Sound The Trumpet : The High Cost of being in the King's Army

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“The High Cost of being in the King's Army”
by Art Sadlier
February 19th, 2012

Judges Chapter 19

In Judged 19-20 we have a tremendous lesson about the battle of the ages, the conflict between God and His adversary Satan.

This will be an expositional study in which we look at many of the verses in these two chapters. We begin in chapter 19, Verse 1, “And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the side of mount Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Bethlehemjudah.”

During those days there was no king in Israel. The significance of that statement is found in judges 17:6, “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” The purpose of the king of Israel was to lead the people to that which is pleasing to the Lord. Where there is no king the people do what they please. That is what we find in this chapter. In this chapter we find everyone doing the wrong thing.

There is a wider application. Where Christ is not crowned king in the hearts of men and women today, men and women do not do that which is pleasing to the Lord, they just do their own thing.

We have a certain Levite in this verse and we find him just doing what he feels like doing and ignoring the purpose and will of God. This is a man who is supposed be committed to serving God and pleasing God.

This man took a concubine. That was his first disobedience to the Lord. She is called both a wife and a concubine in the text. A concubine was a woman who was a wife without honour and respect, often treated as a slave. God has made no allowance for this kind of relationship. A wife is one flesh with her husband, to be loved and honoured and respected as a co-heir of the grace of life.

This man who was supposed to be a servant of God was living in disobedience to the God he professed to serve. Over the long ages how many men have made the same mistake and lost the blessing of God on their lives and the life of their family.

The Word of God makes this very clear in Ephesians 5:25, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.” Jesus states very clearly in Matthew 19:4-6 that this was God’s intention from the beginning.

This man did not treat his wife as a wife and she failed to act as act as a wife. How often those around us live up to our expectations. This man treated this woman as thing to serve him and satisfy his desires. She had no sense of what it meant to be a wife. So she failed to be a wife and we read in verse 2, “And his concubine played the whore against him, and went away from him unto her father's house to Bethlehemjudah, and was there four whole months.”

This woman is without excuse for her actions; however her husband cultivated this failure in his wife. The scripture is clear that the man is bears more accountability than the woman in the marriage relationship. With authority goes accountability. We may look at this situation and say this woman failed, I strongly suspect that God looks at this situation and says this man failed.

I cannot pass this situation without commenting that our sons and daughters will probably live up to what we expect of them as found in the way we treat them. I believe that Dads are largely accountable for the way their sons and daughters turn out. Dad, please do not dismiss this too lightly, today is the time to change your ways, not when it is too late.

“And her husband arose, and went after her, to speak friendly unto her, and to bring her again, having his servant with him, and a couple of asses: and she brought him into her father's house: and when the father of the damsel saw him, he rejoiced to meet him” (Verse 3).

As this story unfolds it is clear that this action is not born out of repentance and true love. It is rather an action to gratify his fleshly desires.

In verses 4-8 we see this Levite occupied in gratifying his appetite. Four days he spent eating and drinking, this was a man of the flesh.

In verses 9-10 he makes bad choices, he has dulled his senses with his excessive eating and drinking. In all of this his wife was an afterthought. Husband, do you live that way?

In verse 11 we see another bad decision. Selfishness breeds bad decisions. “The day was far spent”.

In verses 12-15 we see that his foolishness places him in a very bad situation.

Into this bad situation comes a man to offer hospitality. In verses 16-21 we see the kindness of the stranger.

“Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him” (verse 22). We are now faced with evil and vileness right out of the pit of hell. The spiritual war between God and Satan suddenly comes to the surface. In the verse that follows there is a reaction to this wickedness. The battle is now underway, this battle will continue until the end of chapter 20.

In verse 24 we see a compromise that is just as wicked as the homosexual assault. In fact this situation is even more wicked when you consider all of the implications and the relationships involved. “Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing.” How far these men were from knowing anything about what God had designed marriage to be. “So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself” (Ephesians 5:28).

These wicked men left this woman dead on the doorstep.

Could anyone even suggest a reason why these men should not spend eternity in hell? Anything less would be a black mark on the character of God.

I shudder to think what this world will be like when the tribulation period begins and the restraints are removed from the evil one. Unrestrained evil, what will it be like?

In verse 28 we see the evil of these perverted men matched by the heartlessness of the Levite. “And he said unto her, Up, and let us be going. But none answered. Then the man took her up upon an ass, and the man rose up, and gat him unto his place.’’ This man had no right to a wife. There is a day of reckoning coming for those men who have misunderstood the husband’s authority for the responsibility to love and lead.

In verse 29, the Levite is angry at his own loss and wants to get revenge. “And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, together with her bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her into all the coasts of Israel” (verse 29). Why did he remain silent when the perverts demanded to take her? This is man with a moral twist, and a passion for self-preservation.

Now the challenge is sent to the whole nation, “And it was so, that all that saw it said, There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt unto this day: consider of it, take advice, and speak your minds” (verse 30).

Judges Chapter 20

In chapter 19 everyone is doing the wrong thing. In chapter 20 we see the men of Israel doing the right thing. We see a skirmish in the battle of the ages between God and His adversary Satan. There are some tremendous lessons to be learned in this a chapter.

As we come to chapter 20:1-2, we see the reaction against the wickedness in chapter 19. The whole nation is gathered together as one man. The evil of the Benjamites of Gibeah has united the righteous men of Israel. The righteous hate evil and the evil hate righteousness.

The Levite expresses indignation against the evil that has been committed, though he has not noticed the beam in his own eye.

The men of Israel decided that they would not rest until this sin was punished. They called for the handing over of the guilty with the vow to be put them to death.

Verses 11-13 tells the story, “So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man. And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, What wickedness is this that is done among you? Now therefore deliver us the men, the children of Belial, which are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel. But the children of Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of their brethren the children of Israel.”

The battle was set, the forces of those who were set against evil and the forces of those who would defend evil. This just another of countless times Satan and God have battled through the hands and hearts and minds of men. Men are caught up in this age long battle. All men everywhere are involved in this spiritual warfare. Passive or active no one can escape, each must choose sides.

The forces of evil had an army of 26,000 men, while the forces of God had 400,000 men.

Verse 18 presents a vital aspect of the army of God. They do not fight on their own, but move in total dependence on the lord and in total obedience to God. “And the children of Israel arose, and went up to the house of God, and asked counsel of God, and said, Which of us shall go up first to the battle against the children of Benjamin? And the LORD said, Judah shall go up first.”

The battle is set in array; God’s people are going into the fight in total obedience to the Lord and in dependence on the Lord.

The most startling thing happens. The forces of evil strike down 26,000 of the Lord’s faithful warriors. How can such a thing be? Satan and the forces of evil have prevailed.

In verse 23 we see God’s people doing what God’s people ought to do in this situation. They seek the face of the Lord. Verse 23, “And the children of Israel went up and wept before the LORD until even, and asked counsel of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up again to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother? And the LORD said, Go up against him.” What a classic way to fight the Lord’s battles.

They get direction from the Lord and go out to the battle again. Surely they will now prevail against the enemies of God. Verse 25 tells us that they were again smitten by the enemies of the Lord, 18,000 of the Lord’s men were killed.

Surely these men will now turn against their God. Understand something that is obvious about these men of God. They were not in this for what they might gain. They were totally sold out to do the will of God regardless of the cost.

Look at their response, it is beautiful, and it conveys the attitude of the true servants of God. Verse 26, “Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the LORD, and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.”

We are reminded of the words of another servant of God. Job 13:15, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him...”

The priest cries out on their behalf to the Lord in verse 28, “......Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? And the LORD said, Go up; for tomorrow I will deliver them into thine hand.” In their desire to fight against evil they were quick to be willing to yield to the Lord’s will. It reminds us of the Word’s of Jesus, “I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father....”

The next day the victory over evil was gained, 25,000 Benjamites were killed. In fact when the battle was done there were only 600 Benjamites left alive.

But even in victory there were 30 men of Israel killed.

There is a very significant lesson to be learned in this portion of scripture. The battle between good and evil, between God and Satan is a monumental struggle. It is a struggle to the death. The very best of God’s servants will die in this battle. Its’ not whether you live or die but whether you are on the right side or the wrong side.

God’s servants are called to die but they will end up in eternal glory in God’s presence.

The message of scripture is marked with this message from beginning to end. Most of the prophets of the Old Testament were killed for their faithful witness. The apostles all died for their faith, except John who was exiled on a lonely Island. Peter was crucified upside down, Paul was beheaded and countless millions were martyred in the church age.

In the tribulation millions will be slaughtered for their faith in Christ. Jesus said, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”

This is the point where New Evangelicalism has gone astray. New Evangelicalism says, “I don’t want to die, I don’t want to be rejected by the world. I want to be accepted by the world.”

Renald Showers observes: "Liberal Protestant advocates of the social gospel declared that the church should be concerned primarily with this world. It should divert its efforts from the salvation of individuals to the salvation of society. The church should bring in the kingdom of God on earth instead of teaching about a future, theocratic kingdom to be established in Person by Jesus Christ... the Church was to save the world, not be saved out of it"

John answers that false concept in 1 John 2:15-17, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”

Luke adds to this equation in Luke 17:33, “Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.”

Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13