The day of judgment was over, and how fearful the destruction had been! All of Gibeah's population was dead, and all of the tribe of Benjamin, except 600 men, while 40,000 of the men of the faithful tribes had given their lives in the war. And if we ask, What caused this terrible carnage! the answer is plain: sin had been tolerated in the camp of Israel, and when it was exposed, and the exclusion of those who were guilty, was required, there was an entire refusal. God had smitten Benjamin (chapter 20:35), but all Israel must feel the chastening as from Him, since they were one in His sight.
Once they fully took the place of self-judgment (chapter 20:26), victory was in their hands, and now that the day of battle is over, the same character is seen (chapter 2:2-4). There is weeping, because it is Benjamin, a brother, who has sinned, but there is a proper regard for what is due to God (verse 4), and neither, we may say, would do without the other.
Wives were provided for the 600 men of Benjamin who were left of the tribe; 400 from the judged city of Jabesh-Gilead (verse 12), and 200 from the place where God was to be met, Shiloh. So Benjamin began anew.
In these last two chapters of Judges we are taken back to the early days after the death of Joshua, for Phinehas was yet high priest (chapter 20:28), the grandson of Aaron. The book of Ruth which follows, belongs also to the days of the judges of Israel.
In the book we are now closing, the record has been almost without exception, of the failure of man. The exposure of the natural heart in one way or another as ever ready to turn away from God, ready to take up with anything which will serve as an object on which to fasten the affections, the desires of nature,—this has been repeatedly shown us in the Judges. We have found, nevertheless, God acting in such a scene.
He is still acting, the scene of today being essentially the same as that of the earlier day. Man still needs a Saviour, yet gives Him little thought; indeed he prefers to be left alone, and Satan would have man left alone till eternity has him in its grasp, too late to receive salvation. 0, reader, hast thou fled from the wrath to come, for refuge in the bosom of the Saviour?