The Israelites suffered heavy casualties in their first two assaults on the city. As we discussed yesterday, some scholars propose that they were trusting in their large numbers to win the battle instead of trusting in the Lord. But also as we discussed yesterday, the author of Judges does not say anything to indicate that these soldiers' hearts weren't completely trusting in and committed to the Lord. They did consult the Lord both times before engaging the Benjamites in battle and both times the Lord told them to go ahead. We talked about how that, even when we know we are in the will of God, the path ahead isn't always free of obstacles. It's often when we are living in obedience to God that the fiercest opposition comes against us from human enemies or from the devil himself.
Before mounting a third attack, the Israelites weep and fast and make offerings to the Lord. "Then all the Israelites, the whole army, went up to Bethel, and there they sat weeping before the Lord. They fasted all day until evening and presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the Lord. And the Israelites inquired of the Lord. (In those days the ark of the covenant of God was there, with Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, ministering before it.) They asked, 'Shall we go up again to fight against the Benjamites, our fellow Israelites, or not?' The Lord responded, 'Go, for tomorrow I will give them into your hands.'" (Judges 20:26-28)
I would like to propose that although the Israelites were in the right in going up against Gibeah, and that although they felt righteously indignant that such sins had been committed there by the Lord's people, they may never have mourned and made a "corporate confession" to God until now. What I mean by that is they were angry and outraged by what the men of Gibeah had done and they were offended for the Lord's sake and for the honor of His holy name, but they had perhaps not taken time to think about the accountability of the nation as a whole. Did they miss the signs that things were going spiritually wrong at Gibeah? Were they aware something was amiss there but had never taken the time to check into it or pray about it? Were they guilty of feeling too confident of themselves, believing they were not capable of falling as deeply into sin as the Gibeahites? After the second defeat the entire army gathers and weeps and fasts and makes offerings to the Lord in an attitude of corporate repentance although they had not committed the same sins as the men of Gibeah. They are praying to the Lord on behalf of the whole nation and in a spirit of sorrow for the whole nation. We can pray in that same manner. Many sins take place in our nation every day. You and I may not have committed every one of those sins ourselves (though we are sinners) but we ought to make it a habit of making "corporate confessions" to the Lord. We will find some of the prophets praying in this way later on in the Old Testament. They themselves didn't commit the sin of idolatry, for example, but they confessed the sin of idolatry on behalf of the whole nation, using in their prayers the word "we" when confessing the sins of the nation to the Lord. I think that may be what the army of Israel is doing in Judges 20.
This time they will be victorious in battle but it won't be without incurring more casualties. As we talked about in Tuesday's study, most wars are not won without experiencing any casualties or lost battles. There will be times in the Bible when the Lord supernaturally defeats the enemies of Israel without the Israelites losing any soldiers but those occasions are exceptions to how wars are usually fought and won. The Israelites are going to win many battles and many wars in the Bible but not usually without losing any of their fighting men.
"Then Israel set an ambush around Gibeah. They went up against the Benjamites on the third day and took up positions against Gibeah as they had done before. 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. 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.'" (Judges 20:29-32) The Israelites are only pretending to retreat. Their plan is to lull the Benjamites into a sense of overconfidence so they will leave the city underprotected.
"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. The fighting was so heavy that the Benjamites did not realize how near disaster was. The Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel, and on that day the Israelites struck down 25,100 Benjamites, all armed with swords." (Judges 20:33-35) This is similar to how Joshua and his troops defeated the soldiers of Ai in Joshua 7. Joshua and his men fooled the men of Ai into thinking all their troops were fleeing from the battle when in reality there were other troops lying in ambush.
It could be that, while the army of Israel wept and prayed and fasted before the Lord, He brought the strategy of Joshua to their minds. This is one of the ways He works in our lives in our own day: He brings passages of His holy word to our minds in answer to our prayers. Many times when praying for direction He has suddenly brought a verse to my mind that I didn't even know I knew. I've even had to type it into the search bar on the Biblegateway website to find out what book of the Bible it's from. While the men of Israel prayed to the Lord for help in their battle against the city of Gibeah, I think He answered them by reminding them of what Joshua did. They obeyed the Lord's battle plan and the author of Judges says, "The Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel." Israel could not have done it without His help. No one can do anything of eternal, spiritual significance without the Lord's help. Therefore, the battle is the Lord's and He deserves all the praise and all the credit for the victory.
Join us tomorrow as we continue on with the account of the war between the Benjamites and the other tribes of Israel.
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