The children of Israel did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, so Yahweh delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. The hand of Midian prevailed against Israel; and because of Midian the children of Israel made themselves the dens which are in the mountains, the caves, and the strongholds. So it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites, the Amalekites, and the children of the east came up against them. They encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, until you come to Gaza. They left no sustenance in Israel, and no sheep, ox, or donkey. For they came up with their livestock and their tents. They came in as locusts for multitude. Both they and their camels were without number; and they came into the land to destroy it. Israel was brought very low because of Midian; and the children of Israel cried to Yahweh.
Parallel Translations
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The children of Israel did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, so Yahweh delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.
The hand of Midian prevailed against Israel; and because of Midian the children of Israel made themselves the dens which are in the mountains, the caves, and the strongholds.
So it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites, the Amalekites, and the children of the east came up against them.
They encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, until you come to Gaza. They left no sustenance in Israel, and no sheep, ox, or donkey.
For they came up with their livestock and their tents. They came in as locusts for multitude. Both they and their camels were without number; and they came into the land to destroy it.
Israel was brought very low because of Midian; and the children of Israel cried to Yahweh.
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And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.
And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel: and because of the Midianites the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and caves, and strong holds.
And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east, even they came up against them;
And they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, till thou come unto Gaza, and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass.
For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for multitude; for both they and their camels were without number: and they entered into the land to destroy it.
And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites; and the children of Israel cried unto the LORD.
Show all 3 translations
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And the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.
And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel; and because of Midian the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and the caves, and the strongholds.
And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east; they came up against them;
and they encamped against them, and destroyed the produce of the earth, till thou come unto Gaza, and left no sustenance in Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass.
For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came in as locusts for multitude; both they and their camels were without number; and they came into the land to destroy it.
And Israel was brought very low because of Midian; and the children of Israel cried unto the LORD.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (59)
- Nehemiah 9:26-29 (v1) “Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against you, cast your law behind their back, killed your prophets that testified against…
- Leviticus 26:16 (vv3–4) I also will do this to you: I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the soul to…
- Judges 7:12 (vv3, 5) The Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like locusts for multitude; and their camels…
- Judges 3:9 (v6) When the children of Israel cried to Yahweh, Yahweh raised up a savior to the children of Israel, who saved them, even Othniel the son of…
- 1 Samuel 13:6 (v2) When the men of Israel saw that they were in trouble (for the people were distressed), then the people hid themselves in caves, in…
Show all 54 cross-references
- Hebrews 11:38 (v2) of whom the world was not worthy—wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and the holes of the earth.
- Deuteronomy 28:51 (vv3–4) They will eat the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed. They also won’t leave you grain, new wine,…
- Judges 8:10 (vv3, 5) Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, and their armies with them, about fifteen thousand men, all who were left of all the army of the…
- Judges 2:19-20 (v1) But when the judge was dead, they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than their fathers in following other gods to serve them and to bow…
- Judges 3:13 (v3) He gathered the children of Ammon and Amalek to himself; and he went and struck Israel, and they possessed the city of palm trees.
- Judges 6:33 (v3) Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east assembled themselves together; and they passed over, and encamped…
- Psalms 50:15 (v6) Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
- Psalms 106:43-44 (v6) He rescued them many times, but they were rebellious in their counsel, and were brought low in their iniquity. Nevertheless he regarded…
- Jeremiah 5:17 (v6) They will eat up your harvest and your bread, which your sons and your daughters should eat. They will eat up your flocks and your herds.…
- Micah 6:15 (vv3–4) You will sow, but won’t reap. You will tread the olives, but won’t anoint yourself with oil; and crush grapes, but won’t drink the wine.
- Genesis 29:1 (v3) Then Jacob went on his journey, and came to the land of the children of the east.
- Leviticus 26:17 (v2) I will set my face against you, and you will be struck before your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you; and you will flee when…
- Numbers 25:15-18 (v1) The name of the Midianite woman who was slain was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur. He was head of the people of a fathers’ house in Midian.…
- Numbers 31:1-3 (v1) Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Avenge the children of Israel on the Midianites. Afterward you shall be gathered to your people.” Moses…
- Deuteronomy 28:15-68 (v1) But it shall come to pass, if you will not listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which…
- Judges 2:11 (v1) The children of Israel did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, and served the Baals.
- Judges 2:13-14 (v1) They abandoned Yahweh, and served Baal and the Ashtaroth. Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of…
- 1 Samuel 14:11 (v2) Both of them revealed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines: and the Philistines said, “Behold, the Hebrews are coming out of the…
- 1 Kings 4:30 (v3) Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt.
- Job 1:3 (v3) His possessions also were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very…
- Isaiah 60:6 (v5) A multitude of camels will cover you, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah. All from Sheba will come. They will bring gold and frankincense,…
- Isaiah 65:21-22 (v3) They will build houses and inhabit them. They will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They will not build and another inhabit. They will…
- Leviticus 26:14-46 (v1) “ ‘But if you will not listen to me, and will not do all these commandments, and if you shall reject my statutes, and if your soul abhors…
- Deuteronomy 28:33 (v4) A nation which you don’t know will eat the fruit of your ground and all of your work. You will only be oppressed and crushed always,
- Deuteronomy 28:47-48 (v2) Because you didn’t serve Yahweh your God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things; therefore…
- Judges 3:15 (v6) But when the children of Israel cried to Yahweh, Yahweh raised up a savior for them: Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed…
- Psalms 106:34-42 (v1) They didn’t destroy the peoples, as Yahweh commanded them, but mixed themselves with the nations, and learned their works. They served…
- Isaiah 13:20 (v5) It will never be inhabited, neither will it be lived in from generation to generation. The Arabian will not pitch a tent there, neither…
- Jeremiah 46:23 (v5) They will cut down her forest,” says Yahweh, “though it can’t be searched; because they are more than the locusts, and are innumerable.
- Jeremiah 49:9-10 (v4) If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? If thieves came by night, wouldn’t they steal until they had…
- Jeremiah 49:29 (v5) They will take their tents and their flocks. they will carry away for themselves their curtains, all their vessels, and their camels; and…
- Jeremiah 49:32 (v5) Their camels will be a booty, and the multitude of their livestock a plunder. I will scatter to all winds those who have the corners of…
- Revelation 6:15 (v2) The kings of the earth, the princes, the commanding officers, the rich, the strong, and every slave and free person, hid themselves in the…
- Genesis 10:19 (v4) The border of the Canaanites was from Sidon—as you go toward Gerar—to Gaza—as you go toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim—to Lasha.
- Genesis 13:10 (v4) Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw all the plain of the Jordan, that it was well-watered everywhere, before Yahweh destroyed Sodom and…
- Deuteronomy 28:30-31 (v4) You will betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her. You will build a house, and you won’t dwell in it. You will plant a vineyard,…
- Deuteronomy 28:30-33 (v3) You will betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her. You will build a house, and you won’t dwell in it. You will plant a vineyard,…
- Judges 8:21 (v5) Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, “You rise and fall on us; for as the man is, so is his strength.” Gideon arose, and killed Zebah and…
- 1 Samuel 30:17 (v5) David struck them from the twilight even to the evening of the next day. Not a man of them escaped from there, except four hundred young…
- Job 31:8 (v3) then let me sow, and let another eat. Yes, let the produce of my field be rooted out.
- Psalms 78:34 (v6) When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly.
- Psalms 83:4-12 (v5) “Come,” they say, “let’s destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more.” For they have conspired together…
- Proverbs 28:3 (v4) A needy man who oppresses the poor is like a driving rain which leaves no crops.
- Song of Solomon 1:5 (v5) I am dark, but lovely, you daughters of Jerusalem, like Kedar’s tents, like Solomon’s curtains.
- Isaiah 26:16 (v6) Yahweh, in trouble they have visited you. They poured out a prayer when your chastening was on them.
- Hosea 5:15 (v6) I will go and return to my place, until they acknowledge their offense, and seek my face. In their affliction they will seek me earnestly.”
- Malachi 1:4 (v6) Whereas Edom says, “We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places;” Yahweh of Armies says, “They shall build, but I…
- Genesis 25:2 (v1) She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.
- Obadiah 1:5 (v4) “If thieves came to you, if robbers by night—oh, what disaster awaits you—wouldn’t they only steal until they had enough? If grape pickers…
54 distinct cross-references across this passage (59 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (25 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 6 For fear of the Midianites, they fled into the…
For fear of the Midianites, they fled into the dens of the mountains.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–6 Jdg 6:1 And the children of Israel did evil…
Jdg 6:1 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.
Ver. 1. And the children of Israel did evil.] This was the bad fruit of their forty years’ peace. "Ease slayeth the foolish." {Pro 1:32, marg.} {See Trapp on "Jdg 4:1"}
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Into the hand of Midian.] Who once outwitted them and vexed them with their wiles, {Num 25:17} now with their inroads: ever full of malignity against the Israelites, though they were of the posterity of Abraham by Keturah, and had been better taught by Jethro, a priest and prince of God amongst them.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–5 For although the generality of the Midianites had been…
For although the generality of the Midianites had been cut off by Moses about two hundred years ago, yet many of them doubtless fled into the neighbouring countries, whence afterwards they returned into their own land, and in that time might easily grow to be a very great number; especially when God furthered their increase, that they might be a fit scourge for his people Israel when they transgressed.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 We have here, I. Israel's sin renewed: They did…
We have here, I. Israel's sin renewed: They did evil in the sight of the Lord, Jdg 6:1. The burnt child dreads the fire; yet this perverse unthinking people, that had so often smarted sorely for their idolatry, upon a little respite of God's judgments return to it again. This people hath a revolting rebellious heart, not kept in awe by the terror of God's judgments, nor engaged in honour and gratitude by the great things he had done for them to keep themselves in his love. The providence of God will not change the hearts and lives of sinners.
II. Israel's troubles repeated. This would follow of course; let all that sin expect to suffer; let all that return to folly expect to return to misery. With the froward God will show himself froward (Psa 18:26), and will walk contrary to those that walk contrary to him, Lev 26:21, Lev 26:24. Now as to this trouble, 1. It arose from a very despicable enemy. God delivered them into the hand of Midian (Jdg 6:1), not Midian in the south where Jethro lived, but Midian in the east that joined to Moab (Num 22:4), a people that all men despised as uncultivated and unintelligent; hence we read not here of any king, lord, or general, that they had, but the force with which they destroyed Israel was an undisciplined mob; and, which made it the more grievous, they were a people that Israel had formerly subdued, and in a manner destroyed (see Num 31:7), and yet by this time (nearly 200 years after) the poor remains of them were so multiplied, and so magnified, that they were capable of being made a very severe scourge to Israel. Thus God moved them to jealousy with those who were not a people, even a foolish nation, Deu 32:21. The meanest creature will serve to chastise those that have made the great Creator their enemy. And, when those we are authorized to rule prove rebellious and disobedient to us, it concerns us to enquire whether we have not been so to our sovereign Ruler. 2. It arose to a very formidable height (Jdg 6:2): The hand of Midian prevailed, purely by their multitude. God had promised to increase Israel as the sand on the sea shore; but their sin stopped their growth and diminished them, and then their enemies, though otherwise every way inferior to them, overpowered them with numbers. They came upon them as grasshoppers for multitude (Jdg 6:5), not in a regular army to engage them in the field, but in a confused swarm to plunder the country, quarter themselves upon it, and enrich themselves with its spoils - bands of robbers, and no better. And sinful Israel, being separated by sin from God, had not spirit to make head against them. Observe the wretched havoc that these Midianites made with their bands of plunderers in Israel. Here we have, (1.) The Israelites imprisoned, or rather imprisoning themselves, in dens and caves, Jdg 6:2. This was owing purely to their own timorousness and faint-heartedness, that they would rather fly than fight; it was the effect of a guilty conscience, which made them tremble at the shaking of a leaf, and the just punishment of their apostasy from God, who thus fought against them with those very terrors with which he would otherwise have fought for them. Had it not been for this, we cannot but think Israel a match for the Midianites, and able enough to make head against them; but the heart that departs from God is lost, not only to that which is good, but to that which is great. Sin dispirits men, and makes them sneak into dens and caves. The day will come when chief captains and mighty men will call in vain to rocks and mountains to hide them. (2.) The Israelites impoverished, greatly impoverished, Jdg 6:6. The Midianites and the other children of the east that joined with them to live by spoil and rapine (as long before the Sabeans and Chaldeans did that plundered Job, free-booters) made frequent incursions into the land of Canaan. This fruitful land was a great temptation to them; and the sloth and luxury into which the Israelites had sunk by forty years' rest made them and their substance an easy prey to them. They came up against them (Jdg 6:3), pitched their camps among them (Jdg 6:4), and brought their cattle with them, particularly camels innumerable (Jdg 6:5), not a flying party to make a sally upon them and be gone presently, but they resolved to force their way, and penetrated through the heart of the country as far as Gaza on the western side, Jdg 6:4. They let the Israelites alone to sow their ground, but towards harvest they came and seized all, and ate up and destroyed it, both grass and corn, and when they went away took with them the sheep and oxen, so that in short they left no sustenance for Israel, except what was privately taken by the rightful owners into the dens and caves. Now here we may see, [1.] The justice of God in the punishment of their sin. They had neglected to honour God with their substance in tithes and offerings, and had prepared that for Baal with which God should have been served, and now God justly sends an enemy to take it away in the season thereof, Hos 2:8, Hos 2:9. [2.] The consequence of God's departure from a people; when he goes all good goes and all mischiefs break in. When Israel kept in with God, they reaped what others sowed (Jos 24:13; Psa 105:44); but now that God had forsaken them others reaped what they sowed. Let us take occasion from this to bless God for our national peace and tranquillity, that we eat the labour of our hands.
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III. Israel's sense of God's hand revived at last. Seven years, year after year, did the Midianites make these inroads upon them, each we may suppose worse than the other (Jdg 6:1), until at last, all other succours failing, Israel cried unto the Lord (Jdg 6:6), for crying to Baal ruined them, and would not help them. When God judges he will overcome; and sinners shall be made either to bend or break before him.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–6 And the children of Israel did evil in the…
And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord,.... After the death of Deborah and Barak, during whose life they kept to the pure worship of God, and who, perhaps, lived pretty near the close of the forty years' rest, or of the twenty years from their victory over Jabin; but they dying, the children of Israel fell into idolatry, for that that was the evil they did appears from Jdg 6:10, even worshipping the gods of the Amorites:
and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years: this was not the Midian where Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, lived, which lay more southward, but that which joined to Moab, and was more eastward. This people had been destroyed by the Israelites in the times of Moses, in their way to the land of Canaan, Num 31:1 wherefore they might bear them a grudge, and now took the opportunity to revenge themselves on them, God permitting them so to do for their sins; and though the destruction of this people by Israel was very general, yet as some of them might make their escape, and afterwards return to their own land, and this being about two hundred years ago, might, with others joining them, repeople their country by this time, and become strong and powerful.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5 The calamities of Israel by the Midianites, ver. 1-6.…
The calamities of Israel by the Midianites, ver. 1-6. The message God sent them by a prophet, ver. 7-10. God's commission to Gideon, confirmed by a sign, ver. 11-24. He breaks down the altar of Baal, ver. 25-32. The preparation for war, and encouragement by another sign, ver. 33-40.
Of Midian - For although the generality of the Midianites had been cut off by Moses about two hundred years ago, yet many of them doubtless fled into the neighbouring countries, whence afterwards they returned into their own land, and in that time might easily grow to be a very great number; especially, when God furthered their increase, that they might be a scourge for Israel when they transgressed. Let all that sin, expect to suffer: let all that turn to folly, expect to return to misery.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–5 The Israelites again do evil, and are delivered into…
CHAPTER VI
The Israelites again do evil, and are delivered into the hands
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of the Midianites, by whom they are oppressed seven years,
1, 2.
Different tribes spoil their harvests, and take away their
cattle, 3-5.
They cry unto the Lord, and he sends them a prophet to reprehend
and instruct them, 6-10.
An angel appears unto Gideon, and gives him commission to
deliver Israel, and works several miracles, to prove that
he is Divinely appointed to this work, 11-23.
Gideon builds an altar to the Lord, under the name of
Jehovah-shalom; and throws down the altar of Baal, 24-27.
His townsmen conspire against him; he expostulates with them,
and they are pacified, 28-32.
The Midianites and Amalekites gather together against Israel;
Gideon summons Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, who
join his standard, 33-35.
The miracle of the fleece of wool, 36-40.
NOTES ON CHAP. VI
Verse 1. Delivered them unto the hand of Midian] The Midianites were among the most ancient and inveterate of the enemies of Israel. They joined with the Moabites to seduce them to idolatry, and were nearly extirpated by them; Nu 31:1-12. The Midianites dwelt on the eastern borders of the Dead Sea, and their capital was Arnon.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 3 Jdg 6:1. And the children of Israel did evil…
Jdg 6:1. And the children of Israel did evil — The Israelites, having forgot the signal deliverance which God had wrought for them by Deborah and Barak, were condemned to a new state of misery and oppression, compared to which that under Jabin may almost be called freedom, Deborah being then allowed to judge Israel in the face of the sun; whereas now they were not only destitute of a judge, but were often without habitations, except those they were forced to seek for among the clefts and caverns of rocks, and in some few strong holds or fortresses, Jdg 6:2; and if they found time and convenience for sowing their lands, their enemies poured in upon them, and wrested from them the fruits of their labour. Into the hand of Midian — For although the generality of the Midianites had been cut off by Moses about two hundred years ago, yet many of them doubtless fled into the neighbouring countries, whence afterward they returned into their own land, and in that time might easily grow to be a very great number; especially when God furthered their increase, that they might be a scourge for Israel when they transgressed. Let all that sin, expect to suffer; let all that turn to folly, expect to return to misery.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 5 Midian - See Gen 25:2 note. They were remarkable…
Midian - See Gen 25:2 note. They were remarkable not only for the vast number of their cattle Jdg 6:5; Num 31:32-39, but also for their great wealth in gold and other metal ornaments, showing their connection with a gold country. (Compare Num 31:22, Num 31:50-54, with Jdg 8:24 :26.) At this time they were allies of the Amalekites and of the Arabian tribes called collectively “the children of the East” Jdg 6:3. They seem to have extended their settlements to the east of Jordan, and to have belonged to the larger section of Arabs called Ishmaelites Jdg 8:24.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1–5 Madian. This nation had formerly been almost extirpated by…
Madian. This nation had formerly been almost extirpated by Moses, Numbers xxxi. 7, &c. (Haydock) --- But they had re-established themselves, and dwelt in the neighbourhood of the Moabites, whom they had assisted. They new made a league with Amalec, and other eastern nations, (Calmet) in order to revenge themselves upon the Israelites. (Haydock) --- Madian was a descendant of Abraham by Cetura, Genesis xxv. 2. The shortness of the servitude, which the Israelites had to suffer from them, was compensated by its severity. (Menochius)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 The Incursions And Oppressions Of The Midianites. Gideon, The…
FOURTH SECTION
The Incursions And Oppressions Of The Midianites. Gideon, The Judge Who Refuses To Be King
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The Midianites invade the land seven years. Israel cries to Jehovah, and is an swered through a prophet, who reminds them of their sins
Jdg_6:1-10
1And the children [sons] of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord [Jehovah]: and the Lord [Jehovah] delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. 2And the hand of Midian prevailed [was strong] against [over] Israel: and because of the Midianites the children [sons] of Israel made them the dens [grottoes] which 3are in the mountains, and [the] caves, and [the] strong holds. And so it was, when Israel had sown [his fields], that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children [sons] of the east, even they came up against them [and passed over them]:1 4And they encamped against [upon] them, and destroyed [ruined] the increase [produce, cf. Deu_32:22] of the earth, till thou come unto Gaza; and left no sustenance2 for [in] Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass. 5For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers [locusts] for multitude; for both they and their camels were without number: and they entered into the land to destroy [ruin] it. 6And Israel was greatly impoverished [reduced] because of the Midianites; and the children [sons] of Israel cried unto the Lord [Jehovah]. 7And it came to pass, when the children [sons] of Israel 8 cried unto the Lord [Jehovah] because of the Midianites, That the Lord [Jehovah] sent a prophet unto the children [sons] of Israel, which [and he] said unto them, Thus saith the Lord [Jehovah, the] God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt [cf. 1Sa_10:18] and brought you forth out of the house of bondage [Exo_13:3]; 9And I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and drave them out from before you, and gave you their land; 10And I said unto you, I am the Lord [Jehovah] your God; fear not [ye shall not fear, i.e. reverence] the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but ye have not obeyed my voice.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
[1 Jdg_6:3—וְעָלוּ עָלָיו: literally, “came up upon him,” or, “came up against him.” Dr. Cassel supplies שָׂרֵהוּ after זָרַע, and accordingly makes “him” refer to “field.” But although this rendering suits the connection admirably well, it cannot be supposed that the Hebrew writer would have left the accusative after זָרַע unexpressed if he had intended to refer back to it by means of a pronoun, especially when the latter could so readily be referred to another noun. ועָלוּ עָלָיו. simply adds the idea of hostility, which the preceding עָלָה left unexpressed. In like manner, עֲלֵיהֶם, in the next verse, explains that the “encamping” was “against” Israel—had hostile purposes is view.—Tr.]
[2 Jdg_6:4.—מִחְיָה: Dr. Cassel, Lebensmitteln, “means of life.” So also Keil: “They left no provisions (produce of the field) in Israel, and neither sheep, nor cattle, nor ass.” Dr. Cassel, in a foot-note, gives a simple reference to 2Ch_14:12 (13), where, however, the word unquestionably means anything “alive.” Bertheau adopts that meaning here; but cf. Jdg_17:10.—Tr.]
EXEGETICAL AND DOCTRINAL
Jdg_6:1. And Jehovah delivered them into the hand of Midian. Of the death of Deborah and Barak, no mention is made; the peace which their great deeds procured lasted forty years. But those deeds were already forgotten again; and with them the God whose Spirit had begotten them. Then fresh bondage and misery came, and reminded the people of Him who alone can save. Numerous tribes of eastern nomads invaded, plundered, and devastated the land. The transjordanic tribes could at that time offer them no such resistance as, according to 1Ch_5:10; 1Ch_5:19, they were able, at a later date, to make against the Hagarites, Jetur, Nephish, and Nodab. The present invaders are called Midian, and appear in league with Amalek and the “sons of the east.” The Midianites are wandering tribes in the desert of Sinai, in the neighborhood of the Moabites, answering both in name and manner of life to the Bedouins. In the constantly occurring interchange of מ and כ (m and b) in the Semitic dialects, the Arabic tongue seems to prefer the כ, while the Hebrew inclines to the מ (cf. Timnath and Tibneh). The Bedouin derives his name from the Arabic כאריה, the desert; an expression of which the Hebrew כָּרַר, to be desolate and waste, readily reminds one. The derivation from מִרְכָּר, formerly current, is too artificial, since the prominent idea of the term Bedouin is not a reference to pasture lands, but to the desert. The name Midian manifestly belongs to the same root—מרין3 being the same as כרין, primitive Bedawin, who, like the Towara of the present day (Ritter, xiv. 937), engaged in the carrying trade between the Euphrates and Egypt, and in general pillage. Not all desert tribes boast the same descent, as in fact the Ishmaelites and the Midianites did not belong to the same family; both, however, followed similar modes of life, and hence are sometimes designated by one and the same name (Gen_37:25; Gen_37:28; Jdg_8:22; Jdg_8:24). They are dwellers in tents, as contrasted with those who till the earth or dwell in cities.
Jdg_6:2. And the sons of Israel made them the grottoes which are in the mountains, and the caves and the strongholds. The word for grottoes is מנְחָרוֹת, and an entirely satisfactory description of them is given by Wetzstein (Hauran, p. 45): “At some rocky, elevated, and dry place, a shaft was sunk obliquely into the earth; and at a depth of about twenty-five fathoms, streets were run off, straight, and from six to eight paces wide, in the sides of which the dwellings were excavated. At various points these streets were extended to double their ordinary width, and the roof was pierced with airholes, more or less numerous according to the extent of the place. These airholes are at present called, rôsen plural rawâsin(windows).” From this may be seen how accurately Raschi and Kimchi explained the above word, when they made it mean “caves with air-holes like windows.” The remark of R. Tanchum is likewise correct, that watchmen were employed, who gave alarm signals when the enemy approached. As soon as these were given, the ploughmen and herds hurried quickly into the earth, and were secure. Commonly, says Wetzstein, these excavations had a second place of exit; and consequently, in a region whose inhabitants are liable to constant attacks from the desert (he speaks of the Hauran), are regarded as strongholds. Quite appropriate, apparently, is the rendering of that Greek version which translates מִנְהָרָה by μάνδρα, an inclosed space, a fold, stable. In later times, eastern monks, who lived in such grottoes, called the cloister itself μάνδρα.4
Jdg_6:3-4. Till thou come unto Gaza.5 They were expeditions for plunder and devastation, such as the Bedouin tribes of the present day are still accustomed to undertake against hostile communities.6 Their general direction was towards the plain. The invaders, however, did not content themselves with ruining the growing crops from east to west, but also scoured the land towards the south. Gaza, moreover, formerly as in later times, was the great bazaar of stolen wares, brought together there by the Bedouins from their expeditions (Ritter, xiv. 924).7
Jdg_6:5. As locusts (Sept. ἄκρις, cf. Il. 21. 12) for multitude: a comparison suggestive both of their numbers and of the effects of their presence. The Midianite devastation was like that by locusts. In Hauran, says Wetzstein, various plagues are found; the locust is bad, but the worst are the Bedouins (p. 43). A Bedouin said to him: “The Ruwala have become like the hosts of God,” i.e., numerous as the locusts, for these are called Gunud Allah (Hauran, p. 138).—Camels without number. In such extravagant hyperbolisms the speech of Orientals has always abounded. When Burk-hardt asked a Bedouin, who belonged to a tribe of three hundred tents, how many brothers he had, throwing a handful of sand into the air, he replied, “equally numberless.” The invaders’ object was not to gather the harvest, but only to destroy. What they needed, they had with them—cattle, tents, and camels.
Jdg_6:6-10. And the sons of Israel cried unto Jehovah. When the people were brought low (וַיִּרַּל), they repented. Distress teaches prayer. With Israel repentance went hand in hand with the remembrance of their former strength. They lose themselves when they lose their God; they find themselves when they turn to Him. This the prophet sets before them. The words put into the mouth of the unknown preacher, reproduce the old penitential discourse. In various but similar forms that discourse ever reappears; for it rests on Mosaic warnings and declarations whose truth all the fortunes of Israel confirm. For the first time, however, the verb יָרֵא, to fear, elsewhere used only with reference to God, is here connected with heathen gods; but only to point out the fact that disobedient Israel has yielded to idol gods the reverence which it owed to the eternal God. When such rebukes are gladly heard by the people, deliverance is near at hand. When they believe themselves to have deserved such admonitions and punishments, they again believe God. In accepting the judge, we secure the deliverer. Such is the historical experience of all ages.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Israel had again apostatized, notwithstanding the victory and the song of Deborah. Sailer “When one has drunk, he turns his back upon the fountain; but it is only the ingrate who does this.” Israel was altogether as it had been formerly, but God’s judgment assumes a new form. Greater than ever was the humiliation. Israel was not simply oppressed by a tyranny like that of Sisera, who was in the land, but it was like a slave who toils for a foreign master. Had it accomplished its task? Midian came and seized the fruit. So he who falls away from God who gives, must for that very reason serve sin, which takes.—Starke: The strongest fortress, defense, and weapon, with which in danger we can protect ourselves, is prayer.
[Bp. Hall: During the former tyranny, Deborah was permitted to judge Israel under a palmtree; under this, not so much as private habitations will be allowed to Israel. Then, the seat of judgment was in sight of the sun; now, their very dwellings must be secret under the earth. They that rejected the protection of God, are glad to seek to the mountains for shelter; and as they had savagely abused themselves, so they are fain to creep into dens and caves of the rocks, like wild creatures, for safeguard. God had sown spiritual seed amongst them, and they suffered their heathenish neighbors to pull it up by the roots; and now, no sooner can they sow their material seed, but Midianites and Amalekites are ready by force to destroy it. As they inwardly dealt with God, so God deals outwardly by them; their eyes may tell them what their souls have done; yet that God whose mercy is above the worst of our sin, sends first his prophet with a message of reproof, and then his angel with a message of deliverance. The Israelites had smarted enough with their servitude, yet God sends them a sharp rebuke. It is a good sign when God chides us; his round reprehensions are ever gracious forerunners of mercy; whereas, his silent connivance at the wicked argues deep and secret displeasure; the prophet made way for the angel, reproof for deliverance, humiliation for comfort.—Henry: Sin dispirits men, and makes them sneak into dens and caves. The day will come, when chief captains and mighty men will call in vain to rocks and mountains to hide them.—Tr.]
Footnotes:
[1] Jdg_6:3—וְעָלוּ עָלָיו: literally, “came up upon him,” or, “came up against him.” Dr. Cassel supplies שָׂרֵהוּ after זָרַע, and accordingly makes “him” refer to “field.” But although this rendering suits the connection admirably well, it cannot be supposed that the Hebrew writer would have left the accusative after זָרַע unexpressed if he had intended to refer back to it by means of a pronoun, especially when the latter could so readily be referred to another noun. ועָלוּ עָלָיו. simply adds the idea of hostility, which the preceding עָלָה left unexpressed. In like manner, עֲלֵיהֶם, in the next verse, explains that the “encamping” was “against” Israel—had hostile purposes is view.—Tr.]
[2][Jdg_6:4.—מִחְיָה: Dr. Cassel, Lebensmitteln, “means of life.” So also Keil: “They left no provisions (produce of the field) in Israel, and neither sheep, nor cattle, nor ass.” Dr. Cassel, in a foot-note, gives a simple reference to 2Ch_14:12 (13), where, however, the word unquestionably means anything “alive.” Bertheau adopts that meaning here; but cf. Jdg_17:10.—Tr.]
[3]A Madian near the Arabian Gulf is mentioned by Abulfeda; cf. Geogr., ed. Paris, p. 86; Arnold, in Herzog’s Realencykl., i. 463.
[4][Keil: “The power of the Midianites and their confederates bore so heavily on the Israelites, that these ‘made for themselves the clefts which are in the mountains, and the caves, and the strongholds,’ those, namely, which were afterwards (at the time when our Book was written) everywhere to be found in the land, and in times of war offered secure places of refuge. This is indicated by the definite article before מִנְהָרוִת and the other substantives. The words, ‘they made for themselves,’ are not at variance with the fact that in the limestone mountains of Palestine there exist many natural caves. For, on the one hand, hey do not affirm that all the caves found in the land were made at that time by the Israelites, nor on the other does עָשׂה, to make, exclude the use of natural caves for purposes of safety, since it applies not only to the digging and laying out of new caves, but also to the fitting up of natural ones. … For the rest, these clefts, caves, and strongholds, were to serve, not merely as hiding-places for the fugitive Israelites, but much more as places of concealment and security for their property and the necessaries of life. For the Midianites, like genuine Bedouins, were more intent on plunder and pillage, and the desolation of the country, than on the destruction of the people.”—Tr.]
[5]On Gaza, cf. the Com. on Jdg_16:1.
[6][See Thomson, The Land and the Book, ii. 163; Kitto Daily Bible Illustrations, Moses and the judges, p. 340, etc.—Tr.]
[7][Bertheau: “Since the expeditions of eastern tribes follow the same plan at every repetition, and since, according to Jdg_6:33, they encamped in the valley of Jezreel, and moreover made their incursion with their herds and camels, it is evident that they must have entered the country by the one great connecting road between the East and Palestine, which crosses the depression of the Jordan near Bethshean, and issues into the plain of Jezreel. The extension of their inroads thence, is indicated by the fact that Gaza, at the southwestern extremity of the land, is named as the limit of their advance.” Cf. Dr. Cassel’s remarks on Jdg_6:11, p. 111.—Tr.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On v2 made . . . dens . . . in…
made . . . dens . . . in the mountains and caves--not, of course, excavating them, for they were already, but making them fit for habitation.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1–6 MIDIANITE OPPRESSION, Jdg_6:1-10.
MIDIANITE OPPRESSION, Jdg_6:1-10.
1. Israel did evil — Though, on account of their sins, the kings of Mesopotamia, Moab, and Hazor successively overran and oppressed the land, and though, after long years of servitude and sorrow, they repented and had deliverance from God, they profited not by their bitter experiences. Again and again they did evil, and thereby brought upon their own necks the yoke of other heathen powers.
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The hand of Midian — The Midianites were descendants of Abraham and Keturah, (Gen_25:2,) and dwelt in the country east and southeast of the Moabites and Ammonites. They were a nomadic people, and roamed over a vast tract of country. Among them Moses found a home when he fled from Pharaoh, and Horeb and a part of the Sinaitic peninsula seem to have been possessed by them. Exo_2:15; Exo_3:1. But when the Israelites approached the borders of Canaan, and had conquered Sihon and Og, the Midianites contiguous to the Moabites joined with the latter in seeking their overthrow. Num_22:4; Num_22:7. They were a wily people, and did much to injure Israel, (Num_25:8;) and one of the last acts of Moses was to make war with them and utterly defeat and spoil them. Num_31:1-12. Now after a lapse of two hundred years they had recovered strength, and God used them as the rod of his anger to scourge his guilty people.
Seven years — Though this oppression was not as long as previous ones, it was more severe.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–6 1–6. The Midianite oppression
1–6. The Midianite oppression
1. The Deuteronomic editor introduces a fresh subject in his accustomed manner: cf. Jdg_2:11; Jdg_2:14, Jdg_3:7, Jdg_4:1.
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Midian] The Midianites had their homes on the E. of the ‘Arâbah; see Gen_25:6. At times they are found as far N. as Moab (Gen_36:35, Num_22:4; Num_25:15 ff; Num_31:1-12), while some section of them lived as far S. as the Gulf of ‘Aḳãbah; a trace of this southern settlement was long preserved in the name of the town called Modiana by Ptolemy (Jdg_6:7; Jdg_6:2) and Madyan by Arab geographers, 75 miles S. of Elath; cf. Euseb., Onom. Sacr., 136 f. Again, the Midianites are said to have inhabited the Sinaitic peninsula. Horeb, the mountain of God, lay in their territory, Exo_2:15 ff; Exo_3:1, cf. Hab_3:7; from 1Ki_11:18 Midian appears to be a district between Edom and Paran on the way to Egypt, i.e. in the N.E. of the Sinaitic desert. These various statements do not enable us to fix any exact boundaries; probably the Midianites shifted their territory in the course of ages. They ranged over the desert E. and S. of Palestine, engaged chiefly in warfare and in escorting trade-caravans (Gen_37:28, Isa_60:6). The tendency of Arab tribes was to move northwards; accordingly we find the Midianites advancing up the desert E. of the caravan-route, and making forays from time to time into Edom1[35], Moab, and Gilead; on this occasion they even enter Palestine, probably by the valleys Wadi Jâlûd or W. Fara‘, which lead up from the Jordan into the central district. They were tempted by the harvests, and their incursions, here described as taking place repeatedly, caused wide-spread misery. The Bedouin of the desert always looked upon the agricultural population as lawful prey.
[35] Ewald made the attractive suggestion that the battle alluded to in Gen_36:35 may have been a secondary result of Gideon’s victory described here. Hist. Isr. ii. 336.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–6 (1) Did evil.—Jdg_2:11; Jdg_3:12; Jdg_4:1.
(1) Did evil.—Jdg_2:11; Jdg_3:12; Jdg_4:1.
Midian.—Midian was the son of Adraham and Keturah (Gen_25:2), and from him descended the numerous and wealthy nomadic tribes which occupied the plains east of Moab (Num_31:32-39). The name belongs, properly, to the tribes on the south-east of the Gulf of Akabah (1Ki_11:18). Moses himself had lived for forty years among them (Exo_3:1; Exo_18:1); but the Israelites had been bidden to maintain deadly hostility against the nation because of the shameful worship of Baal-peor, to which, under the instigation of Balaam, the Midianites had tempted them (Num_25:1-18).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–5 Midian. In Num_22:7 we read of the Midianites as…
Midian. In Num_22:7 we read of the Midianites as allied with the Moabites in their hostility to the children of Israel, and we find them willing agents of Balaam s iniquitous counsels, (Num_25:6, Num_25:17, 18 31:7, 8) and suffering a terrible chastisement from the Israelites in consequence. An abiding national feud was the natural consequence; and this, added to their love of plunder, no doubt led to the present invasion in company with the Amalekites. (Jud_1:3:13, note) Observe the contrast between the victory described in Nu 31 and the defeat narrated in this chapter.
Vers. 1-10. The fruit of ingratitude.
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What a condemnation of Israel there was in the simple statement of facts by the mouth of the prophet, without exaggeration and without comment. God had brought them up from the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and a stretched-out arm; when they were in bondage he had broken their yoke; when they were oppressed he had set them free; when the multitudes of Moabites, and Ammonites, and Midianites, and Canaanites, had opposed their entrance into the land of promise, God had brushed them all away and given their land to the Israelites. He had accompanied these acts of grace and power with a simple command not to worship the idols of Canaan, but to remember that Jehovah was their God, but they had not obeyed his voice. They had forsaken God, to whom they owed all they had, and they had turned to heathen vanities. What need to say any more? They were now reaping what they had sown. They were helpless because they had cast off him who had helped them so wondrously, and who would have been their help in every time of need if they had not so wantonly forsaken him. And in like manner how often will a bare statement of facts be enough to overwhelm us with guilt and shame! Let any man be his own prophet, and with unflinching truth record the incidents of a year or a day of his own life. "God in his abounding grace and love redeemed me by the blood of his dear Son; he freely forgave me my trespasses and sins; he received me into the adoption of children, by Jesus Christ, unto himself; he sealed me with the Holy Spirit of promise; he crowned me with loving-kindness and tender mercy; he showed me the kingdom of heaven, and bid me enter into it; he showed me the deadly evil of sin; he showed me the beauty and loveliness of goodness; he said to me, Abhor that which is evil, and cleave to that which is good. But I have not hearkened to his voice; I have forgotten his love, and despised his grace; I have disbelieved his word, and have believed the lying promises of sin; I have loved the world; I have been the slave of my own lusts, and the subject of my own passions; I have turned aside with the multitude of evil-doers, and I am now eating the fruit of my own doings; I have forsaken God, and so God has forsaken me.
HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR. Vers. 1-6. Israel"s extremity.
With repeated defection a severer punishment is needed and inflicted. Midian is not only a neighbour, but one who encircles Israel on south, south-east, and east. It was a name given to the great Arab tribes living east of the Red Sea, and south and east of Canaan. Unlike a comparatively civilised nation, they are not satisfied with receiving tribute; they render husbandry and the arts of civilised life impossible by lawless raids, ceaseless devastation, and wanton destruction. It is a new terror. Israel may be overwhelmed and stamped out if this curse of the wilderness be not restrained.
I ISRAEL"S ABANDONMENT OF JEHOVAH IS PUNISHED BY AN APPARENT ABANDONMENT OF ISRAEL BY JEHOVAH. It seems a light punishment; really there could scarcely be a harder one. Let the sinner and the backslider consider what their condition would be were God just to treat them as they treat him. Even the mildest phase of such discipline could not be long bearable. Simply to be left to oneself let alone what tragic possibilities does that suggest! But when enemies of the most ruthless description overrun our land, and have us at their mercy, how much does abandonment mean! It is in such times we learn how much we owe to Divine inter- position hour by hour. The moral consciousness of Israel was consequently lowered. So of all in like cases.
II THE MANNER AND EXTENT OF THEIR DISCIPLINE ARE SUGGESTIVE OF THE HEINOUSNESS or THEIR OFFENCE. Things had come to such a pass that only a full experience of the worst of their heathenish and idolatrous neighbours would avail. There is little or no love of God left; let the consequences of their unbelief teach them a bitter hatred of evil; in time it will drive them back to the doctrine and practice of truth for very life. By and by they will learn to love it again. We have but to think of God"s loving nature and infinite tenderness to see how desperate such a measure is. If forbearance failed, no other remedy would suffice but this. All unbelief is this potentially. It was a glimpse of the horror of a godless world.
III IT WAS A SALUTARY DISCIPLINE, BECAUSE IT LED THEM TO REPENTANCE AND PRAYER. God had no pleasure in this long agony; but neither, on the other hand, would he shorten it until due cause appeared. The result justified the severity. Saints often regard their calamities amongst their greatest mercies. How roughly handled have been some of God"s dearest ones I But the worst is not ours to bear, since Christ died. There is no calamity we cannot take to him. He will distil sweetness from wormwood itself, and give us help in time of sorest need. "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." He may be nearer to us in the affliction than in the prosperity. M.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Because of the Midianites the children of Israel made…
Jdg_6:1-10
Because of the Midianites the children of Israel made them the dens . . . and caves and strongholds.
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Divine punishment through natural means
Thus God gets at men through various means. The Midianites came out and spoiled the fields of the Israelites. The camels of the Midianites were without number; they entered the land to destroy it. Wheresoever they laid their hand they crushed the hope of Israel. Has God a way into our life, then, through corn and grass? Has He a way to chastise us through the medium of our business? Can He turn a client away and send a customer in another direction, and blind a man whilst he is counting his money? and can He so arrange things that prosperity shall crumble into adversity and a dense darkness shall settle upon the brightness of prosperity? This is Gods way of doing. He gets at men through their skin; He smites them with leprosy that they may learn to pray; He curses their bread that they may cry out about the better life; He drops poison into their water that they may learn that they have committed two evils--they have forsaken Him, the fountain of living water, and have hewn out unto themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. These things should bring us to study, to reflection, to inquiry. Why has this adversity come upon me? why do men actually pine and die? Is there not a cause? (J. Parker, D. D.)
Divine retribution
The famished, terror-stricken fugitives, are they indeed the sons of the men of old before whom the elders of Moab and of Midian trembled, and against whom the prince of sorcerers confessed that no enchantments could prevail? These crouching slaves that timidly peep from behind projecting rocks, or shiver in the damp darkness of caverns, are they indeed the sons of the men who vanquished Sihon king of the Amorites, and Og king of Bashan? Where are the old traditions of victory? Where is the national character--the energy of the race? National character, ancestral traditions, energy of race! Yes; such things exist; they have potency and value. But there is one law higher, wider, deeper than all these, and which modifies and controls them all. It is the everlasting law of right and wrong; the law of conscience; the law of retribution. Israel had forsaken Jehovah and had fallen into the licentious practices of the heathen, therefore they became an easy prey to the spoiler, whose audacity increased, while Israels strength diminished year by year of that calamitous seven. The same laws are still in force, for the whole world is a theocracy. If we act as the Israelites acted, we shall suffer as they suffered. Spoilers will come upon us--spoilers in the form of tumultuous passions; spoilers in the form of mighty lusts; spoilers in the form of wretched, remorseful thoughts, which will devour our happiness, and make us ready to skulk away into the farthest corner of the darkest cave, to avoid the light of the sun. This irruption of the Midianites into the fruitful vales of Palestine was no accident. The world is not governed by chance. Israel had bowed to the gods of the heathen, therefore they must bow to the tyranny of the heathen. (L. H. Wiseman, M. A.)
The Midianite spoilers
The narrative of the sacred historian, though brief, gives a vivid picture of the ravages of the Midianites, and of the pitiable distress to which Israel was reduced. They chose the spring when the seed had been sown, and came up with all the accompaniments of Bedouin life, with their cattle, their tents, and their camels. They ranged over the entire plain, beginning at the bank of the Jordan, and proceeding farther and farther westward until thou come to Gaza, on the low-lying sandy shore of the Mediterranean. They carried their plundering incursions far up into the hills of Manasseh, of Zebulun, and of Naphtali. They arranged no regular campaign, but pitched their tents wherever they pleased; roaming in armed parties over the whole country, and spreading terror in every direction. The farmers, instead of combining in self-defence, fled to the hills or sheltered themselves in caves; leaving their produce to the robbers, who destroyed the increase of the earth, carried off the cattle, and left neither sheep, nor ex, nor ass, nor any kind of sustenance for Israel. After they had plundered all, they withdrew till the following season, when they again came up from the desert, after the seed had been sown, to renew their depredations. For seven successive years were these ravages committed--ravages more terrible than those of war--until the Israelitish people had become not only greatly impoverished, but utterly disheartened. (L. H. Wiseman, M. A.)
The Lord sent a prophet.
Divine reproof
Thus saith the Lord . . . ye have not obeyed My voice. Awful words, but not unmixed with mercy. If the wounds of a friend are faithful--if it be a kindness when the righteous smite us--how much more when our heavenly Father is pleased to reprove! Severe and unsympathising as the utterances of this prophet might sound in the ears of a crushed and dejected people, they were necessary preparation for the coming deliverance. Before the Lord sent them a deliverer, He sent to them a prophet to preach repentance; to remind them that their own disobedience had been the real cause of all their miseries; to prepare them for salvation by piercing them with a sense of sin. It is a mercy if the silence of the skies is broken, even though it be by the voice of correction. If that word which is like a two-edged sword be humbly and dutifully received, the word which heals and restores will presently follow. Thus it was in Gideons time; a messenger of reproof prepared the way for a messenger of victory. (L. H. Wiseman, M. A.)
The result of disobedience to Gods voice
God reads the book of history, and says, See what I did for you, where I found you, how I delivered you, how I interposed for you in the hour of extremity; see how, by a mighty hand and outstretched arm, I wrought out this whole salvation for you, and no sooner did I recover you to life and to hope, than you turned your backs upon Me and stopped your ears with your fingers, and your hearts went astray from My throne. There is, then, a moral explanation of this whole thing that we call difficulty, or pain, or discipline, disappointment, sorrow, and death: Ye obeyed not My voice. That is the explanation of it all. The explanation of death, pain, poverty, homelessness, friendlessness, sorrow of every degree, is to be found in the fact that we have disobeyed the voice of God. There has been the moral lapse, the great spiritual slip, the heart has not retained its integrity, and we have got wrong at the centre, and having become disorganised there, all the outwardness of life has gone off into confusion and riot and darkness, and God has justly vindicated Himself by a multitude of pains and penalties, keen distresses and intolerable agonies, all of which are the servants of His righteous and gracious will. How long can God set Himself against the cries of the heart of His people? Not long. Israel cried unto the Lord! Did the Lord remove Himself ten thousand miles further into the depth of the great solitude that is above? No. He is full of compassion, He is tender in mercy, He is gentle in spirit. When Israel cried, God came. Though He might have said, No, yet He came--for God is love. He knoweth our frame, He remembereth that we are dust. (J. Parker, D.D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 JABIN king of Canaan defeated and his nine hundred…
THE DESERT HORDES; AND THE MAN AT OPHRAH
Jdg_6:1-14
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JABIN king of Canaan defeated and his nine hundred chariots turned into ploughshares, we might expect Israel to make at last a start in its true career. The tribes have had their third lesson and should know the peril of infidelity. Without God they are weak as water. Will they not bind themselves now in a confederacy of faith, suppress Baal and Astarte worship by stringent laws and turn their hearts to God and duty? Not yet: not for more than a century. The true reformer has yet to come. Deborahs work is certainly not in vain. She passes through the land administering justice, commanding the destruction of heathen altars. The people leave their occupations and gather in crowds to hear her: they shout, in answer to her appeals, Jehovah is our King. The Levites are called to minister at the shrines. For a time there is something like religion along with improving circumstances. But the tide does not rise long nor far.
Some twenty years have passed, and what is to be seen going on throughout the land? The Hebrews have addressed themselves vigorously to their work in field and town. Everywhere they are breaking up new ground, building houses, repairing roads, organising traffic. But they are also falling into the old habit of friendly intercourse with Canaanites, talking with them over the prospects of the crops, joining in their festivals of new moon and harvest. In their own cities the old inhabitants of the land sacrifice to Baal and gather about the Asherim. Earnest Israelites are indignant and call for action, but the mass of the people are so taken up with their prosperity that they cannot be roused. Peace and comfort in the lower region seem better than contention for anything higher. In the centre of Palestine there is a coalition of Hebrew and Canaanite cities, with Shechem at their head, which recognise Baal as their patron and worship him as the master of their league. And in the northern tribes generally Jehovah has scant acknowledgment; the people see no great task He has given them to do. If they live and multiply and inherit the land they reckon their function as His nation to be fulfilled.
It is a temptation common to men to consider their own existence and success a sort of Divine end in serving which they do all that God requires of them. The business of mere living and making life comfortable absorbs them so that even faith finds its only use in promoting their own happiness. The circle of the year is filled with occupations. When the labour of the field is over there are the houses and cities to enlarge, to improve, and furnish with means of safety and enjoyment. One task done and the advantage of it felt, another presents itself, Industry takes new forms and burdens still more the energies of men. Education, art, science become possible and in turn make their demands. But all may be for self, and God may be thought of merely as the great Patron satisfied with His tithes. In this way the impulses and hopes of faith are made the ministers of egoism, and as a national thing the maintenance of law, goodwill, and a measure of purity may seem to furnish religion with a sufficient object. But this is far from enough. Let worship be refined and elaborated, let great temples be built and thronged, let the arts of music and painting be employed in raising devotion to its highest pitch-still if nothing beyond self is seen as the aim of existence, if national Christianity realises no duty to the world outside, religion must decay. Neither a man nor a people can be truly religious without the missionary spirit, and that spirit must constantly shape individual and collective life. Among ourselves worship would petrify and faith wither were it not for the tasks the church has undertaken at home and abroad. But half-understood, half-discharged, these duties keep us alive. And it is because the great mission of Christians to the world is not even yet comprehended that we have so much practical atheism. When less care and thought are expended on the forms of worship and the churches address themselves to the true ritual of our religion, carrying out the redeeming work of our Saviour, there will be new fervour; unbelief will be swept away.
Israel, losing sight of its mission and its destiny, felt no need of faith and lost it; and with the loss of faith came loss of vigour and alertness as on other occasions. Having no sense of a common purpose great enough to demand their unity the Hebrews were again unable to resist enemies, and this time the Midianites and other wild tribes of the eastern desert found their opportunity. First some bands of them came at the time of harvest and made raids on the cultivated districts. But year by year they ventured farther in increasing numbers. Finally they brought their tents and families, their flocks and herds, and took possession.
In the case of all who fall away from the purpose of life the means of bringing failure home to them and restoring the balance of justice are always at hand. Let a man neglect his fields and nature is upon him; weeds choke his crops, his harvests diminish, poverty comes like an armed man. In trade likewise carelessness brings retribution. So in the case of Israel: although the Canaanites had been subdued other foes were not far away. And the business of this nation was of so sacred a kind that neglect of it meant great moral fault, and every fresh relapse into earthliness and sensuality after a revival of religion implied more serious guilt. We find accordingly a proportionate severity in the punishment. Now the nation is chastised with whips, but next time it is with scorpions. Now the iron chariots of Sisera hold the land in terror; then hosts of marauders spread like locusts over the country, insatiable, all-devouring. Do the Hebrews think that careful tilling of their fields and the making of wine and oil are their chief concern? In that they shall be undeceived. Not mainly to be good husbandmen and vine dressers are they set here, but to be a light in the midst of the nations. If they cease to shine they shall no longer enjoy.
It was by the higher fords of Jordan, perhaps north of the Sea of Galilee, that the Midianites fell on western Canaan. Under their two great emirs Zebah and Zalmunna, who seem to have held a kind of barbaric state, troops of riders on swift horses and dromedaries swept the shore of the lake and burst into the plain of Jezreel. There were no doubt many skirmishes between their squadrons and the men of Naphtali and Manasseh. But one horde of the invaders followed another so quickly and their attacks were so sudden and fierce that at length resistance became impossible, the Hebrews had to betake themselves to the heights and dwell in the caves and rocks. Once in the desert under Moses they had been more than a match for these Arabs. Now, although on vantage ground moral and natural, fighting for their hearths and homes behind the breastwork of lake, river, and mountain, they are completely routed.
Between the circumstances of this oppressed nation and the present state of the church there is a wide interval, and in a sense the contrast is striking. Is not the Christianity of our time strong and able to hold its own? Is not the mood of many churches of the present day properly that of elation? As year after year reports of numerical increase and larger contributions are made, as finer buildings are raised for the purpose of worship, and work at home and abroad is carried on more efficiently, is it not impossible to trace any resemblance between the state of Israel during the Midianite oppression and the state of religion now? Why should there be any fear that Baal worship or other idolatry should weaken the tribes, or that marauders from the desert should settle in their land?
And yet the condition of things today is not quite unlike that of Israel at the time we are considering. There are Canaanites who dwell in the land and carry on their debasing worship. These too are days when guerilla troops of naturalism, nomads of the primaeval desert, are sweeping the region of faith. Reckless and irresponsible talk in periodicals and on platforms; novels, plays, and verses, often as clever as they are unscrupulous, are incidents of the invasion, and it is well advanced. Not for the first time is a raid of this kind made on the territory of faith, but the serious thing now is the readiness to give way, the want of heart and power to resist that we observe in family life and in society as well as in literature. Where resistance ought to be eager and firm it is often ignorant, hesitating, lukewarm. Perhaps the invasion must become more confident and more injurious before it rouses the people of God to earnest and united action. Perhaps those who will not submit may have to betake themselves to the caves of the mountains while the new barbarism establishes itself in the rich plain. It has almost come to this in some countries; and it may be that the pride of those who have been content to cultivate their vineyards for themselves alone, the security of those who have too easily concluded that fighting was over shall yet be startled by some great disaster.
"Israel was brought very low because of Midian." A travellers picture of the present state of things on the eastern frontier of Bashan enables us to understand the misery to which the tribes were reduced by seven years of rapine. "Not only is the country-plain and hillside alike-chequered with fenced fields, but groves of fig trees are here and there seen and terraced vineyards still clothe the sides of some of the hills. These are neglected and wild but not fruitless. They produce great quantities of figs and grapes, which are rifled year after year by the Bedawin in their periodical raids. Nowhere on earth is there such a melancholy example of tyranny, rapacity, and misrule as here. Fields, pastures, vineyards, houses, villages, cities are all alike deserted and waste. Even the few inhabitants that have hid themselves among the rocky fastnesses and mountain defiles drag out a miserable existence, oppressed by robbers of the desert on the one hand and robbers of the government on the other." The Midianites of Gideons time acted the part both of tyrants and depredators. They "left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor ass. They entered into the land for to destroy it."
"And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord"; the prodigals bethought them of their Father. Having come to the husks they remembered Him who fed His people in the desert. Again the wheel has revolved and from the lowest point there is an upward movement. The tribes of God look once more towards the hills from whence their help cometh. And here is seen the importance of that faith which had passed into the nations life. Although it was not of a very spiritual kind, yet it preserved in the heart of the people a recuperative power. The majority knew little more of Jehovah than His name. But the name suggested availing succour. They turned to the Awful Name, repeated it and urged their need. Here and there one saw God as the infinitely righteous and holy and added to the wail of the ignorant a more devout appeal, recognising the evils under which the people groaned as punitive, and knowing that the very God to Whom they cried had brought the Midianites upon them. In the prayer of such a one there was an outlook towards holier and nobler life. But even in the case of the ignorant the cry to One higher than the highest had help in it. For when that bitter cry was raised self-glorifying had ceased and piety begun.
Ignorant indeed is much of the faith that still expresses itself in so-called Christian prayer, almost as ignorant as that of the disconsolate Hebrew tribes. The moral purpose of discipline, the Divine ordinances of defeat and pain and affliction are a mystery unread. The man in extremity does not know why his hour of abject fear has come, nor see that one by one all the stays of his selfish life have been removed by a Divine hand. His cry is that of a foolish child. Yet is it not true that such a prayer revives hope and gives new energy to the languid life? It may be many years since prayer was tried, not perhaps since he who is now past his meridian knelt at a mothers knee. Still as he names the name of God, as he looks upward, there comes with the dim vision of an Omnipotent Helper within reach of his cry the sense of new possibilities, the feeling that amidst the miry clay or the heaving waves there is something firm and friendly on which he may yet stand. It is a striking fact as to any kind of religious belief, even the most meagre, that it does for man what nothing else can do. Prayer must cease, we are told, for it is mere superstition. Without denying that much of what is called prayer is an expression of egotism, we must demand an explanation of the unique value it has in human life and a sufficient substitute for the habit of appeal to God. Those who would deprive us of prayer must first remake man, for to the strong and enlightened prayer is necessary as well as to the weak and ignorant. The Heavenly is the only hope of the earthly. That we understand God is, after all, not the chief thing: but does He know us? Is He there above yet beside us, forever?
The first answer to the cry of Israel came in the message of a prophet, one who would have been despised by the nation in its self-sufficient mood, but now obtained a hearing. His words brought instruction and made it possible for faith to move and work along a definite line. Through mans struggle God helps him; through mans thought and resolve God speaks to him. He is already converted when he believes enough to pray, and from this point faith saves by animating and guiding the strenuous will. The ignorant abject people of God learns from the prophet that something is to be done. There is a command, repeated from Sinai, against the worship of heathen gods, then a call to love the true God the Deliverer of Israel. Faith is to become life, and life faith. The name of Jehovah which has stood for one power among others is clearly reaffirmed as that of the One Divine Being, the only Object of adoration. Israel is convicted of sin and set on the way of obedience.
The answer to prayer lies very near to him who cries for salvation. He has not to move a step. He has but to hear the inner voice of conscience. Is there a sense of neglect of duty, a sense of disobedience, of faults committed? The first movement towards salvation is set up in that conviction and in the hope that the evil now seen may be remedied. Forgiveness is implied in this hope, and it will become assured as the hope grows strong. The mistake is often made of supposing that answer to prayer does not come till peace is found. In reality the answer begins when the will is bent towards a better life, though that change may be accompanied by the deepest sorrow and self-humiliation. A man who earnestly reproaches himself for despising and disobeying God has already received the grace of the redeeming Spirit.
But to Israels cry there was another answer. When repentance was well begun and the tribes turned from the heathen rites which separated them from each other and from Divine thoughts, freedom again became possible and God raised up a liberator. Repentance indeed was not thorough; therefore a complete national reformation was not accomplished. Yet as against Midian, a mere horde of marauders, the balance of righteousness and power inclined now in behalf of Israel. The time was ripe and in the providence of God the fit man received his call.
Southwest from Shechem, among the hills of Manasseh, at Ophrah of the Abiezrites, lived a family that had suffered keenly at the hands of Midian. Some members of the family had been slain near Tabor, and the rest had as a cause of war not only the constant robberies from field and homestead but also the duty of blood revenge. The deepest sense of injury, the keenest resentment fell to the share of one Gideon, son of Joash, a young man of nobler temper than most Hebrews of the time. His father was head of a Thousand; and as he was an idolater the whole clan joined him in sacrificing to the Baal whose altar stood within the boundary of his farm. Already Gideon appears to have turned with loathing from that base worship; and he was pondering earnestly the cause of the pitiful state into which Israel had fallen. But the circumstances perplexed him. He was not able to account for facts in accordance with faith.
In a retired place on the hillside, where a winepress has been fashioned in a hollow of the rocks, we first see the future deliverer of Israel. His task for the day is that of threshing out some wheat so that, as soon as possible, the grain may be hid from the Midianites; and he is busy with the flail, thinking deeply, watching carefully as he plies the instrument with a sense of irksome restraint. Look at him and you are struck with his stalwart proportions and his bearing: he is "like the son of a king." Observe more closely and the fire of a troubled yet resolute soul will be seen in his eye. He represents the best Hebrew blood, the finest spirit and intelligence of the nation; but as yet he is a strong man bound. He would fain do something to deliver Israel he would fain trust Jehovah to sustain him in striking a blow for liberty; but the way is not clear. Indignation and hope are baffled.
In a pause of his work, as he glances across the valley with anxious eye, suddenly he sees under an oak a stranger sitting staff in hand, as if he had sought rest for a little in the shade. Gideon scans the visitor keenly, but finding no cause for alarm bends again to his labour. The next time he looks up the stranger is beside him and words of salutation are falling from his lips-"Jehovah is with thee, thou mighty man of valour." To Gideon the words did not seem so strange as they would have seemed to some. Yet what did they mean? Jehovah with him? Strength and courage he is aware of. Sympathy with his fellow Israelites and the desire to help them he feels. But these do not seem to him proofs of Jehovahs presence. And as for his fathers house and the Hebrew people, God seems far from them. Harried and oppressed, they are surely God-forsaken. Gideon can only wonder at the unseasonable greeting and ask what it means.
Unconsciousness of God is not rare. Men do not attribute their regret over wrong, their faint longing for the right to a spiritual presence within them and a Divine working. The Unseen appears so remote, man appears so shut off from intercourse with any supernatural Cause or Source that he fails to link his own strain of thought with the Eternal. The word of God is nigh him even in his heart, God is "closer to him than breathing, nearer than hands and feet." Hope, courage, will, life-these are Divine gifts, but he does not know it. Even in our Christian times the old error which makes God external, remote, entirely aloof from human experience survives and is more common than true faith. We conceive ourselves separated from the Divine, with springs of thought, purpose, and power in our own being, whereas there is in us no absolute origin of power-moral, intellectual, or physical. We live and move in God: He is our Source and our Stay, and our being is shot through and through with rays of the Eternal. The prophetic word spoken in our ear is not more assuredly from God than the pure wish or unselfish hope that frames itself in our minds or the stern voice of conscience heard in the soul. As for the trouble into which we fall, that too, did we understand aright, is a mark of Gods providential care. Would we err without discipline? Would we be ineffective and have no bracing? Would we follow lies and enjoy a false peace? Would we refuse the Divine path to strength, yet never feel the sorrow of the weak? Are these the proofs of Gods presence our ignorance would desire? Then indeed we imagine an unholy one, an unfaithful one upon the throne of the universe. But God has no favourites; He does not rule like a despot of earth for courtiers and an aristocracy. In righteousness and for righteousness, for eternal truth He works, and for that His people must endure.
"Jehovah is with thee": so ran the salutation. Gideon, thinking of Jehovah, does not wonder to hear His name. But full of doubts natural to one so little instructed he feels himself bound to express them: "Why is all this evil befallen us? Hath not Jehovah cast us off and delivered us into the hand of Midian?" Unconstrainedly, plainly as man to man Gideon speaks, the burdensome thought of his peoples misery overcoming the strangeness of the fact that in a God-forsaken land anyone should care to speak of things like these. Yet momentarily, as the conversation proceeds, there grows in Gideons soul a feeling of awe, a new and penetrating idea. The look fastened upon him conveys beside the human strain of will a suggestion of highest authority; the words, "Go in this thy might and save Israel, have not I sent thee?" kindle in his heart a vivid faith. Laid hold of, lifted above himself, the young man is made aware at last of the Living God, His presence, His will. Jehovahs representative has done his mediatorial work. Gideon desires a sign; but his wish is a note of habitual caution, not of disbelief, and in the sacrifice he finds what he needs.
Now, why insist as some do on that which is not affirmed in the text? The form of the narrative must be interpreted: and it does not require us to suppose that Jehovah Himself, incarnate, speaking human words, is upon the scene. The call is from Him, and indeed Gideon has already a prepared heart, or he would not listen to the messenger. But seven times in the brief story the word Malakh marks a commissioned servant as clearly as the other word Jehovah marks the Divine will and revelation. After the man of God has vanished from the hill swiftly, strangely, in the manner of his coming, Gideon remains alive to Jehovahs immediate presence and voice as he never was before. Humble and shrinking-"forasmuch as I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face"-he yet hears the Divine benediction fall from the sky, and following that a fresh and immediate summons. Whether from the tabernacle at Shiloh an acknowledged prophet came to the brooding Abiezrite, or the visitor was one who concealed his own name and haunt that Jehovah might be the more impressively recognised, it matters not. The angel of the Lord made Gideon thrill with a call to highest duty, opened his ears to heavenly voices, and then left him. After this he felt God to be with himself.
"The Lord looked upon Gideon and said, Go in this thy might and save Israel from the hand of Midian: have not I sent thee?" It was a summons to stern and anxious work, and the young man could not be sanguine. He had considered and reconsidered the state of things so long, he had so often sought a way of liberating his people and found none that he needed a clear indication how the effort was to be made. Would the tribes follow him, the youngest of an obscure family in Manasseh? And how was he to stir, how to gather the people? He builds an altar, Jehovah-shalom; he enters into covenant with the Eternal in high and earnest resolution, and with a sudden flash of prophet sight he sees the first thing to do. Baals altar in the high place of Ophrah must be overthrown. Thereafter it will be known what faith and courage are to be found in Israel.
It is the call of God that ripens a life into power, resolve, fruitfulness-the call and the response to it. Continually the Bible urges upon us this great truth, that through the keen sense of a close personal relation to God and of duty owing to Him the soul grows and comes to its own. Our human personality is created in that way and in no other. There are indeed lives which are not so inspired and yet appear strong; an ingenious resolute selfishness gives them momentum. But this individuality is akin to that of ape or tiger; it is a part of the earth force in yielding to which a man forfeits his proper being and dignity. Look at Napoleon, the supreme example in history of this failure. A great genius, a striking character? Only in the carnal region, for human personality is moral, spiritual, and the most triumphant cunning does not make a man; while, on the other hand, from a very moderate endowment put to the glorious usury of Gods service will grow a soul clear, brave, and firm, precious in the ranks of life. Let a human being, however ignorant and low, hear and answer the Divine summons and in that place a man appears, one who stands related to the source of strength and light. And when a man roused by such a call feels responsibility for his country, for religion, the hero is astir. Something will be done for which mankind waits.
But heroism is rare. We do not often commune with God nor listen with eager souls for His word. The world is always in need of men, but few appear. The usual is worshipped; the pleasure and profit of the day occupy us; even the sight of the cross does not rouse the heart. Speak, Heavenly Word! and quicken our clay. Let the thunders of Sinai be heard again, and then the still small voice that penetrates the soul. So shall heroism be born and duty done, and the dead shall live.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 ISRAEL’S RELAPSE INTO SIN, AND THEIR OPPRESSION BY THE…
ISRAEL’S RELAPSE INTO SIN, AND THEIR OPPRESSION BY THE MIDIANITES. Jdg_6:1-10
CRITICAL NOTES.— Jdg_6:1. Did evil, etc.] Not continued to do evil, though that is implied (pp. 158, 186). Deborah and Barak were now dead, and their personal example, the influence of their names, and their warning voices were all buried with them. The shake given to the idolatry of the land by the signal manifestation made of Jehovah’s jealousy had now lost its effect, and a new generation had sprung up. That so long a period as 40 years should have been influenced by the shadow of the great event of the destruction of Sisera and his army shows that a mighty impression had been made of the character of Israel’s God, both on Israel themselves, and also on the nations around them. All seemed to feel that “great fear was due to the God of Israel,” for “there was no God that could deliver after this manner.” The hand of Midian—descendants of Abraham and Keturah (Gen_25:2). Though not the same race, they appear to have been in close affinity with the Ishmaelites, or were included among that people as a part is included in the whole (Jdg_8:22-24). With them, too, they appear to have been engaged in the carrying trade across the desert between the Euphrates and Egypt (see Gen_37:25; Gen_37:28). Some regard the word Midianites, as the plural of the old Egyptian Madi [Fausset]. They were a nomadic people and did not till the ground, but lived in tents. They occupied a belt of desert land, extending from Horeb in a line extending north-east, passing Moab on the east, and skirting the territory of Reuben. While Moses was at Horeb, he dwelt with his father-in-law, Jethro, who was the priest of Midian. Their territory, therefore, must have been, at one side, near by Horeb. But being unsettled in their residence, and predatory in their habits, there was probably no very strict delimitation of the boundary lines. Wiseman calls them “wandering corsairs” of the desert. The disposition to plunder had become to them almost a natural instinct, as it was with all the tribes of the desert. They had an old grudge against, Israel on account of the crushing blow that had been inflicted on them in the time of Moses by the express command of God, because of their having wickedly enticed Israel into sin on the plains of Moab (see Num_25:1; Num_25:6; Num_25:16-18; Num_31:7-12; Num_22:4-7). Quite 260 years had elapsed since that sweeping desolation had passed on them; and now they had recovered their strength, but cherished an undying hatred to their destroyers. They would be readily joined in their raid against Israel by the Amalekites (see p. 158), by the Ishmaelites (Psa_83:6-7), by the Arabs and wandering hordes generally, along the south and south-east border of Palestine, who were always ready for any work of pillage. The initiative, however, was taken by Midian.
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Cassel thinks that the two words Midian and the more modern Bedouin are really one and the same—the Hebrew spelling beginning with מ, while the Arabic language begins with כ. In this last case the word would spell Bidiun, or Bedouin. In the Semitic languages there is a constant interchange of these letters. The word comes from a root signifying the desert.
Jdg_6:2. The hand of Midian prevailed.]—bore heavily upon them (p. 97). They had no power to remove it. They made them the dens which are in the mountains, etc.] Some (Keil) make the word סּנְהָרֹוח to signify “mountain ravines,” hollowed out by torrents; being thus found they were fitted up by men’s hands in such a manner, as to make suitable retreats from danger. Others (Cassel and Bertheau) understand by it, “Light holes.” i.e., holes with openings for the light, or grottoes. Wetzstein says, “At some elevated dry place, a shaft was sunk obliquely into the earth, and at a depth of twenty-five fathoms, streets were run off straight, from six to eight paces wide, in the sides of which the dwellings were excavated. At various points these streets were extended to double their ordinary width, and the roof was pierced with air-holes according to the size of the place. These were like windows. Hence the meaning is, caves, with air-holes like windows. Watchers were employed to give the alarm when the enemy approached. Then the plonghmen and herds hurried quickly into the earth and were secure. There was also a second place of exit, for the most part.” Similar must have been the rock dwellings of Petra. In the limestone mountains of Palestine, there are many natural “caves.” but these generally were more fully excavated, and fitted up artificially, when used as human dwellings. The remaining word (מְצָרוֹתַ) signifies fortresses, or (mountain) “strongholds.” These refuges were less used for purposes of personal safety, than as places of concealment for property and necessaries of life. For the propensity of the Bedouin always has been rather to pillage than to kill (1Sa_13:6; 1Sa_23:14; 1Sa_23:19; 1Sa_23:29; 1Ch_11:7) These were memorials of the dark times, when the Bedouin host like an over-running flood swept over the land. Sin like a leprosy leaves its scars and its baldness behind it.
Jdg_6:3. Children of the East.] This phrase seems to designate the various Arab tribes, not otherwise named, who roamed over the open country between the Red Sea and the Euphrates. We hear of “the men of the east” (Job_1:3); “the mountains of the east” (Num_23:7); “the east country” (Gen_25:6); “the east” specifically (Gen_29:1). (Isa_41:2; Mat_2:1; Mat_7:12; Mat_8:10). These hordes seem to have had no design of conquering the country, nor yet of cutting off its inhabitants. Their object simply was plunder. “Their visits were like the incursions of the Picts and Scots into Southern Britain during the latter part of the Roman dominion (A.D. 1368); or the raids for lifting cattle. which were common from the Highlands of Scotland into the Lowlands at a much later period” (Lias). And he might have added, which visits were returned by the English into Scotland, with a like disregard of meum and tuum, when they could get a safe opportunity. This was but the fulfilment of prophecy upon Israel (Deu_28:31; Deu_28:33; Deu_28:43; Deu_28:48).
When Israel had sown they came up, etc.] i.e., They chose the time when the fruits of the earth were fast ripening, just before harvest (about March), and remained for weeks or months on the ground, till they had time to clutch the whole produce for the year; and when they had stripped it bare, they returned to their own country, leaving the poor Israelites to sow the land for a new crop in the following season, at which time they would return and repeat the work of rapine. Their route would be along the east bank of the Jordan, until they got as far as Bethshean (now Beisan), the principal ford of the river, when, crossing over, they would have before them to the north-east, the rich plain of Esdraelon and the fertile valley of Jezreel, forming together the very garden of Palestine, whose richness of soil was proverbial everywhere, and formed a most tempting prize to eyes accustomed to look on the sterility of the desert—luxuriant crops of corn, vineyards, olive trees, fig trees, pomegranates, milk and honey—all found in profuse abundance. Here they would revel until feasted to the full, when going along the course of the Kishon, and passing through the mountain gorges on the west. would then turn southward along the rich belt of land that skirted the sea, the southern part of which was occupied by the Philistines, their last city being Gaza. There the forces of the marauders necessarily took end, for there was nothing more in that direction to seize.[2]
[2] It has long been the practice (till recently stopped) of the marauding Turkomans of Central Asia, to rob the long caravans of camels, laden with the produce of the countries of the Far East, passing to the countries of the Far West (and vice versa), along the route through ancient Media [Has that word any connection with Midian?] which has the Caspian Gates to the north and Persia to the South. These tribes also have long been in the habit of making “alamans,” or raids on their weaker neighbours, their object being robbery and man-stealing, including woman and child-stealing. Their favourite hunting ground has been the eastern frontier of Persia. The people they caught were carried off to the inhospitable deserts of Central Asia, where escape was impossible. For prisoners of importance a heavy ransom was expected; the others were made to work in the fields, or were sold as chattels where a market could be found. These incursions were made sometimes up to the gates of Teheran, while so strangely imbecile or helpless were the governore of Persia, the country once ruled over by a Cyrus and an Ahasuerus, that little or no opposition was offered to the fierce barbarians who came plundering and murdering to within a few miles of the capital. No wonder that all the towns and villages are walled in with towers and gates which are shut at night. Even in many of the fields were towers, as refuges or the people at work, in case of sudden alarm, when there was no time to reach the village. The workers by squeezing themselves through a narrow opening in the bottom, which could be closed with a stone, might thus escape, and the Turkoman would lose his prize. To complete the picture, occasionally some of the governors on the frontier, who could have stopped their raids, allowed them to pass westwards in order to catch them on their return, laden with the spoil they had captured. This was profitable to the governor, who thus bagged everything. Happily Russia by her movement into Central Asia, during the eighth decade of this century, has laid a strong hand on this system, and it may now be said no longer to exist. That movement if it has had few other beneficial effects seems to be breaking up the fallow ground, in what has long been one of the wildest, and most intractable wastes, both of the moral and physical worlds.
Jdg_6:4. They encamped against them]—ready to seize their plunder by force of arms, if they could not get it peaceably (Psa_27:3; 2Sa_12:28). But such was the cowardice of the God-for-saken people, that they never once attempted to take the field against these insolent robbers, far less did they dream for a moment that they could be driven out of the country. The same course was taken by the Turks on a larger scale, when they first made their appearance in the east of Europe, and seized one territory after another, crushing all opposition. The increase of the earth]—the annual produce of the soil; such as wheat, barley and grass; wine, honey, milk and oil; all fruit trees’ produce, and such things as are alluded to in the following passages (Exo_3:8; Deu_8:8; Deu_32:14; 2Ch_2:10; 2Ch_2:15; Eze_27:17; Eze_27:19; Isa_7:22-23; Mic_4:4). Till thou come to Gaza]—an idiomatic phrase in the Hebrew language (Gen_10:19; Jdg_11:33; Gen_13:10; 1Sa_17:52; 1Sa_27:8). Left no sustenance for Israel, neither Sheep, etc.]—no means of support, whether the fruit of the soil, or the flocks and herds. Not only were the rich plains of Issachar devastated, but the uplands of Manasseh were not safe from the hands of these rapacious prowlers, as the case of Gideon illustrates. Their march was “like a sweeping rain which leaveth no food” (Pro_28:3). To drive off the cattle has been the practice of the Bedouins all along unto this day; and it is customary, in some parts of Western Asia to make a compromise with the invaders, engaging to pay them a heavy tribute on condition that they shall be left unmolested. Even powerful communities do this to avoid perpetual warfare. Besides the tribute, the chiefs look for substantial presents, and these being received as gifts in one year are exacted the next year as a matter of right. Ere long the pressure becomes intolerable, and they are obliged to leave the settlements altogether.—(Pict. Bible.) Not a solitary sheep, ox or ass which came in their way was left to the Israelites! So complete was the pillage. Their cattle comprising beeves, sheep, asses and camels, would eat up all the herbage and every green thing which they did not require for themselves. For they were most numerous (Num_31:32-39).
Jdg_6:5. They came up, and their cattle and their tents, etc.]—they and their cattle is emphatic—their tents—those who lived in their tents. All their domestics, as well as fighting men. It was not a sudden assault followed by a hasty retreat; but they came to remain in the land, for a time at least, to fatten themselves on its rich produce. Came as grasshoppers.] Rather locusts—כְדֵי in like abundance to the locusts; also like to them in voracity, of which it is said in Joe_2:3, “the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them is a desolate wilderness.” It was a deluge of human robbers.[3]
[3] From p. 38 under Jdg_6:5, they and their camels were without number]—rather, dromedaries (Isa_60:6) which are peculiar to the deserts of the South and East. Camels and asses take the place of horses and oxen in the West. Camels, indeed, were not unfrequently used for ploughing.
Jdg_6:6. Greatly impoverished.]—יִדַּל is a strong word, implying more than that they suffered a great loss, or had much taken from them. It implies that they felt utterly desolate and helpless. What a spectacle was before them! Their beautiful country turned into a vast and hideous wreck; countless marauders roaming at will all over the land, devouring or trampling down ruthlessly the choicest fruit of their matchless soil, until scarcely a stalk of grain or a blade of grass was left in Jezreel itself. As far as the eye could reach, the human wolves had done their work with absolute completeness. It was one vast sea of wreckage. On every foot of the sacred land was inscribed “Ichabod.” The curse of heaven was everywhere marked. They were a people forsaken of their God. Hence they were thoroughly dispirited, and hung their heads in despair and shame, under the terrible conviction that on the one hand they had deserved it all, and on the other, that they were utterly powerless to effect a remedy for their condition.[4]
[4] Many think it was about this time that the great famine occurred in the land which led Elimelech and his family to remove to the land of Moab to sojourn there, and when Ruth through Naomi’s instrumentality became a convert to the faith of Israel’s God (Ruth 1).
But this conviction was not arrived at all at once. For the first three years these depredators, Josephus tells us, repeated each year their terrible visit, with such disastrous result, that a large part of the land was no longer sown, while the miserable inhabitants, with their numbers thinned, partly through famine, and partly through oppression, at last, in great numbers quitted their homes and sought to the retreats and fastnesses among the mountains referred to in Jdg_6:2. For four years more did they survive the terrible humiliation of their country until they agreed by general consent to return to their allegiance to the God from whom they had apostatized (Hos_5:15). Now they were virtually saying “come, let us return unto the Lord, for He hath torn and He will heal, He hath smitten and He will bind up.”
Jdg_6:7. They cried unto the Lord because of Midian.] (See p. 159). (Jdg_3:9; Jdg_3:15; Jdg_4:3; Psa_106:44-45; Psa_107:6; Psa_107:19; Psa_107:28).
Jdg_6:8. The Lord sent a prophet.] A man, a prophet; not an angel. An unnamed messenger (1Ki_13:1-2; 1Ki_20:13; 1Ki_20:35; 2Ki_9:1; 2Ki_9:4). God would send a prophet before He sends a saviour. Before giving the blessing He first deals with that which keeps back the blessing. They were beginning to use the language of penitence; they must learn it more thoroughly. (Act_2:37, yet the apostle adds Jdg_6:38—carry your repentance farther). The message itself etc., is like that of 1Sa_10:18, or Jos_24:17 and Jdg_2:1.—I brought you up from Egypt, etc.] It was strange that they should so continually require to be reminded of one of the very first truths in their national history, the day which of all others had a white letter mark in their calendar. Then they for the first time rose up to be a nation. Then was laid the foundation of everlasting obligations to their God, to whom alone they owed their unparalleled history as a people.
10. But ye have not obeyed my voice.] These words contain the charge which their God brings against them. This short sentence would not be all that the prophet would say. It was rather the theme on which he would enlarge; in the same manner in which we have an account of Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost. That sermon may have occupied more than an hour in delivery, and yet as given in the canon, it is so abridged as not to occupy a tenth part of that time in the reading. The line of thought followed by the speaker alone is given; so here—The gods of the Amorites.]—This name is put for the Canaanites, (as in Jos_24:15; Jos_24:18; and Gen_15:16). “In the Egyptian monuments of Ramases 3, Palastine is called the land of the Amori. The prophet may have been addressing the dwellers in the mountains where the Amorites (the Highlanders) dwelt. (Gen_48:22). The idolatries of that race were specially abominable (see 1Ki_21:26; 2Ki_21:11).” [Speaker’s Com.] It has well been remarked that “the existence of a class of men, whose duty it is to convict men of moral declension, is peculiar to revealed religion. Other religions had their priests; Judaism and Christianity alone had their prophets.” [Lias].
MAIN HOMILETICS.—Jdg_6:1-10
GOD’S DEALINGS WITH THE UNTEACHABLE HUMAN HEART
Here again we have the same weary go-round. Fresh outbreaks of depravity; new chastisements of the Divine hand; the treacherous heart turning again to its God when it finds that it must; and God, with wonderful tenderness and slowness to anger (at every new stage becoming more wonderful), repenting Him of the evil and granting deliverance. We have—
I. The Picture of Sin Presented.
It is not a case of sinning for the first time, but a case of repeated sinning, and that accompanied with every possible aggravation.
1. The form of their sin was of a heinous character. Idol-worship was peculiarly offensive to their God. It was a direct rejection of Jehovah as their God, not-withstanding all His claims to be so acknowledged. No greater insult could be offered to His Majesty and His Holiness. It was to cast off His authority, to deny His sovereign rights, to refuse Him submission, to contemn His glorious perfections, to trample under foot His law, and to reject His Divine fellowship. It was to do all this in the most offensive manner, by preferring to worship in His place beasts and fourfooted things, or images of sinful objects, the work of their own hands. It was to go lower still—it was to set up the embodiments of sin in the place of God, and to give to these the devotion and the worship which are properly due to God. It was to give external form and embodiment to the worst ideals of wickedness which the human imagination could conceive, and yield up to these the homage which is due only to the Holy one of Israel! In this matter the “desperately-wicked heart” seems to have exceeded itself in its ordinary acting. And to complete the picture, it must take away the one foundation of all possible good (namely, the worship of the Good one), and to expose the heart to the incursion of all possible evils.
Idolatry, indeed, implies the creature striking out for itself in disregard of its Maker, as if its Maker were insufficient to it, and His presence were a burden rather than a pleasure. “Have I been a wilderness to Israel?—a land of darkness? Wherefore say, my people, We will come no more to thee? What iniquity have your fathers found in me that they are gone from Me and have walked after vanity?” This reproach applies to all who put any other objects in place of God, and give to these the homage, the affection, the interest and the obedience which are due to Him alone. It may be riches, or fame, social distinction, the good opinions of our fellows, or any prize which the man who lives without God counts dear (see pp. 110, 111, 123).
2. They sinned against the clearest light. All the means of instruction which that age could furnish in the matter of their duty to their God were employed to press His claims on their attention. If they had no printed Bible, yet at the Red Sea, at Mount Horeb, all through the wilderness, at Jordan, and in every city of the Canaanites, as well as in many startling events of more than 200 years afterwards—they had all the facts and revelations of the Divine character and of human duty which go to make a Bible. And they had these as living facts—events passing before their eyes, coming with the freshness of personal experience—in which they themselves were principal factors. They had an illuminated Bible given them to read, in which the blindest among them could see a great meaning. It was a Bible which spoke with a plainness that the dullest could appreciate, and with a loudness that made the most stolid fall down and worship. But they had no eyes to read such a Bible; no ears to hear its remarkable sayings, for “they did shut their eyes that they might not see, and stop their ears that they might not hear.” They sinned against the clearest light as to the claims which Jehovah had on the allegiance and love of their hearts. “They would not come to the light lest their deeds should be reproved.” Hence they continued as “sottish children—a people of no understanding” (see Deu_32:5-6; Deu_32:28; Deu_4:5-8; Deu_4:32-36; Luk_12:48; Mat_11:21-23; Num_15:30-31; Joh_9:41; Rom_2:12-16).
3. They sinned in abusing the highest privileges. They had the continual presence of God among them that they might enjoy His fellowship. A way of access was provided through the appointed sacrifices. The means whereby individual sins might be pardoned, and personal sanctification secured, were set every day before their eyes in the blood of sprinkling and the water of purification. God’s own glorious character as a God of truth and righteousness, of holiness and love, was exhibited very strikingly in the statutes, ordinances, and commandments which were given them as a law for their conduct. They had exceeding great and precious promises made to them from time to time as to their deliverance for the present, and the realisation of bright hopes for the future. They had very endearing and very honourable names given them by their God, and they had continually fresh proofs given that He was among them on all occasions, ever ready to do them such signal service by the events of His Providence as no other people on earth ever experienced. Yet all this was despised and put aside when they “forsook the Lord their God and worshipped Baalim and the groves.” This comes very near the case described in the terrible passage of Heb_6:4-6, or that other in Heb_10:26-29, making allowance for the difference of the dispensations (Isa_5:4; Mat_21:35-43; Act_7:51-53; 2Ki_17:12-18; Joh_12:35-37; Luke 12.) (See pp. 120, 121).
4. They sinned in disregarding the most sacred obligations. Never were a people so sacredly bound by acts of kindness shown them, by great deliverances wrought, by honours conferred, and by hopes opened up. The whole Book of Deuteronomy is a record of the extent and the weight of the obligations laid on that people to love and serve Jehovah as their God. “He hath not dealt so with any nation—the children of Israel are a people near unto Him.” They were set forth as priests among the nations, to make “mention of the loving kindness of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord according to all that the Lord hath bestowed upon them, and the great goodness to the house of Israel, which He bestowed on them according to His mercies, and according to the multitude of His loving kindnesses.” And those who have set before them the rich discoveries contained in the pages of the New Testament truth; who find the Son of God standing before them in the capacity of the Son of Man; who hear from His own lips the free offer of eternal life, in all its immeasurable fulness, to those who are willing to be reconciled to God through His precious blood; and who have many precious promises made to them both for the present and the future life—these have obligations laid on them to love and live for God, which no scales can weigh, and no mind can appreciate. (see Heb_1:1-3; Heb_2:2-4; Heb_10:19-23; Mat_12:41-42; Psa_89:15-16; Pro_1:20-23, with 24–28; Joh_3:36, also 16–18; Rev_3:15-18).
5. They sinned in breaking the most solemn engagements. They not only had many acts of kindness shown them, and great things done for them, but they had entered into a special covenant with Jehovah, and pledged themselves to be His people. They were formally set apart by the sprinkling of blood to be His. God Himself came down on Mount Sinai to enter into this covenant, and the whole proceedings were conducted in so solemn a manner as to be memorable to all future generations. To break this covenant (which was made for all their generations) was to perjure themselves, and increase their guilt to an incalculable degree. To break one’s solemn engagement made to a fellow man is reckoned a sin of deep dye, but how shall we characterise the violation of a solemn oath made to high Heaven? (see p. 121).
6. They sinned in the face of the most earnest teachings. Especially the teachings of Divine Providence. What did the fathers gain by serving other gods? Had not the experiment been made once and again, and on several occasions? Did not the history of two centuries and a half prove it to be a palpable folly, and a terrible evil to forsake the true and living God, the only fountain of living waters? Did not all the figures of Israel’s history since they entered into Canaan, each one in his place, condemn with a fearful emphasis the crime of forsaking Jehovah? What a long tale of sorrow and degradation was the history of the generation that went before the present one, when they were so grievously oppressed by the cruel Jabin! Surely twenty years’ pressure of that iron heel might have read a lesson sufficient to teach for a whole century the sin and danger of idolatry. And the mighty acts of Israel’s God, when He rose up from His place to take vengeance on the oppressors of His people, in the discomfiture and ruin of Sisera and his army, might have taught for generations to come that there was no god but Jehovah. Yet though having these and many other lessons of instruction and warning set before them, this generation fell again into the mire from which their fathers had at such cost been drawn. (See pp. 121, 122).
One general remark we must not omit to make as regards this melancholy picture of sin, that when men complain of the awful character of the punishment which God sometimes brings down even on His own professed people, the wonder ought to cease when we look candidly at the terrible character of their guilt. God is just when He smites, as well as when He smiles.
II. The state of heart which this picture indicates.
1. Its inveterate tendency to sin. The propensity must be strong to make its appearance in the face of such solemn remonstrances, and such weighty arguments as God employs to make men desist from it. Sin has a deep root in the heart. “The leprosy is deeper than the skin,” “the scall spreads in the skin”—“it is a fretting leprosy.” “In me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.” (Lev_13:3; Lev_13:36; Rom_7:18). Facts prove, account for it as we may, that the spirit or tendency of backsliding is incorrigible among God’s people. Indeed, in face of the facts that meet us on every page of this book, who can doubt the truth of God’s own testimony—“the carnal mind is enmity against God; it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be (Rom_8:7).” (Jer_13:23; Jer_2:22; Mat_19:24; Joh_3:3; Joh_3:6-7; Rom_7:23-24; Rom_8:8; Eph_2:1; Psa_51:5).
2. The hardness of the heart. This is the feature of character which shows itself in refusing to be impressed by any dealing which God may have with the heart. This was strikingly visible in Pharaoh’s case (Exodus 7-11). (Heb_3:8; Heb_3:15; Heb_4:7; Jos_11:20; 1Sa_6:6; Jer_7:26). It implies that the heart offers resistance to the motive by which God would impress it. It is not only callous—impassive, or utterly indifferent. It is actively opposing the influence by which God seeks to move it. But it includes the want of sensibility.
3. Its boldness in sin. There is a recklessness of consequences; a defiance, wild it may be, yet still a defiance of the Lawgiver, and a refusal to submit to His authority.
4. Its obstinacy in sin. The heart shows a pertinacity in clinging to its sins. It refuses to obey God’s voice (Neh_9:17; Psa_78:10). It refuses to repent (Jer_5:3; Jer_8:5). It refuses to receive any proper knowledge of God and His ways (Jer_9:6; Jer_13:10). The stubbornness of the heart in refusing to receive any teaching from God’s judgments is strikingly brought out by the prophet Amos in Amo_4:6; Amo_4:8-11; Jer_5:23.
5. Its depth of enmity against God. It is said to be “desperately wicked,” which implies wickedness in an unusual degree (Jer_17:9). If the human heart does not constitutionally consist of enmity against God, it is magnetised with that enmity, and said to be alienated from God (Col_1:21; Eph_4:18; Joh_7:7; Joh_15:23-24; 1Jn_2:15-16.
6. Its unteachableness. Notwithstanding all God’s dealing with the heart in this case, and for so long a time there was no reformation. Patience and long forbearance on the one side, to show how reluctant He was to chastise them; severe scourging employed when milder treatment had no effect, to show that God would keep to His word of threatening as well as His word of promise when necessary. Yet the old tendency shows itself so soon as the pressure of trouble is removed.
Forty years had elapsed during which the land had peace, with the invaluable privilege of a Deborah and a Barak at the helm of affairs. But long before that time was expired, the mass of the people had again begun to forsake Jehovah, and to follow after the worship of idols. No sooner are these zealous defenders of righteousness in their graves than the stream of evil, which had been stemmed for a time, flows on as before. Israel was but an example of the general rule. Even the awful catastrophe of the destruction of a world by a universal flood did not suffice to take away men’s depravity, root and branch. After the flood as before, the account still is, “the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” (See Gen_6:5, with Jdg_8:21.) In the days of David the account was similar (Psa_14:3). In Solomon’s time the same (Pro_27:22). In the days of Isaiah matters seem worse rather than better (Isa_1:5-6). In Jeremiah’s age the report is as dark as ever (Jer_17:9). After all the plagues, Pharaoh’s heart continued as hard as the nether mill-stone. The Sodomites and Canaanites though forewarned of the issue of their high-handed sins would not hearken, and so were destroyed. And these Israelites, after their settlement in the land promised to the fathers, though dealt with in the most solemn manner to lead them to give up their idolatrous practices, yet clung to them with extreme obstinacy during all the period of the Judges, and also the long reign of the kings, for nearly a thousand years, until the nation was ground to the very dust by the heavy calamities which such apostacy from the God of Israel at last brought on their heads. “My people are bent to back-sliding from Me.” They are “slidden back with a perpetual back-sliding” (Jer_8:5; Hos_11:7; Hos_4:16-17; Jer_2:32, also Jeremiah 10, 11, Jer_7:28). (See pp. 166, 186, 190.)
III. God cannot in any case tolerate sin.
As often as it is repeated, His anger must come down upon it. It might be said, it was already conclusively proved, that sin was so inwoven into the very nature of this people, that it was hopeless to get it extirpated; for so long as the stubborn propensity of their hearts to apostatise continued, there must be a continually fresh outbreak of sin, when these hearts were left to themselves. That might be a good argument for casting off such a people altogether, when it was fully proved, that they were incorrigibly treacherous to the covenant of their God, but it is no reason, why God should be forgetful of what is due to His own holy name. He cannot connive at sin, and be true to Himself. That He sometimes may seem to “wink” at sin has been inferred from such a passage as Act_17:30. But it is one thing to “pass over” sin for a time—not to take it up, and give judgment upon it, until a fit period come round, and quite another thing, expressly to tolerate it, while dealing with it in the exercise of His Providential rule. While men sin, God’s anger ever burns against it, even though He should long suffer it to go on, and remain silent. Wisdom must come in to decide as to the proper manner, and the proper time, for showing His anger.
In the present case, this long forbearance with a people so wedded to sin, and the purpose not to cast them entirely off under any circumstances, strongly fits in with Messianic arrangements. The utter depravity of their nature shows the great need of adopting some method out of ordinary course, to cure men’s hearts of their tendency to depart from God. This is what the gospel specially provides (p. 191). Meantime proof must be given that no toleration is allowed to sin, that though ordinary punishment does not suffice to effect a cure (Isa_1:5-6), yet evidence must be given that sin is a thing which must be frowned upon under all circumstances. If the heart is ever turning aside like the deceitful bow, then it must ever be chastised anew (p. 170). For,
1. God’s nature is irreconcilably opposed to sin. Psa_5:4-6. He not only hates sin, but He “cannot look upon it” (Hab_1:13). He cannot let His eye rest upon it for a moment. As light cannot co-exist in the same apartment with darkness, so God cannot dwell in the same heart with sin. He is separated from it not only by distance, but by a strong antagonism of nature (2Co_6:14-15). All His perfections are against it. He is so holy, that “without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” The very “heavens are not clean in His sight.” He is so just and righteous that it is proverbial to say “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Psa_11:7; Psa_97:2). He is so true, that “heaven and earth may pass away, but His words shall not pass away” (Num_23:19; 1Sa_15:29). “His Yea is Yea, and His Nay is Nay”) Rev_3:14). He is so unchangeable in the principles of His government, that He is said to be “without variableness or the shadow of turning” (Mal_3:6; Job_23:13).
It is the greatest mystery of the universe that sin should ever have been allowed to enter it at all under the government of so holy a God; and the next greatest mystery is, that it should have been allowed to continue so long. For God is ever irreconcilably opposed to sin. On the other hand, neither can a nature under the dominion of sin ever be reconciled to holiness. How often are we told that, under all the chastisement which God sent upon this people, they refused to return to him. This whole book is the historical proof (Jer_5:3; Jer_9:3; 2Ch_28:22; Rev_16:9-11). It is invariable as the law by which water runs down a hill.
2. Sin carries its own punishment in its own bosom. The simple fact that sin means enmity to God involves a terrible penalty. God’s favour is lost, and the life of the creature becomes one of misery. How can a man bear to be at war with God? He has the whole universe against him. Sin is a debt he never can pay; a burden under which he must groan for ever; a leprosy for which in all nature there is no cure; a poison for which neither man nor angel can find an antidote; a serpent that shall without pity sting its victim for ever. There is no peace to the man who clings to his sin. It is a perpetual disturber. There is no rest in sin. It is an unresting trouble. “Many sorrows are to the wicked.” So many miseries accompany sin that all the pleasure it gives is but as a drop of honey in a sea of gall (South). Sin and punishment go together as substance and shadow. They grow together out of one stem. Punishment is a fruit that ripens within the flower of the pleasure that conceals it (Emerson). “The genius of a heathen has taught a striking moral on this subject. He made the model of a serpent, and fixed it in the bottom of a goblet, coiled for the spring, a pair of gleaming eyes in its head, and in its open mouth fangs raised to strike. It lay beneath the ruby wine. Nor did he who raised the golden cup to quench his thirst, and quaff the delicious draught, suspect what lay below till, as he reached the dregs, that dreadful head rose up and glistened before his eyes. So when life’s cup is nearly emptied, and sin’s last pleasure quaffed, and unwilling lips are draining the bitter dregs, shall rise the ghastly terrors of remorse, death, and judgment on the despairing soul (Guthrie).
3. God’s word uniformly condemns it. God’s word is His written law—a compendium of the judgments He passes on men’s principles and actions. On every page sin in every form is condemned. The first act of disobedience, it threatens with death; the same tone is kept up throughout, and its closing statement shows the same unalterable attitude towards sin,—“let him that is unjust remain unjust still,” etc. In unequivocal language it declares that “the wages of sin is death,” that “God is angry with the wicked every day, and if he do not turn, He will whet His sword, and bend His bow,” etc. (Rom_6:23; Psa_7:11-12). He will “set His face against” the wicked (Psa_34:16; Lev_26:17; Lev_17:10; Lev_20:3; Lev_20:5-6, etc.) and in the day when He visits those who sin, He will visit their sin upon them (Exo_32:34). “He will by no means clear the guilty” (Exo_34:7). Their sin “shall surely find them out” (Num_32:23). Indeed all the threatenings of the Bible are a manifold condemnation of sin (Deu_28:45; Eph_5:6).
4. His Providence always works against it. He may not indeed visit the sinner with instant destruction. Men may be permitted to go on in sin for a time, while the thunders of justice sleep, yet sin does not pass unpunished. Where there is no repentance, sooner or later, He brings down the rod of chastisement, or the sword of destruction. At the proper time, “He will lay judgment to the line, and righteousness to the plummet.” It is an old but true proverb, “the mills of the gods grind slow, but they grind to powder.” God came not to Adam till the evening, but He came. Though the deluge was delayed for 120 years, yet at the appointed time it came. God waited on the Canaanites for their repentance for 430 years, but as they continued impenitent, the sword of Joshua was commanded to do its work. Joseph’s brethren thought their wicked deed was forgotten, as year after year slipped away, and no whisper was ever made of it. But when the dungeons of Egypt closed around them, and they received unaccountably rough dealing from the strange man who was lord of the country, an accusing voice was awakened within them, memory called up the past, and the old sin rose up as a spectre before them in all its terribleness, as the cause of their accumulated troubles. Silently had that sin dogged their steps, while they slept and awoke from day to day, and much of life passed on. It lay forgotten, but not dead. At the fit moment God held it up before them, and they cried out with one voice, “We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul,” etc.
“Though a sinner do evil a hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet I know it shall be well only with them that fear the Lord.” etc. “These things thou hast done, and I kept silence.” The silence is ominous. “A dead silence goes before the earthquake. Nature seems hushed into an awful stillness, more dreadful than the storm would be. It is as if she were holding her breath at the thought of the coming disaster. The air hangs heavy; not a breath fans the leaves; the birds cease their music; the hum of the insects ceases; there is no ripple in the streams; and meanwhile houses, it may be cities, are on the brink of ruin. So it is with God’s silence over the wicked. It will be followed by the earthquake of His judgments. “When they shall say Peace and Safety, then sudden destruction,” etc.—(Goulburn).
5. The laws of a man’s own nature cry out against it. Sin is a kind of boomerang which goes off into space curiously, but turns again on its thrower, and with tenfold force strikes the hand, or the person that launched it, after describing singular curves. There is no such terrible punishment known on earth as an accusing conscience. It is like “Tophet of old,” “the pile of which is fire and much wood, and the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it.” Wilful and aggravated sin is the fuel of that awful fire. Examples we have in Belshazzar, Cain, Herod, Pilate, Judas, and others. They prove that punishment is the recoil of sin, and that the strength of the backstroke is in proportion to the force of the original blow. Conscience is a clock that strikes loud and gives warning, in one man’s case; in another the hand points silently to the number but strikes not. Meantime the hours pass away, death hastens, and after death comes the judgment.
6. The cross of Christ shows that sin cannot, under any possible circumstances, go unpunished. This is incomparably the highest proof that can be given in the case. The Eternal Father spares not His only begotten Son, because He cannot spare sin! What depth of hatred to sin is here? How supreme the necessity for inflicting death, as the due desert of our sins when such a substitute as this cannot be exempted from bearing the full burden of Divine wrath! The sufferings of mere creatures are small indeed, and of very ordinary consequence, compared with the groans and agonies of Him who made the worlds, and who wrought all the mighty works of Divine power, which distinguished His life in this world. The whole human race are but as a grain of dust before the infinite Majesty of the Son of God, who yet called Himself “the Son of Man.” Yet “it pleased the Lord to bruise Him,” because He became responsible for our sins, and was “made a curse for us.”
Our conclusion is, that if God could not spare our sins, but was so strict to mark iniquity, we too must resolve unalterably, in the strength of God’s grace, not to spare them ourselves. We must wage ceaseless war against them, in all the Protean forms they may assume, saying, Thou shalt die—and thou—and thou! The whole brood must be cast out; while holy thoughts, devout affections, and heavenly longings must take their place. Let our motto be Delenda sunt peccata.
IV. Repeated sin brings heavier chastisement.
God warned His people, that if they would not listen to His first reproofs, but would obstinately repeat their offences afresh, He would not only chastise them again, but would “chastise them seven times more for their sins.” (Lev_26:18; Lev_26:21; Lev_26:24; Lev_26:28). He begins with whips, but by and bye proceeds to the use of scorpions. This was strikingly exemplified in the Midianitish invasion—the most overwhelming of all the judgments God had yet brought upon the land. As Bp. Hall remarks, “During the former tyranny, Deborah was permitted to judge Israel under a palm tree; under this, private habitations are not allowed. Then the seal of judgment was in the sight of the sun; now their very dwellings must be secret under the earth. They who had rejected the protection of God, now run to the mountains for shelter; and as they had savagely abused themselves, so they are fain to creep into the dens and caves of the rocks like the wild animals, for safeguard. God had sown spiritual seed among them, and they suffered their heathen neighbours to pull it up by the roots; and now no sooner can they sow their material seed, than Midianites seek to devour it.”
“Jabin mightily oppressed them for twenty years.” but now the distress occasioned by the Midianites was only for seven years. Was not that an alleviation rather than an aggravation? Only in appearance, for it is possible to suffer more in one year than in twenty. It depends on the treatment given; and it is generally admitted that this was the greatest scourge they ever had in the days of the Judges. What a frightful calamity to be robbed of the whole harvest produce of their fertile country, year by year, till seven years had passed over them! only a few scanty gleanings being left here and there in corners, or bleak spots, as sustenance for their vast population. All the miseries of famine were upon them. And the life they otherwise led was like that of brute beasts, that find their lairs by burrowing in the ground! To what a low ebb does sin reduce its votaries! (comp. p. 170).
V. The cowardice and weakness of guilt.
Henry says, “Sin dispirits men, and makes them sneak into dens and caves. The day will come, when chief captains and mighty men will call in vain to rocks and mountains to hide them.”
1. Their former condition. Here was a people who traversed the ground of the wilderness for forty years, during the greater part of which they were crossing and re-crossing part of the territory occupied by these marauders, and yet only once in all that period did these tribes dare to encounter them in the open field, and that not alone but in conjunction with Moab. (Num_22:4; Num_22:7). Again, when God sent twelve thousand Israelites to punish the Midianites for their sin, in having tempted Israel to sin, they trode them down with ease like the grass of the field, and Midian was by a single blow reduced to the point of ruin. Still, further as we go down the history, beyond the date referred to in the chapter, to the days of Saul, king of Israel, we are told that the transjordanic tribes (Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh) alone made war on the whole people of the Hagarenes, or Ishmaelites, or Midianites, and inflicted on them a signal defeat. They had long been harassed by raids made by these freebooters into their country, and they resolved, after asking counsel of their God, to take the strong step of rooting them entirely out of that part of the country, and colonising the whole region, as far as the Euphrates, themselves. This scheme was most successfully accomplished (see 1Ch_5:9-10, also Jdg_6:18-22; comp. 1Ch_1:31, and Gen_25:15-16).
2. Their present condition. But now Israel, being deserted by their God, had become so cowardly and weak, that all their tribes united dare not meet this outlandish and despicable people in the open field. They see “an undisciplined mob” come up in the most arrogant manner, and squat themselves down at pleasure amid the very fat of their land, and take all of the best they can find, while they, the degenerate descendants of a once conquering nation, not venturing once to meet them in the open country, are only too glad to skulk into corners, and make themselves cavities under ground for habitations! And the whole country is left at the mercy of the enemy! Not fifty years had yet elapsed, since, on this very plain of Jezreel, Sisera’s mighty army had been scattered as the chaff. Now the children of those who fought under Barak have become timid, terror-stricken fugitives. “These crouching slaves that timidly peep from behind the projecting rocks, or shiver in the damp darkness of the caverns, are they indeed the sons of the men who vanquished the hosts of Sihon and of Og, in whose sight the sun and moon stood still, and great hailstones were rolled down from heaven on the heads of their enemies? Where are now the old traditions of victory? Where is now the shout of a king in their camp? Whence has gone the national character—the energy of this once invincible race?”
3. Sin brings down. Sin degrades (p. 104). It terrible weakens (p. 107, 265, 266). The basis of all true courage of the highest type is a good conscience, which a man can only find in the ways of righteousness. But where there is conscious guilt, the foundations of all real strength are sapped. “The wicked flee even when none pursue.” God speaks to a man’s imagination, and it becomes to him the bearer of fearful tidings, wherever he turns. “He fears each bush an officer.” It is the same now as then. There is no mere chance in the matter. The evil comes expressly from the Lord. “He scares him with dreams, and terrifies him through visions; terrors make him afraid on every side.” Why is a man who has all the conditions of prosperity in his life yet a stranger to happiness, destitute of hope, and a prey to groundless fears? It is because he allows himself to be enslaved by sin, because he allows sinful thoughts to swarm and settle on his heart, and eat up all its strength; or because he is so craven in spirit as not to resist the approaches of evil, but gives way to all manner of temptation with which the wicked one, or the wicked world may surround him. O what need for Divine keeping for such hearts, in such a world, and exposed to such an enemy! “Ye are kept by the power of God” (1Pe_1:5). “Those whom thou gavest me I have kept,” etc. (Joh_17:12). What need have the best of men to get themselves purged from the idols of the heart!
VI. All relief at God’s hand begins with earnest prayer.—Jdg_6:7. (see pp. 198–200, 202, 224, 225).
We do not say that God never confers a blessing except in answer to prayer. He may sometimes see reason to bestow some spiritual good even where prayer has not been offered up. He gives indeed, “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think,” in one sense. For we generally have a poor conception of the value of the blessings we pray for; but when He gives them, He puts far more meaning into them than we do. He also sometimes confers blessings which we do not ask at all, according as He sees it to be necessary or fit, just as the kind and watchful parent would give to the child what was needful, though not asked. But the main idea is, that we have no just ground to expect deliverance from trouble, or any other blessing from God till we have prayed for it. The direction given to us is, “ask, and ye shall receive;” “ye have not, because ye ask not.” Our warrant for expecting blessings to be given in answer to prayer is
(1.) such, is the rule laid down in God’s word.
(2.) Prayer itself is in many ways glorifying to God.
(3.) True prayer implies a spirit of penitence, without which the way is blocked against all blessing from the Divine hand. Israel’s cry seemed to be earnest and deep—“out of the depths.” God hears the prayer of the destitute, when penitent. (Psa_34:4-6; Psa_34:17; Psa_102:17-18). (See p. 173).
VII.—God’s first answer is a call to thorough penitence.
1. He explains the meaning of His Providential dealing. In sending His prophet to the people, He leaves them in no doubt as to the meaning of this disastrous Providence. Disastrous it was, and very grievous, yet not mysterious. It was only what they had every reason to expect from what they had been told all along. If no calamity had befallen them, then they might have wondered; but, as it was, the natural expectation had been realised. These events did not happen by chance. They were specially sent by God to intimate His high displeasure with their sins. God had really gone against them, because they had abandoned His worship and dishonoured His name.
2. He specially reproves them for ingratitude and breach of vows. According to the excellence of the spirit of gratitude is the detestable character of ingratitude (pp. 259, 260, 263, with p. 122). No people had had the one-half done for them that Israel had, and more was justly expected of them than of others. Yet they had turned their backs on the kindest of Benefactors, and had wickedly put out of memory the sacred doings of His mighty hand. Their conduct was extremely offensive in daring to treat so slightingly His gracious deliverances of the past. And it was terribly intensified by their doing all this after solemnly engaging to belong to Jehovah and to serve Him from the land of Egypt. And they not only broke their covenant, but most wickedly went into the service of Amoritish idolatry, though so repeatedly warned against those heinous sins.
3. He insists on penitence before deliverance is granted. Far more stress is laid on penitence than on the means of deliverance. The latter was easy to be found if only the former were thoroughly gone through. Hence the prophet, with his reproof, comes before the angel, with his deliverance. The great difficulty was to find penitence among the people. God’s claims are set forth, and the people’s backslidings emphasised, that they may be duly repented of, and a speedy and general return to the God of their fathers might be made. Penitence was the first step in the process. That taken, all the rest will come right, as happened with their father Jacob when he wrestled with the angel and prevailed, and the conquest of Esau and flight of all his troubles followed. God could, indeed, have struck down the Midianites at one blow, and so saved all the tantalising and harrowing suspense of the circuitous course which He actually did take. But though none had such true sympathy with the deeply afflicted Church as He had, His love was far-seeing and wise. Therefore He delayed for a time until the most useful lessons, which the rod alone can effectually teach, were learned by His erring children. It was only under great sufferings, and by painful experience of the sad fruits of sin, that they could learn effectually true sorrow for sin, self-abasement, submission, faith, patience and entire consecration to God. To get the backsliding people to practise the passive virtues of the religious character, was a valuable purpose to be gained, but if the deliverance had been accomplished in a day, there would have been no opportunity afforded for gaining it.
This seems to be the Divine rule under all circumstances, to send first a “ministry of condemnation,” to produce conviction of sin, self-humiliation, and the casting away of transgressions; and when this has had its proper effect, then comes deliverance. Meantime the terrible character of the sin might be read in the terrible character of the punishment. In this case the prophet would likely travel from city to city, or to those places where he might find an audience, or any considerable number of people assembled all over the land. “It is a good sign when God chides us; His severe reproofs are ever gracious fore-runners of mercy; whereas His silent connivance at the wicked argues deep and secret displeasure. The prophet made way for the angel, reproof for deliverance, humiliation for comfort.”—(Hall).
COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS.—Jdg_6:1-10
I. BESETTING SINS
1. Every age has its own besetting sins.
The besetting sin of the ancient Israel undoubtedly was that of idol worship. The depraved heart, being in a state of alienation from God, does not like to retain God in its knowledge. But in departing from Him it cannot remain in a state of neutrality. For there is no such thing possible as a negation of good. The feeling that could reject God is itself a positive evil. Hence, in leaving God, it comes under the dominion of sin. Besides, being made for God, all its deepest instincts cry out for something to take His place. A god of some kind it must have, and hence it devises a god after its own liking. Thus from within do we account for idolatry; and not less powerful was the influence operating from without. The universal example of the other nations was always acting with the force of a mighty current in the same direction. It was like the confluence of several mighty streams bearing down with great force.
Idolatry continued as the sin to which the Israelites were most addicted for centuries. It seemed bred in the bone. Not till the frightful calamity of the captivity had befallen them when the nation came near the point of being annihilated, were they cured of it. Even then depravity was not extirpated but assumed a new form. From that time the besetting sin was Pharisaism, consisting of pride in religious profession, systematic hypocrisy in attending to externals, and cold formalism in the discharge of religious duty. In the earlier centuries the age was very much distinguished by the tyrannical and cruel oppression of the weak by the strong. In what is called “the Dark Ages” the characteristic feature was the torpor of spiritual slavery; and when the human mind began to shake itself free, the principal feature of the times was that of persecution for non-comformity of religious belief. In the seventeenth century, the pendulum swung from a rigid austerity of profession and life, to the extreme of laxity in manners and even to open profligacy and vice. In the eighteenth century the prevailing spirit was that of Deistical infidelity on the one hand, along with daring ridicule of Bible Christianity, and on the other nominal religious profession, and empty formality of worship.
And now in the nineteenth century, the most strikingly many-sided age in the history of the world, we have not one besetting sin, but many. There is avarice or the lust for money, in the commercial world, carrying many breaches of the eighth and ninth commandments in its track, the lust for power in the political world, especially as between nations; the lust for self-indulgence in many forms, though visibly curbed by the awakened power of Christianity; the spirit of liberty becoming a rage, and running into licence; the spirit of infidelity assuming Protean forms, and appearing sometimes as scepticism, or mere questioning of Christian truths, sometimes, though seldom, as Pyrrhonism, or absolute doubt; again as Spinozism, or Pantheism; again as Agnosticism; Atheism proper; Positivism and Naturalism; Spiritualism; and Rationalism.
2. Every individual man has his besetting sins.
Wherever the enemy enters, his desire is to have a fortress of evil in the heart, one or more, so that if other parts should come under the influence of good, he might still hold out in that fortress, and possibly from thence reconquer the whole. A besetting sin, or one to which the man is specially addicted, is such a fortress. Or, it might be regarded as that side of the defences of the heart, where some lurking traitor has got command of the keys, and at an opportune moment, he opens the gates to the enemy.
Trench describes it as “that sin which gets advantage over us more easily than others, to which we have a mournful proclivity, an especial predisposition; it may be through natural temperament, through faults in our education, or the circumstances in which we are placed, or it may be through our having given way to them in time past, and so broken down on that side the moral defences of the soul. The soul in such a case resembles paper, which, where it has been blotted once, however careful the erasure may have been, there do blots more easily run anew. A man should watch and pray against all sin, but he must set a double watch, and ‘pray with all prayer’ against an easily besetting sin.”
3. It is through easily-besetting sins that Satan gains most of his victories.
In the case of such a sin, there is usually some charm, or hallucinating influence exercised over the soul by which it is more easily persuaded to listen to the tempter. A man’s will as it were acts under the influence of an intoxication. He is allured into a kind of spiritual debauch. Though our first parents might be said to have a perfect panoply of defence, being entirely innocent, and without any seed of sin in their natures, yet their crafty adversary made the most dexterous use of the less strongly fortified points of the case. He attacked the weaker vessel first, he presented to the eye nothing gross or impure, but what appeared noble and most fit for a pure mind to attain, as the highest possible reach of knowledge, and especially he tried to over-reach an inferior nature with his superior intellect. It was practically assaulting our innocent humanity on its weak side. It has been so all along. He looks for the weak part of the embankment, where the great flood of waters is most ready to burst forth, and he tries to make a breach there.
Every man has a handle. This Satan soon finds out, and deftly uses to serve his own ends. He tempted Judas on the side of his covetousness, and in the same manner Ananias and Sapphira, Demas, Lot’s wife, Lot himself also, though he was saved yet so as by fire. He tempted the Jews on the side of their expecting a Messiah of great temporal glory; Pilate on the side of his fear lest he should be reported to Cæsar as allowing a rival to the throne of Judea to escape; Joseph’s brethren on the side of their fear lest the dreams of their envied younger brother should one day be realised; and guilty Herod the great on the side of his troubled conscience, that God would one day make use of the young child to wrest his kingdom from him because of his sins.
It is, indeed, almost always those points of a man’s character, where he is specially liable to fall into some sin, that Satan attacks. Hence Christians are directed to “watch and pray lest,” etc., and to “take the whole armour of God that they may be able to stand in the evil day,” i.e., the day of temptation. (See also 1Pe_5:8; Eph_5:15; Rom_13:12-14; 1Th_5:8; 1Co_16:13; Heb_3:12.) “Indeed Satan baits his hook according to the appetite of the fish.”—Adams. (pp. 168, 191.)
II. THE SINS OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD
1. A man may sin and yet be a child of God.
This is only too easily proved. For “there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good, and sinneth not.” All the good people of whom we have any account given in Scripture, have, every one of them, some spot or stain pointed out in his character. And there is scarcely one who makes reference to his state before God, but laments his sinfulness and pollution (Psalms 51; Isa_6:5; Job_40:4; Job_42:5-6; Ezr_9:6; Dan_9:5; Dan_9:7; Mat_26:31-35; 1Jn_1:8; 1Jn_1:10). A good man in this world is really a bad man in the process of being made good. His heart resembles a muddy well, which has got a spring of clear, running water opened in the bottom of it. The purifying process is begun, but there is still much of the muddy element in the well, which requires time to clear it away. The process of sanctification is gradual. The “motions of sins which are by the law still work,” though they are languishing and destined to die. There is “the old man with his deeds.” But the fact that it is called “the old man” assumes that it is destined to die out. See the struggle described in Rom_7:15-25,
2. The sins of the good are specially heinous.
Sin, in place of coming nearer the point of toleration, when committed by a godly man, is only the more aggravated and offensive to God. The sins of these Israelites implied much greater guilt, than the same sins as committed by the heathen. There were many circumstances of aggravation. They were committed under much clearer light; they enjoyed privileges which the Canaanites never had; far more tender, more loving, and more sacred considerations did God use in dealing with their hearts than ever He did with the native idolaters of the land. Besides, they violated sacred vows, most solemnly entered into, and they forgot the most extraordinary acts of loving kindness ever done to any people in the history of time. The sacred position occupied by the people of God adds incalculably to the evil of their sins. Just as a sin committed in the Holy of Holies involves far greater guilt than a sin committed in one’s private dwelling. There theft, which is bad in itself, becomes sacrilege.
If the sins of God’s people are, notwithstanding this, freely forgiven when repented of, it is not because they are not exceedingly heinous, but because of two things:—
1. They have already accepted Christ as their sin-bearer, while He has engaged to be their Advocate; and
2. They have got “the heart of flesh,” and are ready to confess and forsake their sins.
3. These sins are specially dishonouring to God.
Because they represent God before the world. They are His children, and the Father’s likeness is expected to be seen in the child. Though sin in all cases is detestable, yet it is not so surprising to be seen in the wicked. We expect to see more or less of it there. But, when it comes glaringly out in the case of a child of God, we say it is scandalous, and “gives occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme.” If the sun is eclipsed but one day it is more talked of than if it were to shine clearly for a whole year.
“It is terrible when a Christian becomes an argument against Christianity. To induce anyone to sin is for Satan a conquest, but in the case of a Christian it is a triumph.”—(South). God specially hates sin in His own people. It is in gardens that weeds are most noxious, for their appearance there shows that, after all the pains taken, the work is still marred. “When the Lord saw it, He abhorred them because of the provoking of His own sons and daughters.” (Deu_32:19).
4. Such sins are soon forsaken.
In the case of a wicked man, to sin is only in keeping with his nature. He acts in character. In the case of a child of God, it is quite the reverse. The wicked one for the moment has got an advantage over him, but he will speedily recover, as in the case of Peter (Luk_22:31, etc.).
“Whosoever is born of God sinneth not … and he cannot sin because he is born of God” (1Jn_3:9). “He that committeth sin is of the devil,” i.e., one whose nature it is so to do. It is not the nature of a man who is born of God to commit sin. The Spirit of God within him prompts him otherwise and he is now “led by that Spirit.” When he does sin, through the uprising of his native depravity, his better nature rebels against it, and he can give as the explanation, “it is no more that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me” (Rom_7:17). But still he mourns at the victory of sin over him, “O wretched man that I am,” etc. (Rom_7:24). A good watch may point wrong for a season, but if the owner has paid a heavy price for it, he will see to its being repaired without delay, when it will get into its natural position and point right as before.
III.—THE WORTHLESSNESS OF HUMAN CHARACTER BEFORE GOD
1. From this narrative, and, indeed, from the whole book of Judges, we learn with what a fatal facility the human heart can forget all its mercies, its sad experiences, its gracious deliverances, and all the tender dealings of its God (pp. 95–101)! How strange that God should accept of such a people, as those whose character is here depicted, to represent Him in the world, to be called by His name, and to hold up His standard before men on the earth! Most strikingly is the idea brought out, of the utter worthlessness of human character before God. The character of Israel in every age was a continual blot. The descendants of those holy men with whom God entered into covenant—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—in almost every generation, turned completely round from the attitude of allegiance which the fathers occupied, when God chose them and their seed to be a people to Him on the earth.
2. What a harrowing spectacle to the spiritual eye! As we turn over every page, it is to find some sickening tale of disobedience, treachery, apostasy, and everything that is bad—the very worst. We can hardly read a single paragraph without hanging our heads for very shame, to think that this is the people who are taken as a fair representation of the race to which we belong, and, that, as they were, so we are all judged to be in the roots of character, however different may be the soil in which we are planted, and however more genial the spiritual climate around us is. What a blackening of our human nature is here! Who “does not blush and hang his head to think himself a man?” The simple truth, without a stroke of emphasis, is a melancholy picture, fit only to be framed in black. It is an indelible disgrace to a creature made after the image of God. We dare only say, with trembling acquiescence in the Divine verdict, “Ichabod! Ichabod! The crown is fallen from our heads; woe unto us for we have sinned! We smite on our breasts and cry, God be merciful to us sinners!”
3. What a wonder of grace that God should not at once cast us off! The natural expectation is, that He would banish us from His presence, and consign us to endless darkness, raising up in our place, as He could do in a single moment, another race, all pure and spotless, of nobler rank, of more gifted capacity, and more faithful in their allegiance to the Eternal Throne. That could be done by a single word. But ere the old sinning race could be restored, the Son of God must die! The Eternal Light must be shrouded in darkness, and the Eternal Life must sink in death. How stedfast has the Divine love been to its first idea in the covenant made with Abraham! Man’s faithlessness, and God’s truthfulness appear in striking contrast.
4. The humiliating glimpse we here have of the falsity of human character in all ages.
This record is given intentionally as a specimen of human hearts in every age. What crowds came around Jesus, and yet all melted away before a single spiritual discourse (John 6)! How quickly did the warmest friends of the Saviour show treachery when exposed to temptation (Mat_26:56)! How superficial all the professions of friendship made to the aged apostle when he was in real difficulty (2Ti_1:15-16)! What perjury has been committed by those who have solemnly engaged themselves to be the Lord’s people—these Israelites in almost every age, with good words, but perfidious hearts, all apostates, all lukewarm professors, all unworthy partakers of the Lord’s supper, all inconsistent Christians. These are camp followers only.
IV. THE UNSEEN DANGERS FROM WHICH GOD DELIVERS HIS PEOPLE
“He is the Preserver (not Saviour) of all men, especially of them who believe.” Believers have a special promise of protection from danger. “He that keepeth Israel neither slumbers, nor sleeps.” Of His vineyard, God says, “I the Lord do keep it … lest any hurt it; I will keep it night and day.” The whole 91st Psalm is a manifold promise of protection from unseen dangers. It is a most singular fact in the history of Israel, that though they were always surrounded by enemies, they were yet, on the whole, very seldom attacked. The fear of God was upon the nations, as in the case of their father Jacob. (Gen_35:5).
By all the nations round about the people of God were hated. Why then did they not oftener combine to cut them off utterly, when at some moment they seemed specially weak? In place of Chushan-rish-a-thaim coming alone, Eglon alone, Jabin alone, and the Midianites in like manner, why did not they all come together, or such rulers of those kingdoms as were contemporaries—why did they come singly merely? And as to these Midianites, why do we not read of their coming to attack Israel long before this period, and how do we never hear of their return? And why should not the Philistines, the Moabites, and other nations have come forward now and crushed Israel to the very earth? There were a few occasions of this kind in the history of the people; but they were very few (see Psalms 83). “The Lord is a wall of fire round about His Church,” etc.
The missionaries to the Figi Islands, when threatened with destruction from the natives, had no means of defence except prayer. The savages heard them praying, were seized with trembling, and fled. They said afterwards, “We knew that your God was a strong God, and when we saw you crying to Him, we were afraid.” How often are praying people saved just in time from some terrible accident, or from some fatal epidemic, or from some evil purpose of wicked men! (Psa_34:20; Psa_34:22; 1Sa_2:9). Laban durst not carry out any evil design against Jacob (Gen_31:24). Neither could Satan himself proceed further against Job, or Peter, than he was permitted (Job_2:6; Luk_22:31-32). God guards His people by putting a muzzle on the lions’ mouths. Sometimes, in punishment for their sins, he takes off the muzzle and they rise up, and fall upon them with the weight of an avalanche.
V. THE READINESS WITH WHICH THE WICKED UNITE TO ATTACK THE RIGHTEOUS
These various tribes of the desert, all had frequent quarrels with each other. But we seldom hear of two of them uniting together to crush a third. Yet when one of them is about to attack Israel, others are wonderfully disposed to join in the attack, as if they had special pleasure in doing so (p. 70). (Jdg_3:13). This seems to be a special part of the reference in Psalms 83. Pilot and Herod had a bitter feud among themselves. But they could agree in pouring contempt on the Saviour (Luk_23:12). When Christ was crucified it was by a combination of enemies, who could all agree in that, though differing at a thousand points with each other. We see generally how they united in the days of the Judges, from Jdg_10:11-12, also Jdg_6:7. (Act_4:27; Joh_15:19).
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Judges 6-8
Judges 6-8
In the first words of Gideon we find the key to his character. (1) He was a man who felt deeply the degradation of his people. He could not enjoy his own harvest while the Midianites were robbing all around; he had the patriot’s wide sympathy. (2) He was a man also of the strongest common sense, accustomed to look through words to things, and to look the facts of life fair in the face. (3) He was a man of abundant personal valour, but yet unwilling to move a step until he was sure that God was with him.
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I. We cannot fully understand Gideon’s attitude towards the work of God, without taking into account the fact that the first thing he was commanded to do was to hew down the altar of Baal which had been erected in his father’s grounds. God could not come among them while they were all turned away from Him to Baal. No sooner had Gideon hewed down the altar of Baal, than he received his commission against Midian. Gideon was right in refusing to believe God was present if things went on just as if He were not present, but he was wrong in not seeing what it was that prevented God from being present.
II. Gideon’s attitude towards God’s work, though not satisfactory, was due not so much to a flaw in his spirit, as to a mental blindness to duty. This could be, and was, easily amended. But the narrator goes on to show that there are other attitudes which men assume, and which unfit them for doing anything for God in the world. Much untrustworthy material existed in his army. The cowards had first to be rejected.
III. Out of the 10,000 men who were left, only 300 had that eagerness for the work that kept them from paying undue regard to other things. Men who are steeped in their own worldly objects are not the men whom God will use for His work.
IV. A fourth attitude is illustrated by the conduct of Ephraim. The Ephraimites may have been either high spirited and vexed that they had not been invited to help in overthrowing the Midianites, or they may have only wished that they had a share in the glory, and tried to make it appear that they would gladly have joined Gideon. There are both these classes still, persons who really feel hurt if they are not asked to help in every good work, and persons who when a good work is in its infancy make no movement to join it, but as soon as it becomes popular come forward and loudly complain that they were never asked to join.
V. A fifth and last attitude which men frequently assume towards God’s work is represented by the men of Succoth and Penuel. These men were blind to the glory of the common cause—selfish, poor spirited creatures, that shut themselves up in their fenced cities, and were satisfied to let God’s soldiers starve, and God’s work come to an end for want of support, so long only as they had bread enough to satisfy their own hunger. Such persons must be taught not by expostulation, but by the sword and with the briers of the wilderness.
M. Dods, Israel’s Iron Age, p. 31.
References: 6-8.—Parker, vol. vi., pp. 2, 49; J. Baldwin Brown, The Sunday Afternoon, p. 194. Jdg 6:11.—J. Sherman, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. v., p. 313. Jdg 6:11-13.—J. M. Neale, Sermons for the Church Year, vol. ii., p. 171. Jdg 6:11-24.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv., p. 375. Jdg 6:14.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. vii., p. 27; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. x., p. 275; J. M. Neale, Sermons for the Church Year, vol. i., p. 130. Jdg 6:19.—J. W. Atkinson, Penny Pulpit, No. 1052. Jdg 6:22-24.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxviii., No. 1679. Jdg 6:25-32.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv., p. 376. Jdg 6:33-40.—Ibid., vol. iv., p. 377.
Jdg 6:36-40
I. Gideon asked the Lord for a sign, thus showing that there was in him that caution and waiting, for the want of which many a man has mistaken his mission, and instead of doing the work of the Lord, has wrecked both himself and his own work. "If Thou wilt save Israel by my hand." A full consciousness that Israel needs saving, but an indisposition to feel that such an honour could be bestowed on him; such is a good index to the character of a man, a disposition to test ourselves. We do well to apply tests to ourselves and to our position; to our religious life, and to our relation to God by our religious life.
II. We can justify the Gideon test. Upon the heart and the home the dew will fall and remain. If we ask, Am I a child of God? we shall know by the dew on our hearts.
III. The world will insist on applying its test to us; the world will watch for the dew on our fleece. Gratitude in the heart, holiness in the life are dew.
E. Paxton Hood, Sermons, p. 430.
References: Jdg 6:36-40.—J. Baldwin Brown, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 81; Expositor, 1st series, vol. iii., p. 295. Jdg 6:38-40. -C. J. Vaughan, Good Words, 1872, p. 745. Jdg 7:1.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv., p. 387. Jdg 7:1-8.—Ibid., vol. iv., p. 379.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 Subdivision 4. (Jdg 6:1-40; Jdg 7:1-25; Jdg 8:1-35; Jdg…
Subdivision 4. (Jdg 6:1-40; Jdg 7:1-25; Jdg 8:1-35; Jdg 9:1-57; Jdg 10:1-5.)
The Midianite Test: the Church in relation to the world.
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The fourth subdivision gives us the Midianite oppression and the deliverance, with the failure of the deliverer himself, and its disastrous consequences, ending, however, in true and peaceful revival under Tola and Jair. The spiritual meaning, as we shall see, brings all this into a true unity. Israel sinks lower than ever before. Gideon also fails in the very hour of victory; and the reign of his son is a usurpation of Jehovah’s rights, begun in fratricide and closed in Divine judgment. Even in this way, the numerical structure vindicates itself; but there is much more than this.
Midian, a son of Abraham by Keturah, is, as we have seen, in Gen 25:1-34, in common with his other children, the witness and pledge of how the nations of the earth will find blessing at last in him. It is a picture of blessing, where Ishmael, as another son, comes in also as representing Israel themselves in the same millennial day. The history, however, both of Ishmael and Midian (as man’s history everywhere) speaks something very different from God’s grace. These two also are connected -in some sense, identified -in Scripture (Gen 37:28; Jdg 8:24), as we shall presently see. Midian in this way stands for the world, as its history has characterized it, and the name corresponds to this, meaning "strife." "The corruption that is in the world" is "through lust" (2Pe 1:4); and "whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts which war in your members?" (Jas 4:1.) And especially do the lusts in the members war against Christ, and thus against the Church of Christ. These Midianites -"Midian" is supposed by some to have real connection with the modern word "Bedouin" -were Arab raiders, wandering pillagers, locust-like devouring what they had no will to produce, as the story here shows; and this is what the world is when admitted into the professing church: it has no community of interest in it, but the reverse; the effect is mere desolation. The Israelites were forced by the Midianites into dens and caves and fastnesses; and so, literally, have the true followers of the Lord in the times of the world-church, when rule was ravage merely, and when the "produce of the land" -the heavenly fruits of life, and the seed of the word from which they spring -were the special objects of the spoilers’ pursuit.
Notice, too, the connection with the Philistines, whose name we have seen is "wanderers," and who are the type so near to this, of earthly men intruding into heavenly things. "Until thou come to Gaza" is no mere geographical limit. "Gaza formerly, as in later times, was the great bazaar of stolen wares, brought together there by the Bedouins from their expeditions." (Cassel, in Lange’s Commentary.) Philistines would naturally league with Israel’s enemies, and typically are but another phase or aspect of the world-church. Other connections of the history here we shall find later in the story of Philistine-named Abimelech.
With the Midianites Amalekites also throng into the land. Familiar as we are with what Amalek stands for (see Exo 17:1-16, n), we have no difficulty in seeing that here we are plainly reminded how the world and the lusts of the flesh are found together. The children of the East -a general term for nameless marauders -represent, probably, the similarly nameless host of evils that follow in the train of those already named. No wonder Israel was "brought very low"; but they are brought thus to cry to God, and He comes in for them. A prophet is sent to put them in remembrance of what is indeed so plain and yet so easily forgotten -the secret of their present condition to be in their false gods. With us all, such desolation from the Lord’s hand means but this very thing, though it be in various ways disguised.
(b) Thus brought to repentance, the deliverer is now found for them. This deliverer is Gideon, the son of Joash, a Manassite; and it is simple enough, though none the less needful to be insisted on, that in Manasseh, the spiritual pressing on after the heavenly goal, is to be found the rescue from the spirit of the world. Gideon is the son of Joash the Abiezrite; and Joash may most simply mean "the despairing one," though taken generally, from the alternation of the two names in the case of two kings of the after-history, to be simply a contraction for Jehoash, a name of very different meaning. But even in their case, is it so sure that one name is but the contraction for the other? True reverence for the Word would assure us that even there there must be a reason for the difference, and therefore a corresponding difference of meaning. The change, one familiar with the style of Scripture would say, is a paronomasia, or slight change in the name, given for the very purpose of conveying a different thought. Even here, though the double form does not occur, Joash, the "despairing" -meaning self-despair -might well become a Jehoash, whom "Jehovah supports." And this, indeed, seems conveyed here, only after another manner: for Joash is "the Abiezrite;" and Abiezer means, as commonly given, "father of help," or, more literally, "my father is help." Certain it is that the true Abiezrite, or he who is able to trust thus confidently in God as his support, will be one weaned from self-confidence -from the thought of self-help.
Gideon springs thus from Joash; and his name is almost identical with that of a Benjamite already interpreted (Num 1:11), Gideoni, "the cutter down." The application made of it there is to the judgment of the flesh, which the more literal meaning, "my cutter down," may, indeed, more precisely indicate. This links Gideon and Joash in thought very closely together; but Gideon is more general: it is "the cutter down;" and if this imply in the first place the judgment of man as fallen, in the light of God, we can clearly understand that this is power over the world necessarily, and that Gideon is thus the proper name of the deliverer from the hand of Midian.
To Gideon the call is given in another mariner from that to any former judge. To him the angel of Jehovah appears -one who everywhere accepts the title, with all that belongs to it, of Jehovah Himself. Gideon the Manassite is thus shown the goal toward which the Christian Manassite runs. It is in the Lord’s presence alone that things take their true shape, and find their proper judgment. The angel appears sitting under the terebinth that was in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. Elah, whether terebinth or oak, which is disputed, means, literally, a strong tree; Ophrah is generally taken as meaning "vigorous, nimble," and so a "fawn"; but from another root may mean "crumbling," akin to aphar, "dust." The angel’s position may be thus another intimation of how, out of human weakness, strength is developed and maintained.
This is what is clearly before us, all through Gideon’s history. He is found beating out wheat in a wine-press, to keep it out of the hands of the Midianites, and the angel salutes him with the words, "Jehovah is with thee, thou mighty man of valor." And when he objects their present condition as proof that Jehovah had abandoned them, the angel further bids him, "Go in this thy strength, and thou shalt deliver Israel out of the clutch of Midian." What is this "strength"? It is the apprehension of the Lord’s presence as this, -the consciousness that without Him there is none. This realized, the spiritual vision clears: God is seen as the soul’s one necessity, and clung to, whatever else must be given up; there comes real strength to stand in the face of a hostile world, or against the opposition of the people of God themselves; and to stand with God means victory. Then the glorious face of God is turned upon us, as is said here with regard to Gideon; and every one so energized finds his call in this to aid in the deliverance of His people from the enemy: "Go, and thou shalt deliver; have not I sent thee?"
But it is easier to learn to answer to our name Jacob than it is to appropriate in simple faith that of Israel which God has given us; and so Gideon, mighty man of valor as he is yet to prove, shrinks from the place to which the voice of the Lord has called him, and opposes the very littleness which makes him a fit instrument in God’s hand, as an argument against this! "Ah, Lord," he says, "wherewith shall I save Israel?" Why, with an ox-goad, as Shamgar once; or with a smooth stone from the brook, as David afterward. But it is not an inquiry merely as to the Lord’s will, although now he owns it to be the Lord that is thus speaking with him. Alas, little "I" can be great enough as an obstacle to faith, and assert itself how pertinaciously in the very presence of the grace of God! And so he goes on to talk about his family, and his own place in his father’s house. And how many are thus hindered from taking the place that God would give them by that littleness of theirs, which, after all, is of so much account! When shall we really learn that God’s great men are all little ones, only made great by His use of them? -and leave off this shameful idolatry of means which is so continually putting the creature into the place of God, to its own dishonor and the wreck of all that we can wreck?
The Lord keeps to His grace, and Gideon must rise up to this: "Nay, but I will be with thee," He says; and there is all that need be said.
But Gideon’s doubts are not settled: is it, after all, Jehovah that talks with him? Yes; is there not, after all, such a thing as fanaticism? Can we not make mistakes? And how, then, shall we be sure, at any time, we are not making one? Dull enough, surely, we are, when that voice which there is not another like, can be heard with doubt in the soul that hears it! May we not learn by the connection, too, that it is just the making so much of man that makes God so little, and disables us from distinguishing the voice of God? His thoughts are not as our thoughts; yet we may refuse His thoughts because they are so unlike our own. And often, indeed, we do this.
Gideon would prove, then, his visitor with an offering, and significantly brings him Abraham’s offering of an ephah -that is, three measures -of flour; but Abraham’s gift is of fine flour; and instead of Abraham’s calf he brings a kid. Though less full a type than that in Genesis, Gideon’s offering still speaks of Christ. And on the angel’s part here there is more reserve than there, but still acceptance. At his direction it is placed upon the rock; and the angel touching it with his staff, it goes up in fire as an accepted offering. Then the angel himself departs: there is not power for sustained communion, as in Abraham’s case; yet Christ, as Representative of His people, accepted in sacrifice upon the cross, is declared the ground upon which God can be with them in delivering them. And this is the true assurance of competence for the Gideons of any generation.
He is assured now that he has seen the angel of Jehovah face to face, yet fears on that account, till quieted by His word, that he will not die. There is, indeed, for us ever in the apprehension of the Lord’s presence the apprehension also of the sentence passed upon the flesh; and here is the ability for all right walk, and energy for the warfare to which we are called. "Now mine eye seeth Thee, therefore I abhor myself." And Christ crucified is the affirming of this sentence and for deliverance from ourselves, that "crucified with Christ" we may yet live, -no longer we, but Christ living in us.
(c) Gideon, therefore, builds an altar, and calls it Jehovah-shalom, -"Jehovah is peace." It is not merely that there is peace with God, nor would this be the expression for it, for Jehovah is already the covenant name. No; but Jehovah is peace: it is found in Him; He has produced and bestowed it: from all fear whatever the soul takes shelter in Himself. And this being so, the altar itself is now a challenge of the idols; Jehovah’s altar cannot abide in company with Baal’s, nor Israel’s deliverance be accomplished with a divided faith. Thus it was on the same night, the night of the day in which Jehovah had appeared, that Jehovah bade him throw down Baal’s altar, and cut down the asherah, -a pillar of wood, the symbol of the Ashtaroth worship with which that of Baal was conjoined, -and, building an altar to Himself on the top of the stronghold (to which they were accustomed to retire from the face of the Midianites), to offer upon it his father’s second bullock with the wood of the asherah he had cut down. Not to be interrupted by the unbelief of those around, he did it by night, and the next morning the challenge to Baal was apparent. Thus "to faith" Gideon had to "add virtue," -the boldness needed by every good soldier of Christ; and this boldness is God’s means to awaken and embolden others, so that Joash, his father, steps into the ranks. To the cry for his son to be put to death, he answers that the pleader for Baal deserves that: it is for Baal himself to avenge the insult, -a sarcasm which smites down at once the opposition, and leaves to Gideon the title of idol-challenger, "Let Baal contend!" In the strife that is beginning, the very existence of the man of faith is a sign of victory already achieved, a pledge of one to come.
(2) The enemy now appears, and we are called to see, in the present section, the steps toward deliverance. There has to be preparation on Israel’s part, as is evident; and the separation of those whom God can use in the accomplishment of this. Gracious He is, but none the less careful as to the associations of those who are His instruments, to whom He incrusts the honor of His name.
(a) The Midianites and their confederates spread themselves in the valley of Jezreel. We have already seen who these are, and for what they stand in the divine vocabulary. The Spirit of Jehovah now endues Gideon; for no mere wisdom or might of man is sufficient in this contest, and only in dependence are we safe. He blows the trumpet, and first Abiezer, and then all Manasseh, are gathered after him. The fitness of Manasseh for this place is apparent in Gideon, himself a Manassite. The world can only be overcome by him whose goal is beyond it; and this we have abundantly seen is what Manasseh represents. Asher, the "happy," Zebulon, the "dweller in relationship," and Naphtali, the "struggler" who overcomes, follow after Manasseh, and the Israelites’ army of victory is gathered.
(b) But Gideon is not yet fully prepared, and urges upon the Lord his desire for a sign. He puts a fleece of wool upon the threshing-floor, and finds it in the morning wet with dew when all the ground is dry around. And again, at his further request, these conditions are reversed, and while all the ground is wet with dew, the fleece is dry. The fleece of the shorn sheep is the figure of forlorn Israel, which is to be filled with the dew of God’s blessing amid the drought upon the heathen around. But then this also may be of God, the while His mercies are refreshing the nations around, Israel for her sins may be left dry. This is, in either case, no mere natural occurrence: it is in His favor that there is life; He hideth His face, and we are troubled. To recognize His hand in all conditions, however opposite, -to own everywhere His power and sway: this is the secret of wisdom, and of strength no less. For the acts of His throne are not arbitrary. He is no mere personal fate, but righteous and holy in all His dealings, and desiring to be understood by His people, however men in their wanderings from Him may misconceive the One upon whom they have turned their back.
(c) With his faith refreshed, Jerubbaal, the challenger of the idols, who is thus Gideon, the "cutter-down," rises up early, with all the people with him, and encamps opposite the enemy by the spring of trembling (Harod). And there, right in the presence of the vast host of Midian he is made by God to dismiss more than two thirds of his small army (at its best not a fourth part of the number of their adversaries), and that in obedience to a law of Deuteronomy. And what a humiliation and distress that 22,000 Israelites, come out expressly to battle, should on the plea of fear turn their backs upon their leader and his diminished force! But the design was not merely to get rid of the faint-hearted: for God’s hand to be manifest as He meant it to be, ten thousand men were still too many. At the word of the Lord they are brought down to the water, and tested there by their manner of drinking. Three hundred, instead of bowing down on their knees for a leisurely draught, merely, as in haste, lap the water from their hand. They are true Manassites, pressing on to what is before them; and "by the three hundred men that lapped will I save you," is the Lord’s word to Gideon; "and let all the people go, every man to his place." They do not seem to be sent home, however, but to their tents, as not needed for the battle that was before them.
(d) The Lord recognizes, however, the strain of all this upon Gideon’s faith, and Himself tenderly proposes now a means of encouragement. This the enemy themselves were to furnish. Going down with Phurah, his servant, to the outskirts of the camp, he arrives just in time to hear one of the men interpret to his comrade a dream. The dreamer had seen a round cake of common barley-bread roll against the tent and overthrow it; and his comrade interprets it of "the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel, into whose hand God has given Midian and all the camp." "Bread" and a "sword" seem most incongruous figures; and yet they are both figures of the word of God; and barley bread -bread of the poorest kind -may in this case either speak of it according to the estimation of its despisers, or more probably of even its simplest and lowest truths. For what more than these are needed as against Midian and Amalek; that is, the world and the lusts of the flesh, as here making inroad into the Church of God?
(3) (a) And now we come to realized deliverance, in which the hand of the Lord is most manifestly seen. The means of victory are so clearly interpreted for us by the apostle (2Co 4:4-12) that it is hardly possible to go astray, while it is true, and nowise strange, that the type is transcended by the antitype. The light, the earthen vessel, and the shining forth of the light, are sufficient points of resemblance; and while in the New Testament these are not looked at in connection with the discomfiture of the Church’s enemies, but in the building up of the Church itself, these things are not so far apart as to prevent very easy and, indeed, instructive comparison and connection with one another. To build up the Church aright is impossible without freeing it from the domination of the world: how could Israel be built up in the midst of Midianite devastation? Nor will the Church, if not built up, be long free from a foreign yoke. The demonic rulers of this world rule it by darkness (Eph 6:12). The inheritance of the saints is in light (Col 1:12), and their armor also is "the armor of light" (Rom 13:12). But that armor is not a mere wholly outside thing: it is light that is in the face of Christ Jesus, -objective there, indeed, but which is received into the believer’s heart, and received not simply for personal joy and blessing, but "for shining forth" (2Co 4:6, Gk). "The glory of God that is in the face of Jesus Christ," has nothing to express it in the type here: we could scarcely expect it; but there is no other light for the Christian: there would not be even torchlight without this.
That the light is in an "earthen vessel" is abundantly plain. This treasure is enshrined in mere humanity with its manifest infirmity, liable to suffering and to death. But this, too, has its design, says the apostle: it is "that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of man." This is in the very line of truth that the story of the Lord’s man of might enforces here. And yet the vessel, like the pitchers of the three hundred, tends indeed to shroud and bury the light so as to prevent its shining. What is needed, then, that the purpose of God may be fulfilled in this way? How plainly we see the spiritual requirement ruling here, for the vessel to be broken that the light may shine! And so the apostle dwells upon the afflictions of the Christian, always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body; for we who live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal flesh." Thus it is light shining forth in life that is spoken of here; and this life not that of nature merely, but Christ our life, which, the more the outward man is consumed, becomes the more lustrous, the more convincingly of God.
When the world has invaded the Church, and Israel is scattered in dens and caves, this light may be little seen. Its display will always be the confusion of Midian and its overthrow, accomplished as it must and will be by the voice of the trumpet, once so effective in the destruction of Jericho. The light and the trumpet -the testimony of the Word and the testimony of the life this is the double testimony which is true, and so effective, and which is the destruction of the world-church. Face to face with it, the mere godless profession, self-condemned, dies by its own hand.
(b) Hardly is victory achieved, and the fruits of it remain yet largely to be gathered, when opposition shows itself on the part of Israel themselves. Ephraim is now called to take part in the contest, and they respond and gain a decisive battle, taking two princes of Midian -Oreb and Zeeb, the "Raven" and the "Wolf," -and bringing their heads to Gideon, on the other side of Jordan. There is, indeed, a place for Ephraim in such a contest as this, though it is not the first place. The spiritual meaning again illumines the history; and the names of the princes slain would seem to show them to represent only the ruder and lower of Israel’s -or the Church’s -enemies; indeed, according to the plain word, "princes," and not "kings."
But Ephraim is notorious also for pride, and it is that very first place that they fain would have. They contend vehemently with their deliverer, because they were not called when he went to fight Midian, and are only appeased by Gideon’s unpretending humility, who refers all to God, if in his eyes, in fact, Ephraim’s gleanings seem more than Abiezer’s vintage.
Thence he goes on to meet scornful refusal of even necessary food for his famishing company from the Israelite towns of Succoth and Penuel. But he does not pause for the retribution with which he threatens them: "faint though pursuing," they press on.
(c) Of the completion of the deliverance from Midian little can be yet said. Much depends here upon the names, the meaning of some of which is hard to determine. Zebah means "sacrifice"; Zalmunna apparently "shadow [shelter?] withheld." Karkor, from a root "to dig," expresses deep, soft, level ground" (Fausset) -generally is given as "deep ground;" Jogbehah, "elevation," or, "it is exalted;" Nobah, "barking." The scoffers of Succoth and Penuel meet their threatened judgment after Midian.
(4) Gideon’s career, so bright and prosperous hitherto, ends yet, alas, in sudden and disastrous failure. What worm has been at the root of all this beauteous development, that collapse should be so immediate upon success? There must surely be in it deep lessons of utter self-distrust, that we are called to learn, lessons that so to learn would save us from how much, perhaps, of painful experience, much like that of the elders of Succoth, taught as with the thorns and briars of the wilderness, the fruit of the curse which has come through sin.
One test, and that a severe one, Gideon successfully resists. The people bid him rule over them, and would establish royalty in his family among them; but he declines so promptly as effectually to prevent any repetition of the offer: "I will not rule over you," he says, "neither shall my son rule over you: Jehovah shall rule over you." There it is plain he speaks out of the depth of strong conviction and loving obedience. And though God Himself had spoken permissively of a king for Israel some time in the future, Gideon had known too much of his own weakness, too much of the people with whom he had to do, and too well the Lord’s abundant care and interest in Israel, to entertain for a moment the thought of anticipating this.
Yet in the same breath, it would seem, in which he rejects the kingship, he stretches forth his hand to take the priesthood: for nothing short of this can be meant by the use to which he puts the gifts which he now solicits from them, being the rings of the spoil. They had, it is added, golden rings, because they were Ishmaelites. The identification of these with the Midianites has been before noticed: they were Ishmaelites as men of strife, according to their name not by descent, of course, but by habit. As warlike nomads it was natural for them to carry much of their wealth upon their persons. The use of all this gold shows clearly that it is a high priestly ephod that Gideon makes, not as intending to dispute the office with the high priest at Shiloh; and yet apparently claiming equal rank with his.
But what could lead a man like Gideon into such a course? That view is surely correct which finds this in a false interpretation of his past experience. He had actually offered sacrifice, as we remember, at Ophrah by the Lord’s command; and there the altar he had raised still stood. It is simple that for this he was providing according to the Mosaic ritual, God having, as he might judge, already ordained him to this office: a plausible, and yet false, inference from a real experience. We need not wonder to hear that this became a snare to Gideon and his house, nor that all Israel went whoring after it. We can find in it what the generations of an after-dispensation have but too faithfully repeated, and thus types written for our admonition.
God had appointed but one high priest for Israel, and the ordinary priesthood was confined to the same line, the family of Aaron. The essence of this priesthood was that they were mediators for the people, and, by sacrifice, a special, peculiar link between the people and God: in this way alone could they draw near to God.
For us as Christians all this is changed. In Christianity people and priests are one, and on this account the special priesthood has passed away. We are no longer at a distance, but brought nigh: the effectual sacrifice has been offered once for all -as on the day of atonement, by the High Priest alone, who has thereupon, as for a moment Israel’s high priest did, gone into the sanctuary, but a heavenly one, there to make intercession for us in the presence of God. The rent veil, the throned High Priest, the universal priesthood of the people of God, are essential characteristics of the period in which, through grace, we live.
But the Church has failed, and not proved able to retain for herself the apprehension of this grace. Mingled with and sunk into the world, the shadows of the past have been allowed to darken the light into which the goodness of God had introduced her. Distance has again come in between the people of God and God, the knowledge of the efficacy of the work of Christ has become obscured, and as a result the Jewish system, in the disguise of Christian names and forms, is found today firmly entrenched in the midst of Christendom. The old priesthood of a distinctive class, modified in various ways, is fully reinstated, and even exaggerated in the Romish and kindred ritualistic systems: an invasion of Christ’s office in the direction of what Gideon’s failure seems to point to typically in no uncertain way.
He had, indeed, been commanded to build an altar to Jehovah, and even to offer sacrifice upon it: and this was really putting him in a priestly place. But his sacrifice does not seem to have the mediatorial character which attached to the Aaronic priesthood, but to be rather eucharistic, or intended to vindicate the Lord’s claim to the worship of Israel in opposition to Baal, whose altar had just been overthrown. Gideon’s sacrifice, therefore, though in form such as that offered by the Aaronic priesthood, seems really different, and to approach in intent more truly to the "sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving" of the Christian man. But the ephod -clearly high-priestly -speaks far otherwise; the high-priest being manifestly the representative of the nation before God; and Israel going whoring after it, intimates how they understood it. Its being made with the spoils of victory -of which it would remain a perpetual trophy -may show how in Christendom, as faith lessened and grew rare, the very piety of individuals tended to put them into a place which, from being foremost, came to be official and representative. The ordinary Christians became the secular, the laity, dropped back into the old distance, needing a continually greater work to bring them nigh, until an official priesthood intruded upon the work of Christ without rebuke, and the process of Judaizing became as complete as may be seen in Romanism.
We need not wonder, then, to find this a snare to Gideon and his house, nor soon an Abimelech proceeding from the loins of Jerubbaal, the deliverer. This we are now called to consider.
2. Abimelech ("my hither [was] king") in his name, carries us back to the Philistines. It was that of their kings, and speaks, as we saw in Genesis, of that successional claim in the world-church, the falsehood of which he so plainly represents. His succession is from one who refused power when offered him, and he makes it good by treachery and murder of those who stood in his way. His typical connection with his father’s ephod is easy to be seen, and confirms the application of the whole history here.
Israel had once again lapsed into idolatry, and taken Baal-berith to be their god. The words mean "lord of the covenant," which may be simply equivalent to "covenant-lord," and may go beyond this. The worship of Baal was at least a sign of covenant with the Canaanites, whose god he was, and the history here gives manifest proof of alliance with the heathen. The "men of Hamor, the father of Shechem," are known and in estimation among them (Jdg 9:28); and the word for "lords" (baale), unusual in Hebrew, is "often found in the Phoenician dialect." It is applied, says Fausset, "to the men of Gibeah (Jdg 20:5), and the Canaanite citizens of Jericho (Jos 24:11), and to the men of Keilah (1Sa 23:11-12). The continual recurrence of this word (ver. 2, 6, 7, 18, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 39, 46, 47, 51) can hardly be accidental; it probably alludes to the majority of them being Canaanites, and connects with the Phoenician Baal-worship of Canaan" -Baalites, as it were. In this way, also, the name Jerubbaal is so often harped upon. Baal-worship and intermixture with the Canaanites are certainly found at their worst in the story of crime and bloodshed following here.
Idolatry and the reign of Abimelech are thus connected, as in the dispensational fulfillment; and Shechem, at the very spot where the law of Jehovah was proclaimed, is now the center of apostasy.
(1) The sources of his power are plainly that he is half Canaanite, half Israelite, son of Gideon on the one side, though son of the bondwoman on the other. He is, in this respect, another Ishmael; and with the same typical meaning that the apostle (Gal 4:1-31) gives to the former one. How plainly we have in him, then, the Jewish-Christian-Pagan abomination that has arisen in the bosom of Christianity to lord it over the Israel of God. Naturally his way must be prepared by the extermination of Jerubbaal’s true successors, although a remnant escapes into hiding at Beer, the "well," -a good place for God’s refugees, -in the person of Jotham, who yet is able to make heard his testimony against the usurper.
Jotham ("Jehovah is perfect") bears in his name the character of a true witness. The Shechemites, with shameless audacity, gather at the stone set up by Joshua, to make the fratricide Abimelech king; and there Jotham appeals to them from Gerizim in the fable of the trees.
The tendency of man’s heart is to make another king than God, to put leaders in His place, and thus to destroy the use and blessing for which the olive, the fig, the vine, the various gifts of God, are given. But just those who are really worthiest will most surely refuse to leave their spheres of happy service, their sweetness, and their fruit, to go to "wave over," -to flutter idly in the wind over the trees. Thus royalty comes naturally to the thorn-bush, which need give up nothing, but which has thus nothing in its gift but thorns, -such as, indeed, the men of Succoth were taught with. But worse would come than this, -the fire of God’s wrath, which, from this side and from that, would destroy both king and people.
(2) The Jothams are seldom listened to; and the men of Shechem and Abimelech go on to the end of which they have been warned. Three years pass, and the prediction is fulfilled: the people of Shechem act treacherously toward Abimelech, and Abimelech wars against and destroys Shechem. This is all described with a fullness of detail which shows that there is much more in it than the concerns of a petty Israelitish city; yet as little more than this do the commentators treat it. Nor can we expect that full light upon it all should be acquired at once. But taking Abimelech as depicting in brief the growth and catastrophe of Romish power in Christendom, we may perhaps see in Gaal, the son of Ebed, the "loathing" bred of "servitude," which is but indeed the translation of his name, and which incites the nations to cast off their allegiance to him whom they first lifted into power. Well may the descendants of the "wild ass" (Hamor) rebel against so harsh a yoke as they had put their necks into! But it is another matter to escape from it; and Zebul (which looks like Zebulon, but a little clipped), whose character throughout is that of craft, and who is Abimelech’s officer to retain the city in obedience, may easily represent the apparent sanctity wherewith a power like that of Rome so well knows how to enforce its claims. Look but a little closer, and the ambiguity begins to appear. Zebul is nearly allied to Jezebel, still more evidently to Beelzebul,* -being identical, indeed, with the last part of this name, and thus may be really "dung," as it is there.
{*The true reading, as is well known, of Mat 10:25. Notice that Jezebel has also this sinister ambiguity: it may mean "chaste," her pretension, or "dung-heap," the reality. And this, too, is a symbol of Romanism!}
It is not the power that makes Abimelech that can unmake him. He prevails against Shechem, only to perish by a woman’s hand at Thebez.* Here the millstone reminds us of Babylon’s overthrow, where, in Rev 18:21, the symbol of the Old Testament prophet is taken up by the New. In these Babylon herself is figured by the millstone, as the hard and merciless grinder of God’s wheat. In the story in Judges, the millstone is the cause of Abimelech’s destruction; yet these two things are almost one: it is character that brings destruction from God; and the woman’s hand, what is it but the Church of God whose cries have gone up to God, and who in this way brings the punishment? The mill-stone and the woman’s hand are thus really complementary thoughts that perfect the application.
{*Suggested by another: Thebez, "brightness," aiming at glory: in contrast with a glorified church, Rome meets her doom.}
3. Tola and Jair, following Abimelech, are in most marked and significant contrast with him. No warlike deeds are recorded of them: Israel seems to have enjoyed the most entire peace during the forty-five years of their united judgeship. Absolutely nothing is recorded of Tola except his descent, the place of his residence and burial, and the length of time during which he judged Israel. Of Jair personally even less is given; but the fact is noticed of his thirty sons who all attained to dignity in Israel. Out of these few and apparently not very important items we are to gather whatever spiritual lessons they can furnish.
That it is a flourishing period for the nation is quite consistent with there being but little history. Man’s record is largely one of sorrows and crimes; and men whose names are written in large letters across the page get mostly their place there through either their own sins or those of others. Of these men their names are their sufficient witness, evidently because they answer to them: they are what they profess to be. Of each it is said that "he arose," and of Tola that he "arose to save Israel," -more, perhaps, by what he was than by what he did; but the words mark, evidently, a resurrection time in Israel; the words "there arose after Abimelech to save Israel," seem to connect also in some way the previous section with the present; in what manner we may shortly learn.
(1) The name of Tola has already been before us, as that of the head of a family in Issachar, to which tribe the present Tola also belongs. His name is that of the crimson "worm," the coccus of the oak, which yielded the "scarlet" or crimson employed in the tabernacle. The cry of the twenty-second psalm, "I am a worm, and no man," indicates the self-chosen humiliation of the blessed victim. The name Tola here, as that of the judge in Israel, shows at once the most striking contrast with Abimelech. It is lowly self-surrender, not self-exaltation, that marks this man of Issachar, a tribe which speaks to us also, as we have seen, of practical walk. He is the son of Puah, "utterance," who is himself the son of Dodo, "his beloved." Thus out of the consciousness of divine love in the soul comes the "utterance" which in the practical life becomes self-surrender to God. The Shamir in Mount Ephraim, in which he dwells, though different from that which we have before had,which was in Judah (Jos 15:48), should speak as that does of unchangeableness; yet not in God as in the Judean city, but rather, as its place in Ephraim would imply, of human character. If such were, indeed, that of Tola, it is easy to understand the twenty-three years’ revival under his judgeship.
But is not this a prophetic glance on to the time when not Israel only, but the whole world, shall know the blessing of the rule of the incorruptible judge, of whom we cannot but have been reminded in this picture, and of whom we know that He transcends it? The reign of the thorn-bush has been all that yet man has seen, and the result of his choice of rulers will be nothing else until the Abimelechs have received their judgment. Then, indeed, the time of revival shall come with the presence of the Risen One, once crowned with the thorn, and now with glory forever. If Tola be a type, of whom else can he be a type but this? He who has "learned obedience by the things that He hath suffered," shall yet bring to obedience, and thus to blessedness in the time to which we hasten. Who but He can do this?
(2) Jair, the Gileadite, seems now to confirm this witness. His name, "enlightener," is only to be applied in any full way to Him who is the One Light of men. And that he is the Gileadite may speak of the "heap of witness" (see Jos 13:1-33 n.) which Jair’s burial would seem to remind us of being buried in Camon (the place of resurrection) the grave that could not hold Him.
The thirty sons on thirty ass-colts, with their thirty cities, is in this case also plain. "They rode," says Cassel, not merely as men of quality, -the usual explanation, -but as chiefs, governors, and judges. It was peculiar to such persons especially, that they made use of the ass, as the animal of peace. Their very appearance on this animal was expressive of their calling -to reconcile and pacify. The sons of Jair judged their thirty cities." The Lord’s own riding into Jerusalem, and His parable of the pounds (Luk 19:1-48) show us very simply the application here. Of the havvoth Jair, or "Jair’s lives," we have spoken before (Jos 13:11, n.).
Tola and Jair are thus the twofold witnesses of Him to whom yet the disorder of man’s rule will give way, though it will be still and truly man’s, the kingdom of the Sou of man. For the Son of man cometh in the clouds of heaven, and henceforth they "shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending [in attendance] on the Son of man."
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Gideon and the Midianites
Gideon and the Midianites
The story of Gideon, which runs from Jdg_6:1 to Jdg_8:33, is more detailed than that of Deborah and Barak; and, from the details, it would appear that different traditions have been used. Gideon, at the bidding of an angel, calls his clan together, and after reducing them to 300 men, and receiving the encouragement of a dream, surrounds the camp of the Midianites and throws them into a panic. The Ephraimites complete the defeat. The two kings of Midian are then pursued beyond Jordan and slain. Gideon is offered the kingdom, but refuses it, and lives to old age in honour and peace.
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1-6. The Midianites oppress Israel.
1. Midian] These desert nomads are regarded by the Hebrews as akin to them (Gen_36:35 cp. Exo_2:15-21). They are found in the neighbourhood of the peninsula of Sinai, and also wander northwards: on this occasion they pour westwards across the Jordan into the more fertile lands of Palestine. Like modern Bedouins they raid and harry and destroy, but make no permanent conquest. That the Israelites did not desert their homes is plain from Jdg_6:11, etc.
3. Amalekites] see on Jdg_3:13. Children of the east] other tribes living on the borders of the eastern desert.
4. Unto Gaza] i.e. the whole country from the Jordan to the coast. Gaza was a Philistine town on the SW. of Palestine which they did not venture to pass.
5. Grasshoppers] RV 'locusts.'
8-10. The Israelites rebuked by a Prophet.
8. A prophet] who brings a similar message to that of the angel in Jdg_2:1-3. The prophet is the spokesman of Jehovah. See Intro, to Samuel. The spirit of the prophetic message is always (a) moral, (b) national.
10. Amorites] see on Gen_10:16.
11-40. The call of Gideon, and the tests by which it was proved.
11. Angel] see on Jdg_2:1. Ophrah] in Jdg_6:24 'Ophrah of the Abi-ezrites.' Presumably, this Ophrah is near Shechem. Abi-ezer is a division of Manasseh (Jos_17:2). Wheat by the winepress] RV 'in'; i.e. for concealment. The usual threshing-floor is in an exposed place: the winepress is a shallow pit in the ground, from which the grape-juice runs into two deeper vats. There would have been but little wheat to thresh.
13. My Lord] not as Lord, the divine name, but equivalent to 'Sir.'
14. The Lord] Here the angel is identified with Jehovah: cp. Jdg_13:22.
15, Poor] RV 'the poorest.' Joash, however, can defy the 'city,' Jdg_6:31.
17. That thou talkest] RV 'that it is thou that talkest.' The angel has not, however, told Gideon who he is; probably this clause was not in the original narrative (cp. Jdg_6:22).
23. The last clause of Jdg_6:21 should apparently follow rather than precede this Jdg_6:24. Jehovah-shalom] 'Jehovah is peace'(Jdg_6:23); cp. Exo_17:15.
25. The altar.. that thy father hath] Joash is the priest and custodian of the village sanctuary. The 'grove' should be the pole or 'asherah' at its side. Such an attack would naturally be resented by the villagers.
26. Ordered place] RV 'orderly manner.'
31. To avoid giving up his son (whom the men did not venture to take by force), Joash asks, 'Will you be so presumptuous as to plead for Baal? That would be impiety worthy of instant death.' Baal can defend himself.
32. Other names compounded with Baal ('lord,' used as equivalent to Jehovah) exist, viz. Ishbaal and Meribbaal. For 'Baal,' 'bosheth' (shame) is at times substituted by later scribes (2Sa_11:21). See also on 1Ch_8:33; 2Sa_2:8. From the form of the name it should rather mean 'Baal (or Jehovah) founds.'
33. Were gathered together] on the E. of Jordan, for another raid into Palestine, and 'went over' the river. The valley of Jezreel] leads up from the Jordan to the plain of Esdraelon. Jezreel is the modern Zerin.
34. Cp. Jdg_13:25. Came upon] lit. 'clothed itself with Gideon.' In the strength of this inspiration he assembles not only his own clan and fellow-tribesmen, but the men of neighbouring tribes, all of whom would be threatened by the raid.
37. Gideon's tests. Wool retains moisture for a specially long time.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 4. Fourth Declension: Under Midian and Gideon, Tola and…
4. Fourth Declension: Under Midian and Gideon, Tola and Jair
CHAPTER 6
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1. Israel’s suffering from Midian (Jdg 6:1-6)
2. Their repentance and the divine answer (Jdg 6:7-10)
3. Gideon, the deliverer, chosen (Jdg 6:11-24)
4. The restored worship (Jdg 6:25-32)
5. The gathering for the conflict (Jdg 6:33-35)
6. The sign of the fleece (Jdg 6:36-40)
After Deborah and Barak the land had fifty years’ rest, and when again they did evil they were delivered into the hand of Midian for seven years. It was a most cruel oppression which they suffered and on account of their repeated unfaithfulness. They sank now lower than during the previous declensions and captivities. They were stripped of everything and greatly impoverished. The Amalekites came also and made common cause with Midian against Israel.
The word Midian means “strife.” Midian is typical of the world in its opposition to and separation from God. Midian and Moab are often seen together. Both typify the world as the enemy of God. The Midianites with Moab tried to get Balaam to curse Israel (Num 22:6). Moab and Midian were the means of bringing God’s judgment upon Israel through the woman Balaam brought into the midst of God’s people. Then Israel was joined to Baal-Peor, and the Lord told Moses: “Vex the Midianites and smite them” (Num 25:17). Amalek represents the flesh with its lusts. The world and the flesh ever combine to enslave God’s people and rob them of their blessings; “greatly impoverish them” as Midian did to Israel. How the Church has been spoiled by Midian and is today in the sad condition typified by Midian’s power over Israel, we cannot follow at great length. The world is in the Church--separation is given up and the methods of the world have become the methods of the Church. In the Church message to Pergamos, Balaam and the stumbling-block he cast before the children of Israel, are mentioned. It represents that period of the Church when the Church gave up her separation and settled down in the world. (The seven Church messages in Rev. 2 and 3 are prophetic of the history of the Church on earth. Pergamos is that period which began with Constantine.)
And the same application of Midian must be made of the individual believer. How God’s Word warns against the world and the corruption which is through lust. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1Jn 2:15). “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (Jas 4:4).
When they cried to the Lord a prophet was sent to them. The deliverer they looked for is withheld for a time to deepen their need and burden their souls with a greater sense of the evil they had done. The unnamed prophet brings therefore a twofold message: The message of God’s faithfulness and the message of their disobedience.
Next we see an angel of the Lord under an oak in Ophrah. Gideon, the son of Joash, threshed wheat by the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. The angel greeted him. “The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.” And Gideon addressed him telling out the burden of his soul. If the LORD be with us why then is all this befallen us? ... But now the LORD hath forsaken us.” It was the language of despair “Then the LORD looked upon him and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the land of the Midianites; have not I sent thee?” And still Gideon is reluctant to believe the message and the Lord tells him “Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.” The Lord had called him, and when He calls He also fits for the service and is with the servant. Oh! the blessed word “I will be with thee.” And the One who spoke to Gideon is the same, who has left to us the precious word, “Lo, I am with you always even to the end of the world.” Then Gideon brought his offering upon the rock, and the Angel of the Lord with his staff brought the fire which consumed it all, while He departed from Gideon’s sight. Then it dawned upon Gideon that he had been face to face with Jehovah, and he feared death. A blessed message came to him then. “Peace be unto thee; fear not; thou shalt not die.”
Then he built an altar and called it “Jehovah-shalom”--the LORD is peace. All is full of meaning. The offering he brought typifies Christ; so does the rock upon which it was brought. The fire consumed it all, carried it upward to God. And upon that the assurance of peace is given. Even so He is our peace. Blessed be God for such a precious, beautiful name--”Jehovah-shalom”--the Lord is peace. So we need not to fear, for He has made peace through the blood of His cross, and He is our peace. And therefore like Gideon we need an altar to worship. True peace with God, and the enjoyment of Himself as our peace, leads to worship, yea, it demands worship. Such the Father seeketh. As holy priests we come, made nigh by His precious blood, and bring our spiritual sacrifices. If Christ were constantly enjoyed, the facts of our redemption of blood never forgotten, Midian, this poor world, could never impoverish us. And deliverance out of worldliness and a new separation unto Him must needs have for its starting point a heart-return to Himself, who is our peace.
Then Gideon does what his name (cutter down) means. Baal’s altar must fall down. He began his great work at home. It was a bold deed by which he put himself completely on the Lord’s side and stirred up the wrath of the enemy. And then the enemies gather for the battle. The Spirit of the Lord then came upon Gideon. He was endued with the Spirit for the approaching deliverance. The enemies were coming in like a flood, but the Spirit of God lifted up a standard against them.
Finally Gideon asked his signs. He still hesitated. And the wonderful patience and condescension of Jehovah in meeting poor, wavering Gideon! The fleece in the midst of the ground is the type of Israel in the midst of the nations. The dew is the symbol of divine grace and mercy. It is the Lord who forsakes and who refreshes Israel. Israel today is like the fleece without the dew, while the ground, the Gentiles, possess of the grace of God. But ere long the dew will fall upon Israel again and the time of their blessing and fulness will come.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 The Oppression of Midian
The Oppression of Midian
v. 1. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, after the forty years of rest;and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. The Midianites, descendants of Abraham and Keturah, occupied the rich steppes east of the territory of Moab and Ammon. After their decisive defeat at the hands of the children of Israel at the time of Moses, Numbers 31, they had again grown numerous enough to give vent to their ancient hatred for the people of God.
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v. 2. And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel, rested heavily upon the people; and because of the Midianites the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains and caves and strongholds. They made use of the natural grottoes and caves in the limestone, excavated others, made them habitable by digging air-holes from above, and fortified many, to serve not only for retreats in case of a raid, but also as places for the safe-keeping of their personal property.
v. 3. And so it was, when Israel had sown, prepared the fields for harvest, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, the other tribe which was especially hostile to Israel, and the children of the East, desert tribes living by plunder and pillage, even they came up against them;
v. 4. and they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, by wantonly plundering and devastating the harvest-fields, till thou come unto Gaza, the raids thus extending across the entire land, to the Philistine country, and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass.
v. 5. For they, the Midianites and their allies, came up with their cattle and their tents, fully supplied with all they needed; and they came as grasshoppers, locusts, for multitude, and also for voracity; for both they and their camels were without number, a very great multitude; and they entered into the land to destroy it, that was their avowed purpose, wantonly and ruthlessly to devastate the entire land, making it unfit for habitation.
v. 6. And Israel was greatly impoverished, brought down very low, deeply distressed, because of the Midianites; and the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, they turned to Him in repentance.
v. 7. And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord because of the Midianites,
v. 8. that the Lord sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, a man directly inspired by Him, which said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage, namely, as a people, Exo 13:3-14; Exo 20:2;
v. 9. and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and drave them out from before you, the nations of Canaan as they were defeated by Moses and Joshua, and gave you their land;
v. 10. and I said unto you, I am the Lord, your God; fear not the gods of the Amorites, the name here standing for the Canaanitish nations in general, in whose land ye dwell; but ye have not obeyed My voice. That was the explanation of their present plight. God does not suffer disobedience in His children to go unpunished. But in sending such punishment, His intention is to draw His children back to Him in true sorrow over their sins, that they plead for mercy and forgiveness.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5 what was evil in the sight of Yahweh
what was evil in the sight of Yahweh
The sight of Yahweh represents Yahweh's judgment or evaluation. See how you translated this in Judges 2:11. AT: "what was evil in Yahweh's judgment" or "what Yahweh considered to be evil" (See: Metaphor)
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the hand of Midian
Here "Midian" represents the people of Midian. Also, "hand" represents control. AT: "the control of the people of Midian" or "the control of the Midianites" (See: Metonymy)
The power of Midian oppressed Israel
Here "the power of Midian" refers to the people of Midian. AT: "The people of Midian were more powerful than the people of Israel and they oppressed them" (See: Metonymy)
dens
places in the rocky cliffs that would provide shelter
translationWords
Israel
evil
Yahweh
Midian
year
power
oppress
stronghold
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.