God's Strange Providence in Defeat Text: Judges 20:1-48
Introduction: The War on Our Own House
We live in a soft and sentimental age. The modern evangelical church has traded the sword of discipline for a bowl of therapeutic pablum. We are allergic to confrontation. We prize a false unity, a cheap peace that is purchased by turning a blind eye to the most grotesque sins in our own midst. We have become experts at managing appearances and excusing wickedness, all under the guise of being winsome and non-judgmental. We would rather have a quiet cancer in the body than endure the painful surgery required to cut it out.
Into this timid and compromised landscape, Judges 20 lands like a meteor. It is a brutal, bloody, and deeply unsettling story. And it is precisely the medicine we need. Here we see a nation, for all its deep-seated corruptions, that still possesses a memory of corporate responsibility. They see a sin so heinous, an atrocity so vile, that they understand it cannot be ignored. This evil must be purged. It is a cancer that will kill the whole nation if it is not dealt with by the knife. They gather "as one man," ready to go to war with their own brothers to execute justice.
But this is not a simple story of good guys versus bad guys. It is far more instructive than that. This is the story of how God takes the flawed, zealous, and self-reliant righteousness of His people and puts it through the fire of humiliation. It is a story about how God uses defeat to purify His instruments of judgment. Before God will grant His people victory over the evil outside, He must first grant them defeat to crush the pride within. This is a lesson in the nature of true justice, the cost of holiness, and the strange and terrible providence of a God who is more concerned with the purity of His army than with the speed of its advance.
The Text
Then all the sons of Israel from Dan to Beersheba, including the land of Gilead, came out, and the congregation assembled as one man to Yahweh at Mizpah... And Yahweh defeated Benjamin before Israel, so that the sons of Israel destroyed 25,100 men of Benjamin that day, all who drew the sword... Now the men of Israel returned to the sons of Benjamin and struck them with the edge of the sword, both the entire city with the cattle and all that they found; they also set on fire all the cities which they found.
(Judges 20:1-48 LSB, selected)
A Righteous Cause, A Flawed Heart (vv. 1-11)
The story begins with a display of remarkable, if imperfect, unity.
"Then all the sons of Israel from Dan to Beersheba, including the land of Gilead, came out, and the congregation assembled as one man to Yahweh at Mizpah... 'Behold, all you sons of Israel, give your advice and counsel here.'" (Judges 20:1, 7 LSB)
The dismembered concubine has done her grisly work. The nation is shocked out of its apathy. From the northernmost border to the southernmost, and even across the Jordan, Israel gathers. This is a covenantal assembly. They understand, at some level, that the crime in Gibeah is not a private matter. It is a public defilement of the people of God and the land God gave them. Their impulse is correct. They gather to Yahweh to determine how to "purge this evil from Israel" (v. 13). This is a theonomic instinct, a recognition that God's law must be enforced if the nation is to survive.
The Levite gives his testimony, and we should note that he conveniently edits his own role, leaving out the part where he shoved his concubine out the door to save his own skin. He is a flawed instrument, but the central crime is undeniable. The people's response is swift and decisive. They resolve not to return home until justice is done. They are zealous, and their cause is just.
The Idolatry of Tribalism (vv. 12-17)
Israel's demand is straightforward and lawful.
"So now, give up the men, the vile fellows in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and purge this evil from Israel.' But the sons of Benjamin were not willing to listen to the voice of their brothers, the sons of Israel." (Judges 20:13 LSB)
Here the second great sin occurs, a sin of corporate complicity. The tribe of Benjamin hears the case, and they make a calculated decision. They choose tribal loyalty over covenant faithfulness. They decide to protect their rapists and murderers rather than submit to the justice of God. This is the sin of making blood and soil thicker than the water of the covenant. It is a damnable idolatry.
Instead of handing over the guilty, they muster their own army. Notice the detail about their 700 elite, left-handed slingers, who could "sling a stone at a hair and not miss." This is not an incidental detail. It is a display of their pride. They are trusting in their military prowess, in the arm of the flesh. They are defiant. They have made their tribe, and its honor, their god. And so, the lines are drawn. A just war is about to begin. But it will not go the way anyone expects.
The School of Divine Humiliation (vv. 18-28)
What follows is one of the most staggering passages in all of Scripture. Israel has the just cause. They have the overwhelming numbers, 400,000 to 26,700. And they do the right thing, procedurally. They go up to Bethel, the house of God, to inquire of the Lord.
"Then the sons of Israel arose, went up to Bethel, and asked of God and said, 'Who shall go up for us to begin the battle against the sons of Benjamin?' Then Yahweh said, 'Judah shall begin it.'" (Judges 20:18 LSB)
They ask a logistical question, and God gives them the right answer. Judah is the royal tribe, the line of the Messiah. So they go out to fight, with God's permission and the right tribe in the lead. And they are utterly routed. Twenty-two thousand men of Israel are cut down. Imagine the shock, the confusion, the despair. They had everything right, or so they thought.
Their problem was not their cause, but their heart. They were arrogant. They were confident in their numbers. They assumed victory was their right. God had to teach them a brutal lesson: the battle is the Lord's. Justice must be pursued in utter dependence on Him, not in self-righteous confidence. So God uses the wicked Benjamites as a rod of discipline to beat the pride out of the army of Israel.
They return to Bethel and weep. Their second question is better: "Shall we again approach for battle against the sons of my brother Benjamin?" There is a hint of desperation now. God's answer is a simple, stark command: "Go up against him." So they go. And they are slaughtered again. Another eighteen thousand men fall. Forty thousand men are dead in two days, fighting a just war with God's permission.
This is God's strange work. He is more interested in sanctifying His people than in giving them easy victories. He will allow them to be hammered on the anvil of defeat until their self-reliance is shattered.
Finally, they are broken. They come back to Bethel, and this time it is different. "All the sons of Israel and all the people" come. They weep, they fast, and they offer burnt offerings for atonement and peace offerings for fellowship. They are finally desperate for God Himself, not just for victory. Phinehas the high priest is there, a link to a time of righteous zeal. Their third question is the model of humble submission: "Shall I yet again go out to battle... or shall I cease?" They are now willing to stop if God commands it. And only then, when they have been emptied of themselves, does God give the promise: "Go up, for tomorrow I will give them into your hand."
Victory Through Humility and Wisdom (vv. 29-48)
With their hearts right before God, they now act with prudence. Faith is not opposed to strategy. They set an ambush, a classic military tactic. They fight not just with zeal, but with wisdom. And this time, God fights for them.
"Then Yahweh defeated Benjamin before Israel..." (Judges 20:35 LSB)
The victory is total, and the judgment is terrifyingly severe. Benjamin is nearly annihilated. The men are cut down, the cities are burned, the land is purged. This is not pretty, nor is it meant to be. This is the biblical reality of corporate sin and corporate judgment. When a people collectively shields wickedness, they collectively share in its punishment. The modern church, which cannot even bring itself to excommunicate an unrepentant adulterer, needs to read this and tremble at the holiness of God.
The severity of the judgment was a direct reflection of the severity of the sin. The atrocity at Gibeah was a capital crime. Benjamin's decision to protect the criminals was an act of open rebellion against the covenant Lord of Israel. The amputation had to be severe to save the life of the nation.
From Defeat at Gibeah to Victory at Calvary
This history is written for our instruction. We are not ancient Israel, a civil theocracy tasked with wielding the physical sword. But the principles here are eternal, and they apply directly to the Church.
First, the Church must recover her zeal for holiness. We must learn to hate sin as God hates it. We must understand that unaddressed sin in the camp is a poison that defiles the whole body. Church discipline is not an optional ministry for the spiritually brave; it is a fundamental command of Christ. A church that refuses to purge evil from its midst, that protects its own "Benjamites" for the sake of reputation or a false peace, is a church that is siding with Benjamin against God. And it will find itself on the receiving end of His judgment.
Second, all our zeal for righteousness must be clothed in humility. We can have the right position on every issue, we can be fighting all the right battles, and still be filled with a self-reliant pride that God must crush. He will often lead us through seasons of defeat, failure, and humiliation to teach us that victory is from Him alone. We must learn the rhythm of Bethel: to weep, to fast, to confess our sins, and to ask "Shall I go on, or shall I cease?" before we charge into battle.
Finally, this entire bloody episode drives us to the cross of Jesus Christ. The cost of purging sin is immense. Here, it cost tens of thousands of lives. At Calvary, it cost the life of God's own Son. To purge our sin, God took the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and He did not spare Him. He crushed Him under the full weight of His wrath. That is the ultimate act of divine judgment. God executed His own Son in our place so that evil could be purged from us forever.
Therefore, our fight against sin, both in our own hearts and in the Church, is not a desperate struggle for a victory we have to achieve. It is a fight from a victory that has already been won. But we must learn the lesson of Israel. We must be brought low. We must come to the House of God in repentance and faith. We must be stripped of our pride before we can be clothed in His strength. Only then, in humble dependence on our victorious King, can we go up against the enemy, knowing that He has already promised to deliver him into our hands.