Read Judges 19-20
Israel is living in a time when "every man did what was right in their own eyes." I don't enjoy reading these chapters because it makes me sick to read what happened to that poor concubine. Women were treated like property: used and abused. A Levite is traveling with his concubine and comes to the Benjamite town of Gibeah, where he needs to stay for the night. An old man takes him home with him but when the men of the town found out there was a stranger in town they want him handed over to them to sexually abuse. The are homosexuals. The man gave them his concubine instead. (How inhumane!!!) These wicked men of Gibeah took her and abused her all night. The next morning they found her dead body at the door of the house and her hands on the threshold. When she wouldn't get up the man took her home and cut her body into 11 pieces and sent them to all the tribes of Israel except Benjamin. He rallied all of them to go fight this Benjamite town. The whole tribe of Benjamin chose to fight for this town.
The first two days of battle, the Benjamites won even though the Israelites had asked for God's blessing. By the third day, the Israelites were pretty discouraged. They fasted, prayed, offered sacrifices, and God told them they would win today. They drew the Benjamins away from the city and caught the city on fire. Israel won the victory.
Sometimes we have to keep fighting even when things don't look promising. There are some strongholds that "hold" on very "strongly". When the disciples couldn't cast out a deaf and dumb demon (Mark 9:17-29) Jesus said, "This kind come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting." Isaiah 58 says that fasting undoes heavy burdens, breaks yokes, and lets the oppressed go free.
Lord, give us a tenatious spirit to keep fighting against all odds. Show us when we need to fast, when we need to fight, and when we need to just be still and let you fight for us. In everything, we trust you.
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