What started the conflict between the rest of the
tribes of Israel and the Benjamites was what a group of worthless Benjamites
did to the concubine of the Levite in Gibeah. The Benjamites did not want to
surrender the worthless men from among them who raped and eventually left the
concubine of the Levite to die. Of course, the Levite himself was not free of
blame. He further stoked the fire of anger by dismembering his concubine’s dead
body into twelve pieces and sent them throughout the territory of the Israelites.
He did it to incite anger and provoke a war against the Benjamites. It was a
personal vendetta. The Israelites on their part acted too hastily. They took
side with the Levite and did not consider the consequence of the action which
they were about to take. They proceeded hastily to take the Benjamites to task,
and in two failed attempts they lost 40,000 men in two
battles.
The
two defeats woke them up. So, they repented with weeping and fasting and
earnestly seeking the Lord for direction. They even came to the Lord with burnt
offerings and sacrifices. Seeing their contrition, the Lord responded and told
them to go ahead and punish the Benjamites. With a new strategy and the Lord’s
approval, they proceeded to deal with the Benjamites. One group of them first
approached the city of Gibeah and made it look as if they were attacking the
city. The complacent Benjamites thought they could just go out and destroy them
just like what they did the previous two times. The Israelites then faked a
retreat and lured the Benjamites away from the city to enable another group of
Israelites who were hiding nearby, waiting in ambush, to burn down Gibeah. That
was precisely what the second group did – set the city aflame.
Then
smoke that arose from the burning city was to be a signal for those Israelites
who faked the retreat to stop faking and start to fight back. This was when the
Benjamites saw the column of smoke that rose from Gibeah which was in flames.
They were terrified and lost the will and spirit to fight. The Israelites who
had set Gibeah on fire then came out and joined the larger group of Israelites
and killed 18,000 of them. The rest of the Benjamites attempted to escape
into the wilderness, 5000 of them were caught and 2,000 killed in the process.
In total, in verse 35 we are told that 25,o00 of them were killed. Six hundred
of the Benjamites hid in the Rock of Rimmon for four months. Then the
Israelites returned to the city of Gibeah, killed everyone including all the
cattle. So the whole city of Gibeah was totally annihilated. The Benjamites
were punished and destroyed for their unwillingness to deal with the worthless
men who committed the atrocity of raping the Levite’s concubine and left her to
die. In life, all it takes is a few fellowmen to start a needless brawl. All
this can be boiled down to pride and ego. If each party had taken the time to
look at how the conflict was started, they would have dealt with it
differently.
A
lesson to take away is this: it is foolhardy for anyone to embark on a venture
without considering the cost. Always count the cost to be sure that we have the
capacity to finish an undertaking with success without incurring any losses.
One should not get into a conflict or a venture without a worthwhile reason.
The needless cost of suffering from the result of failure is one too many. It
is also one too frequent when one does so without calculating the cost. So,
learn to count the cost!
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