Judges Chapter 6 Part Three (Verses 14-21)

2. (Judges 6:14-16) Gideon's call to God's service
The LORD looked at him and said, "Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?" He said to Him, "O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father's house." But the LORD said to him, "Surely I will be with you and you shall defeat Midian as one man."

The LORD looked at him and said: Verse 14 commissions Gideon as a shophet (a judge or deliverer). God says that Gideon will rescue Israel from the hands of Midian. He goes on to tell Gideon that he has the strength to do what must be done.

O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel: Gideon is skeptical about God's response. Gideon explains that he has no means to save Israel. And even if he did, he comes from one of the poorest families in his tribe (Manasseh), and he is the youngest male in the household. Gideon is not saying he will not answer the call. He is saying he has no status to be the deliverer of Israel. Gideon cannot imagine how such an assignment is possible.

Gideon's response reminds me much of Saul's response when Samuel's speaks to Saul for the first time before anointing him king of Israel.

Saul replied, "Am I not a Benjamin, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel, and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then do you speak to me in this way?" (1 Samuel 9:21)

Surely I will be with you and you shall defeat Midian as one man: God answers Gideon's objections. God informs Gideon that he will succeed because God will be with him. It will be God's doing and God's strength that envelope Gideon. It will not be Gideon's personal and human abilities which will bring success. Moreover, the LORD says that it will be as though the entire Midian army is as but one man.


3. (Judges 6:17-21) A sign from the Angel of the LORD
So Gideon said to Him, "If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who speak with me. Please do not depart form here, until I come back to You, and bring out my offering and lay it before You." And He said, "I will remain until you return. Then Gideon went in and prepared a young goat and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour; he put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, and brought them out to him under the oak tree and presented them. The angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth." And he did so. Then the angel of the LORD put out the end of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and unleavened bread. Then the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight.

If now I have found favor in Your sight: In verse 17 begins the famous and often told story of Gideon's request for a sign from God. Gideon was still not entirely convinced of whom he was speaking with. Was this traveler merely a godly man, was he a heavenly messenger of God or was it actually God? I can completely identify with Gideon's dilemma. If God appeared right in front of me, I am not sure I could accept it. I have no idea what God in the visible form would look like. Most Believers would say, "That is easy! He would look like Jesus." Fine. But what did Jesus look like?

I would be wondering if my imagination was playing tricks on me. Was my own evil inclination deceiving me? Was it a dream or a hallucination? It would be so unexpected. I would feel unworthy; I would need some kind of proof that my limited mind and flesh-bound humanness could feel confident that this was truly God.

Yet, in another way, Gideon knew what was happening was not a common occurrence. He responded in a rather knee-jerk reaction that would have been appropriate from folks of that time period. He wanted to bring an offering to this god or god apparition. Everyone knew that gods expected gifts and offerings. Naturally, he also responded by offering what was standard fare in Hebrew culture, and what was connected with the Law of Moses. Essentially, Gideon combined the customary Middle Eastern hospitality of offering a guest some food along with showing a submissive respect to this god or agent of god. Thus, the meal Gideon prepared for this single individual was ENORMOUS! Gideon made unleavened bread from a full ephah of flour, meaning it would have been around 40 pounds of bread plus he also brought an entire kid goat.

Please do not depart from here, until I come back to You, and bring out my offering: It is interesting that the Hebrew used for this gift offering of food was minchah. According to the Torah, a minchah offering is the grain offering that accompanies an olah (or burnt) offering. However, over time, the use of the term minchah also came to mean a rather generic, all-occasion voluntary gift (not necessarily for sacrifice). It usually consisted of food. Judaism today uses the term in this way.

Gideon was acting largely within the every day customary Middle Eastern understanding as much as he was operating within the laws of Moses. It was understood that if you wanted something from a god, you first had to give him a gift. Gideon wanted a sign. So, he offered the gift as a prerequisite in hopes of receiving that sign. It is always amazing how the LORD will, in His mercy and grace, work within the beliefs and customs of humans (in all of our various cultures), and He will usually not rebuke us for our ignorance.

He put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot: Gideon believes the meal he was offering was going to be literally eaten as opposed to being given as a sacrifice. This can be seen in the way Gideon presents the food in a basket and in a pot.

Take the meat and unleavened bread and lay them on this rock: The angel of the LORD accepts the food and instructs Gideon to take the meat and lay it on a rock. He then was to pour the broth over the top of it all. It was about now that Gideon must have started to realize more fully that he was dealing with someone greater than a human.

The angel of the LORD put out the end of the staff: Next, the angel of the LORD reaches out with His staff, touches the offering and fire shoots up out of the rock. The food is completely consumed by the fire. If that does not cause much angst and consternation, the angel of the LORD just suddenly evaporates before Gideon's eyes!

Judges Chapter 6 Part Two (Verses 11-13)

A Brief recap
The first 10 verses explain that after 40 years of rest against foreign oppressors, Israel went right back to their old ways. They again worshiped the Canaanite gods, and the LORD responded by drawing nomadic marauders from the east and the south to plunder Israel's food supply. These invaders did this for seven years, always coming at harvest season. The marauders are identified as Midian (which would have been the head of the coalition), Amalek and some other smaller bands of robbers called the "sons of the east".

Their behavior was metaphorically described as that of locusts--they would descend in countless numbers (from seemingly nowhere) upon the Hebrews in Canaan and would stay until they had collected all the food they could eat and carry away. What they could not haul away, they destroyed.

Israel was depressed and feeling hopeless. All lost the will to resist these thorns in the flesh who came riding upon their fearsome camels. Now whether it was from remembering the earlier generations when their ancestors would sin, be punished by conquerors and find themselves in a deplorable state, or it may have been more of a knee-jerk reaction to the condition of being so deep into a pit of despair, Israel finally cried out to God for help. I am sad to think that the human way of exhausting all other possibilities BEFORE finally submitting to God is generally how it has always been among mankind. It is this way in our day even among those of us who know God.


Syncretism
I would like to remind you of a word I discussed many weeks ago: syncretism. Syncretism is the act of blending. It is what happens when one culture assimilates into another. Israel was blending their way and worship with that of the Canaanites. At its core, it was blending God with the Ba'als. It was not done with some kind of official council meeting which resulted in a well-defined decision. It was not something that the leaders of the 12 tribes of Israel ordered their people to do. Rather, slowly it happened. A compromise here, and an attempt to show respect to another's religion there. Marriage between a lovely Hebrew girl and a nice Canaanite boy. They formed friendly and prosperous business relationships with Ba'al worshippers. And very slowly, that is how it happened.

Typically, no Hebrew set out to offend God and submit to Ba'al and Ashtoreth, but they all wanted peace and good relations with their neighbors. This meant tolerance for all the gods that were so very valued by each culture. Canaanites were not horrible people. They were not barbarians and murderers. Canaanites and Hebrews were very much alike, both coming from Mesopotamian roots. They were farmers, herders, craftsmen and merchants. Their societies were much more complementary then contrasting.

Syncretism has happened and is happening to the Body of Believers. For centuries we have slowly integrated and adopted pagan worship practices and traditions that (in Christianity's infancy) were considered outlandish abominations. They were thoroughly rejected. But with the passing of time, a compromise here and a hope to appeal to seekers in order to expand our numbers there, these practices have become a regular part of us for so long, they are not only considered normal but also necessary and desired. Most Christians have no idea where some of these cherished traditions have come from, what they meant in their original form and why they were ever introduced. And quite frankly, most Christians do not want to know because it might mean being faced with some unpopular (if not drastic) changes in our lives, in our congregations and in our doctrines. It would mean things that we truly enjoy and are more comfortable with might be challenged. This is called religious syncretism.

I am discussing all of this so that you can picture what was going on during the Time of the Judges. Today, we are reliving that same time and doing essentially the same things.


B. The deliverer is called

1. (Judges 6:11-13) The Angel of the LORD appears to Gideon
Then the angel of the LORD came and sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abierzite as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save it from the Midianites. The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, "The LORD is with you, O valiant warrior." Then Gideon said to him, "O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian."

The angel of the LORD: God begins the process of delivering His people in verse 11. The Angel of the LORD presents Himself to Gideon near a tree. (The exact type of tree is subject to interpretation of the Hebrew.) This Angel of the LORD is NOT the prophet from God that was spoken of in verse seven. Some time after the prophet came and chastised the people of Israel, the Angel of the LORD came to Gideon and spoke ONLY to Gideon. (The Angel of the LORD did not speak to the leaders of Israel.)

Ophrah: This is a village located in the territory of western Manessah. (Side note: there are several places throughout Canaan with the name of Ophrah. This particular Ophrah belonged to Joash the Abierzite.)

Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press: When the Angel of the LORD showed up, Gideon is threshing wheat in a wine press. This small statement tells us a few things. First, this event happened in the summertime around the month of June. This is the time of the wheat harvest. 

Another thing it tells us is that something is drastically wrong because we have Gideon using a wine press to thresh wheat. Wheat is normally threshed by being laid out on a well-tamped and slightly elevated piece of ground or on a large section of rock outcropping that has been flattened. This is done so that as the wheat is beaten, the breeze will blow away the chaff. Furthermore, for even a relatively small family unit, it takes a lot of wheat stocks to be threshed to obtain a useful amount of wheat kernels. Therefore, an animal (preferably an ox) is used to pull a log over the wheat in order to separate the heads of wheat from the stalks.

Here, however, we have a situation whereby a wine press is being used for threshing. Therefore, only a very small amount of wheat could be processed at one time. Thus, this would take an incredibly long time to obtain enough wheat to supply a family with its bread needs.

Wine press: An ancient winepress was basically a hole in a rock where grapes were placed. Then, someone would either trample on the grapes with bare feet or use something like a staff to squish the grapes for their juice. Typically, the rock receptacle was slightly slanted so that as the process proceeded, gravity would cause the juice to run down towards another depression in the rock where it would pool.

Thus, what we have is that not only is the wheat in short supply due to invaders, but the threshing had to be done in an improvised way in which attention was not drawn to the person threshing the wheat.

The LORD is with you, O valiant warrior: The Angel of the LORD appears to Gideon and sits under a tree. The Angel of the LORD then begins the conversation with calling Gideon a valiant hero and tells Gideon the LORD is with him. 

Nothing in this scene would illustrate Gideon as anything but a typical member of a passive and oppressed population. So why is Gideon called a "valiant warrior"? This was a prophetic statement of what Gideon was about to become. Or, in another respect, it was who Gideon already was but could not manifest until the LORD intervened. It was an honest expression of how God viewed Gideon as opposed to how Gideon viewed himself. One of the greatest aspects of God is that He sees us for who He made us to be, and that may be completely different from the way we have lived our lives.

In verse 12, the man who was hiding from the nomads who plundered his family, the man who was merely surviving and was to himself nothing special, this man was to God a valiant hero. He would courageously lead His people in battle. It had just not happened yet.

My dear friends, the LORD sees you in light of your role in the Kingdom of Heaven. And every one of those roles is glorious and important. He sees you for the wondrous way in which He made you and for who you really are, if you are willing to trust Him and believe in Him. Gideon was thinking of himself as anything but a valiant warrior. Essentially, what was spoken to Gideon was a promise from God.

The LORD apparently appeared as a traveler to Gideon in much the same way as He did to Abraham about 800 years earlier, although He was not specifically called the Angel of the LORD in that instance (see Genesis 18 for more details). Some Rabbis say that the Angel of the LORD did not appear as a heavenly angel to Gideon because angles are always spoken of as either flying, floating in the air or they are standing erect. They are never sitting. Furthermore, Gideon did not see all that taken aback by this person. The nearly universal reaction to the appearance of an angel is for the viewer to fall to pieces in fright and awe.

In any case, this is a visible revelation of the LORD in human (and not angelic) form. And besides giving a promise to Gideon that he is a valiant warrior, the mysterious traveler also tells Gideon that the LORD is with him. 

If the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us: Gideon says to the divine traveler, if what you say is true, why is all this terrible oppression happening to us? When the Angel of the LORD said, "The LORD is with you" to Gideon, Gideon took it as a reference to God being present with Israel and not with him individually. He did not understand that the LORD had come to strengthen and empower Gideon, as an individual, to deliver Israel. 

Where are all His miracles: Is this not something we have all probably wondered in our thoughts from time to time? Why, when a growing part of the world and even our American society openly shuns the concept of God, doesn't He show up and humiliate His doubters in some spectacular way like He did in Bible times? Why is the Bible loaded with dazzling appearances of angels, the parting of waters, entire wicked cities being leveled, an enemy army of 185,000 suddenly dying, men like Samson given superhuman abilities to carry out God's will, and men speaking words which cause the blind to see and the lame to walk?

Gideon looked around him and asked a very reasonable question: if God is here among us, why are we so down-trodden and under the oppression of foreigners? If God is present, why do foreigners mock Him and get away with it? Gideon answers his own question: No. God is not here with us. He has abandoned us.

In some ways, Gideon's thinking was correct. Even though God was still there, He had turned His back on Israel. He had turned them over to the Midianites for punishment. Where Gideon was wrong was that he blamed God for this, not Israel--Israel is the one Gideon should have blamed for their troubles.

In Judges chapter six, it shows us that it is only the generations where obedience and a singular faithfulness to the Father are actively practiced that miracles abounded. We can look around us and know that there is a problem today between the LORD and His followers. The miracles and God's powers are in short supply. In traditional Christianity, they revile the concept of obedience. They believe obeying God's commands equals legalism. In Gideon's time, God's people did NOT stop believing in God. Rather, they stopped being obedient to God's Word. They became unfaithful by adding other gods to their lives. Second Chronicles chapter seven verses 13-15 expounds on this concept.

If I shut up the sky, so that there is no rain; or if I order locusts to devour the land; or if I send an epidemic of sickness among my people; then, if my people, who bear my name, will humble themselves, pray, seek my face and return from their evil way, I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin and heal their land. Now my eyes will be opened and my ears will pay attention to the prayer made in this place. (2 Chronicles 7:13-15)

Notice in 2 Chronicles chapter 7 verse 15 it says that only after returning to the LORD in obedience (turning away from evil) will the Father's eyes be open and His ears ready to pay attention to our prayers. This is the principle being spoken about here in Judges chapter six. Great miracles in days gone by happened when God's people called upon Him AND due to their turning from their evil ways, He listened. The general weakness in the Church today is precisely as it was for Israel in the era of the Judges. We insist we are worshiping God properly. We insist we are following Him sincerely. But, when our actions and traditions are held down under the light of Holy Scripture, too much of what we follow are actually doctrines of men.

Judges Chapter 6 Part One (Verses 1-10)

Introduction
Scholars tend to see the judgeship of Gideon as the beginning of the second half of the period of the Judges. Although it was only three short chapters ago that we had recounted for us the story of Othniel, the first Judge of Israel, around two centuries have passed since that time as we begin chapter six. Conditions in Israel have changed greatly over that time. Various Canaanite kings have come and gone. Israelite territories have expanded and contracted. The Priesthood of Israel was moving steadily towards irrelevance. Simeon's absorption into Judah was underway. Dan was on the move north; they were abandoning their God-given territory on the Mediterranean Sea for an easier life near Syria and Lebanon. The two and a half Israelite tribes who had chosen a life on the east side of the Jordan River were slowly disassociating themselves from the rest of their Hebrew brethren.

Gideon represents the fifth cycle of rebellion, apostasy, oppression by a foreign nation as a divine punishment, then Israel crying out for salvation and God responding by sending them a Deliverer, who would lead them to victory. After defeating their oppressors, Israel would for a short time step back from their idolatry, worship God with sincerity and obey Torah.

However, in no time backsliding would begin, and the cycle would start all over again. The damage had been done: Israel had allowed the Canaanites to remain and thrive all over the Promised Land. Without realizing it, Israel had embraced many of the philosophies and standard cultural practices of the Canaanites. Therefore, it was tempting and easy for the Israelites to compromise and reintroduce those pagan ways back into their worship and lifestyles.

There is a saying in the South that I enjoy, and I think it is some of the better folk wisdom that we ought to remember at all times: "When you are up to your neck in alligators, sometimes it is easy to forget that the original idea was to drain the swamp."

This was Israel's condition. God had instructed Joshua to completely drain the swamp of Canaanites, and they set about doing it. The problem is that as they engaged the enemy and time passed, they found several good reasons to allow many of those alligators to remain rather than staying true to the goal of total eradication. The unintended consequence was that the remaining alligators gained confidence, thrived and became a bigger pest than before the Holy War process had begun under Joshua.

Over the next three chapters, we are going to see the history of Gideon, and then later his family, fully discussed. We will see God's grace and His holy righteousness and justice on display during this time. It also contains rich treasures of instruction and warnings for the church and for the reborn modern state of Israel. It seems as though no matter how many cycles of foolhardy efforts that Israel makes to attempt peace with the world (or for the church to compromise God's truth so that we might fill vacant pews, and those who want only a mirage of godliness to soothe the emptiness of their souls), we will try again and again claiming that the earlier generation who failed did so because hey did not try hard enough.

Every one of the four cycles of apostasy up to this point in the Book of Judges ends with the words: Then the land had rest for (usually) 40 years. However, the next cycle begins with the words: But the people of Israel did what was evil in eyes of the LORD. The cycle of Gideon was the same. The cycle of the people of God in modern times is running on parallel tracks. Do we have eyes to see, and ears to hear?


THE CALL OF GIDEON
A. Apostasy, servitude and supplication

1. (Judges 6:1) Israel's apostasy bring them into servitude
Then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD gave them into the hands of Midian seven years.

The sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD: Verse one begins with those ominous words that Israel turned away from God. This means that previously, Israel enjoyed faithfulness to the LORD, and the fruits of divine blessings that resulted. But soon, they gave it all away so that they could do what was right in their own eyes. The text does NOT literally say that Israel did what was right in their own eyes; rather, it says they did what was evil in God's eyes. Doing what is right in our own eyes IS doing what is evil in God's eyes.

Evil is deceptive. Evil almost always looks beautiful before it turns ugly. Evil seems right in our humanness before it all goes wrong. Are we to think in these cycles of the Judges that the people of God awoke one morning and said, "Let's offend God"? Did the leaders of Israel get together and make a pact to be wicked? I guarantee you that they would have protested greatly if accused of sin and idolatry. They would have denied it and been aroused to anger at the indictment. I can make a guarantee because we read of it not only here but in the Prophets as well. The Prophets of God chosen to warn God's people were not anxious to deliver God's message because they knew it would be rejected, and they would suffer for their efforts. The leaders and citizens were incredulous that someone would point a finger at them and say that they were behaving as heathens before the LORD.

Nevertheless, that is what Israel during the era of the Judges did, and that is what is happening today. God never changes; the pattern never changes. God turned Israel over to their enemies to be oppressed. In this case, the enemy was Midian.

The LORD gave them into the hands of Midian: The Midian mentioned is the same Midian where Moses fled from Egypt, found a wife and lived as a shepherd for 40 years. Moses was then summoned to the burning bush.

Midian was the name of the semi-nomadic tribe that shared a blood kinship with Israel because it was descended from Keturah, Abraham's concubine. Territories were named after the dominating tribe that lived there. By now, Midian had grown in size. Various clans that formed the tribe claimed territories ranging from the northwestern part of the Arabian Peninsula to the border with Edom on the northernmost part of the Sinai Peninsula. Recall that in the story of Deborah (Judges chapters four and five) that the gentile woman Jael, who pinned Sisera's skull to the tent floor with a hammer and peg, was part of the tribe of Midian. She was of the Kenite clan--a small breakaway clan of the Midinaite tribe that moved into the northern part of Canaan and formed a friendship with the King of Hazor.


2. (Judges 6:2-6) The details of Israel's bondage to Midian
The power of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of Midian the sons of Israel made for themselves the dens which were in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. For it was when Israel had sown, that the Midianites would come up with the Amalekites and the sons of the east and go against them. So they would camp against them and destroy the produce of the earth, as far as Gaza, and leave no substance in Israel as well as no sheep, ox, or donkey. For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, they would come in like locusts for number, both they and their camels were innumerable; and they came into the land to devastate it. So Israel was brought very low because of Midian, and the sons of Israel cried to the LORD.

The power of Midian prevailed against Israel: Israel would suffer at the hand of Midian and several other foreign nations for seven years before God acted. The oppression was unusually severe. It was so severe, many of the Hebrews took to living in caves and hiding in the mountains of Canaan. Part of the problem was that (as it says in verse three), the Midians teamed up with the dreaded Amalekites and also with a number of smaller unnamed groups of people simply called "the sons of the east". Together, they would descend like locust upon several of the Israelites tribes at harvest time.

So they would camp against them and destroy the produce of the earth: Apparently, they were not interested in conquest; rather, they simply stole Israel's food supply. This is a characteristic of nomads of both ancient and modern times that is often misunderstood. By definition, nomads had no interest in holding land. They merely wanted the fruit of the land. Nomads had no interest in empire. They only wanted to take what others toiled to produce. Much of the reason that the Middle East and eastern Asia continue today as backward so-called third world nations is that even now they live the lifestyles of nomads, even though they are more settled. Islamic law is a law of nomads, a law of predators.

As Jews began to return to their ancient homeland in the 1800's, they returned to a land populated primarily by Arab nomads. The land was deserts and swamps because nomads do not farm, produce goods or build buildings. The land was used up and left dead. Shepherds moved their flocks and herds from pasture to pasture on land they did not own. They stayed until there was nothing left. Then they would wander to another pasture that could be used. Marauding nomads plundered passing caravans.

Verse four begins the story of a particular time (around the eighth year since the seasonal invasions had started) that finally led Israel to cry out to God for help. The nomads attacked starting in the north-central part of Canaan and then worked their way to the south near Gaza.

They would come in like locust for number: They came in countless numbers and setup tent camps as they determined to extract every last morsel of food that Israel had produced over the last agricultural season. When they left, there was no fruit, no grain and no animals.

Both they and their camels were innumerable: It should be noted that these invaders came on camels. Camels were primarily used by the descendants of Ishamel who mostly dwelled upon the desert sands. The Canaanites and those nations coming from the direction of Mesopotamia preferred horses. While not as formidable as chariots, camels were a fearsome weapon. Camels gave the Midianites the military advantage of speed and a long-range fighting force of large animals that certainly must have struck far into the hearts of Israel.

The sons of Israel cried to the LORD: It took seven straight years of these human locust descending upon Israel before they sought the LORD for His help ought to be familiar to us. It is the general pattern seen in the time of the Judges. Moreover, to this very day, God's people seem to seek God only after matters have become extreme and as a last resort. Israel was brought very low. They existed in the most primitive ways, cowering in fear, eating disgusting things to survive and living in crevices in the rocks for shelter.

It is often our evil inclination that we see turning to God as something we must do only when all our human efforts have been exhausted. It seems God is trying to teach Israel that the best course of action is to obey Him at all times.When we wander off or bad things happen to us, our FIRST and best action ought to be to repent, seek mercy and to lay it as His feet.


3. (Judges 6:7-10) In response to Israel's cry to the LORD, God sends a prophet
Now it came about when the sons of Israel cried to the LORD on account of Midian, that the LORD sent a prophet to the sons of Israel, and he said to them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'It was I who brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. I delivered you from the hands of the Egyptians and from the hands of all your oppressors, and dispossessed them before you and gave you their land, and I said to you, "I am the LORD your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live. But you have not obeyed Me."'"

The LORD sent a prophet to the sons of Israel: Israel was in a bad state. Whatever the Midianites and Amalekites could not carry away with them, they destroyed. Starvation was a distinct possibility for God's people. When Israel finally called out to God, He answered through an unnamed prophet. Sadly this generation did not know God very well, and God was acutely aware of this fact. God reminds Israel that He, the God of Israel, was their God. Their god was NOT Ba'al. It was the God of Israel who brought them out of the land of Egypt, not some other god. It was God who redeemed them from slavery, drove out the Canaanites before Joshua and gave Israel the very land that is now under invasion. Once again, Israel's God would deliver them from a predicament of their own making.

The people well understood that when a prophet was sent from God that is was invariably a message of warning or rebuke. This one was no different. The LORD wanted His people to think long and hard about why they were oppressed. In fact, the LORD had PROMISED this oppression and it was He who CAUSED it. He wanted them to understand that this oppression of eastern nomads was not some kind of test; it was a judgment against them for the idolatry and rebellion. It was repentance that the LORD wanted accompanied with real change.

You shall not fear the gods of the Amorites: God also reminds the Israelites in verse ten that they should not be afraid of the gods of the Amorites. The LORD is saying that at the core of their problem is fear. They were fearful of the gods of their enemies. So they capitulated to them. Israel, as with all the other known people of the ancient world, accepted that it was the gods of any particular nation which provided the nation with its power. So it was the gods that they feared primarily and only the army of the people secondarily. If you appease the gods, chances are you would be spared. That is what fear usually does--it causes us to compromise and appeasement. What that compromise amounted to was that Israel openly worshiped the other gods in hopes that their enemies would not be so harsh. Yet, in no way did Israel think they were abandoning God in favor of other gods. Rather, they are simply giving in to their fears.

It has been a long time since fear has gripped the world as it has today with the rise of Islam. Secular nations especially many found in Europe have no hope other than their government Bodie. Since they have long ago abandoned the LORD, they have taken up the way of compromise and appeasement to deal with their enemies. Leaders scramble to find nice things to say about Islam. Prime Ministers and Presidents work hard to rationalize that Islam is actually a good religion of peace and love because they are so fearful of Islam's violence. They find it necessary to show tolerance to Muslims and respect Allah to avoid developing enemies.

Many in the church from the Archbishop of Canterbury to hundreds of denominational leaders have decided that declaring Islam and their god as on par with the God of Israel and the Bible is the correct course of action. Some of the Jewish leadership of Israel has determined basically the same thing. This has occurred because despite their denials, they are acting out of fear. Fear is so much more than an emotion of fight or flight. It is a vehicle of Satan designed to pull us away from the LORD. In verse ten, the LORD is telling Israel that trusting in Him is the antidote for fear.

Judges Chapter 5 Part Five (Verses 19-31)

3. (Judges 5:19-23) The battle described and a curse on an unhelpful city
"The kings came and fought;
Then fought the kings of Canaan
At Taanach near the waters of Megiddo;
They took no plunder in silver.
"The stars fought from heaven,
From their courses they fought against Sisera.
"The torrent of Kishon swept them away.
The ancient torrent, the torrent Kishon.
O my soul, march on with strength.
"Then the horses' hoofs beat
From the dashing, the dashing of his valiant steeds.
'Curse Meroz,' said the angel 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 warriors.'

The kings came and fought: Verse 19 tells us about the Canaanite coalition army. Where it says that "they took no plunder in silver", it means that these were not mercenary soldiers. Rather, they were loyal nationalist troops. They were Canaanites bent on ejecting or subjugating Israel.

The stars fought from heaven: Verse 20 is difficult to decipher because it is hard to tell if the reference to the stars is meant to be spiritual or natural. Stars in heaven are often a metaphor for angels. Lucifer is called the brightest and most beautiful star. Thus, this could mean that Deborah is saying that in parallel with the human battle on the earth, there was a spiritual battle in the heavenliness for Israel. That would certainly fall in line with Hebrew and biblical thinking. On the other hand, it could be referring to the weather, which favorably and unexpectedly altered the battle for Israel's sake. Either way, it is referring to something supernatural and divine.

The torrent of the Kishon swept them away: Verse 21 explains the involvement of the Kishon River in the war. The Kishon River explains the place where it all happened; it also explains that the river became the LORD'S vehicle for giving victory to Israel. The river swept away the Canaanite forces. God caused a trickle of water that would have barely qualified as a brook in the summer when this battle occurred to become a raging torrent that overflowed the Kishon's banks. It also muddied the surrounding fields in every direction thus rendering the fearsome chariots of the Canaanites useless.

Most likely, this was a flash flood. This is not an uncommon occurrence in Israel in the summer months. However, what makes it so notable is its timing. It occurred at the LORD'S command, and it was supernatural in its ferocity.

Then the horses' hoofs beat: In poetic fashion, verse 22 speaks of the horses as they slip and slide in the mud. Rearing in panic, they pulled in vain on the heavy iron chariots they were attached to as they became like anchors sinking into the mud. Thus, an army based on chariots was now immobilized. They were easy prey for the Israelites who were fighting on foot. In chapter four, we read how some of the chariots were able to escape, but many more were abandoned. The Canaanite soldiers along with their leader Sisera ran off on foot to escape. Israel chased them and slaughtered them.

Curse Meroz: Verse 23 again raises some interesting challenges--who or what is Meroz, and who or what is being referred to as the Angel of the LORD?

There is no other mention of Meroz in Scripture, but the general consensus is that it is an Israelite town or village that failed to do its duty. The level of anger expressed against this town indicated that they must have had every reason to join the fight, but yet they would not. Perhaps they had too many political alliances with some of the Canaanite kings, or they were too self-absorbed to care much about their brethren.

What is more challenging, though, is that this curse of Meroz is said to come from the Angel of the LORD. we have discussed the concept of the Angel of the LORD before; so, we will not dive very deep into this subject.

Briefly, the Hebrew that is translated as Angel of the LORD is malach Yahweh. Malach does not literally mean angel; rather, it is a generic word which means messenger. Yahweh is one of God's titles. A malach can be anyone who brings a message. In fact, it does not even have to involve a divine message. Many times in the Bible, a malach is merely a human doing strictly human tasks. However, when the term is used in a supernatural context, or when it is attached to God's name, it usually has the sense of this being a special heavenly being or even a manifestation of God. It is often the case that malach Yahweh speaks in the first person, identifying himself as God or at least carrying God's authority. A typical malach (whether human or angelic) refutes all human attempts to worship him. However, a malach Yahweh accepts the worship.

Rabbis and Christian commentators disagree about the Messenger of the LORD in many cases. The Rabbis tend to view almost every instance of this malach Yahweh as a human messenger. Thus, we commonly call this messenger a prophet because bringing a message from God is exactly what a prophet does. Some Rabbis believe that this use of Angel of the LORD is referring to Deborah, who is a prophetess. Others say it is referring to Barak. In short, according to the Rabbis, either Deborah or Barak is being quoted.

Rabbis tend to put some biblical characters on a high pedestal the way the Catholic Church anoints some of their own as Saints. They are put on a higher spiritual plane, above a normal human being and even has them at times having direct conversations with the LORD. There is a tendency in Judaism to take what is some mysterious account that seems to be of a spiritual nature and humanize it. (Christians are equally guilty in taking some very literal Bible passages and spiritualizing them so that they mean something else entirely.)

Since God as the divine supreme warrior leader of Israel is woven so visibly into the Song of Deborah, it is hard not to take this mention of the Angel of the LORD as God speaking. First, it is a stand alone statement. It comes immediately after a summation of the battle at the Kishon River. It comes immediately before the praise that is heaped upon Jael, who killed the Canaanite army general, Sisera.

Second, we have a curse being issued. Even though some of the other tribes failed to show up for the battle, only the town of Meroz is given such a harsh rebuke. Unless the "curse" is only rhetorical, if this is Deborah speaking, we have her issuing the curse by her own authority. When other prophets issue a curse, it is typically prefaced with the words, "The LORD says..." making it a pronouncement of God and not of their own righteous anger.

Third, no where else in the Book of Judges can we make a case for a Judge being given the lofty label of a messenger of the LORD.

The most plausible explanation is that this is a divine manifestation of God that we find in a number of places in the Old Testament; it is a manifestation called the Angel of the LORD who invariably speaks in the first person "I".


4. (Judges 5:24-27) Praise for Jael for killing Sisera
"Most blessed of women is Jael,
The wife of Heber the Kenite;
Most blessed is she of women in the tent.
"He asked for water and she gave him milk;
In a magnificent bowl she brought him curds.
"She reached out her 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.
"Between her feet he bowed, he feel, he lay;
Between her feet he bowed, he fell;
Where he bowed, there he fell dead.

Most blessed of women is Jael: In verse 24, praise upon praise is heaped upon the brave wife of Heber the Kenite. Saying that Jael is most blessed of women is not a continuation of verse 23; nor is it being uttered by the Angel of the LORD. Rather, it is an adoration by Deborah upon this female assassin who came to Israel's aid even though her own husband allied with Jabin, King of Hazor. This statement should not be taken word for word as God's divine pronouncement. Rather, it is a Middle Eastern way of speaking. It is similar to when we heard Saddam Hussein warn that if the USA attacked Iraq, it would set off "the mother of all wars". It is a culturally based exaggeration.

Furthermore, it is key for us to recognize that Jael was a gentile and not an Israelite. As quickly as we can forget the entire Old and New Testament is Hebrew literature based entirely on an Israelite culture, so, we find many accounts of gentiles operating on Israel's behalf and having praise and blessing heaped upon them. Jael went against the tide, went against her own husband and clan, and put herself and her family in jeopardy to help a people to whom she had no familiar or genealogical attachment. There is only one reason she would do this: she knew that God was preeminent and to not help His people when the opportunity fell into her lap was more dangerous than standing by idly.

While I do not recommend murder, I do recommend adopting Jael's recognition that with God. There is no such thing as neutrality. You are either for Him and His people or against Him. Not acting on their behalf makes one guilty by association of siding with His enemies.

He asked for water and she gave him milk: The next few verses recount the story of Jael killing Sisera as told in Judges chapter four. In a nutshell, Sisera was running away from his defeat at Kishon and heading back to his headquarters near Hazor. It was not by accident that he arrived at the tent encampment of the Kenites as he fled. He would have known exactly where they were. He just did not happen to stumble across them. He intentionally went there for temporary refuge because Heber, the clan chief, had created a friendly alliance with the Canaanites.

Jael knew who Sisera was and treated him with the utmost respect. She offered him some type of milk product which was highly prized, and she presented it to him in a royal sized bowl. Once he felt safe, had his appetite satisfied and relaxed in Jael's tent, Jael grabbed a wood tent peg and a large workman's hammer. In a couple swift blows, she drove it through Sisera's head all the way into the tent floor.

We need to be careful how we view Sisera's assassination. Christians tend to point out the deception, seduction, lying and then cold-blooded murder that occurred. They essentially see this as a barbaric and heinous crime. But, we must remember and understand that this was a time of war. There is nothing scripturally that prohibits deception, ambush, spying or killing the enemy during times of war. This is a rather gruesome way to be killed; however, it is merely indicative of the way of war fought during biblical times. Today we have cleaner and neater ways to kill during wartimes. There are bullets and long range missiles, which only a selected few actually witness the dead. We have sanitized the whole process of war. And when the American public gets an occasional glimpse of the actual horror of it on our televisions, it pulls back in revulsion and wants to indict the military for doing its job.

While we do not see God giving His direct approval to Jael's actions, neither is there any indication that the LORD saw this as a negative act.


5. (Judges 5:28-30) Reflection on the soon disappointment of Sisera's survivors
"Out of the window she looked and lamented,
The mother of Sisera through the lattice,
'Why does his chariot delay in coming?
Why do the hoofbeats of his chariot tarry?'
"Her wise princesses would answer her,
Indeed she repeats her words to herself.
'Are they not finding, are they not dividing the spoil?
A maiden, two maidens for every warrior;
To Sisera a spoil of dyed work,
A spoil of feed work embroidered,
Dyed work of double embroidery on the neck of the spoiler?'"

If there is any section of this song that is perhaps a bit questionable in its character, it is here. We have Deborah mocking the pain and anguish of Sisera's mother who is anxiously waiting for him to return.

Out of the window she looked and lamented: In a kind of dark poetry, Deborah sings of Sisera's mother looking expectantly out of her window wanting for her victorious son to arrive home, leading his men in a victory parade. Why, she wonders, is his chariot so long in coming? Where are all the horses and their riders? I imagine Sisera's mom believed the battle between the Canaanites troops with their fearsome chariots would make short work out of the Israeli army.

Because she is the mother of the military general, Sisera's mother was part of the elite. She had servants and ladies-in-waiting surrounding her. And when they see that she is terribly concerned, her ladies attempt to cheer her up by saying that the only possible answer is Sisera's men captured so much booty, it is taking an especially long time to divide it.

A maiden, two maiden for every warrior: This is a very cleaned up version of the more graphic and frank reality that it literally says. In the Hebrew, the words are "a womb, two wombs for every warrior". During the time of the Judges, women were part of the war booty. The victorious soldiers used them as objects of sexual gratification. It was quite typical to bring some girls home to be used as long-term sex slaves. The Law of Moses, however, prohibited the Israelite soldier from behaving in such a degrading manner.


6. (Judges 5:31) Final praise to God and the long-term effect of the victory.
"Thus 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 undisturbed for forty years.

Let all Your enemies perish: The song ends with two petitions addressed to the LORD. The first is that God would have all of His enemies be destroyed as thoroughly as what happened at the Kishon River.

But let those who love Him be like the rising of the sun in its might: The second petition is for those who love God should be like the glorious rays of the sun. Deborah prays for vindication and victory on behalf of the LORD'S followers, those who will set aside convenience, comfort and safety when called by the LORD to be His holy warriors.

And the land had rest for forty years: The final words in this sections of the Book of Judges are the typical words uttered when a certain Judge has finished his task. In this case, after the tremendous victory of Barak over Sisera at the base of Mount Tabor, the tribes of Israel had peace for one full generation. But let us be clear, the reason for this peace was not so much the lack of enemies present as it was the backtracking of Israel from their sin and idolatry. They had a new determination to be obedient to the will of God.

Lastly, it should be noted that the reference to the forty years of rest in the land was in this case referring to the northern areas of Canaan, and the tribes who lived in this region.