Journey to ResolveResolution 4: Trust in God’s Strength

Last year I started this Journey to Resolve series and began working through every 20:24 verse in the Bible. I knew I wouldn’t finish all 15 posts in 2024, but it’s okay. The 20:25 verses carry the same message because we are digging into the context, the stories, the lessons – and they are great lessons for everyone young and old. Maybe older folks like me will find these resolutions a bit more difficult to put into practice because it truly is hard to teach “old dogs new tricks.” However, it is the same Holy Spirit who indwells each of us, so all of us are capable of following God’s lead and resolving to serve Him better, that is, if we rely on His strength.

So, let’s do this. Let’s dig in. One resolution per month, and please pray that I can keep up with posting something meaty to chew on every month of 2025.
 

(If you want to catch up on the first 3 posts in this series, start here.)

 

Resolution #4: I Will Trust in God’s Strength

Just like in Resolution 3 (I WillAim High) with the story of Moses and Aaron in Numbers 20, our 20:25 verse in Resolution 4 is not set in a happy story. Judges 20:25 puts our protagonists, the nation of Israel, in a second battle to exact revenge on the men of Gibeah. For a second time, they lost the battle and thousands of soldiers.

Let’s start at the beginning…

The book of Judges chronicles 300+ years in which Israel was ruled by leaders called judges. This type of leadership in Israel began after the death of Joshua, which was after they settled in Canaan, their promised land. Leadership by judges ended when Saul became Israel’s first king. The judges weren’t just the courtroom, gavel-type judges we envision today. They were also military leaders. Some familiar judges are Deborah, Gideon, and Samson.

Under the judges, the Israelites didn’t get off to a good start with respect to their worship and obedience to God (the topics of Resolutions 1 and 2 in this series). Their priorities were different than those of Moses and Joshua, so they went from pretty good as a nation, to okay, to bad, and then despicable. At the end of this period of judges, they were just as bad as the Canaanites. They even sacrificed their children. This is because they never rid themselves (and their hearts) of the Canaanites and the Canaanite things when they took the land.

In Judges 20, we see the Israelites in the aftermath of a vile rape and molestation of a concubine by a group of wicked men in a city called Gibeah, which was in the region belonging to the tribe of Benjamin (a portion of Israel). The wicked men eventually let the concubine go and she made it back to the house where her master was staying for the night, but she stayed outside and lay at the doorstep. By morning, she had passed and her master sent a message across all Israel. (Read the full story in Judges 19, but be prepared for some gory and gruesome details.)

The leaders of Israel gathered together as a congress. They heard the facts of the crime and made a decision. I suppose the tribe of Benjamin was also invited to counsel together with Israel’s leadership, for they knew that Israel had met. But Benjamin’s leaders were not present and the decision was to take vengeance on the men of Gibeah for the horrendous sins they committed (Judges 20:1-10). They were determined to exact justice on the perpetrators. Now, this meant battle within the borders of Israel and so began a civil war (Judges 20:11-13).

Here is our 20:25 verse for this resolution.

This time, when the Benjamites came out from Gibeah to oppose them,
they cut down another eighteen thousand Israelites, all of them armed with swords.

Judges 20:25

 

The first attack by Israel was not successful. This was their second attempt. Ultimately, it took three attacks to deliver justice. They defeated the wicked men of Gibeah and the tribe of Benjamin that chose to defend them. But their success was not as swift as many other victories we read about in the Bible. Their self-reliance got in the way.

Here are two simple lessons related to trusting God's strength in this story:

 

1.      Self-reliance is counter-productive when seeking God’s direction

Representatives from all of Israel gathered as a congress in Mizpah, a name that means watchtower or lookout. Mizpah would become a place of significance for Israel because it was later the place where Samuel gathered with Israel (1 Samuel 7:5-6) and where Saul was chosen as the first king of Israel (1 Samuel 10:17-25). It would also stand as a place of military victory and strength (1 Samuel 7:11, 1 Kings 15:22).

Perhaps more significantly in this story, Mizpah was situated within the land of Benjamin whose leaders did not meet with Israel to discuss this grave atrocity. The tribe of Benjamin, instead, rallied behind the men of Gibeah, for it was a city within it’s borders.

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So, we have one tribe standing by it’s constituents and eleven tribes siding with the victim and God’s law. But did any of them intently honor God and rely on Him for direction or victory? Surely, Benjamin did not, as they sought to protect those who broke God’s law with an outrageous, self-gratifying act of lewdness (Judges 20:4-5).

What of the other eleven tribes? They were on the right side of God’s law (Judges 20:10-11), but did they purpose to honor Him? They “assembled before the Lord” (Judges 20:1-2), but did they seek and rely on Him?

Before their first attack, they gathered before the Lord and people, ready with swords to fight (Judges 20:1-2). They were determined and they set out with confidence in themselves and their numbers (Judges 20:8-14). They didn’t ask God whether to fight. They didn’t humbly bow before Him to seek His direction. They didn’t even ask for His help. They only wanted to know which tribe would strike first (Judges 20:18). They presumed their victory.

Though the Benjamites were vastly outnumbered, they defeated the Israelites that day. They killed 22,000 soldiers, all fit for battle (Judges 20:21). The Israelites were defeated again when they attacked the next day (Judges 20:22-25). The self-reliance of the Israelites got in the way of seeking God’s direction. Fast forward over 100 years to see the opposite approach in King David. He regularly sought God’s heart before initiating attack (1 Chronicles 14:8-12 is an early example). Where is our reliance? When the road ahead gets rough, do we set out in our own strength, or do we seek direction from our God who is always in control? For the Israelites, even 15 to 1 odds was not in their favor because they didn’t rely on their God.

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The self-reliance
of the Israelite forces
got in the way
of seeking God's direction

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They did things differently on their third attempt…

Then all the Israelites, the whole army, went up to Bethel,
and there they sat weeping before the Lord.
They fasted that day until evening
and presented burnt offerings and
fellowship offerings to the Lord.

And the Israelites inquired of the Lord.
(In those days the ark of the covenant of God was there,
with Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, ministering before it.)
They asked, “Shall we go up again to fight against the Benjamites,
our fellow Israelites, or not?” The Lord responded,

“Go, for tomorrow I will give them into your hands.”

 

Judges 20:26-28

 

The Israelites wept, fasted, confessed their sins, and made peace with God. They restored their relationship with Him. Then they prayed with no preconceptions and sought God’s direction and help.

  

2.      Reliance on God requires emptying ourselves of our own strength

When the Israelites took themselves out of the equation, they were victorious. They relied on God and not in their numbers, skill, or passion. When they did this, they not only affirmed God’s wishes, they also gained a sophisticated, divinely-crafted battle plan (Judges20:29-47). What an advantage we can have when we set our own strength aside. Our daily endeavors are not about us. They are for and about the God who makes good things happen, so we should step back and trust His mighty hand. Passion without prayer can be tragic.

 

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Passion
without prayer
can be
tragic

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After the battle and collateral damage dust settled, the Benjamites faced a dilemma. As a result of war, there were no women to help propagate their tribe. All of Israel felt this pain because they didn’t want any one tribe to dwindle in population. Did they learn from their great loss in civil war? Even though they came together as we read in Judges 21, no, they didn’t turn to God. They devised their own plan.

They started off seemingly well. They gathered at the altar, but it didn’t take long for their assembly and subsequent action plan to become wrought with scheming, betrayal, bloodshed, and an immoral searching for loopholes in their already foolish promise to God. (Read about it in Judges 21.) The book of Judges ends with a simple summary of the failure of Israel to truly empty themselves of whatever was within them in favor of reliance on God’s strength and plan for them.
 

In those days Israel had no king;
everyone did as they saw fit.

Judges 21:25

 

Let us not be like the nation depicted in the book of Judges. Let us resolve to trust in God’s strength. Judges 21:25 contains a thread of hope: “Israel had no king.” Saul became Israel’s first king, but the hope I highlight here was found in Israel’s second king, King David, a man after God's own heart (1 Samuel13:14, Acts 13:22). We don’t need to be restrained by a history of bad decisions and missed opportunities. The perfecting work of God in our hearts is accompanied by productive hope. We can allow Him to shape us and lead us into His great plan for the remainder of our lives on earth.

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I close with this song by Phil Wickham that encourages us to leave the battle to God. It is not for us to plan or fight. Our job is to fall to our knees at the battle line. God brings the victory.

Phil Wickham - Battle Belongs (Official Lyric Video)

 

More resolutions to come...

The resolutions and Bible books in this series:

I will…

1.     Worship God Alone (Exodus 20:24)

2.     Be More Holy (Leviticus 20:24)

3.     Aim High (Numbers 20:24)

4.     Trust in God’s Strength (Judges 20:25)

5.     Nurture Quality Friendships (1 Samuel 20:25)

6.     Stand for God’s Government (2 Samuel 20:25)

7.     Follow God Through Highs and Lows (1 Kings 20:25)

8.     Let God Win My Battles (2 Chronicles 20:25)

9.     Rise Above the Naysayers (Job 20:25)

10. Trust God’s Ways (Proverbs 20:25)

11. Allow God to Correct Me (Ezekiel 20:25)

12. Serve Others Without the Glory (Matthew 20:25)

13. Rely On the Wisdom of God (Luke 20:25)

14. Trust the Words of My Savior (John 20:25)

15. Complete the Work God Has for Me (Acts 20:25) 

 

If you want to dialog more about trusting God's strength, feel free to leave a comment or email me at authordlv@att.net. God is fully in control and mighty to execute His plan and will. We can always depend on Him.

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