The stars in their courses. “From the heavens the stars fought, From their courses they fought against Sisera. Jdg 5:20
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:
3. From the King of Canaan by Deborah and Barak, Jdg_4:1-24; Jdg_5:1-31
10. How had the forces of nature fought on the side of Israel? Why was Meroz cursed?
THE LORD RAISES UP JUDGES
THE SONG OF DEBORAH AND BARAK
“Awake, awake, Deborah; Awake, awake, sing a song! Arise, Barak, and lead away your captives, you son of Abinoam.
“Then down marched the survivors to the nobles; The people of the LORD marched down for Me against the mighty.
“From Ephraim those whose root is in Amalek came down, After you, Benjamin, with your relatives; From Machir came down commanders and rulers, And from Zebulun those who handle the scepter of the [office of] scribe.
“And the heads of Issachar came with Deborah; As Issachar, so was Barak; Into the valley they rushed at his heels; Among the divisions of Reuben There were great searchings of heart.
“Why [Reuben] did you linger among the sheepfolds, To hear the piping for the flocks? Among the divisions of Reuben There were great searchings of heart.
Jdg 5:17 “Gilead remained beyond the Jordan; And why did Dan live as an alien on ships? Asher sat [still] on the seacoast, And remained by its landings. [These did not come to battle for God’s people.]
But Zebulun was a people who risked their lives to the [point of] death; Naphtali also, on the heights of the field.
“The kings came and fought; Then the kings of Canaan fought At Taanach by the waters of Megiddo. Spoils of silver they did not obtain.
“From the heavens the stars fought, From their courses they fought against Sisera.
“The torrent Kishon swept the enemy away, The ancient torrent, the torrent Kishon. O my soul, march on with strength.
“Then the horses’ hoofs beat [loudly] Because of the galloping–the galloping of his valiant and powerful steeds.
‘Curse Meroz,’ said the messenger of the LORD, ‘Utterly curse its inhabitants; Because they did not come to the help of the LORD, To the help of the LORD against the mighty.’
Comments by
F.B.Meyer
On
Judges 5:12-23
THE STARS IN THEIR COURSES
This noble psalm contains memorable sentences. The “captivity” phrase in Jdg_5:12 is quoted in Psa_68:18 and Eph_4:8; and in the latter is applied to the ascension of our Lord. He led in captivity those evil powers which had for so long held mankind in captivity. Let us not fear death, or the grave, or Hades. They have been bound to the chariot-wheels of our Lord, and their keys hang at his girdle, Rev_1:18.
Levies and reinforcements poured in from the hill-country of Ephraim, once owned by Amalek, Jdg_12:15; from little Benjamin; from the northern tribes: but the main brunt of the war of liberation fell on Zebulun and others adjacent to the plain of Esdraelon, one of the great battlefields of history. Megiddo stands to the south of this famous site and has given its name to the last momentous struggle of Armageddon. Clearly Deborah refers to a terrific storm that broke, perhaps at night, upon the plain, flooding the river Kishon and the adjacent lands, so that Sisera’s chariots were rendered useless. O my soul, thou, too, mayest tread under foot thy foes, Jdg_5:21, R.V., margin; but be sure never to refuse, as Meroz did, to respond when God needs thy help, Jdg_5:23.
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