Dennis Tuuri

# Judges Chapter 20

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 under the Lord in Mizpah. And the chiefs of all the people, even of all the tribes in Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God. Four hundred thousand footmen that drew sword.

Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel were gone up to Mizpah.

Then said the children of Israel, “Tell us, how was this wickedness?” And the Levite, the husband of the woman that was slain, answered and said, “I came into Gibeah that belonged to Benjamin. I and my concubine to lodge, 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 had they forced that she is dead.” And I took my concubine and cut her in pieces and sent them throughout all the country the inheritance of Israel, for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel.

Behold, ye are all children of Israel. Give here your advice and counsel.” And all the people arose as one man, saying, “We will not, we will not any of us go to his tent, neither will any of us turn into his house. But now this shall be the thing which we will do to Gibeah. We will go up by lot against it, and we will take 10 men of a hundred throughout all tribes of Israel and a hundred of a thousand and a thousand out of 10,000 to fetch victuals 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.”

So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city knit together as one man. And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribes of Benjamin, saying, “What wickedness is this that is done among you? 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.

But the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities unto Gibeah to go out to battle against the children of Israel. 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. Among all these people, there were seven hundred chosen men left-handed. Every one could sling stones at a hair breadth and not miss.

And the men of Israel beside Benjamin were numbered four hundred thousand men that drew sword. All these were men of war. 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 in the battle against the children of Benjamin?” And the Lord said, “Judah shall go up first.” And the children of Israel rose up in the morning and encamped against Gibeah.

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. 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. 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.

The children of Israel went up and wept before the Lord until even and asked counsel 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.” The children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day. 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. Then all the children of Israel and all the people went up and came into the house of God and wept and sat there before the Lord and fasted that day until evening and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. The children of Israel inquired of the Lord, for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days. 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?” The Lord said, “Go up, for tomorrow I will deliver them into thine hand.” And Israel set liars in wait round about Gibeah.

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. 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.

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.” And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and put themselves in array at Beth Tamar. And the liars in wait of Israel came forth out of their places, even out at the meadows of Gibeah. 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. And the Lord smote Benjamin before Israel. And the children of Israel destroyed of the Benjamites that day twenty and five thousand men and a hundred men. All these drew the sword. 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 liars in wait, which they had set against Gibeah.

And the liars in wait hasted, and rushed upon Gibeah, and the liars in wait drew themselves along, and smote all the city with the edge of the sword. Now there was an appointed sign between the men of Israel and the liars in wait, that they should make a great flame with smoke rise up out of the city. And when the men of Israel retired in the battle, Benjamin began to smite and kill the men of Israel, about thirty persons, for they said, “Surely they are smitten down before us as in the first battle.” But when the flames began to rise 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.

And when the men of Israel turned again, the men of Benjamin were amazed, for they saw that evil was come upon them. Therefore, they turned their backs before the men of Israel and to 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. Thus they enclosed the Benjamites round about and chased them and trod them down with ease over against Gibeah toward the sunrising.

And there fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men, all these were men of valor. And they turned and fled toward the wilderness under the rock of Rimmon. And they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men and pursued hard after them and to Gidom and slew two thousand men of them there. So that all which fell that day of Benjamin were twenty and five thousand men that drew the sword. All these were men of valor. But six hundred men turned and fled to the wilderness under the rock Rimmon and abode in the rock Rimmon.

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 beasts and all that came to hand. So they set on fire all the cities that they came to.

We thank God for his word and pray that he would illumine it to our understanding. But I think as we work through it, as we break the bread apart under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, as he writes that word upon our hearts, shows us the truths revealed beneath these sacred pages that will be sweet in our mouths by the time we reach the finish and the conclusion of this story of part of the history of the tribe of Benjamin.

We’re continuing actually in our series through Joshua. And you say, “Why are you reading from Judges if we’re going through Joshua?” But remember where we’re at in the book of Joshua. We’re finishing up chapter 18. And this is the last of the long list of borders and cities described for the tribal inheritances. Now, we’ll get to city lists when we get to the Levitical cities in a couple of weeks, but this is the last of the long list for the tribes.

In chapter 19 we’ll spend two weeks on. There are six tribes’ inheritance plus Joshua’s in chapter 19. We’ll get to that in the next couple of weeks. Chapter 18 has the beginning of the dispersement of these seven tribes, their inheritance. That is, and then a long recitation of Benjamin’s place. And you remember from last week, it’s very important to keep in mind the framework for what we’re looking through, the context, the setting, and that setting is the possession of the land.

That’s a very important theme to keep in mind as we go through this story from the book of Judges.

Now, last week, I took us on a little rogation day walk. It was a real fast walk, probably more like a jog, maybe a sprint for some of you. I spoke very fast. I’ll try to slow down this week, but there’s a lot of information in those city lists and country and the border descriptions that really if we pause and think about it is good for us.

That list of border descriptions and cities really could serve us well. It could serve us well to spend a year going through just chapter 18, what those city names mean in the original Hebrew language, what lessons from the scriptures they remind us of and hopefully you’re doing that in your own lives as you go look at the name of your children for instance and think about the implications of those names if they’re chosen out as biblical names. But anyway, we did that a little bit. We saw some real interesting things. You remember the last 14 cities. The first three cities talked about God the Father at least by way of application and thinking about the names of the cities. The next three about God the Son and the next three about God the Holy Spirit and the last three cities leading up to the final two cities, 10, 11, and 12, spoke of the practical life, the family life, ox work and dominion and calling and then evaluation, the threshing floor of Jebus, later to be Jerusalem.

And then the final two cities reminding us again of the ascent to worship God. But in any event, we move on now. We looked at that rogation day sort of walk, who the Benjamites were prior to that time of getting the land. And I want us to look at Judges chapters really 19, 20, and 21, mostly 20 and 21, for a brief history of what happens to the tribe of Benjamin as they go through biblical history. We have in the list of the inheritances in the books of Joshua in these chapters forms the foundation, really, or at least a major foundation stone for biblical history and understanding what happens later.

You remember that we talked, what we’re going to talk about now really then is the warfare, the tribe of Benjamin, the war that they’re in the context of in this history of God’s word revealed history. We’re dealing with the history now of Benjamin, which is really point four for the original outline for last week, which is the same outline for this week. And we’re going to talk first of all just make brief mention of the fact that they failed to conquer as pointed out for us in Judges 1:21 and 10:9.

Judges 1:21—”The children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem but the Jebusites dwelt with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day.”

So like we’ve seen so far this consistent pattern, they don’t really do what they’re supposed to do in terms of possessing this land and it’s important to notice that. And then in chapter 10, that references to when they actually are attacked by Ammonites in their land, and as an evidence of what happens when you leave sin undelt with or those that God has told you to work with and to either convert or drive off the land. If you leave them undelt with, they come back and bite you.

But then secondly, we want to move on then to the blood versus water part of the outline. And this is what I just read from Judges 20. And remember I said that the geography of Benjamin’s inheritance, if you look at the map on the back of your outline today—it’s a little cleaner map. It doesn’t have the cities listed, but it shows you the setting for that strip of land that Benjamin inhabited.

You got Judah to the south. You’ve got Ephraim and then touching Manasseh. Basically, it’s Ephraim on their northern border and Manasseh. And you remember who Ephraim and Manasseh were? They were the children of Joseph. And you remember who Joseph, what his relationship to Benjamin was? They had the same mother, Rachel—the only two of Israel’s 12 sons that did, Jacob’s 12 sons that did. So, Benjamin had a blood linkage so to speak through a shared mother with Ephraim and Manasseh.

And remember we said that in the wilderness wanderings they marched under the standard of Ephraim. The 12 tribes were in array and groups of three. Ephraim, Manasseh and Benjamin were linked together because they were related. So you got that on the north of them. On the south you’ve got Judah. And I gave that as a little picture again in terms of looking at the geography, the inspired geography of the Old Testament, of the battle that went on in the hearts and minds of the men of Benjamin throughout their history in the Old Testament.

That battle is a battle of water versus blood. Water, I’m referring there to the covenant signs. The water is the covenant mark and blood is the idea of linkage through relationships, physical lineage. So, whether you like the metaphor or not, the thing I’m trying to point out here is which is more important? Our natural family, so to speak, or the family of God that we have been brought into through God’s electing grace.

Now, of course, Benjamin was in the context of a whole bunch of people that were supposed to be that way, but of course, they fell off and things disintegrated. So, this battle is real in Benjamin’s heart and soul as we look at a premier example of that now in Judges 19, 20, and 21.

There’s other places we could look later, of course. Saul, King Saul in the monarchical period comes from the line of Benjamin. And Benjamin has a real struggle at first when Saul is defeated and David rises up. Do they follow Benjamin or Saul’s son Ishbosheth or should they follow David? And many of them follow Ishbosheth for a while, though some go to David, and then we’ll see later on that they all go to David eventually, but that’s the battle form because there are other places we can look in scripture. But the real pointed example is right here in the book of Judges.

Now, the story we’re reading about that I read in Judges 20—the citation to Phinehas is quite important as we’ll see for several reasons. But one important reason is because it tells us that while this is placed at the end of the book of Judges, historically, it happens early on in the period of the judges because that’s when Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, the son of Eleazar, that’s when he ministered is in the early period of the judges.

So even though it happens in terms of the literary structure at the end of the book for really good reasons, it actually happens early in the period. So this is not far really from the inheritance that’s given to Benjamin that we’re reading about in Joshua 18. And I think it’ll help us to understand Benjamin if we take the time to look at these chapters. So let’s look at Judges chapters 19, 20, and 21.

Chapter 19 we won’t really read but just to point out there that the Levite’s story that we read in just now in chapter 20 of Judges is kind of a cleaned up portrayal of himself. The Levite’s failure of the Levite is one of the marked themes of the book of Judges. And certainly the Levite’s failure to guard his concubine or unendowed wife. It’s one way to look at it what a concubine was. I hate to make that correlation to those of you wives out there that don’t have a dowy. But that’s essentially what it was in the Old Testament. The concubine was an unendowed wife.

But in any event, the Levite failed to guard her. The Levite was trying to do the right thing in a sense. His wife had played the harlot. He goes out at it, goes she goes back to her father’s house. He goes, seeks her out. The father says, “Yeah, you can stick around.” They party for a while.

Then he finally takes off and it’s kind of late in the evening. They got to find a place to stay. The Levite and his wife or his concubine. And they don’t stay at Jebus still not conquered yet there. See, there’s part of the problem here. They didn’t conquer the original enemies of God in the land that God told them to dispossess or the inheritance. Well, they don’t want to go try stay at Jebus, at what will be eventually Jerusalem, because that’s still Canaanite.

They want to stay with their brothers. So, they travel on to Gibeah, which of course is in the land of Benjamin. And they stay the night at Gibeah. And they go out in the center square there in Gibeah in chapter 19. And nobody comes and greets them. Here you got a Levite, you know, traveling around with a wife. They need the hospitality shown to him. No hospitality is shown to them.

Much as no hospitality was shown to our Savior, for instance, the day that he had to eat wheat heads from the wheat field on the Sabbath day, and then the Pharisees got mad at him, but they really had failed to extend hospitality to him. Well, here the Levite in Gibeah—people around failed to extend hospitality to him. An older man who apparently from the text, I think actually may not have been an Israelite, certainly not of the main group at Gibeah, implores them to stay with him in the evening because it’s going to get tough out there in the streets.

He says, “Well, some sodomite thugs come up. They want the Levite—who they really want in chapter 19. They want the Levite to come out, not to kill him primarily, but first to goof around with him, maybe kill him.” And the Levite and the old man say—the old man says, “Well, please, he’s a Levite. He’s a man of God. Take my daughter and his concubine instead.” This is horrific, but this is what happened. And the Levite goes along with this plan. They throw the Levite’s concubine out to this gang of sodomites.

They abused her all night, rape her. And then not only did they rape her, the text says they abused her. A very important word there. That word means glean. When it says in Judges chapter 19 that they had their way with her and abused her, it means they gleaned her. And as a result, they took not just—they didn’t just invade her privacy in terms of rape, but they actually all night long were in the process of killing her.

And so she dies in the morning. They put her but the door dies on the doorstep of the home of the Levite or the fellow the Levite was staying with. The Levite finds his concubine, his bride dead, and cuts her in 12 pieces, sends her out to the tribes, as we just read from Judges chapter 20, and says, “Look what this terrible thing has done. We got to do something here.”

So that’s the setting for chapter 20.

Chapter 20 we’ve just read. We should note several things going through this chapter, however, that is important, I think, for properly understanding what this is a picture in terms of Benjamin and what they were doing. Chapters 20 and 21 are somewhat controversial. Much of the material I’m going to share with you for the next few minutes I got from Jim Jordan’s commentary on the book of Judges, which I highly recommend. I’m sure it’s in the church library. It’s an excellent commentary. I don’t agree with everything in it, but I think it is an excellent commentary.

And his interpretation, I think is the correct one, that actually Judges 20 and 21 show us an example first of the destruction of an errant or sinning tribe of Israel, which is the Benjamites, and then chapter 21, the restoration, the re-resurrection, the salvation of Benjamin. And so that’s why I’m pointing it out here is to show the struggle Benjamin went through and then eventually how God worked with them actually graciously. His mercy does endure forever. And it did so to the Benjamites till they were restored after they were severely chastised by God working through the other tribes.

Deuteronomy 13 says, “When you’ve got a city and there’s a bunch of sons of Belial, worthless sons in that city, and there are causing the city—the city has gone, been seduced off to follow other gods—then you’re supposed to, if you’re a good Israelite nation or tribe or nation, you’re supposed to make inquiry. And if they indeed have gone off in this way and followed other gods and the whole city is apostasized, you’re supposed to take fire, sacrificial fire from God’s altar, and burn that city down and kill everybody in it. You’re supposed to purge out the evil, the way you would purge out for instance leprosy out of your household or your person.

You’re supposed to purge out the evil in the land in which you’re living. And that’s what happens in chapter 20 of the book of Judges. A Levite brings a report that some worthless men have done a terrible thing here in the nation of Israel. Has this ever been heard before? He says, “This is a terrible thing.” And they make inquiry. They gather together to make inquiry according to the laws of Deuteronomy 13.

And as a result of that inquiry, they go out then and approach not just Gibeah but the whole tribe of Benjamin who refuses to come to that assembly at Mizpah where the inquiry is to be made. So they go to Benjamin and you’ll notice in, well first of all in verse 9, very importantly we read that “this shall be the thing which we will do to Gibeah. We shall go up by lot against it.” Okay. So they made inquiry, terrible things happened. They’re going to execute the whole city. It’s an apostasized city in accordance to Deuteronomy 13. They’re going to bring holy fire. They’re going to kill everybody and everything in Gibeah. They’re going to purge the evil.

And they go up by lot. That’s very important because Judges 1 starts with who’s going to go up against the Canaanites that remain in the land. And they draw—they go up by lot. They ask, inquire of God. And God says, you know, send Judah up. And they—Judah goes up by lot. So here we have a reference to what has happened at the very beginning of this book. Now it’s happening at the end of the book. But it’s not Canaanites now, is it? Now it’s the people of Gibeah, part of the tribe of Benjamin that they’re going to go up by lot against to take God’s vengeance against them.

So we see right away here indications that they’re following the laws of Deuteronomy 13. They’re following the same procedure that God used the beginning of the book to wipe out Canaanites and they’re applying it to their own people when those people quit following God and instead become following the gods of the Canaanites in essence.

Then notice in verse 13, there was an offer of peace to the Benjamites for siding with the Gibeites in this matter. Verses 12 and 13: “The tribes of Israel went through all the tribe of Benjamin saying ‘What wickedness is this that is done among you. Now therefore deliver us the men, the children of Belial. This is the second citation of the children of Belial in the scriptures. The first is that Deuteronomy 13 citation I made. So here we have another very important literary clue, device, pointer that points this is a Deuteronomy 13 process going on. These men, this city has been found as sons of Belial. And that’s why they’re doing this thing. Join these sons of law which are in Gibeah so we can put away evil from Israel.’”

Same word back in Deuteronomy 13: Purge this evil out of Israel. Well, Benjamin says, “We’re not going to do that.” And Benjamin instead as a whole tribe now essentially follows Gibeah instead of following God’s way of dealing with an apostasized city. Remember I said the conflict for Benjamin is water versus blood. They associate with their family and their tribal connections as opposed the covenant people of God when push comes to shove.

Now, you know, we don’t know what the Benjamites said to the other leaders of the nation of Israel. They might not have said, “It’s okay that they raped this woman till she was dead.” They might have said, “These guys need counseling.” They could have said that, right? We don’t know what they said.

We should not read into this that they approved of the deeds the Gibeites. But what we do have to read into it is they completely disagreed with God’s remedy for sin, explicitly against the body of Christ. And remember too that these men of Gibeah struck out not against the concubine at first. Why were they at that concubine’s house, Levite’s house? They wanted to strike at the very image of God in terms of the Levite—a failed minister, terrible guy, etc. has his own problems. Nonetheless, represents the person of God in terms of the Levitical calling in the nation of Israel.

The men of Gibeah were striking out at the biggest image of God they had in the context of their language as a Levitical minister. These guys were bad. And we are in a nation today and unfortunately in a church as well, extended church of Jesus Christ in America where this goes on repeatedly where the ministers of God’s people are struck out at by various people within the congregation and certainly those in the greater culture.

And we also unfortunately live in a day and age where sins such as these actually literally occur in the context of our own land. Brad Hangardner was telling me last night about a woman who got clubbed senseless at tire iron at 1:00 in the afternoon at 10th and Morrison in Portland, middle of the day, not at night, and this woman gets clubbed senseless. These sorts of crimes occur in our very community and our community can be seen as apostate when they say these guys don’t need to be executed or purged. They need to be counseled. They need to be locked up in prison where they can do their weightlifting and build themselves so they’re nice and strong. When they get out next time, they’ll beat them up even worse.

We live in the context of a culture that needs desperately the witness of God’s word that says people that do these evils the scriptures talk about in terms of death penalty crime should be given the death penalty and the evil should be purged from our nation. But how can we tell the culture that if the Benjamite church that we live in the context of refuses to see that reality as well? I don’t think we could get most of the Christians, evangelical Christians in the state to support this kind of action and that’s why this section of scripture is usually interpreted as sin on the part of the rest of Israel.

I mean, we got Phinehas involved, the direction of God’s law. We got the lots just like Judges 1. We got the process of Deuteronomy 13 being carried out. It seems obvious to me that Judges 20 is a picture of righteousness on the part of the tribes even though they all had their sin. But people don’t like it. They don’t like whole peoples being wiped out. They don’t like men, women, and children being cut off as they were in this particular setting.

And we have a context today where people in the church do not like to see excommunications occur. They don’t like to see civil penalties. Many people in evangelical churches involving the death penalty. We essentially think like Canaanites increasingly in the context of the body of Christ.

Well, in any event, this is a corrective to us and this history as we go through it to look at Benjamin also becomes instructive of us in terms of how we relate then and how so many times, and we’ve seen it in this very church, when you excommunicate one party the family sticks with them or the family sticks with her. We’ve seen it in church after church, including in this very church in the last 10 years. We’ve seen people—we’ve excommunicated a husband once for instance. Wife doesn’t separate herself in terms of sin separation from the husband’s sin. We then moved on to excommunicate the wife. Now that happens over and over and it can happen not just amongst family members but friends as well in terms of some of these problems.

So this is a reminder to us of all those things. But we don’t want to get distracted too much here, but it is important we point these things out.

Well, what happens then is Benjamin apostasizes. Essentially the whole tribe of Benjamin now takes the place of the Gibeite city, and the apostasized city. They’re now an apostasized tribe for their failure to deal with Gibeah and let the tribes deal with them according to the scriptures. So then the children of Israel make war against the entire tribe of Benjamin.

And in verse 18, they ask counsel from God. Who will go up? And God says, “Judah will go up first.” We’re right back to Judges 1. Again, this is a reminder. This is right in line with what God was doing. The Benjamites as well as the Gibeites here who are part of Benjamin have become Canaanites to all practical purposes. They are now Canaanites in the land.

And God says, “Send Judah up first and you guys go out and get them.” Well, then, as you notice as I read along, they don’t go out and get them the first two times, do they? They send some guys out to get them. And what happens? Twenty-two thousand of the right guys get killed. They go out the next day the same way. Eighteen thousand more get killed. They started with four hundred thousand men. In the first two battles, they lose forty thousand—a tithe. Ten percent of the soldiers they sent up get killed and they suffer defeat.

And then they wise up before the third day, at the third battle. What do they do? They fast. They weep before God. They’d wept before, but now they do what’s right besides weeping. They wept. They fast to show that they’re cut off from God’s gift of life, to show themselves essentially taking symbolic death. They offer burnt offerings for their sin and then they offer peace offerings for being reconciled to God.

The whole burnt offering is essentially the offertory we engage in every Sunday. We offer ourselves to God. We accept the burnt offering that is Jesus Christ been laid on the altar for us and in relation in relationship to that we give ourselves at the altar recognizing that we can’t pay the price. Only Christ can, but we offer ourselves as a result of his sacrifice. And then the peace offering which is communion, a meal with God and they do that.

And this points out to us as Jordan says in his commentary, this is very important as well because it’s not enough to be righter than the next guy. These men of Israel at this point in the period of Judges were not without their own sin. They had their own sin. And you know, you think somehow, well, maybe it’s if I’m better than those lousy Canaanites in the land, whether they started out as Christians or not, that I’ll be okay.

No, God holds the church of Jesus Christ more accountable. And so this the nations here are the nations of Israel are held accountable and their own sin has to be dealt with through burnt offering and peace offering before they then become victorious against Benjamin. And that’s what happens then. After they do that on the third day, the day of resurrection, they come forward in new life. In the third battle, they do a tactic, don’t they?

And if you were listening closely and using your gray little gray cells up there, you remember that we talked before about this very process from Judges 20 in another portion of this series of sermons of the book of Joshua. And here in Judges 20, what do they do? They just go up like they did the day before and they fall back from the city. As the men of Benjamin come out of Gibeah, they fall back from the city.

They have some liars in wait who sneak into that city, torch it, and then these men that have given this false feint to the Benjamites turn around. The Benjamites see their city burning. They see the tribes of Israel turning back on them, and they know it’s all over.

Now, where did we see that before? We saw it at Ai, the battle of Ai, the second battle. Remember Jericho, they win. Ai, they lose at first because of personal sin in the camp. Here, Israel loses against Benjamin at first. But then God taught them tactics of war to defeat Ai. And God now is telling us very explicitly that Gibeah and the whole tribe of Benjamin have become Ai. They are Canaanites now.

Don’t think of it as somehow they’re just kind of like him. They are them now. They’re associated totally with them. And when the city is burned, the word for the smoke ascending up is the word for sacrificial offerings. Again, it’s God’s hearth fire. It’s God’s altar on which they—those who refuse to accept the altar of God’s substitute atoning work—those people then become the burnt sacrifice themselves except their smoke arises forever. They cannot pay the price of their sins no matter how much they burn in hell. And they burn perpetually.

So, so, we’re told very explicitly here that these guys have apostasized and essentially are now Canaanites. And as a result, God’s troops are then successful against them. And you know what they do to them? They kill a bunch, run away, they kill some more, and then what does it say they do in verse 45? They glean them in the highways. Same word that we read or we referred to in Judges 19 where the wife of the concubine of the Levite was gleaned by the men.

If these guys had been rapists, death penalty. Maybe some of the tribe of Benjamin would have wiped out, but since they gleaned her, went all the way and really took total advantage of her, they now are gleaned themselves. Holy war is on and it doesn’t stop until there are only six hundred men left of what was twenty-five thousand or so Benjamites at the beginning of this battle. Six hundred.

Where are they? How do they escape? They hide in the rock of Rimmon. And we could talk about the rock of Jesus Christ. That’s the only place of escape for all of us who are under God’s wrath for our own sin and for the sin that’s been imputed to us as well because of the work of Adam.

But in any event, these six hundred Benjamites end up in the rock of Rimmon and that’s when the holy war ceases.

So chapters 20 tell us the result when you put tribal friends, blood relatives, etc. before the faith community of Jesus Christ, you are judged by God as having abandoned the faith and apostasized. And that’s what Benjamin did. Judges 20 shows us God’s destruction of people who fail to possess the land in accordance with God’s laws pointed out in Deuteronomy 13, for instance, in this specific example.

But if Judges 20 is the bleak picture of darkness, death, judgment, and despair, and terrible stuff going on, Judges 21 properly understood shows us the other side of the coin. And Benjamin now is brought back to salvation by God.

The men of Israel get together and they say, “Gosh, what are we going to do?” And we don’t like seeing these guys totally wiped out. It’s not a happy thing when you excommunicate people. It’s not a happy thing when a civil magistrate executes people. They said, “We don’t like this. What can we do with these six hundred that are left?”

What do they do? In We don’t have time to read it now, but in Judges 21, the first thing they do is they offer burnt offerings and peace offerings. Now, they’re not doing this for their sin. Now, they’ve already done that back before they were victorious against Benjamin. Jordan suggests, and I think he’s right, that those offerings are for these six hundred men who have fled. Those are the offerings for those men.

They then go to those men and they call them out and they speak peaceably to them, just like they had gone to Benjamin in chapter 20 and said, “What’s the deal? You take God’s side against the Gibeites.” And Benjamin, they gave him an offer of peace. Benjamin said no. And war was waged upon him.

Now, they go to the Benjamites after the offerings, sacrificial offerings are offered. They go to the Benjamites and they speak peaceably to him. And this time, Benjamin responds affirmatively. They come out. And so, they’re brought back to a position of restored fellowship with the people of God through the sacrificial offerings and their acceptance of a substitute atonement and an acknowledgement of their own sin.

But then secondly, the second part of the story in Judges 21 is they remember that Jabesh Gilead had not come forward to the convocation of the host to make war against Benjamin. And the scriptures say if a guy does that, the city won’t come out and take part in that warfare and act, if they won’t throw the stone along with the rest of the community, they then are punished by God’s people. They get a different sort of a punishment.

All the men, children, and married wives are killed at Jabesh Gilead. But the virgins are spared and the virgins are given to the men of the tribe of Benjamin, the six hundred that are left. You see, all the women and children are dead. You got six hundred guys left and that’s it. So the four hundred virgins are taken from Jabesh Gilead and given to those men.

Now, again there we could talk about that, but there are many correlations between Phinehas—he was high priest at this point in time. Phinehas was the man who led Israel against the Moabites in Numbers 31 and he used the same model where they take a thousand from each tribe—twelve thousand men went up against the Moabites. They killed all the Moabites, but spared the virgins for the people of God. And in this example, they go up against Jabesh Gilead with a thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand men. They spare the virgins for the tribe of Benjamin. They’re being treated like Moabites instead of like normal Canaanites.

Canaanites got all entirely wiped out. Moabites got spared the virgins and those virgins were incorporated then into the faith community of God. So four hundred wives were provided for Benjamin through that action. That’s the second part of the restoration. And again there, Jabesh Gilead—fire is sent upon them. Fire on the offering for Benjamin also is the fire for destruction to the enemies of God’s people by implication the enemies of Benjamin as well. And that provides the blessing for Benjamin in chapter 21.

So God’s—when we take communion, we see a picture of God’s wrath against sin, but it’s deliverance for us, but it’s also wrath to God’s enemies. When we affirm the kingdom of Jesus Christ in communion, we affirm the destruction of every other kingdom that seeks to build itself apart from the substitutionary atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that’s what pictured for us in Judges 21 when Benjamin is resurrected, so to speak, and brought back to a position of blessing.

And then finally, they need two hundred more wives and they have a festival at Shiloh. And apparently, as part of this festival, there’s some kind of courting procedure that goes on that women dance around. And I could get into an explanation, but it’s a little lengthy and a little too—it’s too lengthy to get into. But in any event, we see then two hundred wives taken from the daughters, the virgin daughters of the other tribes of Israel at the dancing at Shiloh by these men from Benjamin.

I don’t think that it’s rape going on here or stealing women, anything like that. I think this is a stylized courtship procedure happening and it was a way to get around the oath that they had taken not to intermarry with the Benjamites. The Benjamites from the holy war started against were considered Canaanites. And you cannot be yoked to an unbeliever like our covenant says. So they had all said, “We’re not going to let our daughters marry Benjamites.”

To fulfill that vow, they then don’t—they don’t give their daughters in marriage to the Benjamites. They arranged this courtship procedure which apparently was used apart from this incident, but they through this courtship procedure, the men of Benjamin actually kind of take these wives who are willing, of course, and then the fathers have to be willing as well once they’re courted. But in any event, then two hundred more wives are provided at Shiloh, the city of peace.

So we have Judges 21, the restoration, the salvation of Benjamin. I wanted to go through a little bit of that history and show what God’s judgment can be against people who fail in that warfare going on in their own hearts to serve God as opposed to serving their friends, relatives, associates, whatever things else distract us in the word of God that causes us to go after other gods. God’s judgment comes upon those people.

The land is given to Benjamin not as a perpetual guaranteed inheritance from God. It is only given to them in terms of the original setting for the inheritance chapters which is the conquest of the land. And when Benjamin becomes Canaanites in their actions and their failure to follow God, they then get wiped out of the land. But when Benjamin repents and six hundred of them dead, they are restored to the land. And God graciously and mercifully provides in very marked ways to bring them back to a position of fullness, salvation, and dominion over their inheritance once more.

And it is restored to them. God’s blessing is showed on Benjamin in that story as well as God’s judgment against sin. And Benjamin then, as I mentioned last week, and I’ve got the references in your outlines for you, Benjamin comes to resolve that battle correctly. It takes him a long time. It’s not an easy thing. They do follow Saul’s son Ishbosheth later on first before following David, but eventually they make peace with David.

And Benjamin unites not with Ephraim and Manasseh, their relatives or tribal connections to the north. But Benjamin becomes part of the southern kingdom. Only two tribes down there, Judah and Benjamin. Simeon exists in the context of Judah, but it’s Judah and Benjamin together that form the more faithful southern kingdom in the period of the kings. So they associate themselves with Judah and David and the greater David of course to come, the Lord Jesus Christ, and finally resolve that ongoing battle in their lives later in scripture.

The scriptures, the record from the period of the kings tells us about that. And as a result of that, then they go through this battle. They put blood before water. But then they finally come through God’s judgment, restitution, and bringing him back to salvation. And then through other lessons in history, they get to a position of preferring water versus blood.

You know, this is a battle that perpetually goes on. When Jesus, our Savior, came, he had this same battle, didn’t he? Remember his mother sent for him and his brothers were that he was preaching and they were worried about him. Maybe he was going a little funny or something. They the message comes to Jesus and he says—they say, “Yeah, your mother and your brothers are calling for you. They want you outside.” And Jesus says, “Who are my mother and my brothers? Are they not these who hear my words and act in obedience to them?”

So, our Savior also tells us of the same battle that will go on in our hearts and minds as well. And so, this is important for us to see and particularly in light of the studies in Benjamin from chapter 18 and inheritance in the land after their restoration.

I put in here: commitment to conquer. And if you look at the book of Ezra, you’ll see that having associated themselves correctly with the southern kingdom with and with David originally and then the southern kingdom, more faithful southern kingdom, they then of course are taken into captivity as all Israel essentially has been judged by God. But in the restoration that occurs under Ezra and Nehemiah, Benjamin and Judah, the ones who are predominantly mentioned in that restoration. And so Benjamin having solved the battle of where their alliances, where their allegiances go to, that is God’s representatives, then are empowered by God to conquer.

And when they come back in a period of reconstruction under Nehemiah, they’re on the right side. And as a result, God has restored them to an ability to fulfill their commitment to conquer for him. And then finally, they’re blessed by God in various ways. And one way I mention here is the fact that Paul, the apostle of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles who wrote the bulk of the New Testament, is himself a Benjamite.

So if we understand the history of this tribe that is mentioned to us in short form in Joshua 18, we see that the geography itself teaches us a lesson of their struggle between Ephraim and Manasseh, blood relatives, versus Judah and association with the people of God who would rule for him and then would as a result praise him, which is what Judah means.

We see that geography paints that lesson for us. That lesson is amplified throughout history. And if we look at the period of the history of Benjamin, we see the struggle that they went through, the great judgment and chastising from God, but then the restoration by God as well, and finally we see them committed to conquer and then blessed by God. Indeed, it is a Benjamite that he chooses as his special model to go to all the nations and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now, I mentioned that we’ve kind of gone through a series here of long—what some people call the boring parts of the Bible. It’s actually a real good book written about the boring parts of the Bible that I’ve used as a commentary on this section from Joshua. It addresses other lists as well in the scriptures that people would find boring. And I hope that what we’ve done here has shown you a little bit that these are far from boring parts of the Bible.

These long list of geographic names and cities serve various purposes in the scriptures. First of all, of course, as we did last week with our rogation day walk or sprint, the list of names provides spiritual lessons for us as we meditate upon the meaning and the way God’s history of his people and important spiritual lessons for them are portrayed in the very geography itself of the promised land. And by way of application, that should train us to look at our particular setting.

And I hope when you think of Salem, Oregon, you don’t just think of the place where a left-wing governor reigns. I hope you think of the word meaning peace, the peace and order of God’s world. And I hope that you realize and pray to the end that Salem, Oregon, would portray that order and God’s peace and order in the context of this country or this state rather increasingly over time. I hope you think that way.

These long lists provide us spiritual lessons as Benjamin’s placement between Ephraim and Judah reminds us of. Secondly, these long lists form the root of biblical history as we just mentioned, and that history is important for us to know in correlation to that land being given to them. The history shows us that land can be taken away, that the promise comes with it a threat to remove it if we’re not faithful to God and to his calling.

And he gives us the land we have specifically that we might then continue to drive out sin from that land, including the sin in our own hearts. And if we associate ourselves and become in thinking and in actions like the Canaanites in our land, God will remove us as well.

So we have spiritual lessons. We have the roots of biblical history and all that means. But then third, we have in these long lists and particularly here in the book of Joshua, we have a legal document being formed. We have God giving a legal claim to particular portions of land to specific people in the context of Old Testament history. He tells them these are legal definitions for you. This would be a great affront of course to those who want a pluralistic sort of view of the world and history.

These were invaders, some would say, but they weren’t invaders. They were God’s agents to secure God’s blessing upon God’s very land. And he gives them through these long lists of cities and geographic descriptions title to particular portions of that land. That title being conditioned upon blessing, which is conditioned upon their obedience to the law. They are given the land. They must be committed to live in the land as God’s people. That’s why he has them there.

Well, this is important for us because we’re given title as well in the New Testament in the Lord Jesus Christ. As we go through the book of Acts, we’ll see geographic areas described again the whole known world. And we have the extensive statement from Matthew 28 that we’re to go into all the world. Jesus Christ lays claim to all the world. And he gives us title to that. He gives it to the church of Jesus Christ as they remain faithful to him and as they avoid the gods of the Canaanites and as they prosecute God’s warfare by preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, which slays men and brings them to repentance in Jesus Christ and resurrects them, which we have a picture of every Lord’s day at the communion table.

And we said that the setting for Benjamin’s list of cities was again the command, by Joshua, implied command of his rebuke when he said, “How long are ye slack to possess the land?” Well, I’d like you to think about your geographic area, their neighborhood that you walk in the context of, the friends that you have at work.