At the mercy of Midian. Then the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD gave them into the hand of Midian for seven years. Jdg 6:1

OUTLINE OF JUDGES

INTRODUCTION

This is a history of the chosen people during the 400 or 450 years which intervened between the death of Joshua and the time of Eli, Act_13:20. It is not a connected history, but a collection of outstanding incidents, which determined the fortunes of the chosen people, and gave special illustrations of the power of faith in God. The chief lesson of the book is the intimate connection between loyalty or disloyalty to God and the corresponding results in well-being or misery. This is distinctly stated in Jdg_2:11-23.

The judges were extraordinary agents of the divine pity and helpfulness, raised up as the urgency of the people’s need demanded, to deliver Israel from their oppressors, to reform religion, and to administer justice. Their administration was generally local, as Barak among the northern tribes, Samson in the extreme south, and Jephthah across the Jordan in Gilead.

It must not be supposed that Israel perpetrated an unbroken series of apostasies. Though these and their special deliverances occupy the major part of the book, there were evidently long interspaces of fidelity and prosperity. And in the darkest hours, there were probably large numbers who, amid the abominations, sighed and cried for a better day.

There are two appendices, relating events which took place not long after Joshua’s death, and therefore preceding the greater part of the history. We may almost consider the book of Ruth as the third. The touches of human characteristics are very vivid and instinctive, and the book deserves much more attention than it receives from the ordinary reader.

Israel’s Apostasies and Deliverances

INTRODUCTION, Jdg_1:1-36; Jdg_2:1-23; Jdg_3:1-432.

RULE OF THE JUDGES, Judges 3:5-16:31

Following repeated apostasy and oppression, the Israelites were successively delivered:

4. From the Kings of Midian by Gideon, Jdg_6:1-40; Jdg_7:1-25; Jdg_8:1-35
11. Why were the Midianites able to oppress the conquerors of Sisera?

Judges 5:24-21

THE LORD RAISES UP JUDGES

THE SONG OF DEBORAH AND BARAK

“Most blessed of women is Jael, The wife of Heber the Kenite; Most blessed is she of women in the tent.

“Sisera asked for water and she gave him milk; She brought him curds in a magnificent bowl.

“She reached out her [left] hand for the tent peg, And her right hand for the workmen’s hammer. Then she struck Sisera, she smashed his head; And she shattered and pierced his temple.

“He bowed, he fell, he lay [still] at her feet; At her feet he bowed, he fell; Where he bowed, there he fell dead.

“Out of the window she looked down and lamented (cried out in a shrill voice), The mother of Sisera through the lattice, ‘Why is his chariot delayed in coming? Why have the hoofbeats of his chariots delayed?’

“Her wise ladies answered her, Indeed, she repeated her words to herself,

‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoil? A maiden (concubine) or two for every man; A spoil of dyed garments for Sisera, A spoil of dyed garments embroidered, Two pieces of dyed garments embroidered for the neck of the plunderer?’

“So let all Your enemies perish, O LORD; But let those who love Him be like the rising of the sun in its might.” And the land was at rest for forty years.

Judges 6:1-6

MIDIAN OPPRESSES ISRAEL

Then the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD gave them into the hand of Midian for seven years.

The [powerful] hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of Midian the sons of Israel made for themselves the dens (hideouts) which were in the mountains, and the caves and the

For it was whenever Israel had sown [their seed] that the Midianites would come up with the Amalekites and the people of the east and go up against them.

So they would camp against them and destroy the crops of the land as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel as well as no sheep, ox, or donkey.

For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, and they would come in as numerous as locusts; both they and their camels were innumerable. So they came into the land to devastate it.

So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the Israelites cried out to the LORD [for help].

Comments by
F.B.Meyer
On
Judges 5:24-31
And
Judges 6:1-6

AT THE MERCY OF MIDIAN

What a contrast our reading suggests between those that love the Lord and go from strength to strength in the undimming luster and influence of their life, and the evil that once more brought the tyrant’s yoke upon this neck of Israel! Yet these alternations have too often befallen us. At one moment Sisera and his hosts are chased before us as sheep before the dog; then a reaction sets in and the hand of Midian prevails against us. Why are we not always glad, strong, and victorious? Is it not because we look to our moods, we relax our close walk with God, and we set up the images of Baal in our hearts? We are then reduced to the plight described here and in Hag_1:6. Why are there not more conversions in the Church? Why is there so little difference between the Church and the world? Why is so much of our Sunday-school teaching ineffective? Ah, the Midianite is in our midst and we acquiesce! The urgent, primal need of the present day is for the Church to realize her true condition, and cry mightily unto God for help. Note Jdg_6:6 and Joe_1:14, etc.

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