44. B.C. 1285 to 1157

B.C. 1285 to 1157

Chapter IV

Timeline View:

1. The defeat of Sisera was followed by a repose of forty years. At the end of that time the Midianites, Amalekites, and other nomad tribes, began to invade Palestine in great numbers, treading down the cultivated lands under the feet of their numerous herds, seizing the fruits of the ground, taking away the cattle, plundering men and houses, and, in short, ravaging the country as the Bedouin Arabs are wont to do at the present time, when there is no power sufficient to restrain them. Like them also, the Midianites withdrew on the approach of winter, and returned in the early summer to gather that which the Israelites had sown, and for which they had labored. This oppression continued for seven years, and became so grievous, that many of the people sought refuge in the dens and eaves of the wilderness; and it is perhaps to this period that we should refer the migration to the land of Moab of that Elimelech, the touching history of whose widow and daughter-in-law forms the beautiful episode contained in the book of Ruth.

2. In their deep trouble, the Israelites at length cried to the God who had so often delivered them in time past. A prophet was then sent to rebuke their ingratitude; but also to promise deliverance. Accordingly, as Gideon, a man of the tribe of Manasseh, was secretly threshing wheat in a winepress, to hide it from the Midianites, an angel of God appeared to him, and commissioned him to undertake the deliverance of his country. Gideon first sought to decline so high a trust, and then requested a token that the commission was indeed from heaven. His request was granted; for, at the touch of the angel’s staff, fire broke forth and consumed, as a sacrifice, the kid and the bread which Gideon had set before his visitant, who disappeared, and left him “filled with the Spirit of God”—a spirit of faith and fortitude, equal to the great enterprise which lay before him. In answer to his prayer, another sign was given to Gideon—a fleece which he spread out upon the open threshing-floor became wet with dew, while the ground was dry; and again, the fleece alone was dry, while the soil was wet all around.

3. Now strong in faith, Gideon overthrew the altar which his father had erected to Baal, and cut down the trees of the “sacred” grove which he had planted around it. Then proceeding into the country, he blew the trumpet of war, when 32,000 men gathered to his standard. But the Lord knowing the unbelief and distrust that prevailed among them, directed Gideon to proclaim that all who were fearful and faint-hearted might withdraw. Availing themselves of this permission, 22,000 took their departure, so that only 10,000 were left. Even these were too many for the Lord’s purpose, which required that the means employed should be so evidently inadequate, that the glory of the deliverance might be entirely his own. Gideon was therefore directed to lead his thirsty troops to the river, and permit them to drink. The greater part bent down to the surface of the water, to imbibe large draughts at ease and leisure; but a few lapped up the water in the hollow of their hands, as men in haste. Those who stooped down to drink were ordered by Gideon to retire to their homes; and by the remainder, who were only 300 in number, the deliverance of Israel was promised. The host which this handful of men had to encounter, lay encamped in the plain of Esdraelon. Encouraged by ascertaining, in a night-visit to their camp, that the Midianites were already dispirited, and might easily be struck with a panic, the Hebrew commander instructed his men to provide themselves with earthen pitchers, and to place in each pitcher a lighted lamp. The pitcher containing the lamp in one hand, and a trumpet in the other, formed the weapons of their warfare. The 300 men, in three bands of 100 each, approached the sleeping host of Midian, in silence and by night, on different sides. At a given signal, they simultaneously broke their earthen vessels, displayed their lamps, and blew a loud blast with their trumpets. The tremendous noise by which the Midianites were awakened, and the numerous lights all around, conveyed to their confused senses the notion that they were surrounded by a mighty host; and, in the darkness, every one taking his neighbor for an enemy, they slew each other by thousands. One hundred and twenty thousand men were left dead upon the field of battle, and only 15,000 saved themselves by flight. The Israelites who shrunk from the war joined in the pursuit, and hasted to share the spoil. Gideon displayed the talents of one fit to govern men, by the tact with which he soothed the jealous pride of the Ephraim ices, who complained that they had not been called into action, and by the spirit with which he punished the men of Succoth and Penuel, who had refused refreshment to his men. and had derided his enterprise.

Ear-rings

4. In the height of their admiration and gratitude, the people offered to make Gideon king, and to entail the crown upon his race. But he was too well acquainted with the peculiar nature of the government under which they had been placed by God, to listen to a proposal like this. He therefore replied, “Not I, nor my son, but Jehovah shall reign over you.” But this great man was not equally alive to the religious obligations of the covenant; for with the produce of the golden earrings taken from the Midianites, which were willingly given to him by the army, he made an ephod, or priest’s dress, and appears to have formed a sacerdotal establishment in his own town, where sacrifices might be regularly offered. However well intended, this was a gross interference with the Tabernacle establishment at Shiloh, and in the end proved a snare to Gideon’s own family, and an occasion for idolatry to the nation. Judges 8.

5. Gideon lived forty years after this great victory; and in his time the peace of Israel does not seem to have been again seriously disturbed. The parable of Jotham sums to intimate, that after, or perhaps even before, his death, the offer of the crown had been repeated to his sons, of whom he had, by his several wives, seventy that were legitimate. But they having nobly refused the tempting offer, his spurious son Abimelech succeeded in persuading the people of Shechem to proclaim him king, and to put to death all the other sons of Gideon. Only Jotham, the youngest, escaped; who afterwards from Mount Gerizim administered a cutting rebuke to the Shechemites, in the oldest and most beautiful apologue of antiquity, which represents the bramble as accepting that sovereignty over the trees which had successively been declined by the olive-tree, the fig-tree, and the vine. Three years sufficed to disgust the Shechemites with the king they had set up. They revolted, in consequence of which their city was utterly destroyed by Abimelech, who then proceeded to reduce another revolted town, Thebez, where he was killed by a stone thrown down upon him by a woman. Judges 9.

6. The enemies from whom Tola, of the tribe of Issachar, defended Israel are not named; and of Jair, the Gileadite, we only know that his thirty sons rode on white asses, as chiefs of thirty small towns or villages in Gilead, which belonged to their opulent family. The administration of Tola lasted twenty-three years, and that of Jair twenty-two.

7. After this, the Israelites fell into gross idolatry, in punishment for which their enemies were allowed to oppress them greatly. The Ammonites laid claim to a part of the land beyond Jordan which had been wrested from them by the Amorites, from whom it was conquered by Moses. For eighteen years they greatly distressed the two and half tribes beyond Jordan, and likewise made incursions into Benjamin, Judah, and Ephraim, who had at the same time to defend themselves against the Philistines. In these troubles they cried to God, whom they had so grievously insulted; and as they gave signs of true repentance, he delayed not to send them deliverance.

8. Jephthah, the deliverer raised up on this occasion, was an illegitimate son, by “a strange woman,” of one Gilead, it person of some note in Manasseh, beyond Jordan. He had no claim to share with his brethren in their patrimony; and, on the death of their father, was excluded with some harshness from the paternal home, and became a wanderer and exile. A number of men of like broken fortune and unsettled dispositions, joined themselves to him, and they lived upon the prey which they acquired by harassing the Ammonites and other enemies of Israel. In this kind of predatory warfare, they became skilful, hardy, and bold; and the name of Jephthah was celebrated beyond Jordan as that of a valiant and successful leader. When, therefore, the tribes were encouraged to hope for deliverance, their eyes turned to him, and a deputation was sent to invite him to take the command in the war against the Ammonites. After some demur, he accepted the invitation, and repaired to Mizpeh of Gilead, where his appointment was solemnly ratified. His first act was to send an embassy to demand of the Ammonites why they invaded the territories of Israel. In reply, they advanced the claim of prior occupation, which has been mentioned; to which Jephthah answered, that whoever were the prior occupants, the country belonged to Israel by right of conquest from the Amorites. Jephthah then went forth to the war, but in departing, rashly vowed to devote in sacrifice to God whatever came forth to meet him on his return triumphant. In the issue the Ammonites were defeated with great slaughter, and completely subdued.

9. Jephthah had only one child, a virgin daughter, beautiful and young; and she it was who, on his return to Mizpeh, came forth, at the head of the maidens, to greet him with timbrels and dances. The warrior remembered then the irreversible vow which he had taken, and rent his clothes in the anguish of his soul. When apprised of her doom, the heroic daughter encouraged her father to fulfill his vow; but whether ha did this by shedding her blood in sacrifice, or by devoting her to a secluded and solitary life, is a point not well determined, and on which different opinions are entertained.

10. The Ephraimites, envying the splendid success of their brethren in this campaign, and the valuable booty which they had gained, stirred up a civil war, which terminated very disastrously for them, for they were defeated with the loss of 42,000 men. Jephthah died, after an administration of six years.

11. The Judges—Ibzan of Bethlehem, who governed seven years; Elon of Zebulon, ten years; and Abdon of Ephraim, eight years; in all, twenty-five years—appear to have maintained peace. But during this time the Israelites again relapsed into gross idolatry, and drew on themselves a rigorous bondage to their western foes the Philistines, who had by this time become a powerful people. This servitude lasted forty years; during which, whatever general government existed, appears to have been exercised by Eli the high-priest (b.c. 1157).