22Apr 2011 Judges 20:13

¹³“Now surrender those wicked men of Gibeah so that we may put them to death and purge the evil from Israel.” But the Benjamites would not listen to their fellow Israelites.

Sometimes justice hits home and we end up defending the wrong person. The horrible rape that set up this situation deserves justice. Rape is never justifiable. And this was a gang rape. The men of the town all took part. Justice is needed. The rest of Israel has gathered to bring about justice. They want to punish only those who did the crime, but their close relatives are not willing to surrender them. They end up on the wrong side of justice. They let family get in the way of obedience to the Lord. And as a result they incurred judgment on themselves as well. We see this in the movies when the rich person pays the fancy lawyer to defend their obviously guilty child. We see it in Paris Hilton whose money has freed her again and again.

21Apr 2011 Judges 19:30

³⁰Everyone who saw it said, “Such a thing has never been seen or done, not since the day the Israelites came up out of Egypt. Think about it! Consider it! Tell us what to do!”

This chapter begins with the words, “In those days Israel had no king.” And it ends with the words above. In between is the account of moral degradation and brutal rape. These things are not just repulsive to our ears, but they were repulsive to the people of God during that time as well. Just as now, there can be pockets of extreme evil in a society. Sometimes the evil is hidden behind a closed door. Sometimes it is out in the open, but tolerated by the society at large. In this country we embrace “tolerance” as the highest moral value, so we don’t dare point out obvious evil, being afraid we will be labeled “intolerant”. If you are “intolerant”, so the storyline goes, then you are a bigot and racist, and must be silenced. So we tolerate the moral decline of society. We wonder how rape is rampant on college campuses and blame the colleges rather than blaming the society at large, or even our own moral choices. We glorify “College Girls Gone Wild” but then condemn with our voices sexual exploitation. We know all the right things to say, but our actions betray our own lack of inner moral compass. We are no better than

20Apr 2011 Judges 18:19

¹⁹They answered him, “Be quiet! Don’t say a word. Come with us, and be our father and priest. Isn’t it better that you serve a tribe and clan in Israel as priest rather than just one man’s household?”

Some people, even religious people, get off track in their spiritual lives. Here is a Levite, one of the tribe that had the privilege of serving the needs of the LORD’s worship. All their needs were taken care of by the community. They didn’t have to worry about an income. They had it made. And yet this Levite leaves home in rebellion and hooks up with a foreigner who worships idols. He chooses to be his religious leader rather than serve his god given purpose. He is in rebellion and is willing to sell his services to the highest bidder. Now a group of others who are willing to stray from the Lord steal him away from his employer. We are in trouble when we serve our employer more than we serve the Lord! But he turns his back on his contract with his boss and betrays him. He steals his stuff and defects. When someone is in rebellion none of his decisions are righteous. The Danites to whom he defects give him a fine rationale for his actions. They make it sound almost noble to break his word and steal the stuff. Watch out for smooth talking people. Look at their character. If they are crocked in one area, watch for more areas. The same is true for us. Righteousness wants spread in us. Are we willing to yield to the Lord’s direction and will?

19Apr 2011 Judges 16:15

¹⁵Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you won’t confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven’t told me the secret of your great strength.”

Samson had to be one of the dumbest men who ever lived. He was probably equally horny and not able to control his urges. Delilah has already used information that he gave her against him, and yet he is willing to give her more information. I just had the image of a Russian spy movie using a sexy secret agent to get information from the American diplomat. Samson has a weakness for women. And his enemy used that weakness to trap him. What is the weakness that the enemy of your soul uses to trip you up? We all have weakness. We need to know them so that we can put a guard around them and avoid them. If our weakness is Twinkies, then we had better avoid the fast snack aisle at the Quicky Mart. If it is laziness, then we need to build activity and productivity into our daily routine. But in order to do that we must be aware of our weaknesses and bring those weaknesses to the Lord with honesty and openness. We need His strength. Ours has failed.

18Apr 2011 Judges 14:1

¹Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a your Philistine woman.

Some parents spoil their children, given them everything they want. Samson is just such a child. He is grown now, but his parents still coddle him. He knows how to twist them around his finger. Later in this passage the childish words, “I did to them what they did to me” come out of his mouth. It is important to help children not be the center of the universe. They must learn their limited role in the family and in the world. They are not in charge of the parents. They are not the center of the universe. When they don’t get this lesson, they get increasingly selfish and self-important. They become more and more unruly and defiant. They get harder and harder to discipline. They become a handful! The battle gets fought between ages two and four years of age. Win it then, and the latter skirmishes are much easier to win. Lose it then and you set yourself up for many future battles.

17Apr 2011 Judges 11:24

²⁴Will you not take what your god Chemosh gives you? Likewise, whatever the LORD our God has given us, we will possess.

These are words of challenge in a day of war. The challenge is not to a people but to their god. A god ought to be able to defend its own people. As we have been reading in Judges, when the people were actively serving the LORD, the LORD fought their battles. When they drifted away from that relationship, the LORD allowed enemies to come in and put pressure on them. He did this to get them to repent of their sins and turn back to Him. Are there compromises in your life that have given territory that rightfully belongs to the LORD over to an enemy? Take a look at your life. What are the areas of greatest struggle? Have there been compromises in those areas in the past? Is the Lord using the struggle as a way to draw you back into a relationship with Himself?