Prayer: Father, we ask You to make this Word living and powerful in our lives – show us clear and meaningful applications and obedience so that we would not be merely hearers of the Word but doers, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction
This chapter continues the story of the corruption of Gibeah and the tribe of Benjamin, with judgment falling on them and on the rest of Israel. This teaches lessons about the covenant, just war, and the difference between punishment and discipline. 

The Text: “Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was gathered together as one man, from Dan even to Beersheba, with the land of Gilead, unto the LORD in Mizpeh…” (Judges 20:1-48)

Summary of the Text
Having sent the pieces of his murdered wife to the tribes of Israel, 400,000 Israelite soldiers gathered together at Mizpah to find out what had happened (Judges 20:1-3). The Levite explained that the men of Gibeah had attacked him and killed his concubine and asked them to give their verdict (Judges 20:4-7). Israel made plans to support their army and sent messengers to Benjamin demanding that the men of Gibeah be turned over to be tried for their crimes, but Benjamin refused and gathered together 26,000 soldiers, plus the 700 left-handed slingers of Gibeah (Judges 20:8-17). 

Israel inquired of the Lord who should the lead the attack, and the Lord said Judah, and the next day they attacked and were defeated with the loss of 22,000 men (Judges 20:18-21). They wept before the Lord and sought His counsel once more, and the following day they attacked again and were defeated again, losing another 18,000 (Judges 20:22-25) – a loss now totaling 10% of the army. Israel once more wept before the Lord and offered sacrifices, with Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, leading the worship, and the Lord promised to deliver Benjamin into their hands (Judges 20:26-28). For this third attack, Israel set an ambush for Gibeah, and after drawing the main force out of the city, closed the trap and the Lord destroyed them (Judges 20:29-39). The city was utterly destroyed and burned, and the soldiers who fled were tracked down and put to the sword (Judges 20:40-48). 

Cutting Covenant
In the Old Testament, the word for “make” covenant is literally “cut” a covenant, going back at least to God’s covenant with Abraham where God passed through the cut-up parts of animals (Gen. 15:9-17). In this sense, every sacrifice was a mini-covenant ceremony, with animals cut up and offered to the Lord (Lev. 1-3, Ps. 50:5). At Sinai, God cut His covenant with Israel: God’s fiery presence came down on the mountain, and the people “cut” sacrifices to seal the covenant (Ex. 19-24). 

The meaning was at least two-fold: on the one hand, there is a complete consecration to God in the covenant: God’s fiery presence passes through the parts of the animal and the idea is that God intends to fill and entirely claim His people (cf. Rom. 12:1-2). God wants all that we are. This is what your baptism means. He wants your words, your thoughts, your work, your money, your marriage, your parenting, your household culture, your politics. 

At the same time, there’s a warning: In Jeremiah 34, Zedekiah makes a covenant with the people of Jerusalem and as part of that covenant, the men of the city promised to release their slaves, which they did initially and then apparently took them back. God says that when they made that covenant, they “cut the calf in two and passed between the parts” (Jer. 34:18), and therefore God will destroy them because they have broken the covenant. 

It seems likely that the Levite is drawing from this imagery when he calls Israel with the pieces of his wife. King Saul will do a similar thing with a heifer in 1 Samuel 11, calling all of Israel to war. The symbolism is that the covenant has been broken and therefore justice must be done, with the threat that if you don’t muster, you will be breaking covenant and complicit with the covenant breakers and liable to the same punishment (1 Sam. 11:7, Jer. 34:20). Covenant is inescapable, loyalty is inescapable: who’s side are you on?

Holy War & Just War
In the Old Covenant, God sometimes supernaturally destroyed horrifically evil peoples (e.g. the Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah). Later, God gave special authorization to His people to do this in the land of Canaan because of its great wickedness (Gen. 15:16, Dt. 7:1-2, 20:16-18). The language God used was “devote to destruction” [haram], and Jericho is the clearest example (Josh. 6). This is in a very strict sense what is called a “holy war” – the battle is likened to a whole burnt offering – everything goes on the altar and burned. 

But remember at Jericho Achan who took some of the “devoted” things, and when Israel went up against Ai, they were defeated (Josh. 7). After Achan’s sin was found out, he and his family were destroyed (like Jericho) (Josh. 7:25). Then, on the second attempt, Joshua planned an ambush attack almost exactly like the one we have here in the third battle of Gibeah in Judges 20. 

Putting all of this together, the first two battles of Gibeah indicate that Israel had not reckoned with their own complicity in Gibeah’s sin, and therefore God sovereignly disciplines them by taking a “tithe” of their soldiers: they had not faithfully driven out the Canaanites and they broke covenant going after other gods (Judges 1-2). The fact that Phinehas is mentioned (Judges 20:28), tells us that this event happened early in the days of the Judges (Josh. 24:33), and it underlines the problem running through the whole book. 

When Jesus came He taught that because of the gospel and the pouring out of the Spirit, wars of “utter destruction” are no longer necessary or allowed (cf. Lk. 9:54-56). But in a fallen world, ordinary war will still sometimes be required. This distinction was already being introduced in the law of Moses (Dt. 20:10-15, 19-20). Just wars require legitimate authority to use force as well as a just cause (Rom. 13:1-4), specifically the principles of punishing criminals and defending the innocent and weak and judicious with proportionality (Gen. 14:13-16, Ex. 21:22-25, Dt. 19:18-21, Amos 1:3-13), as well as pure intentions for true good and peace (Rom. 12, Mt. 5).

The Lord Jesus rules over all the nations of men, and therefore our wars must be just, and in that sense, holy or else He will judge us and destroy us. The warning stands: with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. Do you who say that a man should not commit adultery – do you commit adultery (Rom. 2:22)? Do you who say that a nation should not commit genocide commit genocide against the unborn? Jesus said that it will be easier for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than the cities that refused to believe in Him. Our gruesome slaughter of babies makes the Nazis look tame. And the solution is repentance. 

Applications & Conclusion
Every Lord’s Day, we pass the “cut up” parts of the body of the Lord among us. What are we doing? It a proclamation of the broken covenant in Adam: all have sinned. All have “Achaned” and troubled Israel. 

It’s also a summons to war against all evil – beginning with your own. Are you on the Lord’s side or on the side of Gibeah? Are you on the side of Jesus or the Devil? If you don’t join the war, you are complicit in the wickedness of the land. But if you join, you must leave all of your wickedness behind. If you bring any of that sin with you into the camp, we will be defeated by our enemies. It is not enough to be “conservative” or “anti-liberal.” We cannot win without God’s blessing. 

In Genesis 15, when God made the covenant with Abraham, the most striking thing about the ceremony is that only God passed through the cut parts of the animals. And so when we had broken the covenant, God Himself came and was “cut up” for us on the Cross. 

Hell is the ultimate punishment for sin – it is God’s ultimate Holy War, which Christ took for all who trust in Him. But in this world, God still disciplines the sons that He loves (Heb. 12:6ff) – as witnessed by the two initial defeats of the armies of Israel. Sometimes God presses upon us because of specific sins we need to deal with, and sometimes He presses upon us to simply train us in greater holiness – but it is His covenant love – it is His determination to make us holy and happy. 

And it is important that we understand and teach this distinction to our children. There is a massive difference between parenting based on covenant loyalty and parenting based on individualistic autonomy. Are your children just other people in your house doing things or are they your body, part of Christ’s body, little saints for whom Christ died? This means intense teaching and correction in the early years but with eyes of faith and hearts full of patience. 

Children are little mirrors showing you your own weaknesses and sins, and you can either resent that or you can smile and thank God for giving You exactly what You need and stay in the fight. 

Prayer: Father, we thank you for Your covenant faithfulness to us, for sending Your only Son to take the penalty for our covenant breaking, so that we might not be destroyed. Father, we cry out to You for our covenant breaking nation: we know that we deserve Your righteous judgment. But if you had mercy on Sodom when only Lot was there, how much more so, will you have mercy on our land? So we ask for Reformation and Revival. We ask for You to destroy the Sons of Belial in our midst and that You would establish Your justice. Raise up generations of faithful men who raise faithful children, in Jesus’ name, who taught us to pray…

Prayer: Father, we know that all Scripture is breathed out by You – it is all good and profitable – and yet some parts of difficult and challenging. Please use this portion of Your Word today to do the good work it is meant to do in our lives and make us more like Your Son, Jesus, in whose name we pray, Amen. 

Introduction
The Bible is Rated-R, and that is because it deals honestly with the horror of human sin. This chapter is one of the darkest episodes in all of Scripture, and so it is an opportunity to look our sin straight on. 

The Text: “And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the side of mount Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Bethlehem-Judah…” (Judges 19:1-30) 

Summary of the Text
In those days when Israel lived as though they had no king, a Levite had a wife (a concubine is a wife without a dowry) who was unfaithful and then fled home to her father’s house (Judges 19:1-2). Her husband had compassion on her and went after her to reconcile, where he was welcomed by her father with warm hospitality over the course of five days (Judges 19:3-9). As the Levite returned home with his wife, he stopped in Gibeah of Benjamin for the night, where he was taken in by a man of Ephraim (Judges 19:10-21). While the Levite was being hosted, certain ‘sons of Belial’ surrounded the house and demanded that he be brought out of the house so they might rape him to death (Judges 19:22-23, cf. 20:5). In his place, the man’s daughter and the Levite’s wife were offered, and ultimately the Levite’s wife was given, who was abused all night and died at the door of the house in the morning (Judges 19:24-28). When the Levite arrived home, he cut her into twelve pieces and sent them to the tribes of Israel, causing great shock and alarm (Judges 19:29-30). 

Israel is Sodom
This episode clearly paints Israel as becoming like Sodom (Gen. 19). And this is a theme that the prophets return to (Is. 1:9-10, 3:9, Jer. 23:14, Ez. 16:46-56, Rev. 11:8). In Ezekiel, the condemnation against God’s people is likened to Sodom whose sin is described as arrogant greed and refusal to help the poor and the needy (Ez. 16:46-56). This is sometimes used to soften their sexual violence, but that was clearly part of their lack of hospitality (Jude 7). 

A central element of this story is the theme of hospitality. As in Genesis, you have the hospitality of Abraham (Gen. 18) contrasted with the animalistic hostility of the men of Sodom (Gen. 19). Here, you have the hospitality of the concubine’s father (Judges 19:3-9) and the man of Ephraim (Judges 19:16-21) contrasted with the animalistic hostility of the men of Benjamin in Gibeah (Judges 19:22-25). 

In the ancient world, the treatment of strangers was often a test of basic human piety. Even in the pagan world, the mistreatment of guests (or hosts) was considered a grave evil. In Ovid, Jupiter and Mercury come down as strangers in disguise and those who welcomed them were spared a great flood. The Cyclops in the Odyssey is a prime example of the perversion of hospitality, where the host plans to feed upon his guests (e.g. the men of Benjamin). Some of this ancient code is echoed in Hebrews: “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Heb. 13:2).  

Applications
Hospitality & God’s Law: While the men of Gibeah clearly have the greatest sin, the Levite and the man of Ephraim reveal certain pagan habits of thought (also Lot in Sodom) – the idea that handing over a wife or daughter was a lesser evil than being sodomized or murdered. In the ancient world, and in some honor cultures to this day, allowing a woman to take the hit was considered more honorable – perhaps in this case especially because the concubine had been unfaithful. But God’s law protects the lives and honor of women just as much as men, thereby teaching a very different honor code.    

While we do not face that exact kind of pressure at the moment, there are temptations to sacrifice your family for hospitality. Of course, Christians are to be given to hospitality, but your first duty is to your family (1 Tim. 5:3-8). True religion is care for orphans and widows, but the first rule is to not create any new ones. Hospitality is to be an overflow, not stealing from your family.

Hospitality and Immigration: We might be tempted to think that this kind of barbarity only existed in ancient times, but we have recently been treated to the disclosure of gang rape of Israeli women during the October 7, 2023 Palestinian attacks as well as rape gangs in the United Kingdom. Part of the scandal in the UK was the fact that it was covered up by law enforcement for fear of being accused of racism or religious bigotry, since most of the perpetrators were Pakistani and Muslim. 

But cultures that celebrate polygamy, child-brides, and the second-class legal standing of women and non-Muslims will feed the baser instincts of men. And just to be clear: part of the point of this story is the fact that no race or religion is exempt from this threat. But if you’ve adopted two kids from another country, it is not racist or bigoted to call a moratorium on adopting more kids – especially if you have good reason to believe they are troubled and you already have your hands full. And the same thing is true of immigration. 

Our Vile Affections: Part of the reason we need a moratorium on immigration is because we have our own in-house violent sexual predators in the form of the LGBT movement. Scripture presents sodomy and homosexual sin as not merely unnatural and vile, but these sins are inherently violent – they are sadistic and masochistic – delighting in harm and self-harm, as illustrated by Genesis 19, Judges 19, Ezekiel 16. As Jesus said of Jerusalem, “It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgement, than for thee” (Mt. 11:24). The blood of millions of unborn babies cries out alongside the destroyed lives of millions of more children lied to, abused, and chemically and physically maimed. We may not have Pakistani groomers, but we have drag queens grooming children in public libraries.

Our Plague: There is something like the story that Nathan tells David in this story for us – the twelve pieces of the woman are put on display to shock and awaken. There ought to be a kind of rising rage about the men in this story. And there is a plain sense in which a minister of the gospel is authorized to point and say, “you are the man.” The amount of sexual debauchery and filth that fills the screens of professing Christian men puts us right up there spiritually and morally with the Levite and the men of Gibeah. Christ teaches that holy men need a kind of holy rage to deal with this sin – plucking out eyes and cutting off hands – that means doing extreme things – getting rid of phones, quitting jobs, doing whatever it takes – confessing and repenting. We need generations of men who will say with Job, “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I look upon a maiden?” (Job 31:1).

Conclusion
What is remarkable is how the Gospel takes so much of this story and gloriously inverts it. We are the unfaithful wife – playing the whore with all our sins, and God came for us: God came for His own, but His own did not receive Him.  

But instead of turning us over to the death and Hell our sins deserve, God offered His only Son in our place. 

We rightly flinch at the thought of a brutally raped woman cut into twelve pieces, but the Cross is an even greater atrocity. We killed our Maker. We crucified our King. And all of our unfaithfulness was laid upon Him. For He made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin: that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21).

A different code of honor indeed. 

Prayer: Father, make us generations of men and women who are faithful to You and to our marriage vows. Grant us a joy and hospitality in our families so that we have joy and hospitality to share with those around us. Have mercy on our nation, so that we might not be overrun by those who hate You. Turn us back to You, for the honor and glory of Your Son, Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray…

But notice that it doesn’t say that when God builds, we don’t have to work or guard. No, the point is that God is the One who makes our work fruitful. God is the One who makes our watchfulness affective. In both cases, people work and watch; the difference is between the work that is actually fruitful and the work that is worthless – the difference is between staying awake in a way that actually guards the city and the kind that just makes you exhausted and the barbarians still take over. 

So this Psalm is about the kind of work that actually builds houses and families that last, and the kind of watchfulness and care that actually keeps cities and nations safe and prosperous. And the secret sauce – if you want to call it that – is children. The Psalm says, behold, children are the inheritance of the Lord. 

That isn’t the Psalmist changing the subject. He hasn’t presented the challenge of building houses and guarding cities and then randomly pointed out that children are really cute. 

No, the point is loaded in the word “inheritance.” An inheritance is the wealth and resources that are handed down from one generation to the next for building houses and cities. An inheritance is sometimes a house or a car, a business or property or savings or investments. But the whole point of an inheritance is to give new generations a head start. And here it says that God’s inheritance – and notice that – this is the inheritance that God gives – the wealth and resources that God gives to His people. He gives them children. He gives them more people. 

People are made in the image of God. That means that there is nothing in all of creation as valuable as people. Nothing in all of creation reflects the glory and creativity and potency of God as much as people do. So how does God build houses and guard cities? He gives His people children. The work of raising and training children and watching over them, is the work that God wants His people to do in order to build strong houses and have safe cities. 

That kind of work is not worthless work because children are like arrows; they are reinforcements. They are weapons and resources for building and guarding. And happy (or blessed) is the man who has a full supply of them. And here’s how you know God is still talking about houses and cities: He says those children will grow up and stand with you in the city gates speaking with your enemies. 

Now, this is a wedding, and some of you might think I’m jumping the gun a little making all this fuss about children, but first off, I can assure you that there are parents and grandparents in the front row who don’t mind me talking about children at all. And second, as we noted at the beginning of the ceremony, one of the central purposes of marriage is children. 

And as it turns out, children are multipliers. That’s one way you could summarize Psalm 127: children multiply your labors and make them actually fruitful. Children are reinforcements. But that means that children will multiply whatever it is that you have as a husband and wife. 

This really is an encouragement when you’re in the trenches and things seem desperate or difficult. When you’re laboring diligently trying to keep your 4 year old out of the state penitentiary, and you fall into bed exhausted at night and you glance over at your exhausted spouse and grin and give each other a fist bump – if the spirit between you and your spouse is sweet like that, if you are in joyful fellowship, then be encouraged: what you are giving to your children is joyful fellowship. 

Of course there’s also a warning: if you’ve read a bunch of parenting books or attended conferences about Christian parenting but there’s tension between you and your spouse, if there are harsh words and bitterness, then the warning is: watch out. There’s a good chance you are actually passing all of that bad juju on to your kids. Nothing against parenting books or conferences, but joyful fellowship with God and one another is the central thing. All the methods and techniques are only as helpful as the peace and joy you share. 

And so, we are establishing a new house today – a new Christensen house, and this means that we fully expect God to bless this house with His favorite wedding gift, His inheritance and reward of children. But in order for that to be the blessing it is meant to be, you must be establishing a culture of joyful fellowship now. As you have heard many times and have seen in your own households growing up, this is only possible when you both are committed to confessing your own sins and forgiving one another – keeping short accounts. Christians are not people who do not sin; Christians are people who know what to do about sin. And what we do is confess it, turn away from it, and forgive it. 

Abe: you are being assigned the task today of being the lead builder, the foreman on this house project, but that will only be a blessing if Jesus is the Master Builder, the General Contractor overseeing the whole thing. You are being given the responsibility, but part of taking responsibility is understanding that this will only go well if God is active on your job site. This means that you must continue seeking Him with all that you are, and wherever you fail, making it right quickly. Mistakes don’t get better by pretending they didn’t happen. Mistakes get better by owning them and making them right. Loving a woman as your own body is an assignment that is daunting to every man, but it is the kind of assignment that makes you a better man. Loving Lillian means laying your life down for her, which does not mean doing whatever she wants, but it does mean doing whatever she needs, as defined by the Word of God. 

Lillian, you are being assigned the task today of being Abe’s Assistant Site Manager. Your task is to help Abe carry out the instructions of the Master Builder Jesus Christ. Abe is ultimately responsible for executing the plans, but you are responsible for helping him. You do this by honoring him and making his home a warm and welcoming place. In the beginning, God gave Adam the mission of taking dominion over the whole world, and God gave the woman to Adam because he needed a helper that was suited to him. You are being given to Abe as his helper, and that really is a great glory. Respecting an imperfect man will not be easy, but it is a potent ministry that will making building your house a lot more affective. Just like Abe, when you fail at this work, the next most important work you do is making it right. Confess your sins, seek forgiveness, and stay in fellowship. 

As you both do this you will already begin building a house that God is building, and we trust that in His good timing, He will bestow on you a beautiful inheritance, arrows and reinforcements – making you fruitful in every way. 

In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen. 

What is Forgiveness?

Forgiveness is a promise to not hold a sin against a person for the sake of the blood of Christ.

There are three important elements to this definition. First, forgiveness is a promise. It is not a feeling. It is not trust. It is not a magic memory eraser. It is a promise, a commitment. Second, forgiveness is a promise not to hold a grudge, a commitment not to hold on to any resentment or bitterness about the offense. Resentment and bitterness would be defined as any kind of angst, any kind of desire for revenge. Third, this kind of promise is only possible because of the blood of Christ. This is what makes forgiveness possible even if the person asking for forgiveness doesn’t mean it or still doesn’t understand the depth of their sin. Christ paid for the sin. He suffered, bled, and died for both sides of reconciliation — to pay for the guilt of the sinner and to satisfy the desire of those sinned against for justice. This means that blood of Christ enables us to have forgiveness even in those cases where the offender hasn’t even repented. In those cases, you cannot complete the transaction of reconciliation, but you can have forgiveness ready for them, whether or not they ever ask for it. 

So Jesus teaches that His disciples must be willing to forgive those who sin against them seventy times seven, which is clearly meant to illustrate as many times as they may come asking for forgiveness in any given day (Mt. 18:20-21). The standard is the willingness of God to forgive us for the sake of Christ. How have you been forgiven? How many sins have you been forgiven? You can’t count that high. How many times a day is the blood of Christ covering your sins? You can’t count that high. So we are required to forgive as we have been forgiven: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Eph. 4:32). 

Not the Same Thing as Trust

At the same time, forgiveness is not the same thing as trust. Forgiveness is not the same thing as there being no consequences. Forgiveness does not entitle anyone to any privileges. Forgiveness restores fellowship in Christ. Fellowship means there are no grudges, no animosity — you can come to the Lord’s Table together. But fellowship is a blank slate with no demands, no requirements other than basic Christian charity under the law of God. In other words, if you steal from your employer, and you confess and seek forgiveness and he joyfully forgives you, there is nothing at all inconsistent with that forgiveness and for him to require you to pay back what you have stolen and to fire you. He is free to forgive some of your debt, and he is free to give you another chance, but he is not under any obligation to do so. 

Likewise, a woman who has committed adultery and confesses and seeks forgiveness should be forgiven by her husband, but that forgiveness does not demand that he continue in the marriage covenant. The Bible clearly teaches that he is free to divorce if the covenant has been broken in that way, and he is free to remain in the marriage. Forgiveness does not mean there are no consequences for sin. Likewise, forgiveness restores fellowship but it does not guarantee friendship. Sometimes trust is so strained or broken that close ties and friendship have been destroyed. A lack of forgiveness can make these broken bonds worse, but true forgiveness can still decide that it best not to be close friends anymore.

The Possibility of Rebuilding

At the same time, forgiveness is the ground upon which trust can be restored. Forgiveness restores the fellowship, and fellowship is the clean slate that makes trust possible. And this is one reason why it is a mistake to conflate forgiveness and trust. Sometimes someone thinks they cannot forgive because they do not trust. Sometimes this is because they do not feel the emotions of forgiveness. They still feel badly hurt, wounded, and broken-hearted. But it’s not a sin to feel hurt; it is only a sin to nurture those hurt feelings. If you touch a hot stove, it’s not a sin to feel the burning sensation. It’s only a sin if you refuse to put your fingers under cold water. The cold water in this case is the promise of forgiveness. But as anyone who has ever burned their fingers knows, even after a few minutes under cold water, your fingers can still hurt. So you have to keep them under the cold water or apply ice, etc. Likewise, you should forgive even when it hurts, and you should keep applying the forgiveness as long as it hurts. Forgiveness doesn’t magically restore trust, but forgiveness is what allows you to heal in order for there to be any possibility of restoration of trust. 

Sometimes married couples get into bad cycles of fighting and arguing, and many times this is because the sins from the day before (or the week/month/years before) never got confessed and forgiven. The Bible says that the only way you can have true Christian fellowship is by walking in the light as God is in the light (1 Jn. 1:7). But since we are sinners, and sin is darkness, the only way to stay in the light is to stay in fellowship, and that is only possible if the blood of Christ is constantly cleansing us. Confession of sin and forgiveness should be as natural and ordinary as taking showers and doing the dishes. Christians are not people who do not sin. Christians are people who know what do about sin. We know how to clean up our messes: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn. 1:9). 

Jesus said that having unconfessed sin is like having a log in your eye (Mt. 7:3-5). It’s like having mud all over your windshield. You can’t really see what’s going on. Many married couples and many families do not confess their sins and forgive one another, and they are going around most days running into one another and when they try to sort it out, it turns into a bigger mess and nasty arguments and bitter fighting. The reason is because they have logs in their eyes, sometimes months or years of sin and guilt and resentment and bitterness. Whenever there is a collision it’s never just about the presenting issue, it’s about months or years of sin and hurt and pain. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Christ died on the Cross so that everyone who trusts in Him can get clean. If you confess your sins to God and to everyone you can think of that you have sinned against, the promise is actually mind-blowing: He promises to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we confess the sins we know about, God promises to forgive us and cleanse us of all of them – even the ones we’ve forgotten about or don’t even know about.

And when you’ve been completely forgiven, you can see clearly. But until you’re forgiven, you can’t see your husband accurately, your wife accurately, your kids or your parents or friends accurately. But when you’ve been forgiven, when the joy of your salvation is restored. You can see clearly, and sometimes trust can be rebuilt. And even in those situations where there doesn’t seem to be any human possibility of rebuilding trust, you can still be free of that weight and you can slowly heal, with real joy and peace in your heart.  

Photo by Michael Olsen on Unsplash

Prayer: Father, please use this text to remind us of Your great mercy and grace. Equip us to obey you and serve you in every area of life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction
The message of the whole Bible is that God’s grace is greater than you can possibly imagine. It is an ocean that has no coasts, no bottom. His mercy endures forever. 

This story of the birth of Samson is one of the places we are reminded of this, and it reminds us of the grace of God because it points so clearly to the birth of His only Son, Jesus Christ. 

The Text: “And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines forty years. And there was a certain man of Zorah…” (Judges 13:1-25)

Summary of the Text
While the judges may have provided some measure of stability, Israel turned back to their evil ways and the Lord delivered them to subjugation under the Philistines (Judges 13:1). But remarkably, without Israel crying out, God began preparing deliverance by appearing to a barren woman and promising that she would bear a son who would be a Nazirite warrior who would fight the Philistines (Judges 13:2-5). When the woman told her husband, he prayed and asked God to deliver the message once more, and God answered and appeared again and repeated the instructions (Judges 13:6-14).

Manoah offered to honor the angel of the Lord with a feast, but the angel proposed a sacrifice be offered to the Lord instead (Judges 13:15-16). When Manoah asked what the man’s name was, he said he could not tell him because it was too wonderful, but when the sacrifice was offered, the angel ascended in the flame on the altar and Manoah and his wife fell on their faces on the ground (Judges 13:17-20). Knowing that this was the angel of the Lord Himself, Manaoh feared for his life, but his wife reassured him (Judges 13:21-23). And the woman bore the son as she was promised and named him Samson, and the Lord blessed him and filled him with His Spirit (Judges 13:24-25). 

Nazirite Vows
A central element of this story is the repeated instructions to avoid the fruit of the vine and that Samson will be a Nazirite – repeated three times (Judges 13:4-5, 13:7, 13:14). A Nazirite vow was taken by ordinary Israelites for special priest-like missions – usually temporary but sometimes, as in this case, permanent from conception (Num. 6). In the Song of Deborah, she sings praise to God for the people who “willingly offered themselves,” but literally it’s for the “loosening of the locks of hair freely” (Judges 5:2). This is a poetic reference to the Nazirite vow, which many of the men apparently swore when they joined the armies of Barak. Paul also took Nazirite vows in Acts during his missionary journeys (Acts 18:18, 21:24). Just as priests were required to wear a covering on their head while they ministered in the tabernacle/temple (Ex. 28:36-38), the Nazirite vow included not cutting hair while on this mission and functioned as their covering and indicated that their mission was dedicated/holy to God.  

The priests were forbidden from drinking wine in the tabernacle in order to distinguish carefully between holy and unholy, unclean and clean (Lev. 10:9-10), and so Nazirites also completely abstained from the fruit of the vine while on their holy mission. The Nazirite vow was an Old Testament type that pointed to the coming gift of the Holy Spirit that would anoint all believers and set them apart for mission and war. 

Part of this is reversed in the New Covenant: whereas Old Covenant priests never sat down and were forbidden all wine in God’s presence, in the New Covenant, we get to sit down and rest in Christ and share a taste of wine in His presence. At the same time, there is still an abiding warning: sobriety is necessary for making careful distinctions, especially in battle (1 Thess. 5:6-8). This is why Christians are warned not to be drunk with wine but filled with the Holy Spirit by singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (Eph. 5:18). This means that the buzz of alcohol (or drugs) is a false Holy Spirit, an idol that you are seeking peace and joy from, that only the Holy Spirit can actually give. And your judgment is being impaired.     

Samson was a type of the only faithful Savior who is full of the Spirit, whose judgment is always righteous, and who delivers us from all our enemies.

The Barren Gives Birth
After the Fall into sin, one of the central marks of the curse is difficulty and pain in conception and childbearing (Gen. 3:16). And despite many improvements in this area, it is still one of the great reminders today of Adam’s sin (e.g. barrenness, miscarriage, pregnancy complications, pain, etc.). And yet that curse was pronounced alongside the promise that the seed of the woman would crush the seed of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). At the very point where the curse makes itself known and felt, God promised to demonstrate His power and mercy. It is therefore no accident that so many of the stories of the Old Covenant are stories of barren women giving birth: Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Hannah, Ruth, and Elizabeth. And here, it is a nameless woman, known only to history as “Manoah’s wife.”  

Where sin destroys, God still brings life. But the point is also that God is determined to do this through the seed of the woman, at the very point of the curse. “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13). All sin is barrenness. It is fruitlessness. It is turning away from the light and life of God and turning toward darkness and emptiness. And this theme culminates in the ultimate “barren” womb of the virgin and the barren womb of the tomb. We serve the “God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did” (Rom. 4:17). 

Conclusion: The Grace of God
While Israel was doing evil and being oppressed, God was preparing their salvation. This is the nature of grace – completely undeserved. While we were still enemies, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8-10). 

In fact, there is some indication that God may have been doing this with three different barren women all around the same time leading to the births of Obed (Ruth), Samuel (Hannah), and Samson (wife of Manoah). 

But of course you would not have known it – you could not have seen what God was doing. It looked like the Israelites were doomed. It looked like the Philistines would rule them indefinitely. But God was starting a revolution in the wombs of barren women. It would be years before anyone knew. But faith knew. Faith in the living God knows. 

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Heb. 11:1). One of the foundational things that faith knows is that God made everything that we see out of nothing (Heb. 11:3). But the most glorious thing that faith knows is that God has come for His lost and rebellious people, born of a virgin, born under the law, to redeem those under the curse of the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons (Gal. 4:4-5). And as sons, we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us (Rom. 8:37). In the very places where sin does its worst, God’s grace shines forth.

And that is why His name is wonderful. His name is Jesus, which means Savior.

Prayer: Father, help us to be preoccupied with Your grace. In all that we do, make us constantly remember what You have done for us through Your only Son, Jesus Christ – let it shape our work, our thoughts, our families, and our nation, and we ask in His name, who taught us to pray…

Prayer: Father, we know that unless you build our house, we labor in vain. Unless you guard our cities, no amount of security can keep us safe. So please teach us the wisdom of Christ, to build our houses and cities in obedience to His Word. And we ask for that now with this Word, in Jesus’ name, Amen. 

Introduction
Building Christian community is one of the hardest things we are engaged in. The relative progress we have made in this venture is one of the greatest signs of God’s blessing. Only the Holy Spirit can knit people like us together.

But it also requires great wisdom, constant vigilance, and addressing sin. Bitterness and envy are not little sins that can be ignored. They are cancers that destroy families and churches and nations. 

The Text: “And the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together, and went northward, and said unto Jephthah, Wherefore passedst thou over to fight against the children of Ammon, and didst not call us to go with thee? we will burn thine house upon thee with fire…” (Judges 12:1-15)

Summary of the Text
This is now the second time the tribe of Ephraim has objected to God’s deliverance (cf. Judges 8:1), and here they march on Gilead, threatening to murder Jephthah, who has just delivered them from Ammon (Judges 12:1). Jephthah answers the accusation plainly, pointing to the Lord’s deliverance, but Ephraim is not appeased this time and Jephthah is forced to go to war with them (Judges 12:2-4). As Gilead routed Ephraim, there was a great slaughter at the Jordan River, especially of those who could not pronounce the word “Shibboleth” (Judges 12:5-6). And Jephthah judged Israel six years (Judges 12:7).

What follows is a list of three more judges: Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon (Judges 12:8-15). Ibzan and Abdon are both remembered for their prolific offspring and apparently political marriages and growing royal influence (Judges 12:8-10, 13-15). 

Brother Conflict
This is a civil war between tribes of Israel, but Gilead is a region and family within the tribe of Manasseh (Num. 26:29), which makes Ephraim and Manasseh’s conflict even closer: Ephraim and Manasseh were the sons of Joseph. Remember that when Jacob blessed the sons of Joseph, he crossed his hands, blessing Ephraim (the younger) with the greater blessing of the first born (Gen 48:13-20). 

Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh had settled on the east side of the Jordan at the beginning of the conquest (Num. 32, Dt. 3:13). And immediately following the conquest there was a skirmish between the east and west tribes when the east Jordan tribes built a memorial altar and the west Jordan tribes were worried it was an idolatrous shrine (Joshus 22). 

While that confrontation initially seemed clean and praiseworthy, perhaps it didn’t settle well or indicated brewing trouble, particularly on the side of Ephraim. 

Envy & Strife
James says that the root of human conflict is envy: “From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not” (James 4:1-2). The very first brother-conflict was rooted in Cain’s envy of his brother Abel and resulted in murder (Gen. 4:5-7). The root cause of conflict is desire, but it is an angry desire that despises how God has distributed His gifts and assumes that God does not have good for you.

Ephraim had the greater blessing, but it doesn’t appear to have gone well. And while Manasseh had the lesser blessing, their families initially had more land (and perhaps flocks) and seemed to be in somewhat better shape spiritually. Notice that: God can offer a greater blessing that is less materially, but the guy with more can handle it better. Gratitude is the key difference.

One of the great lessons of history and scripture is that you are most tempted to envy those most similar to yourself – because you assume that since that other person is so similar to yourself, you ought to have what they have. And given the story, we have plenty of fodder to suspect the same thing here. Ephraim was envious and insecure, rather than grateful and joyful.

James also says that bitter envy has a way of masquerading as “wisdom,” but it is actually earthly, sensual, and devilish (Js. 3:14-15). Envy can masquerade as an intense desire for unity or peace. One time there was a woman who brought flowers to put out on the tables at a church potluck, after a few months of this, another woman confronted her for trying to one-up all the other women. Of course, it would be possible for a woman to be competitive in that way, but in this case, it was the woman doing the confronting who was not in a good place – but it was framed as wisdom, as caring about unity and peace. 

We do work for unity, but faithfulness is more important (1 Corinthians). Paul embodies this point when he urges the Corinthians not to be fleshly in their allegiances, but then he proceeds to confront the Corinthains for their sins. Fleshly wisdom might say it isn’t the moment to bring up all those problems in Corinth, but true wisdom says it is. Fleshly wisdom might say better stop bringing those flowers to the potluck, but the wisdom from above says you better stop the bitter envy. The same logic would say that Abel should cool it with his sacrifices, but God said that Cain needed to cool it with his bitter envy. 

On Shibboleth
“Shibboleth” means “flowing stream” and was probably a convenient word to use at the fords of the Jordan River. But this scene is loaded with significance. Remember, the Jordan is where Joshua initially led the people across on dry ground to begin the conquest of Canaan – the sign of God’s great blessing on Israel after Moses has died (Josh. 3). But now it is a scene of judgment on Israel. Ephraim has begun acting like Canaanites, and so they are getting slaughtered like Canaanites. What should have been a place of unity became a testing point. 

In particular, the test was over the pronunciation of a word, which by itself is not necessarily a moral point, but it may suggest that Ephraim was developing its own culture distinct from the rest of Israel. Different accents and dialects develop naturally over time, but we always want organic development while pursuing Christ, not differences merely for the sake of being different. This is particularly tempting for young people: do not let resentment or insecurity drive your desire for newness. Godly ambition wants new blessings because God is good, but ungodly ambition wants to appear new simply to be distinguished from the old folks, the boomers, your parents. But that’s like buying pre-ripped jeans. It’s fake. Your goal should be to imitate the godliness of your parents and teachers, and wherever you determine to do something different, it should be because you are convinced faithfulness to Jesus requires it.

While the word “Shibboleth” has come to mean something arbitrary that people might divide over (and we should certainly not do that), the context implies that this was a sign of divisions far more significant.  

Conclusion: Different Kinds of Wisdom
While this story is an indication of the continued decline of Israel, it also illustrates what faithfulness must do during eras of decline. We must do our duty. Parents must correct children. Churches must practice discipline. Civil magistrates must punish criminals. When someone throws a fit, it can be tempting to cater to the fit for the sake of peace and unity — because it can seem like we have bigger things to think about. Everyone starts walking on eggshells because you don’t want to upset so-and-so. But that is a form of emotional blackmail. 

There is always a temptation to rely on the flesh – on what seems strong and impressive to us (1 Cor. 1:25). And sometimes that is the appearance of strength, unity, and peace. In this passage we have a string of judges, with two of them remembered for cultivating what looks like pagan strength and wisdom. We may not put our confidence in seventy donkeys but maybe it is kids, a house, a car, a job, or just feeling proud about being at church.

But Jesus says that if you have your gift at the altar and remember your brother has something against you, first be reconciled to your brother, then offer your gift (Mt. 5:23-24). Sometimes you need to address sin at the most inopportune times: shopping, guests for dinner, at church. 

When our kids were little, my wife knew that if there was a significant act of disobedience or fit at the grocery store, she would leave the cart in the aisle and walk out to get home to take care of the kids. She could call me at work if she needed back up, and I would drop everything and come home. 

Sometimes the bump happens right as you have guests coming over. Some couples have worked out hand signs for “please forgive me/I forgive you.” You might need to simply excuse yourself quickly and make things right in the back room. You will likely need to discipline the kids when guests are over. You will likely need to discipline the kids at church.

And remember that fellowship is not merely a lack of explosions. Men, you are required by God to know the state of your household, the state of your wife’s heart and the hearts of your children. You may not assume everything is fine simply because she is not mad today. You are required to study your wife. Know her and love her and her children. 

Love covers a multitude of sins, and love confronts sin (Lev. 19:17-18, Prov. 10:12). And this requires wisdom from above. In general, you cover sins of random thoughtlessness (forgetfulness, mild/momentary rudeness); you must confront sins that are festering (bad attitudes, lies, wrath, disruptive). But always make sure that your attitude is not the main problem. First take the log out of your own eye (are you angry? Bitter? Resentful? Envious?). Christ died first. He who had no sin, laid His life down first. And so this is the pattern. You die first. My life for yours. This means confessing your own sin first, acknowledging how you have contributed to the problem first, but laying your life down also means being willing to address the problem. 
This is the wisdom of the Cross.

Closing Prayer: Father, please grant us this wisdom from Your Spirit. Give us the mind of Christ that sees the difference between sin to cover and sin that must be confronted. Please continue to build our community into a truly fruitful Christian city. We ask for this in the name of the One who purchased all the nations with His blood

Introduction
In the evangelical classic The Cross and the Switchblade, David Wilkerson tells the story of his ministry to a street gang in New York City and the dramatic conversion of Nicky Cruz, a knife-wielding teenage gang leader. About 20 years later Cruz himself wrote a book called The Magnificent Three in which he wrote, “Something has emerged in my walk with God that has become the most important element of my discipleship. It has become the thing that sustains me, that feeds me, that keeps me steady when I am shaky. I have come to see God, to know Him, to relate to Him as Three-in-One, God as Trinity.” 

He continues, “God is a magnificent Father. God is a magnificent Savior, Jesus Christ. But if it were not for the magnificent Holy Spirit, I would still be a wretched, hateful sinner! It is not enough to have a Father-God who loves and provides for me. It is not enough even to have a Savior who died for my sins. For any of those blessings to make a difference in our lives, there must also be present in this world that Third Person of God, the Holy Spirit.”

We refer to the Trinity regularly. We confess our faith and are baptized and blessed in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but do you see this as magnificent? 

The Text: “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love…” (1 Jn. 4:7-17)

Summary of the Text
Christians are addressed as “beloved,” but given the context that is not merely a term of affection from the apostle, it is a title for those who are loved by God Himself (1 Jn. 4:7). We are the “beloved” because we are loved by an eternal, magnificent, Triune love. Because God is love, you cannot know God and not imitate His love (1 Jn. 4:8). His love is not some vague, sentimental feeling; it was manifested toward us in that God sent His only begotten Son into the world to be the propitiation for our sins (1 Jn. 4:9-10). “Propitiate” means to satisfy or turn away wrath. Christians are “beloved” because God Himself loved us by providing His own Son for us, who stood in our place and took the wrath we deserve for our sins, and so we ought to love one another like that (1 Jn. 4:11). 

No one has seen God as He is in Himself (in all His infinite perfection and beauty), but when Christians love one another sacrificially, we are seeing God’s divine love at work, because it is only possible to love like God by being united to God by His Holy Spirit in us (1 Jn. 4:12-13). This is how we know that we are in God and God is in us because we have come to know Jesus Christ as our Savior (1 Jn. 4:14-15). To know God is to know His Triune love, and therefore to know true love is to know God, such that our love in this world is a true manifestation of God, so that we are even confident about the day of judgement (1 Jn. 4:16-17). 

Why is the Trinity “Magnificent”?
The Trinity is magnificent because it reveals God as inherently full of this magnificent, sacrificial love. Paul says the same: “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:5-8). We are filled with the love of God by the Holy Spirit, and that love is the sacrificial love of the Trinity for ungodly sinners: “when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son” (Rom. 5:10) – the love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

Salvation is all of grace, which means it is all of God. Only God can satisfy God’s justice; only God can bring us fully to God – this is the magnificent work of the Trinity. Salvation is monergistic – only God can come for us, rescue us, and unite us to Himself. God does all of it. If some part of our salvation is left to us, to angels, to saints then our salvation is in some doubt. It is left to us to try, to strive, to hope, to work. This is why all non-Trinitarian religions must ultimately always result in a works-salvation and doubt and fear. To the extent that salvation is less than all grace, we do not understand the love of God and we do not understand the magnificence of the Trinity.

Five Practical Implications

Personalism: The Trinity is magnificent because it reveals that God is love (1 Jn. 4:8), and this love means that we can know God – that God is personal. If God were a solitary, transcendent, undifferentiated monad there would ultimately be nothing to know. But God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is Father, Lord, Creator; God is Son, Beloved, Savior; God is Spirit, Advocate, Presence. Do you know the Father?

Community: The Trinity is magnificent because it is the archetype of all our longing to belong, to be known, to share hospitality. God’s will to create the universe was absolutely gratuitous (God needed nothing), and therefore, it demonstrates an overflowing delight in the other, in selfless fellowship, true friendship, caring community. To know God is to be ushered into His fellowship and to share His fellowship with one another (1 Jn. 4:12-13). 

Hierarchical Equality: The Trinity is magnificent because it is the archetype of covenant loyalty: love as strong as death (Song 8:6). But rather than top-down domination, Trinitarian love is a hierarchy of equalities. The Father is the Eternal Source of the Godhead, but the Son and the Spirit are co-equal with the Father. The husband is the head of the household, but his wife is equal in glory and grace. A magistrate is to be honored and obeyed, but the poorest peasant bears the image of God and God’s Word. This creates radically free, covenantal societies, a sort of Protestant feudalism, with free markets and private property – unity and diversity under God’s law.

Prayer: The Trinity is magnificent because it guarantees that God hears our prayers. “For through Him [Christ] we both have access by One Spirit unto the Father” (Eph. 2:18). We know that God hears our prayers because God the Holy Spirit is Who causes us to pray to God as our Father (Rom. 8:15). And whatever we ask in Jesus’ name has the full authority of God, that the Father may be glorified in the Son (John 14:13). And Scripture is the Father’s Word to us (Christ) in the power of the Spirit.

Beauty: The Trinity is magnificent because it reveals the perfect harmony at the highest point of reality. “One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD…” (Ps. 27:4). His creation reflects His beauty: music, food, sunsets, animals, mountains, waterfalls, oceans, art, people, poetry, worship, dancing, love. But it is all a distant echo of the most Beautiful Song, flakes of gold pointing to a Magnificent Mine – the Magnificent Trinity.

Photo by Liana S on Unsplash

Prayer: Father, I pray that Your Holy Spirit would use this, Your Word, to convict our hearts and teach us wisdom. Make us a people who cling to Your Word without any shame or fear. Grant us courage and boldness in Your Word, in Jesus name, Amen. 

Introduction
Because we live in a time where the dictionary has been ripped up and reassembled every few years and then weaponized against Christians, we live in a time that faces peculiar challenges. And this is overlaid on top of the usual temptations that have faced all people of all ages: animosity, envy, pride, and fear – frequently related to different nationalities, ethnicities, etc.

But the Holy Spirit has been poured out to remake this shattered world. The Holy Spirit is the wisdom and power and clarity of God’s Word restoring meaning, justice, and love, and with these gifts, over time, true community. 

The Text: “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him…” (Lev. 19:17-18, 32-36)

Summary of the Text
The Second Greatest commandment is found here in Leviticus 19, and it is stated twice for emphasis. Initially, it applies to brothers and countrymen, with the exhortation that tension and trouble ought to be addressed in a straightforward way, including confrontation for sin (Lev. 19:17). This law forbids seeking vengeance and harboring any bitterness (Lev. 19:18). This golden rule applies to previous generations and the elderly, standing up in their presence and honoring them – this is one of the greatest ways we fear the Lord (Lev. 19:32). But this law also applies to strangers and foreigners, whom God’s people must not mistreat in any way (Lev. 19:33). God’s people are required to treat foreigners with the same standard as they treat native born citizens (Lev. 19:34). God’s people are to do this, remembering that they were once foreigners in the land of Egypt (Lev. 19:34). And this includes equal weights and measures of every sort – for the Lord is our God, and He brought us out of Egypt (Lev. 19:35-36, cf. Eph. 2:13-18).   

Clearing Away Distractions
God’s Word does not require that we pretend that everyone is the same. Our physical differences are glorious, and we need not be embarrassed by them and we ought not demean what God has made (Act 17:26, Rev. 7:9). We can and must do this without giving in to egalitarianism, relativism, or sentimentalism. There are different kinds and levels of beauty, and sin has affected every tribe and family.

God’s Word does not require that we pretend that cultural differences are all the same. There are gifts and strengths in various cultures, and there are weaknesses and atrocities in various cultures. All things being equal, the more of the gospel that penetrates a culture, the more fruitful that culture will be, and the less the gospel penetrates a culture, the more enslaved and perverse it will be. Nevertheless, “who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” (1 Cor. 4:7)

God’s Word does not require that nations have no process for orderly immigration or protection against foreign threats. It need not be hateful or bigoted to have immigration laws and to enforce them. The command to practice hospitality does not mean you must have everyone over tomorrow or that you must entertain a trespasser who broke in. But we should keep an eye out for fleshly instincts looking to freeload on otherwise righteous train cars. When people keep accusing you of malice, you can be tempted to get bitter. 

Weaponization of Christian Virtue
Cultural Marxism and identity politics have been termites eating into our Christian culture for a number of decades, intentionally trying to stir up animosity by identifying people primarily by ethnicity and sex, and now all manner of increasingly narrow “intersectional” oppression points (e.g. black, female, homosexual, etc.). But the thing you must not miss is that this has been aimed squarely at Christians accusing us of hate and bigotry because we believe in the reality that God made: male and female are permanent differences that matter, sexual intimacy is reserved for monogamous heterosexual marriage, and we also refuse to apologize for any part of the Bible, including texts that allow for certain, biblically-limited forms of slavery.

So the initial play has been guilting Christians over some sins (racial slavery, racial prejudice) in order to burn down Christian civilization (e.g. homosexuality, transgenderism, and mass immigration). If someone objects, they clearly are “racists.” It’s gotten to the point where a “racist” is apparently anyone who disagrees with a liberal. At one point there was a chart on the Smithsonian website that defined “whiteness” as emphasizing things like math, the scientific method, hard work, and the nuclear family.    

Don’t Take the Bait
In the aftermath of this Marxist-LGBT Jihad, some Christians are taking the bait. And the bait is to buy into the Cultural Marxist categories and seek so-called “social justice” via the catharsis of vengeance, bitterness, and sinful hatred. For example, having been kicked in the head for a number of decades for being white, male, heterosexual, and Christian, some young men in this category have decided they don’t care if they are racist or sexist or antisemitic. They are fed up. But there is a massive difference between being slandered for false accusations (and rejoicing) and embracing the accusation and wearing it like a prize. You must not believe any of their lies – the fundamental target of their hatred is not white skin – they hate God’s world. They hate Jesus Christ. They hate God’s law.  

But since these angry young men would get fired if they went full blown KKK, they hide their bitterness in various ways. Some call it “race realism,” claiming that they don’t hate other races – they just tell the truth, they’ve just “noticed,” but there’s often an obvious biting edge. Or they try to hide their bitterness under the guise of jokes, stereotypes/generalizations, and just having fun. And what’s wrong with you old boomers, can’t you take a joke?

The problem isn’t a good-natured joke, the problem is being rude, and the seething bitterness that is often very clearly just below the surface. The problem is putting your finger on the scale because that’s what they’ve been doing. The problem is your double standards. While there’s nothing wrong with being white, loving America, or wearing pit-viper shades, there is all kinds of wrong clapping back with Marxist tropes and memes. To identify our primary divisions as racial or ethnic is to buy into the Marxist scheme. As Trufflehunter said about inviting ogres and hags to join Caspian’s rebellion, “We should not have Aslan for friend if we brought in that rabble.”

“Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, “I am only joking!” (Prov. 26:18-19 ESV). There is a kind of joking that is actually malicious, deceitful, and murderous. There is a kind of joking that is impolite, boorish, and insolent – it is not loving your neighbor as yourself, it is not equal weights and measures. And it is particularly tone deaf in the mouths/hearts of God’s people who were once strangers but have now been made God’s friends (Eph. 2:12-13). 

Conclusions 
What Christians are called to is biblical absolutism and clarity. When the storms of accusations and woke mobs scream, we want to be found clinging to God’s Word. God’s Word is our light and truth and justice. But humanism is a dark hole. God’s Word gives us plenty to offend the liberals with – and on those issues, we must continue to cultivate our Tom Petty Biblicism – and not back down in the slightest. But actual ethnic bitterness, resentment, animosity, vainglory, rudeness, and disrespect – those are actually sins. And we are at war with all sin.

This means that your sweet Christian grandmother is not the standard for speech and conduct, but she is to be honored greatly and listened to carefully. An older Christian minister is not the standard, but he is to be honored greatly and listened to carefully, especially if he has been in this fight for longer than you have been alive. Patting him on the head (with eye rolls, emojis, gifs, or snide comments) is not honor, and it betrays a distinct lack of the fear of God (Lev. 19:32). And you don’t want to be paling around with people like this (friends, podcasts, influencers, etc.). You might be sick of the impotent church that refuses to fight, and at least that guy is willing to fight. But that is a false dichotomy. The Holy Spirit holds joy and courage together. 

What only the Holy Spirit of God can give us is a jovial militance, a joyful ferocity – we want to be a band of happy warriors against sin. And this is only possible when the cross has taken away all our sin, all our angst, all our envy, all our pride – “they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Gal. 5:24). Notice that: the fundamental division is between man and God. It is that enmity that creates all the other enmity. The guilt of Adam is the stain on the human race that only the blood of Jesus Christ can remove. And it is the Holy Spirit that does that work. The blood of Christ does not remove our differences, but the blood of Christ removes all the enmity.

In that fertile soil grows the fruit of the Spirit, and against such things there is no law (Gal. 5:22-23).  

 Prayer: Father, I pray that Your Spirit would drive this word into our hearts and apply it in exactly the right way. Remove our enmity, our animosity, and teach us true wisdom – the wisdom that is from above that is full of peace and courage. We ask for this in Jesus’ name…

Prayer: Father, we confess that we are people who have forgotten much of our past. We do not remember your faithfulness, and we do not remember our fathers, and so we are easily manipulated and we believe the lies of our enemies. Cause Your Spirit to use this text to reignite our love for your story so that we may fight faithfully, in Jesus’ name, Amen. 

Introduction
History is covenantal. This means that Christ is Lord of history, and this means that history is demonstrating the covenant faithfulness of God – that God keeps His promises – ultimately in the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. 

This also means that history is the story of God’s personal dealings with people, families, and nations based on how they respond to God. It is not an impersonal machine churning through time; it is the story of God’s dealings with His creation. He raises up the humble; He puts down the proud. 

All of it is designed to make us worship Him, to stand in awe at His wisdom, and to trust Him through our chapters in His epic tale. The story of Jephthah underlines these themes. God is Lord. God is King. 

The Text: “Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour, and he was the son of an harlot: and Gilead begat Jephthah…” (Judges 11:1-40)

Summary of the Text
Jephthah was a son of Gilead, a descendent of Ephraim, by a harlot and was rejected and sent away from his family, where a gang of outcasts gathered around him (Judges 11:1-3). However, when the Ammonites came against Gilead, the elders sent for Jephthah to lead their armies because he was a “mighty man of valor” (Judges 11:4-6). Understandably, Jephthah wanted to make sure that if he fought for them, he would not be treated as he had been previously, but he and the elders and the people may have also had a more kingly goal in mind as they swore oaths before the Lord (Judges 11:7-11). 

Then Jephthah sent messengers to the Ammonites asking why they were invading the land of Israel and when the Ammonites tried to use revisionist history to claim they were merely retaking stolen land, Jephthah explained that it was actually the Amorites who lost the land fair and square when their ancestors attacked Israel peacefully passing through (Judges 11:12-26). Jephthah appealed to the Lord as Judge, and when Ammon refused to relent, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah and he vowed to offer to the Lord whatever came out to meet him when he returned in victory, and the Lord delivered Ammon into his hands (Judges 11:27-33). But when Jephthah returned, it was his daughter who first met him and therefore she was dedicated to the Lord as a virgin, as was a custom in Israel, and it became an annual day of memorial (Judges 11:34-40).

Human Sacrifice?
This story has puzzled and troubled Bible readers for centuries. Jephthah vows to offer whatever comes out of the doors of his house as a “burnt offering” (Judges 11:31) and the end of the story says that he did with her “according to his vow” (Judges 11:39). And many commentators conclude that this can mean nothing other than that he offered his daughter as a human sacrifice to God. Some cite the story of Abraham offering Isaac as a potential parallel as well as stories from ancient pagan cultures to explain the plausibility. I do not think that is what happened for a number of reasons:

1. While Jephthah’s gang may have been rough around the edges, the context depicts Jephthah as a pious and educated man: he is a “mighty man of valor” like Gideon (Judges 6:12) and he appeals to the Lord for deliverance and justice, takes vows before the Lord, and knows Scripture and the history of God’s people well – including, presumably, God’s law (Judges 11:9-11, 14-27).

2. In the immediate context of Jephthah’s vow, it says that the Spirit of the Lord came upon him (Judges 11:29). While it’s true that men who have the Spirit of the Lord sometimes sin colossally (e.g. Samson, David), for a frivolous or wicked vow to come immediately after that seems entirely incongruous. 

3. While God tested Abraham with the command to offer Isaac, the uniform testimony of Scripture is that human sacrifice is considered pagan and utterly repulsive to God: “There shall not be found among you anyone that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire…” (Dt. 18:10, cf. Dt. 12:31, 2 Kgs. 16:3, 21:6). God considers it an abomination that is repulsive to his commands and mind (Jer. 7:30-31). Hebrews says that Abraham believed that God was going to raise Isaac from the dead (Heb. 11:19).

4. The of law of God specifically provides that for humans that are “devoted” to the Lord as an offering, they must be redeemed either by money or (presumably) for service to the Levites (Num. 18:14-16, Ez. 44:29, cf. Num. 8:17-18). Therefore, this was something like Hannah’s vow when she dedicated Samuel to the tabernacle (1 Sam. 1:11), which has some corroboration elsewhere (Ex. 38:8, 1 Sam. 2:22, Lk. 2:36-27).  

5. Jephthah’s daughter is said to specifically “bewail her virginity” for two months (Judges 11:37-38). And the conclusion of Jephthah keeping his vow is: “And she knew no man” (Judges 11:39). The clear emphasis is on his daughter’s ongoing virginity, not the end of her life. 

6. Finally, Hebrews lists Jephthah as a hero of faith (Heb. 11:32). This does not mean that Jephthah was sinless or incapable of significant failure, but to accuse of him of such vile paganism without clear repentance makes the Hebrews evaluation appear impossible. 

Jephthah’s Sorrow
At the same time, Jephthah is clearly heartbroken about dedicating his daughter as a virgin to serve at the tabernacle. Why? First, the text emphasizes that she is his only child (Judges 11:34). Any hope of descendants evaporates with the fulfillment of this vow. Second, it seems likely that Jephthah’s flaw was similar to Gideon’s and what we have seen several times already: the temptation to embrace Canaanite-style politics. So Jephthah will not only not have grandkids, he will not have a political dynasty. To his great credit, he keeps his vow and submits to the Lord (Judges 11:35). It is a hard providence, but it is not an evil outcome. So I take Jephthah’s vow as pious, but God tested him and underlined the fact that Jephthah would not be king. All of this underlines the importance of keeping your vows (marriage, membership, baptism, contracts, etc.) and trusting God (Ps. 15:4).

The Importance of History
We should not miss the fact that the military invasion of Ammon included an educational-information war. Like most conflicts, there was propaganda element to it – revising history to fit an agenda. We have been in a similar culture war for many decades, including many revisionist claims in our schools (E.g. Darwin, Columbus, the 1619 Project, slavery, civil rights, etc.). This is why we must be people steeped in history, beginning with Scripture itself but also including the history of the West broadly and America in particular. You and your children need to be prepared to tell God’s story – His-story so that you will not be manipulated, duped, or conquered. Knowing and studying history is central to understanding the Lordship of Christ over history. This is why Christian education is so important – but it must not be a Christian education on autopilot. Christian education is war.

Conclusions
In some ways, Jephthah reminds us of Jesus – a rejected son from a scandalous birth, a friend of sinners and tax-collectors, filled with the Spirit to defeat our enemies. And where Jephthah’s vow required him to completely surrender his kingly aspirations, Jesus kept an even greater vow and surrendered His life to a sacrificial death on our behalf in order to be crowned as King forever. 

And that orients everything we do. He is King, and our children belong to Him. He is King, and we work for Him. He is King, and He must reign until all of His enemies are put beneath His feet. He is King, and the nations must submit to His rule.

Prayer: Father, please teach us the wisdom of history, the wisdom of Your covenantal faithfulness, the wisdom of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Grant us courage and patience, power and joy, in Jesus’ name…