Collateral Damage

I was reading a horrible narrative in Judges 19-21 this morning of a Levite whose concubine was offered up to  a group of evil men who surrounded the house where he was staying demanding he be sent out so they might have sex with him.

They settled on the concubine, took turns raping her throughout the night and in the morning the Levite came out to find her dead at the doorway.  He put he on his donkey, took her body home where he cut it up in twelve pieces and sent it to each of the tribes of Israel, calling for justice against the evil men of Gibeah, a town of Benjamin.

Israel came together sending a fighting force to Gibeah, demanding the evil men be turned over, which was denied by the city leaders.  A word was sent out to the tribal leaders of Benjamin, who sent a large fighting force to defend the city and war broke out in Israel.  Tens of thousands of deaths later, the matter was settled when the tribe of Benjamin was nearly wiped off the face of the earth.

Israel stopped short of total annilation and even helped to reestablish the decimated tribe but the lost of life and property was staggering.  The amount of collateral damage in bringing justice to the land was geometrically greater than that of the original injustice.  And yet, the fighting was sanctioned by God: "The Israelites went up and wept before the Lord until evening, and they inquired of the Lord. They said, 'Shall we go up again to fight against the Benjamites, our fellow Israelites?'  The Lord answered, 'Go up against them'" (Judg 20:23).

War is a terrible thing, but evil unchecked is worse.  Allowing evil men to openly take, use, abuse and kill strangers seeking hospitality as in the case of Gibeah could not be allowed to take cultural root in Israel, the evil had to be excised, regardless of the cost.  Just as a leg or a lung might be cut away to stop a cancer from spreading throughout the body.  The loss of limb or vital organ is lamentable but necessary for the greater good.

Look at the horrible amount of collateral damage required to stop the aggression of Japan in WWII.  It was absolutely unparalleled in its terrible cost.  But to have left Imperial Japan's agenda for world domination go unchecked was unthinkable.  They had to be stopped.

I hate war.  I particularly hate the collateral loss of innocent lives in war.  Doing all we can to avoid war through diplomatic channels and other non-violent means ought always be the first choice but never the last effort if it is not successful in abating evil.  Where do you think ISIS will stop if they are not stopped by outside forces?  What about Russia?  Did they stop at the border of Crimea?  Has it stopped taking ground in Ukraine?  What about China building islands for landing strips in the international waters of the China Sea - will they stop there?  Iran?

I don't know the answers to all the geo-political problems we face.  I wish we could just withdraw and walk away from the aggression, but history tells us we cannot.  Evil men, and there are evil men with evil intentions in the countries I've just mentioned, do not stop until someone stops them.  We have to be involved despite the collateral loss of innocents or worse will come.  However, we cannot afford to be involved without God.  We need to be in prayer daily, asking for ways around military conflict and protection for the unintended victims.  But ready for the fray.

War is here and it seems will be for some time if not until Christ comes again.  The radical Muslims have not stopped fighting the Crusades.  They are still intent on overcoming and dominating or destroying all non-Muslims.  If they get nuclear weapons and a delivery system, the whole world may be the collateral damage of their ideology.  Jus' Say'n.