Israel’s attempts at trying to do life on their own have failed miserably.
• Man’s attempts at doing “what is right in their own eyes” would never succeed, we are lost, like sheep gone astray.
• They could not even maintain a decent life. With each account of a judge that God raised to rescue them, we see further corruption.
• Each chapter gets more disturbing than the last. They went further and further away from God and away from the ways of God.
These accounts are not organised strictly chronologically. That’s not the intention of the author, Prophet Samuel. They are organised for meaning.
• He has a theme. We can tell it from the way he ended this book, with a double-conclusions.
• Both parts of the conclusion featured a Levite. They couldn’t be random stories. Why would you want to conclude your book that way? Why put in random stories and tie them together to form an end?
Let’s RECAP the conclusion. Two Sunday ago we look at a Levite who had become sort-of a “priest for hire”, engaged by an Israelite to do the work of a priest in his home serving his idols.
• The people from Dan (fellow Israelites) came to steal his master’s idols and he decided to jump ship and follow them, and taking along with him the idols (as if they are precious commodities).
• Then last Sunday we looked at another Levite who married a concubine, went back to her home to get her, but on the way back she was abused and raped by the men from Benjamin (fellow Israelites).
• The Levite decided to cut her up into 12 parts and sent them to the rest of the tribes, calling for a revenge. That sparked off a messy civil war and great atrocities.
Why do you think Samuel ends his book with this “almost-glamourous” portrayal of chaos, corruption and evil? Why would he want to glorify evil?
• Think for a moment. This is the lingering thought I have. There is something that Samuel is highlighting to us and this is the thrust of the book.
• He said - Judges 21:25 “Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.”
Under such conditions, corruption and evil prevails.
• This is the result of a life lost without God, and a life lost without the Word of God. No compass and no roadmap.
• After Joshua, Israel began to spiral downwards – spiritually, morally, socially, continually, one generation after another.
The message is clear for us. Is this the life we want? Is this the conditions of life we want to find ourselves in? If NO, then don’t repeat the same mistakes today!
I used two metaphors to help me remember - the Levites lost their COMPASS and their MAP. They live life ignoring God, and ignoring His WORD.
• The first Levite lost sense of God. He was called to serve Him, but end up serving a man and his idols.
• The second Levite lost sense of God’s will. He does not know what is right and good. Life is without purpose and meaning.
Samuel emphasized to us they have no king. They have no king because they have rejected the ONE King they have – God.
• This king has nothing to do with a human leader. Samuel was referring to their rejection of God.
• How can we be so sure? When Israel demanded for a human king later on in 1 Sam 8:6-7, this was Samuel’s reaction: 6But when they said, "Give us a king to lead us," this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. 7And the LORD told him: "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.
• They have rejected God. They have chosen to ignore God.
This was prophesied by Moses - Deut 4:25-29
25After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time - if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the LORD your God and provoking him to anger, 26 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed. 27The LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the LORD will drive you. 28There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell. 29But if from there you SEEK THE LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.
• The situation we are reading in Judges is the result of a life without God.
The story of the SECOND LEVITE is a picture of a life with a ROADMAP.
• He doesn’t know what is good and righteous, what is the purpose of life. He lost that sense because he does not know God.
• He went in search of his unfaithful wife only after four months. His father-in-law asked him to stay and he stayed for 3 days - of eating and drinking and sleeping (19:4).
• 4th day he wanted to go. Father-in-law asked him to stay and he stayed. 5th day he wanted to go, father-in-law asked him to stay again and he stayed. It doesn’t matter, he has no agenda, no serious business to attend to; no purpose.
• Until near nightfall he decided to go. No planning. On the way back, need to find a place to stay overnight and he ended up in the city square. Aimless living.
As a Levite, we expected more from him. He ought to KNOW God and His WAYS. He ought to SEEK God and His WILL.
• Not that God has not given them instructions for life. He did, through Moses. But now they had NO LAW and everyone did what he or she sees as right.
• This is what happen when the WORD of God is taken out of our lives. We see the result of it in the news every day.
Not only did God gave the LAW, He emphasized the importance of keeping it.
• We read that many times in Deuteronomy and Joshua.
• Deut 5:32-33 “32So be careful to do what the LORD your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left. 33Walk in all the way that the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.”
• Such lines were repeated again and again, many times, like a broken record.
So what makes this conclusion so sad is that the two person featured are Levites.
• Who are the Levites? They are the tribe set apart by God (in Num 18) to serve Him in the Tabernacle (then, and later in the Temple). They are responsible for everything in the Tabernacle.
• The priests are chosen among them. They can only come from Aaron’s family. They are specifically assigned to makes the sacrifices, performs the rituals and acts as mediator between man and God.
The Levites have a special calling…
• Listen to the instructions Moses gave to the priests in Deut 31:10-13
10…during the Feast of Tabernacles, 11when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose, you shall read this law before them in their hearing. 12Assemble the people - men, women and children, and the aliens living in your towns - so they can listen and learn to fear the LORD your God and follow carefully all the words of this law. 13Their children, who do not know this law, must hear it and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess."
• When Moses blesses the tribes in Deut 33, prior to his death, this is what he said about the tribe of Levi. Deut 33:9-10 “… but he watched over your Word and guarded your covenant. 10He teaches your precepts to Jacob and your law to Israel. He offers incense before you and whole burnt offerings on your altar.”
But the situation we have in Judges is that the Levites have already become completely lost and corrupted. Evil prevails but of the loss of God’s LAW.
The message is clear. To avoid this mess, we need to return to the WORD of God!
• The only way to live life is to live it God’s way.
• To twist this line around, our philosophy of life ought to be: “We have a King (our God); we do everything He says.”
• Hold on tightly to the COMPASS and the ROADMAP. Nurture your relationship with God and seek to do life God’s way.
• We PRAY that we will grow to love Him and His Word, to UNDERSTAND His heart and cultivate a delight in DOING what He says.
The way to counter the evil is to proclaim the truth.
• The only way to dispel darkness, is to shine the light.
• Without it, evil runs rampant. Without it, people are lost in darkness.
• Evil reigns because truth is suppressed. It’s dark because the light is shut off.
How to fight darkness? You don’t. You shine the LIGHT.
• After wearing the armour of God and we bring out the SWORD of the Spirit to fight. That’s the Word of God.
How do we fight evil? We don’t. We bring out the TRUTH.
• We fight Satan the same way Jesus fights him – bring out the WORD of GOD.
• The only word Satan respects is the Word of God.
What happens when man rejects the Word of God? It’s in Judges 17-21.
• That’s what happens when man do not have the WORD of God.
• We cannot tell truth from lie, right from wrong, good from evil.
• And the saddest thing is, he does not even know that he is already lost.
Keep falling in love with God. Keep falling in love with His Word.
• Do life God’s way. That’s the only right way to live.
