Judges 20:1-48
1 Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was gathered together as one man, from Dan even to Beersheba, with the land of Gilead, unto the LORD in Mizpeh.
2 And the chief of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen that drew sword.
3 (Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel were gone up to Mizpeh.) Then said the children of Israel, Tell us, how was this wickedness?
4 And the Levite,a the husband of the woman that was slain, answered and said, I came into Gibeah that belongeth to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to lodge.
5 And the men of Gibeah rose against me, and beset the house round about upon me by night, and thought to have slain me: and my concubine have they forced,b that she is dead.
6 And I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel: for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel.
7 Behold, ye are all children of Israel; give here your advice and counsel.
8 And all the people arose as one man, saying, We will not any of us go to his tent, neither will we any of us turn into his house.
9 But now this shall be the thing which we will do to Gibeah; we will go up by lot against it;
10 And we will take ten men of an hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and an hundred of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to fetch victual for the people, that they may do, when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, according to all the folly that they have wrought in Israel.
11 So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.
12 And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, What wickedness is this that is done among you?
13 Now therefore deliver us the men, the children of Belial, which are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel. But the children of Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of their brethren the children of Israel:
14 But the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities unto Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel.
15 And the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword, beside the inhabitants of Gibeah, which were numbered seven hundred chosen men.
16 Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss.
17 And the men of Israel, beside Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men that drew sword: all these were men of war.
18 And the children of Israel arose, and went up to the house of God, and asked counsel of God, and said, Which of us shall go up first to the battle against the children of Benjamin? And the LORD said, Judah shall go up first.
19 And the children of Israel rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah.
20 And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel put themselves in array to fight against them at Gibeah.
21 And the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites that day twenty and two thousand men.
22 And the people the men of Israel encouraged themselves, and set their battle again in array in the place where they put themselves in array the first day.
23 (And the children of Israel went up and wept before the LORD until even, and asked counsel of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up again to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother? And the LORD said, Go up against him.)
24 And the children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day.
25 And Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the sword.
26 Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the LORD, and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.
27 And the children of Israel enquired of the LORD, (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,
28 And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days,) saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? And the LORD said, Go up; for to morrow I will deliver them into thine hand.
29 And Israel set liers in wait round about Gibeah.
30 And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and put themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times.
31 And the children of Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to smitec of the people, and kill, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goeth up to the house of God, and the other to Gibeah in the field, about thirty men of Israel.
32 And the children of Benjamin said, They are smitten down before us, as at the first. But the children of Israel said, Let us flee, and draw them from the city unto the highways.
33 And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and put themselves in array at Baaltamar: and the liers in wait of Israel came forth out of their places, even out of the meadows of Gibeah.
34 And there came against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was sore: but they knew not that evil was near them.
35 And the LORD smote Benjamin before Israel: and the children of Israel destroyed of the Benjamites that day twenty and five thousand and an hundred men: all these drew the sword.
36 So the children of Benjamin saw that they were smitten: for the men of Israel gave place to the Benjamites, because they trusted unto the liers in wait which they had set beside Gibeah.
37 And the liers in wait hasted, and rushed upon Gibeah; and the liers in wait drew themselves along,d and smote all the city with the edge of the sword.
38 Now there was an appointed signe between the men of Israel and the liers in wait, that they should make a great flame with smoke rise up out of the city.
39 And when the men of Israel retired in the battle, Benjamin began to smitef and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons: for they said, Surely they are smitten down before us, as in the first battle.
40 But when the flame began to arise up out of the city with a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them, and, behold, the flame of the city ascended up to heaven.
41 And when the men of Israel turned again, the men of Benjamin were amazed: for they saw that evil was comeg upon them.
42 Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel unto the way of the wilderness; but the battle overtook them; and them which came out of the cities they destroyed in the midst of them.
43 Thus they inclosed the Benjamites round about, and chased them, and trode them down with easeh over against Gibeah toward the sunrising.
44 And there fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men; all these were men of valour.
45 And they turned and fled toward the wilderness unto the rock of Rimmon: and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men; and pursued hard after them unto Gidom, and slew two thousand men of them.
46 So that all which fell that day of Benjamin were twenty and five thousand men that drew the sword; all these were men of valour.
47 But six hundred men turned and fled to the wilderness unto the rock Rimmon, and abode in the rock Rimmon four months.
48 And the men of Israel turned again upon the children of Benjamin, and smote them with the edge of the sword, as well the men of every city, as the beast, and all that came to hand:i also they set on fire all the cities that they came to.
Now it had what he hoped it would have. It had a shock effect upon the tribes. They were horrified to get part of a torso, a leg, an arm, a head and they gathered together and this man told them the evil that was done by the Benjamites, by those from the tribe of Benjamin, the city of Gibeah. He told them the horrible evil that had befallen him while he was there. And the people of Israel were incensed against the Ephraimites, I mean against the Benjamites. And so they decided to go against them in battle and they gathered an army of four hundred thousand plus.
And they inquired of the Lord, and they said, Who shall go up first? And the LORD said, The tribe of Judah (Judges 20:18).
So the tribe of Judah went up against Gibeah but the men of Benjamin were tough. They had seven hundred fellows who could throw a stone with a sling and never miss from a hundred yards. They could come within a hair's breadth of their target and a hundred yards with a sling, seven hundred of them, skillful, tough.
The tribe of Judah went up against Gibeah. The men of the Benjamites came out. Of course, the Benjamites, when they said they gave the personal agendum they said, "Turn over these lewd fellows who have done this thing. We're gonna kill them."
And the Benjamites would not turn them over. They said, "You come and get them." And so they were more or less challenged for the fight. And so the men of Judah, Israel, were defeated by the men of Benjamin who killed twenty-two thousand that day in the battle. So the men of Israel came and they encouraged themselves. They set in battle again as they did the first day.
(And the children of Israel went up and wept before the LORD until evening, and they asked counsel of the LORD, saying, Shall we go up again to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother? And the LORD said, Go up against him.) Now the children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day. And the men of Benjamin came forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, destroyed down to the ground eighteen thousand men; and again they retreated (Judges 20:23-25).
And now they fasted and prayed and cried unto the Lord. Now, I must confess at this point I have confusion. Why would God send them into a battle, say, "Go into battle" in which they are gonna get defeated? I don't know and that confuses me. But the first two days they went in, they got whipped and though God had said go, even said the tribe that was to go first, I don't understand that. You say, "Oh well, that's horrible you don't understand." Well, perhaps so. But I don't know everything and God said, "My ways are not your ways, saith the Lord. My ways are beyond your finding out."
Even as a woman this morning asked me after the service, she said, "Why would God choose Samson if in His foreknowledge He knew he was gonna fail?" That's a good question. I don't know. However, as I say, there are a lot of things I don't know about God and I'm sort of glad I don't know because that causes me to respect God. I know He's smarter than I am. Now if I knew everything God knew I'd be as smart as God and how could I respect him? Not only that, it gives me a chance to exercise faith, which I don't like, but I'm forced at times to exercise it. You see, to believe what I don't know is faith. To believe what I do know is reason, intellect.
Now I know a lot of things and I believe them because my intellect tells me, "Well, that's right." I can balance in my intellect. I can rationalize it." So I say, "Well, I believe that Jesus is the Son of God," great deal. There's plenty of historic proof for that. "I believe Jesus rose from the dead," big deal, there's plenty of historic truth for that and proof. If you can prove anything in history you can prove that Jesus rose from the dead, if history has any value for proof of past events. If you want to prove that Hannibal crossed the Alps, you can prove that Jesus rose from the dead just as much as you can prove that he crossed the Alps or that Washington crossed the Delaware. So big deal, I believe Jesus rose from the dead. I can prove it historically. It is the things that I can't prove that I have to just believe by faith that God honors. I say that I believe Jesus is the Son of God, great. The devils believe that too. What does that make me? Nothing.
But when you come to those areas of faith or belief where there is not the proof and I have to just believe in faith that this indeed did happen. That he died, yes, that's a historical fact but that He died for my sins, that's something I accept by faith. That God laid upon Him my sins when He died, I accept that by faith. That He rose, that's a historic fact, but in His resurrection He provided justification for me, that's faith. That's what makes me saved, is believing what I don't understand. I don't understand how or why He would die for me. I don't understand how I can be justified by His resurrection but I believe it because the Bible declares it.
And thus, there are many things in my Christian experience that I believe though I can't rationalize them. And the things especially when a person says to me, "Why did God?" Someone the other day started out their question says, "Why did God" I said "That's all the further you need to go. I don't know." I don't know the whys of God. "My ways are not your ways saith the Lord, my ways are beyond your finding out."(Isaiah 55:8) And thus, when I cannot reason or intellectualize some of the things I then, by faith, if God said it I believe it, by faith, not by reason. I take a step higher than reason and I step into that realm of faith believing it because God said it and God, who cannot lie, has declared His truth and I believe it though I can't rationalize it or understand it in my mind.
So why did God say, "Yep, go" and then allow them to get defeated? I don't know but it's there, I believe it.
The third day, they fasted, they prayed, they waited upon God, "Shall we go again?"
"Yes, go again."
Now this time they changed their strategy a bit. They had some guys sort of hide around the city and when the men of Benjamin then came out they retreated, drew them on out further from the city. Then these men came in the city, set a big fire and the men of Benjamin turned around, saw there city was on fire and, you know, the fight was gone out of them and they killed twenty thousand of them in the field. Some of them tried to flee, they grabbed them, killed three thousand in another place, killed a couple thousand in another and pretty much wiped out the men from the tribe of Benjamin. In fact, there were six hundred men who escaped the slaughter but the rest of them were wiped out. "