”Then all the children of Israel, that is, all the people, went up and came to the house of God and wept. They sat there before the Lord and fasted that day until evening; and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.“
Judges 20:26 NKJV
”So the children of Israel inquired of the Lord (the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,“ Judges 20:27 NKJV
”and Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days), saying, “Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of my brother Benjamin, or shall I cease?” And the Lord said, “Go up, for tomorrow I will deliver them into your hand.”“ Judges 20:28 NKJV
a. Went up and came to the house of God and wept. They sat there before the LORD and fasted that day until evening: God allowed the two days of defeat for the purpose of bringing Israel low. They needed to be humbled, and these days of defeat compelled them to humble themselves.
i. God used this to humble the whole nation. They had to understand that the horror of the crime at Gibeah was not merely the result of the sin of one group of men, or one city, or even one tribe. The whole nation had to be humbled because they first thought that the sin problem was only in Benjamin. Israel had to see that that nation as a whole had a sin problem.
ii. After the first failure, Israel was sorry and wept. But it was only after the second failure that they put their repentance into action by fasting and made a sacrifice for sins. Sorrow and weeping are not enough if they are not matched by real repentance and taking care of the sin problem through sacrifice - the sacrifice of the cross.
iii. Part of their demonstration of humility was in fasting. In 1827, Adam Clarke wrote about fasting: “At present it is but little used; a strong proof that self-denial is wearing out of fashion.” Clarke thought this was true of his day; he would probably think it all the truer of modern times.
iv. The mention of Phinehas as high priest means that this was fairly early in the days of the Judges (Numbers 25:7, 25:11). (Guzik)
Guzik’s comment really stands out to me!
“Sorrow and weeping are not enough if they are not matched by real repentance and taking care of the sin problem through sacrifice - the sacrifice of the cross.”
How do you convince someone the sacrifice of the cross is the only way to God the Father?
You can’t! You can only give them the message and it’s up to the Holy Spirit to draw them to Jesus. When I’ve tried leading some people to Jesus I’ve had the message rejected with, “All I need is the Ten Commandments”, or “All I need is the Bible”, but the day before I was told, “The Bible is full of lies”. It’s a cult, you can get shot for talking to people about religion!
Recently while listening to Chuck Swindoll on the radio he said someone asked:
Where was God when six million Jews were exterminated?
He was in the same place when His Son hung on the cross!
Do you really believe you can get to heaven without taking care of the sin problem through sacrifice - the sacrifice of the cross?
Blessings
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