Judges 20:26–29

Then all the children of Israel, that is, all the people, went up and came to the house of God and wept. They sat there before the LORD and fasted that day until evening; and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD. So the children of Israel inquired of the LORD (the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days, 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 my brother Benjamin, or shall I cease?”

And the LORD said, “Go up, for tomorrow I will deliver them into your hand.”

Then Israel set men in ambush all around Gibeah.

At last! This Israelites get a clue and come humbly before the LORD. This time they don’t presume anything.

And the LORD’s response is totally different. They don’t do anything before asking and they don’t ask who should go up first. So the LORD doesn’t say anything about who goes up—first or otherwise.

Instead, they ask if they should go at all (for real this time). God says, “yes” and, most importantly, says they’ll win. Now they have His blessing.

They didn’t specifically ask for His blessing, but holding off until He gives them a green light implies it.

Then they implement a new strategy. They surround Gibeah, which was where this whole nightmare started. An ambush is set.

We aren’t told how they arrived at this new approach, but overconfidence and assumptions clearly didn’t get in the way this time. Maybe they recalled how Ai was defeated.

So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up against Ai; and Joshua chose thirty thousand mighty men of valor and sent them away by night. And he commanded them, saying: “Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind the city. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you be ready.” — Joshua 8:3–4

So their new strategy isn’t particularly clever; it’s not even new. It’s the stupidity of their old strategy that’s noteworthy. Someone in their group should have remembered what happened with Ai. They didn’t turn their brains on.

Intellectual laziness and spiritual laziness tend to go hand in hand. When there are no challenges, we tend to not give things our best effort.

That’s a pretty good reason for God to give us challenges.

These Monday—Friday DEEPs are written by Mike Slay. The Weekend DEEPs are written by Matt Richardson. To subscribe to all the DEEPs click here:

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV stands for the English Standard Version. © Copyright 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved. NIV stands for The Holy Bible, New International Version®. © Copyright 1973 by International Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved. KJV stands for the King James Version.