it strange that if humanity found one single-celled organism on Mars, they'd be thrilled to no end because there's life, right? Because there's life there on Mars. And yet these same people advocate abortion. It's curious what people choose to care about. I mean, it really is. When you think about it, this is a little bit off color and I'm sorry for it, but it will illustrate what I'm saying. I heard a man that I used to work with, I heard him say one time, he said, I enjoy watching pornography, I just can't stand the bad language. It's curious what people choose to care about. And here these men care more about this rash vow that they made in trying to keep their oath than they care about how they're treating their own brothers of Jabesh Gilead and these young ladies of Shiloh. This is not the behavior of godly men, godly leadership, or of God's people. This is not the behavior. When there is no moral compass, this is what happens. When there is no true God-given morality, you can justify anything. And they justified these atrocities by saying, well, we gotta do something. I mean, we can't just let Benjamin die. We've got to do something. So this is how they solve. This is how they try to right these wrongs. Verse 23. The children of Benjamin did so and took them wives according to their number of them that danced, whom they caught. And they went and returned unto their inheritance and repaired the cities and dwelt in them. And the children of Israel departed thence at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they went out from thence, every man to his inheritance. In quotes, I say, there's peace again in Israel. But it wasn't really peace. Remember, these stories take place pretty early on in the book of Judges. Even though it's given to us at the end of the book, these events took place early on in the book of Judges, within a couple generations of Moses and Aaron. But now we have this spiritual degradation, this cycle of sin as Israel begins its downward wicked cycle into apostasy. And in the close of this chapter is the crescendo. The last verse is the exclamation point on the book. In those days, there was no king in Israel. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. They had no strong moral leadership. They had, seemingly, they had very little teaching, little biblical understanding. They had not been well schooled in the Mosaic law. I don't want to make too much of it, but really, Verse 19, the commentators that I read after verse number 19 where they give detailed instructions where Shiloh is, they're having this almost like writer saying they gotta tell everybody how to get there because they ain't been going like it's supposed to go. So there's this downward spiral of apostate behavior in Israel and listen to this. These things, these things that we've just been studying the last few weeks, can't be blamed on the Canaanites. This is what Israel did all to themselves. They can't blame it on the world around them. This is what they did all to themselves. This brutal chain of events finds its climax, its crescendo. And the author of this book saying to us, when there was no strong leadership, things just went haywire. And that's the way it is for any group of people. When there is no moral compass, when there's no strong spiritual leadership, everybody will do what's right in their own sight. I'm not anti-American. I love this nation. I pray for it. But I'm gonna tell you something. If things continue on like they are, we're gonna see this downward spiral of wickedness and apostate behavior in our own nation. When there's not strong spiritual leadership, everyone will do what's right in their own sight. And that's a good reason, is it not, to pray for strong God-honoring leaders from the home to the pulpit, to the pew, to the governor's mansion, to the White House, strong spiritual leadership. But listen, this book doesn't have a Hollywood ending. I'm sorry to tell you this. I like movies, and I like a movie that has a good ending. I don't like those movies that have a sad ending or a bad ending. I can be sad all by myself. I don't need a movie to do that for me. But this book does not end on a positive note. There's not like the old cowboy movies where the guy in the white hat would always beat the guy in the black hat. There's not this great ending to it. In fact, if anything, it is an ending that is a warning, a warning. I was very tempted to try to squeeze in one more lesson out of judges, but I'm not. This book ends, Judges ends on a sour note. where the people of God are in complete disarray. But listen to this, but that's not how the Bible ends. You got that? This book ends this way. Judges ends that way. But that's not how the whole story of God's people will end. There's the beauty of that. One of these days we will see Him face to face. Not because of our faithfulness. One of the things that leaps off the page throughout the book of Judges is God is faithful even when His people are not. This is the divine intervention from the consequences of sin. This book ends in a negative note, but the story of God's redemption and forgiveness of our shattered lives It's painted throughout the remainder of the book, but also as we approach the end of the Bible as a whole, we see God's glorious faithfulness in spite of our stubborn rebellion. This book judges as we study. We've just seen this up and down behavior of this nation as it turned away from God. And I don't wanna be overly critical. But sometimes our lives mimic that too, up and down, not always faithful, turning in towards ungodliness, turning away from God, repenting, restoring, renewing, and then falling again. Maybe that's not your life, but it's been a lot of my life. But I'm glad to know that through it all, God will be faithful to his people. Because the book of Judges is gonna end, even with that negative note, We know this much, God keeps his oaths, God keeps his covenants, even when his people do not.