Judges 20:1-17
The nation responds, the tribes gather. 400,000 men prepared for battle. The Levite repeats his story once again in all its horror and the tribes are enraged.
To defend these worthless men Benjamin gathers 26,000 (that is one man for every 15 set against them).
There is no one seeking the Lord here or asking God what he wants them to do. It is more like two mobs preparing for a fight.
Judges 20:18-28
For two days the people of Israel go out against Benjamin, and for two days they are defeated.
Now they seek they Lord, now in their trouble and defeat they call out asking the Lord what they should do.
How gracious is the Lord’s word that the next day they will defeat the enemy (who is really a fellow tribe of Israel).
We might wonder why the Lord continues to bother? Only because he is faithful to his covenant. Even if this people fall into sin and war against one another, he will remain faithful.
Does this mean the Lord is pleased with the majority of Israel? I don't think so. They could have stopped this a long time ago if only someone had stood up against the idol worship growing in the land.
No one comes out of this well.
Judges 20:29-48
Is this a victory? 25,000 killed and 600 escaped to live by a rock in the wilderness. It sounds more like wanton destruction, killing for the sake of killing, without restraint or purpose.
Chaos is too small and tame a word for this, yet it fully describes what is going on in Israel.
The Spirit of the Lord worked order out of chaos, Gen 1, but here we are returning to a chaos of violence and idol worship that denies the creative purposes of our God. Too often the chaos we create is a denial of our God.
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1 comment:
God uses a sinful and shameful situation - ‘Such a thing has never happened or been seen from the day that the people of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt until this day’ (Judges 19:30) - to call His people back to Himself - ‘all the people of Israel... assembled as one man to the Lord’ (Judges 20:1). God’s call was clear - ‘Put away evil from Israel’. ‘The Benjaminites would not listen’ to this call for holiness among God’s people (Judges 20:13). This was a serious situation. It was not to be taken lightly. This was no mere difference of opinion, something that would soon be forgotten. ‘The Benjaminites came together... to go out to war against the people of Israel’ (Judges 20:14). Three times, God called His people to ‘go up’ against the Benjaminites (Judges 20:18,23,28). Victory comes from the Lord: ‘I will give them into your hand’ (Judges 20:28).
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