Judges 20:29-48. Yesterday we saw the “sons of Israel” go to battle against one of their own tribes, Benjamin. That tribe had stood behind one of their cities, Gibeah, who had been involved in a very evil act (if you haven’t read them go back and read the posts from Judges 19). The battle hasn’t gone very well for the Israelites. Although they outnumbered Benjamin, 400,000 soldiers verses 26,000 male citizens, the Israelites lost 22,000 soldiers on the first day of battle and 18,000 on the second day. both times they asked God about the battle but both times it was on their terms. They eventually went to the place of worship of God and had the priest ask Him if they should continue to fight. The response was “yes” and “I will give them to you.”
In todays reading we see the third day of the battle and the Israelites finally win, sort of. From a military point of view they definitely win. but from a spiritual point of view the battle is a disaster. Judges 20:29-35 give an overview of the battle and the victory by the Israelite. Judges 20:36-48 give more detail. In the overview we learn that 25,100 men of Benjamin died that day. From the more detailed account we learn that the Israelites set an ambush for the Benjamites. When the Benjamites saw that the were surrounded and cut off from the town they ran “toward the wilderness”. Gibeah was near the westen border of Benjamin’s territory and the wilderness was to the east. So the Benjamite troops ran through their own territory with the Israelites army right behind them. Perhaps they were trying to abandon the fight and go home. . Gibeah was completely destroyed, every one and everything. As were all the cities which they found. Since the territory was rather small and the Israelite army quite large, it seems reasonable that most of the population of Benjamin was affected. Near the end of todays reading we will see that only 600 Benjamite soldiers escaped. The note that they stayed in their hide out for four months hints that there is more to this story. As we will see tomorrow they alone survive. There are not even any women or children left in Benjamin and a disaster is brewing.
A few interesting notes. First we must remember what is going on historically in the book of Judges. The Israelites were living in a land which God has given them. They were supposed to take over the land and get rid of the people that are already there, the Canaanites. If you have been following the posts for very long you know that God loves people and is interested in having a relationship with them. But there are rules. We cannot live any way we want to and still have a relationship with God. The Old Testament is about God telling us about this fact and the nation of Israel is a big part of how we get God’s message (See “The Old Testament Connection” for more about this.) Israel was supposed to live a life dedicated to God. During the times of the Old Testament most of the world was polytheistic, that means that they worshipped more that one god. The god’s that they worshipped were all made my their hands and according to their ideas. Although all people know that there is one true God we consistently reject Him and make up our own gods (Romans 1:18-25). Israel was supposed to be a reminder of the true God. God knows we are week and turn from Him, especially when tempted so He told the Israelites to not allow the Canaanites to stay among them. Unfortunately in the book of Judges we learn that they did not follow through on what God had told them to do. And as we have seen, by the time of Samson they were completely comfortable living with the Canaanites and other people groups among them.
Another interesting thing is that during the battle the Israelites destroyed “Gibeah and all the cities which they found.” In Deuteronomy 6:10-12 God indicates that they were not to destroy the cities and crops in the land as they took it over. There were rules about not using some of the crops at first. There were times they were ordered to destroy all of a city and not to take or use any of the stuff from it. But in general they were not to destroy the cities, just get rid of the people. It was a common practice of many nations at that time to burn cities that the conquered and take all the stuff they found, They would even kill the men and take the women as part of their “spoil”. So destroying these cities is one way in which the Israelites were falling into the very trap they were supposed to avoid, one way they were becoming like the people around them.
Finally the last verse says they destroyed all the cities that they found. Hebrew seem to be a less exact language than some others. Words in Hebrew seem to have broad meanings. Like “chathan” which can mean father-in-law, son-in-law, mother -in-law, bridegroom, husband, marriage, and law (See the post for 2/18/12). The word for “found” in verse 48 can either mean they found theses cities by accident (Just happened to find they) or on purpose (went looking for them). Based on what we will learn tomorrow I think they went looking for them.
The Israelites were given laws to rule their nation by. These laws dealt a lot with purity. They were to deal with sin, avoid it, get rid of it. Sin was usually dealt with on an individual basis. People would be punished for their own sins (Deuteronomy 24:16) and there were to be witnesses (Deuteronomy 19:16). A few times we see a whole city destroyed ((Sodom (Genesis 19 but look at the conversation between Abraham and God in Genesis 18) and Jericho (Joshua 6-10. But Rahab and her family were allowed to escape)). And there is a story of a whole family being destroyed (Achan’s in Joshua 7 but it looks like they were all in on it). It appears that the Israelites went way beyond what they were supposed to do in the battle against the Benjamites. When a woman was assaulted in an Israelite town she was to be protected by all of the citizens (Deuteronomy 22:23-27) so most of the city of Gibeah was guilty. Maybe the Benjamite soldiers were guilty for being on the side of the Gibeonites, but the rest of the people of Benjamin were not guilty. If this story actually happened early in the period of the Judges it is sad how quickly the people went their own way. But really all of these stories show us that each generation has to make the decision to follow God. We each have to make the decision to follow God. And this story really show us how bad things can get if just one of us does things our own way. Lord help me realize that the things I do affect others. My actions spread like ripples in a pond. I cannot even come close to knowing what the end results of my actions can be, so help me, show me the right way to go. You know the beginning from the end so show me the right place to start and the right place to stop. Thank you for being here. Give me eyes to see and ears to hear.