GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
JUDGES 20:26-36a
26 Then all the children of Israel—all of the people—went up to Bethel where they wept and sat before the LORD. They fasted that day until evening and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the LORD. 27 Once again the Israelites inquired of the LORD. (In those days, the ark of the covenant of God was there, 28 and Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, was serving before it.) They asked: “Should we again fight against our brothers the Benjamites or not?”
Phinehas, Aaron’s grandson, served as high priest for a long time. Since he survived the sojourn, he was either a small boy in Egypt or he was born during the Exodus. We know that he was active as a priest at the end of the sojourn (Numbers 25:7-8; Psalm 106:28-31). Phinehas was still serving as a old man even now, long after Joshua’s death. Therefore he must have lived from perhaps 1445 until about 1310 (which would make him about 135 years old). That would place this war on Benjamin during the judgeship of Othniel and before Ehud. This is significant since Ehud the left-handed judge was from the tribe of Benjamin. Ehud’s parents must have survived this war (or perhaps his mother was one of the girls who will be described in chapter 21).
The LORD answered: “Fight, because tomorrow I will hand them over to you.” 29 So Israel set up an ambush around Gibeah.
For the third time, the Lord told the people through their high priest: Go and fight against Benjamin. But this time, there would be a change. An ambush was planned. The verb riyb means to strive or contend, and can be something like a quarrel (Gen. 26:21) or a lawsuit (Psalm 35:23). Here the participle shows that they planned a quarrel (battle) by choosing the place where they would have the most advantage: They “set an ambush” by occupying the high ground or else they took some other military advantage.
30 On the third day the Israelites fought against the Benjamites and took their battle positions against Gibeah as they had done before. 31 The Benjamites sallied out and were drawn away from the city. They began to attack the Israelites as before, and they killed about thirty men on the roads (one goes up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah) and through the fields. 32 The Benjamites said, “We are defeating them as before.”
It was a ruse de guerre, an act of military deception. The soldiers of Benjamin thought that Israel was going to do the same thing that they had done before, and not without reason. Israel had a far larger army, and could afford to wear away the Benjamite force. In World War I, quite a few generals of both sides felt that sheer bravery could triumph over the newly invented machine gun, and whole divisions of men died because their officers could not learn about a new weapon, charging in the same way over and over again.
But the Israelites said, “Let’s flee and draw them away from the city to the roads.” 33 So all the men of Israel withdrew from their lines and took up positions at Baal Tamar, while the Israelites who were waiting in ambush charged out of their places west of Gibea. 34 Then ten thousand elite men from all Israel made a frontal attack against Gibeah. The battle was so heavy that the Benjamites did not realize how close they were to disaster. 35 The LORD defeated Benjamin before Israel, and on that day the Israelites slaughtered 25,100 men of Benjamin; all armed with swords. 36 Then the Benjamites knew that they had been defeated.
When Israel left Mount Sinai, the tribe of Benjamin had 35,400 men of fighting age (Numbers 1:36). When they entered Canaan forty years later, they had grown to 45,600 (Numbers 26:41). Now, a century later, they lost 25,100 men in a single battle. They were going to loose as many more very soon. Their tribe was about to disappear in a single day—all because one sin was tolerated in one city.
God urged his people again and again to purge the sin of the Canaanites from the land. He did not want them to get caught up in the wickedness of the pagans who were there. He wanted them to be faithful to his will, which is the perfect will of God. He wants the best for us; he wants his people to be with him in paradise. As we saw in the previous section, when God allows a defeat in your life, he may simply be preparing the way for a greater victory. But we must also consider that whenever there is a setback and we don’t know exactly what God has in mind for us, there is always an opportunity to consider our lives and our sins, and to come before him in repentance. Confess your sins, and remember your Savior Jesus. Don’t run away from his mercy on account of some selfish, petty reason. Run to his arms, and know that his plan is for you to have a place with him forever.
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