Judges 19

This chapter is grim, and it gives you a sick feeling in your stomach just to read it. I believe that the main reason it is included here in Judges is to give us an idea of just how ugly things got in Israel when “every man did what was right in his own eyes”. Chapters 17 – 21 are not necessarily in chronological order… (IE they don’t necessarily follow 16) At the end of Samson the next judge to arise was Samuel. He was the greatest of the judges, and the first of the prophets. He would be the one to anoint David as king.

These chapters show us what was going on culturally for Israel; just how radically their idolatry had affected their morality. When we lose God as the center of our life, then we abandon any sort of moral compass. We lose a sense of right and wrong, we lose touch with the pulse of God’s heart. It becomes all about what I want rather than all about what the Lord wants.

This chapter is full of examples of selfish living, and what it gets you. The concubine selfishly went seeking love outside of marriage, leading her husband the Levite on a wild goose chase. In the end, she ends up dead. The Levite chooses to turn her over for the townspeople’s pleasure rather than face them himself… and he loses the very love he had been chasing. The men of Gibeah sought to fulfill there own flesh, and as we will see tomorrow it cost them big time. The nation of Israel was falling apart, their culture was disintegrating. The reason for this was that the people had stopped seeking the Lord, and begun to seek to satisfy their own desires.

Guys and girls, I know Hector and I say this a lot; maybe we even sound like a broken record at times… BUT PLEASE, DON’T EVER THINK YOU CAN MAKE IT WITHOUT THE LORD. Look how fast it turned the people of God into a group that looks like Sodom and Gomorrah. We need Jesus; we need to feed on Him EVERY DAY. So think about it long and hard; what are you seeking?