Nothing will unite a group of humans more quickly and effectively than a common cause with a common enemy!  No one, not even God’s church, is exempt.  We inquire of the Lord and then add to what He says to do to satisfy our need to “get even” and make our enemy suffer. 

Judges 20

The Israelites Punish the Benjamites

Then all Israel from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead came together as one and assembled before the Lord in Mizpah. ² The leaders of all the people of the tribes of Israel took their places in the assembly of God’s people, four hundred thousand men armed with swords. ³ (The Benjamites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah.) Then the Israelites said, “Tell us how this awful thing happened.”

⁴ So the Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, said, “I and my concubine came to Gibeah in Benjamin to spend the night. ⁵ During the night the men of Gibeah came after me and surrounded the house, intending to kill me. They raped my concubine, and she died. ⁶ I took my concubine, cut her into pieces and sent one piece to each region of Israel’s inheritance, because they committed this lewd and outrageous act in Israel. ⁷ Now, all you Israelites, speak up and tell me what you have decided to do.”

⁸ All the men rose up together as one, saying, “None of us will go home. No, not one of us will return to his house. ⁹ But now this is what we’ll do to Gibeah: We’ll go up against it in the order decided by casting lots. ¹⁰ We’ll take ten men out of every hundred from all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred from a thousand, and a thousand from ten thousand, to get provisions for the army. Then, when the army arrives at Gibeah in Benjamin, it can give them what they deserve for this outrageous act done in Israel.” ¹¹ So all the Israelites got together and united as one against the city.

¹² The tribes of Israel sent messengers throughout the tribe of Benjamin, saying, “What about this awful crime that was committed among you? ¹³ Now turn those wicked men of Gibeah over to us so that we may put them to death and purge the evil from Israel.”

But the Benjamites would not listen to their fellow Israelites. ¹⁴ From their towns they came together at Gibeah to fight against the Israelites. ¹⁵ At once the Benjamites mobilized twenty-six thousand swordsmen from their towns, in addition to seven hundred able young men from those living in Gibeah. ¹⁶ Among all these soldiers there were seven hundred select troops who were left-handed, each of whom could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.

¹⁷ Israel, apart from Benjamin, mustered four hundred thousand swordsmen, all of them fit for battle.

¹⁸ The Israelites went up to Bethel and inquired of God. They said, “Who of us is to go up first to fight against the Benjamites?”

The Lord replied, “Judah shall go first.”

¹⁹ The next morning the Israelites got up and pitched camp near Gibeah. ²⁰ The Israelites went out to fight the Benjamites and took up battle positions against them at Gibeah. ²¹ The Benjamites came out of Gibeah and cut down twenty-two thousand Israelites on the battlefield that day. ²² But the Israelites encouraged one another and again took up their positions where they had stationed themselves the first day. ²³ The Israelites went up and wept before the Lord until evening, and they inquired of the Lord. They said, “Shall we go up again to fight against the Benjamites, our fellow Israelites?”

The Lord answered, “Go up against them.”

²⁴ Then the Israelites drew near to Benjamin the second day. ²⁵ This time, when the Benjamites came out from Gibeah to oppose them, they cut down another eighteen thousand Israelites, all of them armed with swords.

²⁶ Then all the Israelites, the whole army, went up to Bethel, and there they sat weeping before the Lord. They fasted that day until evening and presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the Lord. ²⁷ And the Israelites inquired of the Lord. (In those days the ark of the covenant of God was there, ²⁸ 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.”

²⁹ Then Israel set an ambush around Gibeah. ³⁰ They went up against the Benjamites on the third day and took up positions against Gibeah as they had done before. ³¹ 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. ³² 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.”

³³ 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. ³⁴ Then ten thousand of Israel’s able young men made a frontal attack on Gibeah. The fighting was so heavy that the Benjamites did not realize how near disaster was. ³⁵ The Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel, and on that day the Israelites struck down 25,100 Benjamites, all armed with swords. ³⁶ Then the Benjamites saw that they were beaten.

Now the men of Israel had given way before Benjamin, because they relied on the ambush they had set near Gibeah. ³⁷ Those who had been in ambush made a sudden dash into Gibeah, spread out and put the whole city to the sword. ³⁸ The Israelites had arranged with the ambush that they should send up a great cloud of smoke from the city, ³⁹ and then the Israelites would counterattack.

The Benjamites had begun to inflict casualties on the Israelites (about thirty), and they said, “We are defeating them as in the first battle.” ⁴⁰ But when the column of smoke began to rise from the city, the Benjamites turned and saw the whole city going up in smoke. ⁴¹ Then the Israelites counterattacked, and the Benjamites were terrified, because they realized that disaster had come on them. ⁴² So they fled before the Israelites in the direction of the wilderness, but they could not escape the battle. And the Israelites who came out of the towns cut them down there. ⁴³ They surrounded the Benjamites, chased them and easily overran them in the vicinity of Gibeah on the east. ⁴⁴ Eighteen thousand Benjamites fell, all of them valiant fighters. ⁴⁵ As they turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, the Israelites cut down five thousand men along the roads. They kept pressing after the Benjamites as far as Gidom and struck down two thousand more.

⁴⁶ On that day twenty-five thousand Benjamite swordsmen fell, all of them valiant fighters. ⁴⁷ But six hundred of them turned and fled into the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, where they stayed four months. ⁴⁸ The men of Israel went back to Benjamin and put all the towns to the sword, including the animals and everything else they found. All the towns they came across they set on fire.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

“In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit” (Judges 21:25). This statement by the writer of Judges says it all.  Corruption fueled disruption. Immorality birthed brutality. Revenge was the mantra of the day—even when it meant fighting and murdering each other.  Evil fed the corruption from within the twelve tribes of Israel.  God intervenes to sort it all out; but evil must go. This is the cycle of sin perpetuated by humans who do as they see fit.

The verdict was in. It was decided by the leader of the eleven (maybe before they gathered because word of mouth travels faster than a mule) to excommunicate, (“you’re dead to me”) and annihilate the sinful Benjamites, (wipe them off the face of the earth for their sins”).

The common goal was to rid Israel of evil.  Upon hearing the Levite’s indictment charge of the men of Gibeah, the leaders of the eleven tribes met in unity against the Benjamites who became the common enemy of all Israelites.  Common enemy, common goal.  Unification. 

We must pause to remember what Jesus, who fulfilled every part of the Law, taught God’s Chosen (us) centuries later of who God really is along with His intentions for the Law:  “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”—Jesus, Matthew 6:43-45

Our response is to seek God first, Love God back and love each other. We are to also love our enemies, praying for them as we seek resolution with them.  When we find ourselves engaged in a conflict, it’s easy for us to forget who the real enemy is and what the point of the conflict is. The Bible tells us that our real struggle is not against flesh and blood.  There is a higher, cosmic conflict going on behind the scenes!

Church, we must realize our real, relentless, sly and cunning enemy is the one who disrupts our lives with his arsenal of evil behaviors, distractors and deception in an effort to dismantle our faith in God.  His demons hover over our thinking and distract us from God with fake images that look like Jesus with deceitful sayings that sound like Jesus—but are not.  But take heart, says Jesus! “I have overcome the world!” (John 16:33) May we unite under the banner of Jesus to battle our common enemy with Him! May our common goal be to point people to Jesus so they, too can be saved for eternity by Him who rids the world of all sin.   

What would it be like for the church to stop fighting among themselves over the non-essential issues of the day and put all our energy and strength, with God’s help, to battle our real foe—who has already been defeated by Christ—the Head of the Church?!  Perhaps, it would be quite like heaven!

Know our enemy.  Although Satan is a formidable foe, he is not a god.  There is only one God.  Satan is a created and fallen being.  He is not all-knowing, all present, nor all-powerful.  In fact, Satan is a defeated foe. Still, he exists in our world, with his demons in our fallen world to create chaos and destruction. We are told in Scripture not to be ignorant of Satan’s schemes so that he would not outwit us.  ^“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” —Paul, writing to the Church, Ephesians 6:12

Satan thought he had control over the wicked men of the Benjamite tribe.  God proved he did not.  With their revengeful verdict against the Benjamite tribe; the leaders of Isreal made a vow that will be problematic later and cause more trouble among them.  The verdict was that the men of Gibeah were guilty and should be handed over to the authorities to be slain according to God’s Law (Deuteronomy 13:12–18). The vow was that none of the tribes represented would give their daughters in marriage to the men of Benjamin (Judges 21:1–7).  The Mosaic Law states;

“If you hear it said about one of the towns the Lord your God is giving you to live in that troublemakers have arisen among you and have led the people of their town astray, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (gods you have not known),then you must inquire, probe and investigate it thoroughly. And if it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done among you, you must certainly put to the sword all who live in that town. You must destroy it completely, both its people and its livestock.”

“You are to gather all the plunder of the town into the middle of the public square and completely burn the town and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. That town is to remain a ruin forever, never to be rebuilt,and none of the condemned things are to be found in your hands. Then the Lord will turn from his fierce anger, will show you mercy, and will have compassion on you. He will increase your numbers, as he promised on oath to your ancestors— because you obey the Lord your God by keeping all his commands that I am giving you today and doing what is right in his eyes.” Deuteronomy 13:12-18

Note that “against the Benjamiites” in verse 18 becomes “our fellow Israelites” in verse 23. Perhaps this was one reason why God permitted the Israelites to lose that first battle. It gave them an opportunity to reflect on the fact that they were fighting their own flesh and blood. 

When we humans fall for evil and succumb to doing evil, chaos ensues. Churches are split. Family ties are fractured and sometimes broken forever when “sides” are taken. But God is still among us, consistently working, to save the world from all sin and selfishness that separates us from God—and each other. God was, is, and always will be God. Trust Him.

Lord,

You are God. We are not.  Cleanse our hearts, renew our minds, refresh our souls, and restore the joy of your salvation at work within us. You are all we need. Your peace overwhelm me even now in the middle of life’s storms. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

In Jesus Name, Amen