Trust the Process: How Humility Before the LORD Leads to Victory

When was the last time you read through the book of Judges? It was a time in Israel’s history where they had no king (including YHWH), and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. 1375 BC, a little over thirty years after the death of Moses, a priestly descendant of Aaron (Moses’s brother) takes woman as a sort of secondary wife. For those studying along, this is going through Judges 19 and 20.

Concubinage was tolerated–not approved–by the Law of Moses as a mercy to the twisted and hardened hearts of the Israelites. Over time, the original sanctity of marriage would return through the teachings of the Prophets and ultimately Jesus particularly in Matthew 19.

Anyway, this Levite priest takes a concubine, but she ends up cheating on him and running away to live with her father. A few months pass, and the Levite goes to his concubine’s father’s house to woo her back into his arms. He ends up staying over a bit longer than he was planning, but once they finally get up and leave back for the hills of Ephraim, they skip spending the night in Jebus (which later is called Jerusalem once taken by Israel) in favor of the presumed safety of their own people in Gibeah.

Gibeah was a part of the tribe of Benjamin, descended from the youngest of the twelve sons of Israel. The pair stay with the only guy willing to give them a place to spend the night which already foreshadows something amiss in the town of Gibeah. See, it was a part of the Law that Levites could not be neglected provision because they had no earthly inheritance of their own unlike the rest of the twelve tribes. So the fact that no one was willing to shelter this priest except for one kind old man (who himself was a foreigner so…ironic) is reading pretty ominous in regards to the moral state of this place.

Lo and behold, a la Sodom and Gomorrah, a bunch of perverted, depraved dudes show up wanting to have their way with the Levite. The old man pleads with the sickos to leave him alone and instead violate his manservant and the Levite’s concubine.

Ridiculous.

This is one of the most explicit pictures of the state of Israel during this time. A sad wasteland of rotten folks so morally bankrupt that the one guy trying to fend off the satanic mob can’t think of a single just thing to do. And so, he decides to throw out the Levite’s lesser wife.

What happens next is horrendous and indicative of the incredibly dark world that was the early 14th Century BC. Our unnamed concubine is utterly abused to the point of death. In the morning, her body is left at the doorstep of the old man’s house. The Levite sees her and doesn’t even realize at first that she’s dead. Upon not getting a response, he tosses the corpse onto his donkey and heads back home. Once there, he chops her body into twelve pieces and sends one to each of the twelve tribes of Israel as a message.

“Everyone who saw it said, ‘Such a horrible crime has not been committed in all the time since Israel left Egypt. Think about it! What are we going to do? Who’s going to speak up?’”

–Judges 19:30

The tribes unite “as one man” on this issue and head over to Mizpah to find out what happened. The Levite tells them, and without hesitation–though in the presence of the LORD–they purpose in their hearts to exact vengeance. Here begins the chastening of the LORD’s inheritance. Israel was no nation of saints by any means. Remember the bit about no king and doing whatever they wanted?

So they assume the just action and ask God for approval. He allows them to go out again and again only for about twenty thousand men to die every time! Finally, these brutal men of war are brought to their knees. They’d wept before, but now they weep with different hearts. As I was studying this, I noticed a process that proved them humble before the LORD:

1. They wept, baring their heart before God

2. Then they sat there, a stillness before fasting

3. Here they fasted till evening, starving their flesh

4. Then they made two sacrifices, one to atone for their sins and the other for reconciliation between each other before God

5. They finally asked if they should continue or stop

Only then, after the pride and self-reliance had been purged through repeated defeat, did YHWH On High say to them “Go! Tomorrow I will hand them over to you.”

That’s the key: God would be the one to hand them over to the justice hungry children of Israel. Without getting into the super cool tactics they used to lure the Benjamites into a crushing ambush, the vibe of the battle could be summed up with this text at the end of verse 34 and beginning of 35 (ch. 20):

“...the Benjamites did not know that disaster was upon them. The Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel.”

The story goes on in the interesting (to say the least) aftermath of this whole thing, but one thing is for sure and that’s the victory came when they trusted the process. This holy process that requires patience, vulnerability, honesty, and above all else humility set these warriors’ hearts right before the LORD so that when they asked for direction, He opened the door for justice to be dealt.

Fortunately for most nowadays, the times are not as openly barbaric. And the benefit of hindsight grants us the great wisdom of this process hopefully before any chastisement has to take place. The LORD looks at the heart, so let’s look at this again.

1. Weep before Him. Pour out your heart, out loud in the same way we see in the Psalms. It is always the right option to be emotionally cleansed by the Holy Spirit.

2. Sit there. Just be. Allow God’s still, small voice to fill your thoughts. Think about His goodness and example. Listen for his footsteps and feel the cool breeze of His promised presence.

3. Commit to a fast. Starve your flesh in the way it’s fed the most. In ancient times, food was the main form of fasting because it was everything in those days. It was a global agricultural society, so choosing to not eat was huge–not only for nourishment but also for a sense of community. In what ways do you seek nourishment and community? Where does your false belonging make port? Be honest with yourself and take a day to break from it. You will realize how tethered you are to this world and, hopefully, feel sick to your stomach because of it.

4. Confess your sins and turn away from them out of respect for what Jesus did on the cross. His perfect life on this earth was the ultimate sacrifice for human disobedience. So we can claim that as our covering. Also, reconcile with your fellow man. Apologize. Forgive and be forgiven. The peace offering was meant to consecrate before the LORD a mending of relationships.

5. Ask the LORD in humility what way He would have you go. The reality is He knows everything, so it wouldn’t make much sense at this point to not just trust that He knows better.

Therefore, dear reader, I posit that it is wise to trust this process of humility we find in the midst of great pride. Strong enough to cut through the impossible, like it says in Psalm 77 God just has His way of making a path where there wasn’t one before. I give my word that by the time you actually get to the “asking the LORD” part, if your heart is in the right place, He will fulfill His Proverbs 3:6 promise.

“Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you the path to take.”