 Again, the title of our sermon this evening, War in Israel. This is part one. We'll look at the first half of this lengthy text, Judges chapter 20, verses 1 through 48. Now, if you remember, from last Sunday evening, chapter 19, left us in disgust, left us in dismay over the lewdness and outrage committed in Israel, and not just over the actions of Ghibia, not just over the actions of the men or the tribe of Benjamin who lived in Ghibia, but also over the actions, over the conduct of the Levite, and over the conduct of his supposedly hospitable host, the old man from the mountain territory of Ephraim, and chapter 19 ends with the charge of our narrator in verse 30. Confer, consider it, and speak up. It's a charge that is a charge of exasperation. It's a charge of disgust, and what will the children of Israel now do as they confer, as they consider this evil, and as they speak up their assembly? Well, our sermon this evening takes us from lewdness and outrage in Israel in chapter 19, now to war in Israel in chapter 20. The passage is lengthy, and so it will help us if we have an outline in our mind as we get into the text. Verses 1 through 11, we could title all against one. Verses 1 through 11, all against one. All of Israel gathers together against the tribe of Benjamin, because verse 6, Benjamin committed lewdness and outrage in Israel. So all gather together as one man, verses 1 through 11. Verses 12 through 17 could be summarized as one against all. You have the tribe of Benjamin that is largely obstinate, that is intransigent in their refusal to turn over the men who had done this wickedness in their midst. The tribe of Benjamin refuses to answer their kinsmen, and instead the tribe of Benjamin gathers now an army to prepare for war, and it's one tribe against the rest of Israel, one against all. Verses 18 through 28, Benjamin wins battles, and in verses 29 through 48, Israel wins the war. We may see Benjamin win a battle or two along the way, but it would be Israel that alternates sections of the text, verses 18 through 48 next week. So look with me first now at all against one, section one of our text, verses 1 through 11. Now after the atrocities of chapter 19, as you can expect, the nation is indignant in chapter 20, and a conference is called, an assembly is called. They're going to meet together, consider this matter. Nothing like this has been seen in Israel since the day they came out of Egypt, and the nation is indignant over what has taken place. Verse one. So notice the words now. So all, all the children of Israel came out from Dan to bear sheba. It's like saying from the Rockies to the Redneck Riviera, right from the the farthest point north at the farthest point south, all of Israel comes out as well as from the land of Gilead and the congregation gathered together as one brutally in an undignified manner, not showing any concern at all for the dignity of a proper burial. The Levite takes his concubine, cuts her up into 12 pieces and sends pieces of her, to the 12 tribes of Israel, and this actually works, gets the children of Israel to come out in force together as one man in verse one. It's interesting. When you couldn't get all the Israelites together to battle the Canaanites under Barak, if you remember that tale, when you couldn't get all the Israelites to come together to fight against the Midianites under Gideon, when you couldn't get all the Israelites together to fight the Ammonites under Jephthah, and when you couldn't even get the Israelites to fight at all under Samson, here they are, all the children of Israel as one man indignant before the Lord at Mizpah. The unity of the Israelites here is impressive. Considering their complete lack of ability to rally any kind of gathering before this, this is an impressive unity. By the way, if you remember from 1 Samuel chapter 11, King Saul did something similar in order to get the Israelites to gather together to fight against the Philistines. King Saul would use a similar tactic to get the Israelites to go to war. 1 Samuel chapter 11, the Spirit of God comes upon King Saul. King Saul becomes righteously indignant, so King Saul doesn't cut up a concubine, doesn't cut up a slave, doesn't cut up a person. King Saul cuts up two oxen, and he sends the parts of the two oxen throughout the tribes of Israel, and so then Israel in fear, Israel comes out as one man to fight against the Philistines for King Saul. Now here in this text, chapter 20, there's no mention of the Spirit of God, no spirit-wrought fear of God, no spirit-wrought indignation against the enemies of God, and no oxen. Just a cold, callous, calculating Levite chopping up his concubine, yet another indignity against her person, and sending pieces of her throughout the tribes of Israel. Something that was done amongst the Canaanites at that time to instill fear. It's interesting, this was a practice of the Canaanites. There's actually a record, you can read in the history of the ancient Near East at that time, of other countries, other records, where to instill fear among a conquered people, fear amongst a ruled people, a ruler would take a slave, a ruler would take a person, cut them up, send them, pieces of them to the four corners of their territory, and then say, such as this will happen to you if you don't get your act together. It was a common practice among the Canaanites, and so this again points to the Canaanization of the nation of Israel. Here is they do something that the Canaanites do. So Israel, indignant, gathers together as one man, and they come together as one man now to hear the carefully tailored complaint of the Levite. Look at verse four. So the Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered and said, my concubine and I went into Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin, to spend the night. And the men of Gibeah rose against me and surrounded the house at night because of me. And notice again, this is a carefully tailored telling of the tale here. Our narrator in chapter 19 describes them as worthless men, sons of Belial. The word used here by the Levite means rulers or landowners, means leaders. Look at what he says in verse five. The men of Gibeah, the word literally means landowners, leaders. So the Levite doesn't refer to them as perverted men, sons of Belial refers to them as the leaders of, maybe to incite the anger of the Israelites against not just those perverted men who did this thing, but against the tribe of Benjamin itself. Then he says, verse five, they intended to kill me. Well, they intended to have sex with him. And it's possible that the end result would have been his death. But instead, verse five, they ravished my concubine so that she died. Now, if you just take the Levite's words on face value here, gives you the sense, doesn't it? If you read the text, just a bear reading of the text gives you the sense that the Levite escapes with his life, right? They captured his concubine instead of him. It doesn't mention at all him turning her over to save his own hide. Our narrator even leaves open in chapter 19, the possibility that the Levite's own actions led to her death that she may have been still alive as she reached out her hands across the threshold. The narrator is mysteriously silent about that fact, leaving open the possibility that it was the Levite's actions himself that led to her death. The intentions of those perverted men in Gibeah were certainly inexcusable, but the Levite has, of course, in the telling of this account relieved himself of any responsibility whatsoever. And the Levite certainly was guilty, wasn't he? His life was threatened. He escaped. His concubine did not. So she was raped and killed. He simply found her body. That was that would be what the Levite would have you believe. He's become a spin artist, hasn't he? Not unlike master politicians in our day today, spinning a tail exactly how they'd have you believe it. So seemingly then, more concerned with avenging himself on the men of Gibeah than concerning him with the proper burial for his concubine. Verse six, the Levite says, I took hold of my concubine, cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the territory of the inheritance of Israel, because they committed lewdness and outrage in Israel. Look, all of you are children of Israel. Give your advice and counsel here and now. Now you're first to the land. Verse six, as Israel's inheritance. In other words, the gift of God, the promised land, has been defiled by the actions of Benjamin, the men of Gibeah. He's raising the stakes, isn't he? This has been an offense. Certainly was an offense against God and offense against the gift of against the inheritance given to Israel. This Levite is quite the political spin artist, the master manipulator, far more subtle even than our politicians today. Our politicians today would be far more overt, wouldn't they? You can see through lies a mile away with those on TV today. Here, he has the whole of the country buying into his spin. They've heard one side of the story, haven't they? So, verse eight, all the people then arose as one man saying, none of us will go to his tent, nor will any turn back to his house. But now this is the thing which we will do to Gibeah. We will go up against it and buy lot. Lot was meant not to show preference or partiality. They would cast lots for who would stay back, cast lots for who would go. And so if we find in verse 10, we will take 10 men out of every 100, and they would do that by lot. Throughout all the tribes of Israel, we will take 100 men out of every thousand and a thousand out of every 10,000 to make provisions for the people that when they come to Gibeah and Benjamin, they may repay all the vileness that they have done in Israel. In other words, 10% of the people will make provisions. The others will go to war. Verse 11, so all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, Gibeah, united together as one man. Now, if you notice in the text, you've got this repetitive use of as one man. All, all and one, right? It's emphasizing the unity that Israel has here in their anger, their indignation against Benjamin. But it's unity, isn't it, in a cause that is flawed from the very beginning. A unity that's flawed because of the spin, the manipulation of the Levite, a unity they still haven't sought the Lord with respect to what they're going to do. They're listening to this Levite. And notice it's not a unity against the enemies of God. It's not a unity in the original cause of God to go into the territory, take possession of the land and drive out the Canaanites. They don't have unity for that. It wasn't a unity against the enemies of God. They're now in unity against a tribe in Israel. They've come out as one man against their own brothers. It's amazing. They've not enjoyed a unity for much of anything to this point in the book of Judges. Certainly not a unity in their covenant with Yahweh. Certainly not a unity against sin and unrighteousness. Certainly not a unity in repentance before the Lord for their rebellion against him. Certainly not a unity against the enemies of God. It's a unity here against the tribe in Israel. Here they are in a weak and perceived unity against their own brothers. And the reality that is pretty tragic, isn't it? When we consider the context of the book, all that is transpired, all that they've done, all of their sin, all of their rebellion, and now it's this. And granted, it's a gruesome, a deplorable, a reprehensible act, but it's this that arouses their angst and unifies them in Gibeah. So tragic, tragic in reality. And it's taken this to get the tribes of Israel to come together. They come together against their own brothers. In that day, it was the grievous sin of Gibeah, Benjamin, that galvanized the tribes of Israel against Benjamin. So we think about that, right? What it took, what it took to galvanize the tribes of Israel against Benjamin. Short of divine intervention. I'm not sure it'd be possible to galvanize the church today against anything, right? Short of divine intervention. The Lord could certainly do it. But listen, if the slaughter, the wholesale slaughter of 60 million babies in our country alone isn't enough to do it, I'm not sure what else would, right? Not long ago in the news, there were baby parts all over the news, scattered about as it were, and it wasn't enough to mobilize, to galvanize the professing church against the plague, the blight of abortion in our country. Spend more time arguing about it than galvanizing themselves against it, right? It used to be in our land that we had something called the moral majority. Do you remember those days when there was a moral majority? The moral majority is no more. It's not even a moral minority anymore. You can't find them. But the moral majority, they would galvanize evangelical voters, so to speak, against political issues of the day. Now you can't galvanize Christians to do much of anything, other than to galvanize them for compromise, to galvanize them against the truth. God's institution of marriage has been undermined at every single turn. Homosexuality is rampant in our country. Same-sex marriage rampant. Transgenderism rampant. Teaching that nonsense to children in schools rampant all over our TV, all over our media. It's rampant in our country. We have the greatest news imaginable to preach to this lost world as the church, and the professing church today can't even agree on what the mission of the church is. And you'll have the church failing in the Great Commission, believing that if they just stand behind a pulpit and preach within the four walls of the church, that's sufficient to accomplish the Great Commission. It's likely that the only circumstance that might galvanize the professing church today is the perceived intolerance of the true church. It might be the galvanized rebuke of the true church. Now today you get the the virtue signaling of the professing church against racial inequities, not going to stand up to proclaim loudly in the open square. The gospel, but they'll certainly galvanize around social justice issues. When tolerance is the cardinal virtue, then intolerance becomes the cardinal sin. Churches don't practice church discipline any longer, right? As Israel seems to be doing in Judges 19, Judges 20, Judges 21, falling apart at the seams, falling apart from within, the professing church seems to be doing today, falling apart at the seams, becoming unraveled. There's always a remnant and the true church is still serving the Lord. And we have to have to keep our head down here and keep plowing forward, serving the Lord with the gospel. But the professing church today is in shambles because of all these issues that have sought to divide her. We must, brothers and sisters, endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. We must be galvanized around the gospel. Our galvanizing work is the great commission. The mission of the church is to go therefore and to make disciples. That's what we must be galvanized around. That's our mission, that's our work. And that has far-reaching implications for how we address the culture, how we address the loss around us. But that's our galvanizing effort. Israel should have been galvanized around obeying the Lord. Israel couldn't galvanize themselves around that effort. The church, we can't, brothers and sisters, we can't make that same error. We can't make that same mistake. We can't sin in that way. Paul would say in Philippians 1 verse 27, listen, Paul says, only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind doing what? Striving together for the faith of the gospel and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation and that from God. For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake. Having the same conflict which you saw in me and now here is in me. He would go on in chapter 2 verse 1. Listen, therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the spirit, if any affection and mercy fulfill my joy by being like-minded, being of one mind, do you see? Coming together as it were, as one man before the Lord in the work of the Great Commission. Being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind, let this ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself, let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. We're to be of one body, of one mind, one spirit, one faith, one baptism in the church, and our galvanizing work is the Great Commission. Brothers and sisters, our galvanizing effort is the cause of Christ and the gospel, and we have to maintain our effort to that end. Well, as Israel gathered together as one man against the atrocities at Gibeah, Benjamin, Benjamin is also enjoying its own unity as well. Verses 1-11, we saw all against one. Well, in verses 12-17, we see one against all. Verse 12. Then the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin saying, what is this wickedness that has occurred among you? Now therefore, deliver up the men, the perverted men who were in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and remove the evil from Israel. There was a death penalty, a death, a judgment of death against those who committed such atrocities, and Benjamin should have delivered them up. And notice, when they're talking to the tribe of Benjamin here beginning in verse 12, they use the same language chosen by the narrator in chapter 19 and call them worthless men, perverted men, literally sons of Belial. They're back to that language. That may be an attempt at diplomacy. They don't want to level that charge against all the men in Gibeah, all the men in Benjamin. They certainly don't want to do that as the Levite did against the leaders in Benjamin. They go back to those perverted sons of Belial, deliver them up. This was wanting to avert a civil war, wanting to entreat Benjamin to reason and to deliver up the men who had done this. But the Benjamites now, not exactly known for their hospitable treatment of their own chapter 19, the Benjamites dig in their heels and they refuse. One said, one said, they abuse the Levite and his companions passively by refusing hospitality to them before the rapists among them abuse them actively. Their abuse is both passive and active, and they refuse to give up these men. Notice in verse 3, notice verse 3, Benjamin knows that Israel is gathered in Mizpah. They know, but they refuse to be a part of it. They themselves don't go. In other words, Benjamin here openly sides with the rapists and murderers among them. They side with those perverted and worthless sons of Belial rather than siding with God's people, the Lord's people, Israel against them. Israel is falling apart at the seams. Do you see? In transigence, the obstinacy of Benjamin is appalling here. These are sins, as Paul would later say in 1 Corinthians 6, not even named among the Gentiles, and yet here Benjamin is defending these men against the other 11 tribes of Israel. But the children of Benjamin do not listen to the voice of their brethren, the children of Israel. Verse 14, instead the children of Benjamin gathered together from their cities to Gibeah to go to battle against the children of Israel. Now this is an exercise in futility, it seems, an exercise in insanity because Benjamin is going to be woefully outnumbered by troops in Israel. Now Benjamin somehow thinks that they're going to fight against these troops in Israel. They should have despised what happened in their midst. They should have put the evil away from themselves, right? But they don't do that. Paul says in Romans chapter 1 verse 32 that who knowing the righteous judgment of God to those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them. And here is Benjamin by siding with these rapists and murderers. Benjamin is giving tacit approval of their actions. They're siding with them. So, verse 15 then, from their cities at that time the children of Benjamin numbered 26,000 men who drew the sword besides the inhabitants of Gibeah who numbered 700 select men. Now among all this people, verse 16, among the 26,000 in Benjamin were 700 select men who were left-handed. What does that remind you of? It reminds you of Ehud, the left-handed assassin, doesn't it? The beginning of the book of Judges. They were left-handed and look at the giftedness of these crack troops in Benjamin. Everyone could sling a stone at a hare's breath and not miss. So, these were skilled warriors. Left-handed slingers who were deadly with their aim. Now verse 17, besides Benjamin, the men of Israel numbered 400,000 men who drew the sword. All of these were men of war. Now, there were known to have been 26 towns in Benjamin, 26 cities that made up the tribe of Benjamin around Gibeah. Gibeah was one of those towns. If you take the numbers that are mentioned here, among all this people, the 26,000 men of Benjamin, if you take those numbers and you compare those numbers to the second census in Israel that is found in Numbers 26, in your own study, if you want to go back and look at Numbers 26 and compare those numbers, the second census in Israel numbered Benjamin at 45,600 men of war, 45,600. So, we see from that census to now, which again, this is early in the history of Israel, early in the period of the Judges, population of Benjamin has dropped from 45,600 now to 26,000, roughly a 40% decline in the population of Benjamin since they entered the Promised Land, which is just over the period of one generation. It's amazing, the decline, isn't it? A serious decline, a frightful, fearful decline. In other words, Israel has not prospered in Canaan, certainly not the tribe of Benjamin. Benjamin itself has not prospered in the Promised Land. And this war, this war that we'll study next week, this war will all but result in the near extinction of an entire tribe in Israel. Remember, verse 16, the 26,000, verse 15, the 26,000 men who drew the sword of Benjamin, this war will result in the death of 25,100. Look down at verse 35, verse 35, of the 26,000, 25,100 would die in the battle with Israel. That brings Benjamin to near extinction. Almost all the men of Israel are of Benjamin dead in this civil war. Now, it's interesting that our narrator here in telling the story of Benjamin describes the gifts that Benjamin had been given, giving fierce men of war. These warriors, a left-handed warrior might have been considered a liability if he were by himself, but you put 700 together in a troop and you've got a pretty deadly, you know, if you're fighting and you've got the shield on the right side and you've got a bunch of left-handed slingers who are fighting, that could be a deadly troop. In other words, Benjamin had some gifts. Benjamin had been blessed. Benjamin had been given some gifts, some grace from God in the men that they were able to muster to war, but Benjamin had squandered those gifts. Benjamin had disobeyed the Lord in taking the land and we see the numbers and Benjamin greatly declined over the period of the first generation since they entered the Promised Land. Those gifts should have made them more thankful, those gifts should have made them more fruitful and well-doing, more responsible to the nation as a whole, but instead it's as if our author here mentioning these gifts as a way to exacerbate the insanity of their own sin. And Benjamin will all but be wiped out next week as we look at the second half of this chapter. How might this chapter apply to you and I? So we consider this text and there's several ways in which this might apply to us, but one, I would say brothers and sisters, our responsibilities, the people of God at this little outpost of heaven, we should be very careful to be of one heart and of one mind, very careful to labor for our peace and for our unity, very careful to take responsibility to go and resolve conflict when that responsibility has been laid in our lap, but also very responsible taking care to be humble ourselves when someone approaches us to resolve conflict or to handle sin in our midst. Often, very shamefully, there are factions in churches and you hear that when visitors come to this church, they talk about those things, right? The factions, the cliques, the groups, the gossip, the slander, the backbiting, the tailbearing that goes on in churches and little is ever done about that, let it not be said among us ever. May it never be, brothers and sisters, that that would be the case here, that there would be slander tolerated for even a moment, that we would tolerate any gossip at all, that there would be any backbiting, any tailbearing, that no conflict would be left unresolved. We have instruction, gracious, merciful instruction from the Lord with respect to Matthew chapter 18, right? Romans chapter 16, Titus chapter 3, First Corinthians chapter 6, we have these texts, 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, we have these texts to help us deal with division and discord and conflict in our midst. Brothers and sisters, we have to be meticulously faithful and vigilant in making sure that we apply that means to the end that we preserve and unity the Lord has been gracious to give us. We must endeavor to do that. We should rally together one heart, one mind behind the cause of the gospel, in the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the causes of the church, right? We should be one heart, one mind as we labor in the great commission as a church here. We shouldn't be self-willed. We shouldn't be running off in various different directions pursuing our own interests, our own ambitions, when we have a cause here that we're pursuing together as the people of God. We should pray together. We should pray that our efforts in his cause in the gospel would be prospered through the unified work of our body together. There's no room in the Lord's church for self-will, right, or selfish ambition. There's no room for that. We should allow ourselves to be reasoned with, allow ourselves to be employed in the labor, in the work of the church together. It's amazing today what causes splits among good churches. It's amazing. Now and then I'll be talking to a pastor from another church who'll be discussing, it's shocking to me, in otherwise stable, loving, unified churches, what can cause splits among God's people. It is amazing the effectiveness of the enemy to split God's people, divide God's people over things that we should not be dividing over, but it happens on a regular basis and often involves sin and self-will. Someone who simply will not let loose of the iron grip they have on their own preferences for the good of the body, right? Instead, they hold onto those things with a death grip, refuse to set them down, refuse to hold their disagreements with love, refuse to hold their preferences, their scruples in love. We should be willing to lay down our own preferences for the prosperity of the Lord's church. We've got to be willing to humble ourselves in doing that. We should be careful to be of one heart and of one mind. We see that today. It's amazing to me how, for example, masks has divided the Lord's church. That is abhorrent, that that should divide the Lord's people. It's amazing to me today how issues over social justice have divided otherwise peaceful, unified churches. You have liberty. We have liberty in Christ with respect to those things, how we think about those things, how we apply the word of God to those things, but don't use that liberty as a dictate for the whole church and divide the body over your liberty. We need to hold our disagreements, hold our liberties in love. So we should be careful to be of one heart and one mind. Secondly, we must be careful. We must be faithful to deal with sin in our midst. Our own sin, the sin of others when needed. We must be careful to parakeleo, to come alongside, help one another, encourage one another, exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of us fall short, lest any of us sin fall into a repeated pattern of sin. We must be careful and faithful to deal with sin in our midst. We've got to be humble and receive it well when somebody comes to us to deal with our sin and we must be ready, must be willing for the sake of love to do the very difficult, sometimes hard work of going to someone else when they have sinned to talk to them and to work with them and to help them. This is not a unrighteously indignant confrontation of someone's sin in the church. That's not the instruction that the Lord has given us. This is in love, in care for their soul, in care and love for the Lord's church, in care and in love for the Lord's people, in care and in love for the Lord's cause. We have a responsibility, brothers and sisters, to both be of one heart and one mind in the work of the gospel and to carefully and faithfully deal with sin in our midst. And then let's be vigilant in prayer. Our protection doesn't come from these means per se. Our protection doesn't come by virtue of your faithfulness or my faithfulness. Thank you, Lord. Our protection, our preservation comes from the Lord himself. And the Lord is our refuge. The Lord is our safety. The Lord is our security. The Lord is our peace. The Lord is our unity. And we have to depend upon Him in these things. So let's continue to be vigilant. Amen. Amen. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, thank you for these lessons, Lord. And I pray that you would find us faithful here, Lord, to pray and to depend on you, to depend on the strength which your spirit supplies, the wisdom which your spirit supplies, the direction which your spirit supplies. I pray, Lord, that we would depend on you in this work of maintaining our peace, maintaining our unity. I pray that we would be of one heart, one mind in the cause of Jesus Christ and the cause of the gospel. I pray that we would deal faithfully, meticulously faithfully, carefully deal with sin in our midst, right? Cherishing, treasuring the peace and the unity that you've blessed us with here. I pray that we would labor to preserve it. Labor to maintain it as we depend on you for the strength to do that. I pray, Lord, you would faithfully expose these things to us and that we would faithfully deal with those things that you expose. You've always been so gracious to us to that end. I pray, Lord, that you would continue to protect us, continue to preserve us, continue to prosper the work in our hands for your glory, God. I pray that you'd continue to bless us with the peace and unity in the years to come. Please protect us from faithlessness, from disobedience. Please protect us from gossip or slander, division and discord. Please protect us from these evils, Lord, that would be a weapon, a tool in the hand of the enemy to divide us. I pray, Lord, that we would remain steadfast, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that our work in the Lord is not in vain. Pray these things for your glory, God, in Jesus' name, amen.