GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
JUDGES 20:1-8
In this chapter, we hear the very long and sad account of the war on Benjamin. This focuses our attention on the sad failure of Israel at this time, since they could not agree or work together to drive out the Canaanites, but they had little trouble uniting against their own brothers from Benjamin.
1. Accusation (20:1-13a)
2. Denial (20:13b)
3. Mobilization (20:14-17)
4. Two defeats and three words of God (20:18-28)
5. Two simultaneous attacks: Baal Tamar and Gibeah (20:29-45)
6. The total defeat of Benjamin (20:46-48)
War against Benjamin
20 All the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba and also from the land of Gilead came out, and the community assembled as one man before the LORD at Mizpah. 2 The leaders of all the people and of all the tribes of Israel placed themselves in the assembly of God’s people: four hundred thousand soldiers on foot with drawn swords.
This is the first time we hear the expression “from Dan to Beersheba” in the Bible. It’s a way of describing the whole nation the way we sometimes say “from coast to coast.” The man who wrote the book probably didn’t live all the way from 1350 BC until 1050 BC, the whole period of the judges, but he wrote down the various accounts all together in a very organized and well thought-out way. He used the phrase “Dan to Beersheba” because it communicated to his readers, after the Danites withdrew to the far north, the way we might say that Custer’s last stand happened in the State of Montana even though it was not yet a state in Custer’s time.
The number four hundred thousand troubles some commentators, since Israel fielded only forty thousand under Deborah (5:8). The text is not at fault, but our understanding of the Hebrew word ’eleph might need to be considered. This word, which usually means “thousand” (Job 1:3) can also mean a “clan” or family unit: “Present yourselves before the LORD by your tribes and your clans (plural possessive ’elephekem, 1 Samuel 10:19).” In this case, the author might be talking about four hundred “companies” or some other military group smaller than a brigade. For comparison, the U.S. Army organizes troops in this way:
□ Squad – 4 to 10 soldiers commanded by a sergeant.
□ Platoon – 16 to 44 soldiers with their lieutenant.
□ Company – 3 to 5 platoons (60 to 200 soldiers) with their captain (called a Battery when using artillery).
□ Battalion – 4 to 6 companies (300 to 1,000 soldiers) with their lieutenant colonel.
□ Brigade – 2 to 5 battalions (1,500 to 3,200 soldiers, historically limited to 600 soldiers) with their colonel.
□ Division – 3 brigades with a brigadier general or major general.
□ Corps – 2 to 5 divisions with their lieutenant general.
□ Field Army – 2 or more corps commanded by a lieutenant general (more than 50,000 soldiers).
But even if the ‘eleph units were smaller than a thousand, like companies of 200 men, Israel still would have mustered four hundred of them: at least 80,000 troops–twice the number assembled under Deborah and Barak. No matter how we estimate the size of this army, it was big; bigger than just about anything else seen in the days of the judges.
3 (The Benjamites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah.) The Israelites said, “Tell us how this evil thing happened.”
4 The Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, said: “I went to Gibeah in Benjamin with my concubine to spend the night. 5 During the night, the men of Gibeah came to attack me and surrounded the house at night. They intended to kill me, but they raped my concubine, and she died. 6 Then I took my concubine and cut her into pieces, and sent her to each part of Israel’s territory, because they have committed this wicked and disgraceful thing Israel. 7 Now, all of you are Israelites, speak your judgment and give your verdict.”
8 Then all the people stood as one man and said, “Not one of us will go to his tent or return to his house.
The Levite’s story was repeated and considered, and the gathered soldiers listened and gave their reply. They were assembled at a place called Mizpah, which is a village in the tribe of Benjamin. So the meeting was far from secret, and the danger to the city of Gibeah was very real and immediate. The Lord had destroyed Sodom with brimstone (burning sulfur) raining down from the sky (Genesis 19:24). What would Israel do to this new Sodom?
The Psalm says, “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity” (Psalm 133:1). Israel was unified “as one man,” but they were taking up arms against their brothers of Benjamin. This incident was rapidly escalating from a local atrocity into a civil war. Another Psalm teaches, “Those who devise wicked schemes are near, but they are far from your law” (119:150). The men of Gibeah fit that verse as if it were written about them specifically.
We would not want to see bloodshed, but when we consider what was going on in Gibeah (this was no isolated, one-time incident; that’s clear from the account), we know that this ongoing sin had to be ended. One ancient pastor said, “Be contentious, brothers, and zealous about things that lead to salvation” (1 Clement 45:1). That means that when a sin needs to be confronted, we confront it; we don’t just pretend it never happened. When someone repents of their sin, we are commanded by Jesus to forgive (“as we forgive those who sin against us,” Matthew 6:12). But if someone does not repent, and resists correction from one friend, from two, and even from the church, then we are to exclude them from the sacrament and put them outside our fellowship (Matthew 18:17), in excommunication. This is an act of love, because it underscores the seriousness of unrepentant sin, and it is meant to drive a person to despair of their stubborn position and refusal, and to turn back to Christ. Through Jesus there is forgiveness for all sins. There is restoration, reunion, reception, and peace.
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