Jabesh Gilead – Neutral in Moral Crisis

Kip McKean

September 16, 2007

 

Then the men of Judah came to Hebron and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. When David was told that it was the men of Jabesh Gilead who had buried Saul, he sent messengers to the men of Jabesh Gilead to say to them, ‘The Lord bless you for showing this kindness to Saul your master by burying him.’” 2 Samuel 2:4-5

 

On Sunday September 9, 2007, the Lord blessed us for the first time with 300 in attendance since our inaugural service in May! The Spirit added to our number Frankie Alvarado and Layda Garcia through baptism and Jose Moreno and the Bartholomews through placing membership. Kyle and Joan Bartholomew came to us from Hilo, Hawaii where they were leading the Hilo International Church of Christ. They will be self-supporting through the sale of their home and will return to Hawaii in June to lead the Honolulu International Christian Church alongside our dear friends Joe and Mary Santos. Jose is our first member outside the United States! He lives with his two boys in Tijuana, Mexico. For the last three weeks, he has traveled over two hours past hundreds of churches to come to the City of Angels Sunday services as well as midweek and Bible Talk! Jose says he was initially moved to working with us when he experienced our love for one another, and secondly, he was inspired by the likeminded passion among all the disciples for Jesus’ dream to evangelize the nations in a generation. In fact, the participation of almost every City of Angels’ disciple at last week’s Labor Day Beach Party and Friday’s Congregational Devotional demonstrates that a sold-out commitment to Christ produces an uncommon loyalty to one another as seen in the pages of the book of Acts. On Sunday, we completed the Book of Judges Sermon Series. The final lesson covering chapters 19-21 was “Asleep In The Light.” Ironically, the last verse of the entire book of Judges records a lifestyle totally contrary to the disciples in the book of Acts, “In those days Israel had no king, everyone did as he saw fit.” (Judges 21:25) Sadly in too many churches, that is spiritual Israel, “those days” are these days. These days Jesus is no longer King and Lord in spiritual Israel, thus everyone is doing as they see fit.

 

Loyalty to the point of death is both frightening and inspiring. Muslim “fanatics” are presently terrorizing the world by suicide bombings. Though these people are Satanically misguided in their zeal, those who are true Christians should not have a lesser commitment to God. Our first century brothers such as Stephen (Acts 7:60), James (Acts 12:2) and Antipas were “faithful [witnesses for Jesus] who were put to death.” (Revelation 2:13) It would be hard to imagine these men wrestling with coming to midweek, Bible Talk or not making time to study with non-Christians. Loyalty
must first be to God and then to God’s people.

Let us consider the heart-wrenching story of the city of Jabesh Gilead. In Judges 19-20 we find that a Levite and his concubine find only one man, an Ephraimite, to offer hospitality in Gibeah of Benjamin. The wicked men of the town demand the Ephraimite to give up the Levite so they can have sex with this stranger. Out of fear, the Levite turns his concubine over to the men of the town. (Judges 20:5) In the morning, the Levite finds his concubine dead on the Ephraimite’s doorsteps, having been brutally raped and beaten all night. The Levite then returned home to Ephraim and “cut up his concubine, limb by limb, into twelve parts and sent them into all areas of Israel.” (Judges 19:29) All the rest of the tribes are utterly indignant about this moral crisis and call upon Benjamin to “surrender the wicked men of Gibeah.” (Judges 20:13) The entire tribe of Benjamin becomes defensive for their fellow Benjamites in Gibeah and refuses to give them up. Then God through Othniel and Phinehas musters the men of the eleven tribes to fight against Benjamin. Benjamin is totally decimated - every man, woman and child, except for 600 male soldiers who fled to the desert.

 

Shortly afterwards, Judges 21 records all the men of the eleven tribes were called together at Mizpah. To further distance themselves from the wickedness of Gibeah and the rebellion of Benjamin, a collective decision was made to swear an oath never to give their daughters in marriage to the men of Benjamin. Yet all Israel wept that a tribe might be utterly wiped out. Then the question was asked, “Who among all the tribes refused to gather at Mizpah? They discovered that no one from Jabesh Gilead had come ... for the assembly.” (Judges 21:8) Most likely they did not attend under a mistaken belief that by not showing up, God would be pleased by their “neutrality” in the impending “civil war” between the Benjamites and the rest of the Israelites. Let us not forget, this civil war was commanded by God to purify the Benjamites. Without question, Benjamin participated in sins worthy of death: homosexuality, the toleration of this horrific sin among their brothers, and not attending the meeting of the twelve tribes. (Leviticus 20:13, Judges 21:5) So the leaders of Israel sent an army of 12,000 men to kill everyone except the virgin women. (The Israelites were extraordinarily hard-line about missing “meetings of the body!”) Only 400 virgin women were spared. After the Israelites made peace with the 600 Benjamite men, they were “given” the virgins of Jabesh as brides. The other 200 who did not receive brides from Jabesh Gilead were creatively allowed to “take” brides during a celebration at Shiloh.

Over time, Jabesh Gilead is resettled and rebuilt. Then in 1 Samuel 11, Nahash the Ammonite threatens to annihilate the citizens of Jabesh Gilead or make a peace treaty where the men are in submission to him by having their right eyes gouged out! When the newly anointed King Saul heard Nahash’s demands, “the Spirit of God came upon him in power and he burned with anger. He took a pair of oxen, cut them into pieces, and sent the pieces by messengers throughout Israel proclaiming, this is what will be done to the oxen of anyone who does not follow Saul and Samuel... [Israel] turned out as one man” and slaughtered the Ammonites! (1 Samuel 11:6-7) Loyalty to God and His leaders produced an incredible unity and then an incredible victory!

 

After many years, Saul remains king but falls away from God. He dies alongside three of his sons on Mt. Gilboa. (1 Samuel 31:6) When the Philistines find Saul and his sons, they cut off Saul’s head and fasten their bodies to the wall of Beth Shan. “When the people of Jabesh Gilead heard of what the Philistines had done to Saul, all their valiant men journeyed through the night and took down the bodies of Saul and his sons.” (1 Samuel 31:11-12) They returned to Jabesh, cremated the bodies, buried them and in their honor fasted for seven days. When David, now King of Judah and later all Israel, was told of the men of Jabesh Gilead’s brave feat, he sent them the message, “The Lord bless you for showing this kindness to Saul your master by burying him. May the Lord now show you kindness and faithfulness, and I too will show you the same favor because you have done this. Now then, be strong and brave, for Saul your master is dead, and the house of Judah has anointed me king over them.” (2 Samuel 2:5-7)

 

David praised Jabesh Gilead’s uncommon loyalty which stemmed from their gratefulness of Saul’s deliverance from the Ammonites years earlier. Now, since their “old master” was dead, David humbly begs for the same fierce loyalty expressed in valor to be given to him. In Judges, Jabesh Gilead was a city seemingly sentimental and thus lax towards God’s priority of truth over relationships and so they chose the easier path of neutrality. God, through the men of Israel, disciplined them. The next generation learned from the past to be loyal, for when Saul rescued them, they never ceased to be thankful and became loyal even risking death.

 

This loyalty “to the point of death” to God through His godly leaders has largely vanished from the modern church. True in the past, we sinned by idolizing leaders and in turn, leaders sinned by not redirecting the praise to God. Yet, let us not overreact. If we are to build true spiritual Israel here in Los Angeles and around the world, we must not have a skeptical, timid unity, but a loyalty unto death forever kindled by gratefulness. John F. Kennedy’s favorite quote was from Dante’s Inferno: “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who during the times of moral crisis preserve their neutrality.”

Today, we are in the midst of a moral crisis in spiritual Israel as lordship, discipling and obedience to God’s Word have been either minimized or outright abandoned. Neutrality cannot and must not be an option. Therefore, let us imitate the faith and loyalty of the men of Jabesh Gilead and our first century brothers and sisters. Let us prayerfully determine in the coming days, months and years to “forcefully advance” the borders of the Kingdom from Southern California to all the nations of the world. And to God be the glory!

 

 

Kip McKean

World Missions Evangelist