Judges 20

CHAPTERS 20 AND 21THEME: Political anarchythe stateFollowing religious apostasy, then moral awfulness, the next step downward in the life of Israel (and of every nation) is political anarchy. We see this in the last two chapters of the Book of Judges. When the tribes of Israel received a part of this dismembered woman with the message of what had taken place in Gibeah, they were incensed against the tribe of Benjamin. They believed the law should be enforced. In that respect they had not sunk as low as we have today in our philosophy that lawlessness should be permitted and we should have as little law as possible. They gave Benjamin an opportunity to deliver up the offenders, but instead Benjamin declared war against the other eleven tribes! So the tribes assembled together and came against Benjamin.

Judges 20:1

Apparently the tribe of Benjamin had a tremendous army. We are given an interesting sidelight here:

Judges 20:16

I heard a liberal speak for fifteen minutes one time on the fact that David could not have been accurate enough to hit Goliath on the forehead. Consider this verse. These men were as accurate in that day with their slings as we are today with our missiles. If they could get in the range of a slingshot, it would be fatal for anyone. These left-handed men could split a hair! This same liberal said that the reason David picked up five stones was so that he would have a reserve supply in case he missed with the first stone. Well, that liberal was wrong. Goliath had four sons in the army of the Philistines, and David had a stone for each one of them. David knew how accurate he was. Now the men of Benjamin were overcome by sheer numbers. In fact, the tribe of Benjamin was almost destroyed.

Judges 20:44

The people in the tribe of Benjamin were judged because of their gross immorality. What a tragic thing it was for so many to die. This was the favorite tribe. Benjamin, you will recall, was the youngest son of old Jacob, and a favorite son. Benjamin was the one for whom Judah was willing to lay down his life. He occupied a place next to Judah. Unfortunately gross immorality had taken place and had set tribe against tribe and class against class. Then what happened? It led to political anarchy. First there was religious apostasy in the temple, then moral awfulness in the home, and finally political anarchy in the state. These are the steps that any nation takes that goes down. The final chapter in the Book of Judges deals with the mourning for Israel’s lost tribe and the provision the people made for its future. The slaughter of the Benjamites caused Israel to be faced with a new problem. Almost the entire tribe of Benjamin had been destroyed, and the other tribes vowed not to let their daughters marry any of the few remaining Benjamites. Exactly how was the tribe of Benjamin going to be preserved? Before the war, the Israelites had made another vow. They said that any who refused to come to Mizpeh and fight would be put to death. They found out that the men of Jabesh-gilead had not responded to the appeal, and so the command went out for twelve thousand men of Israel to kill the males of Jabesh-gilead, marry the women, and bring the virgins back to the camp at Shiloh.

These virgins then became wives to four hundred Benjamites. A means was also found to get wives for the remaining Benjamites and to rebuild the cities that had been destroyed in the fighting. This period ends in total national corruption and confusion. The final verse concludes the sordid story of the Book of Judges: