Judges 20:26 Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the LORD and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD
We live in a day of many victims and few heroes. It seems sometimes that you get more power by being a victim than by sticking your neck out and doing something noble. Now there are people who are victims, but my point is that sometimes it seems we are incentivized to be a victim rather than a hero. We are living in a day of many victims and few heroes, and it is very much like the chaos of the book of Judges.
When you read Judges 19-20, it is like reading a story by Dr Seuss or a poem by Lewis Carroll. It is complete and utter chaos. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Chapter 20 wraps up with a great civil war between the tribe of Benjamin and the rest of Israel. So, the only unity in the country was found in warring against brothers.
If you look at these two chapters, you find that the cities of Benjamin were worse than the cities of the pagans in some regards. The entire nation and its rebellion against God can be pictured in the story in Judges 19 of an unnamed Levite. He was a religious leader, a Levite, and he was a hedonist. He had a concubine and treated her horribly. Every time you read about him, he is eating, drinking, and making his heart merry. The story of this Levite, who was more concerned about pleasure than what was right, is really a glimpse of what the entire nation was as a whole.
There was a glimmer of hope. You find it in Judges 20 in three places. When Israel and Benjamin came to civil war, verse 18 says, “And the children of the Israel arose, and went up to the house of God, and asked counsel of God, and said, Which of us shall go up first to the battle against the children of Benjamin?” They stop and say, “God, what do you want? What should we do?”
Who do you seek for counsel? Do you seek anyone for counsel, and do you regard God? You find something very important here. You find order in chaos when you turn to the Creator. God is a loving Creator and what He made makes sense. You look at many fine cities and states and they are God-made paradise and man-made disaster. In the morning you take a walk and think, “What a beautiful and orderly world.” Then you hear a car, a jet overhead, or your ringing phone and realize, “What chaos!” Mankind and his sin bring that.
How do you find order in a world of chaos? You find order in chaos when you turn to the Creator. When you take the orders of the Creator. God made a world that works and works in the way God made it to work. Verse 23 says, “And the children of Israel went up and wept before the LORD until even, and asked counsel of the LORD.” This second time they asked counsel and wept because after they acted on God’s orders, they were thoroughly defeated and were confused. But they went back to God again, wept before Him, and asked counsel again. You find it a third time in verses 26-27, “Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the LORD, and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD. And… enquired of the LORD.”
Just as this unnamed Levite who was a hedonist typifies the nation as a whole. There is a man named Phineas who typified those who sought God’s counsel. Phineas took drastic action in combating perversion in Joshua 22. Here he was not flying off the handle, but said, “God, what do you want?” He was a man of action, but one who asked counsel of God. Verse 28 tells us that Phineas sought God’s counsel.
We live in a chaotic world. Today there can be no absurd or obscene unless there is a standard, an authority, a Creator that has a purpose, unless there is a God. Either this existence is purposeless where we eat and drink for tomorrow we die, which was where Israel was, or there is a God whose opinion on things we ought to know. Humor has died in the last several years because a lot of humor is truth exaggerated, but how can you exaggerate the truth when things are already so absurd. There is no absurdity or obscenity. Nothing is vile unless you assume there is an authority and a standard.
Now, you find order in chaos when you turn to the Creator, not when you turn to your country. I’m thankful for my country, but in Israel there was no ruler and no order. So, you can’t look at your country and ask, “What is right?” What we believe is right in this country is different than it was the day before yesterday and it will change again tomorrow.
It is also not your time. The very first verse of this two-chapter couplet says, “And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel…” It was not just a place but a time, “in those days.” Someone has coined the term “chronological snobbery” to picture the way we are when see look at people in the past and think that they were not smart and educated, but we can’t see our own day. A fish can’t see water because he is swimming in it, and we are swimming in our own day. So, what is absurd, obscene, right, or good? You find order in chaos when you turn to the Creator, not your country, not your time, not the majority, and not the culture.
How do you find invisible biases and assumptions in your own life? The psalmist says, “By taking heed according to thy word.” I can’t change all the chaos in the world, but I can change the anxiety in my heart. How? You find order in chaos when you turn to the Creator.