SERMON: Judges 20:26-48, Victory in Repentance
…Israel was so outraged by the evil of Benjamin that they never considered if they themselves were actually righteous. Israel thought that only Benjamin had a sin problem. But the reality was that all Israel had a sin problem. All Israel had walked apathetically with the Lord for decades. They all had walked in their own way. Israel eventually had become so accustomed to their own sin, that the only thing that seemed like sin, was the egregious sin of others.
This is a dangerous thing, to be blinded to your own sin, and only able to see extreme forms of sin in the world. Because it doesn’t take a moral genius to see depravity. It doesn’t even take a Christian to see depravity. And the Lord is an equal opportunity judge for all sin, not just the sin you think is really bad. And the Lord sent Israel to the battlefield for their own judgment.
But the Lord is also merciful. Those losses on the battlefield eventually caused Israel to realize their own sin. The Lord uses many things in life to draw attention to our own sin. And the Lord can use experiences of “defeat” to cause his people to consider what might be wrong in their relationship with God. By defeat, I do not mean battlefield losses, but perhaps circumstances in life where success seemed near certain, but you suffered a defeat or loss. Now, God’s people can expect varied difficulties in life simply for being righteous. So a “defeat” for the Christian does not automatically mean that he is living in sin. Neither does success mean a person is righteous. However, a “defeat” is a good cause to consider whether sin exists in your life, unconfessed and unrepented…
