A Lesson in Loss

Reading of the Day: Judges 18-20

Judges 20:18: "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."

In these 3 chapters, some pretty unfortunate events take place. It would take a while to list them all (so definitely worth it to go read). But most of the chapters begin with one common theme: "In those days, there was no king in Israel." I don't even think there was a judge at this particular time. The reason to go back & study these events knowing there was no godly leader in Israel is because it sets the scene for the events which follow, and ultimately, what takes place in our lives when we turn away from God. The Scripture above is showing the tribes of Israel inquiring of God to go against the tribe of Benjamin for committing a trespass against them. This is the first time they genuinely inquired of The Lord in a while. God tells them to send the tribe of Judah first, and they lose! The Israelites are confused & crushed. Why would God allow them to fight knowing they would lose? They also ask a second time after weeping, and The Lord said to fight again...and they lost again! So, instead of just crying & being upset, they cried, fasted & offered sacrifices unto God. They then asked one more time what they should do: Judges 20:28: "And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days,) saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? And the LORD said, Go up; for to morrow I will deliver them into thine hand." This time, God does not only say to fight, but He says He will deliver them into their hand! This time, The Lord was with them. This time, The Lord would go before them & fight their battles! This was so much more than winning a battle against the tribe of Benjamin. In this sequence of events, God allowed the children of Israel to press closer & closer to Him with each loss they experienced. They had forgotten God for a time. They did not thank God in their good times. So, God allowed for them to run to Him during their desperate times! And thank God they finally listened! Through those losses finally came victory, but they had to learn a lesson in loss first. Sometimes, God puts us in situations where we have to learn some things. Sometimes, He knows we are going to try & try on our own until we come to the end of ourselves & finally cry out to Him once again. It's a hard lesson, but it's one only loss can teach. We must be determined to learn from these failures, but we must pray that failures won't be the only reason we run to Jesus! Let's love Him in our good times, praise Him in the storm, and always allow our first response to be prayer & repentance if ever we feel we are in a losing battle. Sometimes, it might be persecution. But every time, we should check & see how close we are to God and if He just might be calling us a little bit closer.