(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
Judges 20:18–25, “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 the battle against the children of Benjamin? And the LORD said, Judah shall go up first. And the children of Israel rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah. And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel put themselves in array to fight against them at Gibeah. 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. And the people the men of Israel encouraged themselves, and set their battle again in array in the place where they put themselves in array the first day. (And the children of Israel went up and wept before the LORD until even, and asked counsel of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up again to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother? And the LORD said, Go up against him.) And the children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day. And Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the sword.”
While Benjamin was determined to protect their own people the rest of Israel wanted to protect the spiritual integrity of their nation. Their leaders went to the Tabernacle and consulted the Lord as to whether they should punish Benjamin according to the Law. The Lord told them to go and punish Benjamin and they sent men from the tribe of Judah first. The men from Benjamin were angry and determined to continue in their rebellious ways so they fought fiercely and won a convincing victory on the first day. The rest of the men from Israel wept before the Lord after their defeat but prayed again to see if they should carry out the justice that was required by the Law. On the second day the men from Benjamin were still fiercely committed to their own rebellious ways and they fought fiercely again to win another convincing victory. This shows that people who are determined to carry on with their sinful ways can be very hard to bring to justice.
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