A Hard Victory (Part B)

Have you ever felt that the Word of God has let you down? That you had righteousness on your side, decency on your side, love? Everything was on your side. The enemy has nothing.

In fact, it's just double evil. And yet, you're not winning, but you still cling to God nonetheless. That's what's going to happen here. These tribes are going to cling to God.

They're going to return after the first whooping and get whooped again. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Judges.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Today, Pastor Rick will continue his message called, A Hard Victory, as he teaches in Judges chapter 20. Verse 8, So all the people arose as one man, saying, None of us will go to his tent, nor will any turn back to his house. Well, it's true sometimes, such horrific news, some atrocity like this comes down the road and it makes ordinary sin seem to not matter so much.

This is so bad. When, when's the last time that I guess we can really say we've seen something like this? My first guess would be the Holocaust. I mean, everybody was just, are you kidding me? Well, not everybody.

There's always that percentage, but most normal, sensible, rational people would be just greatly alarmed to arms to do something about this. Verse 9, But now this is the thing which we will do to Gibeah. Again, Gibeah is where the crime was committed.

We will go up against it by lot. Now, in verse 8, where they make the pledge, none of us will go to his tent. They don't know the horror that's coming. They don't know how much it's going to cost them. They think they've got 400,000 troops. Gibeah's got less than 30,000. This should not really be that difficult.

They are wrong. And that's a, there's a lessons for us. Whatever spiritual endeavor we take on, we better be ready and ready in a sense of things going wrong, not as planned. So here, it's war. Verse 10, We will take ten men out of every hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, a hundred out of every thousand, a thousand out of every ten thousand, to make provisions for the people that when they come to Gibeah and Benjamin, they may repay all the vileness that they have done in Israel.

This is a combat supply or quartermaster corps. This signals to us that these guys had, they knew war. The leaders, not necessarily to all the troops, but the leaders who knew, hey, we need logistics.

We've got to have, you know, water and swords and supplies going to the front. And that's not, if you take that verse out, it would have lost a lot faster. And that also means that this is how war was done. And when we read about war in the earlier chapters and the later chapters of the Old Testament, we know that they, there were those that knew how to general war, martial war.

So it just keeps it real to us. Verse 20, so all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, united together as one man. Again, perhaps using Deuteronomy 13, verses 12 through 15, to have the scriptural grounds for this. It's always motivating to see a united stand against evil. And it is going to be as motivating to see them remain united in the face of defeat. But they had a duty to perform and they are ready for it as best as they can be. And they appear to be disciplined troops, which is a mark of the leadership, a positive mark on the leadership that they are under. Verse 12, then the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin saying, what is this wickedness that has occurred among you?

So they are, again, trying to diligently, trying to make sure that they're justified when they go at these offenders. Verse 13, now therefore deliver up the men, the perverted men who are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and remove the evil from Israel. But the children of Benjamin would not listen to the voice of their brethren and the children of Israel. Arrogance, the child of depravity or a child of depravity, they refused to budge. They flat out said no. We know about the crime, we're not going to deal with it and you're not going to deal with it.

So there you go. All they had to do was hand over the criminals. They knew who they were. In not handing them over, they honored the vileness to the death. They went to their deaths, all but 600 of them defending sickness.

We see it today. The advocates of the deplorable. These men are deplorable and they're advocating this wickedness and those who are determined to execute justice, to rid them of, rid themselves, the land of this evil.

Again, they had no idea what, how fiercely violent the opposition was going to be. Verse 14, instead the children of Benjamin gathered together from their cities to Gibeah to go to battle against the children of Israel. So they put family before God. They put their tribe, their people, their team, something was before God. Well, that had already been the case in their lives as individuals and it just, just like leaven spread throughout Benjamin.

So they doubled down. Their solidarity is perverted. It is not admirable. Luke chapter 14 verse 26.

Church needs to read this from time to time because it's so easy to stumble here. If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father, mother, wife, children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, you cannot be my disciple. Of course, that's not the hatred. Jesus is not promoting hatred. He's making a contrast. He says, compared to the love you have for me, all other loves would be hatred. And it is, I was watching a children's show and one of the characters said, I love him so much that compared to me, you hate him.

And it was ha ha funny. And I, of course, if you know the scripture verse, he's well, wait, that's the point. It's a contrast.

Not saying you have to hate the other person. It's, you know, you say, well, why would Jesus say it like that? I think is an easy answer for that. So you never forget it because you hear it said like this, you don't forget it. It may nag you. It may gnaw on you to get to the bottom of it. Well, we just got to the bottom of it.

I hope, at least for me, I'm good. Well, anyway, here in verse 14, to go to battle against the children of Israel. Again, that Benjamin, they're willing to die defending their tribal unity, their tribal sovereignty.

How dare you come here and tell us? Well, I thought you were in this, you know, in this with the Lord too. Well, their sin affected all the land and they knew it. They said, if we don't deal with Benjamin, God's going to deal with us.

It's going to be worse. Another New Testament verse that we know well, First Corinthians five, the church that needed to hear this, I don't know how much they benefited from it. Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the lump? See, when Paul said that, there was a man in the church committing an egregious sin and the church was yucking it up.

They were always showing grace. He'd get over it. It's not that bad. And Paul said, are you crazy? Are you nuts? I'm telling you, I'm not even there and I'm telling you it's wrong. He said, do you not know? He said, you're you're you're thinking that you're showing grace is not good. And he says that little leaven, if you don't fix that, it's going to take over your church.

And they did fix it. Verse 15, and from their cities at that time, the children of Benjamin numbered 26,000 men who drew the sword besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who numbered 700 select men. I'm going to restrain myself from being, attempts at humor, because the next chapter is ridiculous. And I don't want to, I'm not going to go down that road again. So I'm just going to be all serious and hope it pays off.

That's my strategy. Because I see humor in some of this already and I'm, no, don't say it. Anyway, Benjamin, they had 26 cities given to them and the villages that they, by lot, we read that in Joshua 21. And who would have thought, Joshua 18, who would have thought that when Joshua was saying, okay, Benjamin gets this territory, it had anything to do with anything ever else.

Well, it does. Because this is where their troops were coming from. This is, all of these cities and villages, the 400,000 would have to deal with. And they do. They don't let anybody off the hook. In fact, one tribe doesn't show up to help the 400,000.

Jabesh Gilead, they opt out. So they go put a beating on them too. This was not optional. We'll get that in the next chapter. But they would not tolerate that. These men were pretty, the leaders were on the ball here in confronting this. Verse 16. Whenever you hear thunder in church, do you think the pastor should preach repentance?

I'm just asking. So, all right, verse 16. Among all this people were 700 select men who were left-handed. Everyone could sling a stone at a hair's breath and not miss.

Well, a special mention to the slingshot battalion. Ironically, Benjamin's name means son of my right hand. But these men are of the wrong hand. And so, the left-handed. I know we've got some lefties. That's okay. Real good in baseball pitching. Difficult to box too, I should add.

If you've ever faced a lefty, he goes, oh man, I gotta adjust everything now while he's hammering your head. So, all right, sorry. Some of you have never boxed and that's okay. All right, well, here we are. Verse 16. One of the lessons, I love those amens from on high. One of the lessons from this 16th verse about these slingshotters is that the enemy and her advocates have skilled and dangerous people amongst them. We're not to think that they're just, you know, these completely silly people that have no understanding that that would be foolish.

They're very dangerous. It is still that way to this day. And when we pray, we should be mindful of these things going into it. And verse 17 continues, now, besides Benjamin, the men of Israel numbered four hundred thousand men who drew the sword. All of these were men of war. Verse 18. Then the children of Israel arose and went up to the house of God to inquire of God. They said, which of us shall go up first to battle against the children of Benjamin? Yahweh said, Judah first. Well, they go to God, which again is admirable in the leaders.

Not all four hundred thousand are trekking off. They're leaving their camps where they are with their troops and the leaders are going up to Shiloh. I believe it is Shiloh. Interesting that the word house of God here in the Hebrew is Bethel, which is house of God and not Shiloh. And that would lead one to suppose, well, maybe they're going to Bethel the town, the city, and not up to Shiloh. But I just want to take a moment with that because in Joshua 18, the tabernacle was put at Shiloh. That is the tent and the ark of the covenant and the golden altar and all the other belongings to the tabernacle.

In Joshua 22, we find Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, who is presently the high priest in this story, ministering as high priest in Joshua 22. When Samuel, the book of Samuel opens, we find Eli at Shiloh. The first four chapters were told, it's mentioned that the tabernacle was at Shiloh. And this was the case until the Philistines, of course, won it on the battlefield and then subsequently returned it to the Jews because of the pressure God put on them. And then it's not in the ark of the covenant is not in Shiloh, but still the tabernacle is. So my point is we never read of the ark of the covenant and the tabernacle anywhere else but Shiloh until we get into the death of Eli in the book of Samuel. And so that's where I believe it is here. Now you might say, you know, why so? But if you read through this, of course, as a Bible student, you're always scanning for understanding.

Do I know what's going on? I thought this was, you know, I thought the house of God was here, not there. And you want to have these answers. So here in verse at the bottom of verse 18, they said, Which of us shall go up first to battle against the children of Benjamin? And what was God to say?

No, nobody. Of course this was going to be dealt with. He says, Judah goes first.

Judah is the largest of all the tribes. And I'm sure when they heard that they felt, well, it's just a matter of hours, boys, before the victory is ours. Verse 19, So the children of Israel rose in the morning and encamped against Gibeah.

Have you ever felt that the word of God has let you down, that you had righteousness on your side, decency on your side, love? Everything was on your side. The enemy has nothing.

In fact, it's just double evil. And yet you're not winning, but you still cling to God nonetheless. That's what's going to happen here. These tribes are going to cling to God. They're going to return after the first whooping and get whooped again. Verse 20, Then the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin, and the men of Israel put themselves in battle array to fight against them at Gibeah. I give you some comments of what's coming up later. In case we get raptured, you have the answer.

This is pretty thorough on my part. Anyway, the battle naturally, verse 20, takes place at Gibeah. That's where the crime was committed. And the topography of this town gives the advantage to those defending it, the hilly terrain, fighting uphill if you're attacking Gibeah.

And that does pay off for them to some degree. God gave no assurance of victory, incidentally, when they sought him, probably with the Urim and the Thunim, asking the question, and the high priest bringing out the answer. He just said Judah goes up first.

He didn't say, and you will have victory. Would have been a good question to ask. But with 400,000 men to 26,000, I mean, is it necessary? Perhaps, you know, they were thinking like that.

I would have likely been thinking like that if I was one of them. Verse 21, then the children of Benjamin came out of Gibeah on that day and cut down to the ground 22,000 men of the Israelites. That's a whole stadium of people. There's the carnage. God allowed the wicked ones to slaughter those who are trying to execute justice. There's a lot of searching in the hearts of Israel that day.

So again, I repeat, being right is not enough. You've got to be close to God. They're going to be moving close to God. To their credit, they're not going to allow their battlefield defeats to defeat their faith.

And we all should know something about that. Again, evil just doesn't budge sometimes. It just gets stronger.

And sometimes we suffer the initial defeats, and they're very painful, very costly. How did it go with that first church when Stephen was stoned to death and then James was killed with the sword? That kind of news rocked the church.

What is happening here? Did we not have Pentecost? Did not God give us the Holy Spirit? Was there not, you know, the sound of a rushing mighty wind in the tongues of fire? And were there not, you know, 3,000 converts?

How could we suffer the loss? Okay, Stephen, I mean, he was, you know, he laid it out in front of them. We can see that one, but James. What kind of resources does God have when he can spare James? We don't hear much about James, but he's one of the three on the inner circle of the apostles, the disciples. There's something to this, because the other two are John his brother and Peter. We know a lot about Peter. Peter's the guy with the size nine and a half mouth, and then John, we know a lot about John, but we don't know much about James, except God put him in the midst of those two. I think he was a stabilizing factor.

I think he was the one that was solid, and he influenced the other two. How else do you account for these things? And the Bible wants us to account for these records that we have before us.

He wants us to search it out, rightly dividing the Word of God, said Paul. Well, this is painful to read, but we have to go through now in verse 22, and the people, that is, the men of Israel, encouraged themselves and again formed the battle line at the place where they had put themselves in array on the first day. They did not quit. This had to be settled. They weren't going away easily. May my faith not go away easily when it wants to. And if they were shallow in the faith, I think they would have. Just fine.

I don't think they would have turned out this way. They are ready while they seek the Lord. Now, verse 23, some commentators believe verse 23, which tells of them going up to the house of the Lord again, comes before verse 22.

I don't think there's any need to do that at all. I think that they've suffered a defeat, and they set up their perimeter again, and while they held that perimeter, their leaders said, all right, you just stay there. If they come out and you attack, you put a whooping on them, but we'll be back. We're going to go seek the Lord, verse 23. Then the children of Israel went up and wept before Yahweh until evening and asked counsel of Yahweh, saying, Shall I again draw near for battle against the children of my brother Benjamin? And Yahweh said, Go up against him.

Well, that kind of question, what should he have said? You can't say go home. These men are learning to pray under pressure and place themselves before God. They're drawing closer to God. So they were they are right, but they are closing the gap, that distance that evidently existed between them. Some of you may remember some of these past elections in the 90s, you know, the president that didn't know the meaning of if. Okay. Oh, Clinton.

Okay. Then in 2008, 2012, we had to suffer, you know, just those who don't deserve to have such victories. And many Christians were emotionally devastated. And this is something that we have to make sure we don't let take take our faith or stumble us or make us depressed. But we look to the Lord to see what our next move is going to be. And Judges Chapter 20 teaches us to fight through defeat.

We, you know, we're not owed victory in this life. And the cross of Christ is that lesson for us. Luke 22, verse 44. And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly, and then his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. In the example of Christ, this agony intensified in the presence of the Lord. And defeat led to renewed and improved efforts on the part of the righteous, then as they should now, then as in the Garden of Eden, we see the Lord's sweat as though it were great drops of blood, and he's going to bleed a lot more before this was over. And he did on our behalf.

Through repeated defeats, Israel persevered to victory. That's part of the lesson. Because I know what I do. God, you're not answering my prayer. How could you let this happen? Why do I even have a Bible if you're going to do this?

I'm totally right. I seek you all the time. How could I possibly be defeated? What are you going to do then, Rick?

Are you going to just get angry with me and leave me alone? The Bible tells us that those who harden their hearts don't prosper against God. Psalm 37 verse 24, though he fail, he shall not be utterly cast down, for Yahweh upholds him with his hand. Verse 24, so the children of Israel approach the children of Benjamin on the second day. The second try will not be easy either, but they will persevere. Verse 25, and Benjamin went out again against them from Gibeah on the second day and cut down to the ground 18,000 more of the children of Israel. All these drew the sword. So there's another gigantic defeat.

I mean, what is going through the minds of the leaders at this point? These are the men that have seen God do miracles. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the book of Judges. Cross Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. If you'd like more information about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. You'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick available there, and we encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. By doing so, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. You can search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app, or just follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. That's all the time we have for today. Join us next time to continue learning more from the book of Judges, right here on Cross Reference Radio.