A Hard Victory (Part C)

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.

We're talking about cross-reference radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Now here's Pastor Rick with the conclusion of his study called A Hard Victory in Judges chapter 20. 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 and 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 is 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 that 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, the 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?

He can't say go home. These men are learning to pray under pressure and place themselves before God. They are drawing closer to God. 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.

OK. Oh, Clinton. OK. 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.

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. 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 did. He's going to bleed a lot more for 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 approached 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.

And so there's another gigantic defeat. Well, I mean, what is going through the minds of the leaders at this point? These are the men that have seen God do miracles. Many of them are veterans from, you know, Agilon, where the Lord rained hail on the enemy.

And yet they've got to be saying, what is going on here? These are the lives of our men. We're being slaughtered. We're going to the house of God. We're seeking him. And this is what we get. God never promised them victory.

Not yet. Verse 26, then all the children of Israel, that is all the people, went up and came to the house of God and wept. They sat there before Yahweh and fasted that day until evening. And they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before Yahweh. So there they are at Shiloh. The sacrifices are being made and offered to the Lord.

There's this great outcry to heaven and still nowhere else for them to turn. And they've drawn close to God. In Matthew's Gospel and in Luke, we read these words of Jesus. Blessed is he who is not offended because of me.

Blessed is the one that doesn't get upset with what I do or don't do. I've drawn from that verse a lot. The older I get, it seems to be getting hotter. I get tired.

I don't want to do this again. But I know and I still want to be a scribe instructed in the Word, bringing from his treasure things new and things old. There's an excitement in that. The scribe is bringing you out these lessons from the Lord that God has just shared with him. And after he's done that, he digs down deep and he goes into past victories and past experiences because he's full of the Word of God.

And that's how we all want to be as a royal belonging to a royal priesthood. Also, Matthew 17, verse 21. This is when the disciples could not cast out a demon. And they're down in the valley and the Lord comes down from the transfiguration.

And there he finds them and he has to cast out the demon. We came to your apostles, your disciples, but they couldn't do anything. So the Lord does it. Well, the disciples later on, they go to the Lord and they say, why could we not do it? We huffed and we puffed.

We couldn't blow the house down. The Lord answered them. He says, however. First he says, well, you don't have the faith.

That was always the first shot. Okay, I know that part. I don't like hearing it either. Well, anyway, but then he says this. He says, however, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. You've got to draw closer. If you're going to get these big victories, you're going to have to get closer to God. And you're going to have to sever the flesh as much as you can, jettison the carnality. When you feel the urge to get up and eat, you suppress it.

That's not easy as our scales tell us. A tough crowd. Always a tough crowd. So, verse 27, so the children of Israel inquired of Yahweh. The ark of the covenant of God was there in those days. And, of course, the writer is writing from the days probably of David or after David.

And he's so that's 400, 400 years later from these events, 400 years removed from these events. But this reminds us of, you know, the defeat at Ai, though that was a swift turnaround. Joshua just knew he was going to win.

Don't send all the troops in, said the scouts, and they should not have set commander's policies. And, of course, Joshua found out. Verse 28, And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days, that is the ark of the covenant, saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of my brother Benjamin, or shall I cease?

And Yahweh said, Go up, for tomorrow I will deliver them into your hand. So he's thinking about giving up. Boy, that never happens to the righteous.

Of course it does. He says, Should I, are we going to win this or should I just stop? And God says, No, go up. And this time the Lord says, You will win. And the promise is explicit.

They closed the distance. Verse 29, Then Israel sent men in ambush all around Gibeah. So they're doing something different now, not the final assault. And this tactic has been seen before.

Joshua used it to bring down Ai. So now, you know, there's a saying, If you want the same results, just keep doing the same things. Well, that could be positive. It could be negative.

In this case, it would have been negative to continue to do the same thing that failed. So God assures them of the victories. He says, Go up against them.

But he doesn't seem to give them the battle plan. That seems to come from amongst the generals. That keeps me in the fight and fellowship with God. We have fellowship with God. We have our duty to do, our responsibilities. We have to apply ourselves.

If you're going to share your faith as a Christian, you better be a Bible reader and a prayer. And, you know, go in the assembly. There are things that you're supposed to do. It's your duty.

If you're going to be a pastor in the pulpit, you better spend a lot of time digging in the word or else, you know, I don't know how you just get along like that. I feel guilty when I snack on my study time. I shouldn't be doing this. I don't. It's not that bad, but it's close. So anyway, nothing.

Of course, sometimes I cheat. Verse 29, Israel set men in ambush all around Gibeah, verse 30, and the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day and put themselves in battle array against Gibeah as at the other times. So what's going to happen is those men that attacked the Levite and killed and murdered the concubine, they're going to be killed, the impenitent monsters with them, they're advocates, and hell is awaiting them, an everlasting suffering.

They're there to this day, and that's something we must not lose sight of today when we deal with the atrocities before us, the immorality and the blasphemy. Verse 31, so the children of Benjamin went out against the people and were drawn away from the city. They began to strike down and kill some of the people, as at other times in the highways, one of which goes up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah in the field, about 30 men of Israel. So the Benjamites, there's a faint move.

Judah goes, or I said I wasn't going to do too much of this, but I have to just explain a little bit. They go at the frontal assault as before. It's a faint, and then they withdraw, and they're drawing out the Benjamites after them.

Well, that strategy cost 30 lives. Verse 32, and the children of Benjamin said, they are defeated before us, as at first, but the children of Israel said, let us flee and draw them away from the city to the highways, making it difficult for them to get back to their fortifications. Verse 33, so all the men of Israel rose from their place and put themselves in battle array at Bel-Tamar. Then Israel's men in ambush burst forth from their position in the plain of Gibeah. Now, Gibeah there in the Hebrew, it's Gibeah, but there's a suffix that belongs to it, I guess grammatically, that changes the meaning, so it's really a cave in the area, cave niches, they hid out, and that's what the writer is, they laid in ambush, nobody could see them, which is the idea of an ambush. Verse 34, and 10,000 select men from Israel came against Gibeah, and the battle was fierce, but the Benjamite did not know that disaster was upon them. So here these chosen men, these hand-picked men, they're going to make a difference. They're strategically put, I guess the other general got fired, and the new general is like, he's on the ball, we're going to lay ambushes, we're going to do faint moves, and then we're going to put elite troops in this sector, and it wins. It's like, where was this guy before?

I don't know. Verse 34, and 10,000, I read that, verse 35, Yahweh defeated Benjamin before Israel, and the children of Israel destroyed that day 25,100 Benjamites, all these drew the sword. So the Lord won the victory, wiped out almost all of Benjamin, Benjamin lost troops in the other battles too, that would account for the lower number, only 600 survivors. Verse 36, so the children of Benjamin saw that they were defeated, the men of Israel had given ground to the Benjamites because they relied on the men in ambush, whom they had set against Gibeah. So the writer is going back and giving us details about the ambush, really wish he wouldn't, but he did.

And the men in, I'm going to meet these guys one day, I better watch these little comments, right? What's he going to do? We'll be in heaven, he can't beat me up. And the men in ambush, verse 37, quickly rushed upon Gibeah, the men in ambush spread out and struck the whole city with the edge of the sword. Now the appointed signal between the men of Israel and the men in ambush was that they would make a great cloud of smoke rise up from the city. So when they got in the city, they would quickly get a fire going and get it, you know, the smoke going up, and the men out in the field would see this and that would be their signal, and the Benjamites would see it and that would be their death sentence. Verse 39, whereupon the men of Israel would turn in battle. Now Benjamin had begun to strike and kill about 30 of the men of Israel, for they said, surely they are defeated before us as in the first battle. So again, the historian is repeating himself going back, giving detail, verse 40.

But when the cloud began to rise from the city in a column of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them and there was the whole city going up in smoke to heaven. Well, I'm not going to make comments about Saul. We'll just keep, well, 400 years later Saul will make this his capital city because he is from Gibeah and the Bible repeats several times Gibeah of Saul. And you just, knowing how vile Saul, King Saul will be, you just, I can't help saying, you know, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree unless somebody does something about it. Verse 41, one pause there, that verse that does something about it part. So Saul was a vile man, but Jonathan, his son, was not. So there's no such thing as generational curses and people, you can't break, you know, this caste system that, there's no such thing.

It comes down to the individual. Jonathan was a righteous man and he even, you know, remained loyal to his father. What could he do? Some commentators beat up on Jonathan. I don't think that that was right. Well, I don't remember what verse I was, 41. And when the men of Israel turned back, the men of Benjamin panicked, where they saw the disaster had come upon them. Therefore, verse 42, they turned their backs before the men of Israel in the direction of the wilderness. But the battle overtook them and whoever came out of the cities, they destroyed in their midst. Verse 43, they surrounded the Benjamites, chased them and easily trampled them down as far as the front of Gibeah toward the east. And 18,000 men of Benjamin fell, all these were men of valor.

Again, it's not an addition that's included in the other numbers, he's repeating the scene. Verse 45, then they turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon and they cut down 5,000 of them on the highways and they pursued them relentlessly up to Gidam and killed 2,000 of them. So this is a thorough dealing with evil and we'll get this when we get to kings too and the prophets tell the king, you know, one of the prophets scolded the king for not being thorough.

That happened more than once. But here they are being thorough and that's a lesson for us. If you're going to deal with the evil, be thorough.

Don't leave any of it to spawn and come back as much as within your power. Sometimes we want to be merciful and let up and then what we end up doing is handing the victory back. I remember that as a steel worker when some of the men knew that I was a Christian because I'd share my faith.

Then when they would let loose the obscenities, they would say, oh sorry, Rick. And I would, once I said, why are you telling me sorry? I mean, I've been around, you know, you don't have to do that and the Lord rebuked me. He said very gently, what are you doing?

Use the salt of the earth. Don't take it back. They want to go say they're sorry for profanity in front of you, then take it and use it. But don't go saying it's okay. It's okay.

Can I say okay now? All right, so here they are at Rimmon, 600 men, verse 47. They fled the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon.

They stayed at the rock for four months. So they held out. Evidently they had provisions while the rest of Israel figured out what they're going to do with them. They could just keep a siege around them until they just died of starvation and thirst.

Verse 48, and the men of Israel turned back against the children of Benjamin and struck them down with the edge of the sword. From every city, men and beast, all who were found, they also set fire to all the cities they came to. So they slaughtered everyone. Men, women and children, they went on a rampage. They were not going to leave anyone, this was their initial mindset, to rally and retaliate. They were not going to leave a seed. They will regret this later in the next chapter. And then they will take steps to do something about it.

And they are stupid to steps. So at first evil seems to have been winning. And then the hammer fell. Ecclesiastes 8-11.

Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. You know, that's so far so good. And it's a foolish, it's a foolish mindset. Well, again, next chapter, the bizarre.

There's only one thing, it may not be that big to you, but just once you see it, you know, you can't unsee it. Ladies sometimes have a lot more to be grateful that we're not living like in the Old Testament anymore. We get to that next chapter. 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.