GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
JUDGES 20:9-17
9 Now this is what we will do to Gibeah: We will go up and attack it by lot. 10 We will take ten men out of every hundred from all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred out of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand to go and get provisions for the soldiers. Then when they go to Gibeah in Benjamin they will punish them for all the disgraceful things they committed in Israel.”
Frederick the Great of Prussia (1712-1786) is probably the source of the saying “An army marches on its stomach” (later quoted by Napoleon). Here the men of Israel show that they understood the concept completely, as ten percent of the army is assigned to find provisions, someone from each “hundred” (company) with administrators from the ’elephim (clans or thousands) and the ’elephim rebabah (myriads, or tens of thousands). This provisioning was done prior to the general muster at Gibeah, since an army of this type would otherwise need to plunder the local fields. In this case, it seems as if the intention was to destroy Gibeah and not plunder it, so there was a concern that they bring their food along so that no one would take anything from Gibeah at all. It was all going to be smashed, crushed and burned.
The word translated “disgraceful things” is nabalah, a word that carries the meaning of a disregard for religious and moral law; a disgraceful sin, foolish in the sense of an unbelieving fool in the book of Judges (Prov. 10:23; 29:9). You can hear an echo of this word in the name Nabal, “the fool,” who was the first husband of David’s wife Abigail (1 Samuel 25:2).
11 So all the men of Israel gathered as one man against the city. 12 The tribes of Israel sent men throughout the tribe of Benjamin, saying, “What is this evil thing that has happened among you? 13 Hand over the wicked men of Gibeah so that we can put them to death and purge this evil from Israel.” But the Benjamites would not listen to their fellow Israelites. 14 In fact, the Benjamites gathered together at Gibeah from their cities to go out and fight against the Israelites. 15 On that day the Benjamites mobilized twenty-six thousand men with swords from their cities, besides those who lived in Gibeah: seven hundred elite young men. 16 There were seven hundred elite young men from all these troops who were left-handed; all of them could sling a stone at a hair and not miss. 17 The Israelites, apart from Benjamin, mustered four hundred thousand men with swords, each one an experienced soldier.
The sides had formed, four hundred thousand Israelites (we’ve discussed this number already—it was big no matter how we translate ’eleph “thousand”) against twenty-six thousand.
Our author puts in two additional details. Seven hundred of the Benjamites were from Gibeah. So the city, to its credit, did not allow the rest of the tribe to do its fighting. And there was something more. Another seven hundred men from Benjamin were elite slingers. Their prowess is expressed in impressive terms: “All of them could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.” Commentator Arthur Cundall (Tyndale OT Commentary Judges) reports an estimate that a slinger could hurl a one-pound stone at 90 m.p.h.—something comparable to a major-league baseball pitcher today.
Another detail about these elite men is that they were left-handed. This was a prized quality among the men of Benjamin, probably because it meant an advantage in certain military encounters, including the one we are about to read about. Remember that Ehud (also a Benjamite) was left-handed and used this to his advantage against King Eglon of Moab (Judges 3:15-21). Later, David gathered some Benjamite lefties who were kinsmen of King Saul when he was exiled from Saul’s presence (1 Chronicles 12:1-2).
The tribe of Benjamin was choosing family over faith. They weren’t just uniting against the other tribes, they were uniting against God himself. They could not hope for success, but they probably didn’t truly realize what they were doing. “They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers” (Revelation 17:14). The Holy Spirit encourages us to “stand form in the faith” (1 Corinthians 16:13), clinging to Christ even loved ones do not: “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved” (Mark 13:12-13). We have no command from God to take up arms against anyone on behalf of the gospel. What we have is a command to take up the gospel whenever and wherever we can. A warrior in the days of the Judges might defend himself from a sword stroke by using his own sword, and that is the model we have with the sword of the Spirit, the sword of God’s word (Ephesians 6:17). When the word is attacked, use the word to defend the word. It is the word that is effective (Isaiah 55:11). Don’t leave it behind.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota