In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit. --Judges 21:25Last week I wrote about Samson, and how messed up his life really was until he emptied himself and allowed himself to be used by God. This week I want to kind of go in that same direction, but make some comparisons between ancient Israel 1000 to 1200 years before Christ against the times we live in today. Follow me, and I think you'll find some striking similarities.
Upside Down
I owe more on my car than what it is worth. That is the consequence of getting as low a car payment as possible by stretching out the term of the loan as long as I could. About seven years ago during the "housing bust", the same thing happened in the Real Estate market. People discovered that they could not sell their homes for what they still owed. This situation caused a slow-down in the purchase of new homes, which led to layoffs in the construction industry. A whole lot of other economic consequences occurred, which I have neither the time or the expertise to fully explain. It took a few years for the market to fully turn around.
We see the same thing in the Bible. When God spoke directly to Moses about how property was to be divided in the Promised Land, he spoke clearly about the right of a family to hold onto their property for generations. If a person or family fell on hard times and had to sell the property, or sell themselves into indentured servanthood to pay off crushing debt, at the end of seven years there was a year of forgiveness of that debt. Every 50th year (after seven sets of seven years), there was a Year of Jubilee in which all property that had been sold outside the clan would be returned to the family who had sold it. (Of note, the coming year--beginning September 13, 2015--is the 70th Year of Jubilee since Joshua led the Sons of Israel into the Promised Land. What glory we will behold during the upcoming twelve months!)
There was one tribe, however, which did not get a portion or inheritance out of the Promised Land. This was the priestly tribe of Levi. The people descended from Jacob's son Levi are often called "Levites". In God's perfect economy, the Levites would live to administer the Temple. Their food would come from the sacrifices brought by the other tribes in worship of God. Their income would be solely provided by the tithes and offerings brought by the people of Israel in devotion to God, their Provider.
Just a few generations later, however, there was a Levite who was apparently out of work. Judges chapter 17 speaks of a man named Micah who made some idols out of silver. Never mind the fact that idol worship was expressly forbidden in the Law of Moses. This fellow Micah has some idols, and he builds a shrine for them. He installs his son as the priest of this shrine. Then along comes this Levite, travelling from Bethlehem in search of work. Micah hires the Levite to be the priest of his shrine, thinking that a professional priest would do a better job than Micah's son, who had no experience in priestly duties at all.
How upside down is this story? God gives Moses the Law, explains how it is all supposed to run. Then Moses dies. Joshua takes the nation of Israel into the Promised Land, and apportions territories to each of the tribes (except for the Levites), and then Joshua dies. At some point after that, there are no sacrifices being made, and the Levites have to fend for themselves. One of them hires on as a mercenary priest, but he does not teach the Law or serve the one true God; instead, he serves at the shrine Micah had built for his idols made out of silver.
From Bad To Worse
In Judges chapter 18 we read of the tribe of Dan, who still had not conquered the territory that Joshua had alloted to them. The tribal leaders send spies into the land to scope out the competition. These five spies meet up with the Levite at the shrine of Micah's idols. They offer a job to the Levite. "Isn't it better that you serve a tribe and clan in Isreal as priest rather than just one man's household?" (Judges 18:19). This turned out to be an offer that the young Levite could not refuse. So he gathers up the idols that Micah had made, and takes them with him to serve in the tribe of Dan.
Micah calls together a small band of warriors to take back his idols, but the army of Dan beats them back and warns him to go home. "Then they took what Micah had made, and his priest, and went on to Laish, against a peaceful and unsuspecting prople. They attacked them with the sword and burned down their city." (Judges 18:27). Who do you think they credited their victory over the city of Laish? It probably wasn't the God of Abraham--at least not solely Him. "They continued to use the idols Micah had made, all the time the house of God was in Shiloh." (Judges 18:31)
Let's review. During the life of Joshua, all of the tribes that had been faithful to God established their territories. They defeated the heathen people, drove them out of the cities. They lived in cities they did not build, and ate from vineyards they did not plant (Joshua 24:13). But the tribe of Dan was still struggling to overcome the fortified cities that God had promised them. So they send in spies, just like Joshua and Caleb had done generations before. They found a Levite whom they hired, who brought the gods that Micah had made out of Micah's shrine, then they overtook a peaceful city, an unsuspecting people who had no defenses. Post hoc, ergo propter hoc. The fall of Laish into their hands was right after they had appropriated Micah's silver idols and hired his mercenary priest. Doesn't it make sense that they would credit their good fortune to the Levite?
God had promised the land to the tribe of Dan. When it was delivered to them, however, they gave credit to gods made with hands, to idols made of silver, and to a mercenary priest who forgot his heritage. How messed up is that!
The Final Straw, Then Justice
The last three chapters of Judges talk about a Levite, as well. We are not sure whether this is the same Levite as we saw in chapters 17-18, but it could be. We read that this Levite had taken a concubine to himself. I don't know why she wasn't his wife--maybe he didn't have a dowry, or maybe he did not want her to have the same rights and privileges as a married woman would have. In other words, she could have been used merely for sexual gratification. In any case, she got tired of it, and went back to her father's house. The Levite went after her. The girl's father threw a big party. This feast lasted seven days. Perhaps the father was trying to appease the Levite's anger. Perhaps he saw that the Levite now had money (or at least 200 shekels of silver, which Micah had used to melt into an idol--if it was the same Levite). Perhaps the father thought that the Levite would reconsider, and marry the poor girl.
In any case, the Levite took the woman and left. They went to a town in the tribe of Benjamin. An old man invited them to stay with him, and implored them not to spend the night in the town square. Very soon, we discover why. Just like the story of Sodom in the book of Genesis, the men of this town came to the house of this old man and demanded that the Levite be sent out to them. They wanted to have homosexual relations with him. The old man sent out his virgin daughter, and the Levite sent out his concubine to appease these sexual predators. We don't know what happened to the old man's daughter, but the concubine was gang raped until she could not walk. In the morning, she died.
The Levite sent a message to the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel. Eleven tribes sent soldiers to stand against this town where the attrocity had occurred. However, the tribe of Benjamin defended the city, because it was in their borders. So the eleven tribes of Israel made war against the tribe of Benjamin, and almost wiped them out. There were only 600 fighting men left alive from the tribe of Benjamin. The rest of Israel refused to give their daughters in marriage to this remnant of the tribe of Benjamin, because of their sin.
In a hilarious twist, the remaining tribes of Israel remembered the Law of Moses, and how he had guaranteed each family would have an inheritance out of the land God had given them. This was to keep one tribe from having a concentration of wealth and power. But what could they do? The men of Israel had made a vow not to give their daughters as wives to the men of Benjamin. But they did not want the tribe of Benjamin to die out. So they threw a feast, and invited all the young virgin daughters to the feast. With a wink and a nudge, they let it be known to the Benjamites that their virgin daughters would be dancing and feasting on this day. So the men of Benjamin came and snatched the daughters away for themselves to marry. In this way, the men of Israel could say that their daughters had been kidnapped, and that they had not "given" them in marriage to any of the men from Benjamin.
Lessons For Our Time
We read this ancient history, and shake our heads. Thank God, we say, that our culture has evolved. We would never be so barbarous as these people were. We would never be so cavalier with our women's lives, bodies and personal freedoms. Our women are liberated, you see, and can think for themselves. And all this violence! We should probably ban the book of Judges from our schools and not let our children read it. It should probably even be edited out of the Bible.
Before we pick up pitchforks and torches, let me draw some parrallels to our modern day.
1. God has a perfect plan. The book or Revelation promises that all evil men will perish, and that the Son of God will rule over the earth for a thousand years. During this time, there will be no war. There will be no sickness. There will be no sadness or tears. Jesus will reign supreme. His kingdom will be established on Earth. His perfect will shall be done.
2. Man's sin has taken us down a road that is far afield from God's perfect plan. We are upside-down in our morality, in our judgments, and in our actions. Just like the last verse in the book of Judges says, "There is no king, and everyone does what is right in his own eyes." We have removed God from the public square, including education. We teach in science that children are products of evolution, which is a series of accidents occurring through billions of years, and that it is only by "natural selection" that we exist. We teach in biology (and in our culture) that children are the by-product of the lustful desires of their parents; and if they are fortunate enough not to be aborted in utero, then they should continue to support the government that allows them to lust after whomever they want without consequences. Do you want to hook up with someone of the opposite sex? Be sure to wear protection, and if that fails, we can always abort the fetus so that you will not have the consequence of a baby born from that hookup. Do you want to hook up with someone of the same sex? Go ahead, love is love and we can't judge. And then we wonder why our children need lessons in self esteem?
3. There are consequences to an upside-down existence. As I said at the beginning, I cannot buy a new truck right now because I owe too much on my current SUV. The consequences are that I will have to continue making payments on a car I do not want and cannot sell. In three years' time, I will be able to make the choice of whether to continue to drive without a car payment, or to take a loan for a new truck. If my car breaks down between now and then, I will be left without. In the same way, when all people do what is right in their own eyes, there are consequences. Those who stray from God's teaching wander out from under God's protection. Those who act violently will have violent actions taken against them. Those who perform sexual sin (promiscuity, adultery, homosexuality) will be in danger of emotional pain, broken homes, unwanted pregnancies and one parent households, not to mention STD's, AIDs and a host of as-yet undiscovered physical ailments. Those consequences will be in force up until their debts are paid in full, or until acted upon by an outside source. There could be a benefactor, willing to pay off my car note, so that I can be debt free. There may be an inheritance that will allow me to drive the vehicle I want without paying the price. Friend, you are stuck where you are because of sin. The Bible says the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Who doesn't want eternal life?
4. We need a Savior. God has promised a great inheritance to His children. The only thing that stands in the way of our claiming that inheritance is unrighteousness. God cannot abide sin. God is holy; we are not. So if we desire to be in His presence through time and eternity, then we need to be made righteous. Jesus took all our sin upon Himself when He died. His sacrifice allows us to stand before a holy God. We can be covered by the Blood of the Lamb if we choose to be. Think about that--we can avoid the consequences of our sin by believing in Him who bore those sins for us. We can be forgiven, all debts wiped clean. We can be set right again, and dwell in the house of the Almighty, in the way that He has ordained for us to live. By His grace, we can be made perfect.
5. There will come a time when the army of the Living God rises up to mete out Divine Justice. Anyone who is not right with God will be cast into utter darkness, where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Only those who are covered by the Blood of Jesus, who have put on His righteousness, will be invited to be with God for eternity. I believe the time is short. We cannot wait much longer. We must decide now which direction we want to pursue: either that of perfection and piety with the Prince of Peace; or that of deception, division, and damnation with the Devil and his demons.
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