The Biblical Response to Heinous Evil

I have been preaching the Bible for more than a decade now, and I have never changed my intended sermon to respond to current events. Some of you might have chuckled at how we had Christmas and Easter, but I just kept on going through Genesis. Expository preaching is good; it keeps us in the Word and keeps pastors from focusing on whatever they want to talk about rather than what God wants us to hear. The sermon should not be about the pastor and whatever he wants to talk about. It should be God speaking through His Word. As of Wednesday morning, I had intended to mine the depths of Genesis 36 for gold and precious gems in Esau’s genealogy, but this can wait for one more week. What happened on Wednesday was an event of monumental significance. Charlie Kirk’s assassination was a great evil. And the ensuing reaction to his killing demonstrates that this great evil is endorsed, supported, and celebrated by a substantial portion of those we share a society with. The events of Judges 19-20 are analogous to this.

How do you share a society with those who support heinous evil?

Charlie was an outspoken political commentator and a Christian evangelist. His political work flowed from his genuine Christian faith. A large segment of our society believes that the political and cultural views he shared, which found their basis in his faith in Christ, were actually evil. They believe his opposition to sexual perversion, transgenderism, abortion, and so forth was preaching “hate.” The news media and leftwing hate groups like the ADL and SPLC programmed their minds to believe Charlie was doing “hate speech,” that such speech is “violence,” and therefore can be responded to with violence.

In the immediate aftermath of Charlie’s murder, posts celebrating or mocking his death received hundreds of thousands of likes. Posts supporting or celebrating his murder were made by tens of thousands of people across the country. Many of them were by teachers, nurses, doctors, professors, business people, and so forth—people living and operating in the same society that you live in. What do you do in a society when your child’s kindergarten teacher or your father’s heart surgeon all believe that someone who has the same views as you do deserves to die? How can you live in a society like that?

The answer to that question is found in our text this morning. The answer is that you cannot. And before we go any further, lest there be any confusion, I am not suggesting Judges 19-20 is a perfect analogy to our context, but rather is analogous. I am not suggesting a literal war to wipe out this tribe. What I am pointing to is the principles this passage shows us.

In Judges 19, an unspeakable, heinous crime is committed by the men of Gibeah. The crime is exactly parallel to the attempted crime of the men of Sodom in Genesis. The setting and even the phrases leading up to it, “don’t stay in the square,” etc., are all the same. Gibeah has become Sodom. The Levite takes the corpse of his dead wife, divides it into twelve pieces that are sent to all twelve tribes of Israel, and musters them to war against Gibeah to do to Gibeah what must be done to any Canaanite city.

But the tribe of Benjamin does not join in the cause of righteousness and justice. Benjamin is loyal to their people even though they are unfathomably wicked. Benjamin takes Gibeah’s side against the rest of Israel. After three days of battle, all at the Lord’s explicit direction, He gives Benjamin into the hands of Israel, and Benjamin is all but exterminated.

What is taking place in this passage? One united people refusing to tolerate great evil being done in their land and refusing to tolerate those who support it. Benjamin’s support of Gibeah was due to tribal, blood ties. The support of Charlie Kirk’s murder is due to ideological ones. Neither can be tolerated. You cannot live in a society where your neighbor, your coworker, your boss, your mailman, your children’s teacher, your doctor, or your pastor believes you deserve to die for holding Christian views. The appropriate application of Judges 20 to our context is that such people must be ostracized from our society. They may not hold employment or positions of high status. Non-governmental organizations dedicated to inciting such violence by labeling Christian political views as “hate” or “fascism” must be shut down. Media organizations that accuse Christians of spreading “hate,” or “fascism,” or “white supremacy” must lose their broadcast licenses and be subject to broadened defamation laws. Extreme action must be taken, or society will devolve into endless cycles of violence.

I have gotten into trouble before pointing out that the Bible actually does not proscribe liberal democracy as the ideal form of government, something many people assume, since that is what we live in. What the Bible does describe is wisdom and prudence in rule and governance. And in our context, having a liberal and democratic society is prudent and wise, as it fits the particular people we actually have. But a liberal, democratic society of free speech and open discourse cannot survive when one side meets free speech and open discourse with the assassin’s rifle. If this murder and, more importantly, the support of this murder are tolerated. That free society is over. Our rulers will have chosen a society where the question of “who gets to rule?” is decided by violence and warfare. It is entirely up to them whether they have the resolve of the people of Israel in Judges 20 or not.

Often after things like this, there are calls for “unity” and “reconciliation.” Some were actually made in recent days and could not have sounded more pathetic. Imagine the elders of Judah or Naphtali receiving a rotting piece of the Levite’s concubine and hearing the story and saying, “What we really need now is unity with the men of Benjamin and Gibeah. We need to be about reconciliation.” Such a thing would be preposterous. Blood cries out from the ground for justice. Your eye shall not pity. The great evil must not be tolerated; it must be rooted out and eradicated. There have also been calls by many foolish Christian leaders that we “love our enemies.” Actually, one of the best ways to love your enemy is for God’s minister of avenging wrath to keep him from doing even more evil. Charlie loved his enemies by speaking to them politely and graciously, and for this, they killed him. God has given His people the means by which such things can be responded to. He has given us ministers who bear the sword. Donald Trump, our Congress, and our elected officials are such ministers who bear this sword, ministers of avenging wrath on him who practices evil. We will not avenge ourselves. We will not become vigilantes. We will not send out rightwing death squads. The sword has been given into his hands by God, and we must call upon him to use it.

What must be done by the people of God today is first to pray. Pray for our country. To pray for Charlie’s widow and young children. To pray that our leaders, especially our president, will take action to ensure that justice is done and that our society can be preserved. Pray that our Lord would protect His people and His churches from those who seek to do evil. Pray that the Lord would use the reality of this spiritual war to lead millions of our people back to Him. Pray that Charlie’s death would not be in vain, but that reformation and revival would appear in our nation, that Christ would once again be honored by our people, and that any unity and reconciliation would be found only in Him.

And finally, understand that your desire for justice is perfectly valid; in fact, God has placed this in your heart for the good. Do not let anyone manipulate you into believing that a desire to stop this great evil is somehow “un-Christian.” He has given us rulers for precisely this purpose, to deal with the great evil and those who support it. We will obey God and never avenge ourselves. We leave vengeance to the Lord and to His minister of avenging wrath.

Trust that the Lord is good always. Dark times are ahead. Do not let your faith be rattled. Do not let the demons win. Trust in Him that He will make all things right.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen!