SHALL I GO UP AGAIN?

Shall I Go Up Again?

There are many that are asking this question in churches today. ‘How many times do I have to pray before I get an answer?’ ‘How many times do I have to forgive them?’ “how many times do I have to witness to them before I see them born again and saved?’ This example in Scripture will teach how often we shall need to go up again.

Judges 20:1 - 48

v. 28, “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 Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? And the Lord said, God up; for to morrow I will deliver them into thine hand.”

There are two things of certainty here for us to understand: 1. Word study of ‘The Lord said’; found throughout Scripture is these 3 words that speak to every person and especially to the His children. For when God speaks, it is truth. HE cannot lie. How precious to hear from Him. The children of Israel had already been defeated twice. There was 10’s of thousands that had died. God had told them to go up the last two times. They were questioning and wondering why God was sending them to their death. And then the second certainty, 2. Word study of “I will”; when God says something, it is wonderful, but when He gets personal and says, ‘I will deliver them into thine hand tomorrow’ - it is an absolute.

The Problem

One of the most horrible of deeds done is recorded in Judges chapter 19. A Levite takes his concubine and enters into the city of Gibeah. They had passed by the city of Jebus, which is Jerusalem because it was occupied by the heathen Jebusites. He felt that it was better to avoid the sin and trouble of the unrighteous and go to his own people in Gibeah. He felt safe and could trust his own people, of the tribe of Benjamin, the children of Israel. But when he arrived into the city, no doubt, he sensed the evil that was there. The first sign was that no one received him in. When hospitality goes cold and people are selfish and recluse, then there is a much greater sin at hand.

Judges 20:3, ‘Tell us, how was this wickedness?’ The explanation of what happened here. The evil deed, the sin, the wickedness that these men of Gibeah practiced. They threatened the old man that took them in. They threatened this Levite. And they gave the concubine to satisfy these wicked men’s appetite for sin. They raped her and beat her all night. She crawled back to the door where this Levite was. And with her last breath, her hands outstretched upon the threshold of the door, she died. Murdered, violated, beat by the hands of these sons of Belial.

What shall be done to those that practice such wickedness? We are in a great strait, for this same wickedness is practiced over and over this day around the world. In war torn countries, many a young and old lady are ravaged and violated. Sin is practiced over and over in so many forms that offends God. Nations have rejected God and practice every known evil under the sun. Men are pleasing their own selves and give no thought to God or answering for their wicked deeds. But has not history shown that one must always answer for the deeds done? Here in this chapter of Judges, the children of Israel gather themselves together to make them answer for their wicked deeds.
v. 12, ’And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, What wickedness is this that is done among you?’ Give an account of yourselves. What say you for your family? For our nation? For our own lives? Are we found in the way of wickedness? Who is making the people answer for the sins found among us? Who is asking the question to the church and individuals today that profess Christ, ’What wickedness is this that is done among you?’ God will always raise up someone that will ask the question that needs to be answered before He judges.

We must understand that it is only right to expect lost men to act lost. They practice sin, they love sin. But when you mention the church and sin, they are not to go together. The church is to be holy and without sin. And if there be sin in the midst of the church, then God will send His prophet that shall declare, ’Choose you this day Whom/whom you will serve?’



CONTINUE. . ..