Over the years there have been a handful of Hollywood films that have profoundly affected me. The 1989 military movie Casualties of War is one of them. Starring Sean Penn and Michael J. Fox, the film is based on the actual events that happened on Hill 192 in 1966 during the Vietnam War. It tells the story of a United States Army unit who kidnapped a pretty 21 year old Vietnamese girl, bound her wrists with rope, gagged her mouth, and took her on the mission. Later, after setting up camp, four of the soldiers took turns assaulting her. The following day, in the midst of a firefight with the Viet Cong, two of the soldiers worried that they would get caught with the woman, so they shot her in the head with an M16 rifle.
The film not only portray depicts the cruelties of the military combat, but it also exposes the moral malaises and ethical injustices that often accompany such conflicts. The powerful main point of the movie is: There are casualties of war even beyond the battlefield.
This is precisely the point of Judges 20. As the author of Judges continues to paint a painful picture of a society that has no regard for God or his laws, he is putting on the finishing touches on the story by showing the nation of Israel disintegrating into complete anarchy and civil war. Like Casualties of War, this biblical story will kick us in the gut, but I hope that we will all be profoundly affected by it. So, let’s take a look!
Unity in Troubled Times (1-11)
After the brutal rape and murder of the Levite’s concubine, he dismembered her body and sent pieces to the twelve tribes of Israel. When the tribes heard about what the men of Gibeah did to this poor girl and witnessed the evidence with their own eyes, they were utterly horrified. The refrain repeated throughout Israel was “Such a thing has never happened or been seen from the day that the people of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt until this day.” (19:31)
Now Israel hadn’t been a unified nation since the days of Joshua and the conquest of the Promised Land. The relationships between the tribes of Israel had been strained for generations and they absolutely refused to cooperate with one another. But Gibeah’s crime was so morally outrageous that the leaders of each tribe met together at the Mizpah to decide how to hold these men accountable for their acts of atrocity.
Before deciding how to punish the perpetrators, the leaders of Israel wanted to hear the concubine’s story from the Levite’s own lips. When recounting the events, the Levite definitely told his version. He exaggerated that the men of Gibeah wanted to kill him, and although he was truthful about the rape and murder, he conveniently left out the part about him physically pushing her out the door and feeding her to the wolves. He spun the details in such a way to conceal his complicity and to make himself out as the primary victim. Nonetheless, an abominable crime was committed and justice needed to be served. So, the Levite asked the tribal leaders what they were going to do about it.
Upon hearing this tragic tale, the Israelites rose with rage and indignation, and they declared that no one would return to his own house until Gibeah was brought to justice. In a rare display of unity, they formed a plan to gather men from each of their tribes to march against Gibeah. It is ironic that none of the judges of Israel were ever able to amass a unified army to fight against the wicked Canaanites, but now they agree to assemble against their own countrymen. It is sad that it took a national tragedy like this to bring the Israelites together.
But isn’t that exactly the way it is for so many families, communities, and nations today? So often we live in strife and isolation from one another, and it takes a tragedy to bring us together. One of the more awkward aspects of my job is being in a hospital room or funeral home with family members who haven’t spoken to each other in years. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard the words, “It is sad that it takes something like this to bring us all together.” They’re right, it’s downright heartbreaking! Don’t be like the Israelites and wait for a tragedy to motivate you to reconcile or reach out to your family.
Likewise, the funeral home is the place I so often hear fellow community members say, “We have to stop meeting like this!” What does that say about a community when they only time people see each other is when someone dies? If we want to stop meeting like this, let’s start meeting for something else…like lunch, or even better, church!
How about our nation? I wonder what kind of national crisis it will take to break the gridlock in Washington D.C.! I wonder what it will take to get us to love each other and work together in spite of our differences! The last time I saw our nation pull together with any real sense of unity was the week of September 11, 2001.
Blood is Thicker than Justice (12-17)
The Israelite army demanded that the tribe of Benjamin give up the offenders from Gibeah so that they could execute them and purge the evil from the land. But the Benjamites refused. Apparently, blood was thicker than justice. They would rather protect their own guilty tribesmen than cooperate with the rest of Israel. Instead, they gathered their forces to defend Gibeah, even though they were hopelessly outnumbered. They were willing to engage in civil war rather than bringing the rapists and murderers to justice.
So, the Benjamites brought their 26,000 sword-bearers and 700 south-paw slingers to fight against the army of Israel that stood 400,000 men strong. Now I’m not much of a military man, but I can tell you that with these odds, the tribe of Benjamin didn’t stand a chance. Why in the world wouldn’t the Benjamites just act justly?
This is the question that plagues all of us at some level. Why don’t we just do what is right? Why are we willing to let family ties to trump our morals? Why do we allow ourselves to be complicit in sin against God to protect our family members?
Some of you may be saying, “Wait a minute, I don’t do that,”, but I can give you countless examples of how this happens today. For instance, how about the momma bear who relentlessly defends her child when the teacher or principal calls home with a report of bad behavior? I have seen this many times. How about the parent who provides their own urine sample to help their teenager to pass a drug test? I’ve seen this one more than once! Or how about the man or woman who lies to the police to keep their spouse out of jail? Yes, I’ve seen this one too. What sins are you willing to commit to protect your family? Like the Benjamites, when we obstruct justice, we become just as guilty!
Humiliating Defeats (18-28)
Before going to battle, the Israelites went to Bethel, where the Ark of the Covenant was located and Phinehas the priest ministered, to ask God which tribe should lead the charge against Gibeah. The Lord replied that Judah should take the lead, which is reminiscent of the beginning of the Book of Judges when God told Judah to lead the Israelites into battle against the Canaanites. This repetition is ironic because this time around, the battle is against their brothers.
Even though the Israelites vastly outnumbered the Benjamites, the underdogs gashed the Israelites in the first two battles. After two days of fighting, the Israelite casualties numbered 40,000 compared to only a few for the Benjamites. The Israelites were not only defeated; they were totally humiliated. At the end of each day’s battle, they wept before the Lord and inquired if they should continue the fight. Both times God answered in the affirmative. Finally, on the third day the Israelites conquered the Benjamite army and captured the city of Gibeah by employing a clever ambush tactic by retreating from the front lines to draw out the Benjamite army while a battalion of Israelite soldiers stormed in from the side and captured the city.
The Lord eventually empowered the Israelites to win the battle, but this raises the question of why he would allow them to experience humiliating defeats on the first two days. Perhaps he wanted them to humble them sufficiently. After all, there is no indication that they sought the Lord’s guidance in how they should respond to this atrocity. Even when they did consult him, they simply asked who should lead the charge. They had already committed to war and they just assumed God’s approval. Their initial defeat taught them that divine authorization should be sought before, not during such a grave mission. They Lord’s delay in giving them victory gave them the exact attitude adjustment they needed. (Chisholm 504)
God does the same thing with us today. Whenever we display streaks of arrogance and independence, he uses adversity to adjust our attitudes. Sometimes he allows us to experience unexpected and humiliating defeats to humble us and remind us of our need for him. Just as the Israelites trusted in the size and skill of their army, we are often tempted to trust in our personal intellect, talent, cleverness, or bank account to make us succeed in life. When we get puffed up in our pride and think we have life all figured out, God has ways for forcing us to our knees. You know the phrase, “Pride always comes before a fall.”
If we learn to pray before we act, it will prevent a lot of pain! If we seek his will before we make decisions, it will spare us heartache! If we just learn to say “please” and “thank you” to God, it will save us from unnecessary sorrow! God wants us to succeed, but he wants us to do it in the spirit of humility!
Triumph Taken Too Far (29-48)
Well, after the war was over, the whole Benjamite army was decimated. 25,100 of their men were bludgeoned the battlefield that day. 600 Benjamite soldiers managed to escape and hid at the rock of Rimmon for four months. In the meantime, the Israelite forces forged ahead and ravaged the rest of the Benjamite cities, striking them with the edge of the sword. That is—they killed every living thing in their path (men, women, children, and livestock) and burned all of their towns to the ground.
There is tragic irony in this description of Israel’s victory. The expression “strike them with the edge of the sword” was used way back at the beginning of the Book of Judges to describe Israel’s conquest against the Canaanites. But now we see the Israelites inflicting the same kind of slaughter upon their own countrymen. In a classic case of triumph taken too far, the Israelites treated their own people more harshly than their enemies. This whole endeavor began with the Israelites uniting to bring the men of Gibeah to justice for acts of brutality against an innocent woman, but it ends with the Israelites committing even more gruesome and excessive crimes. Indeed, the casualties of war are everywhere.
Like the Israelites, when God is not our top priority, even our best attempts of doing good and working for justice can easily be tainted by transgression. We all possess a sinful nature, and if it is left unchecked, we have the capacity to abuse God’s grace and turn great triumphs into even greater tragedies. I hate to say it, but we are all capable of committing atrocious acts against our own families and countrymen. Yes, the casualties of sin are broadcast across the headlines and scattered across the communities of America every day!
Again, as the author of Judges brings the epic to a close, he wants us to see the dreadful consequences of living in a society where no one abides by God’s laws. He wants us to understand desperate need for a deliverer. He wants us to recognize that we need a redeemer who will save us from ourselves. The Book of Judges and the whole Old Testament are showing us our need for Jesus, God’s own Son, our great deliverer, redeemer, and friend. Do you know how much you need him?