"I pray you, do not so wickedly" Judges 19:23
"no such deed done nor seen . . .unto this day; consider of it, take advice, and speak your minds" 19:30
"What wickedness is this that is done among you?" 20:12
"But they knew not that evil was near them" 20:34
"for the saw that evil was come upon them" 20:41
An awful passage of Scripture is found here. Although I have written on this before and preached it; I don't hear this preached much. But it is our repeated action that we are living now in our nation.
This evil of the raping & death of the woman, the children of Benjamin defending the evil ones instead of bringing them to judgment and the unparalleled defeat of 400,000 against 26,000 not once, but twice are all products of what began long before. We see signs of what led to this clear back in Exodus. The children of Israel and their rebellion against God's Word, unbelief, the murmuring, complaining, false gods, marriages and sin with heathen, breaking of the 10 commandments are laced through the pages of Scripture. Til it finally culminates to this great evil and civil strife among the 12 tribes.
God allowed it; God caused it and God's wrath is demonstrated in it. Constantly throughout Judges, 'and they did evil again in the sight of the Lord'. And each time, although redeemed by God's mercy of raising up a judge/deliverer, the price paid was that evil saturated the land and the generations. How far they was from what God intended! Are we any different?
Now do you see the parallel of our day, of our churches, or our own hearts.
1. 'I pray you do not so wickedly' - God has since the beginning pleaded with man to obey, love and serve Him; 'the Gospel has appeared unto all men; teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts'. Are we issuing that call? Do they have ears to hear? May their hearing problem not be because the church, the pulpits remained silent in pronouncing the exceedingly sinfulness of sin to this present age. May they know the call of God to not do wickedly and that they would know what that is.
Our nation has greatly steered to the fulfillment of calling good, evil and evil, good, largely because of the false preachers and spineless, jellyfish that occupy our pulpits. We are to pronounce God's desire that men be saved, but none can be saved til they know they are lost in trespasses and sins and in need of a great Savior from these evils.
Do not stop pleading for family, friends, strangers, churches to not do so wickedly. It is the task given us for such a time as this. God set us here and now for this moment to be His light and witness among these. In the words of TW Hunt, that he preached to me over and over, 'God always has His remnant'.
2. 'no such deed done nor seen unto this day; consider of it, take advice, and speak your minds'
We are seeing things in news headlines, that have never be done nor seen unto this day. Great evils befalling our cities, streets and homes. Lives scarred, ruined, and destroyed as SAtan has his will and way with our land. But not all would agree with this statement. They continue on as if these things were always happening and accepting of them. Do you not see the handwriting on the wall?
My days of warning are over, I believe. I've spent the last decade pleading with leadership, pastors and churches to see these evil deeds done and seen and know why these things are happening and where it is taking us. but now, everyone wants to throw their 2 cents in and make their editorial comments. this should have been done a few years back, when time permitted. Time is up now, and the evil is already upon us.
Evils as of last week in Seattle where a woman was cut up into pieces. Baby body parts sold, caught on film and nothing done about it. Men and women and children all in the same bathrooms. Shooting of cops as a common thing. Drug useage done by upwards of 90% of our nation. Murder-suicides every week across our nation in every state, county and affecting almost all families and not one word to fight this in prayer until it hits someone we know.
3. What wickedness is this that is done among you?
I often am found asking this question, 'how did we get here?' How did we let this happen? Do you not know, child of God, that God is going to hold us accountable on judgment day and we will answer then, for 'what wickedness is this done among you'?
Why are we so ashamed to speak the truth? so willing to compromise, whitewash it, simply because we have a loved one guilty of such evil? More afraid of men than God in giving an account. 'For do I persuade men or God, or seek to please men, for if I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of God.'
The wickedness of our day and evil of men's hearts will continue to multiply and grow. It is has nearly eclipsed all of life, and almost every fabric of our society. But it will grow, deepen, be more hideous, more vile. 'And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be when the Son of Man returns.' And how was it in the days of Noah? 'every imagination of men's heart were evil continually'
4. 'But they knew not that evil was near them'
Benjamin was surrounded and didn't know it. Their folly and evil days were just about up. and they weren't even aware of it. Church, do you know what is near you? Do you know what evil awaits your family? Are we at all the least burdened and anguishing over what awaits the next generation in this land?
I don't believe you can expect the lost, sinners of this world to know these truths. They are deceived and believing of lies; they are in the dark and cannot see; the evil spirit of being deaf hinders them from hearing truth and responding. Ah, but I do expect the church to know how near evil is. Scripture teaches us what our enemy is up to and how he does it and what he does.
Just as I teach on knowing the Word of God, and knowing the God of the Word; so too, we must learn of our enemy. See what Scripture tells us of his movements, actions, reactions and plotting. IF we were at all knowledgeable of Scripture, 'studying to show ourselves approved unto God' we would know we are not fighting against flesh and blood. WE would know that this is not a racial issue, a moral issue, or a lifestyle choice; but it is a souls issue, a warfare for where they will be spend eternity. Satan has them, but too many in the church think men are good and decent instead of lost and hell bound. 'Their is none good, no not one'.
We don't know evil is near because we are ignorant of his devices and ways due to too much time on the golf course; too much TV and movies; too much activity and entertainment. But very little prayer, wrestling, striving for mastery, pursuit of holiness and spending more time with HIm, in Him and for Him.
5. And at the last, perhaps this year, 'for they saw that evil was come upon them'.
Oh, brethren, this is close. The progression of these in Exodus through Judges is on us. ISrael and Judah repeated this behavior from the kings of I Samuel through II Chronicles, until we get to II Chronicles 36, 'til there was no remedy'. And they were finished. OUr nation is here, the church of North America is here. God is going to remove our candlestick, spue us out of His mouth, strip us, beat us, and humble us. For the day of our visitation of His great mercies was used to fatten us, satisfy us, please us, instead of winning a lost world to Him. With all our wealth, technology, abilities and opportunities, we should have done fulfilled getting the Gospel to 7 billion souls. But we would not, we did not and they perished. God will hold us accountable.
Now tell me honestly, do you ever hear this confession in your corporate prayer meetings? I heard it recently on the Monday night prayer call, 'O God, (in sobbing) forgive us for failing you'. There is someone that understands this truth. What say you brethren?
The evil came upon them because God called, but they would not obey. You have been called, time and time again, to 'calls to prayer' and we still pray so little. Now this massive attempt to have prayer. And all this is wonderful and great. Yet, we are at the end now. The woman raped and murdered couldn't be brought back; the 25,000 Benjaminites killed in battle can't be brought back; the 18,000 Israelites can't be brought back. Their eternity has begun, its over. You can't bring back 60 million aborted babies. You can't undo the drug damage of death and maiming. You can't undo the murder deaths continue to grow. Once dead, gone; and gone for all eternity. This is the reason for the most needful call of prayer and response of urgency, fervency and emergency because we are out of time.