Judges 20:1-48

     The Central Idea of the Text is that eleven tribes of Israel go to war against the tribe of Benjamin in order to exact justice for the Levite’s concubine who was raped and murdered in Gibeah.

     The tribes of Israel—minus Benjamin—gathered to hear the Levite’s account of the rape and killing of his concubine (Judg. 20:1-7), and then decided to take action (Judg. 20:8-11), giving Benjamin the opportunity  give up the offenders, which they refused to do (Judg. 20:12-13).  The result was civil war between eleven tribes of Israel and the Benjamites.  Three times God directed the eleven tribes to fight against Benjamin (Judg. 20:18, 23, 26-28); however, He permitted the Israelites to taste defeat on the first two occasions (40,000 men died), perhaps to discipline them for their pride—because they had excluded God from their lives for many years—and to prompt them to look to Him alone for victory.  Each defeat led the tribes to seek God more humbly and earnestly, to know His will and to have His blessing.  God finally defeated Benjamin for the wickedness of the men they were defending (Judg. 20:35).  25,100 Benjamites were killed (Judg. 20:35), and their city was destroyed (Judg. 20:48).  600 Benjamites survived the battle and hid themselves in the wilderness of Rimmon (Judg. 20:47).

     Sometimes God lets us experience defeat in order to break down our pride and to condition us to look to Him in all things and to cast ourselves upon His sustaining grace (Ps. 55:22; 2 Cor. 12:7-10).  Whatever the defeat, we must look to the Lord (Prov. 3:5-6) and accept that He is in sovereign control (Ps. 135:6; Dan. 4:35) and that He is working all things for our benefit (Rom. 8:28; cf. Gen. 50:20).