OVERCOMING FAILURE-3

There is another hilarious story in the Book of Judges that happened in ancient Israel, which we can use to illustrate how godly people who mean well and are only trying to do the will of God can find themselves apparently on the ground. You will also notice that it was only a temporary event in the end.
I am going to tell the story that led to the war briefly, and you can check it up later. The whole story is to be found in the book of Judges, chapters 19, 20 and 21.
This whole event took place in ancient Israel at a time it was said that Israel had no king. Obviously there was confusion and chaos, and everybody did what pleased them. There was so much anarchy that a group people will just gather together, lay hold on a man, and make him their priest forcefully.
A man was said to have been abandoned by his concubine, who went and became a harlot. The concubine thing is what is confusing here, was she his fiancée, or was she his girlfriend (maybe), or was she his wife? Anyway, whatever the case might be, she left him and practiced prostitution for about four months from her father’s house. The man decided to go and reconcile with his wife and bring her back home.
When he finished discussing with his father in-law, it was already late, and his in-law begged him to sleep with them since it was night and very late, but he refused and continued his journey. They got to Jerusalem which belonged to the Jebusites and his servant begged him to stop so they can sleep over since it was late. He insisted that since the inhabitants of Jerusalem at that time were not Israelites, they could not enter in to sleep with strangers. They therefore continued their journey until they got to Gibeah which belonged to Benjamin. They stayed under a tree until they were found by an old man returning from work (probably) his farm. The man took him and his wife home to spend the night.
Shortly after they arrived the house of the man who wanted to accommodate them for the night, and were eating and making merry, some fools who were wicked men- the Bible calls them sons of belial surrounded the house where they were.
These wicked fools demanded for a most shocking thing-they demanded to be allowed to perform homosexual acts with the man who was a stranger amongst them. The old man pleaded with them along side with the man himself to take his daughter and the man’s fiancé and do whatever they wanted with them.
They finally accepted to take his fiancé and the Bible says that they took her and abused her sexually throughout the night until morning they left her.
Her fiancée came out to take her but only met dying, and she finally died.
The man decided to cut his fiancée into pieces and share out her meat to the twelve tribes of Israel, as a way of informing them about what has been done to him and his own.
The Israelites were shocked and angered by the wickedness of these men who decided to commit such an atrocity amongst God’s chosen people. They demanded for the Benjamites to bring out the men that were responsible so that they will be punished, but they said no.
This got the rest of Israel very angry with the Benjamites, who they told to prepare for war and which they did. Benjamin made up its mind to fight with the rest of Israel rather than release to them wicked criminals who had committed rape and murder. What folly was that, that made them to harden their hearts?
You and I would have expected that since God was involved, the demands of justice will be met and Israel would overrun Gibeah of Benjamin. In Judges Chapter 20 and verse 18, Israel consulted God, and God told them to allow the armies of Judah to go first.
18 “And the children of Israel arose, and went up to the house of God, and asked counsel of God, and said, Which of us shall go up first to battle the children of Benjamin? And the Lord said, Judah shall go up first”. If you hear the voice of the Lord like this, you will be encouraged, and am sure that Israel was. However what followed after this was totally shocking.
21 “And the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites that day, twenty and two thousand men”.
Israel fell to Benjamin in spite of what they had done. I am sure that in their hearts, the Benjamites felt good. They must have felt that they have shown these weaklings that might is right. However the story did not end there.
Israel went back and sought the face of the Lord and eventually defeated the Benjamites and brought them to their knees. The righteous demands of justice were met. You can read up the rest of the story.
Those who have might, and power and worldly connections may push us down and brag that we have fallen because of their pressure, but the vindication of the righteous shall surely come if he refuses to give up.