Judges series - Judges 20 - Levite and His concubine (continuation)

The way to read this article is that the orange underlined texts are the verses of the Bible (NIV, unless otherwise stated). The black texts following the Bible verses (and enclosed by square brackets) are my commentaries. At the end of these Bible texts and commentaries, I have inserted a section on "Points to take note/What we have learnt/can learn".
{For full listing of all articles in this series, click here}

Judges 20

[This chapter continues from the previous, and here is the recap of Judges 19: In this story, a Levite in the Ephraim hill country took a concubine from Bethlehem, Judah. The concubine was unfaithful, and afterward, had left home and gone back to her father’s house in Bethlehem. The Levite went to fetch her back, and the way back, when it was late, they decided to spend the night in Gibeah, a city, controlled by the Benjamin tribe. An old man, probably a fellow Israelite, extended hospitality to the couple. In the night, while everyone was inside the house, some wicked men of the city came to the door, demanding the Levite be given over to them to have sex, sodomy! The old man said that, that would be a vile and disgraceful thing to do, and countered, offering to give his own virgin daughter and the Levite’s concubine to the men, but the men refused. The Levite took his concubine and gave her to the men outside. The men raped and abused the Levite’s concubine until the next morning, and she died. Both the old man, and the Levite did nothing until the next morning! The Levite took the body and went back to his own home. On arrival, he cut up the body into 12 parts, and had them sent to the tribes of Israel, all over the place. When the people saw the parts, they were shocked, and wandered what to do.]

1 Then all the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead came out as one man and assembled before the LORD in Mizpah. 2 The leaders of all the people of the tribes of Israel took their places in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand soldiers armed with swords. 3 (The Benjamites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah.) Then the Israelites said, "Tell us how this awful thing happened." [When the Israelites received the parts of the Levite’s concubine, they gathered before God in a place called Mizpah.]
4 So the Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, said, "I and my concubine came to Gibeah in Benjamin to spend the night. 5 During the night the men of Gibeah came after me and surrounded the house, intending to kill me. They raped my concubine, and she died. 6 I took my concubine, cut her into pieces and sent one piece to each region of Israel's inheritance, because they committed this lewd and disgraceful act in Israel. 7 Now, all you Israelites, speak up and give your verdict." [The Levite explained the tragedy to the crowd gathered. He said it was the men of Gibeah who did the hideous act. He, of course, did not say he sent his concubine out, to save his own skin.]
8 All the people rose as one man, saying, "None of us will go home. No, not one of us will return to his house. 9 But now this is what we'll do to Gibeah: We'll go up against it as the lot directs. 10 We'll take ten men out of every hundred from all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred from a thousand, and a thousand from ten thousand, to get provisions for the army. Then, when the army arrives at Gibeah in Benjamin, it can give them what they deserve for all this vileness done in Israel." 11 So all the men of Israel got together and united as one man against the city. [The crowd decided in one accord that they would form an army and go against the city of Gibeah.]
12 The tribes of Israel sent men throughout the tribe of Benjamin, saying, "What about this awful crime that was committed among you? 13 Now surrender those wicked men of Gibeah so that we may put them to death and purge the evil from Israel." But the Benjamites would not listen to their fellow Israelites. 14 From their towns they came together at Gibeah to fight against the Israelites. 15 At once the Benjamites mobilized twenty-six thousand swordsmen from their towns, in addition to seven hundred chosen men from those living in Gibeah. 16 Among all these soldiers there were seven hundred chosen men who were left-handed, each of whom could sling a stone at a hair and not miss. [Now, the tribes of Israelites did give the Benjamin tribe a chance to avoid the war. In fact, I might even think the tribes did not, in the first instance, accuse the Benjamites as the culprits (You already know from earlier discussions in Judges 19, that I do not think the Benjamites were the culprits). Verse 12 only said,” … that was committed among you”. The sad thing was that the Benjamites were complacent, did not bother. Herein lays one of the 2 problems. Remember in my commentary for Judges 19:11-15, I said there is an important point, I believe, the Lord wanted to show to the children of Israelites.

That point was this: The tribe of Levite belonged to God and must be taken care of by all the fellow Israelites. You can read the entire chapter 3 of the Book of Numbers to get the full picture; I will just quote verses 44 & 45 to support the assertion that the Levites belonged to God:

The LORD also said to Moses, "Take the Levites in place of all the firstborn of Israel, and the livestock of the Levites in place of their livestock. The Levites are to be mine. I am the LORD. (Numbers 3:44-45)

The LORD gave specific instructions to the Israelites about taking care of the Levites. The Levites’ occupation was to help the high priests with ministering before the LORD (in those days, at the Tabernacle). Because they belonged to the LORD, they would not be allotted territorial lands in the Promised Land, unlike the other tribes. Their inheritance was the LORD. Below are some verses on the instructions:

Be careful not to neglect the Levites as long as you live in your land (Deu 12:19). And do not neglect the Levites living in your towns, for they have no allotment or inheritance of their own (Deu 14:27). If a Levite moves from one of your towns anywhere in Israel where he is living, and comes in all earnestness to the place the LORD will choose, 7 he may minister in the name of the LORD his God like all his fellow Levites who serve there in the presence of the LORD. 8 He is to share equally in their benefits, even though he has received money from the sale of family possessions (Deu 18:6-8). "Command the Israelites to give the Levites towns to live in from the inheritance the Israelites will possess. And give them pasturelands around the towns (Num 35:2).

That the story began with the saying, “Now a Levite….” was not without reason; the failures of the Benjamin tribe were therefore firstly, that they were complacent and neglected the tribe of the LORD, apart from not having taken care of the city they lived in, and secondly, they were proud and have taken offence of the hostility demonstrated by the fellow tribes. The seriousness of the matter was compounded by the fact that the offence was done to a Levite – that, I believe, accounted to the great turnout before the LORD. How else could you justify the condoning of the LORD for the battle against the Benjamites (despite the failing of the Levite himself) which you shall read of, subsequently? Of the standard commentaries I looked at, none had correctly approached this story from this angle.]
17 Israel, apart from Benjamin, mustered four hundred thousand swordsmen, all of them fighting men. 18 The Israelites went up to Bethel and inquired of God. They said, "Who of us shall go first to fight against the Benjamites?"
The LORD replied, "Judah shall go first." [What I am going to elaborate on, are things that came to mind as I write, it is up to you to think whether or not, they are all necessarily connected.

A little history, a little background: We know Benjamites descended from Benjamin, son of Israel (aka Jacob). Do you know he was the youngest son (Gen 42) and was the brother of Joseph, both sons by Rachel. Rachel died giving birth to Benjamin; before her death she gave the baby, the name Ben-Oni, meaning son of my trouble. Israel (aka Jacob) changed the name and gave the name, Benjamin instead. Benjamin meant son of my right hand. Benjamin was trouble but was also right hand. Before Israel died, he blessed his sons (Gen 49), giving each the blessing appropriate to him (Gen 49:28). Of the sons, and therefore, the tribes that followed, 2 were blessed as great men of war. One, of course, was Judah, the other was Benjamin. This is what was said of Benjamin in the blessing:

"Benjamin is a ravenous wolf;
in the morning he devours the prey,
in the evening he divides the plunder." (Gen 49:27)

Also, we know of King Saul (the Kings period was after this {Judges period}), he was a Benjamite. What did the Bible said of his physique? 1 Sam 9:2 stated that he was an impressive young man without equal among Israelites – a head taller than any of the others. The Benjamites were mighty men of war; that was why they were proud, that was why so many Israelite fighting men gathered, that was why the Israelites inquired of the LORD who should fight the Benjamites. And it might have been the reason the LORD said Judah shall go first.

As a side, as to being the right-hand, in split of the United Monarchy Kingdom of Israel, into northern kingdom, Israel, of 10 Tribes, and the southern kingdom, Judah, of 2 Tribes, it was the Benjamin tribe that stayed with the Judah tribe, in the south portion of the Promised Land. This, of course, happened, later, subsequent to this Judges period.]
19 The next morning the Israelites got up and pitched camp near Gibeah. 20 The men of Israel went out to fight the Benjamites and took up battle positions against them at Gibeah. 21 The Benjamites came out of Gibeah and cut down twenty-two thousand Israelites on the battlefield that day. 22 But the men of Israel encouraged one another and again took up their positions where they had stationed themselves the first day. [First battle, 22,000 Israelites killed by the Benjamites.]
23 The Israelites went up and wept before the LORD until evening, and they inquired of the LORD. They said, "Shall we go up again to battle against the Benjamites, our brothers?"
The LORD answered, "Go up against them."
24 Then the Israelites drew near to Benjamin the second day. 25 This time, when the Benjamites came out from Gibeah to oppose them, they cut down another eighteen thousand Israelites, all of them armed with swords. [Second battle, 18,000 Israelites got killed, making a total of 40,000 Israelites killed at the hands of some 25,700 (or 26,700) Benjamites.]
26 Then the Israelites, all the people, went up to Bethel, and there they sat weeping before the LORD. They fasted that day until evening and presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the LORD. 27 And the Israelites inquired of the LORD. (In those days the ark of the covenant of God was there, 28 with Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, ministering before it.) They asked, "Shall we go up again to battle with Benjamin our brother, or not?"
The LORD responded, "Go, for tomorrow I will give them into your hands." [This was the third time the Israelites inquired of the LORD, after 2 crashing defeats. The LORD said to go, and the Benjamites would be defeated.]
29 Then Israel set an ambush around Gibeah. 30 They went up against the Benjamites on the third day and took up positions against Gibeah as they had done before. 31 The Benjamites came out to meet them and were drawn away from the city. They began to inflict casualties on the Israelites as before, so that about thirty men fell in the open field and on the roads—the one leading to Bethel and the other to Gibeah.
32 While the Benjamites were saying, "We are defeating them as before," the Israelites were saying, "Let's retreat and draw them away from the city to the roads." 33 All the men of Israel moved from their places and took up positions at Baal Tamar, and the Israelite ambush charged out of its place on the west of Gibeah. 34 Then ten thousand of Israel's finest men made a frontal attack on Gibeah. The fighting was so heavy that the Benjamites did not realize how near disaster was. 35 The LORD defeated Benjamin before Israel, and on that day the Israelites struck down 25,100 Benjamites, all armed with swords. 36 Then the Benjamites saw that they were beaten. Now the men of Israel had given way before Benjamin, because they relied on the ambush they had set near Gibeah. 37 The men who had been in ambush made a sudden dash into Gibeah, spread out and put the whole city to the sword. 38 The men of Israel had arranged with the ambush that they should send up a great cloud of smoke from the city, 39 and then the men of Israel would turn in the battle. The Benjamites had begun to inflict casualties on the men of Israel (about thirty), and they said, "We are defeating them as in the first battle." 40 But when the column of smoke began to rise from the city, the Benjamites turned and saw the smoke of the whole city going up into the sky. 41 Then the men of Israel turned on them, and the men of Benjamin were terrified, because they realized that disaster had come upon them. 42 So they fled before the Israelites in the direction of the desert, but they could not escape the battle. And the men of Israel who came out of the towns cut them down there. 43 They surrounded the Benjamites, chased them and easily overran them in the vicinity of Gibeah on the east. 44 Eighteen thousand Benjamites fell, all of them valiant fighters. 45 As they turned and fled toward the desert to the rock of Rimmon, the Israelites cut down five thousand men along the roads. They kept pressing after the Benjamites as far as Gidom and struck down two thousand more. 46 On that day twenty-five thousand Benjamite swordsmen fell, all of them valiant fighters. 47 But six hundred men turned and fled into the desert to the rock of Rimmon, where they stayed four months. 48 The men of Israel went back to Benjamin and put all the towns to the sword, including the animals and everything else they found. All the towns they came across they set on fire.
[The proud Benjamites thought that they would win again but they were defeated. Verse 35 said that the LORD defeated the Benjamites. The rest of the verses were details of the battle, including the strategy deployed. 25,100 Benjamites got killed, leaving behind only 600 who fled into the desert to the rock of Rimmon. This chapter ended with the statement that the men of Israel went to all the towns of the Benjamites, killed everything and set them on fire. Nothing was left of the Benjamin tribe except the 600 men at Rimmon – how great a prize to pay!]

What we can learn here:
Now, perhaps, we can put down a few lessons, when we did not when we were just having the narrations in Judges 19. Below are what I have:

1. The Levites belonged to God, and should have been taken care of. Extrapolating, I believe, the consecrated servants (full-time, even part-time ones) of God belong to God, and likewise, should be taken care of. Frankly speaking, the argument that tithing and offering are Law, and therefore must not be practiced, is a weak one when we understand the rationale behind making provisions for such servants. God had wanted the people of God to provide for the Levites whose duties were to tend to matters of the tabernacle or temple. So, in similar light, Christians are to provide for those amongst them who gave of themselves to serve God. The Benjamites failed to look after the Levite, and that was one of the reasons, God had sanctioned the attack on the Benjamites. Are we taking care of the consecrated servants of God in our midst? Please do not rebut by saying that every one of us is a servant of God; you know what I mean.

2. We are to be the gatekeepers of our city. If we, the people of God, do not “guard” our city properly, wickedness will take over, disorder, corruption and vileness can become the order of the day, and it will be a sad state of affair, and a sad day or time. Without going against the governmental authority over us, we are to endeavor to guard our city against licentious idolatry, and general licentiousness, vileness, and all wickedness. Make our stands known, stand up and be counted; pray and intercede against such. When God punishes a place for detestable practices, the Word of God said that even the very righteous ones can only save himself, not even his sons or daughters! (Eze 14:12-20).

3. When God humbles, receive it; do not be stubborn and continue to hold on to pride. The Benjamites were proud and had taken offence of the hostility demonstrated by the fellow tribes. Had they put aside their pride, confessed, repented, and asked for forgiveness, perhaps they need not have to suffer near annihilation (the whole tribe was left with only 600 men), and a lot of fellow brothers of the other tribes had not need to die, and suffered. So, it is the same, with us, when we are wrong and have sinned, we are to confess, repent, and ask for forgiveness, in accordance to 1 John 1:9, and be thankful for the grace and mercy of God. By the way, 1 John 1:9 is for believers; if you are not convinced of it, please read my separate article, “1 John 1:9 is for believers”.



Anthony Chia – LORD, forgive me for not being a good watchman, and gatekeeper. Help me to be a better one. God, for the sake of your Name, and for the sake of the church and the nation, will you please raise up more watchmen and gatekeepers. Amen.

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Judges series - Judges 19 - A Levite and His Concubine

The way to read this article is that the orange underlined texts are the verses of the Bible (NIV, unless otherwise stated). The black texts following the Bible verses (and enclosed by square brackets) are my commentaries. At the end of these Bible texts and commentaries, I have inserted a section on "Points to take note/What we have learnt/can learn".
{For full listing of all articles in this series, click here}

Judges 19

A Levite and His Concubine

1 In those days Israel had no king. Now a Levite who lived in a remote area in the hill country of Ephraim took a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah. 2 But she was unfaithful to him. She left him and went back to her father's house in Bethlehem, Judah. After she had been there four months, 3 her husband went to her to persuade her to return. He had with him his servant and two donkeys. She took him into her father's house, and when her father saw him, he gladly welcomed him. 4 His father-in-law, the girl's father, prevailed upon him to stay; so he remained with him three days, eating and drinking, and sleeping there. [These last few chapters of Judges are difficult chapters for even the best Bible scholars. I scanned the standard Bible commentaries but there was nothing very “solid” written about these chapters. I tell you these chapters are difficult, that explained why I scanned for help myself. Often, we find standard Bible commentaries might omit explanations for verses because they were easily understood but the omissions of much commentaries for these chapters were perhaps intentional, just on the ground that the scholars really did not know what to make out of these stories. Even as I write I am saying it isn’t easy for me either.

The time period of this story is believed to during the early Judges period. That it showed up in later chapters of the Book of Judges does not necessary mean that it occurred at later part of the period. It was early Judges period, because of the mention of the Levite high priest, Phinehas, in Judges 20:28. The morality depicted by this story was really bad, so bad that it makes one wondered why it could be done by God’s people, and allowed to be recorded here. When you finished the story, you will know what I mean.

Conquered lands were for the possession of the people of Israel. Moses distributed some territories, those on one side (the east) of the Jordan River (Moses did not cross over the Jordan River). Joshua was the one who led the Israelites across the Jordan River, took Jericho, and then later on, took other territories in the Promised Land, as the LORD fought and gave the territories over to the Israelites. Joshua distributed captured territories among the tribes of Israel (By the time Joshua was old and died, not all territories of the Promised Land were captured). But in the distribution, the Levi tribe got no land, they being the priestly tribe, was to live among the other tribes and depended on the other tribes to provide for them as they (the Levites) served as priests for the Israelites. This explains this particular Levite (and even the Levite of Judges 17), moving about the lands of various Israelite tribes (although this did not mean that members of other Israelite tribes did not move about/dwell in their brothers’ lands).

In this story, the Levite was in the hill country of Ephraim (this, I believe, was referring to the hill country of Samaria. This, later became part of Israel, the northern kingdom, the first king {Jeroboam} of which, was an Ephraim, the half-tribe of the house of Joseph. But please note that at this time, there were not yet, the duo kingdoms). He took a concubine from Bethlehem, Judah. The concubine, recorded here, in verse 2, was unfaithful to the Levite. She left the Levite and went back to her father’s house in Bethlehem. The Levite went to his father-in-law’s house to get his concubine back. The father-in-law kept asking the Levite to stay longer.]

[Added: 1 Mar 2013: Concerning the statement of the concubine being unfaithful, the word translated “played the whore” (KJV) and “unfaithful” (NIV) in Hebrew is zanah.  According to Dr Claude Mariottini, in his article, http://claudemariottini.com/rereading-judges-192/,

 “The word has a primary meaning of committing fornication, being a harlot. However, according to Koehler-Baumgartner, Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti Libros (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1958), 261, the word also can mean “to be angry, hateful” or to “feel repugnant against.”

The Professor went on to say:

“Thus, taking the above meaning of the word, the translation of the NRSV makes better sense: But his concubine became angry with him, and she went away from him to her father’s house at Bethlehem in Judah.  This is the view also adopted by some ancient translations such as the Septuagint, the Targum, and the Vulgate.  Neither of these ancient translations nor Josephus accused the woman of conjugal infidelity.”

 
I leave it to you to assess this; as far as I am concerned, it changes NOT, any of my other commentary on this account.]

5 On the fourth day they got up early and he prepared to leave, but the girl's father said to his son-in-law, "Refresh yourself with something to eat; then you can go." 6 So the two of them sat down to eat and drink together. Afterward the girl's father said, "Please stay tonight and enjoy yourself." 7 And when the man got up to go, his father-in-law persuaded him, so he stayed there that night. 8 On the morning of the fifth day, when he rose to go, the girl's father said, "Refresh yourself. Wait till afternoon!" So the two of them ate together. 9 Then when the man, with his concubine and his servant, got up to leave, his father-in-law, the girl's father, said, "Now look, it's almost evening. Spend the night here; the day is nearly over. Stay and enjoy yourself. Early tomorrow morning you can get up and be on your way home." 10 But, unwilling to stay another night, the man left and went toward Jebus (that is, Jerusalem), with his two saddled donkeys and his concubine. [The father-in-law kept asking his son-in-law to stay longer; what exactly was the motive was not revealed. Finally, despite it being almost evening, the Levite still set off with his concubine and servant.]
11 When they were near Jebus and the day was almost gone, the servant said to his master, "Come, let's stop at this city of the Jebusites and spend the night." 12 His master replied, "No. We won't go into an alien city, whose people are not Israelites. We will go on to Gibeah." 13 He added, "Come, let's try to reach Gibeah or Ramah and spend the night in one of those places." 14 So they went on, and the sun set as they neared Gibeah in Benjamin. 15 There they stopped to spend the night. They went and sat in the city square, but no one took them into his home for the night. [Because they set off late, soon it was nearly dark, and they had to spend the night somewhere, before continuing the next day. The Levite’s servant suggested a nearby city of the Jebusites. Jebusites was a local tribe of the inhabitants of the land (not one of the tribes of Israelites). But the Levite insisted on going to an Israelite-occupied city, and so they ended up in Gibeah, in Benjamin. Benjamites was a tribe of the Israelites.

They were at the city square but no one took them into his home for the night. In those days, hospitality to fellow travelers was expected to be the norm (Because of this norm, Abraham, entertained The Three Vistors/Men – you can read this in Who were The Three Visitors/Men), yet none of the Benjamites took the Levite in. What are we to make out of this? What was the intention of the LORD for having this recorded as such? Was it to show to us, with the disobedience of the Israelites as explained in Judges 2, brotherly kindness also went down the drains? The lack of brotherly kindness bothers the LORD, I believe, that was why we find that Jesus, in his earthly ministry, told of the story of the Good Samaritan. By the way, the “love thy neighbor as yourselves” is not a new command from Jesus; it was an Old Testament command (Lev 19:18); many believers are not aware of this! Or was it to indicate that things were so bad, in terms of moral values, that people just were too afraid to take any strangers into their home, lest they get robbed, molested or even killed?

In present times, do you take strangers into your home to stay? If not, what does it tell of the condition of mankind? Yes, perhaps, it is not wise (whose wisdom?) to take in strangers but how about servants of God (itinerant preachers, overseas preachers/speakers, visiting pastors, etc)? This chap, in the story, was a Levite – priestly family, in those days. There is an important point I believe the LORD had wanted to show to the children of the Israelites – I will dwell on it later, in my commentary for the next chapter, Judges 20.]
16 That evening an old man from the hill country of Ephraim, who was living in Gibeah (the men of the place were Benjamites), came in from his work in the fields. 17 When he looked and saw the traveler in the city square, the old man asked, "Where are you going? Where did you come from?" 18 He answered, "We are on our way from Bethlehem in Judah to a remote area in the hill country of Ephraim where I live. I have been to Bethlehem in Judah and now I am going to the house of the LORD. No one has taken me into his house. 19 We have both straw and fodder for our donkeys and bread and wine for ourselves your servants—me, your maidservant, and the young man with us. We don't need anything." 20 "You are welcome at my house," the old man said. "Let me supply whatever you need. Only don't spend the night in the square." 21 So he took him into his house and fed his donkeys. After they had washed their feet, they had something to eat and drink. [It is not very clear whether the old man in verse 16, was an Ephraimite (member of the half-tribe of the house of Joseph) or just a local of the Ephraim land, who was then living in Gibeah, the city of the Benjamites.

But I believe the old man should be an Ephraimite. My reason is this: We read earlier on, the Levite did not want to stop at a city belonging to the Jebusites for the reason that the Jebusites were aliens. So, if the old man was an alien, it was likely that the Levite would have again declined. Furthermore, the Levite’s saying that he was going to the house of the LORD, I believe, was an attempt to appeal to old man to take him in for the night – only an Israelite would be bothered whether or not, the strangers were going to the house of the LORD.]
22 While they were enjoying themselves, some of the wicked men of the city surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they shouted to the old man who owned the house, "Bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him." [Some Bible translations use the phrase, “sons of Belial” which was translated in the NIV version here as wicked men. There are various definitions of the sons of Belial, some referring to demons, some referring to men. In this context, it should be correct to say that men were being referred to. Some definitions included wicked men, worthless men, yokeless men (I take it to mean men without any meaningful work), men never to rise (“men without future”) – generally, scum of society. In the Book of Jubilees (aka Lesser Genesis, an ancient Jewish religious work), uncircumcised heathens were called sons of Belial.

It is important that we know who these people were, because of the offence committed and the consequence and punishment thereafter, which were the “offensive” elements in this story. Many commentators just assumed that since the city belonged to the Benjamites, the Benjamites did the hideous thing that you would read about later on.

If you have been following this series of mine on the Book of Judges, you would remember that the very thing that the Israelites did wrong that broke the Covenant God made with them was this: that they did not destroy the inhabitants together with all the altars of the pagan gods. Therefore, in places dwelled in by the Israelites, there would be local inhabitants amongst them. For some instances, the Israelites only forced the locals into forced labor, in others, inter-marrying happened afterwards, mixing of bloods and cultures, including worship of gods/deities. The latter was what God did not want to see happened, and it was fundamental in the covenant God had with the forefathers of the then Israelites.

I postulate that the wicked men in verse 22 were not Benjamites. I would not say that I have looked at all the commentaries on this story but of those I looked at, none postulated as such - that the wicked men were not Benjamites. If you look at the definitions of sons of Belial that I have talked about above, particularly the definition from the Book of Jubilees, you might agree with me. I am not saying that it was not possible, but I would say it was highly unlikely that the scum of the city of the Benjamites, made up of Benjamites; it would be more likely that the scum included original locals, other tribes from rural areas sojourned into the city and got dysfunctional much like what we see even in some of our societies and cities. Of course, here the owners of the city, the Benjamites could not escape from the responsibility for the city, leaving the scum of society to do what they like.

Some commentators dealt with the phrase “the people in the house were enjoying themselves” as if to imply that was a sin that “brought on” the subsequent hideous event. I think, that would be reading too much into a very “innocent” phrase.  {Added 26/09/2011: The same "enjoy/merry" {yatab, H3190} was also used in verses 6 & 9 above, by the father-in-law of the Levite - surely there was not the connotation of "sin" there.  It is probably and simply equivalent to "make yourself comfortable and enjoy your meal or stay"!}

Just in case, some did not understand what the wicked men were demanding, they were demanding that the Levite man be given to them for sodomy, for homo-sex. Homosexual practices were and are still expressly forbidden by God – Lev 18:22, Lev 20:13, Rom 1:26-27, 1 Cor 6:9, Jude 1:7 {Added 26/09/2011: My understanding is that God loves sinners, and therefore, including homosexual persons, but hates sins, and that included homosexual practices.}]
23 The owner of the house went outside and said to them, "No, my friends, don't be so vile. Since this man is my guest, don't do this disgraceful thing. 24 Look, here is my virgin daughter, and his concubine. I will bring them out to you now, and you can use them and do to them whatever you wish. But to this man, don't do such a disgraceful thing." 25 But the men would not listen to him. So the man took his concubine and sent her outside to them, and they raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go. 26 At daybreak the woman went back to the house where her master was staying, fell down at the door and lay there until daylight. 27 When her master got up in the morning and opened the door of the house and stepped out to continue on his way, there lay his concubine, fallen in the doorway of the house, with her hands on the threshold. 28 He said to her, "Get up; let's go." But there was no answer. Then the man put her on his donkey and set out for home. [Yes, this account sounded so familiar, isn’t it? There was a similar account just before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; yes, compare this old man here with Lot, Abraham’s nephew. Even compare the entire story.

Here is one more reason I think the old man was an Ephraimite, not a local inhabitant sojourned into Gibeah. The locals would remember the destruction of their twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Yes, Lot, then was staying among the locals of the land on the plains of Jordan. But would they, the locals, have known and passed down the generations, the part of the event that had Lot’s proposal of letting his daughters be defiled instead of the men who were guests at his (Lot’s) house {the 2 men at Lot’s house were angels, and they saved the day, the daughters were not defiled and the twin cities were destroyed by God through the raining down of burning sulphur (Genesis 19)}; I think not.

All the people of Sodom and Gomorrah died except Lot and his daughters. From Lot and his own daughters {the girls slept with their father} came the Moabites and Ammonites; and we also have read in Judges, in an earlier chapter, on Judge Jephthah, that Israelites did not destroy the 2 descendant tribes of Lot, when they (the Israelites) came out of Egypt to go to the Promised Land. Lot and Abraham came from the same bloodline of Shem, son of Noah. I believe on the account of the bloodline, the love of Abraham had for his nephew, and the pact Abraham had with his nephew, God did not want the wars between the Israelites and the descendants of Lot, if it could be avoided (see Deu 2:9,16). For these reasons, the part of the story about Lot’s proposal to the vile men of Sodom (to have his daughters) and how he (Lot) escaped death at Sodom, I believe, got passed onto the Israelites, pointing to the old man was an Israelite.

Alternatively, Abraham could be the one who passed down the story to the Israelites because even though the Bible did not record that he (Abraham) went to look for Lot after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, it was highly probable that he searched out Lot after the destruction since he pleaded with the LORD in Genesis 19, because he knew his nephew was in Sodom. I believe the old man had to be an Israelite to care about such a story and approach, and imitated Lot.

While I did not think the scum were Israelites (also, not Benjamites), I am of the opinion that the old man was an Israelite (not necessarily a Benjamite, though), and not an uncircumcised heathen. If the old man had been the latter, old Bible translations would not have recorded the wicked men as sons of Belial, which meant uncircumcised heathens (according the definition in the Book of Jubilees) with the old man in context, for the old man would then fall in the same category.

I believe, here is a sad case of these: firstly, people (the old man) not knowing well enough, particularly the dealing of God with His pinnacle creation, Man, and did a wrong thing, thinking that history would kind of repeat itself with angels coming to the rescue; secondly, people (the Levite) conveniently manipulated the same.

Maybe some of the cultish “Christian” sad stories of more recent times, involving loss of many lives, were similarly rooted in the misinterpretation and manipulation of scriptures and our true faith heritage. But this does not point towards the suggestion that, not knowing is better than knowing. Because if we do not know the Word/Bible, although we would not be influenced by it, including misinterpretations thereof, at the same time, we would be deprived of its goodness, and instead be influenced and governed by our other knowledge, acquired in life and in dealings with the non-Christian world. The way out is not to throw out the Bible, but to correctly, interpret the Word of God.

In verse 25, we read that eventually, it was the Levite who gave his concubine to the wicked men, not the old man. So the old man’s daughter did not get implicated. But from verse 24, it was clear the old man had thought like what Lot thought of, but it was the Levite who did it. The Levite must have thought likewise (the thoughts of Lot), or in agreement with the old man, and made use of the Lot’s story to save his own skin. The Levite went to sleep and did nothing the whole night. What the wicked men did to the concubine I need not repeat here, I just want to say that she was so inhumanely abused that she was already dead when her husband found her at the door.]
29 When he reached home, he took a knife and cut up his concubine, limb by limb, into twelve parts and sent them into all the areas of Israel. 30 Everyone who saw it said, "Such a thing has never been seen or done, not since the day the Israelites came up out of Egypt. Think about it! Consider it! Tell us what to do!" [These verses just, very crudely, said the Levite took a knife and cut up his concubine in full view of the public, much like one cuts up a dead animal. In those days, being unfaithful deserved death, even by stoning, and so, some commentators tended to say she got what she deserved, death, even if her husband had forgiven her!

But the humiliation she suffered before death, to me, did not point to a punishment by God for her sin. Furthermore, in the Gospel, John 20:23 is capable of being interpreted as Jesus was saying if you forgave someone who had sinned against you, God would also forgive that person. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Do not be too quick to say bad things that happened to people are due to God. Every action of God is justified, even if it appeared “bad” to us, there is no wickedness in God. And many bad things are part of the workings of a fallen world, not the doing of God. I do not think that in this case, it is a doing of God. In fact, I doubt whether the Levite had really forgiven his concubine.

After cutting up the body into 12 parts, the Levite had them sent to the tribes of Israel, all over the land! When the people saw the parts, they were shocked, and wondered what to do.]

What can be learnt here: - a shocking story!
Here is the recap –

In this story, a Levite in the Ephraim hill country took a concubine from Bethlehem, Judah. The concubine was unfaithful, and afterward, had left home and gone back to her father’s house in Bethlehem. The Levite went to fetch her back, and on the way back, when it was late, they decided to spend the night in Gibeah, a city, controlled by the Benjamin tribe. An old man, probably a fellow Israelite, extended hospitality to the couple. In the night, while everyone was inside the house, some wicked men of the city came to the door, demanding the Levite be given over to them to have sex, sodomy! The old man said that, that would be a vile and disgraceful thing to do, and countered, offering to give his own virgin daughter and the Levite’s concubine to the men, but the men refused. The Levite took his concubine and gave her to the men outside. The men raped and abused the Levite’s concubine until next morning, and she died. Both the old man, and the Levite did nothing until the next morning! The Levite took the body and went back to his own home. On arrival, he cut up the body into 12 parts, and had them sent to the tribes of Israel, all over the place. When the people saw the parts, they were shocked, and wondered what to do.

The story did not end there, it continued into the next 2 chapters, Judges 20 & 21; and we will look at them in subsequent articles.

What were the lessons here? Apart from the indirect issues I have raised in the body of my exposition of the chapter, I will add no more, but to defer them until the exposition of the next chapter; but you can attempt the question (of what lessons) yourself, first!



Anthony Chia – Perhaps, Lord, what you are trying to say here was that if we, the people of God, do not “guard” our city properly, wickedness will take over, disorder, corruption and vileness can become the order of the day, and it will be a sad state of affair, and a sad day or time. May you awaken your people from slumber, in the land of Singapore to guard this Antioch. Amen.

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Judges series - Judges 15 - Vengence on the Philistines

The way to read this article is that the orange underlined texts are the verses of the Bible (NIV, unless otherwise stated). The black texts following the Bible verses (and enclosed by square brackets) are my commentaries. At the end of these Bible texts and commentaries, I have inserted a section on "Points to take note/What we have learnt/can learn".
{For full listing of all articles in this series, click here}

Samson's Vengeance on the Philistines

1 Later on, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. He said, "I'm going to my wife's room." But her father would not let him go in. 2 "I was so sure you thoroughly hated her," he said, "that I gave her to your friend. Isn't her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead." [Samson, now, came back for his bride. But his supposedly father-in-law gave his bride to one of Samson’s male companion on the pretext that Samson must have hated his bride too much to take her hand. Samson was asked to take the younger sister instead.]
3 Samson said to them, "This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them." 4 So he went out and caught three hundred foxes and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails, 5 lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves. [Samson was not about to accept that; he became mad with the Philistines. Samson had the reason for being mad, firstly, the 30 men companions assigned to him during the marriage ritual threatened his bride’s family with death threat (burn to death, {Judges 14:15}), and secondly, one of the 30 men took his bride as wife. He caught 300 foxes, had them tied tail to tail in pairs, fixed a torch on each pair of tails, and set the foxes out to burn up all the harvest of the Philistines in the area.]
6 When the Philistines asked, "Who did this?" they were told, "Samson, the Timnite's son-in-law, because his wife was given to his friend." So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death. 7 Samson said to them, "Since you've acted like this, I won't stop until I get my revenge on you." 8 He attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam. [The town folk, Philistines, were the ones who gave him (Samson) the 30 men companions who cheated on his riddle, and one of the men (the friend referred to, here, I believed, was not Samson’s friend who came with him from his own hometown, rather it was someone assigned to him in the bride’s town) took his bride. Because of what the foxes, released by Samson, did, now, the folks (Philistines) burnt his bride family. Samson wanted revenge, attacked and slaughtered many of the Philistines before retreating to a cave at Etam.]
9 The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi. 10 The men of Judah asked, "Why have you come to fight us?"
"We have come to take Samson prisoner," they answered, "to do to him as he did to us." 11 Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, "Don't you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done to us?"
He answered, "I merely did to them what they did to me." [The Philistines, who ruled over the Israelites, took an army and went up to Judah demanding for Samson. The men of Judah had no choice but to go to the cave to find Samson. The latter explained that the Philistines did him wrong first, he merely took revenge.]
12 They said to him, "We've come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines."
Samson said, "Swear to me that you won't kill me yourselves."
13 "Agreed," they answered. "We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you." So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock. [Samson agreed to be tied up and be handed over to the Philistines, but he made the men of Judah swear not to kill him. With that, Samson was led away to be handed over to the Philistines.]
14 As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. 15 Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men. 16 Then Samson said,"With a donkey's jawbone I have made donkeys of them. With a donkey's jawbone I have killed a thousand men." 17 When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called Ramath Lehi. [When Samson was led up to a place called Lehi (meaning jawbone!), the Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power and he broke free from his rope binding, and he killed a thousand Philistines men with a jawbone of a donkey he found there. That, I believe, made him the judge who slain the most enemy men with a club. Shamgar, the judge in Judges 3, only managed 600 Philistines.]
18 Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the LORD, "You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?" 19 Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called En Hakkore, and it is still there in Lehi. 20 Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines. [As a further proof that it was God working through Samson, God opened up the hollow place in Lehi to let out water for Samson to drink when Samson won but was very thirsty from the fight. Samson led Israel for 20 years during that time of Philistine oppression.]


What we should have learnt:

1. While we should be prepared to be a fool for Jesus, it is not necessarily that we should allow ourselves to be made a fool of. We see here, Samson, as an Israelite, had come to an enemy town to marry, and then even as he had fulfilled his end of the bargain (concerning the riddle), he was told his wife was taken over by one of his male companions from the town. Obviously, here, the Philistines thought that they could just trample upon a child of God, an Israelite. When the honor or the name of God is being mocked, we, as one with God, should not just let things be, especially if we sense a “prompting” from the Spirit. We see here, Samson was not about to accept such mockery.

2. While revenge should not be on our mind, unless, prompted by the Spirit, we should still consider acting in honor. Here, obviously, the Philistines of the town ganged up to dishonor Samson, and in the process, dishonor the God of Israel, Samson had to act, and he sent into the fields of the Philistines, 150 pairs of foxes, each pair tied at the tails and was fixed with a lighted torch. The harvest of the enemy got burned up.
We also read that Samson, despite the wrong they did to him, Samson still acted in honor, to avenge the death of his wife and father-in-law. While I am not asking people to go take revenge, we have to understand that in those days, at that time and setting (including being under the oppression of the Philistines), if Samson had not done anything, the murderers would go free, and the name of God would have been mocked.

3. Snare of a wicked one has a way of overtaking the wicked himself. Great servants of God, like King David, believed in that; for example, we read this in Ps 35:8 (by David) –

may ruin overtake them by surprise—
may the net they hid entangle them,
may they fall into the pit, to their ruin.

We read here that Samson’s wife and father-in-law went along with town’s Philistines, to dishonor Samson, and God. They ended up being burned by the very people they plotted evil with. Do not join hands with the wicked ones, for you may just well be counted with them, and suffer the same fate as them. We read this in Proverbs 4:14 –

Do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evil men.

4. Be courageous does not mean no fear. Being courageous is to do the right thing despite fear. All of us have fear. Moses was fearful at the time he was called to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. He said he could not articulate well to negotiate with Pharaoh of Egypt, for example. Joshua who took over the leadership from Moses, to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land was repeatedly being told to be courageous, meaning, do the right thing despite fear. Samson had his fear; we read here he attacked and killed, and then he went into hiding in a cave.

We then read that despite fear, Samson also chose to do the right thing, be willing to be handed over to the Philistines instead of implicating the rest of his countrymen, causing needless bloodshed to his people.

5. A man of God is sensitive to the Holy Spirit. We read that when Samson came to a place called Lehi (meaning jawbone), sensing the Holy Spirit coming upon him (in Old Testament times, the Holy Spirit was not ordinarily indwelling a man; at the appropriate time, the Spirit would come upon the man), he went into action, broke loose the rope binding him, grabbed a jawbone of a donkey, and killed 1,000 Philistines with the bone!

6. Those sensitive to the Holy Spirit, and with God’s favor, will do great exploits for God. Samson obviously had the favor of God on his life, even his birth was heralded by the Lord himself, coming as an angel of the Lord. Favor of God is critical but sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, I believe, is equally important, so that we do not miss out on the exact timing of God. Samson became the man and judge recorded in the Bible to have slain the most enemy men with a club.

7. Those who fought for God’s honor can expect to be refreshed by the LORD. It is my belief that the Philistines, in doing what they were doing to Samson, were insinuating Jehovah was nothing. I draw us to the parallel in the story of Elijah. Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel, brought honor to God (name of God was brought low due to King Ahab’s queen, Jezebel). After the mighty victory which God rendered to Elijah, including the killing of 450 prophets of Baal, Elijah was tired, and threatened death by queen Jezebel, Elijah prayed this (from 1 Kings 19:4): "I have had enough, LORD. Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors." Samson said almost the same thing (from verse 18): “Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” In both cases, God refreshed His men who had served to bring honor to his Name. Elijah was provided food and drink; and here, Samson was given what he needed, water to drink, a spring (En Hakkore – spring of him who called) birthed forth, to bring the water. Just like Elijah (perhaps, one day I would do a deeper study of parallels of Samson and Elijah), Samson’s strength returned and he revived.



Anthony Chia – Lord, thank you for opening my eyes to the richness of your Word. May you continue to teach me your ways. Lord, help me to be humble even as you reveal much to me. Amen.

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Seeking the face of God when one is afflicted by wicked people - Psalm 9

The way to read this article is that the orange underlined texts are the verses of the Bible (NIV, unless otherwise stated). The black texts following the Bible verses (and enclosed by square brackets) are my commentaries. At the end of these Bible texts and commentaries, I have inserted a section on "Points to take note".
{For full listing of all articles in this Psalms exposition series, click here}

[To me, this psalm is about seeking the face of God when one is afflicted by wicked people. This is a supplication by David to God when he was faced with wicked enemies (this was most probably not the first time he had faced wicked enemies). Because the heading of the psalm had in it, direction to the music director pointing to the tune of “The Death of the Son”, some commentators said that it got to do with the death of his, David’s, first son with Bathsheba (2 Sam 12); but I could see no apparent link with the death of David’s son (the son was from the adulterous affair with Bathsheba). The death of the child was pronounced by God as a punishment for David’s triple breaking of the Ten Commandments. David was guilty of covetousness, followed by adultery, and finally murder.

So, let us just treat this psalm as such, David’s psalm in a time of facing enemies who were wicked.]


1I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart;
I will tell of all your wonders. [This is a psalm of King David. He opened this psalm with a reminder to himself, as well as to tell God that he would always do this one thing. And this one thing was to praise God. Praise is easy to understand – it implied singing, singing songs of praise, and worship, psalms, odes, etc. It can include other outward manifestations like clapping of hands and even dancing for the Lord. Another very important aspect of praise is to tell others how good and great God is, i.e. sing his praises, so to speak. Those were what David did – singing, and dancing and performing for the Lord, and he would do this with great exuberance (in fact with all his heart), as well as telling others of all of God’s wonders. David, ever since he was drafted into Saul service, from being a shepherd boy, was growing in influence. David used that which gave him influence, to spread the goodness and greatness of God.]
2 I will be glad and rejoice in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High. [David said he will be glad and rejoice in God. It was not that there were no occasions at all that David had moments of sadness, and filled with frustrations. It could be, and can be for us all, too. Why? Because we are all living in a fallen world with Satan hard at work, and we are also subject to chastisement (which are not always to our liking) from God for our growth. Yet, just as David had and did, we must know that we have an underlying peace and fullness of joy that comes from the Holy Spirit that lives in us (for David, possibly not in him but was often with him because of the devotion and time David spent before the Lord, of course the Holy Spirit could come into David from time to time but unlikely the Spirit was dwelling in him like He is doing in us all); and we must choose to be glad and rejoice in God, in recognition to that belief. Faith must be acted out – in this case like David, we are to sing praises to God; when we do that, we are saying to God that we have faith in God to see us through all our life afflictions.]
3 My enemies turn back;
they stumble and perish before you.
4 For you have upheld my right and my cause;
you have sat on your throne, judging righteously.
5 You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked;
you have blotted out their name forever and ever.
6 Endless ruin has overtaken the enemy,
you have uprooted their cities;
even the memory of them has perished. [How can we get ourselves to praise God despite our sad and frustrating circumstances? How can we act out our faith in belief that God is good, righteous, and great? Remember and recount, that was what David did here. David used a mix of past and present (present continuous) tense to declare to himself that not only God did, God would continue to do for him, the turning back of his enemies, the stumbling of enemies, and the perishing of enemies. David reminded himself that God was and is a righteous God; He had judged righteously and had upheld his right and cause. He was and is great; He had rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked, even blotted the names of the wicked forever and ever. Endless ruin had overtaken God’s enemy, their cities God had uprooted; even the memory of them had perished – in the Book of Judges, there are recordings of such cities or places, one of them is Meroz (recorded in Judges 5 – Song of Deborah).]
7 The LORD reigns forever;
he has established his throne for judgment.
8 He will judge the world in righteousness;
he will govern the peoples with justice.
9 The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
10 Those who know your name will trust in you,
for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.
11 Sing praises to the LORD, enthroned in Zion;
proclaim among the nations what he has done.
12 For he who avenges blood remembers;
he does not ignore the cry of the afflicted. [When faith had arisen, David started to magnify the Lord. He declared the Lord reigns forever; He had established His throne of judgment. He will judge the world in righteousness; he will govern the peoples with justice (there is always justice with the Lord, not necessarily equality – the two is not the same). For the depressed, the Lord will be a refuge, and for those afflicted, the Lord will be the stronghold. For all who know God, and therefore have their trust in Him, when they seek the Lord, the Lord will never forsake them. So David was saying, with one who reigns forever, and judges righteously; one who is a refuge for the oppressed, stronghold for the troubled; and one who never forsake those who know Him and have placed their trusts in Him, and are seeking Him, as our Lord, we are to rejoice and sing praise to our God who is enthroned in Zion, the Holy Mountain, and proclaim His name among the nations – give testimonies to glorify the Lord. God is our avenger, and the marvelous thing is that He remembers, and he does not ignore the cries of the afflicted (cries against wicked people of Sodom and Gomorrah, for e.g.; also the cries of Israelites in Book of Judges when oppressed wickedly by enemies in the Promised Land), Hallelujah.]
13 O LORD, see how my enemies persecute me!
Have mercy and lift me up from the gates of death, [Psalm is in fact, also a prayer. We see here, as typical of a prayer, now David present his request before the Lord. He said, “O lord, see how my enemies persecute me!” It was as if David said, “Help, Lord, help”. Have mercy and lift me up from the gates of death. We see here that actually at this moment David was in affliction, yet we saw in the earlier verses of the psalm how David still got himself to magnify the Lord despite his circumstances; that is the attitude of heart that we must assume, in whatever circumstances that we are struggling in, we must arouse our faith to rise up to praise and magnify God.]
14 that I may declare your praises
in the gates of the Daughter of Zion
and there rejoice in your salvation. [It was as if David was telling God to do it again for him, “so that I may declare (yet another time) your praises (sing God’s praise) in the gates of the Daughter of Zion {possibly referring to Jerusalem}, and there, greatly rejoice (celebrate) in your saving of me.”]
15 The nations have fallen into the pit they {referring to the enemies in v13} have dug;
their {referring to the nations} feet are caught in the net they {referring to the enemies in v13} have hidden. [David explained to the Lord that he was (again) up against wicked people. David knew the heart of God concerning wickedness; put it mildly, God does not like wicked people. I believe this is one of the reasons why David was said to a man after God’s heart. David went on to paint the picture of the wicked people and what they did: Wicked people are like people digging pit or setting net to snare others. David said that nations had fallen into the pit dug by these wicked people; they were caught in the net the wicked people set for them.

Quite a few Bible commentators viewed verse 15 as David stating that wicked nation {Strong number used was 1471 which can mean “heathen”, but not necessarily wicked, but if the parties were taken to be self-referring, then wicked nations were implied, which was not necessarily the case} had fallen into the pit they themselves had dug, or that they were caught in the every net they themselves had set. The verse by itself can be interpreted as such, and if such was the interpretation, the next verse, v16, was just to reaffirm the same position; although some scholars chose to explain verse 16 as God in executing his justice, ensnared the wicked with the works of his (God’s) own hands.

However, I personally feel that firstly, verse 15 was a description of the modus operandi of the wicked, and secondly, it was to be a clarification of the nature of David’s enemies mentioned by David in verse 13, i.e. it was meant to give a description of the kind of enemies that David were facing. In other words, the “they” in verse 15 were referring to the enemies in verse 13, not necessarily referring to the “nations” in verse 15 itself. If one was reading verse 15 in isolation or by itself, of course, “their” could only be referring the “nations” in the same verse itself. You can take either interpretation, but I believe whichever interpretation we use, clearly the NIV translation of the next verse, v16, is correct, i.e. the wicked are ensnared by the works of their hands, not God’s hands. That, I believe, was why the special musical notation “Higgaion” was used here (see next verse).]
16 The LORD is known by his justice;
the wicked are ensnared by the work of their {own} hands.
Higgaion {mediate on that}. Selah
17 The wicked return to the grave,
all the nations that forget God. [David knew how God would deal with wicked people. God would and will use the wicked people’s very snare to punish them, i.e. God would/will cause wicked people to be ensnared by the works of their own hands! {Of course, it does not mean that God cannot execute his own form of punishment}. David said this was God’s known justice. Even in our times, under the New Testament times which many regarded as an era of grace and mercy (of God’s preference to be long-suffering, to be deferring judgment until the End, and to be giving people time and chances to repent), I believe God still does let the stubbornly wicked people get a taste of their own medicine even presently (present life). Wickedness and holiness are directly opposite. God is holiness, and you need holiness to see God. Where God is enthroned it is holy because He is holy. So, heaven is a holy place. God is holy and heaven is a holy place, and we want to go to heaven; the Scriptures exhort us to be holy as God is holy. If holiness gets to do with God, wickedness, Satan. If holy people get to heaven, wicked ones, Hell (or temporary, Sheol). So, in a figure of speech, it is correct to say holy ones come from heaven, wicked ones from the grave or Sheol (or even Hell). David said here, let the wicked return to the grave. What David was imploring God to do was to act presently concerning wicked people, send them to the grave; including all the nations that had forgotten the Lord. But why, you might ask, that nations that had forgotten the Lord be included? I believe nations that had forgotten the Lord had in them great numbers of wicked people, because nations that had forgotten the Lord, many depravities went unchecked, there were no voices to speak up against any form of wickedness. On the other hand, for nations that had not forgotten the Lord completely there will always be some voices speaking for the Lord, and calling for repentance.]
18 But the needy will not always be forgotten,
nor the hope of the afflicted ever perish.
19 Arise, O LORD, let not man triumph;
let the nations be judged in your presence.
20 Strike them with terror, O LORD;
let the nations know they are but men.
Selah [While David was calling for action presently by God towards the wicked people, he was also imploring God to help those who need the help of God (the needy here are not necessarily limited to those in physical destitute, of lacking food and clothing, although these could be included), and fulfill the hope of the afflicted ones so that that hope would not die out.

David, knowing God’s heart concerning wickedness, also hated people setting themselves up against God or were proud, having no regard for God (and God opposes the proud, said the Scriptures), so he called on God to arise, not to let man triumph; he asked that God judge presently the nations (wicked nations or nations that had forgotten God), and display his wrath [a display of wrath like that on the wicked place of Sodom and Gomorrah would surely strike great terror) so that the nations would know they were but men.]


Points to note/learn:

This psalm gave us a good model to follow when we want God’s help when facing wicked people.

1. Despite our circumstances, (and I can tell from first-hand experience that it is very demoralizing, and depressing, and outright frustrating when you are up against wicked people), we must remind ourselves, and even tell it to God, that we will always praise God, with all our heart. Very difficult, at times, but we must, if we profess that our trust is in the Lord.

2. Remember that praises include both singing (and dancing ,etc) praises to God, and singing his praises (testifying His goodness and greatness)

3. We must choose to be glad and rejoice in God. We must firstly know and believe by faith that we do have an underlying peace and fullness of joy that can come from the Holy Spirit. We must choose to act out our faith by singing praises to the Lord. The Apostle Paul was imprisoned yet he chose to be glad and rejoice in the Lord by singing praises to God. What happened after that? The prison shook and prison doors opened.

4. Still find it difficult, use David’s approach – recount God’s goodness and greatness. In the past, how have God delivered you? If you did not have much to go by, hang onto those of others, testimonies you have heard of. If even that, was lacking, look to the Word, many had been afflicted in the Bible; what God did for them, God can do for you too; claim them for yourselves.

5. And when your faith has arisen, even magnify the Lord. Are singing praises (v2) to God and magnifying God the same? Not necessarily, just in matter of degree or shades, we go from singing praises to magnifying. From a choice, and recounting of the past, you push your faith into action, to sing, to sing praises, more of referring the past in giving of your exaltation to God. Magnifying calls for moving into declaration, into making things bigger so to speak (you can never over-stretch God), of attributing greater importance (to the role of God, for example), of injecting greater expectation and excitement into your circumstances, of letting your faith to call forth the reality of God into your future, as opposed to referring to the past when you started off in singing praises. It is not hyping; it is speaking of the true perspective – God is gigantic, and your problem or enemy is tiny, God can fix it.

6. Tell God your problem or enemies; in this case, the problem is with wicked people, the enemy is wicked. Tell God to judge for you because you cannot likewise be wicked, go tick for tack. If indeed, your enemy is wicked, God knows how to turn your enemy’s wicked scheme back on him, the enemy, and turn your situation around. Please understand that we cannot be wicked just because someone is wicked towards us. If you turn wicked as well, you may lose the hands of protection/blessing of the Lord.

7. And when you secured your victory, do not forget to sing God’s praises, and give thanksgiving unto God (v14).



Anthony Chia, high.expressions - Lord, deliver me from my wicked enemy.

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About wickedness, sin, and righteousness, and the consequences, in a nutshell – Psalm 1

The way to read this article is that the orange underlined texts are the verses of the Bible (NIV, unless otherwise stated). The black texts following the Bible verses (and enclosed by square brackets) are my commentaries. At the end of these Bible texts and commentaries, I have inserted a section on "Points to take note".
{For full listing of all articles in this Psalms exposition series, click here}


Psalm 1

1 Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers. [To me, being blessed is being divinely favored (being divinely favored, peace and fullness of joy are ours, too). If we want to be divinely favored, the psalmist said that we are not to think or act wickedly – stay away from wicked counsel; we are also not to sin – do not engage/indulge in the ways of the sinners; and we are not to let any unbelief and pride to get better of us – mockers act out their unbelief and pride in scoffing/scorning (expressing insolent doubt openly or emphatically/act with contempt/disdain).]
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night. [Instead, we are to delight in (to take pleasure, to enjoy) the law (Word, laws, precepts, commandments, and instructions) of the Lord, and on this, we are to meditate day and night (spend as much time as you can).]
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers. [The psalmist said that if we rid ourselves of wickedness, sin, and unbelief and pride; and delight in the law of the Lord and meditate on it day and night, we will be like a tree planted by streams (not one stream but many streams) of water, which yield its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither – a pretty fantastic tree, I would say. The psalmist added that the man who is like this tree, will prosper in whatever he does.]
4 Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away. [The wicked, on the other hand, would not be like the tree described in verse 3; instead they will like chaff (the husks of grains) that the wind blows away (winnowing described). So badly is the picture of wicked people that the psalmist used not even a tree to describe it, only as husks that eventually will be discarded.]
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. [The psalmist was saying that because of the marked difference between a righteous man (tree) and the wicked (chaff) or sinful man, the wicked will not stand a chance in God’s judgment to come; and the sinners, cannot be together with the righteous in God’s coming gathering.]
6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish. [The psalmist declared that the Lord watches over the righteous. The wicked on the other hand, without the covering (of blessings and protection) of the Lord, will perish.]


Points to be learnt:

Although Psalm 1 is a short psalm, it contains the important keys to a right Christian life. It is so fundamental that many of us just took it for granted after a while, and went on to search for more fanciful keys instead of meditating on it to draw out the little nuggets in them.

1. Do not be stubbornly wicked
I believe there are 2 categories of people we must diligently ensure we do not get classified into, the proud people (scoffers, taken to the extreme) and the wicked people. The Word of God says that God opposes the proud. I surely do not want to stand in opposition to God. Next, if righteous people are at one end of a stick, wicked people are at the other end. Although it is right to say all sins are sin, biblical recordings appeared to have shown wickedness is of the form of sin that God would literally punish directly (not through “handing over”/”giving over”) when it gotten really bad. The events of The Flood and The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah come to mind. In both these events, wickedness was the reason, and direct punishments were meted out by God. I believe it got to do with the holiness of God, the very nature of God.

The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time (Genesis 6:5 – pertaining to The Flood).

Now the men of Sodom {and Gomorrah} were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD (Genesis 13:13 – pertaining to The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah).

From the psalm above, we can see that wicked people are likened to chaff. Chaff are discarded by wind, be blown away or by fire, be burnt – not much of a mercy, isn’t it? The way I understand verses 4-6 is consistent with the notion that wickedness can get punished presently (in current living) {v4, 6}, or get punished when Judgment comes {5}. Implicitly, from these verses, we can also see, perhaps, generally, punishments for other manners of sin may be allowed to be deferred until Judgment, until the gathering of the righteous by the Lord. So, in this respect, the many so-called “bad things” that happened to people may very well be cases of God’s “giving over” or “handing over” of people to workings of the fallen world/sins, God did not cause them. The holiness nature of God does not permit God to be wicked in any way (if He brought destruction, it was because His holiness demanded it), and God is long-suffering, giving people opportunities and time to repent.

I believe stubbornly wicked people will face trouble getting God to hear them or act for them. One reason, I believe is that for wicked people, there are many prayers/petitions against them, reaching to God. God does not ignore the cries of his people. That was what happened for Sodom and Gomorrah; the cries were so much and great that God told Abraham that He, God, was going to see for Himself, before deciding to destroy the twin cities by direct pouring down of burning sulphur from heaven.

2 things I want to say in case it is not clear: One, please do not think that we cannot be classified as wicked just because we are Christians. There are wicked Christians in the world (Of course, we like to say they are part of the back-slidden Christians, nonetheless they are Christians). The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 5:13 called the sexually immoral Corinthians believer, a wicked man. Two, I am not saying that there cannot be mercy and grace still shown for such a person, a wicked man. The Lord is sovereign, said His Word, He will show mercy to whosoever He wants. An example is of course, the Apostle Paul. Don’t you think Paul or previously known as Saul, before his conversion, was wicked. He wrongly accused the believers, hunted them down; voted for their punishments, even death by stoning (Paul voted for the stoning of Stephen). The Lord Himself said that Paul was persecuting Him! Yet, the Lord granted mercy to him; gave him the chance to repent, used him to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles, and let him be an apostle.

But, remember always, when it comes to interpretation of the Word, we must consider whether something was recorded for “norm” prescription or it was an isolated event. I prefer to live by the norm and not by the isolated. A broad analogy would be like the Word saying that there is big gate and a small door, the small one being the door to the kingdom of God, the big gate being the gate to Hell. We are to go for the small door but there are those, who instead of accepting the small door, want to try (even, try their luck, I would say) to find some crack somewhere in the wall of the kingdom of God to squeeze through. My warning to these people is that God has a prescribed doorway for us to enter, if you want to be like cockroaches to come through the cracks, do not blame God when He decides to let one cockroach through and not another. In other words, just because Paul got through does not mean that you too can be wicked and then able to get through at the end.

2. But be righteous
But you might say, why do I still want to be bothered with righteousness, I am not wicked and so, will not have God up against me, and that God is long-suffering, tending to defer the punishments for sinners until Judgment comes; and I do not mind taking my chances with the workings of the fallen world/sins? But I say, you better think twice if you do not want to be bothered with righteousness:

a) Look at verse 5 again; you may not get through the final judgment to get to the kingdom of God, are you prepared to accept that? If you are a Christian, and you cannot be bothered with the ending or end-result, I say you are still foolish.

b) Morbid, you may say, still I will say: you do not know the day and the hour you will die. Even though you have had your salvation or are born again, are you sure if you knowingly and stubbornly remain in sins, you will get pass the small door, when you die unrepentantly? Controversial, but worth pondering over!

c) Verse 3 said that for people who practice righteousness, whatever they do prospers. Verse 6 said God watches over them. They are like a strong and fruitful tree, evergreen and do not wither. These verses, 3 & 6 obviously are referring to present living on earth. Won’t you like that? Here is a God’s prescribed way to a blessed earthly life: avoid all wickedness, sins and unbelief and pride; go deep into God’s Word, delight in it, meditate on it day and night - a “clean and narrow way”, so to speak; and at the end of day, you get to enter the kingdom of God, as well. You want to ignore that?

3. And a key to righteousness is in delighting in his Word, and meditating on it day and night
The Word is the spiritual food for the Christians. If we do not feed on it, we cannot grow healthily in our Christian life. Physically, if we do not delight in food, and we do not take our regular meals, what will happen to us? Physically, we will not grow strongly and healthily. It is the same for spiritual growth and health, we have to delight in the spiritual food, the Word, principally, and take our regular meals. And when we grow healthily spiritually, we grow in righteousness.

Very briefly, this is how we feed spiritually (for a fuller discussion on Spiritual food and spiritual feeding, read my separate article – Spiritual food):

We hear the Word of God (or read them). Faith comes from the hearing (or reading). With faith, we act out the Word. With action based on faith, we begin to experience the Word in action, and this experience is what feeds us properly. With a feeding we grow a little, and we go back for more of the same – hearing the Word, and going into action based on faith. Experiencing the Word in action is experiencing God in action. From experience, we know food is good. A newly born, after a meal of milk becomes satisfied, and learns to understand food is good, and will develop a delight in food. It is the same with the spiritual man and spiritual food; we are to understand that spiritual food is good for us, and begin to delight in it. The more you delight in it, take pleasure in it, enjoy it, the more you will feed on it; day and night, you will meditate on it – you think about it, ponder about it, try to gain understanding of it, and you think about its applications, etc. In other words, day and night, you chew on it.

The Apostle James said it very clearly that the faith you get from hearing (or reading) the Word, if it is not applied in action, is dead (James 2:17 - … faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead).

And James also explained through the example of Abraham’s attempted sacrifice of his son, Isaac, that righteousness comes from putting faith into action.

You see that his {Abraham’s} faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith {unapplied faith} alone (James 2:22-24).

So when we feed correctly, we grow healthily spiritually; and what do we grow in? Righteousness. Yes, when we grow healthily spiritually, we grow in righteousness.

It should be clear that the righteousness I am referring to, is the active righteousness that we are supposed to grow in. The Bible talked about 2 concepts of righteousness – imputed righteousness that comes from Jesus, and active righteousness that the follower of Jesus has to grow in and to live out. Both kinds of righteousness are based on faith.

If we do not want to grow in and live out that active righteousness, I believe we cannot be like the tree of verse 3 – a tree planted by the streams of water, yielding fruit in its seasons, and has leaves that never wither, and be prosperous in whatever we do.

Also, the practice of active righteousness leads to holiness (Rom 6:19). And that is important, because without holiness we cannot see God (Heb 12:14).
What is your choice?



Anthony Chia – Lord, my choice is to be like the tree of verse 3. Help me to accomplish that by your grace.

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Jesus’ teachings on prayers (Luke 11:1-13) [Part I]

In Luke 11:1, the disciples of Jesus asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. In the next 12 verses, Jesus taught about:

1. Praying for oneself (Luke 11:2-4) - Lord's Prayer
2. Praying for another (Luke 11:5-10)  [covered in Part II]
3. Praying for the Holy Spirit to be given (Luke 11:11-13) [covered in Part III]


For this first part of a 3-part article on this portion of the Scripture, I going to write on the first item covered by Jesus – praying for oneself (Luke 11:2-4).

Praying for oneself (Luke 11:2-4)

He[Jesus] said to them, "When you pray, say:
" 'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us each day [today] our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.' "

What we should understand:

1. First we address God.
For Jesus, naturally He addressed God as the Father. Jesus is the Son, and God is His Father. I believe we can pray to the Father, the Son or the Holy Spirit, or collectively, God. You can even use your own endearing terms like Abba and Father God. Some people use Lord Jesus or Almighty God.

2. Second, we honour God with our greetings.
Jesus said, “hallowed be your name”. I use “blessed be your name or blessed be the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”. You may also want to thank Him for his work in the previous day/your life.

3. Third, we acknowledge God’s desires, before ours.
So I would follow Jesus’ words on this, “your kingdom comes, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.

4. Now we petition for our needs.
If we look carefully at the Lord’s prayer (this is called the Lord’s prayer), we find that Jesus is trying to teach us to look at a day at a time, asking for what we need for the day. Jesus is saying, “Do not worry about tomorrow”, we just need to address this day. We are to address each day as it comes. I am quite sure many of us do not follow this. Almost all of us, and that include me, failed in this, it is not whether or not we failed but how badly we failed. God tells us not to worry (Mathew 6:34), yet almost all of us still do it. To worry is not trusting God. Another reason why we are “covering more than we should”, I believe is that we do not pray daily. And the reason for not praying daily can be one or more of these:

a. plain laziness
b. thinking you can/should handle “your life”
c. “too busy”
d. “too tired”
e. “why so troublesome”
f. so “cartoon”
g. thinking it is hypocritical

We should stop finding excuses for our failure to come before God each day.

There are different views about what “daily bread” mean in the Lord’s Prayer. Whatever the view, the daily bread is a need (not a want, and I know there are those who would like to say, “come on, our God is more generous than that, surely He grant not only our needs! That generosity is spelt out elsewhere, not here. I am also not saying you cannot tell God what you would like to have [a want]).

I also do not see anything wrong with the straightforward interpretation of daily bread as our basic needs – food, clothing and shelter. I know in Mathew 6, God asks that we do not worry about what we will eat and what we will wear, but do you know that our asking for just the daily portion is an acknowledgement on our part that God is provider. Even as we are gathering, we must always remember it is God who gives us the capacity to gather (Deuteronomy 8:17-18). If you want to interpret daily bread to mean more, like it should include His word, wisdom, “presence”, etc, I think it is fine, so long as the list represent your “needs” and not “wishes”.

5. Ask for forgiveness.
I view God’s forgiveness as a need just as I need food. We need food for physical life, forgiveness for eternal life.

I want to say that Jesus is telling us that we need to ask God for forgiveness daily (in fact every time we have sinned). Brethrens, be careful not to believe the preaching or teachings about God loving us so much that He will forgive us (Christians) whether or not we ask for forgiveness, or such things as there is not even the need for repentance since God loves us (Christians), or that we belittle the Blood of Christ when we repeatedly ask Him to forgive us.

Bible is very clear about the consequence of sin – the wage of sin is death. If I may be very blunt, it may be if we do not repent and have our sin forgiven of us, Hell we go, regardless we are a Christian. If the outcome is any different, it is because of God’s grace.

God’s Word says that there is a narrow door (Luke 13:24) for us to enter, yet, what many Christians are trying to do, instead of taking the already narrow door, is to take the chance and hope that they will squeeze through a tiny crack in the wall, greased by the grace of God.

I do not believe in auto-cleaning by the Blood of Christ. If you believe in that, you are implying that the Blood of Jesus is the license to sin. Or do you think that sin committed by you after acceptance of Jesus is any different from the same sin committed before you become a believer? Already many people are not accepting Jesus because they said Christians are so hypocritical – using the Blood of Jesus as the license to sin. So, don’t you go round propagating that Christians can sin and get away with it without even seeking forgiveness from the Lord. Please, if Jesus himself taught it, that we have to ask for forgiveness, it must be necessary; and He was not talking to non-believers, He was teaching the disciples.

I am saddened that “spiritual leaders” do not emphasize holiness and righteous living enough to the flock, and instead drop “contradicting” words/phrases here and there without proper explanations leading people to misunderstand the importance of holiness, repentance and seeking of forgiveness.

For example, a sharing about Christians loving the sinners but not the sin, if not done properly, can mislead people to think that repentance is not required.

Recently I had a first-hand encounter of this. A highly regarded preacher/pastor shared about how he continued to love a person who had sinned greatly against his son and had brought shame to his (the preacher) family. While the preacher’s love was commendable and perhaps when the sharing was done in a different context or done with more sensitivity as to avoid misinterpretation, it would have been excellent, but in this case, it was not. Subsequent to the sharing/preaching, a brethren spoke with me and reiterated that he was right about repentance being not required; he said the sharing confirmed he was correct about his interpretation of a certain parable in the Gospel, in which he said that no repentance was required.

I can agree God can work with very little, that a small step on our part can trigger a big move from God but we really have to be careful to say that God does not require repentance. I did not feel good that this brother's view had been reinforced, although I have to agree, preachers always run some risks that their messages may get misinterpreted.

If you are still not convinced that repentance is required, consider what was the mission of John the Baptist (Mathew 3:2), what were Jesus’ very first sermons about (Mathews 4:17), what Jesus said to the adulterous woman who was spared the stoning (John 8:11), and how Jesus taught about forgiveness (Luke 17:3b-4).

6. Forgive others when we want God’s forgiveness.
There are "requirements" for God’s forgiveness? I think the word “grace” has been overused, so much so that people subconsciously think that they have to do nothing! Christianity is not about doing nothing. Do not say, “It is grace-what, I do not need to do anything”.

I can name a few things you have to do for God’s forgiveness. First you have to ask, that is what Jesus said, the other is repentance, which has been touched on, above. Another is the forgiveness of others. In Mathew 6:15 it is clearly stated you need to forgive in order to receive forgiveness from God (The Lord’s Prayer is also found here – Mathew 6:9-13).

From the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant (Mathew 18:23-35), it is clear that if you do not forgive others, God will not forgive you. It is that serious, this is what verse 35 says, “So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.”(Mathew 18:35 KJV). [The lord of the unmerciful servant delivered the servant to the tormentors]. You can read the whole story at: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2018:23-35;&version=9; [I am giving here the King James Version reference because it still retains the use of the word “tormentors”. Newer translations of the Bible tended to use “torturers” instead. We will look at this word, “tormentors” or its root word, “torment”, in a while].

I propose below the explanation for the seriousness of unforgiveness in the eyes of God:

From verse 32 of Mathew 18, we can see God equate the unwillingness to forgive with wickedness – “O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee…”. Wickedness is direct contrast with holiness. God is holiness. Holiness is the most fundamental attribute of God. Wickedness is unholiness and it violates holiness, God cannot have that. Wicked people cannot enter the Kingdom of God [God cannot have Himself violated] – 1 Corinthians 6:9a (I recommend you read my writings on holiness at: ). But you might say, “What is so wicked about not forgiving someone?”. Let me explain:

When you sinned against another, say, you slandered another. What will happen to you? If the person whom you sinned against, in this case, the person you slandered, does not forgive you, that unforgiven sin of yours hinders you from entering the Kingdom of Heaven, unless you yourself ask God to forgive you directly and He forgives you (Because we do NOT know if someone we have wronged, forgives or NOT, us, the posture is always that we have to ask God for forgiveness for the wrongs or sins we have committed, in accordance to 1 John 1:9). Yah, slanderers will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven – 1 Corinthians 6:10.

If the person whom you sinned against, forgive you, the sin you committed will be forgiven by God. Not enough preachers preach about it or explain this. It ended up so many people do not clearly understand this. I did not say you have the power to forgive, Jesus said it. Jesus told the disciples when He appeared to them after his resurrection. It is recorded in John 20:23 - If you forgive anyone his sins [against you], they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven. Understanding this, now can you agree that you are wicked if you will not forgive another - you "are sending" him/her to hell, when in fact, you yourself are asking God to forgive you of your sin so that you are spared from having to go to hell.

[added 17/01/2011: I am aware that there is an alternative rendering to the verse, John 20:23 in which interpretation within the context of the preceding verses could mean that Jesus was speaking of the sending of the disciples, complete with the empowering (indwelling) of the Holy Spirit, to preach the good news, which is essentially is about God’s forgiveness of one’s sins through the faith in the works of the Son of God, Jesus, on the Cross. When we preach the gospel, we preach forgiveness of God (not our forgiveness) for those who believe, meaning we are agreeing with those who would believe, their sins are forgiven them. And when they are not believing, we are in effect, witnesses, to their sins are not forgiven them (their sins stay, and they stay condemned).

But I assert that the alternative rendering of John 20:23 above, is without contradicting the authority to forgive, as coming from God. When a believer forgives, the authority to forgive does come from God, for the Holy Spirit indwells the believer. In any case, it applies only to sins against us.

Furthermore, if God would ask us to forgive one another as He forgave, which is by grace, why He NOT forgive the offender if we have forgiven in the same way that He would like us to forgive - by grace.  Imagine if you have forgiven the person, God would NOT?!]

So if you do not forgive, you are wicked and what will happen to you who will not forgive. God does not forgive you either.  People without forgiveness from God, go to hell, eventually. In the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant above, what happened to the wicked servant? He was given over to the tormentors, i.e. he ended up being tormented (afflicted with acute and more or less protracted suffering). Think for a moment, what happens to people who end up in hell. Yes, they get tormented. See the parallel?!

Specific to unforgiveness, is it possible that tormenting may happen in this life? Some of what I am going to say in this para. and the next, is little subjective, not (yet) fully referenced to the Word of God but I believe they are valid.

I believe in some cases, people with combinations of unforgiveness, resentment and bitterness may actually be tormented in their present lives. I believe that wicked people, including wicked Christians may not have the full covering of God (by this I mean, as Christians, by default, God always “watches over” us – using angels, the Lord’s army, Holy Spirit, even men; yes, God uses men).

When “God withdraws” (partial/complete) his covering, from say, wicked Christians, the principalities of darkness (Satan, evil spirits, etc.) know and they will attack. It is as if now they have a right to torment you.

It is like when you received God’s forgiveness, you crossed over to God’s side of the battlefield and when you refused to do the very thing that God did for you (to forgive another by grace), you have done a mutiny and the enemy knows it and comes for you. We need to understand that God’s covering for us is a grace from God.

When it is grace, it means we do not deserve it, yet He extends it to us anyway. So, He is completely justified to withdraw his covering at any time. This idea is illustrated in the Book of Jonah, God caused a vine to grow to provide Jonah with a shelter from the heat, even after he (Jonah) was unreasonably angry with God, but only to take the vine away the next day. The specific verses are Jonah 4:5-8, but you really should read the whole Book of Jonah, it is a short book.

Here, I use the words, “God withdraws” but I believe, often we are the ones who “force” the hand of God. I believe that when we read in the Bible that people were “given over” to or “delivered” to (yes, sometimes, this word is used; in fact it is used in the Parable of Unmerciful Servant above), say, the enemies or tormentors (or more modern translations, torturers), it really means God lets go, letting thing takes its course, which often in this fallen world, can be pretty awful.

A man reaps what he sows (Galations 6:7c). Romans 2:9a says, “There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil”. God does not cause you to be tormented. You suffer the consequence of your sin (refusal to forgive).

Always remember God is good, yes, He does chasten but He cannot think and plan evil against you. [By way of mention, it is possible also that wicked people may still enjoy God’s covering as a result of imputed covering (that of righteous husband over wife, for e.g.) - covering accorded to them by God because of intercessions of protection by kind souls (eg. A mother’s persistent prayers of protection for her wicked son). But if they (the wicked) die unrepentant and unforgiven, hell may well be still their destination.].

So, in real life, we do find people, including Christians tormented for years but not able to receive breakthroughs, until the issues of unforgiveness, resentment and bitterness are addressed properly in their lives. Because of failure in this area, some get demonized, saddled with sicknesses that do not seem to have any cures (sickness does not go away or keep recurring), aches and pains all over, emotional instabilities, and loss of effectiveness in living normal lives.

7. The 3rd part of the 4-part verse 4, “And lead us not into temptation” is one of those difficult verses to understand.
Up until now, I really do not know how to interpret this. Even what I am saying now, may not be what you would agree, but I believe enough to think it is an acceptable interpretation.

It is difficult to interpret it on face-value because there is another verse in the Bible that put it very clearly that God does not tempt people.

James 1: 13-14:
When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.

Then why did Jesus ask us to ask God not to lead us into temptation. Yes, God does chasten us and test us, and the Bible explains why God does the chastening and testing. In short, it is to help us to grow and to be refined. So, it cannot be that Jesus is asking us to ask God not to chasten or test us. Also, 1 Corinthians 10:13 says that we will not be tested beyond what we could bear and God will provide a way out. There is no need to pray for avoidance.

I want to submit to you that this part of the verse may simply mean “Help us not to sin”. If you look at 1st 2 parts and the 4th part of verse 4, it would look like it makes sense – in 1st 2 parts we ask God for forgiveness as we forgive others (people sinned against us, we forgive so as to NOT sin [to NOT forgive, is sin], and we ask God for forgiveness for our own sins), then we ask God to help us not to sin and deliver us from the evil one. Jesus knows human weaknesses, and when He said this, He was walking the earth with the disciples; and the Bible said this of Jesus:

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy {including forgiveness for our sins} and find grace to help us in our time of need {including the time that we are tempted}. (Hebrew 4:15-16)

8. Lastly, we ask God to deliver us from the evil one.
The evil one here can be simply evil men or principalities of darkness (Satan and evil spirits). The latter often perpetuates their evil schemes or plans through evil men. I often plead with God to hold onto me, not to let go of my hand even if I slip and fall, even as I want to “hold the hand that holds the world”.


God, may you help me to put into practice what you have shown me,

Anthony Chia, high.expressions - to practise what God has shown is high expression unto Him

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