22. Staying on Higher Ground: The Battle Against Evil

Hymns: RHC 433 Am I a Soldier of the Cross? 444 Hold the Fort 448 The King’s Business

Judges 20

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, 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, 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 smite 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, and smote all the city with the edge of the sword. ³⁸ Now there was an appointed sign 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. ³⁹And when the men of Israel retired in the battle, Benjamin began to smite 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 come 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. ⁴³Thus they inclosed the Benjamites round about, and chased them, and trode them down with ease 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: also they set on fire all the cities that they came to.

The Battle Against Evil

OUTLINE

• United Against Evil (v1-17)
• The LORD’S Counsel to Battle (v18-28)
• Evil Put Away at Great Cost (v29-48)

INTRODUCTION

When sin ravaged the land and the movement to weed it out can be costly. Israel had a bigger army against their brethren the Benjamites. It would take them three battles for their righteous cause, albeit at a great price. The entire tribe of Benjamin was almost wiped out.

Galatians 5:9 (KJV) A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. 

When sin is not dealt with, like the leaven it permates and thus corrupts the entire loaf of bread. 

Sin was dealt with both at a great price to the prosecutors of justice and the perpetrators of evil. Christ had to pay the great price to right our sin by His sufferings – bodily, spiritual, mentally, and emotionally.

The Levite who suffered under the wicked men of the Gibeon with the death of his concubine sought justice from the tribes of Israel. They rose and came to Mizpeh, a place near Shiloh where God’s high priest and the ark was. The Benjamites would not deal with the wicked men but sought to cover the evil by refusing to deal with the wicked men.

• United Against Evil (v1-17)

Matthew Henry observed well, “The wretched obstinacy and perverseness of the men of Benjamin, who seem to have been as unanimous and zealous in their resolutions to stand by the criminals as the rest of the tribes were to punish them, so little sense had they of their honour, duty, and interest. They were so prodigiously vile as to patronise the wickedness that was committed: They would not hearken to the voice of their brethren (v13), either because those of that tribe were generally more vicious and debauched at this time than the rest of the tribes, and therefore would not bear to have that punished in others of which they knew themselves guilty (some of the most fruitful and pleasant parts of Canaan fell to the lot of this tribe; their land, like that of Sodom, was as the garden of the Lord, which perhaps helped to make the inhabitants, like the men of Sodom, wicked, and sinners before the Lord exceedingly Genesis 13:10;13), they took it ill that the other tribes should meddle with their concerns; they would not do that which they knew was their duty because they were reminded of it by their brethren, by whom they scorned to be taught and controlled. If there were any wise men among them that would have complied with the demand made, yet they were overpowered by the majority, who thus made the crime of the men of Gibeah their own. 

Thus, we have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness if we say A confederacy with those that have, and make ourselves guilty of other men’s sins by countenancing and defending them. It seems there is no cause so bad but it will find some patrons, some advocates, to appear for it; but woe be to those by whom such offences come. Those will have a great deal to answer for that obstruct the course of necessary justice, and strengthen the hands of the wicked, by saying, O wicked man! thou shalt not die.

They were so prodigiously vain and presumptuous as to make head against the united force of all Israel. Never, surely, were men so wretchedly infatuated as they were when they took up arms in opposition, to so good a cause as Israel had. How could they expect to prosper when they fought against justice, and consequently against the just God himself, against those that had the high priest and the divine oracle on their side, and so acted in downright rebellion against the sacred and supreme authority of the nation.”

• The LORD’S Counsel to Battle (v18-28)

All the forces they could bring into the field were but 26,000 men, besides 700 men of Gibeah (v15); yet with these, they will dare to face 400,000 men of Israel (v17). Thus, sinners are infatuated to their own ruin and provoke him to jealousy who is infinitely stronger than they (1 Corinthians 10:22).

1 Corinthians 10:22 (KJV) Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?  

But it should seem they depended upon the skill of their men to make up what was wanting in numbers, especially a regiment of slingers, 700 men, who, though left-handed, were so dexterous at slinging stones that they would not be a hair’s breadth beside their mark (v16). 

But these good marksmen were very much out in their aim when they espoused this bad cause. Benjamin signifies the son of the right hand, yet we find his posterity left-handed.

God bade them go up; he allowed the attempt, for, though Benjamin was their brother, he was a gangrened member of their body and must be cut off. 

Upon this they encouraged themselves, perhaps more in their own strength than in the divine commission, and made a second attempt upon the forces of the rebels, in the same place where the former battle was fought (v22), with the hope of retrieving their credit upon the same spot of ground where they had lost it, which they would not superstitiously change, as if there were any thing unlucky in the place. But they were this second time repulsed, with the loss of 18,000 men (v25). The former day’s loss and amounted to 40,000, which was just a tenth part of the whole army, and the same number that they had drawn out by lot to fetch victuals (v20). [Matthew Henry]

They decimated themselves for that service, and now God again decimated them for the slaughter. But what shall we say to these things, that so just and honourable a cause should thus be put to the worst once and again? Were they not fighting God’s battle against sin? Had they not his commission? What, and yet miscarry thus! 

God’s judgments are a great deep, and his way is in the sea. Clouds and darkness are often round about him, but judgment and justice are always the habitation of his throne. We may be sure of the righteousness of God’s proceedings, when we cannot see the reasons.

God would hereby show them, and us in them, that the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong, that we are not to confide in numbers, which perhaps the Israelites did with too much assurance. We must never lay the weight on an arm of flesh, which only the Rock of ages will bear. 

God designed hereby to correct Israel for their sins. They did well to show such zeal against the wickedness of Gibeah: but were there not with them, even with them, sins against the Lord their God? Those must be made to know their own iniquity that is forward in condemning the iniquity of others. Some think it was a rebuke to them for not witnessing against the idolatry of Micah and the Danites, by which their religion was corrupted, as they now did against the lewdness of Gibeah and the Benjamites, by which the public peace was disturbed, though God had particularly ordered them to levy war upon idolaters (Deut. 13:12-18). 

God would hereby teach us not to think it strange if a good cause should suffer defeat for a while, nor to judge of the merits of it by its success of it. The interest of grace in the heart, and of religion in the world, may be foiled, and suffer great loss, and seem to be quite run down, but judgment will be brought forth to victory at last. 

Vincimur in prælio, sed non in bello–We are foiled in a battle, but not in the whole campaign. Right may fall, but it shall arise. [Matthew Henry]

(3)Evil Out Away (v29-48)

Observe in this story, that the Benjamites, at the beginning of the battle, were confident that the day was their own: They are smitten down before us (v32,39). Sometimes God suffers wicked men to be lifted up in success and hopes, that their fall may be the sorer. See how short their joy is, and their triumphing but for a moment. Let not him that girdeth on the harness boast, except he has reason to boast in God. 

Evil was near them and they did not know it (v34). But (v41) they saw when it was too late to prevent it, that evil had come upon them. What evils may at any time be near us we cannot tell, but the less they are feared the heavier they fall. 

Sinners will not be persuaded to see evil near them, but how dreadful will it be when it comes and there is no escaping!

1 Thessalonians 5:3 (KJV) For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.  

Though the men of Israel played their parts so well in this engagement, yet the victory is ascribed to God (v35): The Lord smote Benjamin before Israel. The battle was His, and so was the success. 

They trode down the men of Benjamin with ease when God fought against them (v43). It is an easy thing to trample upon those who have made God their enemy. 

Malachi 4:3 (KJV) And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.

How the victory was prosecuted and improved in a military execution done upon these sinners against their own souls. 

Gibeah itself, that nest of lewdness, was destroyed in the first place. The ambush that entered the city by surprise drew themselves along, that is, dispersed themselves into the several parts of it, which they might easily do, now that all the men of war had sallied out and very presumptuously left it defenceless; and they smote all they found, even women and children, with the sword (v37), and set fire to the city (v40). 

Sin brings ruin to cities. The army in the field was quite routed and cut off: 18,000 men of valour lay dead upon the spot (v44). Those that escaped from the field were pursued, and cut off in their flight, to the number of 7000 (v45). It is to no purpose to think of out-running divine vengeance. Evil pursues sinners, and it will overtake them. Even those that tarried at home were involved in the ruin. They let their sword devour for ever, not considering that it would be bitterness in the latter end, as Abner pleads long after, when he was at the head of an army of Benjamites, probably with an eye to this very story (2 Samuel 2:25-26). 

2 Samuel 2:25-26 (KJV) And the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together after Abner, and became one troop, and stood on the top of an hill. Then Abner called to Joab, and said, Shall the sword devour for ever? knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter end? how long shall it be then, ere thou bid the people return from following their brethren?

They put to the sword all that breathed, and set fire to all the cities (v48). So that of all the tribe of Benjamin, for aught that appears, there remained none alive but 600 men that took shelter in the rock Rimmon, and lay close there four months (v48). 

It is difficult to justify this severity as it was Israel’s act. The whole tribe of Benjamin was culpable; but must they, therefore, be treated as devoted Canaanites? That it was done in the heat of war, that this was the way of prosecuting victories which the sword of Israel had been accustomed to, that the Israelites were extremely exasperated against the Benjamites for the slaughter they had made among them in the two former engagements, will go but a little way to excuse the cruelty of this execution. 

It is true they had sworn that whosoever did not come up to Mizpeh should be put to death (v5). But that, if it was a justifiable oath, yet extended only to the men of war; the rest were not expected to come. 

Yet, it is easy to justify the hand of God in it. Benjamin had sinner against him, and God had threatened that, if they forgot him, they should perish as the nations that were before them perished (Deut. 8:20), who were all in this manner cut off. 

It is easy likewise to improve it for warning against the beginnings of sin: they are like the letting forth of water, therefore leave it off before it be meddled with, for we know not what will be in the end thereof. The eternal ruin of souls will be worse, and more fearful, than all these desolations of a tribe. This affair of Gibeah is twice spoken of by the prophet Hosea as the beginning of the corruption of Israel and a pattern to all that followed (Hosea 9:9): They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah; and (Hosea 10:9), Thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah; and it is added that the battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not (that is, did not at first) overtake them.

Hosea 9:9 (KJV) They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: therefore he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.

Hosea 10:9 (KJV) O Israel, thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah: there they stood: the battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not overtake them.