Be Angry! Speak Up | Sunday, October 20, 2024

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16–17)

And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel... (Judges 19:1)

Why is the most disturbing story in the Bible included in Scripture—and what should it stir in us?

Why Begin in 2 Timothy

Before we go to a very strange passage of Scripture, it's important to remember what Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:16: all Scripture—and "all" means all, Genesis to Revelation—is given by inspiration of God, God-breathed, and profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, so that the man or woman of God would be complete and thoroughly equipped for every good work.

I begin there because Judges 19 is a head-scratcher. It is probably the most disturbing passage in the Bible—if not the most disturbing, certainly in the top three. It almost needs a disclaimer. When I summarized this chapter to my wife on a walk, she said, "You're not going to teach that on Sunday, are you?" I had even scheduled Pastor Garrett to teach it. But I'll teach it, because this passage should bother you. It should outrage you. It should stir anger in us. And if it doesn't, that may indicate something about our own conscience.

No King in Israel

Why is this crazy, disturbing story in the Bible? The answer is simple and it's the framing of this whole section: "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 17:6). Those words bookend the section—they appear again in the very last verse of the book, Judges 21:25. There is no moral compass guiding the people of God at this moment, no moral order, no anchor.

When you are morally unanchored, your behavior becomes increasingly unhinged. That's what we're watching. We were introduced to Micah and his covetousness, his theft from his own mother, and their idolatrous worship that broke the first, second, and third commandments. We met a Levite and his immorality, and the Danites with their wickedness. Their behavior is descending toward total chaos and depravity.

The Levite and His Concubine

The text says there was a certain Levite staying in the remote mountains of Ephraim. Two chapters earlier we met a traveling Levite in those same mountains who stayed in Micah's house. Is this the same man? Commentators disagree, and frankly it doesn't much matter. What matters is that the Levites were the priestly tribe—the ones who knew the law, taught the law, and applied the law. If anyone in Israel should have been the moral people, it was the tribe of Levi. Yet here we find the priests just as far gone as any pagan.

How did Israel become so immoral? They didn't wake up one morning totally depraved. There was a process, a walk down the path toward moral chaos.

The First Step: Amorality

The first step to immorality is a step away from morality to amorality. What is amorality? In Greek, you put the letter alpha at the front of a word to negate it—agnostic means no knowledge. Amoral means no morals. An amoral person lacks moral sense, is unconcerned about whether something is right or wrong. It's pure relativism: "You do you. I have my truth, you have your truth." It's apathy and indifference toward right and wrong.

That's where Israel was 3,200 years ago, and frighteningly we see it in our own culture—"whatever makes you happy." That's a dangerous shift in an individual mind, and when it pervades a whole culture, the warning light should be flashing.

Paul highlights this same movement in Romans 1. When you reject the moral lawgiver, eventually you reject the moral law; everything becomes relative. And as people go down that path, there comes a point where God doesn't stand in the way.

Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness... they not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them. (Romans 1:28–32)

A culture is ready for the righteous wrath of God when it practices these things and turns a blind eye, saying, "Well, you do you." That is where Israel was.

The Story Unfolds

A certain Levite took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah. A concubine was, as one commentator said, a "second-class wife"—a wife with none of the rights. In 2024 we'd say they were cohabitating; fifty years ago we'd say they were shacking up. But his concubine played the harlot against him and went back to her father's house for four months. Eventually he went after her to speak kindly to her and persuade her to come back. Her father was glad to see him and detained him three days—they ate, drank, and lodged.

Add it up: in this section we've seen idolatry, covetousness, theft, dishonoring of family, lying, and now adultery—commandments one, two, three, five, seven, eight, nine, and ten, and they're surely not honoring the Sabbath either. Nine commandments broken. And you ask, can it get any worse? Yes. The inevitable outcome of immorality is immorality descending to increasingly sinful injustice—total moral chaos.

"Stay Another Night"

On the fourth day the Levite rose to leave, but the father-in-law urged him to stay—"refresh your heart with a morsel of bread." This repeats day after day. The father likes to party; he keeps saying, "Stay all night, let your heart be merry." Finally the Levite insists he must go and departs late in the day with his concubine, his servant, and two donkeys.

They came opposite Jebus—that is, Jerusalem—about six miles from Bethlehem. The servant suggested they lodge there, but the children of Israel didn't hold Jerusalem at this time; it belonged to the Jebusites. The Levite refused to lodge in a city of foreigners and pressed on to Gibeah, a town of the tribe of Benjamin. There they sat in the open square, and no one would take them in.

In that culture there were no hotels, and you did not want to be outside the city walls at night. Hospitality was the expectation—you hoped someone would welcome you into their home.

Gibeah and the Echo of Sodom

Just then an old man came in from his work in the field at evening... he was from the mountains of Ephraim. (Judges 19:16)

The old man took them in, fed the donkeys, and they washed, ate, and drank. As they were enjoying themselves, perverted men of the city surrounded the house, beat on the door, and demanded that the traveler be brought out "that we may know him carnally."

If you know your Bible, this calls to mind not Judges 19 but Genesis 19—not the Jewish town of Gibeah but the pagan town of Sodom. The Levite avoided a city of foreigners thinking something bad might happen there, but here among his own people, the very same wickedness erupts.

Look, here is my virgin daughter and the man's concubine; let me bring them out... do with them as you please. (Judges 19:24)

The men would not heed him. So the Levite took his concubine and brought her out, and they abused her all night until morning. At daybreak she came and fell at the door. When the master rose, he said, "Get up, let us be going," but there was no answer—she was dead. He laid her on the donkey and went home.

Why the Bible Shows Us This

You can see why my wife asked, "Are you really going to go through this chapter?" My friend David Guzik notes that one great commentator, F.B. Meyer, thought the chapter so terrible you shouldn't even read it—it shows the depths of depravity to which man can sink apart from the grace of God.

The Bible is sometimes shocking because it wants to shock and shake us up. God allows us in texts like this to see just how twisted and wicked the human heart can be. Let it sink in: the very thing that invited fiery judgment on Sodom has now taken place among the people of God. How can this be? Because in those days there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

"Consider, Confer, and Speak Up"

The story isn't over. The Levite took a knife, divided the body of his concubine into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout the territory of Israel. All who saw it said, "No such deed has been done since the day the children of Israel came up from Egypt. Consider it, confer, and speak up."

Thankfully, the people were shocked and outraged—as they should be. Outrageous immorality demands moral outrage. When something so heinous and twisted takes place, the right response is anger. If you're not angry, you're wrong.

But here's the devastating reality: it took something this twisted to finally move them. It wasn't the idolatry, the adultery, the theft, the dishonoring of family, the lying, or the covetousness—they had grown comfortable with all of that. Only now do they feel outrage. The nation had been morally bankrupt and unanchored for so long that no ethical framework remained.

Be Angry, and Do Not Sin

What do you do when something outrageous happens? Paul answers in Ephesians 4: "Be angry." Deep moral wickedness should stir a righteous indignation. There are evil, horrible things that should move us to speak up. But Paul adds, "and do not sin." How?

The hard part is that human anger left unchecked leads down a wrong path that often ends in human vengeance, adding sin to sin. This is why the Bible illustrates sin as leaven—it spreads and overflows. Israel is about to respond, and unchecked human wrath will come out of it in chapters 20 and 21. We're reminded that the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

How Does God Respond?

So how should we respond? Look at how God responds to human depravity. He is justified in bringing wrath. "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness" (Romans 1:18). God's wrath is right and just when moral evil comes forward.

But here's the wonder: the only right response to sin is wrath, yet the only right cure for moral evil is the remedy of the cross of Christ. On the cross, the wrath of God meets sin to bring the grace of God to sinners. Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us and absorbed all of God's wrath upon sin, so that God could extend grace and mercy to sinners like us. And the grace of God transforms sinners into something new: "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new."

The Cross Is the Only Cure

The cross is the only cure for human depravity. Some of us hear that and think, "There has to be something more." I'm tempted to think that too—part of me wants someone to bear the sword and destroy sinners. But Scripture keeps telling me the cross is the only thing that changes the depraved heart through the new birth.

Where does the horror of Judges 19 come from? "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts" (Mark 7). It came from the depraved hearts of sinful men. The only remedy is the grace of God in the cross that brings transformation. Where the gospel goes, it transforms sinners into saints—and that's true for every one of you who has trusted Christ. Some of you were people none of us would have wanted to hang around before Jesus. But the gospel transforms.

Own the Gospel

Paul says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes." In light of such gross wickedness, I'm tempted to be ashamed, because people scoff: "You actually believe that? You must be one of those evangelicals." That term has become derisive in our culture—interesting, because "Christian" was first used the same way. The word "evangelical" comes from the Greek euangelion, gospel. An evangelical is simply someone who believes the gospel actually has power to transform lives.

So own it. When someone says, "You must be one of those evangelicals," say, "Yes, I am—and apart from the gospel, you're going to hell." That might offend; I might get cancelled. But it's the truth.

Why This Is in the Bible

Stories like Judges 19 are shocking, and they reveal how wicked sin really is. Why is this in the Bible? Because the Bible is real, and this is how the world is. It doesn't gloss over human depravity or excuse sin—it confronts it head on while pointing to the only solution, Christ Jesus and the cross.

Better leaders and better laws would be wonderful, but they won't fix it. These were the people of God, who had God as their King and His immortal law, and they still went down this path. On November 5th you should vote according to values rooted in Scripture—I will vote, and you should. But I guarantee that whether red or blue, right or left, our culture is headed down the wrong path. You cannot remain "one nation under God" once the "under God" is gone. The obvious direction is greater fracture and division, no matter who is elected.

The Word, the Spirit, and the Church

What this culture needs more than new leaders and laws is a move of God's Spirit—a revival. That's what I'm praying for. I'm more convinced than ever that three things revolutionarily transform people: the word of God, the Spirit of God, and the church of God. I look out and see individuals utterly transformed in mind-blowing ways—people we might never have befriended apart from this church, who later say, "I think I need to be baptized." How does that happen? The word, the Spirit, and the church transform individuals, and transformed individuals transform societies.

What we see in Judges 19 is just the tip of the iceberg of how depraved the human heart can be when it departs from God. It can get much worse. Our hope is the gospel. Own it, and be one who speaks forth that good news. Next week we'll see Israel's response—a right response in that it answers moral outrage, but a wrong one, because it moves into human vengeance, and the wrath of man never accomplishes the righteousness of God.

Closing Prayer

Lord, I thank You that shocking things are in the Bible because there are shocking things in the world—how horrible, twisted, and wicked human hearts can be when affected by sin. What You accomplished on the cross is the only answer. Jesus, You who knew no sin became sin for us and absorbed all the righteous wrath of heaven upon Yourself, so that You could save us by Your grace and transform us by Your Spirit. Help us to believe again that the gospel is Your power unto salvation for everyone who believes, and not to be ashamed of it though we are tempted in our culture. Stir in our hearts a reaffirmation that the gospel is the answer. And Jesus, do a work in our culture—move by Your Spirit to bring revival, first in my own heart, then in our church and the churches around us. We desperately need Your grace to move in our day. You are our hope. Pour out Your Spirit upon Your church, we pray, in Jesus' name. And all those who agreed said, Amen.