Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up- Galatians 6:9 ESV

Like a lot of Christians, I have spoken with lately I have found myself in a long season of deep discouragement. “Discouragement” is actually a bit of an understatement. A lot of days what I’m experiencing feels an awful lot like defeat. 

Sigh. 

My overall aim in sharing this rather dreary truth bomb is not to depress anyone, or even to troll for sympathy (although I will gladly take prayer). My aim in sharing this is to share some encouragement I received from the Lord.  Hopefully, this will help someone (or a lot of someone’s) find some encouragement too. Per usual, the source of my hope was a sermon based a Bible story. This Bible story is not your typical Sunday school Bible story. Frankly, it’s a sad story that gets sadder and then even more sad and finally gets hopeful at the very end. 

All that to say: don’t give up till the end.

The story begins in Judges 19. Like many of the stories in Judges it’s super dark and depressing (Judges 21:25). Some worthless men from the tribe of Benjamin sexually assaulted a Levite woman. The woman died as a result their abuse. When the other Israelite tribes found out, they were rightfully appalled. The Hebrew people were called to be a holy nation (Deuteronomy 23:14), and this whole messy muddle was anything but holy. The other tribes confronted the leaders of the tribe of Benjamin.  The leaders turned a blind eye to the evil. The worthless scumbags got off scot-free. 

Not cool.

After getting the go-ahead from God, the other tribes went to war against the tribe of Benjamin to avenge the woman’s death and remove the moral rot from within their own ranks. 

Here’s the thing:

God was consulted before the decision was made. The cause they were fighting for was inarguably righteous. The tribe of Benjamin was badly outnumbered. The obvious good guys in this situation had every reason to believe they would be successful in their plan.  

Instead. They lost. BIG TIME.

So, they went back to the Lord, prayed their faces off and asked for some fresh direction. God told them to go and fight, so they went, and they lost. Again. Big time. 

At this point the Israelites do what the good guys do in these types of situations, they double downed on seeking God. They got spiritually serious. The people prayed, fasted and offered burnt offerings all night. They begged God for guidance. Even after all that praying, fasting and offering burnt offerings their confusion drips off the page:

“Shall we go out once more to battle against our brothers, the people of Benjamin, or shall we cease?”

God promises He will give their enemies “into their hand”. So, they shake off their puzzlement and go. This time the good guys prevailed. Big time. It was a decisive victory. I’m pretty sure this is where the saying “third times a charm” comes from. The victory came after a whole lot of ugly defeat, but it was a victory, nonetheless.  

So.

I will be the first to admit this story begs some obvious questions. The most obvious being “What the heck God?” Why would the GOOD GUYS lose an honorable fight TWICE? AFTER being given the go-ahead to fight in the first place? 

It literally makes no sense. 

For the record, I don’t have the answers to those questions (I wish). However, after a very long season of weird little defeats I do have some thoughts. First, in a world as fallen as this one, evil has a lot of power. It did then and it does now (Ephesians 6:12). God’s people are currently dwelling smack dab in Satan’s territory (Ephesians 2:1-3). This dreary fact means the good guys (then and now) don’t always win on first go-around or even the second. 

That being said. 

Big-picture wise we must remember it will not always be like this.  There is coming a day when God will deliver His people a decisive win, just like He did for those confused Israelites. We are promised there will come a day when God will wipe away evil once-and-for-all in the most decisive victory in the history of history.  When He’s done with that He will stoop down and wipe away every tear from our eyes. There will be no more death, no more grief, or tears, or loss or pain (Revelation 21:4). The future world will be nothing like this present one. In that day total victory will come out of a long season of what will look and feel like total defeat. 

I can almost hear the peanut gallery saying: okay, that’s great but what about now? Is everything just going to suck forever until “that day” which is perhaps WAY off in the future?

No. 

 We may have a season of pain, difficulty and loss. It might even be a long season. Things will not always be bad or hard or painful. Joy comes in the morning (Psalm 30:5). We must remember that the Israelites won their victory after a long night of seeking God on level they had never sought Him before. God’s people prayed and wept and prayed some more. When they got done with the weeping and praying, they prayed harder. This accomplished two things: The immediate victory was won. Decisively.  Justice prevailed. Good came out of sorrow and evil (Romans 8:28). But more importantly, when the dust settled the Israelites knew God better than they did before. They were filled with a spiritual understanding that made the victory even sweeter. 

Sometimes God lets His people experience a defeat to draw them closer.