All the children of Israel, upon receipt of the evidence gather together to one place. This time all twelve come (v2) in the form of their leaders and the Levite came and confessed openly. He doesn’t quite tell all the truth – ‘they came to kill me but ravished my concubine instead’ Having stated his sin he half-heartedly blamed others, but he asked for their advice and judgment upon Gibeah.
The people are outraged and enraged by what had happened and they rise up against the Gibean people. Civil war results as the tribes join together against their Benjamite brothers out of their horror and indignation about their wickedness. Their intention was to purge the evil by destroying the wicked men of Gibeah, but the Benjamites refused to hand them over. (v13)
The Israelites went to Bethel (v18) ‘the house of God’ to enquire of God who should lead them against their brothers the Benjamites. Oh, that the Benjamites had learned from their first entry into the Promised Land, when after the great victory over Jericho they suffered defeat the hands of the apparently insignificant little army of Ai. That was due to one man’s sin, the sin of Achan who took the forbidden spoils (Joshua 7). One would have thought that they would have learned and handed over the few evil men who had perpetrated this terrible deed, rather than suffering the very great slaughter which ensued. In fact, they lost 25,100 valiant fighters (v35) out of a total of 26,700 (v15), including such brilliant marksmen as the 700 left handers who could sling a stone at a hair and not miss (v16).
Isn’t it true today that often people who ought to know better, even Christians, will fight for and support the cause of evil? Sin is often called ‘sickness’ thus suggesting no evil intent rather mere misfortune. Rather than condemning sin we are often prone to condone it. Particularly so is it with the sin of the Gibeonites. Homosexuality is not hereditary in the sense we have no control, I believe that it is a learned disorder and an individual choice, usually encouraged by others of that same persuasion. It is a lifestyle not just a sexual experience. I am told that it is not related to glands, genes or hormones but a learned behaviour which normally starts in early life and, more than almost any other practice, affects the individual’s total life and thinking process. The homosexual community nowadays referred to as LGBT++ (seems to be added to often) is organised, militant and demonstrative, willing to take to the streets and proudly declare their sexual preference. What was once a secret, rarely mentioned has become an open ‘epidemic’ sweeping the western world particularly and one which has gained the ear of politicians and medics and many other intelligent people. A vociferous minority are seeking to dictate to the majority, and sadly, this includes children and the vulnerable. I have read that some say that there is no evidence that anyone has been forced against their will to become homosexual and that it has increased in direct proportion to the increase in pornography. ‘The body is the servant of the mind and the mind can be conditioned and directed, homosexuals are made not born (Dr C.A. Tripp).
The world says – “Once a ……., always one” but whilst it is not easy, there is a way out! A friend of mine had been an alcoholic for thirty years, had a sickness benefit book describing his illness as ‘alcoholism’, became a Christian and God took away the desire for alcohol and was totally freed and God changed his life completely. The Bible makes it clear that when Jesus Christ enters a person’s life, He imparts to that person a new mind, a new set of desires and feelings. As we saw in 1 Corinthians 6, Colossians 3 etc that the Apostle Paul refers to those who had been …. “were once, but have been changed”. God gives the saved person a new nature. Paul writing to the Ephesians Ch 4 said, “Do not give place to the devil…. Let him who stole steal no more…. Put off your former conduct, the old man…. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new man which was created according to God in righteousness and true holiness.”
A Spirit-filled Christian is a Spirit-controlled person who will do things which please God as He reveals Himself in His Word. Paul relates the fruit of The Spirit in his letter to the Galatians and that list includes ‘self-control’. Now none of us are perfect but the Bible makes it clear that when we belong to Christ we no longer have a longing desire to sin, instead we really abhor it even though we do lapse and fall into it, but God is able and the longer we ‘con ourselves’ that we can’t do anything about it, the more we make God a liar and say that He hasn’t the power to deliver us.
We are still prone to cover up sin and make excuses for it and even stand up for it. How we need to make a clear stand and a courageous statement of Biblical principles.
Much of what the Bible describes as ‘detestable is considered acceptable these days. Believe it or not people still sacrifice children – if you think not, what about abortion on demand, and sorcery is on the increase. The Bible is clear that not only does God detest certain practices but those who engage in them ultimately detest themselves. “They will loathe themselves for the evil practices they have done and for all their detestable practices” (Ezekiel 6:9).
We also see that people try to convince themselves that private behaviour has no consequence beyond the boundaries of privacy. That is also contradicted by God’s Word- a land in which its citizens continually engage in detestable practices becomes defiled with a pollution which most environmentalists have not yet begun to study. The earth is stained with sin, the bodies of abused children killed by people have been put somewhere and there comes a time when God steps in and destroys nations e.g. Sodom, Gomorrah, Judah and Israel . He observes our actions and misses nothing and those who engage in such will live to regret it. Think of sexually transmitted diseases. God will judge and we “…. will receive what is due…. For the things done in the body.” (2 Corinthians 5:10)
We, the Church, must bow before His authority and we have a duty to tell all that if we fail to take notice we will destroy ourselves, our nation and our churches. Only The LORD can deliver us! Note the words in the prayer our LORD taught us “…. Deliver us from evil”.
The Benjamites were foolish for protecting those evil men and paid for it very dearly. All of us need to surrender our lives to Jesus Christ. We should not simply judge others but recognise sin for what it is and drive it out of our lives, destroy the idols and dispossess the evil one of his control by the Power of God and help others to do the same. Repentance is essential and that leads to forgiveness and, whilst there maybe physical consequences in our lives, the eternal punishment for sin is blotted out and remembered by God, no more. What encouragement there is in that and that whatever life remains we can be changed by the new birth by The Spirit of God.
We must spread the Gospel, without it there is no hope for the world.
If the Benjamites had not defended those evil men, there was a chance they could have repented, but by their protection those evil men seemed totally unrepentant. Achan appeared to be repentant and even though he was put to death as punishment, it saved a nation, and whilst losing his life, if his repentance was genuine, it also saved his soul.
The action of these men and the Benjamites led, as invariably it does, to the death of a great number of innocent people on the Israelite side – 40,000 (v21,25).
It is just the same today – think of how many innocent people suffer because of the actions of others from sexual immorality. Safe sex outside of God’s rules is a myth.
After two forages in battle and two defeats (to v26) it could appear to the onlooker that the Benjamites were justified in their actions, but the rest of the Israelites were not to be discouraged and for a third time they came before God to ask the priest Phinehas ministering before the ark of the covenant (v27) and after weeping, fasting and presenting their offerings and this time The LORD answered, “Go up tomorrow and I will give them into your hands.”
It seems to me that they previously asked God (v18) simply, “Who should go first in the battle” and God said Judah shall go first, but no mention of when. Again, in v 23 the question was, “Shall I again draw near for battle? The LORD said’, ‘Go up against him” but no question of when. This third time the instructions are clear, and the promise is there – “Go up tomorrow and I will give them into your hands” Maybe they weren’t being specific. They can’t be criticised for their lack of faith, after all God had told them to go and who was to go first but maybe it wasn’t God’s time. However, they didn’t give up despite losing 40,000 men on the first two sorties, they still came before The LORD and ask. How many of us would have given up? Perhaps they even started to think that perhaps the Benjamites were right after all. But this time they experience an overwhelming victory, all but 600 men wiped out and (v47) they fled into the desert, to the Rock of Rimmon where they stayed four months. The rest of the occupants and buildings were put to the sword and set on fire (v48)
