Book of Judges Review Part Three (Chapters 5-8)

Chapter 5 (The Song of Deborah)
Chapter 5 is a unique chapter because it is a song. It is not the traditional narrative we see in the rest of the Book of Judges. While reading this chapter, we must remember this form of narration uses liberties. Things may be exaggerated to create a point or phrases may be used which now have lost their meaning. This chapter is one of the harder chapters to translate because as time continues forward, many words and idioms often lose their meanings.

(Judges 5:1-2) Theme of the song: The joy and blessing in being a willing instrument of God
(Judges 5:3-5) God's preservation of Israel
(Judges 5:6-8) Describing life under Canaanite oppression
(Judges 5:9) Refrain: Bless the LORD for leaders who lead

The victory remembered
(Judges 5:10-12) A call to recount the great victory
(Judges 5:13-18) The tribes that helped, and the tribe who didn't help
(Judges 5:19-23) The battle described and a curse on an unhelpful city (Meroz)
(Judges 5:24-27) Praise for Jael for killing Sisera
(Judges 5:28-30) Reflection on the disappointment of Sisera's survivors
(Judges 5:31) Final praise to God and the long-term effect of the victory.


Chapter 6
THE CALL OF GIDEON
(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.

(Judges 6:2-6) The details of Israel's bondage to Midian
Israel would suffer at the hand of Midian and several other foreign nations for seven years before they cried out to God, and God acted. 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. Apparently, they were not interested in conquest; rather, they simply stole Israel's food supply.

(Judges 6:7-10) In response to Israel's cry to the LORD, God sends a prophet
God reminds Israel it was He who brought them out of the land of Egypt and performed great miracles for their fathers and grandfathers. The Israelites should not fear the gods of the Amorites.

The deliverer is called
(Judges 6:11-13) The Angel of the LORD appears to Gideon
God begins the process of delivering His people in verse 11. The Angel of the LORD presents Himself to Gideon near a tree. When the Angel of the LORD showed up, Gideon is threshing wheat in a wine press. This tells us 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.

(Judges 6:14-16) Gideon's call to God's service
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.

(Judges 6:17-21) A sign from the Angel of the LORD
Gideon offers the angel of the LORD an offering. Gideon places the offering on the rock and the angel of the LORD puts out His staff and the food bursts into flames. The angel of the LORD then vanishes from sight.

(Judges 6:22-24) Gideon reacts with awe and worship to the miraculous sign

The beginning of Gideon's ministry
(Judges 6:25-27) Removing Baal worship from his midst
The first thing Gideon must do is to destroy the altar to Baal because an altar to God was about to be constructed on that very same spot. It is impossible that the two could co-exist. The LORD tells Gideon to destroy the altar to Baal, cut down the sacred pole that stands next to it and the replace it with a proper altar to God. Furthermore, when Gideon does this task, he is to take with him his father's bull; it would be used as a sacrifice.

(Judges 6:28-32) The removal of an altar raises a controversy
In verse 28, when some men of the village went up to the altar site (meaning they were there to pay homage to Baal), it was gone. They men were enraged. Baal's altar was demolished and in its place was a brand new one with the bull laid upon it and burned up.

Joash, Gideon’s father says to the crowd, "Wait a minute! If Baal is unable to defend his own altar, then just how powerful of a god is he? Does Baal need humans to defend his deity?” Joash says Baal can fight for himself. As a result of this, Gideon became known by a new name among his clansmen: Jerubbaal. Remember in that era, a name was assigned to people based on their reputation or character, and in some instances, for a famous act they committed. Jerubbaal means "Let Baal defend". From this point on, be alert that we will see Gideon called by both names.

(Judges 6:33-35) Gideon gathers an army
In verse 33, the Midianites, Amalekites and the children of the east descend once again upon the tribes of Israel. The Spirit of the LORD covers Gideon. He sounds the trumpet which would have rallied the troops. The Abiezrites were called together to follow him. Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali also come to Gideon’s call.

(Judges 6:36-40) God assures Gideon
Gideon asks for this sign: he will lay a sheep's fleece on the threshing floor, and if the LORD will supernaturally cause the fleece to become wet with dew while the area around it remains dry, then he will know for sure that God is with him. The morning arrives, and there it is. The fleece is wet, but the ground is dry. Gideon ponders this and thinks that it is possible that this could naturally have happened. He could mistake this natural event with God's answer. Gideon devises another test.

Gideon reasoned that fleeces attract water rather easily. It then would retain it. It would not be so strange for the dew to moisten the fleece, but after some time it would evaporate from the threshing floor rock rather quickly as the sun rose. Thus, the results he saw in the morning could have been a natural event. So, Gideon decides it is more logical to do it in the opposite manner. He asks that the same ground be wet, but the fleece be dry the following morning. And that is what happened. Now, Gideon is convinced he has heard from God.


Chapter 7
32,000 men gather together to fight with Gideon. God says there are too many men. After telling the people if they are afraid, they may go home, ten thousand men still remain. God tells Gideon to devise a test in which people are to go to a river and drink water. Of the 10,000 men, only 300 are selected based on how they drink the water.

Gideon takes his servant Purah and spies out the Midianite camp. Gideon overhears a soldier recount a dream in which a loaf of barley tumbles into the Midianite camp. The soldier says it is Gideon. With his courage strengthened, Gideon goes back to the Israelite camp and tells the soldiers their plan. They are to put torches inside pitches and carry shofars (trumpets). At Gideon’s command, they are to break the pitchers and blow the shofars. The Israelites surround the Midianite camp and obey Gideon. The Midianites are in complete confusion. They slay each other.

Gideon summons Ephraim for help. They captured the two leaders of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb, and they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and they killed Zeeb at the wine press of Zeeb, while they pursued Midian; and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon from across the Jordan.

Chapter 8
The men of Ephraim are mad at Gideon because Gideon did not ask for their help at the beginning of the war. Gideon tells Ephraim how he could not have won the war without their help. Ephraim is appeased. A civil war is averted.

Gideon and his 300 men continue pursuing the Midianites. Succoth and Penuel (Israelite cities) refuse to give supplies to Gideon and his men. Gideon threatens to come back and repay the two cities for their lack of hospitality after he catches the two Midianite kings.

Gideon captures Zeba and Zalmunna. Gideon returns to Succoth and thrashes the elders of the cities. He tears down the tower and kills the men of the city in Penuel. Gideon then slays Zeba and Zalmunna.

After the grand victory, Gideon refuses to be king. He does, however, accept the Midianites’ spoil. Gideon makes an ephod and causes Israel to stumble by practicing idolatry. Gideon has many wives and seventy sons plus one son by a harlot named Abimelech. Gideon became very wealthy, and although he did not want to be a king, he lead a kingly lifestyle. As soon as Gideon dies, his good deeds are forgotten.

Four important lessons from Gideon's story
There are four important lessons we can learn from Gideon's story. These will carry over into the next chapter.

The first thing is that when God is the leader, when God stands with Israel, no man, no army and no power can stand against him.

2. The second lesson: If anything of a positive nature occurs in the lives of God's people, it is God's doing. He deserves all glory and honor for it.

3. The third lesson: Despite what seem to be prevalent before our eyes, the reality is the world will never by the biggest roadblock to God's people carrying out God's will on earth. Rather, it will always be the lack of faithfulness of the Believers. Just as Israel was problematic for God to work with, so it is with the Church. Israel was redeemed, but they did not always behave that way. The Church, by definition, is a fellowship of the redeemed of God in Jesus. However, we do not often conduct ourselves in that way, do we?

4. The fourth lesson: Leadership. This will set the stage for Judges chapter nine. It is those who accept a leadership position at the call of God are going to face great temptation to abandon the position and the divine purpose for person ambitions. Of course, personal ambitions tend to blind men and thus we tend to deny and rationalize it when we succumb to those temptations.