Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Reflecting Jesus Instead of Culture | Judges | Judges 20

Episode Date: November 3, 2021

What does the treatment of marginalized people say about a culture? In today's episode, https://twitter.com/TanyaWillmeth (Tanya) examines Israel from https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges%2020&version=NIV (Judges 20). Listen to find out how Israel's treatment of women illustrated where Israel was as a society. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/ (website) and follow us on https://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks (Facebook), https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/ (Instagram), and https://twitter.com/tmbtpodcast (Twitter) @TheCrossingCOMO and @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks (https://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/ (https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/) Twitter: https://twitter.com/tmbtpodcast (https://twitter.com/tmbtpodcast) Passages https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges%2020&version=NIV (Judges 20) Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. I'm Tanya Wilmuth. And I'm Patrick Miller. Right now, we're going through the Book of Judges. If you haven't subscribed to our new podcast, Truth Over Tribe, I'd encourage you to take some time and go do that right now. We've got interviews about culture, politics, and the things you really care about with people like John Mark Comer, John Tyson, Oz Guinness, and many, many others. It's going to be a great podcast.

I've been excited about the interviews and the topics that we've taken on. So stop right now. Go subscribe to Truth Over Tribe on your podcast player. So here we are at the end of our series in the dramatic and dark book of judges. And as Patrick shared yesterday, chapter 19 recounts the worst atrocity committed against a female in the entire record of the Bible. This woman was sexually assaulted by a mob and she was murdered and her body was divided and sent out limb by limb to all the territories of Israel. to make a point. All dignity and personhood was taken from this woman by a man who claimed her as his property, by a mob who took her for their pleasure, and by a community that did nothing to save her.

And so following this horrendous crime, we find ourselves in Judges 20, where a community is looking for someone to blame. There has to be an answer. How could something so terrible happen? These are good people. We'll put that word good in quotes. This was Israel, they were God's people. How could something go so very wrong? Just a few weeks ago on a Philadelphia subway right here in the United States, a woman was sexually assaulted while bystanders on the train failed to intervene. They just didn't intervene. The attack listed eight whole minutes, and according to the police, there were enough people on the train that even if it's dangerous, they could have banned together to stop what was happening in front of them. Rather than taking

action, eyewitnesses took videos with their phones. leads us to ask, where are we as a society to allow this to happen and how did we get here? This isn't unlike the question the Israelites were asking when they heard about what happened to the woman that was assaulted, tortured, and murdered in their land by their people. They gathered in Judges 20 to ask her husband or master. Both terms are used to describe that relationship. How did this evil happen? And how the man answers tells us so much about him and about the society as a whole. The story here, the real question, is about the woman and the evil done to her a person.

But when confronted, the man edited the story and he shifted the focus away from any personal responsibility and made the people hungry to blame and fight someone else. And he led Israel into war against the tribe of Benjamin, home of the city of Gibia where the crime took place. He sidelined a real, creative, human being for a self-protective cause. And the tens of thousands of lives lost in the civil war between Israel and the tribe of Benjamin are no more tragic than one woman's life lost at the hands of those who didn't see her and value her as a child of God. By the time we get to Judges 20, there's really no differentiating between the Israelites and the pagan culture around them. The way women are treated speaks

loudly about the condition of a society. In the famous and, in my opinion, compelling Greek mythical poem, The Odyssey, Helen of Troy is referred to as the catalyst behind the Trojan war. She was kidnapped, according to legend, by a Trojan prince, and her husband devised a plan to rescue her. The war is about Helen of Troy, but it doesn't include her at all. She's a prop and really a piece of property to be reclaimed instead of a person. What sets the Bible apart from ancient literature is that God doesn't condone this kind of treatment of women.

Biblical people may still act like the culture, but God is pointing them to a better way. When we sideline people, we chip away at their personhood. When we sideline marginalized people, we reflect our beliefs about their personhood. What has happened to the woman in judges with no one standing up to intervene for her? defend her, fight for her, reflects the darkness in the hearts of the self-serving, idol-worshipping people who could have done something different, but didn't. The story of the woman on the subway is a very disturbing story. It brings with it anger and grief. This should not have happened. This did happen. We mourn, and we need to get better. The ever-worsening events of judges, and in particular, the brutal lack

of care and concern for what has been done to a woman is very disturbing. Yet, and hear me out on this, that's the point. It shows our need for grace, the desperate need for God to send his king to rescue his people. When a society is doing what is right in their own eyes, the marginalized become brutalized. This was the kind of society Jesus was born into. This was the world Jesus came to rescue. You. Zacharan 9-9 tells us how we should look forward to and respond to God's plan to send a king. And it uses exclamation marks.

Unlike my grandpa's text, there aren't a lot of exclamation marks in the Bible. So when we see them, they tell us something about the way we should respond. It says, rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, exclamation mark. Shout a loud, O daughter of Jerusalem, exclamation mark. Behold, your king is coming to you, righteous, and having salvation, is he? Matthew 21-5 quotes the same verse when Jesus sends two disciples to untie and retrieve the donkey he will ride as he enters Jerusalem. He is the one. We rejoice and shout aloud because he has come.

One of the longest conversations recorded in the New Testament takes place between Jesus and a Samaritan woman. He sees her at a well and asks her for a drink. And her response helps us understand the cultural relevance of this request because she says, how is it that you, Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman from Samaria? But Jesus continues his conversation with her, and this woman is the first to hear and believe what Jesus says, that he is living water. She heard this even before the disciples who were traveling with him did. So when the disciples came back to find Jesus and saw him talking with this woman, they marveled at what they saw. But they kind of dismissed the woman and just wanted Jesus to eat.

They were still focused on food, but the woman was out sharing what she had seen and learned from the Savior of the world with anyone that would listen. She heard and she believed. And John tells us in chapter four of his gospel that she rushed into town to share her testimony, and many believed. The disciples were eyewitnesses to this woman's evangelism, and she taught them something important about Jesus, that he saw through labels, through stereotypes, through cultural divisions and hierarchies, to the fullness of who we were created to be, and who we will be when God's kingdom

comes. Jesus saw a fully restored child of God when he spoke with that woman. He saw all of her, her sins, her needs, her weaknesses and strengths, and he saw who she would be in him. Jesus saw her made whole by his living water that it would spring up in her and give her eternal life, and this is the most true and also the only true. hope for any of us. I don't think that's a story to be read about women and men that one gets it before the other, not at all. I think we watch Jesus and we see that in his eyes, we are children of God. Our timelines aren't different because we're men and women. Our gifting isn't different because we're men and women. Our stories are unique and equal in value because we are his,

and he is a creative and sovereign God. Maybe this isn't a new thought to you. but in their personhood, women are not subordinate to men. Jesus didn't sideline women or use them as a prop in a story. Jesus brought women with him on his mission. Jesus taught women, talked with women, and empowered women to talk about him. So what is the way we interact with one another, at home, at work, reflect about our cultural beliefs? How can we follow Jesus as we think about and apply his word over what our cultural values. Because of what happened to the woman and the cultural response to it in

Judges 20, that's where we're focused today. But we must realize that this applies to all people. So what does Jesus show us? And how can we follow him? Well, first, we don't talk about, we talk with. And this includes all of us, race, age, ethnicity, gender. Instead of talking about how you think people will fill or what they want, talk to them. If you're a guy, do you have friendships with women from work, from school, from your neighborhood, from church? Do you know what they value, desire, and hope for? Do you know what they're good at?

And are you willing to learn from them? Next, we make room in our thoughts, in our family, in our leadership, in our work. And we're willing to move over to make room if we have to. When all four of my kids were little, making room for them to plop and snuggle in bed with me didn't mean I laid there comfortably and luxuriously. No, it looked like me clinging to the edge while they jumped, wrestle piled, and plopped all over the place. Making room takes you out of your comfort zone. And maybe you're not even the center of attention anymore.

My friend Mindy, who works in the finance world, says it well. The best leaders don't just talk about how they want women to lead. move over and make room for them to lead. And finally, see the whole person, the nuanced, and not the stereotyped. The person God created and Jesus came to redeem. Don't look for stereotypes to decide if you're willing to listen to someone or to follow them. Jesus is the king who came to rescue us from thinking like our culture.

Jesus came to restore our hearts and our vision. So we could be like him, so we can see him, so we can follow him. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps others find this podcast more easily. Also ask yourself who you could share this podcast with. Texting an episode to a friend or family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.