When Everyone Defines Right for Themselves - Judges 20:1 – 21:25 (Session 18)

Judges 20-21 brings the Book of Judges to its tragic conclusion. After learning of the horrific crime committed at Gibeah, the tribes of Israel unite and demand that Benjamin surrender the guilty men. Benjamin refuses and chooses tribal loyalty over justice.Civil war follows.Israel seeks God’s direction before battle, yet loses twenty-two thousand men on the first day and eighteen thousand on the second. This raises a difficult question: What should believers do when they are following God’s direction, opposing evil, and still appear to be losing?Rather than abandoning God, Israel continues to seek Him. The people weep, fast, offer sacrifices, and return for guidance. God eventually promises victory and delivers Benjamin into their hands.The victory, however, creates another crisis. Israel had made an emotional vow not to give its daughters in marriage to the men of Benjamin. After nearly destroying the tribe, the people regret what they have done and begin searching for ways around their own vow.Their solutions reveal how distorted their sense of justice has become. They destroy Jabesh-gilead and take its surviving young women. When that does not provide enough wives, they permit the remaining Benjamites to kidnap women from a feast at Shiloh.Israel attempts to correct one evil by committing additional wrongs.The book closes with its defining statement: “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”Judges warns that when people reject God’s Word as the standard of truth, sincerity, emotion, technical rules, and human reasoning cannot produce righteousness.Scripture: Judges 19:30-21:25Series: The Book of Judges — An RTTB StudyIs there a limit to how depraved humans can get? What should you do when you’re doing what the Lord wants but still failing?Can God allow pain for a purpose? Can we deal with God as with a shady businessman?  Support the showThank you for listening!!  Please give us a five-star rating to help your podcast provider's algorithm spread RTTB among their listeners. You can find free study and leader resources at the following link - Resource Page - Reasoning Through the BiblePlease prayerfully consider supporting RTTB to help us to continue providing content and free resources. You can do that at this link - Support RTTB - Reasoning Through the Bible May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve