Silence is complicity, and protection is accessory: Judges 19-21

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This is a really good summary of this passage. The passage reads like a Blockbuster movie with anticipation, stomach churning horror, amazement, sadness, outrage, revenge, and a measure of redemption. I left out at least a dozen more adjectives.

Every teacher must remember the beginning of the book, and do not leave off the ending, which ends where it began.

This tells us that you really don’t go to the book of judges to find the way the people of God should live. You go there and learn how the people of God should not live.

(Bible critics use passages like this to accuse the Bible of promoting vile conduct.)

The episode in chapter 19 highlights the worst moral decline among the mightiest of the tribes. There are a lot of failures to consider. However, one that stands out to me, (and is often overlooked,) is the perpetrators were a distinct group among the Benjamites. They had a reputation for corruption. They were known as “the children of wickedness.”

Nonetheless, they found a haven and protection among their blood brothers. “A little leaven, leavens the whole lump.” Instead of family shame, their brothers supported their evil lifestyle.

In this case “a king” (as the book repeatedly reminds us) would have been morally responsible before God, and be the first to suffer for such evil in the kingdom.

Friends, silence is complicity, and protection is accessory to the crime. God took the opportunity to clean house in all of Israel at that time.

Study note: Remembering that the Lord only tells us what is important; how many mistakes were made in this episode in Judges 19 + 21?

THIS IS HEAVY!

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“And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.
Revelation 5:4 KJV

Why was John crying his eyeballs out? Because that book contains the list of those inheriting eternal life. The roll must be called, the names must be read.

WORTHY is a word indicating a comparison between at least two things.

Thayer Definition:
“weighing, having weight, having the weight of another thing of like value, worth as much.”

Who “outweighs, is more valuable” than what or who?

The answer is The Law, Sin, and Death. Therefore more powerful than them, and able to deliver out of their hands and give life!

“And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever.
Revelation 5:9‭-‬14 KJV