No King in Israel (48)

As we expect from historical narrative, Judges 20 is descriptive rather than prescriptive. The chapter is not loaded with heavy-handed editorializing. At the same time, the New Testament teaches us that at least some of the things Israel experienced are lessons for us today. The apostle Paul writes, “They were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.”

So, provided what we observe in the story proves consistent with the instructive parts of scripture, let’s see what we can take away for ourselves today. The most obvious lesson I can see here concerns effective corporate prayer.

A Three-Day War

Israel’s first civil war lasted three days. Each day began with Israelite prayer:

Day 1: “Who shall go up first for us to fight against the people of Benjamin?”

Day 2: “Shall we again draw near to fight against our brothers, the people of Benjamin?”

Day 3: “Shall we go out once more to battle against our brothers, the people of Benjamin, or shall we cease?”

Each day the Lord gave some sort of answer, but the first two days he appears to have left the Israelite army to its own devices, and things went very badly indeed. What changed by the third day? Well, a number of things.

III. Two Historical Vignettes from the Period (continued)

b. Benjamin becomes Sodom (continued)

Judges 20:18-23 — Day One

“The people of Israel arose and went up to Bethel and inquired of God, ‘Who shall go up first for us to fight against the people of Benjamin?’ And the Lord said, ‘Judah shall go up first.’ Then the people of Israel rose in the morning and encamped against Gibeah. And the men of Israel went out to fight against Benjamin, and the men of Israel drew up the battle line against them at Gibeah. The people of Benjamin came out of Gibeah and destroyed on that day 22,000 men of the Israelites. But the people, the men of Israel, took courage, and again formed the battle line in the same place where they had formed it on the first day. And the people of Israel went up and wept before the Lord until the evening. And they inquired of the Lord, ‘Shall we again draw near to fight against our brothers, the people of Benjamin?’ And the Lord said, ‘Go up against them.’ ”

Direction, But Not Help

Day 1 starts with an assumption rather than a request, Israel doing things its own way. There’s no question they are going to battle. Their concern is merely strategic: “Who’s going first?” They ask for direction from the Lord, but they do not ask for help. Perhaps they figure a 15:1 manpower advantage over Benjamin makes victory inevitable. The Lord gives them an answer that is entirely in accordance with their question: “Judah shall go up first.” A little hard on Judah, perhaps, but there may have been reasons for that. The result was 22,000 dead Israelites. Presumably Judah was hardest hit.

There’s no explicit record of Benjamite losses on the first two days of battle, but since Benjamin started with 26,700 soldiers and finished with 600, and since 25,100 Benjamites were killed on Day 3, we may reasonably conclude the tribe lost approximately 1,000 soldiers over those first two days. That means the ratio of dead Israelites to dead Benjamites on Day 1 was something like 44:1. The word “massacre” seems an appropriate description.

Asking Wrongly

I don’t think it’s out of line to conclude something about Israel’s relationship with the Lord needed to be straightened out. Corporate prayer was not working for Israel. Apparently, the nation needed to do more than just inquire. I am reminded of the words of James: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly.” It’s not that prayer requires a formula or a particular technique, but it’s evident there are right and wrong ways of asking for direction.

We may note that Day 2’s prayer is a little more tentative: “Shall we again draw near?” The Israelite army had plenty of courage, but Day 1’s spectacular losses had shattered its confidence. Instead of “Who shall go up?”, it’s “Should we go up at all?” There’s also a lot of weeping involved, which seems appropriate, but more than grief was needed.

Judges 20:24-28 — Day Two

“So the people of Israel came near against the people of Benjamin the second day. And Benjamin went against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed 18,000 men of the people of Israel. All these were men who drew the sword. Then all the people of Israel, the whole army, went up and came to Bethel and wept. They sat there before the Lord and fasted that day until evening, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. And the people 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, son of Aaron, ministered before it in those days), saying, ‘Shall we go out once more to battle against our brothers, the people of Benjamin, or shall we cease?’ And the Lord said, ‘Go up, for tomorrow I will give them into your hand.’ ”

Spiritual Seriousness

Day 2’s ratio of dead Israelites to dead Benjamites was down to a mere 36:1, or thereabouts. Israel quite reasonably did not view that outcome in a positive light. Total losses on the Israelite side had now reached 40,000, exactly a tenth of their fighting force. That’s the literal meaning of decimation.

At this point, Israel began to get serious about prayer. First they fasted. Fasting is not a biblical requirement for effective Christian prayer, but it can be evidence of spiritual seriousness. James uses Elijah as an OT example of serious prayer, commenting, “he prayed fervently”. The original there is literally “he prayed with prayer”, one of those double-whammy Greek expressions that indicates intensity. That sort of prayer, James says, “has great power”.

Righteousness and Atonement

In addition, James says righteousness is important. It’s the prayer of a righteous person that has great power. Israel offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Burnt offerings were for atonement.

That Hebrew term [kāpar] refers to a process by which God was satisfied with respect to sin. The offense committed was set aside and fellowship between God and man could recommence. Reconciliation, pacification, appeasement and propitiation are roughly equivalent concepts. For fallen men, atonement is a prerequisite to righteousness, and righteousness to effective prayer. Thankfully, the Christian has had a once-for-all atoning sacrifice made on his behalf in the death of Christ, his resurrection being proof that God accepted it. For the NT believer, there is “no blood, no altar now”. The sacrifice is over. Only confession is required to restore broken fellowship with God.

That was not the case for Israel in the days before Messiah’s first advent. They needed that burnt offering to make things right, acknowledging what the first two days of fighting had proved: it wasn’t just Benjamin that had gotten away from the Law of Moses and had offended the Lord. The other tribes were carrying their own moral baggage that needed to be dealt with. They were trying to enforce the Law on others without first applying its lessons to themselves. That never works.

Peace and Prayer

The peace offering is also called a “food offering” and a “pleasing aroma”. The peace offering was not about obtaining forgiveness for sin or being reconciled to God. It was a voluntary sacrifice made to celebrate forgiveness received, not an offering to make peace but an expression of appreciation for peace already established. It is associated with thanksgiving and was the food of the priesthood.

A thankful spirit is critical to God’s blessing. Romans 1 describes man’s descent into the spiritual abyss this way: “They did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking.” That’s where ingratitude will get you. The NT contains dozens of references to prayers of thanks. As the Lord taught, forgiveness properly received and understood always results in gratitude. The two go together better than chocolate and peanut butter.

So then, the peace offerings Israel made at the end of Day 2 were no afterthought. They were a critical factor in answered prayer.

In Summary

What changed by the time Day 3 of the battle rolled around? Well, the corporate prayer took on a different shape. First, Israel began to ask not how they should do what they had already decided to do, but what God actually wanted of them. They entertained the possibility of abandoning the battle entirely if God was not with them. Second, they got serious about prayer. Third, they repented of their own sins and were forgiven. Fourth, they were grateful. Fifth, they received God’s promise, “tomorrow I will given them into your hand”. With corporate prayer like that, Day 3 was shaping up to be a doozy.

Hey, it’s not an instructional passage, but there are certainly a few solid principles illustrated for us.