{"id":27772,"date":"2023-09-01T22:00:34","date_gmt":"2023-09-02T05:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/judges-20_1-17-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-08-15T22:41:17","modified_gmt":"2023-08-16T05:41:17","slug":"judges-20_18-32","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/judges-20_18-32\/","title":{"rendered":"Sometimes You Need to Lose Before You Can Win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Judges 20:18-32 <\/strong>Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Judges 20:18-32.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

Judges 20:18-28 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The Israelites went up to Bethel and inquired of God. They said, “Who of us shall go first to fight against the Benjamites?” The\u00a0LORD\u00a0replied, “Judah shall go first.”
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The next morning the Israelites got up and pitched camp near Gibeah.
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The men of Israel went out to fight the Benjamites and took up battle positions against them at Gibeah.
\n21\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The Benjamites came out of Gibeah and cut down twenty-two thousand Israelites on the battlefield that day.
\n22\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But the men of Israel encouraged one another and again took up their positions where they had stationed themselves the first day.
\n23\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The Israelites went up and wept before the\u00a0LORD\u00a0until evening, and they inquired of the\u00a0LORD. They said, “Shall we go up again to battle against the Benjamites, our brothers?” The\u00a0LORD\u00a0answered, “Go up against them.”
\n24\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then the Israelites drew near to Benjamin the second day.
\n25\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0This time, when the Benjamites came out from Gibeah to oppose them, they cut down another eighteen thousand Israelites, all of them armed with swords.
\n26\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then the Israelites, all the people, went up to Bethel, and there they sat weeping before the\u00a0LORD. They fasted that day until evening and presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the\u00a0LORD.
\n27\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And the Israelites inquired of the\u00a0LORD. (In those days the ark of the covenant of God was there,
\n28\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0with Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, ministering before it.) They asked, “Shall we go up again to battle with Benjamin our brother, or not?” The\u00a0LORD\u00a0responded, “Go, for tomorrow I will give them into your hands.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 18-28:\u00a0 There are only a few times in the book of Judges where we see people inquiring of God.\u00a0 In chapter 1 the Israelites inquire of the LORD after the death of Joshua (1:1).\u00a0 In chapter 6 Gideon inquires of God with his famous fleece.\u00a0 In chapter 13, Manoah the father of Samson inquires of the LORD regarding how to honour Him (13:17).\u00a0 Whenever people in Judges inquired of the LORD, it seemed to be a God-pleasing thing, a move that would be followed immediately by a wise decision or an immediate victory.\u00a0\u00a0Whenever you\u2019re not sure what to do, the best thing you can do is inquire of the LORD.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0He will lead the way for you.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But here in Judges 20, even though the Israelites inquire of the LORD repeatedly, notice that the first couple times that they follow the LORD\u2019s directions, they lose, and lose badly.\u00a0 After the first time that the Israelites inquire of the LORD (v18), God tells the tribe of Judah that they will be the first to go up against the Benjamites, and yet that day 22,000 of them are cut down (v21).\u00a0 Then when the Israelites inquire of the LORD again and God tells them to go up against the Benjamites a second time, 18,000 more Israelites are cut down (v23-25).\u00a0 Only during the third time that the Israelites inquire of the LORD would the LORD say, \u201cGo, for tomorrow I will give them into your hands\u201d (v28).<\/p>\n

In other words, God had always planned that the Israelites would ultimately be victorious in their struggle against the tribe of Benjamin, but before they could experience that victory, they would need to taste defeat first.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Perhaps this was God’s way of disciplining the Israelites for the way they had handled the conflict with the Benjamites earlier (see yesterday\u2019s GAME sharing).\u00a0 Or maybe this was God training His people to be resilient and to keep trusting in Him no matter what the\u00a0circumstances.\u00a0 Or maybe it’s because God wanted the Israelites to see that despite outnumbering the Benjamites heavily (v15-17), the Israelites could not do anything without the LORD.\u00a0 In any event, it\u2019s true that\u00a0sometimes before you can experience victory, you need to taste defeat.\u00a0 Just because you are defeated once or twice, don\u2019t assume that victory will never be yours.\u00a0 Instead, keep going back to God on what you should do, believing that His ultimate plan is for you to be victorious, perhaps not in the way you originally foresaw, but in His greater way (see 2 Corinthians 2:14).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Judges 20:29-32 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n29\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Israel set an ambush around Gibeah.
\n30\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They went up against the Benjamites on the third day and took up positions against Gibeah as they had done before.
\n31\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The Benjamites came out to meet them and were drawn away from the city. They began to inflict casualties on the Israelites as before, so that about thirty men fell in the open field and on the roads–the one leading to Bethel and the other to Gibeah.
\n32\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0While the Benjamites were saying, “We are defeating them as before,” the Israelites were saying, “Let’s retreat and draw them away from the city to the roads.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 29-32:\u00a0 We\u2019ll take up these verses tomorrow when we look at the final part of chapter 20.<\/p>\n

Thank You Father that I have You to inquire of whenever I\u2019m not sure what to do.\u00a0 Thank You that You always lead us in triumphal procession in Christ (2 Corinthians 2:14).\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019ll never taste defeat, but that Your end goal is always for Your people to stand victorious with You.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n


\n Copyright \u00a9 2021 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Judges 20:18-32.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

Judges 20:18-28 (NIV)
\n18\u00a0\u00a0The Israelites went up to Bethel and inquired of God. They said, “Who of us shall go first to fight against the Benjamites?” The\u00a0LORD\u00a0replied, “Judah shall go first.”
\n19\u00a0\u00a0The next morning the Israelites got up and pitched camp near Gibeah.
\n20\u00a0\u00a0The men of Israel went out to fight the Benjamites and took up battle positions against them at Gibeah.
\n21\u00a0\u00a0The Benjamites came out of Gibeah and cut down twenty-two thousand Israelites on the battlefield that day.<\/p>\n

On verses 18-28:\u00a0 There are only a few times in the book of Judges where we see people inquiring of God.\u00a0 In chapter 1 the Israelites inquire of the LORD after the death of Joshua (1:1).\u00a0 In chapter 6 Gideon inquires of God with his famous fleece.\u00a0 In chapter 13, Manoah the father of Samson inquires of the LORD regarding how to honour Him (13:17).\u00a0 Whenever people in Judges inquired of the LORD, it seemed to be a God-pleasing thing, a move that would be followed immediately by a wise decision or an immediate victory.\u00a0\u00a0Whenever you\u2019re not sure what to do, the best thing you can do is inquire of the LORD.\u00a0\u00a0He will lead the way for you.<\/p>\n

But here in Judges 20, even though the Israelites inquire of the LORD repeatedly, notice that the first couple times that they follow the LORD\u2019s directions, they lose, and lose badly.\u00a0 After the first time that the Israelites inquire of the LORD (v18), God tells the tribe of Judah that they will be the first to go up against the Benjamites, and yet that day 22,000 of them are cut down (v21).\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27774,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27772"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27775,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27772\/revisions\/27775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}