Victory depends on God (Judges 1:1-2; 20:18)

Victory depends on God.

“After the death of Joshua, the Israelites asked the LORD, ‘Who will be the first to go up and fight for us against the Canaanites?’ The LORD answered, ‘Judah is to go; I have given the land into their hands.’ … The Israelites went up to Bethel and inquired of God. They said, ‘Who of us shall go first to fight against the Benjamites?’ The LORD replied, "Judah shall go first.” (Judges 1:1-2; 20:18)

The name of the church I am currently serving is “Victory Presbyterian Church”. Victory Presbyterian Church was established on the first Sunday of July 1980 by the Lord who used my father, the retired pastor of our church, as a tool. At that time, we had a church planting worship to God. Although I don’t remember very well, I once wondered why my father planted the church and named the church “Victory Presbyterian Church” out of the many church names. In my memory, while pastoring Victory Presbyterian Church, my father exhorted the church members to become ‘a church that triumphs over myself, the world, sin, and Satan’ many times. I didn't know the meaning of it. But as I wandered as a teenager, I enjoyed the things of the world according to my own sinful instinct, sinned against God and saw myself defeated by Satan countless times. In doing so, I began to learn, feeling the importance and desperate need of its meaning, as I struggled in the depths of despair because of myself. Then, when I was in my freshman year of college, I attended the college retreat of the church and was transformed and devoted myself to become a pastor like my father. Then I went to a seminary and listened to a lecture on ‘the doctrine of the church’ by a professor, and was taught that the church is ‘a militant church vs. a triumphant church’. In other words, the church is in a state of tension between the militant church and the triumphant church. The reason I still remember this teaching is probably not only because I have been attending the Victory Presbyterian Church since I was 12 years old but also because I couldn't win in the fight against myself, the world, sin, and Satan according to my own father's teachings, and I was always living in a sense of defeat. Then, about 24 years after planting the church, my father retired and started the mission himself, and I became the senior pastor of Victory Presbyterian Church. From that time until now, I have been pastoring Victory Presbyterian Church, leading the funeral services of several older members in the church. I visited not only when they were in nursing homes, but also when they were in the intensive care unit and even in the hospice, giving praise and prayers to God and preaching His word to them. At the same time, my heart felt that I had to not only fight against myself, the world, sin, and Satan and be victorious but also fight against death and be victorious. So, from that time on, I began to pray and exhort the members of our church to become a church that triumphs over myself, the world, sin, Satan, and death. Of course, I believe that this spiritual battle must be continued starting with me as the senior pastor, and that this spiritual battle must be fought to the end not only as individuals but also as a community as a church.

I am still in a spiritual battle. I am now fighting against myself, sin, the world, Satan, and death. But too often I don't know what to do in my spiritual battle with myself. I seem to know that I have to repent in my head, but I do not repent in my heart. I have no heart to mourn and repent. I really don't know what to do when I see myself unable to repent even if I want to. In the meantime, I came across the Bible 2 Chronicles 20:15 – “… For the battle is not yours, but God's.” As I read this word, at least in my head, I knew a little that the spiritual battle against myself, the world, sin, Satan and death is not belong to myself, but to God. But the serious problem is that I did not believe in this word of God with my heart. So I continued to engage in my own spiritual battle on my own. Because of that, I have been defeated in countless spiritual wars. So I was filled with sense of defeat. And I used to struggle with feelings of guilt and self-doubt over and over again, feeling discouraged because of myself. That was my daily life. I think I've lived like that for 50 years. In the midst of such circumstance, God's great grace is that God has made me not to lose sight of God's word and the bond of prayer. If God made me continue to meditate on the word of the Lord, who is the bread of life, and made me, who hated the morning prayer, to realize the necessity of the morning prayer, and let me taste the joy of meditating on His word and praying little by little. Then, while reading Judges Chapter 20 today, I became interested in verse 18 and meditated on it.

Look at Judges 20:18 – “The Israelites went up to Bethel and inquired of God. They said, ‘Who of us shall go first to fight against the Benjamites?’ The LORD replied, ‘Judah shall go first.’” I read this verse again and again, and remembered that I read something similar to this in Judges Chapter 1. So I opened Judges Chapter 1, and saw this similar word in verses 1 and 2: “After the death of Joshua, the Israelites asked the LORD, ‘Who will be the first to go up and fight for us against the Canaanites?’ The LORD answered, ‘Judah is to go; I have given the land into their hands.’” First, I compared these two verses and thought of similarities. The similarity between these two Bible verses is that in both cases the Israelites inquired of God before going to war (1:1, 20:18). And God's answer to them is similar: “Judah is to go” (1:2), “Judah shall go first” (20:18). However, the difference is that the target of the battle the Israelites wanted to fight was different. In Judges 1, the battle that the Israelites wanted to fight was “the Canaanites,” whereas in Judges 20, the battle they were fighting against was the Benjamites. Another difference is that in Judges 1 the Israelites fought against the Canaanites and won the battle, whereas in Judges 20, the Israelites fought against the Benjamites and lost the battle twice (20:18-25). Why were the Israelites defeated twice by the Benjamites? Clearly, the Bible says that the Israelites were 400,000 soldiers armed with swords (v. 2, cf. v. 17), “the Benjamites mobilized twenty-six thousand swordsmen from their towns, in addition to seven hundred chosen men from those living in Gibeah” (v. 15). How did the 400,000 Israelites lose twice in the battle against the 26,700 Benjamites? According to human calculations, shouldn't the Israelites, who had many soldiers, have won the battle against the Benjamites, who had very few soldiers? However, the result of the battle was that the Israelites were defeated by the Benjamites twice. What could be the cause? Why did the Israelites lose twice in the battle against the Benjamites? Obviously, both times God told the Israelites, “Judah shall go first” (v. 18) and “go up against them” (v. 23). Why did the Israelites, who obeyed these words of God and went up against the Benjamites, lost the battle twice?

One interesting thing to point out is that the number of the Israelites killed in the first battle was 22,000 (v. 21) and 18,000 in the second battle (v. 25) when they lost these battles. If we add these two numbers together, we get that the number of the Israel soldiers killed in two battles against the Benjamites was 40,000. If it was 40,000, then one-tenth (1/10) of the 400,000 men (vv. 2, 17), the total number of soldiers of the Israelites, were killed. I found this a bit interesting. This is because I thought it was no coincidence that 10% of the total number of soldiers of the Israelites was killed. It must have happened under the sovereignty of God. But I wonder why it was 10%. For when the Israelites fought two battles with 400,000 soldiers and 40,000 died, all the Israelites went up to Bethel and sat before God and fasted until the end of that day and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord (v. 26). After losing the first two battles, they didn't do that. Rather, after losing the first battle, the men of Israel encouraged one another and again took up their positions where they had stationed themselves the first day (v. 22). It's like watching a Korean historical drama, a scene reminiscent of a barbarian enemy army attacking the fortress to kill the Joseon people in the town, but being defeated, they came back to their camp, set up a battle line, and attacked again the next day. But seeing that the Israelites encouraged themselves (v. 22) after losing the first war and re-established their remnants where they had formed on the first day, perhaps they thought that their remaining 378,000 men (400,000 – 22,000 = 378,000) were sufficient to win the battle against the 26,700 sons of Benjamin (without relying entirely on God). But the result was that another 18,000 children of Israel were killed (v. 25). So when all the Israelites went up to Bethel and sat down before God weeping, they fasted until evening and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God (v. 26). At that time, unlike the first two battles, the ark of the covenant of God symbolizing God’s presence was also there, and Phinehas the son of Eleazar, Aaron’s grandson was also serving as a priest (v. 27). Then the Israelites again inquired of God: “Shall we go up again to battle with Benjamin our brother, or not?” (v. 28) Then God said to them, “Go, for tomorrow I will give them into your hands” (v. 28).

That's it. This is another difference between Judges 1:1-2 and Judges 20:18. The difference is that in Judges 1:1-2, God said to the Israelites, “I have given the land into their hands” (v. 2), whereas there is no word of God’s promise in Judges 20:18. God simply said to the Israelites, “Judah shall go first” (v. 18). So the Israelites lined up to fight Benjamin and fought with them at Gibeah. On that day, 22,000 Israelites were killed and the battle was lost. Clearly, the Israelites were defeated in the first battle despite God's saying, "Judah shall go first." Although God had clearly told the Israelites to “Go up against them” (v. 23) even in the second battle, the Israelites were defeated in the battle (v. 25). Why did the Israelites here lose the battle twice? Obviously, God had spoken twice, and the Israelites went up and fought against the Benjamites as He had said, why did they lose the battle twice? I thought of that answer by comparing it with the words of Judges 1:1-2. At that time, I think that the reason the Israelites lost two battles with the Benjamites was because God did not hand them over to the Israelites (v. 2). Before the Israelites went to battle against the Benjamites, God did not tell the Israelites that He hand the Benjamites into their hands (Cf. 1:2; 20:18, 23). Why didn't God say that to the Israelites? Could it be that the all-knowing God knew that the Israelites would grieve for their brothers, the Benjamites, after winning the battle against them (21:6)? Could it be that God caused the Israelites to lose the battle twice, lest they grieved for the Benjamites by saying, “Today one tribe is cut off from Israel” (v. 6) after the Israelites won the battle against the Benjamites? In fact, the Israelites won the third battle against the Benjamites (20:26-48). However, after winning the third battle, the Israelites repented for the Benjamites because God had made a gap in the tribes of Israel (21:15). Perhaps the reason that God caused the Israelites to lose the two battles against the Benjamites was that He did not want one tribe to be lost in the battle between their own people, and that if one tribe of Benjamin was lost, the other eleven tribes would grieve for their brothers (21:6, 15). Perhaps the reason God caused the Israelites to lose twice in the battle against the Benjamites was because He did not want a battle between their own people, and perhaps because He knew the cause of the battle. Indeed, this kind of warfare was fought because “Such a thing has never been seen or done, not since the day the Israelites came up out of Egypt” (19:30). And the thing was that a Levite’s concubine, who was unfaithful to the Levite, left him and went back to her father’s house and had been there four months (19:1-2). The Levite went to her and persuaded her to return (v. 3). When the Levite went into Gibeah with his concubine and lodged in the house of an old man from the hill country of Ephraim, the wicked men of the city raped her, abused her throughout the night, and killed his concubine (vv. 10-28). So the Levite put her on his donkey and sent out for home (v. 28). When he arrived at his house, he took a knife and cut up his concubine's body into twelve pieces and sent one piece to each of the twelve tribes of Israel (v. 29). In the end, all the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead assembled before the Lord in Mizpah (20:1) and went to battle against the Benjamites (Ch. 20). Looking at the cause of the battle between these people, it is thought that a Levite had a concubine was a violation of the law, it was wrong bring his concubine who had committed adultery back. And the Levite’s motive doesn’t seem good that he wanted to take revenge by cutting her body and sending each pieces to each tribe of Israel so that eventually each tribe participated in the battle (Tae-seok Jang). Perhaps that is why God caused the Israelites to lose two battles against the Benjamites.

With this in mind, I looked for the reason why God did not allow the Israelites to win two battles against the Benjamites in the words of God to the Israelites before their third battle. Before the third battle, the Israelites differed from what they had done before the two previous battles. The difference is that the Israelites fasted before the third battle and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God (v. 26). As I thought about this, I was reminded of Judges 7:15, which I meditated on at the Morning Prayer meeting last week: “When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped God. He returned to the camp of Israel and called out, ‘Get up! The LORD has given the Midianite camp into your hands.’” God made Gideon, who could be afraid when he saw the Midianites, the Amalekites and all the other eastern peoples had settled in the valley, thick as locusts and their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore (7:12), to hear the conversation between two men from the enemy camp (the story of the dream and the interpretation of the dream) (v. 15). After hearing the dream and interpretation, Gideon first “worshiped” God (v. 15). And Gideon was no longer afraid, but with the assurance of victory and salvation (v. 15), he fought against the enemy and experienced God's victory and salvation (16-8:22). The important thing here is that God made Gideon worship him. It reminds me of the truth that the Father God seeks the true worshipers who worship the Father in spirit and truth (Jn. 4:23). Eventually, the worshiping Gideon was found by God, and God delivered Midian into his hand as promised to Gideon, and delivered Israel from their hand (Judg. 6:14, 16, 36; 7:7, 14). I think the reason God gave the Israelites victory in the third battle against the Benjamites was because they sat before God and fasted until the end of that day and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God (20:26)[At that time, the ark of God, symbolizing the presence of God, was there (Bethel), and Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, was serving as a priest (v. 27)]. Eventually, when the Israelites asked God, “Shall we go up again to battle with Benjamin our brother, or not?”(v. 28)[Comparison: The first question was “Who of us shall go first to fight against the Benjamites?” (v. 18) and the second question was “Shall we go up again to battle against the Benjamites, our brothers?” (v. 23)], God said to them, “Go, for tomorrow I will give them into your hands” (v. 28) [Comparison: The first God's answer was, “Judah shall go first” (v. 18), and the second God's answer was "Go up against them" (v. 23)]. So the Israelites set an ambush around Gibeah, and went up against the Benjamites on the third day and took up positions against Gibeah as they had done before (vv. 29-30). “The Benjamites came out to meet them and were drawn away from the city” (v. 31). As before, they followed the road going up to Bethel and the field of Gibeah, and started striking the Israeli army, killing about 30 men, and thinking that the Israeli army was defeated before them and fled as before. But the Israelites said, “Let's retreat and draw them away from the city to the roads” (vv. 31-32). “All the men of Israel moved from their places and took up positions at Baal Tamar, and the Israelite ambush charged out of its place on the west of Gibeah” (v. 33). Then ten thousand of Israel's finest men made a frontal attack on Gibeah. The fighting was so heavy that the Benjamites did not realize how near disaster was (v. 34). “The LORD defeated Benjamin before Israel, and on that day the Israelites struck down 25,100 Benjamites, all armed with swords” (v. 35). The result of the third battle between the Israelites and the Benjamites was that the Israelites were victorious (verses 36-48).

As I meditate on the Israelites who received the promise of God, “Go, for tomorrow I will give them into your hands” (v. 28) and went up and were victorious in the third battle against Benjamin, I remembered the battle between the Israelites and the people of Ai in Joshua chapter 8. The reason is because the methods of winning both battles are similar. For example, the Israelites ambush in both battles. Joshua had taken about 5,000 men and set them in ambush in the battle with the people of Ai (Josh. 8:12) and the Israel set the ambush around Gibeah (Judg. 20:29). And both wars carried out 'decoy operations'. Perhaps the reason is because in both battles, the Israelites lost the battles first. In the days of Joshua, the Lord’s anger burned against Israel because of the sin of one man, Achan (Josh. 7:1). As a result, about 36 Israeli soldiers were killed in the first battle with the people of Ai (v. 5). During the time of the Judges, the Israelites lost two battles against the Benjamites, and 40,000 were killed (Judg. 20:21, 25). And in both battles, the enemy forces fell into the Israeli decoy operations. In the days of Joshua, the Israel's enemy, King Ai, got up early in the morning and ran to the Jordan Valley to fight the Israeli army, unaware of the Israeli ambush. All the Ai forces inside were involved in the Israeli army's decoy operation and left the city of Ai to pursue the Israeli army (Josh. 7:14-16). Apparently, from the point of view of King Ai, he fell into the Israelites’ decoy operation because he won the first battle against the Israeli army [despite God's wrath and defeat due to Achan's crime, King Ai probably thought that he defeated the Israeli army with his own strength and killed about 36 Israeli soldiers (v. 5)]. During the time of the Judges, the Benjamites also fell into the Israelites’ decoy operation. When the Benjamites came out of the city and fought against the Israelite army, they fell into the Israelites’ decoy operation and moved further and further from the city (Judg. 20:31). “They began to inflict casualties on the Israelites as before, so that about thirty men fell in the open field and on the roads--the one leading to Bethel and the other to Gibeah” (v. 3). But the Israelites said, “Let's retreat and draw them away from the city to the roads” (v. 32). Eventually, the Benjamites fell into the Israel's decoy operation and realized that they had been defeated (v. 36). Ultimately, God gave the Israelites victory.

The Bible says, “The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the LORD” (Prov. 21:31). Victory depends on God. The victorious God made the Israelites victorious in the battle against the Canaanites during the period of the Judges (Judg. 1:1-8). Also, the God of victory made the Israelites victorious in the battle against the Benjamites (20:26-48). The secret of victory is the word of God's promise. God said to the Israelites who were going to fight the Canaanites, “I have given the land into their hands” (1:2), and God gave the men of Judah the victory according to His promise (v. 8). Also, God said to the Israelites, who were defeated after fighting the Benjamites twice, “Go, for tomorrow I will give them into your hands” (20:28), and God the Israelites the victory according to His promise (vv. 29-48). As God went with the Israel in this way, He gave them victory (Exod. 33:14). God has already given us victory. God not only gave us the victory over our sins, but He also gave us the victory over our death by crucifying and resurrecting His only begotten Son, Jesus (1 Cor. 15:55). God saved us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and gave us eternal life. Jesus overcame Satan by dying on the cross and resurrecting. Therefore, we should give thanks to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (v. 57).