The Sin of Fallen Israel

17The men of Israel, besides Benjamin, were counted four hundred thousand men who drew sword. All these were men of war. 18The children of Israel arose, went up to Bethel, and asked counsel of God. They asked, “Who shall go up for us first to battle against the children of Benjamin?” Yahweh said, “Judah first.” 19The children of Israel rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah. 20The men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel set the battle in array against them at Gibeah. 21The children of Benjamin came out of Gibeah, and on that day destroyed twenty-two thousand of the Israelite men down to the ground. 22The people, the men of Israel, encouraged themselves, and set the battle again in array in the place where they set themselves in array the first day. 23The children of Israel went up and wept before Yahweh until evening; and they asked of Yahweh, saying, “Shall I again draw near to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother?” Yahweh said, “Go up against him.” 24The children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day. 25Benjamin went out 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. 26Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came to Bethel, and wept, and sat there before Yahweh, and fasted that day until evening; then they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before Yahweh. 27The children of Israel asked Yahweh (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days, 28and 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?” Yahweh said, “Go up; for tomorrow I will deliver him into your hand.”

I have told you before that it always matters to fasten the first button correctly. Everything now unfolding in Israel was bound to happen, because the first button had been fastened wrong.

Late one night, as the Levite was taking his wife home, he meant to stay the night in the town of Gibeah. But the worthless men of Benjamin who lived there demanded to have relations with him. In his fear, the Levite forced the wife he loved so dearly out of the house and handed her over to those wicked, depraved men. It was his own wrongdoing that had driven her from home, and he had gone all the way to Bethlehem in Judah himself to bring her back; now, to protect his own skin, he gave her up to them. All night long they abused her, and she died.

The Levite carried his wife’s body home, cut her into twelve pieces, and sent them to all the tribes of Israel to make his grief known. He did this wicked thing so that, one way or another, his personal revenge would become the cause of the whole nation. He also inflated the outrage done by a handful of men, speaking as though the entire tribe of Benjamin had tormented him, and so he made Israel take revenge on his behalf. No man who feared God could ever have done such a thing. He did not even think of himself as one who did holy work in the sanctuary. He lived an immoral life, he touched a corpse, and by cutting it up and sending it to every tribe he set Israel against the children of Benjamin. Failing to protect the wife he loved was reason enough for remorse; but to cut her apart and send her to the tribes for the sake of his own revenge was a deed that could not be forgiven before God. Had he served God, none of this would have happened in the first place. Tens of thousands would not have died, and the tribe of Benjamin would not have been all but wiped out. Here we see plainly how much grief one person’s wrong life and wrong choices can bring on a great many others.

When the children of Israel heard what had been done to the Levite, they all gathered at Mizpah, and the tribes east of the Jordan also came to the assembly held there. The fighting men of Israel gathered at Mizpah numbered 400,000.

Only then did the children of Benjamin hear that Israel had met in assembly without them. Had the Benjamites come to that assembly and said that this was the work of a few worthless men and that they would deal with it themselves, the matter could easily have been settled. But they could not see their own sin. Rather than ask forgiveness and seek peace, they took a hard line and prepared for war, perhaps stung that they alone had been left out.

The children of Israel told the Levite, who had been summoned to the assembly, to tell them in detail how all this had happened. He spoke with one question in mind—how to tell it so that Israel would avenge him—and he left out every wrong of his own. Here was a Levite who worked in the house of God, who had left God and lived as the world lives; and now he was turning a private matter that came out of that life into God’s business. In the same way, Christians who have lived as they please in the world pray with tears over what has come of it, as though God were bound to take responsibility and set it right.

Judges 20:4-6

4The Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered, “I came into Gibeah that belongs to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to spend the night. 5The men of Gibeah rose against me, and surrounded the house by night. They intended to kill me, and they raped my concubine, and she is dead. 6I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel; for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel.

Listen to how he tells it: “I and my concubine,” “rose against me,” “to spend the night,” “intended to kill me,” “raped my concubine,” “I took my concubine.” He pours out how wronged he is and how wicked the children of Benjamin are. Everything in his account turns on himself, and he inflates it; yet Israel hears it and cannot judge rightly. They are being deceived, because their faith is no different from the Levite’s.

The Levite who sowed division was wrong, but Israel was wrong too in being deceived. Faced with so outrageous an event, they should have repented, not prepared for war. They lacked spiritual wisdom, and so they showed instead a grim resolve not to go home until they had brought judgment on the children of Benjamin. With one voice Israel voted to punish the tribe of Benjamin.

Sadly, both Israel and Benjamin had several chances to turn back before God’s judgment fell. If they had served God as their king, if the Levite had told the truth however wronged he felt, if Israel had judged wisely on hearing his story, if Benjamin had been the first to ask forgiveness—so many lives would not have been lost.

Israel and the Levite were living lives just as foul and filthy as the children of Benjamin, yet they did not repent of their own sins. Fixed on the single thought that Benjamin must be judged, they sinned greatly against God. They saw the speck in their brother’s eye and never noticed the beam in their own. If even one person in Israel had said that they should first take the beam out of their own eye, the whole nation would have been given a chance to turn back. Instead, as though their faith were upright, they made themselves judges. Those who think themselves in the right criticize and judge others; they condemn them and lay bare their faults, and in doing so they sin.

When someone else’s wrong is plain to see, we should not condemn them. We should pray with them and help them, so that their sins may be forgiven.

Judges 20:18

18The children of Israel arose, went up to Bethel, and asked counsel of God. They asked, “Who shall go up for us first to battle against the children of Benjamin?” Yahweh said, “Judah first.”

The children of Benjamin could field 26,000 men for battle, and 700 inhabitants of Gibeah came forward to help, making 26,700 in all. Against them stood 400,000 warriors of Israel.

Benjamin was no match for Israel, and yet it declared war. Perhaps Israel and Benjamin each believed that God was on their side. But God is the one who helps the humble and the repentant.

At Bethel, Israel prayed, asking who should go up first. They had no idea how much prayer to God matters. Prayer is not telling God what we think; it is restoring our relationship with him through repentance. The prayers our lips murmur on this earth rise to the throne of almighty God, and because they do, we must never use them to criticize and condemn others, or heap up vain repetitions as our feelings lead us.

Almighty God hears our prayers and discerns exactly what is in the mind of the one who prays. That is why we must always take care. Something is not right simply because it seems right to us. You grow through fellowship with God, and in prayer you become a vessel to receive his power and blessing. Always pray, then, with humble faith.

Israel and Benjamin were pointing their swords at each other—God’s own people, brothers in the faith—while both were asking God for help. What is truly heartbreaking is that it was for people like these that God had put Moses through the fire for so many years, worked wonders for them at every turn, and kept them safe to the end.

Israel was confident of victory, because they had 400,000 soldiers and believed God was on their side. And since they were going out to judge the wicked sin of the tribe of Benjamin, they asked boldly who should go up against them. God answered that Judah should go up first.

Friends, Yahweh’s telling Judah to go up first by no means makes his reply an answer to their prayer. For our prayer to be a right prayer, God must work in a way better and more gracious than what we asked, and he must govern every circumstance toward salvation. Then the prayer is a right one.

Israel came to God because they were his people. But a prayer that brings no saving help is only a human plea; it is not a prayer whose fragrance God accepts. Even after God told them that Judah should go up, 22,000 of them were cut down by the children of Benjamin. Clearly God had not joined them in that battle. Through it he was showing them that their war was nothing he needed to take part in, and that they were sinners with no right to ask him to.

But they had lived with no thought of God, and so they did not understand. After so heavy a defeat, they should have asked why it had happened and what God was saying to them through it. Instead, Israel came home beaten and, smarting at the injustice of it, wept before Yahweh until evening. They had no interest in how God saw the death of 22,000 men; their whole mind was set on how to destroy Benjamin. All that remained in Israel now was rage against Benjamin.

When they had wept their fill, Israel asked whether they should go up again and fight the children of Benjamin, and Yahweh told them to go up against him. They must have thought that, since they had wept and cried out so earnestly, he would now come to their aid. But Israel’s prayer was nothing more than a human complaint, because no one who cannot see their own sin before God can receive his holy answer.

The next day Israel went out against Benjamin, and to their dismay they lost another 18,000 men. So Israel wept again, fasted, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. They had wept and prayed until evening and still been beaten; this time they fasted before the ark of the covenant and brought those same offerings. After the sacrifices, Israel prayed once more, asking whether they should go out to battle against the children of Benjamin their brother, or cease. Yahweh answered that tomorrow he would deliver them into their hand.

Notice that before the ark of the covenant they now call the children of Benjamin “my brother.” Yet their anger has them ready to fight that brother. Their aim is no longer to judge Benjamin’s sin against the Levite; it is only to win the war for the sake of their own revenge. Once they had offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, the right course of faith, and the Israel God wanted to see, was to seek reconciliation and repent together, not to prepare for war against a brother. When God said he would deliver Benjamin into their hand, Israel believed victory was theirs; and the children of Benjamin, having won twice, were full of fighting spirit.

On whose side, then, is God in this war?

The next day Israel launched an all-out attack, as God had promised, and Benjamin was routed; 18,000 of its warriors were killed. The survivors fled for their lives toward the wilderness, but the soldiers of Israel pressed the attack, and 7,000 more fell. The 600 who were left escaped into the wilderness and hid at the rock of Rimmon for four months. But Israel’s fury had not cooled. They went into the towns of Benjamin, where no fighting men remained, and killed the livestock and every defenseless woman and child. Was there any need to slaughter their helpless brothers in the faith so cruelly? How must God have looked on what Israel did?

God had established the twelve tribes over a long span of years. They came out of Egypt and entered Canaan, and his promise was fulfilled when the twelve tribes took possession of the land. But now that Israel itself has cut Benjamin off from the twelve, they ought to tremble before God and ask whether they are still a whole Israel. Seeing how richly the Canaanites lived, they had fallen into idolatry and corruption, committed sexual immorality, and not kept God’s law. People like that, sharing in the Levite’s sin, ought to ask themselves whether they had any right to wipe out the tribe of Benjamin.

Israel did indeed offer God burnt offerings and peace offerings. A burnt offering is a sacrifice burned in the fire so that its aroma pleases God: everything but the animal’s hide was consumed in the holy fire and given wholly to him. Because the burnt offering stands for complete self-sacrifice and devotion, those who bring one must first of all know the law of the God who receives it, and must come in fear and with a repentant heart.

Those who know God’s law and obey it know gratitude, and so the sacrifice they offer in faith is fully accepted. Those who bring burnt offerings must love their brothers in the faith, do good, deal honestly, and know how to sacrifice themselves. Having looked at what the burnt offering means, I found myself wondering with what heart the people of Israel brought theirs to God. They did not know God; they had no gratitude, no self-sacrifice, no knowledge of his law. When people like that offered a burnt offering, it was nothing but greed—a way of using God to get what they wanted.

Then there is the peace offering. In Hebrew its name means to be whole, to bring to completion, and so it is a sacrifice offered in thanksgiving that the conflict between God and humankind has ended and peace, fellowship, and union have been established. For the peace offering, the altar was built of stones not dressed with a chisel. The sinner laid a hand on the head of an animal without blemish, and the priest slaughtered it at the door of the Tent of Meeting. The priests sprinkled the blood on all sides of the altar and burned the innards, the kidneys, the liver, and the rest on the altar; this was called an offering made by fire, a pleasant aroma before Yahweh. The breast and the thigh went to the priest, and the rest of the meat the worshiper shared with the priest and ate, so that it was a joyful day of becoming one. In the same way, Christ became the peace offering that restores the relationship between God and sinners, and because of that we are at peace with God and made whole.

But they offered their sacrifices with hearts full of greed, asking God to give them victory over the children of Benjamin, and they must have reached the absurd conclusion that, since God had accepted the sacrifice, he was now on their side. Had they understood God’s will, they would have gone to the children of Benjamin after the peace offering and labored for repentance and reconciliation. Instead they killed them all—Benjamin, their brothers in the faith.

What, then, did God mean when he told Israel that tomorrow he would deliver them into their hand? Did it mean that God, delighted with their burnt offerings and peace offerings, would help them wipe out the children of Benjamin?

Now it is time to look into the heart of God. The events of this world may be a warning, or they may be an opportunity. The exposure of the Levite’s sin was both a warning and an opportunity for Israel. But they had drifted far from God. They turned away from the voice that kept calling them, they prayed their own thoughts for their own sake, and having offered sacrifice, they assumed their prayers had been answered.

Yet God never once accepted their prayers, because in his eyes the whole of Israel was a nation of sinners under judgment.

Jeremiah 11:14

14“Therefore don’t pray for this people. Don’t lift up cry or prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry to me because of their trouble.

At a time when the wickedness of Judah had reached its height and destruction was close at hand, the prophet Jeremiah was proclaiming the people’s ruin in harsh and harrowing terms. But Judah ignored his earnest pleading, refused to repent, and chose destruction. Because their corruption had shut even God’s heart of forgiveness, God commanded Jeremiah, who was praying for Judah with tears, not to pray for this people or cry out for them to be saved. They had not listened to Jeremiah, God said, and so he would not hear them even when they cried out in their trouble. So the kingdom of Judah fell to Babylon in utter ruin.

Israel at this moment was weeping as it prayed, fasting, and offering burnt offerings and peace offerings; but every one of them had fallen away, and so God did not hear their prayers. Israel on the attack and Benjamin bracing to fight back had both forsaken God, and God knew full well that each was using his name to win its own victory. To ask who should go up first to fight their brothers in the faith was wrong in itself. That is why God helps neither side.

God is Israel’s king, and he is also their father. When his children fight each other, whom would he help, and whom would he judge? He wanted Israel, defeated again and again by a Benjamin that was no match for them, to see why and to turn back. He wanted them to grasp what the burnt offering and the peace offering mean. The fight between Israel and Benjamin was like pouring ink into ink: what you end up with is still ink. Each judged and condemned the other’s sin, black as ink, but in the end all of them were sinners who could not come before God.

Now only 600 of the children of Benjamin were left. At the sight of it, Israel at last felt remorse and repented before God. But the decision they made in order to find wives for Benjamin was one sin following another.

If we have repented before God, we must start again from the beginning. But they did not want to give their own daughters as wives to a Benjamin that had lost its strength, so they made excuses. At the assembly at Mizpah, they said, they had resolved never to give their daughters to Benjamin, and so they could not give their own. Had they truly repented before God, true repentance would have meant marrying their daughters into Benjamin and helping it grow strong again. Instead, they put the blame on the people of Jabesh Gilead, who had not come to the assembly. They killed its inhabitants, its women, and its children, forced four hundred virgins to marry the Benjamites, and forced the daughters of Shiloh into marriage as well.

Perhaps Israel thought this judgment and decision were wise. But killing the defenseless people of Jabesh Gilead and taking their daughters by force only added one more sin to Israel’s account before God. If a garment buttoned wrong from the first button is not undone completely, still more sin can only follow.

Faith without repentance, faith that judges and criticizes others, faith with no good conscience that will not sacrifice itself, is a fallen faith with nothing to do with God. However wise our faith may seem to us, we must realize that our prayer and our offering may be ones God does not accept.

Israel may seem to have judged the children of Benjamin, but in truth it was Israel that came under God’s judgment, and tens of thousands died. The sin of a corrupted Benjamin is the sin of a fallen Israel. If Israel had repented first instead of blaming Benjamin, God would have healed the whole nation in a gracious way.

When we cannot see our own sin, we ourselves are corrupted, and the church along with us. Friends, when a brother’s faith looks unsound and weak, as Benjamin’s did, I hope you will be the first to come before God, repent, and give yourself to him, because the weakness and sin of a brother in the faith are the sin of us all. Before tens of thousands of warriors are killed, before brothers in the faith are wiped out, before we lose the people we love, we must repent before God. Another’s wrong may stem from our own sin, and the corruption of all Israel and of the church may be the result of my own failure, one person’s failure, to stand upright.

God does not want us, who are Levites, to commit sexual immorality, to cast off those we love so lightly, or to do the evil of touching and cutting up the dead. If we follow God’s will, serve him rightly, and embrace our brothers with love, he will embrace us with still greater grace and raise us up so that we never have to live in shame in this world.

If we take the weakness of our brothers in the faith into our arms with humble faith and devotion, and pray for them, God will give us wonderful power and grace. May you always hold one another close and love one another.