The truly humbling death of the Canaanitish captain, and the utter destruction, even to a man, of his mighty army, covered with renown the name of the Lord of Hosts Judg. Bless ye the Lord. A forty years' quiet was the result of this mighty victory. The next oppression was from the east. The Midianites, a powerful people, were joined by the Amalekites and the nomade tribes of the desert, who, with their camels and cattle entered the land in countless numbers, and pitched their tents in the very heart of the country.
Plunder was evidently the object of this motley host; "they entered the land to destroy it. The heavily burdened and cruelly oppressed people had to flee from their dwellings and betake themselves for safety to the mountains. This awful time of distress lasted seven years, when the people again turning to Jehovah were faithfully addressed by a prophet whose name is not recorded. Then Gideon was raised up, but first he must clear his father's house of idolatry ere he could become a suited vessel in Jehovah's hands for the deliverance of the people.
The moral training to which Gideon was subjected, is well worthy of being carefully pondered by those serving in the church of God, while the numbers, manner, and instruments employed in the glorious and complete discomfiture of the mighty and numerous hosts opposed to Israel, conspicuously displayed the weakness of man and the power of Jehovah. What a lesson we learn in that tried and tested men approached the host of Midian with neither sword nor spear in hand!
The broken pitchers were the fitting expression of human weakness; and the trumpets giving forth their blast were a call to Jehovah as in ancient days, when it was said-"Rise up, Lord, and let Thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate Thee flee before Thee" Num. Numbers As the result of the mighty victory gained over Midian and his confederates, another forty years' peace was secured. The total inability of man to hold himself in the place of blessing is sorrowfully demonstrated in the closing years of Gideon's administration.
His sun, which rose so fair, went down in a dark back-ground of worldliness and idolatry Judg. For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites. And they spread a garment, and did cast therein every man the earrings of his prey. The signal deliverance obtained over the allied forces of Midian kindled quite a loyal feeling among the men of Israel. They entreated Gideon to assume the royal prerogative, and to transmit the same to his sons, of whom he had a goodly number, "three score and ten.
It would have been well for the people of Shechem, and well, too, for Abimelech if he had caught the spirit of his father. But ambition and love of power obtained the mastery in the mind of Abimelech, who of all the sons of Gideon had least right to assume royal or other power in Israel, being the son of a concubine.
By craft he secured the good-will of the inhabitants of Shechem, and then cruelly murdered, "upon one stone," his sixty-eight brothers, Jotham, the youngest, escaping.
Abimelech was the first person in Israel who usurped royal power. It was on the occasion of Abimelech's accession to the throne, when the elders and men of Shechem were gathered in the valley beneath, that Jotham, standing on a commanding position on the cliffs above, addressed to the assembled congregation the most ancient parable recorded. It was a keen, pointed home-thrust to the conscience of both king and people.
Craft and cruelty inaugurated Abimelech's accession to the throne; but a throne established on iniquity and blood cannot prosper, as the men of Shechem found to their cost, as also the king, who died a shameful and humbling death, especially so regarded by an eastern monarch, and that after a short-lived, troublesome reign of but three years Judg.
TOLA, Worm. The next defender of Israel was Tola, of whose actions, and of the state of the people during the twenty-three years of his administration we know nothing. His parentage is given, and where he dwelt and died, but nothing more. JAR, whom God enlightens.
The successor of Tola occupied the territory east of the Jordan, in the country of Gilead. He seems to have been a man fond of pomp and display, and withal very ambitious, as in the brief record we are told that his thirty sons rode on "thirty ass colts," and they had "thirty cities" termed "Havoth-Jair," meaning the cities or villages of Jair.
Three verses have been deemed sufficient by the recording Spirit to chronicle the twenty-two years of Jair's administration. Then went he down with Phurah his servant unto the outside of the armed men that were in the host. Israel again lapsed into idolatry. The debasing, cruel, and generally obscene rites which formed an integral part of heathen worship amongst the nations in and surrounding the land of Canaan were quickly learned and practiced by the people, to whom it was said by God Himself, "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me" Ex.
Exodus The anger of Jehovah burned hot against His people, and He delivered them into the hands of the Philistines and Ammonites; the former people oppressed the tribes lying south and west, while the latter not only crushed those on the eastern boundary of the Jordan, but crossed over the river, and made the tribes of Ephraim, Judah, and Benjamin also suffer. You have brought me down and I am devastated.
I have made a vow to the Lord that I cannot break. After some name calling, the two armies began fighting: Gilead vs. The Gileadites won, and captured the river crossing that led back to Ephraim. Whenever an Ephraimite wanted to cross, the Gileadites asked if they were an Ephraimite.
Ibzan of Bethlehem led Israel for seven years. Pretty much the only thing we know about Ibzan is that he had 30 sons and 30 daughters, and he made a point of marrying all of them to people outside of his tribe.
Elon from the tribe of Zebulun is perhaps the most unknown judge. Then Elon died and was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun. No one knows what it means, where it is, or what the relationship between these two names is.
He led Israel eight years. Then Abdon son of Hillel died and was buried at Pirathon in Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.
Most scholars believe Abdon was wealthy, since his family owned at least 70 donkeys. His family was large, but some speculate that since he had fewer grandsons than sons, his family could have been becoming less prominent. There are three other people named Abdon in the Old Testament, and we know even less about them. Abdon was also an ancient city which belonged to the tribe of Asher Joshua , 1 Chronicles Samson is hands down the strongest person in the Bible, and God basically uses him as an agent of chaos against the Philistines.
His strength came directly from the Spirit of the Lord, and it enabled him to do numerous supernatural feats—including the one that led to his death. Interestingly, Samson is also one of the few people in Scripture who had a miraculous birth. His mother had been unable to get pregnant, but the angel of the Lord appeared and told her she would conceive.
The angel instructed her to raise him as a Nazarite and not cut his hair. As Samson came of age, he became impulsive and lustful, which strangely, God used. He saw a Philistine woman and demanded that his father get her for him. On his way to visit the woman, a lion came toward him, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson and gave him strength. When he returned to marry the woman later, he found a hive of honeybees in the carcass of the lion, and he ate some honey.
His discovery inspired a riddle, which he shared with the Philistine guests at his wedding feast:. He challenged his guests to solve it within seven days. Over the next several days, she coaxed the answer out of Samson, and when they shared it with him he angrily replied:.
Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson again, and he killed 30 men, took their clothes, and gave them to the men who solved the riddle.
And then he left his wife and went home Judges Assuming Samson hated his wife, his father-in-law gave her to one of the men who was at the wedding. When Samson came back and tried to visit her room, her father refused to let him in and offered her younger sister instead. He was obviously a great guy, too. He burnt down all their grain, vineyards, and olive groves Judges In return, he killed a bunch of Philistines and hid in a cave. The Philistines prepared to fight the Israelites in order to take Samson prisoner.
When the Philistines saw him they started shouting, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson again. After all that jawboning, Samson was thirsty. He cried out to the Lord, and God miraculously created a spring for him Judges — Later, Samson went to the city of Gaza and slept with a prostitute.
The people of Gaza learned he was there, gathered around the city gate, and planned to kill him at dawn. Instead, he got up and left in the middle of the night and casually ripped out the city gate and carried it away on his shoulders. And then the biblical author just moves on. Awhile after that, Samson fell in love with a woman named Delilah, who lived in a valley that bordered the Philistines and the Israelite tribe of Dan. The Philistine rulers approached her and asked her to trick Samson into revealing the secret of his strength, promising to reward her with eleven hundred shekels or about 28 pounds of silver each Judges —5.
So naturally, she tied him up with seven fresh bowstrings. She ties him up. She gets upset again. He lies again. She tries the new thing. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man. Delilah put him to sleep and had the Philistines cut his hair. As soon as they cut the seven braids of his hair, his strength—and the Lord—left him Judges The Philistines captured him, gouged out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles, and forced him to grind grain in prison.
The Philistines celebrated and praised their god, Dagon, for delivering Samson to them. All the rulers gathered at the temple to Dagon, and three thousand Philistines watched from the roof. As part of the celebration, they forced Samson to perform. Then they put him by the pillars supporting the temple, and Samson asked a servant to move him to where he could feel the pillars so that he could rest against them. Judges "And she sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedesh-naphtali, and said unto him, Hath not the Lord God of Israel commanded, saying, Go and draw toward mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun?
True to His word, God brought victory to the Israelites over the Canaanites' army. The Canaanite commander, Sisera, fled and hid in the tent of Heber, who was a friend to the Canaanites. But Sisera was killed in the tent by Heber's wife. What was her name? She was called Jedidah. She was called Jezebel. She was called Jael. She was called Jochebed. Jael waited until Sisera was asleep, then she drove a tent-peg through his temples.
So he died. After Deborah's time the Israelites once again fell into wicked ways and God did not defend them from the Midianites who raided their lands. When the people called to God for help He chose Gideon to defeat their enemies. What was the first task God set for Gideon? To destroy his father's altar. To gather an army. To destroy the Midianites' temple. To kill the Midianite king. The people in Gideon's town had taken to worshipping the false god, Baal. Gideon's own father had an altar to Baal which God wanted destroyed.
Gideon gathered 32, men to fight against their enemies but God told him that he did not need so many. How many men actually went against the Midianites? God told Gideon to creep up to the enemy camp and surround it, then to uncover their torches and to blow trumpets. Gideon did this and the Midianites fought amongst themselves, then fled. The Israelites were again troubled by enemies; the Ammonites. Jephthah was the Judge who fought against the Ammonites and before the battle he promised God that he would sacrifice the first thing he saw on his return home if he was victorious.
What was the first thing he saw when he returned after winning the battle? His mother. His son. His wife. His daughter.
Jephthah's only daughter came rushing to meet him on his return. Jephthah loved his daughter and gave her two more months of life, but still he kept his vow to God. Judges "And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew no man. And it was a custom in Israel, that the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year".
Samson was a strong man and Judge of the Israelites. How did he get his strength?
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